Upgrade HD to SSD or replace computer - Late 2009

[jazzer15]

My wife and I each have iMacs. As my uses are much more intensive than hers (athough nothing too out of the ordinary -- Lightroom, music recording, office work, some periodic video editing, etc.), I generally pass my computer to her after some time and buy a new one for myself. So, our computers tend to stick around for quite a while.

Currently, she is using a late 2009 i7 2.8 ghz machine with 16 GB RAM. It's still chugging along, but the hard drive is really slowing it down to the point that waiting to use it after waking it requires some patience. My current iMac is a late 2015 i7, 4 ghz w/ 24GB RAM and a AMD Radeon R9 M395X 4 GB. It does all I need.

I am considering either (1) replacing the HDD on the 2009 with an SSD (I would have someone else do this as I am not comfortable doing it myself), (2) buying my wife a current base model 27 inch iMac (she prefers the large screen), or (3) passing my current computer to my wife and buying a more top of the line 2019 iMac for me (As noted, this 3rd option is what I have tended to do in the past and it has served us well because even a very old iMac that had been well equipped when purchased has continued to operate at a level that satisfied my wife's needs).

My questions are, first, would it make any sense to spend the money to replace the HD in a 10 year old computer? And second, if not, I wondered if people had thoughts as to options 2 and 3. Obviously the 3rd option would cost the most in the short term, but perhaps it would result in a longer time period before the next purchase.

Just looking for some opinions and/or possible personal experiences.

Thanks.

 

[gilby101]

Comments/opinions:
1) If you want to continue using the 2009 iMac, I would add an external Firewire800 SSD as boot disk with macOS, apps, etc and keep internal HDD for data. Easy way to extend its useful life. And then, I guess, wait another 2 years before doing your option 3.
I have just retired my late 2009 21" iMac, but I added the external SSD some years ago to keep it going.
2) Breaks your current passing on scheme which has worked well for you. How long before you would want a new iMac? Sounds like new iMac now for her and another one in a year to two for you.
3) The best solution (for you), and a decent upgrade for your wife.
I suggest option 1 (and do 3 in two years or so), or option 3 now - all depending on your circumstances.

 

[MadDane]

I have been using a late 2009 with the same specs (although 20GB RAM) as your wife until two months ago. I have mainly been using it with general computing as well as Lightroom and the Adobe Suite. I added an internal 128GB SSD back in 2013, and upgraded it to a 256GB SSD earlier this year. Until I upgraded to the larger SSD, I ran it as a Fusion Drive in combination with a 2TB HDD. It is quite straight forward to upgrade these older machines, and I still think it is quite a useful machine to this day. If your wife don't mind that it can no longer be upgraded with new operating systems, I think that the most cost effective you could do right now is to extend the lifetime of the current machine with an SSD, possibly in combination with a HDD. Then, when it's time for you to upgrade, hand your current machine down to your wife

 

[Jar Jar Abrams]

My wife and I each have iMacs. As my uses are much more intensive than hers (athough nothing too out of the ordinary -- Lightroom, music recording, office work, some periodic video editing, etc.), I generally pass my computer to her after some time and buy a new one for myself. So, our computers tend to stick around for quite a while.

Currently, she is using a late 2009 i7 2.8 ghz machine with 16 GB RAM. It's still chugging along, but the hard drive is really slowing it down to the point that waiting to use it after waking it requires some patience. My current iMac is a late 2015 i7, 4 ghz w/ 24GB RAM and a AMD Radeon R9 M395X 4 GB. It does all I need.

I am considering either (1) replacing the HDD on the 2009 with an SSD (I would have someone else do this as I am not comfortable doing it myself), (2) buying my wife a current base model 27 inch iMac (she prefers the large screen), or (3) passing my current computer to my wife and buying a more top of the line 2019 iMac for me (As noted, this 3rd option is what I have tended to do in the past and it has served us well because even a very old iMac that had been well equipped when purchased has continued to operate at a level that satisfied my wife's needs).

My questions are, first, would it make any sense to spend the money to replace the HD in a 10 year old computer? And second, if not, I wondered if people had thoughts as to options 2 and 3. Obviously the 3rd option would cost the most in the short term, but perhaps it would result in a longer time period before the next purchase.

Just looking for some opinions and/or possible personal experiences.

Thanks.

I just found an old 2010 MacBook Pro I had and tried one of my SSD drives in it, wow! It runs smooth and fast like my 2018 MacBook Pro, obviously I don’t use it for anything intensive like Final Cut Pro. But I can run logic on it no problem at all, so yeah download super duper from shirt pocket use the free version to clone your HD to an SD drive you’ll need a sata to usb3 cable around 10 bucks or so, in terms of SSD look at crucial or Kingston they’re pretty decent and good for an old mac, I actually use Sandisk because I use these drives an externals for editing like you’d use Laice etc so I had some kicking around. You already have 16gb ram so the upgrade will feel like a new machine, once the SSD is installed you’ll be able to upgrade the OS to High Sierra which is as far as these older macs will go even if the say they don’t support it the Apple app store offers these choices and I took it, it’s a reliable solid machine now. So definately go SSD, it’s an easy install to I’ve done on two family imacs previously.

 

[jazzer15]

Comments/opinions:
1) If you want to continue using the 2009 iMac, I would add an external Firewire800 SSD as boot disk with macOS, apps, etc and keep internal HDD for data. Easy way to extend its useful life. And then, I guess, wait another 2 years before doing your option 3.
I have just retired my late 2009 21" iMac, but I added the external SSD some years ago to keep it going.
2) Breaks your current passing on scheme which has worked well for you. How long before you would want a new iMac? Sounds like new iMac now for her and another one in a year to two for you.
3) The best solution (for you), and a decent upgrade for your wife.
I suggest option 1 (and do 3 in two years or so), or option 3 now - all depending on your circumstances.

I don't know why, but I never even considered the external SSD option. I know it wouldn't be nearly as fast as an internal installation, but it would be a fast, easy and inexpensive solution in the short term and I suspect it would be a fairly dramatic difference. The computer is used mostly for web browsing and email, although my wife also uses Parallels to run a Windows 10 version of Quicken software (which has features not available in the Mac version).

The thing that gives me pause about replacing my computer now is all of the speculation about a potential iMac redesign. I wouldn't mind waiting to see what happens next before purchasing -- although that may turn out to be a fool's game.

 

[Fishrrman]

Put the 2009 out to pasture. It's time.
Give your wife the iMac you're using now.

But... don't bother with a "high-end" replacement for yourself.
The "midrange" will do more than you ever need (considering the use case you stated above).

Get 8gb of RAM and add more yourself.
A 512gb SSD should do.
If you need more storage, plug in an external USB3 drive (SSD or HDD).

 

[jazzer15]

Put the 2009 out to pasture. It's time.
Give your wife the iMac you're using now.

But... don't bother with a "high-end" replacement for yourself.
The "midrange" will do more than you ever need (considering the use case you stated above).

Get 8gb of RAM and add more yourself.
A 512gb SSD should do.
If you need more storage, plug in an external USB3 drive (SSD or HDD).

I’m still thinking about this. I was about to buy an SSD and try to install it myself, but then I realized with the release of Catalina that in a year the security patches etc. to High Sierra (the last OS the late 2009 can upgrade to) will likely end. So we aren't buying too much extra time at this point.

Assuming I go the route of passing my computer down and buying a new one, am I really going to gain much by going with a midrange iMac now? My 2015, for example, is an i7 and has 4 cores with hyper-threading The midrange is an i5 with 6 cores but no hyper-threading.

Maybe I'm thinking about this wrong, but by buying a midrange iMac, wouldn't I essentially be saving some money now, but winding up with 2 computers that are fairly close in performance ability thereby necessitating replacement of both machines around the same time?

 

[kschendel]

Two years ago, or maybe even one, I would have told you to replace the hard drive with an SSD, no question; we've gotten at least two extra years out of our early 2009 iMac that way. Now, though, I think it's probably time to move on. If you don't want to replace the machine now, you can always install an SSD and then retrieve it later for installation into an external enclosure (USB3 to SATA enclosures are inexpensive).

The external SSD idea is tempting, but your machine doesn't have USB3, and USB2 is pretty darn slow for data transfers...

 

[jazzer15]

Two years ago, or maybe even one, I would have told you to replace the hard drive with an SSD, no question; we've gotten at least two extra years out of our early 2009 iMac that way. Now, though, I think it's probably time to move on. If you don't want to replace the machine now, you can always install an SSD and then retrieve it later for installation into an external enclosure (USB3 to SATA enclosures are inexpensive).

The external SSD idea is tempting, but your machine doesn't have USB3, and USB2 is pretty darn slow for data transfers...

Thanks for your thoughts. That is basically where I am coming out after more thought and research. The issue now is whether it is worth itto replace the SSD just to buy a little time so I can see what the next iteration of the iMac will bring, whenever that should be. There has been talk about a redesign for some time and I guess it wouldn't be out of the question for an end of the year refresh?

 

[velocityg4]

Have you considered buying a Mac Mini?

Get the base (6-Core) model Mac Mini. Connect it to a budget 27" 4K display. Use an external USB-C NVMe SSD if you need more quick storage. For about $1725 you could set something up with a nice 27" 4K IPS display and 1TB NVMe USB 3.1 Gen 2 SSD and 16GB RAM. With the CPU and internal SSD option being either a 6-Core i7 with 128GB internal SSD or 6-Core i5 with 256GB SSD. $1575 without additional external SSD.

Just the base iMac 27" with the Fusion drive upgraded to the minimum 256GB SSD costs $1900. You don't want the base Fusion drive. You'll be disappointed. If you wanted to keep a clean all in one look. You're looking at about $2,375 with a 1TB internal SSD if you upgrade the RAM yourself. Is the clean look worth an extra $325 to $650? Depending on the configuration. Along with bumping up to the 5K display and Radeon 570x.

 

[kschendel]

Thanks for your thoughts. That is basically where I am coming out after more thought and research. The issue now is whether it is worth itto replace the SSD just to buy a little time so I can see what the next iteration of the iMac will bring, whenever that should be. There has been talk about a redesign for some time and I guess it wouldn't be out of the question for an end of the year refresh?

I don't know about a redesign in the near term. If there's a refresh, it would probably be changes in the storage offerings; there's nothing interesting out there CPU-wise that's significantly better than the current choices. (AMD Ryzen 3000 would offer similar performance at a lower heat dissipation load, but I doubt that the advantage is great enough to justify the supplier change and board re-engineering.)

There's always the chance of buying right before some sort of significant advance, but even if that happens, the current iMac is a very good machine.