New iMac really slow

[crucius]

Hi everyone,

I bought a new iMac (Retina 4K, 21.5 inch, 3 Ghz i5, 8 Gb RAM, macOS High Sierra) and find it very slow, specially booting up and when trying to search using spotlight. It takes 5-7 seconds for results to appear when I search for anything, and it takes ages to allow me to do anything after booting (that in itself takes a bit of time).

Is something wrong with the thing? I am planning on swapping the HDD for an SSD but regardless it shouldn't be as slow as it is right?

 

[iMac-Do-You?]

Sounds like spotlight maybe indexing the drive? That can drag performance down considerably. Though mechanical hard drives just feel sluggish in this day and age.

 

[h9826790]

I am sorry to tell you that your Mac is fine, and HDD is really that slow (especially in High Sierra).

 

[Samuelsan2001]

Hi everyone,

I bought a new iMac (Retina 4K, 21.5 inch, 3 Ghz i5, 8 Gb RAM, macOS High Sierra) and find it very slow, specially booting up and when trying to search using spotlight. It takes 5-7 seconds for results to appear when I search for anything, and it takes ages to allow me to do anything after booting (that in itself takes a bit of time).

Is something wrong with the thing? I am planning on swapping the HDD for an SSD but regardless it shouldn't be as slow as it is right?

Yep a combination of spotlight indexing and the nightmare of HDD's sounds about right.

 

[Glmnet1]

It's a shame Apple is still selling computers with HDD or 32gb of SSD in the small fusion. It makes them look terribly bad to all those who buy a base iMac.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP:

If you bought an iMac with only a platter-based hard drive inside -- THAT is what's "slowing you down". You can't really "make the internal HDD run faster". It's always going to run that way.

Here are your options:
- Break it open and install an SSD (you don't want to do that with a new iMac)
- Buy and attach an EXTERNAL USB3 SSD, and set that up to be your boot drive
- Return the iMac while you still can, and get one with either an SSD or a fusion drive (at least 2tb version) inside.

If you don't want to return the iMac, the "external USB3 SSD" is the best option.
Fastest, easiest, cheapest, safest.

 

[h9826790]

Return the iMac while you still can, and get one with either an SSD or a fusion drive (at least 2gb version) inside.

I think you mean 2TB

 

[oldhifi]

I have High Sierra on my MBP and it takes a long time to start up, but on my iMac not too much..

 

[alien3dx]

Hi everyone,

I bought a new iMac (Retina 4K, 21.5 inch, 3 Ghz i5, 8 Gb RAM, macOS High Sierra) and find it very slow, specially booting up and when trying to search using spotlight. It takes 5-7 seconds for results to appear when I search for anything, and it takes ages to allow me to do anything after booting (that in itself takes a bit of time).

Is something wrong with the thing? I am planning on swapping the HDD for an SSD but regardless it shouldn't be as slow as it is right?

Yes.. it the problem of caching.If you can return upgrade to ssd but if cannot return buy external usb 3 gen2 ssd

Before if i want to find something.. i rather use locate(terminal) instead of spotlight.

** this issue not just macosx but windows also.. both want to act like google.. Before there was third party google can search in windows. It was marvelous instead of internal searching

 

[Wags]

For sure the HDD. You can also Sleep Mode instead of shutting down.

 

[crucius]

OP:

If you bought an iMac with only a platter-based hard drive inside -- THAT is what's "slowing you down". You can't really "make the internal HDD run faster". It's always going to run that way.

Here are your options:
- Break it open and install an SSD (you don't want to do that with a new iMac)
- Buy and attach an EXTERNAL USB3 SSD, and set that up to be your boot drive
- Return the iMac while you still can, and get one with either an SSD or a fusion drive (at least 2tb version) inside.

If you don't want to return the iMac, the "external USB3 SSD" is the best option.
Fastest, easiest, cheapest, safest.

This is really annoying. I had a retina Macbook (ordered the day it was available) and I simply loved it. It took hours and hours doing some tasks (video editing) but overall it was a pretty fast machine. But... it got stolen. So I decided to buy an iMac thinking it would be faster and because I don't need the mobility right now. I was wrong.

I'm afraid of choosing the external SSD solution - wouldn't it be more prone to stop working? I've had multiple external drives who would, seemingly for no reason, disconnect from the computer.

 

[haruhiko]

The current iMac lineup is kind of a trap for uninformed buyers since all stock configurations have HDD in it, be it the Fusion Drive or not. For a config. with SSD, one must customize the order through online store.

The OP's retina MacBook uses an SSD by default so it is always going to feel faster.

I would suggest to return the iMac and order another with an SSD in it.

 

[h9826790]

This is really annoying. I had a retina Macbook (ordered the day it was available) and I simply loved it. It took hours and hours doing some tasks (video editing) but overall it was a pretty fast machine. But... it got stolen. So I decided to buy an iMac thinking it would be faster and because I don't need the mobility right now. I was wrong.

I'm afraid of choosing the external SSD solution - wouldn't it be more prone to stop working? I've had multiple external drives who would, seemingly for no reason, disconnect from the computer.

USB SSD should be fine. I installed macOS on a USB SSD and gave it to my friend, he like it so much, 10x faster than the internal HDD for general OS operation (in his old Mac mini).

 

[wpalomine]

External SSD boot should be fine for an iMac. Desktops are usually stationary. Super fast via USB-C or TB3.

Plus you can secure the external to make it semi-fixed, use ample velcro.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP wrote:
"I'm afraid of choosing the external SSD solution - wouldn't it be more prone to stop working? I've had multiple external drives who would, seemingly for no reason, disconnect from the computer."

I've had a 2012 Mini that I boot and run from an SSD in an external USB3/SATA dock.
It's been running like this since I took it out of the box in January 2013.
NEVER ONCE has it become "disconnected" while running.
Not once.

Again, re-read the options I posted to you in #6 above.
Those are your only choices if you want to change things.
Pick one of them.

Or else... just stay where you are.

 

[pier]

I also made the mistake of buying an iMac with HD for my wife. We solved it by using an SSD via USB3 and it's been working flawless for almost 2 years now.