Is RAID 0 Boot Drive SSD Worth it?

[Caesar's Garage]

I have a 2011 iMac. It originally had a 1TB HDD in it. About a year ago i threw in a 256GB SSD for better performance. Its worked great the whole time and the speed difference is huge but 256GB is a little small for me. I am going to upgrade to either a 500GB or a 1TB and was wondering if its worth it to buy two of them and make them into a raid 0. How much better will the speed be? This machine is old and i will take any upgrades i can get. I have a Mac Mini network server where i have my time machine set to so the "risk" of RAID 0 that people always mention wont be a HUGE deal as my mac is constantly backed up.


Thanks for your time!

-Nick

 

[Fishrrman]

You don't want RAID.
Too much trouble.
Too much danger (of losing your data).

Get a 500gb or 1tb SSD.
Put it into a USB3 enclosure.
I realize you don't have USB3 on the iMac, but it will still run ok, and will run faster when you replace the iMac you have now with something newer...

 

[Caesar's Garage]

Like i mentioned, I have a time machine server with my computer fully backed up so im not concerned with losing data. I keep most things that are important on a usb HDD. This computer is really just for working. I put files on, do what i need (video editing, photoshop, indesign etc.) then get the files off.

Also I do have USB 3 with a thunderbolt to USB 3 and eSATA adapter. And further more, i will not be replacing this machine for a long time as I do not have the need (or the really budget lol).

The only real limitation of this computer is software limitation due to it being old and not being about to run the newest version of mac OS. The cpu is good for what i need. I have more than enough RAM at 32gb. The display is beautiful. The GPU is alright. It works for the majority of the things I do. Obv not great for gaming but I dont play games on this machine anymore.

All I really want to know is if the read and write times of a RAID 0 boot drive are significant enough to justify using 2 internal SSDs. I know I'll only have the capacity of 1 of them. Speed matters much more than capacity since i have a 10TB server.

Thanks

 

[mdgm]

Your Mac can have up to 3 SSDs installed. Note that only two of the SATA ports are SATA III (the optical drive port is SATA II). The HDD is the easiest to replace with a SSD. Putting a SSD beneath the optical drive or replacing the optical drive is much more involved.

There is a long thread about replacing the graphics card and running newer Mac OS than High Sierra with the 2011 iMac. I haven't done it myself.

RAID-0 should theoretically up to double your performance. Though real world performance would probably be a bit less than that as the data probably wouldn't be perfectly split between the two SSDs.

I have a 21" iMac booted off a TB3 NVMe SSD. iMac -> TB(1/2) cable -> Apple TB3 to TB2 adapter -> TB3 Dock -> TB3 NVMe drive. Note the TB3 Dock I'm using requires at least Sierra, I think and the TB3 NVMe drive requires at least High Sierra. Be sure to check the specs if you get those. Not cheap, but even though it's over TB1, it is still a bit faster than a single internal SATA III SSD would be.

 

[Caesar's Garage]

Ok. Thanks for that insight. I do know about the GPU upgrade thing to run higher OS versions because they require metal support. The only thing holding me back is compatibility and things like losing the boot screen or not being able to change brightness. As far as tearing down the entire machine, i’m very comfortable doing that i’ve done it 3 or 4 times on that machine and on other iMacs as well. I may consider swapping the GPU especially since the AMD chip in mine is known to be faulty. I have fixed it once before. I just have to do some more research because IF i do the swap i’m putting in the best card i can.

 

[Caesar's Garage]

Ok. Thanks for that insight. I do know about the GPU upgrade thing to run higher OS versions because they require metal support. The only thing holding me back is compatibility and things like losing the boot screen or not being able to change brightness. As far as tearing down the entire machine, i’m very comfortable doing that i’ve done it 3 or 4 times on that machine and on other iMacs as well. I may consider swapping the GPU especially since the AMD chip in mine is known to be faulty. I have fixed it once before. I just have to do some more research because IF i do the swap i’m putting in the best card i can.

Also i know it’s a little harder to add another drive vs just swapping the stock one. My plan as of now is (using the SATA III ports) to have 2 500gb raid 0 boot drive and then for the sata II port, just swap the disk drive for like a 1tb ssd just in case i need any extra storage. (i have an external disk drive so i’m good on that)

 

[marzer]

Also i know it’s a little harder to add another drive vs just swapping the stock one. My plan as of now is (using the SATA III ports) to have 2 500gb raid 0 boot drive and then for the sata II port, just swap the disk drive for like a 1tb ssd just in case i need any extra storage. (i have an external disk drive so i’m good on that)

What version of mac OS are you running? Booting from RAID 0 (which I did on a old Mac mini) was dropped somewhere around Yosemite-ish.

 

[Caesar's Garage]

oh, i was unaware of that. But will the system really know if its a raid? It would only be recognized as one drive. Im running High Sierra 10.13.6.

 

[marzer]

oh, i was unaware of that. But will the system really know if its a raid? It would only be recognized as one drive. Im running High Sierra 10.13.6.

Yes it does know, the raid is managed by the file system. But regardless, Apple explicitly denies this capability in later OS versions.