Re: SSD over Firewire 800/400

[Charles Lenington]

On 6/2/16 9:16 PM, Eric Volker wrote:

I just wanted to make a final report on this experiment, in case anyone else 
wants to try it. I bought a refurbished 500GB G-Technology G-Drive (with 
Firewire 800 and USB 3.0) on eBay for $40. I then replaced the 500GB mechanical 
drive with my 256GB SSD. I’ll probably put the HDD in my PC laptop.

The El Capitan install I had performed while the SSD was in the Iomega 
enclosure was unreadable, so I had to reinstall the OS. Fortunately, that went 
smoothly.

Performance isn’t quite where I hoped it would be. The transfer rate is about 
60MB/s, where I was hoping for 70+ MB/s. Boot time is only slightly faster. 
However, the iMac is much more responsive, and I only see the beachball once in 
a blue moon. Xcode launches in 6 seconds instead of 20 seconds. So I’ll chalk 
it up as a success.

Thanks for the assistance and success reports.

Eric



Thank you for reporting results

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Re: SSD over Firewire 800/400

[Eric Volker]

I just wanted to make a final report on this experiment, in case anyone else 
wants to try it. I bought a refurbished 500GB G-Technology G-Drive (with 
Firewire 800 and USB 3.0) on eBay for $40. I then replaced the 500GB mechanical 
drive with my 256GB SSD. I’ll probably put the HDD in my PC laptop.

The El Capitan install I had performed while the SSD was in the Iomega 
enclosure was unreadable, so I had to reinstall the OS. Fortunately, that went 
smoothly. 

Performance isn’t quite where I hoped it would be. The transfer rate is about 
60MB/s, where I was hoping for 70+ MB/s. Boot time is only slightly faster. 
However, the iMac is much more responsive, and I only see the beachball once in 
a blue moon. Xcode launches in 6 seconds instead of 20 seconds. So I’ll chalk 
it up as a success.

Thanks for the assistance and success reports.

Eric


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Re: SSD over Firewire 800/400

[Eric Volker]

J.C.-

I found confirmation online that these Iomega Mac Companion drives will not 
boot over Firewire, just USB. It boots great off USB, so it’s not a problem 
with the system folder being blessed. Isn’t that from the MacOS 8/9 days? I 
haven’t blessed a folder in an eternity…

I think I’m going to try a G-Technology G-Drive and replace the built-in drive 
with my SSD. The Amazon reviews seem to confirm that the drives are bootable 
over Firewire 800. Has anyone here ever used one of those drives and booted it 
from Firewire?

Thanks,

Eric
> On May 23, 2016, at 11:35 AM, 375GTB .  wrote:
> 
> IF it shows up on the desktop.
> 
> But won't boot into
> 
> Then the System Folder needs to be "Blessed"
> 
> Look up how one does that
> 
> Been years
> 
> Your iOmega enclosure is FINE, trust me.
> 
> They were bought out, did not go bust...
> 
> iOmega was BAD, about 1990...
> 
> After great success with the old ZIP drives...
> 
> Burning stuff did them in, for a while...
> 
> IWeve been using external enclosures since our 1990 Mac Classic, 
> 
> with a 20MB SCSI Apple drive meant for the 1987 SE.
> 
> Given to us in 1997
> 
> I use two FW800 LaCie d2's with my 2009 Mac Mini
> 
> One is IDE, the other SATA... 320GB, 7200 rpm in each case.
> 
> As my main drives. Were c. $25 on eBay
> 
> The Mini's slow 320GB 5400 internal drive is used ONLY for Time Machine 
> backups.
> 
> A FW400 250GB 7200 rpm LaCie d2 is used with my 2007 white MacBooks lone 
> FW400 port.
> 
> Good luck
> 
> J.C.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Wed, May 18, 2016 at 8:29 PM, Eric Volker  > wrote:
> Well I got the enclosure, but things didn’t go as planned. I got a deal on an 
> enclosure that had once been an Iomega Mac Companion. I installed the SSD, 
> hooked the enclosure up to my Firewire 800 port and it showed up on the 
> desktop. I installed El Capitan and rebooted, but when the Mac rebooted it 
> came up from the internal drive not the external one. Holding down Option 
> while booting showed only the internal drive. The Firewire drive is visible 
> in the Startup Disk preference panel, but selecting it accomplishes nothing. 
> Rebooting it just comes up on the internal drive.
> 
> Now for the fun part. It *will* boot if I hook up the drive via USB 2.0. 
> However, that’s pretty slow and I got this enclosure for the faster Firewire 
> 800 port. Another curiosity is that the disk shows up as “External RAID 
> Media” in Disk Utility. It is assuredly not RAID, just a single 256GB SSD. 
> Could this be the problem?
> 
> I’m in the process of testing the SSD over USB, but results so far are mixed. 
> Any thoughts on getting Firewire working?
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Eric
> 
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Re: SSD over Firewire 800/400

[Myles MacVane]

Eric,

I have a March 2008 24" iMac. If you have not added more RAM to your
standard 2007 iMac, you should. These days, 4 GB of RAM is the minimum you
need. I believe that Apple says that you can safely put 4 GB (2 X 2GB) into
your iMac. Mac Sales (www.macsales.com) claimed that you can put in 6 GB (1
X 2GB, 1 X 4GB). I currently have 4 GB, but I'm thinking about upping that
to 6GB. Also, check with Crucial to find out what they say about increasing
your RAM, (http://www.crucial.com/usa/en/memory-info).

Best wishes,

Myles MacVane

On Mon, May 23, 2016 at 12:35 PM, 375GTB .  wrote:

> IF it shows up on the desktop.
>
> But won't boot into
>
> Then the System Folder needs to be "Blessed"
>
> Look up how one does that
>
> Been years
>
> Your iOmega enclosure is FINE, trust me.
>
> They were bought out, did not go bust...
>
> iOmega was BAD, about 1990...
>
> After great success with the old ZIP drives...
>
> Burning stuff did them in, for a while...
>
> IWeve been using external enclosures since our 1990 Mac Classic,
>
> with a 20MB SCSI Apple drive meant for the 1987 SE.
>
> Given to us in 1997
>
> I use two FW800 LaCie d2's with my 2009 Mac Mini
>
> One is IDE, the other SATA... 320GB, 7200 rpm in each case.
>
> As my main drives. Were c. $25 on eBay
>
> The Mini's slow 320GB 5400 internal drive is used ONLY for Time Machine
> backups.
>
> A FW400 250GB 7200 rpm LaCie d2 is used with my 2007 white MacBooks lone
> FW400 port.
>
> Good luck
>
> J.C.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Wed, May 18, 2016 at 8:29 PM, Eric Volker  wrote:
>
>> Well I got the enclosure, but things didn’t go as planned. I got a deal
>> on an enclosure that had once been an Iomega Mac Companion. I installed the
>> SSD, hooked the enclosure up to my Firewire 800 port and it showed up on
>> the desktop. I installed El Capitan and rebooted, but when the Mac rebooted
>> it came up from the internal drive not the external one. Holding down
>> Option while booting showed only the internal drive. The Firewire drive is
>> visible in the Startup Disk preference panel, but selecting it accomplishes
>> nothing. Rebooting it just comes up on the internal drive.
>>
>> Now for the fun part. It *will* boot if I hook up the drive via USB 2.0.
>> However, that’s pretty slow and I got this enclosure for the faster
>> Firewire 800 port. Another curiosity is that the disk shows up as “External
>> RAID Media” in Disk Utility. It is assuredly not RAID, just a single 256GB
>> SSD. Could this be the problem?
>>
>> I’m in the process of testing the SSD over USB, but results so far are
>> mixed. Any thoughts on getting Firewire working?
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Eric
>>
>> --
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>> group for those using Apple iMacs and eMacs.
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>
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Re: SSD over Firewire 800/400

[375GTB .]

IF it shows up on the desktop.

But won't boot into

Then the System Folder needs to be "Blessed"

Look up how one does that

Been years

Your iOmega enclosure is FINE, trust me.

They were bought out, did not go bust...

iOmega was BAD, about 1990...

After great success with the old ZIP drives...

Burning stuff did them in, for a while...

IWeve been using external enclosures since our 1990 Mac Classic,

with a 20MB SCSI Apple drive meant for the 1987 SE.

Given to us in 1997

I use two FW800 LaCie d2's with my 2009 Mac Mini

One is IDE, the other SATA... 320GB, 7200 rpm in each case.

As my main drives. Were c. $25 on eBay

The Mini's slow 320GB 5400 internal drive is used ONLY for Time Machine
backups.

A FW400 250GB 7200 rpm LaCie d2 is used with my 2007 white MacBooks lone
FW400 port.

Good luck

J.C.











On Wed, May 18, 2016 at 8:29 PM, Eric Volker  wrote:

> Well I got the enclosure, but things didn’t go as planned. I got a deal on
> an enclosure that had once been an Iomega Mac Companion. I installed the
> SSD, hooked the enclosure up to my Firewire 800 port and it showed up on
> the desktop. I installed El Capitan and rebooted, but when the Mac rebooted
> it came up from the internal drive not the external one. Holding down
> Option while booting showed only the internal drive. The Firewire drive is
> visible in the Startup Disk preference panel, but selecting it accomplishes
> nothing. Rebooting it just comes up on the internal drive.
>
> Now for the fun part. It *will* boot if I hook up the drive via USB 2.0.
> However, that’s pretty slow and I got this enclosure for the faster
> Firewire 800 port. Another curiosity is that the disk shows up as “External
> RAID Media” in Disk Utility. It is assuredly not RAID, just a single 256GB
> SSD. Could this be the problem?
>
> I’m in the process of testing the SSD over USB, but results so far are
> mixed. Any thoughts on getting Firewire working?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Eric
>
> --
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> group for those using Apple iMacs and eMacs.
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Re: SSD over Firewire 800/400

[Eric Volker]

Yes, I see those negative reviews now. I used to have an Iomega MiniMax 
sometime in the distant past, and it booted fine off Firewire, so I assumed 
it’s successor would do the same. I’m still doing some research into possible 
solutions, but so far haven’t come up with anything other than resetting the 
SMC and PRAM. I’ve also installed El Capitan twice to the disk, and neither 
time would it boot. Does El Capitan support Firewire booting?  If anyone has 
any other ideas, I’d be grateful for suggestions.

Thing is, it actually feels pretty snappy even over USB 2.0. Boot time isn’t 
that much better, but once the desktop loads programs pop up in a fraction of 
the time that the did off the internal drive. It’s not mind-blowing, but it is 
a significant difference. 

Returning it probably wouldn’t be worth it. I paid $14 + shipping for the 
enclosure, and I’d be liable for return shipping. So it’s probably not worth 
the effort to get $7 back.

Thanks,

Eric
> On May 18, 2016, at 11:06 PM, Robert MacLeay  wrote:
> 
> I have seen this non-booting behavior with USB3 drives connected through a
> Thunderbolt connection to a Mac that does not support USB3 natively. They
> can be mounted through TB, but only after the machine has booted, making it
> impossible to boot off those drives.
> 
> I suspect that (making the huge assumption that it is not defective) the
> Iomega FW chip does not support booting.
> 
> I just checked this device's customer reviews on Amazon:
> http://www.amazon.com/Iomega-Companion-External-35130-Silver/product-reviews
> /B00576T1GG
> I've never seen such hate for a single piece of equipment.
> 
> You would probably be better off returning it if you can, or just throwing
> it away if you cannot.
> 
> 
> On 5/18/16, 7:29 PM, "Eric Volker"  wrote:
> 
>> Well I got the enclosure, but things didn¹t go as planned. I got a deal on an
>> enclosure that had once been an Iomega Mac Companion. I installed the SSD,
>> hooked the enclosure up to my Firewire 800 port and it showed up on the
>> desktop. I installed El Capitan and rebooted, but when the Mac rebooted it
>> came up from the internal drive not the external one. Holding down Option
>> while booting showed only the internal drive. The Firewire drive is visible 
>> in
>> the Startup Disk preference panel, but selecting it accomplishes nothing.
>> Rebooting it just comes up on the internal drive.
>> 
>> Now for the fun part. It *will* boot if I hook up the drive via USB 2.0.
>> However, that¹s pretty slow and I got this enclosure for the faster Firewire
>> 800 port. Another curiosity is that the disk shows up as ³External RAID 
>> Media²
>> in Disk Utility. It is assuredly not RAID, just a single 256GB SSD. Could 
>> this
>> be the problem?
>> 
>> I¹m in the process of testing the SSD over USB, but results so far are mixed.
>> Any thoughts on getting Firewire working?
> 
> 
> -- 
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Re: SSD over Firewire 800/400

[Robert MacLeay]

I have seen this non-booting behavior with USB3 drives connected through a
Thunderbolt connection to a Mac that does not support USB3 natively. They
can be mounted through TB, but only after the machine has booted, making it
impossible to boot off those drives.

I suspect that (making the huge assumption that it is not defective) the
Iomega FW chip does not support booting.

I just checked this device's customer reviews on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Iomega-Companion-External-35130-Silver/product-reviews
/B00576T1GG
I've never seen such hate for a single piece of equipment.

You would probably be better off returning it if you can, or just throwing
it away if you cannot.


On 5/18/16, 7:29 PM, "Eric Volker"  wrote:

> Well I got the enclosure, but things didn¹t go as planned. I got a deal on an
> enclosure that had once been an Iomega Mac Companion. I installed the SSD,
> hooked the enclosure up to my Firewire 800 port and it showed up on the
> desktop. I installed El Capitan and rebooted, but when the Mac rebooted it
> came up from the internal drive not the external one. Holding down Option
> while booting showed only the internal drive. The Firewire drive is visible in
> the Startup Disk preference panel, but selecting it accomplishes nothing.
> Rebooting it just comes up on the internal drive.
> 
> Now for the fun part. It *will* boot if I hook up the drive via USB 2.0.
> However, that¹s pretty slow and I got this enclosure for the faster Firewire
> 800 port. Another curiosity is that the disk shows up as ³External RAID Media²
> in Disk Utility. It is assuredly not RAID, just a single 256GB SSD. Could this
> be the problem?
> 
> I¹m in the process of testing the SSD over USB, but results so far are mixed.
> Any thoughts on getting Firewire working?


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Re: SSD over Firewire 800/400

[Eric Volker]

Well I got the enclosure, but things didn’t go as planned. I got a deal on an 
enclosure that had once been an Iomega Mac Companion. I installed the SSD, 
hooked the enclosure up to my Firewire 800 port and it showed up on the 
desktop. I installed El Capitan and rebooted, but when the Mac rebooted it came 
up from the internal drive not the external one. Holding down Option while 
booting showed only the internal drive. The Firewire drive is visible in the 
Startup Disk preference panel, but selecting it accomplishes nothing. Rebooting 
it just comes up on the internal drive. 

Now for the fun part. It *will* boot if I hook up the drive via USB 2.0. 
However, that’s pretty slow and I got this enclosure for the faster Firewire 
800 port. Another curiosity is that the disk shows up as “External RAID Media” 
in Disk Utility. It is assuredly not RAID, just a single 256GB SSD. Could this 
be the problem?

I’m in the process of testing the SSD over USB, but results so far are mixed. 
Any thoughts on getting Firewire working?

Thanks,

Eric

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Re: SSD over Firewire 800/400

[Eric B . Volker]

> On May 7, 2016, at 12:28 PM, Robert MacLeay  wrote:
> 
> 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.

Thanks for the reports, guys. Looks like my little plan will work, though of 
course not as well as installing the SSD in the Mac itself. I found a couple of 
deals on older enclosures on eBay (FW800 + USB 2), though not as cheap as I 
would have liked. Once I get it set up, I’ll report back. If anyone has a 
Firewire 800/SATA enclosure they’d like to donate to science, I’d love to take 
it off your hands.

Thanks,

Eric

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Re: SSD over Firewire 800/400

[W.Adrian D'Alessio]

Just that between the OS the machine shipped with and the final one which
it will run before the publisher abandons support is a version with nice
added features but which does not slow down the machine perceptibly.
T

The ability or lack of ability to turn off functions if you need more CPU
cycles or system resources for programs comes into play as well.  That will
vary with the OS version and the feature.

But once you find a "sweet spot configuration" for a beloved machine you
will know it.

Of course if somehow a user feels very attached to some feature or a web
dictated support need then they may trade off performance of programs for
the sake of that feature when they cannot afford a new machine.

Some people will spend money on OSes and more drives in order to have a lot
of OS versions which they will switch between. My observation of that in
the past 25 years is that it just causes headaches and you are spending as
much as you would buying a new machine with the new OS.



Adrian D'Alessio aka; Fluxstringer
fluxstrin...@gmail.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fluxstreamcommunication/
http://www.facebook.com/FluxStringer
https://www.youtube.com/user/fluxstringer
http://www.linkedin.com/in/fluxstreamcommunications






On Sun, May 8, 2016 at 8:41 PM, Bruce Rubin  wrote:

> W.Adrian D'Alessio,
>
> There may be some truth in what you write. Do you have any specific
> suggestions?
>
> On Sun, May 8, 2016 at 7:35 PM, W.Adrian D'Alessio  > wrote:
>
>> Bloatware is the number one way that computer OS publishers drive
>> Hardware system sales.
>>
>> So obvious and especially since they have been doing it  for 30 years.
>>
>> A balanced system will always be the best user system.
>>
>>
>>
>> Adrian D'Alessio aka; Fluxstringer
>> fluxstrin...@gmail.com
>> http://www.flickr.com/photos/fluxstreamcommunication/
>> http://www.facebook.com/FluxStringer
>> https://www.youtube.com/user/fluxstringer
>> http://www.linkedin.com/in/fluxstreamcommunications
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Sun, May 8, 2016 at 7:32 PM, W.Adrian D'Alessio <
>> fluxstrin...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> You say " it works well enough with whatever the latest and greatest OS
>>> X is available." yet ignore that the hardware is obviously choking on it.
>>>
>>> " I have to admit that recently I've noticed that it isn't quite as
>>> responsive as it once was "
>>>
>>> You already answered your own question. Whether you have " taken the
>>> time to determine why" or not.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Adrian D'Alessio aka; Fluxstringer
>>> fluxstrin...@gmail.com
>>> http://www.flickr.com/photos/fluxstreamcommunication/
>>> http://www.facebook.com/FluxStringer
>>> https://www.youtube.com/user/fluxstringer
>>> http://www.linkedin.com/in/fluxstreamcommunications
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Sun, May 8, 2016 at 4:00 PM, Bruce Rubin 
>>> wrote:
>>>
 Eric,

 I have a iMac (24-inch Mid 2007) with 4GB of RAM that my wife doesn't
 like me to mess with since it works for her. So I can "play" a few years
 ago I purchased an enclosure from Other World Computing (
 https://www.macsales.com) with a multitude of ports including USB 2.0
 & FW800 and a SSD to put into it. I've been booting into it when I want to
 "play" and it works well enough with whatever the latest and greatest OS X
 is available. I have to admit that recently I've noticed that it isn't
 quite as responsive as it once was but I haven't taken the time to
 determine why yet.

 Good luck.

 --Bruce

 On Thu, May 5, 2016 at 5:07 PM, Eric B. Volker 
 wrote:

> I’ve been looking for ways to improve the responsiveness of my old
> iMac (24” mid-2007). I’ve upgraded the hard drive already to a Samsung
> 5400RPM 2TB model, but I still get the beachball fairly often. I’m not
> complaining - it’s 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 don’t 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 I’d 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?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Eric
>
> --
> You received this message because you are a member of the iMac Group,
> a group for those using Apple iMacs and eMacs.
> The list 

Re: SSD over Firewire 800/400

[Bruce Rubin]

W.Adrian D'Alessio,

There may be some truth in what you write. Do you have any specific
suggestions?

On Sun, May 8, 2016 at 7:35 PM, W.Adrian D'Alessio 
wrote:

> Bloatware is the number one way that computer OS publishers drive Hardware
> system sales.
>
> So obvious and especially since they have been doing it  for 30 years.
>
> A balanced system will always be the best user system.
>
>
>
> Adrian D'Alessio aka; Fluxstringer
> fluxstrin...@gmail.com
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/fluxstreamcommunication/
> http://www.facebook.com/FluxStringer
> https://www.youtube.com/user/fluxstringer
> http://www.linkedin.com/in/fluxstreamcommunications
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Sun, May 8, 2016 at 7:32 PM, W.Adrian D'Alessio  > wrote:
>
>> You say " it works well enough with whatever the latest and greatest OS X
>> is available." yet ignore that the hardware is obviously choking on it.
>>
>> " I have to admit that recently I've noticed that it isn't quite as
>> responsive as it once was "
>>
>> You already answered your own question. Whether you have " taken the time
>> to determine why" or not.
>>
>>
>>
>> Adrian D'Alessio aka; Fluxstringer
>> fluxstrin...@gmail.com
>> http://www.flickr.com/photos/fluxstreamcommunication/
>> http://www.facebook.com/FluxStringer
>> https://www.youtube.com/user/fluxstringer
>> http://www.linkedin.com/in/fluxstreamcommunications
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Sun, May 8, 2016 at 4:00 PM, Bruce Rubin  wrote:
>>
>>> Eric,
>>>
>>> I have a iMac (24-inch Mid 2007) with 4GB of RAM that my wife doesn't
>>> like me to mess with since it works for her. So I can "play" a few years
>>> ago I purchased an enclosure from Other World Computing (
>>> https://www.macsales.com) with a multitude of ports including USB 2.0 &
>>> FW800 and a SSD to put into it. I've been booting into it when I want to
>>> "play" and it works well enough with whatever the latest and greatest OS X
>>> is available. I have to admit that recently I've noticed that it isn't
>>> quite as responsive as it once was but I haven't taken the time to
>>> determine why yet.
>>>
>>> Good luck.
>>>
>>> --Bruce
>>>
>>> On Thu, May 5, 2016 at 5:07 PM, Eric B. Volker 
>>> wrote:
>>>
 I’ve been looking for ways to improve the responsiveness of my old iMac
 (24” mid-2007). I’ve upgraded the hard drive already to a Samsung 5400RPM
 2TB model, but I still get the beachball fairly often. I’m not complaining
 - it’s 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 don’t 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 I’d 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?

 Thanks,

 Eric

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>>>
>>> --
>>> You received this message because you are a member of the iMac Group, a
>>> group for those using Apple iMacs and eMacs.
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Re: SSD over Firewire 800/400

[Bruce Rubin]

W.Adrian D'Alessio,

I don't remember asking a question. What question did I ask? TIA.

On Sun, May 8, 2016 at 7:32 PM, W.Adrian D'Alessio 
wrote:

> You say " it works well enough with whatever the latest and greatest OS X
> is available." yet ignore that the hardware is obviously choking on it.
>
> " I have to admit that recently I've noticed that it isn't quite as
> responsive as it once was "
>
> You already answered your own question. Whether you have " taken the time
> to determine why" or not.
>
>
>
> Adrian D'Alessio aka; Fluxstringer
> fluxstrin...@gmail.com
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/fluxstreamcommunication/
> http://www.facebook.com/FluxStringer
> https://www.youtube.com/user/fluxstringer
> http://www.linkedin.com/in/fluxstreamcommunications
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Sun, May 8, 2016 at 4:00 PM, Bruce Rubin  wrote:
>
>> Eric,
>>
>> I have a iMac (24-inch Mid 2007) with 4GB of RAM that my wife doesn't
>> like me to mess with since it works for her. So I can "play" a few years
>> ago I purchased an enclosure from Other World Computing (
>> https://www.macsales.com) with a multitude of ports including USB 2.0 &
>> FW800 and a SSD to put into it. I've been booting into it when I want to
>> "play" and it works well enough with whatever the latest and greatest OS X
>> is available. I have to admit that recently I've noticed that it isn't
>> quite as responsive as it once was but I haven't taken the time to
>> determine why yet.
>>
>> Good luck.
>>
>> --Bruce
>>
>> On Thu, May 5, 2016 at 5:07 PM, Eric B. Volker  wrote:
>>
>>> I’ve been looking for ways to improve the responsiveness of my old iMac
>>> (24” mid-2007). I’ve upgraded the hard drive already to a Samsung 5400RPM
>>> 2TB model, but I still get the beachball fairly often. I’m not complaining
>>> - it’s 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 don’t 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 I’d 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?
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>>
>>> Eric
>>>
>>> --
>>> 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
>>>
>>> ---
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>>> 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.
>>>
>>
>> --
>> 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
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>> http://groups.google.com/group/imaclist
>>
>> ---
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>>
>
> --
> 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
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> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving 

Re: SSD over Firewire 800/400

[W.Adrian D'Alessio]

Bloatware is the number one way that computer OS publishers drive Hardware
system sales.

So obvious and especially since they have been doing it  for 30 years.

A balanced system will always be the best user system.



Adrian D'Alessio aka; Fluxstringer
fluxstrin...@gmail.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fluxstreamcommunication/
http://www.facebook.com/FluxStringer
https://www.youtube.com/user/fluxstringer
http://www.linkedin.com/in/fluxstreamcommunications






On Sun, May 8, 2016 at 7:32 PM, W.Adrian D'Alessio 
wrote:

> You say " it works well enough with whatever the latest and greatest OS X
> is available." yet ignore that the hardware is obviously choking on it.
>
> " I have to admit that recently I've noticed that it isn't quite as
> responsive as it once was "
>
> You already answered your own question. Whether you have " taken the time
> to determine why" or not.
>
>
>
> Adrian D'Alessio aka; Fluxstringer
> fluxstrin...@gmail.com
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/fluxstreamcommunication/
> http://www.facebook.com/FluxStringer
> https://www.youtube.com/user/fluxstringer
> http://www.linkedin.com/in/fluxstreamcommunications
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Sun, May 8, 2016 at 4:00 PM, Bruce Rubin  wrote:
>
>> Eric,
>>
>> I have a iMac (24-inch Mid 2007) with 4GB of RAM that my wife doesn't
>> like me to mess with since it works for her. So I can "play" a few years
>> ago I purchased an enclosure from Other World Computing (
>> https://www.macsales.com) with a multitude of ports including USB 2.0 &
>> FW800 and a SSD to put into it. I've been booting into it when I want to
>> "play" and it works well enough with whatever the latest and greatest OS X
>> is available. I have to admit that recently I've noticed that it isn't
>> quite as responsive as it once was but I haven't taken the time to
>> determine why yet.
>>
>> Good luck.
>>
>> --Bruce
>>
>> On Thu, May 5, 2016 at 5:07 PM, Eric B. Volker  wrote:
>>
>>> I’ve been looking for ways to improve the responsiveness of my old iMac
>>> (24” mid-2007). I’ve upgraded the hard drive already to a Samsung 5400RPM
>>> 2TB model, but I still get the beachball fairly often. I’m not complaining
>>> - it’s 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 don’t 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 I’d 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?
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>>
>>> Eric
>>>
>>> --
>>> 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.
>>>
>>
>> --
>> 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
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>> http://groups.google.com/group/imaclist
>>
>> ---
>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
>> "iMac Group" group.
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>> email to imaclist+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com.
>> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
>>
>
>

-- 
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 

Re: SSD over Firewire 800/400

[W.Adrian D'Alessio]

You say " it works well enough with whatever the latest and greatest OS X
is available." yet ignore that the hardware is obviously choking on it.

" I have to admit that recently I've noticed that it isn't quite as
responsive as it once was "

You already answered your own question. Whether you have " taken the time
to determine why" or not.



Adrian D'Alessio aka; Fluxstringer
fluxstrin...@gmail.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fluxstreamcommunication/
http://www.facebook.com/FluxStringer
https://www.youtube.com/user/fluxstringer
http://www.linkedin.com/in/fluxstreamcommunications






On Sun, May 8, 2016 at 4:00 PM, Bruce Rubin  wrote:

> Eric,
>
> I have a iMac (24-inch Mid 2007) with 4GB of RAM that my wife doesn't like
> me to mess with since it works for her. So I can "play" a few years ago I
> purchased an enclosure from Other World Computing (
> https://www.macsales.com) with a multitude of ports including USB 2.0 &
> FW800 and a SSD to put into it. I've been booting into it when I want to
> "play" and it works well enough with whatever the latest and greatest OS X
> is available. I have to admit that recently I've noticed that it isn't
> quite as responsive as it once was but I haven't taken the time to
> determine why yet.
>
> Good luck.
>
> --Bruce
>
> On Thu, May 5, 2016 at 5:07 PM, Eric B. Volker  wrote:
>
>> I’ve been looking for ways to improve the responsiveness of my old iMac
>> (24” mid-2007). I’ve upgraded the hard drive already to a Samsung 5400RPM
>> 2TB model, but I still get the beachball fairly often. I’m not complaining
>> - it’s 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 don’t 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 I’d 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?
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Eric
>>
>> --
>> 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.
>>
>
> --
> 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.
>

-- 
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
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Re: SSD over Firewire 800/400

[Bruce Rubin]

Eric,

I have a iMac (24-inch Mid 2007) with 4GB of RAM that my wife doesn't like
me to mess with since it works for her. So I can "play" a few years ago I
purchased an enclosure from Other World Computing (https://www.macsales.com)
with a multitude of ports including USB 2.0 & FW800 and a SSD to put into
it. I've been booting into it when I want to "play" and it works well
enough with whatever the latest and greatest OS X is available. I have to
admit that recently I've noticed that it isn't quite as responsive as it
once was but I haven't taken the time to determine why yet.

Good luck.

--Bruce

On Thu, May 5, 2016 at 5:07 PM, Eric B. Volker  wrote:

> I’ve been looking for ways to improve the responsiveness of my old iMac
> (24” mid-2007). I’ve upgraded the hard drive already to a Samsung 5400RPM
> 2TB model, but I still get the beachball fairly often. I’m not complaining
> - it’s 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 don’t 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 I’d 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?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Eric
>
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Re: SSD over Firewire 800/400

[Russell Courtenay]

An interesting fact about broken iMacs: the 27" iMacs of around 2011 vintage 
have a nasty habit of bad connections to the graphics chip. If you don't mind 
the challenge of a full iMac tear down, you can find a 27" with bad graphics 
for under $300 and fix it with a $75 "reball" job (and of course that full iMac 
rebuild)!

There was one nearby recently but I passed on it, I think I'll snag it next 
time!

Russell Courtenay

Sent from my iPhone

> On May 6, 2016, at 9:49 PM, Bruce Johnson  
> wrote:
> 
> 
>> On May 6, 2016, at 5:40 PM, W.Adrian D'Alessio  
>> wrote:
>> 
>> I was not familiar with your model. I thought maybe it had a PCI slot behind 
>> a trap door.
> 
> No iMacs have ever had PCI slots.
> 
>> If you have had it for a while I am rather surprised you do not have the 
>> disassembly down to a fast routine.
> 
> iMacs, at keast post the white plastic models, have been remarkably long 
> lived. RAM is easy to get to, the Hard drive is retty much the only other 
> thing that’s not part of the logic board. Working on them is not rocket 
> science, but it’s not simple, either. I replaced the HDD in my mid-2010 model 
> ad it took me an extra several days because I broke a tiny $2.95 cable that 
> used a slightly different connector than the directions I had said. Making 
> sure I didn’t break the heavy, delicate, horribly dust-attractive glass 
> screen on my 27” model was the biggest hassle. Also I ended up fabricating a 
> useful tool form a heavy paperclip to help pull up the LCD screen.
> 
>  
> 
>> 

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Re: SSD over Firewire 800/400

[Russell Courtenay]

Great to hear. I guess my old iMac does have some upgrades possible!

Russell Courtenay

Sent from my iPhone

> On May 7, 2016, at 11:28 AM, Robert MacLeay  wrote:
> 
> 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.

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Re: SSD over Firewire 800/400

[Robert MacLeay]

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"  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?


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Re: SSD over Firewire 800/400

[W.Adrian D'Alessio]

Cool tool Bruce !

uh, I should rephrase that !



Adrian D'Alessio aka; Fluxstringer
fluxstrin...@gmail.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fluxstreamcommunication/
http://www.facebook.com/FluxStringer
https://www.youtube.com/user/fluxstringer
http://www.linkedin.com/in/fluxstreamcommunications






On Fri, May 6, 2016 at 11:49 PM, Bruce Johnson  wrote:

>
> > On May 6, 2016, at 5:40 PM, W.Adrian D'Alessio 
> wrote:
> >
> > I was not familiar with your model. I thought maybe it had a PCI slot
> behind a trap door.
>
> No iMacs have ever had PCI slots.
>
> > If you have had it for a while I am rather surprised you do not have the
> disassembly down to a fast routine.
> >
>
> iMacs, at keast post the white plastic models, have been remarkably long
> lived. RAM is easy to get to, the Hard drive is retty much the only other
> thing that’s not part of the logic board. Working on them is not rocket
> science, but it’s not simple, either. I replaced the HDD in my mid-2010
> model ad it took me an extra several days because I broke a tiny $2.95
> cable that used a slightly different connector than the directions I had
> said. Making sure I didn’t break the heavy, delicate, horribly
> dust-attractive glass screen on my 27” model was the biggest hassle. Also I
> ended up fabricating a useful tool form a heavy paperclip to help pull up
> the LCD screen.
>
> 
>
> > My experience has been that if I was going to keep an old machine going
> I had to learn to work on it. I hate opening laptops but I will do it
> rather than pay hundreds.
> >
> > A set of step by step diagrams is a good thing to have.
>
> ifixit,com has good takeapart diagrams for most macs.
>
> > But I understand the reluctance.
> > A power screw driver and some bits makes it a lot easier.
> >
> > Casually looking at 2.4 Core 2 says it had a 7200 rpm drive.
> > You put a huge  5400 rpm drive in it. 2 bottle necks right there if that
> is the case.
>
> That makes a huge difference. A professor bought some Mac Mini’s for his
> lab as general-purpose computers (these were 2011 models, iirc) they were
> horribly slow, the HDD speed even reduced the network speeds. replacing
> them with SSD’s was like night and day.
>
> > Some partitioning into a new boot volume with smaller space, might that
> help ?
>
> Nope. Personally I’d bite the bullet and open it upto replace the HDD,
> just be real wary of the LCD vertical synch cable, it’s quite delicate and
> easy to break…make sure you get a good grip on the connector. In my case my
> forceps slipped off, grabbed the wires and quite efficiently ripped them
> out of the connector. This is complicated by the fact that you can only
> raise the LCD about two inches to reach the cable.
>
>
> --
> Bruce Johnson
> University of Arizona
> College of Pharmacy
> Information Technology Group
>
> Institutions do not have opinions, merely customs
>
> --
> 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
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Re: SSD over Firewire 800/400

[W.Adrian D'Alessio]

Since Macs have always seemed attractive to graphics and video not having a
way to upgrade GPU is very much a disadvantage. And no USB upgrades either
is seriously short sighted. Yeah, I know 2007.

Good tip on the diagrams.

Apple did not do service techs any big favors with such a design either. I
have seen some long yet delicately folded display ribbons just to give more
working space. a bit fiddly to get back in but welcome  for task room.



Adrian D'Alessio aka; Fluxstringer
fluxstrin...@gmail.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fluxstreamcommunication/
http://www.facebook.com/FluxStringer
https://www.youtube.com/user/fluxstringer
http://www.linkedin.com/in/fluxstreamcommunications






On Fri, May 6, 2016 at 11:49 PM, Bruce Johnson  wrote:

>
> > On May 6, 2016, at 5:40 PM, W.Adrian D'Alessio 
> wrote:
> >
> > I was not familiar with your model. I thought maybe it had a PCI slot
> behind a trap door.
>
> No iMacs have ever had PCI slots.
>
> > If you have had it for a while I am rather surprised you do not have the
> disassembly down to a fast routine.
> >
>
> iMacs, at keast post the white plastic models, have been remarkably long
> lived. RAM is easy to get to, the Hard drive is retty much the only other
> thing that’s not part of the logic board. Working on them is not rocket
> science, but it’s not simple, either. I replaced the HDD in my mid-2010
> model ad it took me an extra several days because I broke a tiny $2.95
> cable that used a slightly different connector than the directions I had
> said. Making sure I didn’t break the heavy, delicate, horribly
> dust-attractive glass screen on my 27” model was the biggest hassle. Also I
> ended up fabricating a useful tool form a heavy paperclip to help pull up
> the LCD screen.
>
> 
>
> > My experience has been that if I was going to keep an old machine going
> I had to learn to work on it. I hate opening laptops but I will do it
> rather than pay hundreds.
> >
> > A set of step by step diagrams is a good thing to have.
>
> ifixit,com has good takeapart diagrams for most macs.
>
> > But I understand the reluctance.
> > A power screw driver and some bits makes it a lot easier.
> >
> > Casually looking at 2.4 Core 2 says it had a 7200 rpm drive.
> > You put a huge  5400 rpm drive in it. 2 bottle necks right there if that
> is the case.
>
> That makes a huge difference. A professor bought some Mac Mini’s for his
> lab as general-purpose computers (these were 2011 models, iirc) they were
> horribly slow, the HDD speed even reduced the network speeds. replacing
> them with SSD’s was like night and day.
>
> > Some partitioning into a new boot volume with smaller space, might that
> help ?
>
> Nope. Personally I’d bite the bullet and open it upto replace the HDD,
> just be real wary of the LCD vertical synch cable, it’s quite delicate and
> easy to break…make sure you get a good grip on the connector. In my case my
> forceps slipped off, grabbed the wires and quite efficiently ripped them
> out of the connector. This is complicated by the fact that you can only
> raise the LCD about two inches to reach the cable.
>
>
> --
> Bruce Johnson
> University of Arizona
> College of Pharmacy
> Information Technology Group
>
> Institutions do not have opinions, merely customs
>
> --
> 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
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> http://groups.google.com/group/imaclist
>
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>

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Re: SSD over Firewire 800/400

[Bruce Johnson]

> On May 6, 2016, at 5:40 PM, W.Adrian D'Alessio  wrote:
> 
> I was not familiar with your model. I thought maybe it had a PCI slot behind 
> a trap door. 

No iMacs have ever had PCI slots.

> If you have had it for a while I am rather surprised you do not have the 
> disassembly down to a fast routine.
> 

iMacs, at keast post the white plastic models, have been remarkably long lived. 
RAM is easy to get to, the Hard drive is retty much the only other thing that’s 
not part of the logic board. Working on them is not rocket science, but it’s 
not simple, either. I replaced the HDD in my mid-2010 model ad it took me an 
extra several days because I broke a tiny $2.95 cable that used a slightly 
different connector than the directions I had said. Making sure I didn’t break 
the heavy, delicate, horribly dust-attractive glass screen on my 27” model was 
the biggest hassle. Also I ended up fabricating a useful tool form a heavy 
paperclip to help pull up the LCD screen.

 

> My experience has been that if I was going to keep an old machine going I had 
> to learn to work on it. I hate opening laptops but I will do it rather than 
> pay hundreds.
> 
> A set of step by step diagrams is a good thing to have.

ifixit,com has good takeapart diagrams for most macs.

> But I understand the reluctance.
> A power screw driver and some bits makes it a lot easier.
> 
> Casually looking at 2.4 Core 2 says it had a 7200 rpm drive.
> You put a huge  5400 rpm drive in it. 2 bottle necks right there if that is 
> the case.

That makes a huge difference. A professor bought some Mac Mini’s for his lab as 
general-purpose computers (these were 2011 models, iirc) they were horribly 
slow, the HDD speed even reduced the network speeds. replacing them with SSD’s 
was like night and day.

> Some partitioning into a new boot volume with smaller space, might that help ?

Nope. Personally I’d bite the bullet and open it upto replace the HDD, just be 
real wary of the LCD vertical synch cable, it’s quite delicate and easy to 
break…make sure you get a good grip on the connector. In my case my forceps 
slipped off, grabbed the wires and quite efficiently ripped them out of the 
connector. This is complicated by the fact that you can only raise the LCD 
about two inches to reach the cable.


-- 
Bruce Johnson
University of Arizona
College of Pharmacy
Information Technology Group

Institutions do not have opinions, merely customs

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Re: SSD over Firewire 800/400

[Russell Courtenay]

Good points, all.

Russell Courtenay

Sent from my iPhone

> On May 6, 2016, at 5:30 PM, Eric B. Volker  wrote:
> 
> 
>> On May 6, 2016, at 4:01 PM, W.Adrian D'Alessio  
>> wrote:
>> 
>> Maybe so, but ya gotta stay Flossy.
>> 
>> I am not familiar with your model. But is a USB 3.0 connection just as 
>> viable a swap? Seems USB 2 is plenty fast and comparable to FW800.
>> USB 3.0 enclosures  might be less money. Especially on tiger direct.
> 
> Sadly, my Mac has no USB 3.0 ports. It does however have USB 2 and a single 
> Firewire 800 port. Bandwidth is one reason I’d prefer the FW800 port; USB2 
> tops out at about 30mb/s, whereas FW800 gets almost 80mb/s. Firewire also 
> taxes the CPU less, and my CPU can’t take much stress.
> 
>> 
>> Sometimes you might not be familiar with the name but you can do a lot of 
>> searching online for it. Problem parts will have lots of forum threads 
>> unresolved.
>> 
>> Also have you looked at your drive specs? 
>> 
>> How about this. Depending on your drive physical foot print and connector 
>> type have you thought about getting a conversion adapter and mounting it as 
>> the main drive? OWC used to sell adapters in the old days for what I was 
>> working on.
> 
> I have done a hard drive replacement on an iMac before, and it was no picnic. 
> I’d rather avoid if it I can, even if it means I wouldn’t reap full SSD 
> benefits.
> 
>> As far as keeping this machine viable for your gaming online those days are 
>> in the hands of Apple and the way they drive new sales with abandoning 
>> hardware support. And new tech, with the way they keep upping the candy 
>> offered but you need more protocol resources. They may also phase out the 
>> old games you like.
> Eye candy is nice, but I have an aging yet decent gaming PC for that purpose. 
> Why do I still game on this old Mac? I just generally prefer the OS X (or is 
> it MacOS once again?) experience, even if I can’t afford the latest and 
> greatest. And if I get really desperate, I can always stream Steam games to 
> the Mac. Even after all these years, it does have nice big screen that’s in 
> my preferred aspect ratio, 16:10.
> 
> Eric
> 
> -- 
> You received this message because you are a member of the iMac Group, a group 
> for those using Apple iMacs and eMacs.
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Re: SSD over Firewire 800/400

[W.Adrian D'Alessio]

I was not familiar with your model. I thought maybe it had a PCI slot
behind a trap door.
If you have had it for a while I am rather surprised you do not have the
disassembly down to a fast routine.

My experience has been that if I was going to keep an old machine going I
had to learn to work on it. I hate opening laptops but I will do it rather
than pay hundreds.

A set of step by step diagrams is a good thing to have.
But I understand the reluctance.
A power screw driver and some bits makes it a lot easier.

Casually looking at 2.4 Core 2 says it had a 7200 rpm drive.
You put a huge  5400 rpm drive in it. 2 bottle necks right there if that is
the case.

Some partitioning into a new boot volume with smaller space, might that
help ?

A 7200 or 10k rpm drive from the swap list  is probably not much on LEM
swap. Or look for an old mac at Goodwill and negotiate a price  to score
parts.

Finding an FW 800 drive case should not be hard.



Adrian D'Alessio aka; Fluxstringer
fluxstrin...@gmail.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fluxstreamcommunication/
http://www.facebook.com/FluxStringer
https://www.youtube.com/user/fluxstringer
http://www.linkedin.com/in/fluxstreamcommunications






On Fri, May 6, 2016 at 7:30 PM, Eric B. Volker  wrote:

>
> > On May 6, 2016, at 4:01 PM, W.Adrian D'Alessio 
> wrote:
> >
> > Maybe so, but ya gotta stay Flossy.
> >
> > I am not familiar with your model. But is a USB 3.0 connection just as
> viable a swap? Seems USB 2 is plenty fast and comparable to FW800.
> > USB 3.0 enclosures  might be less money. Especially on tiger direct.
>
> Sadly, my Mac has no USB 3.0 ports. It does however have USB 2 and a
> single Firewire 800 port. Bandwidth is one reason I’d prefer the FW800
> port; USB2 tops out at about 30mb/s, whereas FW800 gets almost 80mb/s.
> Firewire also taxes the CPU less, and my CPU can’t take much stress.
>
> >
> > Sometimes you might not be familiar with the name but you can do a lot
> of searching online for it. Problem parts will have lots of forum threads
> unresolved.
> >
> > Also have you looked at your drive specs?
> >
> > How about this. Depending on your drive physical foot print and
> connector type have you thought about getting a conversion adapter and
> mounting it as the main drive? OWC used to sell adapters in the old days
> for what I was working on.
> >
>
> I have done a hard drive replacement on an iMac before, and it was no
> picnic. I’d rather avoid if it I can, even if it means I wouldn’t reap full
> SSD benefits.
>
> > As far as keeping this machine viable for your gaming online those days
> are in the hands of Apple and the way they drive new sales with abandoning
> hardware support. And new tech, with the way they keep upping the candy
> offered but you need more protocol resources. They may also phase out the
> old games you like.
> >
> Eye candy is nice, but I have an aging yet decent gaming PC for that
> purpose. Why do I still game on this old Mac? I just generally prefer the
> OS X (or is it MacOS once again?) experience, even if I can’t afford the
> latest and greatest. And if I get really desperate, I can always stream
> Steam games to the Mac. Even after all these years, it does have nice big
> screen that’s in my preferred aspect ratio, 16:10.
>
> Eric
>
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Re: SSD over Firewire 800/400

[Eric B. Volker]

> On May 6, 2016, at 4:01 PM, W.Adrian D'Alessio  wrote:
> 
> Maybe so, but ya gotta stay Flossy.
> 
> I am not familiar with your model. But is a USB 3.0 connection just as viable 
> a swap? Seems USB 2 is plenty fast and comparable to FW800.
> USB 3.0 enclosures  might be less money. Especially on tiger direct.

Sadly, my Mac has no USB 3.0 ports. It does however have USB 2 and a single 
Firewire 800 port. Bandwidth is one reason I’d prefer the FW800 port; USB2 tops 
out at about 30mb/s, whereas FW800 gets almost 80mb/s. Firewire also taxes the 
CPU less, and my CPU can’t take much stress.

> 
> Sometimes you might not be familiar with the name but you can do a lot of 
> searching online for it. Problem parts will have lots of forum threads 
> unresolved.
> 
> Also have you looked at your drive specs? 
> 
> How about this. Depending on your drive physical foot print and connector 
> type have you thought about getting a conversion adapter and mounting it as 
> the main drive? OWC used to sell adapters in the old days for what I was 
> working on.
> 

I have done a hard drive replacement on an iMac before, and it was no picnic. 
I’d rather avoid if it I can, even if it means I wouldn’t reap full SSD 
benefits.

> As far as keeping this machine viable for your gaming online those days are 
> in the hands of Apple and the way they drive new sales with abandoning 
> hardware support. And new tech, with the way they keep upping the candy 
> offered but you need more protocol resources. They may also phase out the old 
> games you like.
> 
Eye candy is nice, but I have an aging yet decent gaming PC for that purpose. 
Why do I still game on this old Mac? I just generally prefer the OS X (or is it 
MacOS once again?) experience, even if I can’t afford the latest and greatest. 
And if I get really desperate, I can always stream Steam games to the Mac. Even 
after all these years, it does have nice big screen that’s in my preferred 
aspect ratio, 16:10.

Eric

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Re: SSD over Firewire 800/400

[W.Adrian D'Alessio]

Maybe so, but ya gotta stay Flossy.

I am not familiar with your model. But is a USB 3.0 connection just as
viable a swap? Seems USB 2 is plenty fast and comparable to FW800.
USB 3.0 enclosures  might be less money. Especially on tigerdirect.

Sometimes you might not be familiar with the name but you can do a lot of
searching online for it. Problem parts will have lots of forum threads
unresolved.

Also have you looked at your drive specs?

How about this. Depending on your drive physical foot print and connector
type have you thought about getting a conversion adapter and mounting it as
the main drive? OWC used to sell adapters in the old days for what I was
working on.

As far as keeping this machine viable for your gaming online those days are
in the hands of Apple and the way they drive new sales with abandoning
hardware support. And new tech, with the way they keep upping the candy
offered but you need more protocol resources. They may also phase out the
old games you like.




Adrian D'Alessio aka; Fluxstringer
fluxstrin...@gmail.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fluxstreamcommunication/
http://www.facebook.com/FluxStringer
https://www.youtube.com/user/fluxstringer
http://www.linkedin.com/in/fluxstreamcommunications






On Fri, May 6, 2016 at 3:20 PM, Eric B. Volker  wrote:

> Adrian, if I start listening to Fergie, does that mean Apple will hire me
> as an executive?
>
> But seriously, I would still need a Firewire 800 enclosure. If I go to a
> trusted source, like OWC, they cost $60 - $70 new. I’ve seen cheap ones on
> eBay for ~$30. Would it be safe to use a no-name brand for this?
>
> > On May 6, 2016, at 6:02 AM, GMail Valter Psicof 
> wrote:
> >
> >> I¹m running El Capitan. I¹m very diligent about running the latest OS
> and
> >> security patches. I don¹t want to be a victim.
> > As long as your OS is still supported and updated (10.9 Maverick still
> is),
> > you're on the safe side. Besides, running an old OS is often even safer,
> > since most hacks are written for recent OS versions.
> >
> > IMO, always running the latest OS version "just because Apple said so" is
> > silly.
> > Newer OS versions often bring slow down, new glitches, software
> > incompatibilities, worse user-interface, and so on. Unless there's a real
> > need, I stay with the OS that works best.
> > "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" ;-)
> As far as running a fully patched OS, you’re right that I’d have security
> updates. However, I believe Apple is about to release a new OS fairly
> shortly, which will leave Mavericks (10.9) out in the cold with no updates.
> That would leave me with Yosemite, which I don’t think would offer that
> much performance benefit over El Capitan. Plus I’d have to wipe the
> machine, and thanks to the 2TB drive, I don’t have anything else to back it
> up to.
> >
> > For gaming, I'm afraid that an SSD wouldn't offer you much value.
> > On average, gaming benefits - in descending order - from:
> > - GPU speed
> > - CPU speed
> > - Ram available
> > - And, in some kind of games, from mass storage speed (but not that
> much).
> >
> > With a Radeon 2600 HD Pro GPU 256 MB (I think), I'm afraid your iMac
> cannot
> > be helped much for gaming - unless you're talking about relatively old
> > games.
> You’re right about the 2600 Pro being old and slow. Nonetheless, I’ve
> gotten several relatively recent games like Xcom, Shadowrun and Divinity:
> Original Sin to run fairly smoothly on it. I have to dial the settings back
> to bare minimum, or even edit config files by hand, but I have gotten them
> to run. What I’d like is a solution to those frustrating beachballs. That’s
> where the SSD comes in.
>
> Eric
>
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Re: SSD over Firewire 800/400

[Eric B. Volker]

Adrian, if I start listening to Fergie, does that mean Apple will hire me as an 
executive? 

But seriously, I would still need a Firewire 800 enclosure. If I go to a 
trusted source, like OWC, they cost $60 - $70 new. I’ve seen cheap ones on eBay 
for ~$30. Would it be safe to use a no-name brand for this?

> On May 6, 2016, at 6:02 AM, GMail Valter Psicof  
> wrote:
> 
>> I¹m running El Capitan. I¹m very diligent about running the latest OS and
>> security patches. I don¹t want to be a victim.
> As long as your OS is still supported and updated (10.9 Maverick still is),
> you're on the safe side. Besides, running an old OS is often even safer,
> since most hacks are written for recent OS versions.
> 
> IMO, always running the latest OS version "just because Apple said so" is
> silly.
> Newer OS versions often bring slow down, new glitches, software
> incompatibilities, worse user-interface, and so on. Unless there's a real
> need, I stay with the OS that works best.
> "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" ;-)
As far as running a fully patched OS, you’re right that I’d have security 
updates. However, I believe Apple is about to release a new OS fairly shortly, 
which will leave Mavericks (10.9) out in the cold with no updates. That would 
leave me with Yosemite, which I don’t think would offer that much performance 
benefit over El Capitan. Plus I’d have to wipe the machine, and thanks to the 
2TB drive, I don’t have anything else to back it up to.
> 
> For gaming, I'm afraid that an SSD wouldn't offer you much value.
> On average, gaming benefits - in descending order - from:
> - GPU speed
> - CPU speed
> - Ram available
> - And, in some kind of games, from mass storage speed (but not that much).
> 
> With a Radeon 2600 HD Pro GPU 256 MB (I think), I'm afraid your iMac cannot
> be helped much for gaming - unless you're talking about relatively old
> games. 
You’re right about the 2600 Pro being old and slow. Nonetheless, I’ve gotten 
several relatively recent games like Xcom, Shadowrun and Divinity: Original Sin 
to run fairly smoothly on it. I have to dial the settings back to bare minimum, 
or even edit config files by hand, but I have gotten them to run. What I’d like 
is a solution to those frustrating beachballs. That’s where the SSD comes in.

Eric

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Re: SSD over Firewire 800/400

[Russell Courtenay]

I have a 2008 20" iMac 2.66 Core2Duo with 2 GB of ram, a 3TB hard drive and 
10.11.4 and sometimes it is dog slow. I can get 6 GB of ram used for about $70 
on eBay and am thinking that might help.

The modern Internet uses a phenomenal amount of resources just to view it. 
Firefox wants 1+ gig of ram usually but works better after a regular restart of 
the browser (of course if I closed half of those 2000 open tabs it might help!)

The latest version of Safari shows ram usage for each tab and for some reason 
when I open a simple Yahoo search it suddenly wants 2 gigs just for that tab 
and here comes the beachball! 

I know ram is MY problem as whenever something suddenly slows down I try to get 
to the Activity Monitor - Memory window and find Firefox wants more ram than 
I've got! And of course it is trying to swap to hard drive to make it all fit 
which is where the beachball comes in...

Adobe Flash is another thing, nearly unusable, allow it to start and suddenly 
Firefox wants an ADDITIONAL 2 gigs of ram! No way!

Most everything else works pretty well, even old iMovie 8 from 2010.

Russell Courtenay

Sent from my iPhone

> On May 5, 2016, at 9:28 PM, GMail Valter Psicof  
> wrote:
> 
> Il giorno 05/05/16 23.07, "Eric B. Volker" ha scritto:
> 
>> I still get the beachball fairly often.
> This sounds obvious but, how much Ram do you have?
> If it's 2 GB or less, I strongly suggest to upgrade to 3 or - better - 4 GB.
> 
> 2 GB are fairly cheap nowadays, and it's often the most "bang for your buck"
> upgrade available.
> 
>> I¹m not complaining - it¹s
>> amazing that this thing can still run the latest OS.
> Which OSX version are you using?
> I think you know that, usually, the newer the OS, the slower it is.
> If I were you, I wouldn't go past 10.9 on your iMac.
> 
> I have an Early 2009 iMac, and I'm still mainly using OSX 10.6 because it's
> the more stable and faster on this machine.
> On a secondary partition I have OSX 10.9, for instances where I need to use
> some newer app. 
> 
> 
> -- 
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Re: SSD over Firewire 800/400

[W.Adrian D'Alessio]

I fully agree on this. Latest and Greatest on a mismatched machine is "
bloatest and slowest". Too much going on which you may not be able to turn
off. Some code hacker might offer a disentangled version but then the Apple
police would come and get you both. They don't want the FBI or you to mess
with their code.

Same goes for the PC running. OK to run Windoze on Macs but verboten to run
Mac OS on a PC even if the motherboards were both made by ASUS. Windoze
users who buy Macs might have money to buy more Apple.  PC users who want
to run Mac OS are Broke-Broke and Apple Execs are "Glamorous" and like
Fergie songs.

Eric, if you already have what you need and it is not a question of
economics but of utilizing  your resources I am all for it. Especially if
the machine already has the FW800 port.





Adrian D'Alessio aka; Fluxstringer
fluxstrin...@gmail.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fluxstreamcommunication/
http://www.facebook.com/FluxStringer
https://www.youtube.com/user/fluxstringer
http://www.linkedin.com/in/fluxstreamcommunications






On Fri, May 6, 2016 at 7:02 AM, GMail Valter Psicof  wrote:

> Il giorno 06/05/16 09.40, "Eric B. Volker" ha scritto:
>
> > I do have 4GB. Swapping one of my 2GB SODIMMS for a 4GB to hit 6GB would
> cost
> > $80 - $100. That¹s too much to spend for an extra 2GB
> I have 4 GB too.
> I think that's adequate for most uses (I even run all Adobe CS3 apps
> together, and still have some memory free).
>
> > I¹m running El Capitan. I¹m very diligent about running the latest OS and
> > security patches. I don¹t want to be a victim.
> As long as your OS is still supported and updated (10.9 Maverick still is),
> you're on the safe side. Besides, running an old OS is often even safer,
> since most hacks are written for recent OS versions.
>
> IMO, always running the latest OS version "just because Apple said so" is
> silly.
> Newer OS versions often bring slow down, new glitches, software
> incompatibilities, worse user-interface, and so on. Unless there's a real
> need, I stay with the OS that works best.
> "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" ;-)
>
> > I don¹t
> > use my Mac professionally, but I do use it for some gaming.
> For gaming, I'm afraid that an SSD wouldn't offer you much value.
> On average, gaming benefits - in descending order - from:
> - GPU speed
> - CPU speed
> - Ram available
> - And, in some kind of games, from mass storage speed (but not that much).
>
> With a Radeon 2600 HD Pro GPU 256 MB (I think), I'm afraid your iMac cannot
> be helped much for gaming - unless you're talking about relatively old
> games.
>
>
> --
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> group for those using Apple iMacs and eMacs.
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Re: SSD over Firewire 800/400

[GMail Valter Psicof]

Il giorno 06/05/16 09.40, "Eric B. Volker" ha scritto:

> I do have 4GB. Swapping one of my 2GB SODIMMS for a 4GB to hit 6GB would cost
> $80 - $100. That¹s too much to spend for an extra 2GB
I have 4 GB too. 
I think that's adequate for most uses (I even run all Adobe CS3 apps
together, and still have some memory free).

> I¹m running El Capitan. I¹m very diligent about running the latest OS and
> security patches. I don¹t want to be a victim.
As long as your OS is still supported and updated (10.9 Maverick still is),
you're on the safe side. Besides, running an old OS is often even safer,
since most hacks are written for recent OS versions.

IMO, always running the latest OS version "just because Apple said so" is
silly.
Newer OS versions often bring slow down, new glitches, software
incompatibilities, worse user-interface, and so on. Unless there's a real
need, I stay with the OS that works best.
"If it ain't broke, don't fix it" ;-)

> I don¹t 
> use my Mac professionally, but I do use it for some gaming.
For gaming, I'm afraid that an SSD wouldn't offer you much value.
On average, gaming benefits - in descending order - from:
- GPU speed
- CPU speed
- Ram available
- And, in some kind of games, from mass storage speed (but not that much).

With a Radeon 2600 HD Pro GPU 256 MB (I think), I'm afraid your iMac cannot
be helped much for gaming - unless you're talking about relatively old
games. 


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Re: SSD over Firewire 800/400

[Eric B. Volker]

> On May 5, 2016, at 10:28 PM, GMail Valter Psicof  
> wrote:
> 
> Il giorno 05/05/16 23.07, "Eric B. Volker" ha scritto:
> 
>> I still get the beachball fairly often.
> This sounds obvious but, how much Ram do you have?
> If it's 2 GB or less, I strongly suggest to upgrade to 3 or - better - 4 GB.
> 
> 2 GB are fairly cheap nowadays, and it's often the most "bang for your buck"
> upgrade available.
I do have 4GB. Swapping one of my 2GB SODIMMS for a 4GB to hit 6GB would cost 
$80 - $100. That’s too much to spend for an extra 2GB, especially when Activity 
Monitor doesn’t typically show that I’m out of memory. On this machine, at 
least, I’ve learned to practice good window hygiene. If I’m done with an app, I 
close it, rather than leaving 20 different programs running.

> 
>> I¹m not complaining - it¹s
>> amazing that this thing can still run the latest OS.
> Which OSX version are you using?
> I think you know that, usually, the newer the OS, the slower it is.
> If I were you, I wouldn't go past 10.9 on your iMac.
> 
> I have an Early 2009 iMac, and I'm still mainly using OSX 10.6 because it's
> the more stable and faster on this machine.
> On a secondary partition I have OSX 10.9, for instances where I need to use
> some newer app. 
> 

I’m running El Capitan. I’m very diligent about running the latest OS and 
security patches. I don’t want to be a victim.

To Adrian, I hear you about wanting something upgradeable. I do have a couple 
of PCs that are very easy to upgrade. However, even a halfway decent Mac Pro is 
currently out of my reach. And a G5 is too ancient for my needs. I don’t use my 
Mac professionally, but I do use it for some gaming. I do have an extra 256GB 
SSD knocking about that I thought I might apply to the iMac in a relatively 
painless way. Looks like this fellow had some luck with a slow Mac mini and a 
Firewire 800 SSD: 

http://www.macworld.com/article/2907125/use-an-external-ssd-to-make-an-old-mac-feel-new-without-cracking-it-open.html

Eric

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Re: SSD over Firewire 800/400

[GMail Valter Psicof]

Il giorno 05/05/16 23.07, "Eric B. Volker" ha scritto:

> I still get the beachball fairly often.
This sounds obvious but, how much Ram do you have?
If it's 2 GB or less, I strongly suggest to upgrade to 3 or - better - 4 GB.

2 GB are fairly cheap nowadays, and it's often the most "bang for your buck"
upgrade available.

> I¹m not complaining - it¹s
> amazing that this thing can still run the latest OS.
Which OSX version are you using?
I think you know that, usually, the newer the OS, the slower it is.
If I were you, I wouldn't go past 10.9 on your iMac.

I have an Early 2009 iMac, and I'm still mainly using OSX 10.6 because it's
the more stable and faster on this machine.
On a secondary partition I have OSX 10.9, for instances where I need to use
some newer app. 


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Re: SSD over Firewire 800/400

[W.Adrian D'Alessio]

If it was me and I really needed a faster machine on a budget I would ask
here on LEM  for a nice G5 tower or intel Tower.  Get a LED TV as monitor

They are expandable. And upgrade able. Something iMacs never were really.

I would not look back afterwards either.


Adrian D'Alessio aka; Fluxstringer
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http://www.facebook.com/FluxStringer
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On Thu, May 5, 2016 at 5:07 PM, Eric B. Volker  wrote:

> I’ve been looking for ways to improve the responsiveness of my old iMac
> (24” mid-2007). I’ve upgraded the hard drive already to a Samsung 5400RPM
> 2TB model, but I still get the beachball fairly often. I’m not complaining
> - it’s 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 don’t 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 I’d 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?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Eric
>
> --
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Re: SSD over Firewire 800/400

[W.Adrian D'Alessio]

If you keep bottle necks in a machine whatever improvements are at one end
will never be entirely satisfactory.

I do not know what you use your maching for. But if for graphics or video
you are always better off with an expandable model with some fast card
slots.

If it is for some general light work and money is tight do whatever you
can. But just realize you will spend more and get less.
I have been there and done that. I found it to be a waste of time after
many years of trying.

Alternates for your situation.

Put the  ( expensive_) SSD right in the iMac.
or install a 7200 or 10,000 rpm drive  in the iMac.  5400 just does not
make it. Never really did.


Adrian D'Alessio aka; Fluxstringer
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On Thu, May 5, 2016 at 5:07 PM, Eric B. Volker  wrote:

> I’ve been looking for ways to improve the responsiveness of my old iMac
> (24” mid-2007). I’ve upgraded the hard drive already to a Samsung 5400RPM
> 2TB model, but I still get the beachball fairly often. I’m not complaining
> - it’s 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 don’t 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 I’d 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?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Eric
>
> --
> You received this message because you are a member of the iMac Group, a
> group for those using Apple iMacs and eMacs.
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