Lately I've been doing a lot of work in Lightroom and its been slowing down considerably. Would I realize considerable gains by moving to an SSD? I have a late 2009 21" iMac. Probably thinking about a 480GB drive. What would be the easiest way to separate the OS and apps from the actual photos? And once I make the swap, can I just restore from Time Machine?
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SSD for late 2009 21" iMac
- Thread starter takeshi808
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You have two choices:
1. Replace the original HDD with an SSD
potential problem - your fans might spin to max speed because of temp sensor missing in SSD.
2. Replacing the optical drive (OWC install kit http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/DDMMSSD240/)
Disadvantage - you are loosing your DVD - however you can use an external one if needed
Advantage - you keep the original HDD and avoid Temp sensor / Fan-speed issues.
I have done option 2 on my 27" late 2009. Worked like a charm. Very satisfied.
1. Replace the original HDD with an SSD
potential problem - your fans might spin to max speed because of temp sensor missing in SSD.
2. Replacing the optical drive (OWC install kit http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/DDMMSSD240/)
Disadvantage - you are loosing your DVD - however you can use an external one if needed
Advantage - you keep the original HDD and avoid Temp sensor / Fan-speed issues.
I have done option 2 on my 27" late 2009. Worked like a charm. Very satisfied.
Ive done the same to my late 09 27" as well. I replaced the optical drive with a Samsung 840 Pro SSD, and its been so far so good. Have you had any issues with the fans running at high speeds, or anything else along the lines?
I replaced my internal 1TB hard drive in a 2010 21.5" iMac with a 120GB SATA 2 SSD; works like a champ. I downloaded and installed SMC Fan Control and have had no fan issues. I put the 1TB HD in an enclosure and use that for my Time Machine backups.
Surgery on the iMac was pretty straightforward; go to iFixit, and follow the instructions, and take your time.
You'll really like using an SSD.
Surgery on the iMac was pretty straightforward; go to iFixit, and follow the instructions, and take your time.
You'll really like using an SSD.
No fan problem so far - I was careful to re-use the original Temp sensor on the DVD.
Does the 2010 iMac have the same hard drive temp sensor problem that the late 2009 iMac has?
If I read right, Apple no longer includes Apple hardware test on computers which used to fail when the original hard drive to a different brand. So that is no longer a concern.
How much RAM does your iMac have? How much RAM and swapspace is Lightroom sucking up. An SSD should help, but also getting the correct amount of memory in to your system would also help.
It's not the hardware test that is an issue, it's the OS deciding the disk is running hot due to the sensor and running the fans on high.
I'm not sure about any temp sensor problem on the 2010 model, per se.
Kind of what Bear said: if a drive without a temp sensor is installed, OS X is not getting any temp reading at all, and therefore it assumes that the temp sensor has failed and sets the fan to full speed as a safe guard. SMC fan control solves it.
Thanks. I read that you can buy the same temp sensor that the optical drive uses to remedy the problem. But I think I'm now leaning towards just building my own Fusion drive by swapping an SSD in for the optical drive with an optibay.