Morning. I Have A Question In Regards To Booting From An External SSD

[HarlemWorld]

I have done extensive research. I searched up and down this forum.

I have seen many conflicting reports.

This is my situation. I purchased a Late 2013 iMac with 1TB Hard drive for a ridiculous price.

The price worked out to be $198 Cash out of my pocket.

I also have a 2012 Macbook Pro. Which i opened and did a Maxed out Ram upgrade and put a 500GB SSD in. That was a piece of cake. I was looking into swapping out the iMac SSD and Ram. But from what im reading I cant because my computer didnt come with a SSD. So it doesnt have a bracket i need or something. I decided that I didnt want to void my warranty so Im holding off on tearing it apart.

As an Alternative. I was looking into External SSD options. when researching i saw that you cannot have over a certain GB of SSD becasue of power issues. Is this true? What GB SSD should I get. My main goal is to get a Samsung SSD and install El Capitain on it. That way My computer moves way faster.

What are the best SSD options? I was looking at this Samsung T1 Portable 500GB

Is there a significant difference between 3.0 and Thunderbolt?

I would appreciate some guidance. http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Porta...w_p_img_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=05GA87VRP41ZJWBAAWSG

 

[panzer06]

I boot from an external 500gb ssd housed in a TB enclosure. It's so much faster than the internal drive. Never heard of any capacity restrictions.

 

[HarlemWorld]

I boot from an external 500gb ssd housed in a TB enclosure. It's so much faster than the internal drive. Never heard of and capacity restrictions.

Thanks. What TB exnclosure do you use?

I was looking for a fairly priced one.

 

[Fishrrman]

Don't "over-think" this.

The Samsung drive will be fine.

You will be VERY satisfied with its performance.

Just buy it, set it up as desired, and plug it into a USB3 port.

Boot and run the iMac that way, and you will have a very fast machine.

Especially considering the price you paid for it.

Thunderbolt will be -marginally- faster when booting as an external device.
But only "marginally", the difference from USB3 -WILL NOT- be significant.
But you'll pay half again as much (or more) for only 10% more performance.
Is it worth that to you?

 

[HarlemWorld]

Don't "over-think" this.

The Samsung drive will be fine.

You will be VERY satisfied with its performance.

Just buy it, set it up as desired, and plug it into a USB3 port.

Boot and run the iMac that way, and you will have a very fast machine.

Especially considering the price you paid for it.

Thunderbolt will be -marginally- faster when booting as an external device.
But only "marginally", the difference from USB3 -WILL NOT- be significant.
But you'll pay half again as much (or more) for only 10% more performance.
Is it worth that to you?

Just went ahead and bought the samsung drive. Thanks man. I was over thinking it.