Trying to install external SSD on Late 2012 27" iMac - help!

[skeeknaek]

My iMac has a likely dying and slow 1TB HDD with about 850-900GB used up. I'm looking to install a 1-2TB external boot SSD that would seriously improve performance on it, and allow it to run Adobe Premiere and edit video without too much fuss. I'm not pushing it like a serious professional needs to, but I'd like to edit video on it. Is this even possible?

It's got a 3.2ghz core i5 so not too shabby with a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675MX so I believe it can still get some life back (correct me if I'm wrong)

Considering I have USB 2 or 3, and thunderbolt v1 ports, what is the best/cheapest combo here?

I'm also ignorant on the difference between a SATA SSD drive vs strictly external here too, and I'm curious if that matters. Any advice here is greatly appreciated, and I've combed through plenty of forum responses here already to learn enough to even comment on SATA and see what sort of ports I have, but I'm confused on:

-which drive would be the right kind
- if I need an enclosure to maximize read/write speeds
- if the usb-C to thunderbolt adapters would work with my thunderbolt v1 ports and still get the "10gb write speeds" or close to that as promised, and if not - what is the best combo of drive and cables?

Last question, would an internal installation (cracking open the screen and back) be preferable considering what I'm seeking?

Thanks!

 

[Juicy Box]

Considering I have USB 2.0

The Late 2012 iMac has USB 3.0

 

[skeeknaek]

The Late 2012 iMac has USB 3.0

My system report isn't too clear on that, it says USB 2.0 Hub, but has a USB 3.0 bus.

Either way, have any knowledge on the question(s) posed?

 

[Juicy Box]

My system report isn't too clear on that, it says USB 2.0 Hub, but has a USB 3.0 hub.

Either way, have any knowledge on the question(s) posed?

Do you have a wired keyboard with a USB port on it?

 

[skeeknaek]

The Late 2012 iMac has USB 3.0

 

[Juicy Box]

Yup, you have USB 3.0

 

[skeeknaek]

Do you have a wired keyboard with a USB port on it?

Yes - I replied with my system report screenshot for the USB portion.

Whether it's USB 2.0 or 3.0, do you have any recommendations on what drives/setup create maximum read/write speeds? Your history of replies indicates you have experience setting up external boot drives on macs.

Thanks!

 

[Juicy Box]

It is really easy setting up external boot drives, and I have been doing it for a while. Mostly for troubleshooting and backups, but there were periods of time that an external drive was my primary boot drive on some of my Macs.

You can use external USB 3 drives, TB drives, and others, but for speed and price, USB 3 is probably the best.

You can get an USB 3 or TB enclosure and an SSD, which would probably be the cheapest method, or just get one that is already together at a Best Buy, Walmart, Target, Amazon, New Egg..... This would be a little bit more money, but a little less work.

If you have a spare enclosure sitting around, you could use that. Most are really easy to take apart and add your own drive.

I like the Lacie Rugged Drives. I can sometimes find them for cheap on eBay. I get them used with a HDD. Take them apart, and put a SSD in it.

An advantage of using a TB drive is that it doesn't tie up a USB port, but speed wise, it probably won't have any gains on the USB3 on the Late 2012 iMac.

If looking for a LaCie Rugged Drive, I suggest the one with Thunder Bolt and USB 3. I got one with USB 3 and FW800, but noticed that it isn't nearly as fast as TB.

I have some screen shots of R/WR speeds of a TB, USB 3, and a software RAID 0 using both a TB and USB 3 drive together.

I will post them in a few minutes.

 

[Juicy Box]

Here is a USB 3.0 with a brand new ADATA SSD:

Here is a LaCie TB with a well used Samsung 860 SSD:

Here is the Software RAID 0 made from the two above drives together:


For reference, here is a HW RAID0 using and external USB 3 RAID enclosure and two old but good HDDs:

 

[Juicy Box]

Here is the Software RAID 0 made from the two above drives together:

The reason the screenshot of the SW RAID0 looks different than the others is because I did that one a few days ago on an older OS. Apple removed the GUI to make SW RAIDs from Disk Utility, so when ever I want to make one, I just boot up to an old OS before it was removed.

 

[Juicy Box]

I have a Late 2012 27" iMac, with the i7, 24GB RAM, the 2GB MX 680, and a 1TB Fusion Drive.

It is my main Mac, and it is a beast.

Even though I tend to keep my Macs for a long time (I still daily use my 2006 Mac Pro 1,1), I thought I would have replaced my Late 2012 iMac with a newer model by now. But it still performs very well considering it is seven years old.

I still use the Fusion Drive as my primary boot drive. I am probably going to open it up, blow out the dust and replace the HDD part of the Fusion with a large SSD.

It's got a 3.2ghz core i5 so not too shabby with a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675MX so I believe it can still get some life back (correct me if I'm wrong)

While I am sure there will be plenty of people suggesting to get a new(er) Mac, I am a big advocate of using what you have as long as it meets your needs.

Your iMac is seven years old, but that doesn't mean it is too old to do what you want with it.

Something to keep in mind though..... It is true that a SSD will greatly improve the performance of your aging iMac, but it won't perform as good as newer Macs with better specs.

When it comes to the your i5, the benchmarks on the newer iMacs isn't a huge dramatic difference, so your i5 isn't that bad.

If you have not already, I would upgrade your RAM. If you have the 8GB RAM that it came with, get two 8GB sticks for 24GBs. That is what I have in my Late 2012.

After your HDD, your GPU is probably the weakest link when compared to the newer Macs, but if it can do the tasks you need it to, then it is fine.

allow it to run Adobe Premiere and edit video without too much fuss

I don't do any video editing anymore, except on rare occasions, so I can't comment about this, maybe someone else can. I wonder if your GPU might struggle a bit with Adobe Premiere?

I do video encoding a lot, and that us usually more CPU intensive than GPU, so you should be fine with your i5 I think.

I'm also ignorant on the difference between a SATA SSD drive vs strictly external here too

SATA is just the interface that is used. It is now an older interface, but it is perfectly fine for what you are doing with it.

Most external SSDs you will fine will probably contain SATA internal drives.

 

[Fishrrman]

Get a Samsung t5 external USB3 SSD.
Plug it in, erase it with disk utility (don't forget to do this), then install the OS of your choice onto it, or use CarbonCopyCloner (or SuperDuper) to clone the contents of the internal drive to it.

Then, go to startup disk and designate it to be the boot drive.
Things will go much faster!

 

[skeeknaek]

Thank you

I have a Late 2012 27" iMac, with the i7, 24GB RAM, the 2GB MX 680, and a 1TB Fusion Drive.

It is my main Mac, and it is a beast.

Even though I tend to keep my Macs for a long time (I still daily use my 2006 Mac Pro 1,1), I thought I would have replaced my Late 2012 iMac with a newer model by now. But it still performs very well considering it is seven years old.

I still use the Fusion Drive as my primary boot drive. I am probably going to open it up, blow out the dust and replace the HDD part of the Fusion with a large SSD.



While I am sure there will be plenty of people suggesting to get a new(er) Mac, I am a big advocate of using what you have as long as it meets your needs.

Your iMac is seven years old, but that doesn't mean it is too old to do what you want with it.

Something to keep in mind though..... It is true that a SSD will greatly improve the performance of your aging iMac, but it won't perform as good as newer Macs with better specs.

When it comes to the your i5, the benchmarks on the newer iMacs isn't a huge dramatic difference, so your i5 isn't that bad.

If you have not already, I would upgrade your RAM. If you have the 8GB RAM that it came with, get two 8GB sticks for 24GBs. That is what I have in my Late 2012.

After your HDD, your GPU is probably the weakest link when compared to the newer Macs, but if it can do the tasks you need it to, then it is fine.



I don't do any video editing anymore, except on rare occasions, so I can't comment about this, maybe someone else can. I wonder if your GPU might struggle a bit with Adobe Premiere?

I do video encoding a lot, and that us usually more CPU intensive than GPU, so you should be fine with your i5 I think.



SATA is just the interface that is used. It is now an older interface, but it is perfectly fine for what you are doing with it.

Most external SSDs you will fine will probably contain SATA internal drives.

THANK YOU for the thorough replies! I will get started on acquiring the components, but may follow up here if I hit roadblocks on setup. I'm operating High Sierra currently and not sure if I should move to a new OS. What do you recommend?
[automerge]1574702767[/automerge]

Get a Samsung t5 external USB3 SSD.
Plug it in, erase it with disk utility (don't forget to do this), then install the OS of your choice onto it, or use CarbonCopyCloner (or SuperDuper) to clone the contents of the internal drive to it.

Then, go to startup disk and designate it to be the boot drive.
Things will go much faster!

Thanks! Which OS do you prefer?

 

[Juicy Box]

For the OS, I would use HS 10.13. It is what I currently use on my Late 2012 iMac. It still gets updates for now, and is pretty stable with the Late 2012.

I would only use Mojave if you use software that is not compatible with HS.

Stay away from Catalina!

Here is the Software RAID 0 made from the two above drives together:
<img src="/data/attachments/793/793716-e46386de61d1358f9ed6120289072232.jpg" class="bbImage " style="" alt="TB USB SW RAID0.png" />

I forgot to mention, if you decide to give the external RAID0 a try, the OS cannot be installed directly to a RAID0. It needs to be cloned there.

Once cloned to the RAID0, it behaves just like normal.

I used CCC.

That said, a single external SSD would be much faster than your currently internal HDD. So, unless you are looking for extra speed, the RAID0 might be overkill.

 

[smirk]

Can either @Fishrrman or @vertical smile comment on why not having TRIM support on a USB boot drive isn't anything to worry about? I'm in the same boat as the OP but I've been wavering for months because TB enclosures cost a fortune and USB doesn't support TRIM.

Thanks!

 

[Juicy Box]

Can either @Fishrrman or @vertical smile comment on why not having TRIM support on a USB boot drive isn't anything to worry about? I'm in the same boat as the OP but I've been wavering for months because TB enclosures cost a fortune and USB doesn't support TRIM.

Thanks!

You can enable TRIM for non-Apple SSDs using the Terminal.

There is also third-party software to enable TRIM, I used one before Apple supported it in terminal. I think the one I used was called "TRIM Enabler".

You can use that, but it is super easy to just do the terminal method, it is literally a copy and paste things, and typing in your password.

 

[Juicy Box]

Does anyone have a firm answer on whether TRIM is supported on USB?

I double checked my system report to make sure what I said above about TRIM on external drives is correct, and for my TB drives, TRIM is enabled.

But...

My external USB SSDs are not listed under SATA, so I am unsure where to check to see if they have TRIM enabled.

Looking up the situation online, there is a debate on whether USB drives can have TRIM enabled on them.

I personally haven't noticed any slow down on my USB SSDs, but maybe I don't use them enough.

@smirk and OP, even if TRIM isn't supported on USB, I would bet that it would still be much faster, even when slowed down, than the internal HDD in your Mac.

If this is a concern, then use TB drives for your boot drives, as it is confirmed TRIM is compatible:

 

[smirk]

Deleted.

 

[Juicy Box]

Deleted.

See this post:

Does anyone have a firm answer on whether TRIM is supported on USB?

I double checked my system report to make sure what I said above about TRIM on external drives is correct, and for my TB drives, TRIM is enabled.

But...

My external USB SSDs are not listed under SATA, so I am unsure where to check to see if they have TRIM enabled.

Looking up the situation online, there is a debate on whether USB drives can have TRIM enabled on them.

I personally haven't noticed any slow down on my USB SSDs, but maybe I don't use them enough.

@smirk and OP, even if TRIM isn't supported on USB, I would bet that it would still be much faster, even when slowed down, than the internal HDD in your Mac.

If this is a concern, then use TB drives for your boot drives, as it is confirmed TRIM is compatible:
View attachment 879217

 

[Juicy Box]

Another thought about USB SSDs.

I wonder if having Disk Utility erase the free space of the SSD would correct the long term issue of not having TRIM enabled on it?

Has anyone tried this?

 

[Plutonius]

My iMac has a likely dying and slow 1TB HDD with about 850-900GB used up.

If your internal drive is dying, why don't you replace it rather than adding an external drive ?

 

[skeeknaek]

If your internal drive is dying, why don't you replace it rather than adding an external drive ?

Considered that, but I'm not experienced at opening iMacs and would rather not risk damaging the entire enterprise if there's a solution that's feasible and doesn't risk it at all.

 

[Plutonius]

Considered that, but I'm not experienced at opening iMacs and would rather not risk damaging the entire enterprise if there's a solution that's feasible and doesn't risk it at all.

Have you looked around for a computer shop that can install your new drive ?

 

[Nismo73]

Just yesterday with my 2012 27" 680 i7 1tb fusion iMac I added an external with a 1tb Samsung QVO ssd in a ORICO usb3 enclosure and put on Catalina.
I wanted a fresh start and will eventually take the iMac apart and replace the spinning drive with this ssd once I know I've transferred files over that I need, and Catalina is working well with the system.
My iMac is basically used for Lightroom (updated CC wasn't working for Sierra anymore) and browsing/youtube.

Ultimate plan is to replace it with a redesigned iMac whenever that comes out and just give this one to parents or whoever in family.

FYI. On friday I payed $109 for the drive and I see right now it's $88 on amazon.

 

[Juicy Box]

with my 2012 27" 680 i7 1tb fusion iMac

This is the specs of my iMac, I purchased when they launched and received it in Dec 2012.

It is my main used Mac and I thought I would have replaced it by now, but it still performs very well given that it is seven years old. It is a beast.