Upgrade options on my 2015 5k Imac

[Zapz]

Hi Guys

I was wondering what options i have for upgrading for my i7 imac 2015 4.0ghz. I have 500gb ssd/ flash installed which i wish i had pushed to 1tb (can i add another ssd or upgrade the current) at the time. Also upgraded my ram to 32gb aswell. I use Logic Pro x, and after effects and illustrator etc. Do i have many options to improve my performance further? Would it be worth the extra £?

 

[Mikael H]

RAM: Start Activity Monitor and look at your memory pressure. Do you hit close to memory limits when working? Otherwise there's little point in upgrading.

Storage: Start Activity Monitor and look at your Data read/sec and Data written/sec values. In all likelihood getting a good SSD connected via USB3 or Thunderbolt will give you good enough performance, without the risks involved in opening up your computer to replace the system drive. Note that this will not give you additional performance, it will only mitigate your disk space issue.

 

[Zapz]

RAM: Start Activity Monitor and look at your memory pressure. Do you hit close to memory limits when working? Otherwise there's little point in upgrading.

Storage: Start Activity Monitor and look at your Data read/sec and Data written/sec values. In all likelihood getting a good SSD connected via USB3 or Thunderbolt will give you good enough performance, without the risks involved in opening up your computer to replace the system drive. Note that this will not give you additional performance, it will only mitigate your disk space issue.

Hi thanks for speedy reply. Sorry im a slight newb to these kinda technicalities. I use logic x with Kontakt and have several libraries with GB's of data would me upgrading my RAM help the system with say load times of intensive projects ect. Same scenario but with an external hard drive where my projects are stored along with samples are on a crappy WD 2tb usb 2 hardrive. Would upgrading to ssd external help ease that load? I take it upgrading the internal 500gb ssd can be done but its very risky? So external ssd is the safer option?
Thanks for reply and patience.

 

[Mikael H]

Hi thanks for speedy reply. Sorry im a slight newb to these kinda technicalities. I use logic x with Kontakt and have several libraries with GB's of data would me upgrading my RAM help the system with say load times of intensive projects ect. Same scenario but with an external hard drive where my projects are stored along with samples are on a crappy WD 2tb usb 2 hardrive. Would upgrading to ssd external help ease that load? I take it upgrading the internal 500gb ssd can be done but its very risky? So external ssd is the safer option?
Thanks for reply and patience.

Upgrading your RAM may speed up things if the amount of memory you have is your bottleneck currently, but I don’t know enough about the programs and plug-ins involved to dare make a definitive statement. That’s why I mentioned looking at your memory pressure as you are using the software in a way that is typical to your use case.

Already upgrading from USB2 to USB3 or Thunderbolt could make a significant difference in speed even with a mechanical drive, and definitely with a raid set of mechanical drives, but to really make use of the throughput difference, and especially if you do multiple simultaneous tracks, combining these faster protocols with SSD storage is the way to go, if you can afford it.

Replacing the internal drive is not something you should do on your own unless you really, really want to.

 

[Fishrrman]

You can add RAM and perhaps an external USB (or thunderbolt) SSD.

That's about it.