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Is it possible to get a SSD external drive?
- Thread starter mrsir2009
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...aren't they expensive enough for the smaller sizes now
The size they would be with the current density chips would make them hard to fit into too many applications...
Give this thread a read. Get a Firewire 800 enclosure and pop in a SATA II SSD and you will be in business. You won't get the SATA III 500GBs speeds you are after over a FW connection, so just stick with a SATA II drive. You can just power the drive over the FW cable with no DC power with most enclosures.
Why would you want an external SSD..?
For people with iMacs who want the speed of an SSD and are scared to crack open their iMac and muck around inside.
For people with iMacs who want the speed of an SSD and are scared to crack open their iMac and muck around inside.
Do you really get the full benefit of an SSD using it externally though?
The only real reason I'd want one is to boot my OS off it and if it has to be external I think that just kind of ruins everything.. just my two cents.
If done over a FW 800 connection, based on forum posts, it appears you get much of the benefit and a significant perceived difference in system responsiveness.
Most of the perceived speed benefit of using an SSD comes from its random read and write speed, which is usually around 30-40 MB/s as opposed to 1-2MB/s for a traditional hard drive. 30-40MB/s is well within the capabilities of FW800, so you will notice this benefit even though technically the SSD won't be able to operate at full speed for sequential reads/writes.