I have done (am doing) this with a 2011 iMac. I have a Crucial 480GB SSD in an ancient OWC FW800 drive case.
Using the BlackMagic Speed Test on the two drives shows the internal disk is 50% faster that the external SSD, but that does not show up in real-world responsiveness. No contest, really. Responsiveness is MUCH better with the SSD than with the CCC clone of it onto the 7200 rpm factory HD inside the iMac. I cannot address the 400 vs 800 issue for you, as I don't have any FW400 drives. I expect putting the SSD into the iMac would result in additional speed gains, but for everyday use my current setup is fine for me (fwiw my large file data disks are connected via a Thunderbolt/USB3 adapter; I have only my OS and smaller files on the SSD). -- Robert MacLeay The original and only r...@aol.com "Accept no substitutes" www.electricrobert.com On 5/5/16, 3:07 PM, "Eric B. Volker" <evol...@gmail.com> wrote: > I¹ve been looking for ways to improve the responsiveness of my old iMac (24² > mid-2007). I¹ve upgraded the hard drive already to a Samsung 5400RPM 2TB > model, but I still get the beachball fairly often. I¹m not complaining - it¹s > amazing that this thing can still run the latest OS. However, I would like > something that responds better. > > Which leads me to my question. I had a hard time replacing the hard drive in > this Mac, and don¹t want to repeat the experience, if possible. Can I put an > SSD in Firewire 800 or 400 enclosure, and would I experience a significant > improvement in responsiveness? Most people focus on the improvement in raw > speed, which would be lost due to the relatively slow transfer rate of > Firewire. However, one of an SSDs big advantages is in seek > times/IOPs/latency, which I¹d still get with Firewire. So has anyone tried > using an SSD in a Firewire enclosure, and did they see an improvement in > performance? Firewire 800 is also a good bit more expensive than FW400; would > it make a big difference? -- You received this message because you are a member of the iMac Group, a group for those using Apple iMacs and eMacs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/imac/list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to imaclist@googlegroups.com To leave this group, send email to imaclist+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/imaclist --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "iMac Group" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to imaclist+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
