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New iMac need help

Truefan31

Truefan31

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Aug 25, 2012
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Just bought a 27 imac got a good deal IMO. It comes with a 1 Regular tb hdd. What I'd like to do is get a external ssd for boot to speed it up. What are some suggested ssds for this? It'd be through tb.

Also because my son likes to game I'd like to get windows 7 on it thru bootcamp as well. Any way to have all of it on the ssd, while having the 1 tb for files/media?
 
Samsung 840 Pro Series is a good SSD with a 5-year warranty, though I suggest getting the 256GB model or higher because the 128GB model is a little slower, and because it sounds like you want to have two partitions, one with OSX and the other with Windows 7.
 
Well, I don't know. By my reply I assumed that it could be done and that creating two partitions would be the way to do it since you were asking about having OSX and Windows boot volumes on one drive. However I definitely defer to others who have experience in this area because I don't.

But at least you know my thoughts on the Samsung 840 Pro SSD. :)
 
You should make a fusion drive, i dont have any guides right now but it should be fairly easy to find.
 
Truefan31 said:
Sounds interesting. I can make a fusion drive?
Click to expand...

You can, but fusing drives can cause issues, especially if you ever want to remove the external drive. If you ever plan on removing the external drive, or even accidentally remove it, it could really mess up your computer. It may be better in the long run to keep them separate, and then you can pick and choose what goes on the SSD. An 840 EVO or a Crucial M500 should be more than enough for your needs. The only time you will notice a difference between those and the 840 Pro is if you are constantly writing data to your disk. The 840 Evo uses a system where it has 500MB of really fast storage to write onto, and it pushes it off onto the relatively slower (still faster than many SSDs) storage once it is done writing. The 840 Pro is all really fast storage, but it will be no different than an 840 EVO for 99% of people. Do you write 5GB or larger files via TB or another high thoroughput connection on a daily basis? If not, the 840 Pro will be as useful to you as an M500 or an 840 EVO.

I would recommend getting a TB external drive so you can enable TRIM, and a 256/512 GB 840 EVO or M500. Load the OS onto it, and manually push files to the SSD as needed.

Here is a link to help setup OSX on an external drive. You should be able to setup Bootcamp just fine on it as well once you install OSX onto it.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5911?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

Matt
 
mad3inch1na said:
You can, but fusing drives can cause issues, especially if you ever want to remove the external drive. If you ever plan on removing the external drive, or even accidentally remove it, it could really mess up your computer. It may be better in the long run to keep them separate, and then you can pick and choose what goes on the SSD. An 840 EVO or a Crucial M500 should be more than enough for your needs. The only time you will notice a difference between those and the 840 Pro is if you are constantly writing data to your disk. The 840 Evo uses a system where it has 500MB of really fast storage to write onto, and it pushes it off onto the relatively slower (still faster than many SSDs) storage once it is done writing. The 840 Pro is all really fast storage, but it will be no different than an 840 EVO for 99% of people. Do you write 5GB or larger files via TB or another high thoroughput connection on a daily basis? If not, the 840 Pro will be as useful to you as an M500 or an 840 EVO.

I would recommend getting a TB external drive so you can enable TRIM, and a 256/512 GB 840 EVO or M500. Load the OS onto it, and manually push files to the SSD as needed.

Here is a link to help setup OSX on an external drive. You should be able to setup Bootcamp just fine on it as well once you install OSX onto it.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5911?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

Matt
Click to expand...


Oh so I should get an external tb drive on top of the external ssd?
 
New imac need help

Ok. I know the samsung is an internal drive. So put it in an enclosure for tb connection. So the Samsung or crucial is good. I did see a Lacie little big disk external ssd. But I take it it's cheaper going this route?

Can anyone recommend a tb enclosure cheap?
 
Last edited:
I see pretty good reviews on the crucial mx100. The 512 gb seems a good price. Can I put this in a cheap enclosure like the seagate goflex mounted behind the screen?
 
I found this ssd, crucial mx100 512 gb ssd for 199. I'm trying to do the same thing. Good deal?
 
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