Late 2013 iMac Thunderbolt question.

[Triops1954]

Got Sequoia up and running on a SSD USB 3.0 connection. I didn’t want to start pulling the screen off…. Yet. Slow still to boot but much faster during normal operations. My question is can I get an enclosure for one of the Thunderbolt connections? I understand it’s much faster than USB 3.0, or is this not feasible.
Any advice gratefully received.

 

[Juicy Box]

Not sure about Sequoia, but yes, you can boot from a TB enclosure. Depending on the type of SSD, you could see a decent improvement in speed. There are other benefits as well, such as TRIM support via TB.

Using a TB3 NVMe SSD over TB1 on a Late 2012 iMac, I was able to get 900MBps read speeds.

 

[Triops1954]

Thanks may have a go!

 

[Triops1954]

Thanks may have a go!

If any one has a link to a enclosure that works that would be great

 

[Juicy Box]

You’re probably not gonna be able to find any TB1 enclosures outside of eBay or someplace else used. If you do, it maybe just as slow USB3 drive, but you will still have TRIM support so maybe be worth it. I have found some cheap ones on eBay, and this was 10 years ago, so maybe even cheaper now.

You may have better luck finding TB2 enclosures and/or SSDs, and I haven’t searched in a while, but last time I have, they were pretty pricey.

TB3 NVMe would be fastest for your computer, not sure what they’re going for nowadays in price, but it does requires extra equipment, including a bidirectional adapter that only Apple sells, and unless the drive comes with an external power supply, you’re gonna need something in between like a TB3 dock.

 

[Fishrrman]

I'd like to condense what Juicy said above.

Into this:
Be happy with what you have now, it's about "as far as it's worth going".

Beyond that, perhaps it's time to start thinking about "your next Mac"...
(If you want to stick with Intel, a 2018 Mini might be a good buy...)