adding exteranal ssd drive to 2013 imac

[lasloduncan]

which ones are proven and preferred?--seems easy to do. but what kind, what size, and details from someone/s who have had success with it please.-

object is to speed up my imac, very slow to boot 7 or so minutes---curious as to the cable from the back of the imac to the ext ssd or should it go to my thunderbolt hub.?..and usb or firewire? ...very unclear on that.-

though, the actual hook up and reload seems seamless...seems to me the "usb" from imac to ssd would be the least desirable hookup as compared to the fire wire to ext ssd drive or thunderbolt hub-
seems like the usb is the proven and given method? ..

I thought the whole purpose of the thunderbolt drive was better faster connection??-my confusion sorry

so brand name size etc ?1tb should work well-

and maybe some comment on the most desirable hook up to new external ssd back of imac or thunderbolt hub...thanks all...

 

[Never mind]

This is the alternative to Mac user forum and I bet you can get a better response if you go to the proper forum

https://forums.macrumors.com/forums/imac.91/

 

[Juicy Box]

though, the actual hook up and reload seems seamless...seems to me the "usb" from imac to ssd would be the least desirable hookup as compared to the fire wire to ext ssd drive or thunderbolt hub-
seems like the usb is the proven and given method? ..

Use USB3 or Thunderbolt, Firewire would be much slower than the other two.
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I thought the whole purpose of the thunderbolt drive was better faster connection??-my confusion sorry

There are some other benefits, but sometimes Thunderbolt isn't liked as much due to much higher cost versus USB3 drives.
[doublepost=1548434908][/doublepost]

curious as to the cable from the back of the imac to the ext ssd or should it go to my thunderbolt hub.?

I don't see any benefit of going through the hub. Anyone else can think of one?

I would hook it up directly if at all possible.

object is to speed up my imac, very slow to boot 7 or so minutes

Why is it so slow? What kind of internal drive are you using?
[doublepost=1548435387][/doublepost]

..and usb or firewire? ...very unclear on that.-

I have booted from many external disks, USB, Firewire, and Thunderbolt. I have even used old iPods as a boot disk before using both Firewire and USB.

Your iMac has USB3, which is much faster than Firewire 800. I can't think of any reason to use Firewire 800 over USB3 except to free up a USB3 port.

If you want the fastest external drive possible, then you can get a very expensive Thunderbolt Drive.

If you want a fast boot drive, but don't want to spend a lot, get a USB3 enclosure.

If you have a Firewire drive sitting around somewhere, and don't want to spend any money on a new enclosure, that use that.

I have read some people having slower boot times on Macs with a SSD in a USB enclosure, but once booted, it runs fine.

 

[nambuccaheadsau]

Using identical Kingston SSDs as external drives, TB sure boots quicker but running SuperDuper Smart Copy backups, speed is just on identical.

 

[Juicy Box]

Using identical Kingston SSDs as external drives, TB sure boots quicker but running SuperDuper Smart Copy backups, speed is just on identical.

Do you mean one with in a USB enclosure and one in a Thunderbolt enclosure?

 

[nambuccaheadsau]

Yes one USB and one TB enclosures.

 

[lasloduncan]

Thank you very much---for clearing that up for me ...not the first time I had it incorrect. I do appreciate it....
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This is the alternative to Mac user forum and I bet you can get a better response if you go to the proper forum

https://forums.macrumors.com/forums/imac.91/

sorry, thought I posted to mac and accessories forum...

 

[Fishrrman]

If the iMac has USB3 (you didn't say), a USB3 SSD will do fine.
I recommend a Sandisk Extreme.

 

[lasloduncan]

yes of course, and thank you..