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ubar

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 7, 2012
7
0
Hi everyone,

I’ve read quite a lot about people giving their old iMac a new lease of life by using an external SSD as their boot drive. I too want to try this option. Forgive me, treat me like I know n-o-t-h-i-n-g and you won't go far wrong! I just want to check something. I can't upgrade my iMac to Catalina because of the hardware (see specs below). If I use an external SSD as a boot drive the hardware in my iMac is no longer an issue, correct? Processor won't interfere with anything? I believe it's the processor which prevents me from upgrading this iMac.

Model Name: iMac

Model Identifier: iMac11,2

Processor Name: Intel Core i3

Processor Speed: 3.2 GHz

Number of Processors: 1

Total Number of Cores: 2

L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB

L3 Cache: 4 MB

Memory: 12 GB

I have a feeling that it can't possibly be as simple as booting from an external drive, but only because using an external drive will be about £1,800 cheaper (depending on which one I buy) than the iMac spec I've been eyeing up; seems too good to be true.

Is there anything in particular that I need to look for in the external drive? Any little gizmo (CPU, if that's the correct term?) that it needs to have for my money-saving scheme to work?

If anyone can give me any information I would be very grateful. Mine has just slowed to a crawl over the last year and I really need to do something about it now. If my only solution is to buy a new iMac, I need to start saving now. 😉
 
Model Identifier: iMac11,2

Maximum OS is macOS 10.13.6 (High Sierra). Booting from an external drive does not change this.

External SSD USB: Your USB is only USB2. You will see some speed gain, but not life changing.
External SSD Firewire 800: This is significantly faster than your USB. You will get a noticeable speed gain.

Example drive https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/on-the-go.

I have used a Firewire 800 SSD for a late 2009 iMac. That is what I would recommend for you (assuming you don't want to open up the iMac) to speed up your iMac. But whether worth the money for an ageing iMac is questionable.
 
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If you get a drive you can use in the future (meaning it has both FW ports for you now and USB 3.0 for later) or you're willing to swap enclosures in the future to make that happen, sure.

Is installing the SSD internally an option? That would give you the fastest possible speeds, though it might require a screen removal.
 
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OP:

I've got bad news for you.

That's a 2010 iMac.
You have only USB2 and firewire800.
That means -- no way to really get a boost in speed from an external drive.

An internally-installed SATA SSD might give you better speeds, but it won't be anything like newer Macs.

Your best bet:
Time to start looking for a newer, faster Mac.
 
You have only USB2 and firewire800.
That means -- no way to really get a boost in speed from an external drive.

That is not my experience. A Firewire 800 SSD makes a big difference to HDD Mac. I added mine at 3 years and was very pleased with it. But whether it is value for money for a 10 year old Mac is the open question.
 
2010 iMac is Sata2 internally, but its still worth to upgrade the internal hdd with an ssd. Also, its possible to install a second ssd in place of the optical drive. You can run in in raid0(its a bit tricky to set it up though...).

The system is a 2010 21.5" base model iMac, i3, 4GB ram and the original GPU with High Sierra and Blackmagic Disk Speed Test. Here are my results:

Storage devicePortWriteRead
500GB HDDSata 080.5 MB/s104.2 MB/s
240GB MX500 SSDSata 0250 MB/s267.8 MB/s
240GB MX500 SSDSata 1242.2 MB/s260.5 MB/s
240GB MX500 SSDRaid 0(Sata0+Sata1)450.2 MB/s503.5 MB/s
 
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2010 iMac is Sata2 internally, but its still worth to upgrade the internal hdd with an ssd. Also, its possible to install a second ssd in place of the optical drive. You can run in in raid0(its a bit tricky to set it up though...).

The system is a 2010 21.5" base model iMac, i3, 4GB ram and the original GPU with High Sierra and Blackmagic Disk Speed Test. Here are my results:

Storage devicePortWriteRead
500GB HDDSata 080.5 MB/s104.2 MB/s
240GB MX500 SSDSata 0250 MB/s267.8 MB/s
240GB MX500 SSDSata 1242.2 MB/s260.5 MB/s
240GB MX500 SSDRaid 0(Sata0+Sata1)450.2 MB/s503.5 MB/s

These figures are useful to know, particularly if your workload involves editing video files. But for day to day responsiveness, they are largely (but not entirely) irrelevant. The key for faster startup and general responsiveness is seek time. This where any SSD (even with a Firewire 800 connection) provides a big step up from a HDD.
 
Dunno: I use 4 2006 polycarbonate iMacs running either 10.6 or 10.7 for most of my needs: at 50 Euros
a pop second-hand . . . people writing about "reviving" newer models seems a bit . . . :cool:
 
Ah. Did you see me asking someone to just give me a free computer? Did you check your facts and ask about why I need to think about upgrading? Did you ask any questions at all before being a bit... of a childish troll?
 
Yup, possibly; sorry.

However, I stay in Eastern Europe where things, financially at least, function at a far lower level than in North America or Western Europe.
 
Okay. If we were all to approach things from that perspective, then we could argue that someone who wants their toilet unblocked is spoilt because there are so many people in the world who don’t even have access to clean drinking water. 😉

I hope you’re keeping safe and well during the pandemic. Enjoy the rest of your weekend.
 
Technically, Yes. Although, to be honest I see trying to draw an analogy between socking great monitors and blocked toilets hilarious. :cool:

I hope that you don't have a blocked toilet, your monitors are functioning now as they should do, and you
are safe and well as well.
 
Overreactions aside, it looks like Firewire800 is the fastest interface on that Mac. If such a thing as a FW800 to SATA3 bridge still existed they would be quite expensive and fairly old these days. You would need a TRIM enabler to activate garbage collection on the SSD which you would also have to buy separately. Just to be clear I don't recommend any such solutions as the rest of the Mac might let you down due to age.

It also still wouldn't be able to run the latest OS but it could run target display mode - you don't mention the size of the iMac screen though.

I've spotted some old 2018 Mac minis (pre 2020 storage double) in the refurb store going cheap. The i3/128Gb model is £589 now. Pretty good deal if you can get the iMac to work as a display and you get USB3 ports to hand any more storage you'd like. The storage is a little bare but if you wanted to hang an external SSD off that for booting you have more modern options.
 
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