Picked up a late 2012 iMAC 21.5" from a University Auction, did I do good?

[hatoncat]

Got it for $490 with fee.

This iMAC has the following.

i5 (unsure of the series) 2.9ghz
16GB 1600mhz DDR3
Nvidia 650M 512mb
1TB HD

I upgraded it to Mac OS High Sierra.

It's a bit slow (HD wise). Any recommendations on improving that if it's worth it?

 

[redheeler]

Yes, I recommend getting an external SSD with Thunderbolt which will be a huge improvement over the existing hard drive. It's also possible to install one internally, but that is not an easy thing to do yourself on the 2012+ models.

 

[hatoncat]

Thanks for the info. Seems to be hard to find an external enclosure for thunderbolt these days. I am willing to buy a used one if Ebay had some, but doesn't seem like it. The ones I do see seem pricey.

 

[nambuccaheadsau]

With a 2011 model, I used a Silicon power 240GB Thunderbolt hard drive as the boot drive and it was great. 240GB was ample for me as I am not into music, movies or photos. The drive came in a sealed unit and did not need a caddy, or case, and I used a Twelve South Docking station which bolted to the leg of the iMac..

Clone your hard drive to the external when it is formatted, and go into System Preferences > Startup Disks and highlight the external. I then used the internal drive for backups.

 

[Fishrrman]

You can greatly improve the speed of the computer by adding an EXTERNAL SSD and then setting it up to be your boot drive.

BUT... DON'T get a thunderbolt SSD. They cost too much for what you need.
Get a USB3 SSD instead. It will run as fast -- OR FASTER THAN -- a thunderbolt drive.

Something like this would probably do what you need:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00ZTRY532?tag=delt-20

Either the 250gb or 480gb size would suffice, depending on how much you wish to spend...

 

[MSosa]

I'm in a similar situation with a mid 2011 2.7 i5 iMac. OWC offers internal SSD as upgrades. Obviously you have to upgrade them yourself but I have in the past done it on a Powerbook so I'm sure I can work the iMac. But I wonder, I'm utilizing about half of my 1TB HD. I get a 250 GB SSD how would it work? I would create a boot disk with the SSD and connect my original drive as an external one? Should I splurge on a higher capacity SSD?

https://eshop.macsales.com/upgrades/imac-21-5-inch-mid-2011-2.7-ghz/internal-drives