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is a thunderbolt connected drive fast enough to run applications

L

Leonh

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Hi there,
when i looked at the speed of a thunderbolt connection they seemed to be blazingly fast.
are they fast enough to run a ssd drive externally for apps etc
thanks
leon
 
Leonh said:
Hi there,
when i looked at the speed of a thunderbolt connection they seemed to be blazingly fast.
are they fast enough to run a ssd drive externally for apps etc
thanks
leon
Click to expand...
I wouldn't recommend running apps that are located on any external drive. Keep your system files and apps on your internal drive and keep user files on the external. You could have a mess if the drive lost connection while the app is running.
 
edit: To remove personally identifying information not relevant to the thread.
 
Last edited:
yjchua95 said:
Yes, but it's pricey.
Click to expand...

thanks for that
with 13 macs i wonder how you can afford ssd's!
do you think you could run the os on an external ssd over thunderbolt.
I don't have thunderbolt on my current iMac (late 2010) but i have bought a late 2012 which probably will arrive next week some time, so i was wondering what are the properties of thunderbolt drives etc.
could one run the 2010 as a second screen on the 2012? linking thunderbolt and display port
but i would like to have a ssd in the iMacs but at this stage was not sure if i am capable if doing it. But i have ordered the gear and am going to have a go at my mid 2007 iMac as a learning curve
thanks again
leon
 
Leonh said:
do you think you could run the os on an external ssd over thunderbolt.
I don't have thunderbolt on my current iMac (late 2010) but i have bought a late 2012 which probably will arrive next week some time, so i was wondering what are the properties of thunderbolt drives etc.
Click to expand...
Comparing the speeds may be of interest to you.

Back in the 1980's and 1990's we used parallel ATA (PATA)-connected hard drives. PATA max transfer speed was 133 MB/s.
In 2003, serial ATA (SATA) replaced PATA. SATA I had a maximum speed of 1.5 Gbps (150 MB/s throughput).
SATA II, still found on some older Macs (some 2009 and earlier) had a maximum speed of 3 Gbps (300 MB/s throughput).
SATA III, the standard on all current hard drives and solid state drives (except for the "blade"-style SSDs, which Apple uses), has a maximum speed of 6 Gbps (600 MB/s throughput).

Thunderbolt revision 1 supports speeds of 10 Gbps. Most Macs with Thunderbolt use this.
Thunderbolt revision 2 supports speeds of 20 Gbps. Of the iMac line, only the retina iMac offers Thunderbolt 2 at the moment.

If you're chaining multiple data-heavy devices off of a single port then performance may dip, but otherwise you can see that speed-wise Thunderbolt offers you the same performance as if the drive were connected internally.
 
Leonh said:
thanks for that
with 13 macs i wonder how you can afford ssd's!
do you think you could run the os on an external ssd over thunderbolt.
I don't have thunderbolt on my current iMac (late 2010) but i have bought a late 2012 which probably will arrive next week some time, so i was wondering what are the properties of thunderbolt drives etc.
could one run the 2010 as a second screen on the 2012? linking thunderbolt and display port
but i would like to have a ssd in the iMacs but at this stage was not sure if i am capable if doing it. But i have ordered the gear and am going to have a go at my mid 2007 iMac as a learning curve
thanks again
leon
Click to expand...

But then, all my Macs already have SSDs built in 🙂

Yes, you can run OS X off any external device, but booting it off an external TB SSD gives you TRIM support,
 
thunderbolt drives etc

yjchua95 said:
But then, all my Macs already have SSDs built in 🙂

Yes, you can run OS X off any external device, but booting it off an external TB SSD gives you TRIM support,
Click to expand...

i am now catching up to you as my "new" iMac late 2012 arrived, long way to go though, Being in Melbourne you probably need 13 macs to keep you out of the weather.
I bought this sight unseen from Adelaide and got it for a good price. Surprisingly it comes with a fusion 1.12 gb hard drive, so i won't have to think to much about whether i use a thunderbolt ssd as at this stage there is no need Bonus.
Thanks everyone for your help.Much appreciated
I have bought a owc upgrade kit for my 2007 iMac and will probably have a go at adding a ssd at the weekend. I tested the loading speed between the external ssd and the internal hd on the 2007 and there did not seem to be much difference
leon
 
Leonh said:
i am now catching up to you as my "new" iMac late 2012 arrived, long way to go though, Being in Melbourne you probably need 13 macs to keep you out of the weather.
I bought this sight unseen from Adelaide and got it for a good price. Surprisingly it comes with a fusion 1.12 gb hard drive, so i won't have to think to much about whether i use a thunderbolt ssd as at this stage there is no need Bonus.
Thanks everyone for your help.Much appreciated
I have bought a owc upgrade kit for my 2007 iMac and will probably have a go at adding a ssd at the weekend. I tested the loading speed between the external ssd and the internal hd on the 2007 and there did not seem to be much difference
leon
Click to expand...

Haha it's getting really chilly here in Melbourne, and the weather is still unpredictable (as always...)
 
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