iMac SSD vs Thunderbolt SSD

[police340]

Hello,

I have a Lacie Thunderbolt drive I fitted with two 240Gb SSD drives. I am wondering if system would run quicker booting from SSD thunderbolt or would i be better off putting the ssd inside the iMac. I am comfortable on PC based machines but dont know that I'd want to open the iMac myself.

Thank,
Bill

 

[kipj77]

Opening the iMac

Opening the iMac is not that difficult of an undertaking.

I have done it with an old 24" and two different 27" models.

The only thing to worry about is cooling. Your HDD fan will be out of control fast and loud if it is running off of any drive other than the one Apple has shipped with the iMac.

I use the HDD Fan Control App for this.

 

[police340]

Thanks for the note. I would proabably attempt it but still wondering how i would do with just booting off the Thunderbolt SSD. Would love some ideas?

Thank you, Bill

Opening the iMac is not that difficult of an undertaking.

I have done it with an old 24" and two different 27" models.

The only thing to worry about is cooling. Your HDD fan will be out of control fast and loud if it is running off of any drive other than the one Apple has shipped with the iMac.

I use the HDD Fan Control App for this.

 

[smphoto74]

Hello,

I have a Lacie Thunderbolt drive I fitted with two 240Gb SSD drives. I am wondering if system would run quicker booting from SSD thunderbolt or would i be better off putting the ssd inside the iMac. I am comfortable on PC based machines but dont know that I'd want to open the iMac myself.

Thank,
Bill

I plan to install Lion on my Pegasus R4 next week. I will post some results if you want even though I don't have SSD's installed. I also plan to buy the 2TB LaCie drive and install Lion on it...again I won't have SSD's but I can post results on that to if you are interested? I am just wanting for the new contract to be signed at work before I spend any more money. If we go on strike I may need that $500. lol. I am just debating whether to install Lion on the one partition or have a separate partition for lion/apps... What would you do?

 

[police340]

Results

Sure, would be curious to see how well you do with it. I haven't done anything yet other than to install Lion to the SSD but really have spent any time on it. What can I use to check the results?

Thanks,
Bill

I plan to install Lion on my Pegasus R4 next week. I will post some results if you want even though I don't have SSD's installed. I also plan to buy the 2TB LaCie drive and install Lion on it...again I won't have SSD's but I can post results on that to if you are interested? I am just wanting for the new contract to be signed at work before I spend any more money. If we go on strike I may need that $500. lol. I am just debating whether to install Lion on the one partition or have a separate partition for lion/apps... What would you do?

 

[smphoto74]

Sure, would be curious to see how well you do with it. I haven't done anything yet other than to install Lion to the SSD but really have spent any time on it. What can I use to check the results?

Thanks,
Bill

Bill,

This morning I formatted my R4 for Raid 0. Using Carbon Copy Cloner I put Lion(my iMac, 104GB total) on the R4 but when I went to boot the iMac it would freeze up. I had to turn off the iMac and unplug the R4 unit for it to work again...and I had to leave the R4 unplugged for the iMac to even boot up. Not sure why...maybe because I did carbon copy cloner and not a fresh install of Lion. Pegasus R4 would show up as a Bootable drive..just wouldn't boot. I removed Lion and due to my workload I have to put this on the back burner for a couple of weeks. I use the R4 for my work, 10 format time...it limits what you can do in a weekend. lol I'm still going to work on this and will post more when I know.

What I do know is after I booted Lion(iMac) I went into the applications folder on the R4 and ran some programs that were loaded on the R4 and they loaded fast...I mean fast fast so as far as your programs running on a internal Drive compared to the R4...the R4 wins hands down. In Raid 0 I am getting 500Mbps write/read and that's faster than an internal SSD. I only have a 7200 1TB internal drive so I really notice the difference...I can't believe it. lol

I ordered a LaCie Drive for my iMac and will install Lion with a fresh install and see if I can boot from the LaCie drive. Granted LaCie is only about 180Mbps read/write but that is faster than my 7200 1TB internal HD. Not sure when the LaCie drive will arrive. lol

I'm off to trouble shoot booting Lion from a R4. lol

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Sure, would be curious to see how well you do with it. I haven't done anything yet other than to install Lion to the SSD but really have spent any time on it. What can I use to check the results?

Thanks,
Bill

Bill,

Download the AJA System test http://www.aja.com/products/software/

I also use the BlackMagic speed test that you get for free from the App Store.