Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

SSD Question

S

ser968

macrumors member
Original poster
May 18, 2008
79
10
My early 2008 3.06 24" iMac is starting to really slow down, especially when using iPhoto. I'm on my 2nd hard drive and I'm thinking that it may be starting to die so now I'm considering an SSD for at least the OS.

My question is this - I have about 800 GB of movies, music and photos - if I put these on an external drive (I believe Firewire would be my fastest option), would I still have the benefit of the SSD speed bump or would all gains be erased by having to access the media on an external drive?

Putting another hard drive in the Superdrive position is not an option as I need the drive (although I don't think that the Superdrive is hooked up via SATA anyway on this computer).

Thanks in advance.
 
ser968 said:
My early 2008 3.06 24" iMac is starting to really slow down, especially when using iPhoto. I'm on my 2nd hard drive and I'm thinking that it may be starting to die so now I'm considering an SSD for at least the OS.

My question is this - I have about 800 GB of movies, music and photos - if I put these on an external drive (I believe Firewire would be my fastest option), would I still have the benefit of the SSD speed bump or would all gains be erased by having to access the media on an external drive?

Putting another hard drive in the Superdrive position is not an option as I need the drive (although I don't think that the Superdrive is hooked up via SATA anyway on this computer).

Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

I have a 2008 2.8GHz 24" iMac and put an SSD into it earlier this year. I keep my home folder on the SSD, but have moved most of my media content (photos, iTunes Library, iMovie events, etc.) onto external FW800 drives. The speed increase in simply amazing. That, coupled with increasing the RAM to 6GB have bought me at least another 1-1/2 years with this machine.
 
I myself have the same iMac, due for an update this year *crosses fingers*.

The only thing that is holding me back from installing an SSD is the fact that lost data cannot be recovered. I might get an SSD for the OS on my next iMac though and store files on other drives.

As for your question if only your OS and applications are on the SSD then yes you will see an amazing speed boost in general tasks and boot times.
 
ser968 said:
My question is this - I have about 800 GB of movies, music and photos - if I put these on an external drive (I believe Firewire would be my fastest option), would I still have the benefit of the SSD speed bump or would all gains be erased by having to access the media on an external drive?
Click to expand...
You'd still have the benefit of boot up and app launch times being significantly faster, as well as any read/write operations to the SSD. You shouldn't experience any degradation in performance by having your media on an external drive.

There are also some software-related things you can do to improve performance:

Performance Tips For Mac OS X
 
GGJstudios said:
You'd still have the benefit of boot up and app launch times being significantly faster, as well as any read/write operations to the SSD. You shouldn't experience any degradation in performance by having your media on an external drive.

There are also some software-related things you can do to improve performance:

Performance Tips For Mac OS X
Click to expand...

I generally agree with this advice, with one exception. If you are just consuming your media audio and video... then you will not likely see any degradation. If you have a large photo library and use a program such as LR or A3, then I think you will find the response time to be degraded.

/Jim
 
flynz4 said:
I generally agree with this advice, with one exception. If you are just consuming your media audio and video... then you will not likely see any degradation. If you have a large photo library and use a program such as LR or A3, then I think you will find the response time to be degraded.

/Jim
Click to expand...

I was using Aperture prior to installing my SSD and due to the size of the Library, I had my Masters on an external FW disk and using them as Referenced vs. Managed. I keep a few active projects as Managed, but once I've done my edits to them I move them to Referenced and relocate them externally. I still keep my Library on the SSD to get the benefit of faster edits and local previews. In that regard, the SSD has sped up my Aperture experience immensely.
 
Mike in Kansas said:
I have a 2008 2.8GHz 24" iMac and put an SSD into it earlier this year. I keep my home folder on the SSD, but have moved most of my media content (photos, iTunes Library, iMovie events, etc.) onto external FW800 drives. The speed increase in simply amazing. That, coupled with increasing the RAM to 6GB have bought me at least another 1-1/2 years with this machine.
Click to expand...

I thought that the max RAM for these computers was 4 GB - is there a hack that lets it get to 6 GB? Also - what type of SSD did you use?

Thanks.
 
ser968 said:
I thought that the max RAM for these computers was 4 GB - is there a hack that lets it get to 6 GB?
Click to expand...
It's not a hack. 2008 iMacs can use up to 6GB of RAM.

You can find specs on all Apple products, including maximum RAM:
 
Mike in Kansas said:
I have a 2008 2.8GHz 24" iMac and put an SSD into it earlier this year. I keep my home folder on the SSD, but have moved most of my media content (photos, iTunes Library, iMovie events, etc.) onto external FW800 drives. The speed increase in simply amazing. That, coupled with increasing the RAM to 6GB have bought me at least another 1-1/2 years with this machine.
Click to expand...

Did you have any problem after installing the SSD? I'm planning to replace my dead HDD with an SDD this weekend. Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks
 
ser968 said:
I thought that the max RAM for these computers was 4 GB - is there a hack that lets it get to 6 GB? Also - what type of SSD did you use?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

The 6GB max is an undocumented maximum; when the machine was released Apple only configured it with 4GB maximum, but when the 4GB sticks became a little more affordable, some folks experimented and dropped a 4GB stick and a 2GB stick into it and found that 6GB would work; 8GB does not.

For the SSD, I used an OCZ Agility 3 240GB disk and it has been trouble-free. I can't believe how much the prices have dropped. For a little more than what I paid for the 240GB back in February, you can now get a 480GB.

----------
Bazzarino said:
Did you have any problem after installing the SSD? I'm planning to replace my dead HDD with an SDD this weekend. Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks
Click to expand...

This guide is for the 20", but it is pretty much the same as working on the 24".

http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/iMac-Intel-20-Inch-EMC-2133-and-2210-Hard-Drive-Replacement/1008/1
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back