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upgrading my iMac ports

Z

zoran

macrumors 601
Original poster
Jun 30, 2005
4,815
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My mid2010 iMac has only got a fw800 port, and believe it or not, backing up in TMachine my 8TB data is sluggish... it takes ages. So i was wondering if its possible to find a way in order to make my backups faster. Perhaps opening of the case and connecting the HD sata ports to my external HD backup case... just some thoughts :)
 
Very interesting, but i dont understand how the eSATA cable is connected under the iMac?
Also how much faster is that eSATA connection compared to FW?
And what do u mean by "...the cost of their service dwarves the value of the machine"?
 
zoran said:
Very interesting, but i dont understand how the eSATA cable is connected under the iMac?
Also how much faster is that eSATA connection compared to FW?
And what do u mean by "...the cost of their service dwarves the value of the machine"?
Click to expand...


Come on, it's $159 plus shipping.

eSATA runs at regular SATA speeds. (3.0 Gb/s in the case of a SATA II machine). Firewire 800 is, of course, only 0.800 Gb/s.

USB 3.0 promises 5 Gb/s (plus you can connect more than one drive). The first imac to support USB 3.0 was iirc the 2012 lineup. The 2011 imacs have thunderbolt, but only usb 2.0.
 
OP:

There's simply no practical way to do what you propose to do.
(Not saying it can't be done, see berenod's reply 5 above).

If you "want more speed", the only real solution for a 10-year-old iMac is...
... buy a newer, faster iMac.
 
Indeed. On the 2011 you have at least a Thunderbolt port (or 2 on the 27"), which gives you some options, albeit on the expensive side.
Thunderbolt to usb3 adapters exist, as do external storage solutions
I think the Delock TB to usb3 is around 100$.
For you, the firewire at roughly 1,5 times the speed of usb2 is the best you'll get without some serious modifications ..
 
You can upgrade to USB 3 for a small fee with a bit of DIY.
See my thread here:
forums.macrumors.com

USB 3.0 for iMac mid 2011

Hello folks, I have been following the thread about graphics card upgrade 2011 iMac Graphics Card Upgrade for some time, and someone mentioned that he has upgraded to USB3. So I started my own USB3 project, and succeeded, at a cost of around US$ 20, plus around 3 hours work. I replaced the...
forums.macrumors.com forums.macrumors.com
This also applies to the 2010 model.
 
The eSATA option looks interesting, the problem is that i have no idea how it can be done!
I can't find OWC's "how to" install video, if there was one available at the time. Was there?
 
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