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USB 3 or Thunderbolt

M

MarkieMark92

macrumors regular
Original poster
Dec 17, 2013
149
8
London, UK
I want to put Windows 8 onto Bootcamp as currently have Windows 7. The annoying thing I have is when I go into Bootcamp I have to restart my iMac and it takes soo long to boot into Windows 7. If I was to get Windows 8 I was thinking of putting it along with the Mac Operating System onto the SSD and booting off of that. What would someone recommend, getting a USB 3.0 External SSD or Thunderbolt SSD or would someone recommend getting a External USB 3.0 enclosure and putting an SSD in it, or Thunderbolt enclosure and putting an SSD in it? :) and also could I boot off them easily?

Thanks in advance :)
 
I found this ssd, crucial mx100 512 gb ssd for 199. I'm trying to do the same thing. Good deal?
 
Truefan31 said:
I found this ssd, crucial mx100 512 gb ssd for 199. I'm trying to do the same thing. Good deal?
Click to expand...

Portable enclosures will not work with any SSD bigger than 256gb from what I understand so be careful.

Great drive btw. I ordered the same but 256gb and it's 100mb/write faster than the Samsung EVO via LaCie thunderbolt enclosure.
 
truciet said:
Portable enclosures will not work with any SSD bigger than 256gb from what I understand so be careful.

Great drive btw. I ordered the same but 256gb and it's 100mb/write faster than the Samsung EVO via LaCie thunderbolt enclosure.
Click to expand...


Oh it won't go over 256? I figured I'd get a seagate goflex tb adapter and mount it behind the computer
 
truciet said:
You just need a powered one with a wall plug from what I understand.
Click to expand...

It depends. Some have reported that the power requirements of later model SSDs like the Samsung 840 EVO 512GB will run reliably in a bus-powered enclosure. However, I wouldn't recommend going any larger than that without AC regardless of the make/model.

As mentioned in the previous thread I linked to above, I've been using, and can recommend the Delock 42490 Thunderbolt enclosure because it is lightweight aluminum, solidly constructed and AC powered. It also has no problems with BootCamp.
 
SaSaSushi said:
It depends. Some have reported that the power requirements of later model SSDs like the Samsung 840 EVO 512GB will run reliably in a bus-powered enclosure. However, I wouldn't recommend going any larger than that without AC regardless of the make/model.

As mentioned in the previous thread I linked to above, I've been using, and can recommend the Delock 42490 Thunderbolt enclosure because it is lightweight aluminum, solidly constructed and AC powered. It also has no problems with BootCamp.
Click to expand...


Finally a cheap tb enclosure. So I can use that with the crucial mx100 512 gb ssd? I was thinking the seagate goflex tb adapter but this looks good too. I'd get a stand behind the imac to sit it on so it's out of the way
 
Truefan31 said:
Finally a cheap tb enclosure. So I can use that with the crucial mx100 512 gb ssd? I was thinking the seagate goflex tb adapter but this looks good too. I'd get a stand behind the imac to sit it on so it's out of the way
Click to expand...

Sure, it will work with any 2.5" SSD. It does have the AC power cable, as mentioned, but I have the enclosure hidden behind my iMac. It's a great little fanless (silent) unit.
 
I generally recommend USB3 rather than Thunderbolt for connecting a single drive, but this is one time where Thunderbolt is required, because I don't believe you can boot Windows via USB3.

I've been booting and running my Mac Mini from a USB3 dock for 16 months now, no issues. I've found that the lack of "TRIM" doesn't make much difference at all...
 
I've never had to use trim on multiple SSD's in Mac pro and imac and everything is just fine. No slow down.
 
xgman said:
I've never had to use trim on multiple SSD's in Mac pro and imac and everything is just fine. No slow down.
Click to expand...

Some drive's firmware can deal with not having TRIM by snooping the file system. If you encrypt your drive (Filevault) I wouldn't expect this to work since the drive firmware won't be able to decrypt it itself, and you'd be better off turning on TRIM.

Also I'd expect it to be beneficial in a fusion setup, since again I would suspect the drive firmware not to understand the fusion - its not like it can see the parts of the file system on the other drive.
 
SaSaSushi said:
It depends. Some have reported that the power requirements of later model SSDs like the Samsung 840 EVO 512GB will run reliably in a bus-powered enclosure. However, I wouldn't recommend going any larger than that without AC regardless of the make/model.

As mentioned in the previous thread I linked to above, I've been using, and can recommend the Delock 42490 Thunderbolt enclosure because it is lightweight aluminum, solidly constructed and AC powered. It also has no problems with BootCamp.
Click to expand...



Where's the best place to order this delock enclosure?
 
Well I bought the seagate flex tb adapter instead. Figured I could put some plastic bits to stabilize the ssd, and rubberbands to keep it in place.
 
xgman said:
I've never had to use trim on multiple SSD's in Mac pro and imac and everything is just fine. No slow down.
Click to expand...

A lot depends on how full the drives are and how much writing to the drives is done. If you run them at like 30% capacity, there may be enough of room for garbage collection of deleted data as well as valid data, so whether you have trim enabled or not will not make much difference.
 
yjchua95 wrote above:
[[ It won't be at first, but it'll affect SSD performance in the long run. ]]

My "real world" experience is quite different.

I've been booting and running a late-2012 Mac Mini from a USB3/SATA docking station since January 2012. Seventeen months, and everything still runs just fine.

How much of a "long run" are you talking about?
Specific numbers, please?
 
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