2013 iMac 14,1 looking for external Thunderbolt 1/2 SSD - any suggestions ?

[4sallypat]

Well my spinning 5400rpm SATA drive is getting really slow in my stock 2013 iMac - the iMac has a plenty fast i5 CPU and 8GB of RAM but even for mundane tasks, the spinning HDD is just awful.

I know I could open her up and put in a SSD, but I thought why not leverage the TB port ?

Reading thru some previous posts, I see some have used a separate SSD w/ TB enclosure route.

I wanted to find out if there is a single SSD device that has TB 1/2 port ?

 

[Fishrrman]

I would think that tbolt1/tbolt2 external SSDs are getting harder to find now.

You might consider an external USB3 SSD as an alternative.

It will be just as fast as thunderbolt. USB3 can't use "TRIM", but so long as you keep a decent amount of "free space" (about 10-20%), it shouldn't be a problem.

 

[4sallypat]

I would think that tbolt1/tbolt2 external SSDs are getting harder to find now.

You might consider an external USB3 SSD as an alternative.

It will be just as fast as thunderbolt. USB3 can't use "TRIM", but so long as you keep a decent amount of "free space" (about 10-20%), it shouldn't be a problem.

Would using a USB3 / TB3 SSD and an Apple TB3 to TB2 adapter, would there be any compromise ?

Would using a TB3 device give 10Gbps or 20Gbps data rate thru the adapter ??

 

[Fishrrman]

You can't use one of the new Thunderbolt3 drives -- like the Samsung x5 -- with a thunderbolt2 port, and the adapter doesn't work, either. Something to do with not passing "bus power" to the device, which it needs to run.

I saw at least one post here from someone who got an x5 to work through a thunderbolt dock, but then you have to add the cost of the dock to the cost of the drive.

Unless you can find a tbolt2/tbolt3 drive (or enclosure in which to put an SSD), this probably isn't worth it.

USB3 is better, cheaper -- and just as fast.

 

[4sallypat]

I was afraid of that - I just love my old 2013 iMac and didn't want to open the Mac by cutting the adhesive under the glass....

 

[nambuccaheadsau]

When I had a 2011 iMac used a Silicon Power 240GB Thunderbolt powered SSD and it was just great set up externally as boot drive. Still use it as an external backup for current iMac, as well as a USB3 external SSD as second backup.

Using SuperDuper the two SSDs backup within one second of each other hpowever booting on the USB3 drive is much, much slower. Not a problem if you don't shut down daily.

 

[ABCDEF-Hex]

I have an old LaCie Blade Runner (USB3) that I use for backup.
I would like to replace it with a new LaCie D2-TB3 which I could connect via TB2 to TB3 adapter.
Could I then daisy chain from the D2 to a portable SSD and enable trim on the SSD?

Just a hypothetical - still looking at solutions for my backup situation.