Memory Configuration for New Imac

Discussion in 'iMac' started by Blueridger, Oct 17, 2017.

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  1. Blueridger, Oct 17, 2017

    Blueridger macrumors newbie

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    Oct 17, 2017
    #1
    Friends,
    I'm planning on upgrading my 2013 iMac with a 2017 iMac 27" 5k. I have a 3TB fusion drive on my existing machine but am planning on getting a 512 GB SSD on the new machine and storing the majority of my files on either an external HDD or SSD, either/both of which would be connected by USB 3.0.

    My question is whether I would be taking a performance hit by using the external drives for my files, rather than an internal drive. I currently have photos (Lightroom) stored on a 1TB SSD connected by USB 3.0 and the program seems to perform OK.

    I use FCPX, so some videos would be stored externally.

    I can't believe that there would be much, if any, performance hit in using 3.0 externals, since pro machines come with relatively limited internal storage. The apparent expectation with these machines is that most data would be stored externally. However, I don't really know - hence, this post.

    Thoughts?

    Thanks!

    Stev
     
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  2. jerwin, Oct 17, 2017
    Last edited: Oct 17, 2017

    jerwin macrumors 68020

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    Jun 13, 2015
    #2
    why don't you look into a thunderbolt 3 or usb 3.1gen2 enclosure for your SSD?
     
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  3. alien3dx, Oct 17, 2017

    alien3dx macrumors 6502a

    alien3dx

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    #3
    try find usb 3.1 gen 2 ssd. if you really wanted the fast one. supported.I'm not sure if available yet thunderbold 3 full support ssd enclosure speed yet
     
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  4. slythfox, Oct 17, 2017

    slythfox macrumors newbie

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    Oct 17, 2017
    #4
    Figure out how much speed you need and then find out where your bottlenecks are. If I were to guess, your USB 3.0-attached external SSD may be faster than your mac's internal fusion drive, but if you were to purchase a new mac, it's internal storage will be faster than your external SSD.
     
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  5. jerwin, Oct 18, 2017

    jerwin macrumors 68020

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    #5
    http://barefeats.com/imac2017_storage.html


    Note that many of the configurations tested involve some freaky striped RAID setup.

    Apple ssds are very speedy; external devices not so much. Whether you need that sort of speed to store media files is up to you.
     
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4 October 17, 2017