Using a SSD with an iMac?

well i know that it will format fine but as for partitioning, i am not sure sorry, i don't think it does, mind you i am no expert and have not tried it but i think i read somewhere about it

 

Yes OSX will partition a drive normally.

FYI they do make 3.5" SSD drives. You might want to compare speed / performance of that with the 2.5".

 

ssd drives

NO SSD drive will work in an imac.. they are only for mac pros.

 

Umm, you are basing this on WHAT?

 

ryanflucas, beyond a doubt, it is possible do this easily. However, it may not be the best option.

An SSD will format perfectly with a Mac, and an SSD will definitely work with any Mac.

You cited reliability problems with Western Digital and other brand drives. EVERY mechanical hard drive will fail. Every one, including the one that's built into your iMac. You must back up if you don't intend to lose your data.

You cite noise concerns. Your iMac has a 3.5-inch, 7200-rpm hard drive built in. That drive is no quieter than one you can place outside of your computer. Apple happens to have built the iMac's enclosure to help keep noise inside, but there's no reason to stay away from mechanical drives if you're just concerned about noise. You already have a regular old mechanical drive.

I understand that you tried an external drive, and found it to be loud. My first external drive was very loud! However, not every external drive is. I have an Iomega external drive that is quiet, and a Western Digital external drive that is quiet. My guess is that you may find brand-name drives to be quieter than off-brand drives. I love OWC and I purchase RAM from them, but I probably wouldn't expect their HDs to be quiet.

SSDs are fast at certain tasks, and slow at others. Many users state that the speed difference can best be seen when the SSD is used as the boot drive. In fact, in transferring large files from your internal drive to your SSD, and then burning them to disc, you will see NO speed improvement as compared to a mechanical hard drive. I'm far from being against SSDs: The Mac laptop I use daily uses an SSD. However, I have several other mechanical, external hard drives around the house.

If you're not already backing up, please buy a backup drive before buying additional storage. Again, your drive WILL fail. It may fail in a week, or it may last ten more years. The only hard drive I've had fail was just a month old.

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Anywho, try buying a brand-name, portable hard drive from a retailer with a good return policy (Apple Store, Best Buy, Circuit City, or others). I hope you'll be pleasantly surprised by the noise level. The current Western Digital "My Passport" line of drives is pretty quiet.

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I'm somewhat familiar with hard drives, I welcome your feedback and questions.

 

Whoops, didn't see this thread when I created one in the iMac forum. I'm not long after installing an SSD in the new 27" iMac, it works 100%.

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=808178

 

This is the funniest thing I've read all day!