Before starting:
(a) You're probably past this now, but the first thing to do is to leave the system running overnight to make sure that Spotlight has finished indexing the drive (esp. if you've copied over files from your old system) and - if applicable - Time Machine has done its first backup. I've known new/newly updated Macs to run like a snail on valium while they're indexing the drive, and it can take hours on an old-school HD (the fusion drive won't help there). I guess the fusion drive might take a while to get the right files cached to SSD, too - so its worth giving the system a bit of a run-in.
(b) look into those download speeds a bit - the bottleneck there is more likely to be your network connection, either your broadband or the WiFi (if that's what you're using) than your RAM/HD. Moral of the story: WiFi is great, but if you can run an 1Gbps ethernet cable to your router do.
(c) Go into Activity Monitor while your computer is under load and look at the "Memory pressure" (preferably in the green) and "Swap used" (preferably zero) read outs - these will show if you're running seriously short of RAM, in which case RAM upgrades are a priority. Otherwise, although additional RAM will get used as a file cache to speed up disc access, moving to pure SSD might be the first priority.
RAM wise: Go to crucial.com and use their RAM finder to look up the specific upgrade kits for your model (NB: last time I looked, they recommended different RAM for the entry-level i5 iMac than the other 5k iMac models).
A "16GB upgrade kit" (2 8GB sticks) is probably the sweet spot - gives you a total of 24GB (probably more than you'll need) for less than Apple want for 16GB total (although it looks like the price difference is less than it was). The two sticks just go in the two unused slots under the hatch at the back. There's a modest speed advantage in installing RAM in matched pairs like that, which enables dual-channel mode. As I understand it you could just stick in an extra 8GB stick to get 16GB total, but installing a pair is probably the better-trodden road.
SSD wise - best to look in other threads (or start a new one) to get SSD/external boot recommendations. Maybe ask about Thunderbolt vs. USB when it comes to reliable external booting. Just bear in mind that although faster is always better, any half-decent SSD that doesn't have to hurl a physical head back-and-forth when accessing multiple files will give you a night-and-day speed increase when it comes to boot-up and loading applications. You might not need to pay top dollar to get super-fast sustained transfer speeds that won't be a big deal if you're not slinging huge files around for video etc.
Thanks for the reply. I've kept an eye on the activity monitor and the memory pressure is usually a bit high on average usage (typically stays in yellow and sometimes pops up to red while I have a bunch of tabs open which I'll need to do constantly for work purposes). So I think going with just 2 8gb sticks as I probably need a little bit of a bump but 24gb likely would be more than enough.
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I agree with almost all of it, but would also jump the RAM to 16. What type of applications other than office is OP using?
A great deal of web browsing, think multiple windows with 10+ tabs open on each one that will all be used simultaneously. I'll also be doing some video conferencing via FaceTime, Skype, etc. while using word, excel, internet are being used.
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OP wrote:
"I'm looking to run the iMac off of an external ssd for both boot up and storage but I'm a bit of a novice with computer hardware, etc. So I want some of your thoughts on what type of ssd I should get and how I should set it up, what enclosing I should buy, cables I should run, etc. Thinking 1TB ssd would be more than enough size wise."
Get a Samsung t5 and plug it into a USB3 port.
Really -- that's all you need to do (hardware-wise).
Then... set it up to become your "external boot drive".
The Mac doesn't care if the boot drive is "internal" or "external".
So long as it's got "a good copy of the OS" on it, it will boot and run fine.
You DON'T have to pay extra for a 1tb SSD.
A 500gb, or even a 250gb SSD will do fine.
Put the OS, applications, and your home folder on the SSD.
If you have "large libraries" of movies, music, pictures -- leave them on the internal hard drive -- they don't "need speed".
The idea is to keep the SSD "lean and clean" so it will always run at its best.
You will become a VERY HAPPY MAN if you do the above.
You've got 8gb of RAM in the iMac, right?
If so, I recommend that you DO NOT upgrade the RAM yet. Most folks don't need larger amounts of RAM unless they're using applications that are "memory intensive", such as high resolution video or photo editing, etc.
Just wondering -- how much space (on your hard drive) have you used up?
If it's not too much (say, less than 500gb), you could just:
1. get a USB3 SSD 500gb
2. download CarbonCopyCloner (FREE to download and use for 30 days)
3. "clone over" the contents of your internal drive to the SSD (CCC will even clone over the recovery partition)
4. go to system preferences and set the SSD to be the startup drive
5. Reboot -- and you're all done!
Some great points, and thanks for the steps to clone the hard drive and set it up. With that being said I do have an Apple Time Capsule with router so I have all my apple devices backed up on it I need to put the iMac on it and then I could probably back it up that way as well like I did with my laptop.
I initially thought the same thing about the ram but after monitoring the activity monitor for the memory usage while I was doing average to high usage the memory was constantly taxed in the yellow to red zone so I'll probably go with a small to moderate jump in ram (2x8gb), but not a 32gb increase like may do.
I'm not a heavy space user as even though I make a ton of office documents those files aren't very big at all so a 1TB probably isn't necessary, a 500gb would probably suffice especially since I do need to keep the cost down somewhat. I just now checked my laptop and I've only used about 300gb over 5 years and I'm using the iMac for work 90% of the time which is just web research with multiple windows/tabs open and being used, while simultaneously using office and video conferencing. So the only big disk space I'll be eating up will be due to downloading some programs like office, Skype, etc. and a bunch of excel, word, and email. So I'm all for 500gb.
Any suggestions for a specific 500gb SSD + enclosure, etc. and what the best way to run it through the iMac would be? (Thunderbolt vs. USB)
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It sure I understand—you bought it already? If so, upgrade options are limited to RAM, which I buy from OWC (local, Illinois business for me).
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Are you looking for external SSD recommendations as well? Might want to start a new thread with that title—you will be overwhelmed with responses.
Yep definitely looking for external SSD recommendations both for specific SSD's and how to best set them up (enclosure, thunderbolt vs. USB, etc.)
