SSD Upgrade for iMac or not?

EyeCake

I have late 2009 iMac with 2.8 I7 and 12 mb ram and 2Tb hard drive running Mavericks and recently it has become quite sluggish with lots of disk whirring noises and occasional total freezes.
I have also Macbook air with only 1.8 I7 and 4gb ram and 256 SSD which is very speedy in comparison.
the question is would a SSD upgrade show a significant improvement with an external drive for data, photos and movies.
Should I try a complete wipe of disk , install new clean version of mavericks and programs and restore just data from backups.
Who in Dublin would you recommend to install SSD at a good price?

Dont be at yourself

I have the same machine, and have been contemplating the same. Was experiencing really sluggish performance to the point where it was almost unuseable. In the end, when Mavericks rolled around, I just performed a clean install and it's been much better since then.i

I previously upgraded an old unibody white plastic MacBook to an SSD and was amazed by the difference in speed (it seemed much faster than a 2-year younger MacBook Pro for day-to-day stuff).

There's a place on Ormond Quay that service Macs and offer decent prices, but alternatively you could also try doing the work yourself -- it doesn't look that complicated, and ifixit will sell a kit with the necessary parts (minus the drive) for around €50.

Ciaran_B

A timely thread indeed. The disc in my 2008 iMac is on its last legs so I’ve been looking at SSD upgrade options. I e-mailed Right-Click computers on Wexford St. (they’ve done good work on my iMac in the past) and they said they will install a 250GB SSD for €279, parts and labour.

nialler

Ciaran

240gb SSD from crucial.com is €108 ex VAT, it takes about 10 minutes to remove glass/screen from iMac. It's a fairly easy replacement if you're brave enough and have a very thin paint scraper or long nails to remove the glass on imac which is held on by magnets. You'll need phillips and torx drivers.

BTW SSD makes an enormous difference.

N

7upfree

nialler wrote: »

Ciaran

240gb SSD from crucial.com is €108 ex VAT, it takes about 10 minutes to remove glass/screen from iMac. It's a fairly easy replacement if you're brave enough and have a very thin paint scraper or long nails to remove the glass on imac which is held on by magnets. You'll need phillips and torx drivers.

BTW SSD makes an enormous difference.

N

We have a 2010 iMac. Had it upgraded to a crucial 256GB SSD in 2012. Never looked back. Fitted by CompuB (who were excellent I must say).

The speed is incredible.

Startup to OS in 23s.

Even the VM through Parallels is quicker.

Outlook launches in 3s.

Go for it. But unless you're technical pay to have it done. This is not for the faint-hearted. Have a look at it on YT.

CompuB were very reasonable.

Greentree_uk

nialler wrote: »

Ciaran
It's a fairly easy replacement if you're brave enough and have a very thin paint scraper
N

A paint scraper is a little rough! Metal and glass is not a good combination!

T-K-O

To safely remove the glass

use the rubber suction pads from something like this.

http://i00.i.aliimg.com/photo/v2/620541470/Transparent_Plastic_Suction_Shower_Caddy.jpg

Ciaran_B

7upfree wrote: »

We have a 2010 iMac. Had it upgraded to a crucial 256GB SSD in 2012. Never looked back. Fitted by CompuB (who were excellent I must say).

The speed is incredible.

Startup to OS in 23s.

Even the VM through Parallels is quicker.

Outlook launches in 3s.

Go for it. But unless you're technical pay to have it done. This is not for the faint-hearted. Have a look at it on YT.

CompuB were very reasonable.

I had it done over the weekend. 256GB SSD into my 2008 iMac and the difference is incredible. Like you say application open in 2 or 3 'hops' even things like Photoshop which were taking 10-15 seconds.

I had a look at a lot of YT tutorials and I decided it was beyond my abilities so I paid Right-Click to do it. Left in on Friday and collected on Saturday. I time-machined my profile back on and was up and running by lunch time.

I reckon I'll get two more years from this machine.

I definitely recommend the SSD option. It's pricey but well worth it.

7upfree

Ciaran_B wrote: »

I had it done over the weekend. 256GB SSD into my 2008 iMac and the difference is incredible. Like you say application open in 2 or 3 'hops' even things like Photoshop which were taking 10-15 seconds.

I had a look at a lot of YT tutorials and I decided it was beyond my abilities so I paid Right-Click to do it. Left in on Friday and collected on Saturday. I time-machined my profile back on and was up and running by lunch time.

I reckon I'll get two more years from this machine.

I definitely recommend the SSD option. It's pricey but well worth it.

Glad to hear it.:)

May be a little pricey but compared to the worth of the machine - and its abilities - it's small money really.

Life is too short when you're not technical enough (like me). €80 or €90 is a small price to pay for your sanity!

Enjoy!

PS did you get it done in CompuB?

Ciaran_B

No, I got it done in Right-Click on Wexford St. Really professional service.

http://www.right-click.ie/

Iomega Man

This is something that I was contemplating for my 2008 iMac.

I would have thought that the SSD would decrease the time it would take to boot up and to launch programs but is there any noticeable speed difference when running those programs?

IM

EyeCake

Did you replace Hard drive or Optical drive.
I have priced 240SSD and mounting kit at between 120-150 but having looked at video on how to install while only taking an expert about 20 minutes as you say is not for the faint hearted.I got a quote from Mactivate for 349 which was too expensive!
BTW there are faster and slower SSD's. Do you think that would make much difference.
Better to get the fastest possible

7upfree

EyeCake wrote: »

Did you replace Hard drive or Optical drive.
I have priced 240SSD and mounting kit at between 120-150 but having looked at video on how to install while only taking an expert about 20 minutes as you say is not for the faint hearted.I got a quote from Mactivate for 349 which was too expensive!
BTW there are faster and slower SSD's. Do you think that would make much difference.
Better to get the fastest possible

The optical drive was removed from the iMac (we have an external BluRay burner drive) and the existing 1TB became additional storage.

Total cost including parts and labour from CompuB was only €285 (IIRC).

You really do nee dot know your way around these machines. They are not PCs.

7upfree

Iomega Man wrote: »

This is something that I was contemplating for my 2008 iMac.

I would have thought that the SSD would decrease the time it would take to boot up and to launch programs but is there any noticeable speed difference when running those programs?

IM

Yes. Particularly photography/video editing.

Iomega Man

7upfree wrote: »

Yes. Particularly photography/video editing.

Thats good to hear.
I'm thinking FCP 7..

mathepac

Greentree_uk wrote: »

A paint scraper is a little rough! Metal and glass is not a good combination!

Agreed

T-K-O wrote: »

To safely remove the glass

use the rubber suction pads from something like this.

http://i00.i.aliimg.com/photo/v2/620541470/Transparent_Plastic_Suction_Shower_Caddy.jpg

Excellent suggestion.

Or use your guitar plectrum

mathepac

For those of you who have installed SSD, have a look at an OS X extension called TRIM Enabler

"Trim Enabler is the first and safest utility for enabling Trim in Mac OS X. With the flip of a switch you can improve the speed and longevity of your Solid State Drive.

What is Trim?

Every time you delete a file on your computer, the data still stays on the drive in segments called blocks. These blocks are not deleted until you need to use them again to write new data. Due to technical limitations in the NAND Flash design, only whole blocks can be deleted. This means that when you need to write new data, the SSD must perform time-consuming cleaning and maintenance of these blocks before your data is written. With Trim, your blocks can be cleaned instantly when you delete the data, leading to much less operations during the writing process which gives you better speeds and minimizes the wear on the drive."

Warning: A downside to enabling TRIM in OSX is that data recovery tools will have nothing to recover - deleted means physically deleted, gone, not just deleted from the volume's table of contents.

It gets good reports on user forms and costs around US$10 (plus VAT). I have no connection with the developers or sellers.

7upfree

Iomega Man wrote: »

Thats good to hear.
I'm thinking FCP 7..

We use FCE and PS11E.

darragh o meara

I recently upgraded my 2008 27" 3.06 C2D Imac with one of the seagate hybrid drives. Made a major difference to performance anx I still got to keep my high capacity drive in my imac. An ssd was just a bit too expensive for the size I needed.

The Black Oil

I've just bought an SSD from Crucial and it arrived today. I was tempted to install it tonight (2008 iMac), but I'm going to leave it until tomorrow, or the weekend.

The tutorials on Youtube are mixed in quality, though there are a few decent ones for the 2008 model. I should be able to manage it by being careful and taking it slowly. Think the first step is to back up everything, clone the current HD to the SSD and proceed from there. Sound about right?

EyeCake

I would suggest a clean install of the OS and the programs that you use most will significantly increase your speed if your computer has been upgraded and used for a number of years. Also I would suggest trying not to use more than 90% of the disk to boost Virtual Memory speeds and operation.
Good luck with the install. Are you removing the Hard Disk or the DVD Drive?

DesperateDan

I was discussing ssd's with the guy in Right Click on Camden street for my 2008 Windows machine. He said the new Samsung MZ series are the best and fastest he's seen - very popular and a lot of work they do is putting MZs into Macs

The Black Oil

EyeCake wrote: »

I would suggest a clean install of the OS and the programs that you use most will significantly increase your speed if your computer has been upgraded and used for a number of years. Also I would suggest trying not to use more than 90% of the disk to boost Virtual Memory speeds and operation.
Good luck with the install. Are you removing the Hard Disk or the DVD Drive?

Removing the HD, keeping the optical drive. I'm unlikely to use 90% of the new disk, should be OK there. Re a clean install, it's been a while since I've done this, will I get the Disk Utility option after having added the new drive - in order to format it to Mac OS extended journaled, etc? Google suggests inserting a system disc and I can then access DU. The machine was originally Leopard, SL then ML and Mavericks. In terms of keep iLife stuff, will they simply come up in the App Store?

I presume I can reinstate iTunes content from a Time Machine back up.

I'll do some further reading before attempting anything.

EyeCake

You will need a system disk to Startup computer and to use DU an install IOS
it can be a DVD, another Hard drive or even an SD card with an os installed.
I used an SD card and installed Mavericks on it, used it as startup disk, formatted the new drive and then installed mavericks on it in one go.

Type 17

You can remove the iMac glass with any type of sucker that attaches SatNavs etc to car windscreens - the ones with a little lever to attach them.

The Black Oil

Yeah, that seems to be what people use.

I have system disks, so that's fine. I replaced the HD in my Macbook when it failed a few years ago and started from scratch, but that's a more straightforward affair compared to an iMac. Only other concern is around apps. For example, I currently use Office 2008 having had 2004 previously. I have official discs for both. '04 doesn't work in Mavericks and the disc for '08 is an upgrade only, iirc. So, if start with a clean install of Mavericks, Office 2008 may not let me reinstall because of the nature of the disc. Unless this is the sort of thing you can sort out with a Time Machine back up. I can't recall.

A few little things like that are part of my worry list.

The Black Oil

SSD installed, booted up, but I've a black screen. Something's loose, I'm guessing.

Edit, found an obvious one - oops.

The Black Oil

Boot time is now ~ 15 seconds, big improvement on 75. Restoring files now.

creativedrinker

Hi guys, thought id ask in this instead of starting a new topic, Im halfway through upgrading my iMac 27' with a sad and after taking out the hdd i noticed a temperature sensor that is plugged into the drive

My sad doesn't have this connection, my other upgrades it was just a stick on one

will the fans go crazy if i do this or is there a way around it?

I've been googling for the past hour and couldn't find any real answers, everyone is pointing at different fixes

ZENER

Without the connector plugged in the fans will max out and your IMac will sound like a Dyson. I too had difficulty getting info on the specs required for the connector and the device in the HDD.

Most people installing an SSD in their iMac (including myself) bought the carriage which replaces the DVD drive.

Ken

creativedrinker

I had originally did that, and made a fusion drive out of the ssd and original mac but then in amazons sale i decided to replace the original for ssd too.... but I'm going to keep researching to see if theres a different sensor i can buy.... I don't think i could handle the noise without chucking it out the window :P

barryj

I did the same upgrade and just use SSD fan control to keep the fans under control. Works very nicely.

http://exirion.net/ssdfanctrl/