Should I replace my HHD with a SSD - 2017 iMac very slow?

[throAU]

Thank you all for the great help and advice.
I have decided from the posts above definitely not to open the iMac now and go with the external route. I'm just looking for the fastest external SSD drive (USB-C or Thunderbolt) to use as a boot drive.
Thanks again.

I wouldn't worry too much about looking for the fastest drive.

Whilst it helps (obviously faster SSD is better), the biggest performance bump in general use is from the fact that SSDs have no moving parts. Which means accessing different parts of the disk, or responding under multi-tasking is much, much faster than waiting for the drive's read head to move (which under lots of random IO or accessing lots of small files is the biggest factor slowing down a hard drive).

i.e., even a "cheap" or "slow" SSD will likely outperform your hard drive in normal use by a lot.

edit:
Monterey = format the external SSD as APFS first.

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

Thank you all for the great help and advice.
I have decided from the posts above definitely not to open the iMac now and go with the external route. I'm just looking for the fastest external SSD drive (USB-C or Thunderbolt) to use as a boot drive.
Thanks again.

If you think you can assemble a Thunderbolt enclosure by yourself, I suggest the SABRENT Thunderbolt 3 to Dual NVMe M.2 SSD Tool-Free Enclosure (EC-T3DN) , and 02 nVME blades of choice (Gen 3, not gen 4).

If want to spend big money, then get the Lacie.

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If you want a ready-to-go solution, SanDisk 2TB Extreme PRO Portable SSD - Up to 2000MB/s - USB-C, USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 - External Solid State Drive - SDSSDE81-2T00-G25 is worth considering.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP wrote:
"I'm just looking for the fastest external SSD drive (USB-C or Thunderbolt) to use as a boot drive."

USB3.1 gen2 will give you read speeds around 850MBps or better. You can buy one pre-assembled, or just buy the bare nvme blade SSD and a USB3.1 gen2 enclosure and put them together yourself.

Thunderbolt 3 drive (such as the Samsung X5) will give read speeds around 2,000MBps. Be aware that these drives run HOT, and if they get TOO hot from excessive writes, the speeds will be "throttled back" to compensate.

However, if used as a boot drive -- which probably involves more "reading" than "writing" -- the X5 will probably do fine.

 

[Soulsurfer1]

What is the lowered MBps drive I could get away with?

 

[Fishrrman]

"What is the lowered MBps drive I could get away with?"

Not sure what this question is supposed to mean...?

You have three choices, really:

CHOICE 1:
USB3.
This will give you read speeds of about 420MBps.

CHOICE 2:
USB3.1 gen2.
This will give you read speeds of about 850MBps.

CHOICE 3:
Thunderbolt 3.
This will give you read speeds around 2,000MBps.

It's up to you.

 

[jskaemkss]

OP:
"Is it a difficult job?"

Yes, it IS "a difficult job" to pry open a 2017 iMac and get it all back together -- without breaking anything.

If you don't want to mess with that, there's "an easier way":
Put together a USB3.1 gen2 drive (USBc), and plug it into one of the USBc ports on the back.
Then set it up to be an EXTERNAL boot drive. The iMac will boot and run as easily from an external drive as it will from the internal, and will be faster, as well.

USB3.1 gen2 will give you read speeds of around 850MBps, perhaps a little more.
What kind of reads are you getting from the internal drive NOW?
(Use BlackMagic Speed Test to check, it's a free download)

BTW, is it a 1tb "hard drive" in the 2017 27" iMac, or is it a 1tb "fusion drive"?

There are a few USB3.1 gen2 drives you can buy "ready to use", such as the Samsung t7, or Sandisk Extreme (I think that's the name).

Or, you could buy an "nvme" blade drive, and a USB3.1 gen2 enclosure (many available), and just put it together yourself (many just snap together).

Initialize/erase the drive to APFS, GUID partition format (if you're using Mojave or later).

Then, it's child's play to use either CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper (both are FREE to download and use for 30 days) to "clone" the contents of the internal drive to the external.

Final step is to go to the startup disk preference pane and set the external to be the new boot drive.

Good luck!

Hmmm...
Looks like you have enough RAM already.
Be aware that Adobe products were never speed demons on the Mac (from what I've read from others). This is due to poor software coding... not much the user can do about it.

Thank You I will try this solution!

 

[jskaemkss]

Thank you all for the great help and advice.
I have decided from the posts above definitely not to open the iMac now and go with the external route. I'm just looking for the fastest external SSD drive (USB-C or Thunderbolt) to use as a boot drive.
Thanks again.

Me too. Best bang for the $

 

[throAU]

"What is the lowered MBps drive I could get away with?"

Not sure what this question is supposed to mean...?

You have three choices, really:

CHOICE 1:
USB3.
This will give you read speeds of about 420MBps.

CHOICE 2:
USB3.1 gen2.
This will give you read speeds of about 850MBps.

CHOICE 3:
Thunderbolt 3.
This will give you read speeds around 2,000MBps.

It's up to you.

For context - those speeds are sequential access to large files.

A typical fast hard drive tops out around 200 MB/sec on sequential data last I checked (admittedly, I haven't used spinning drives outside of my NAS for a long time now).

Even most cheap SSDs can hit 400-550 MB/sec peak pretty easy.

 

[macguru9999]

I have done dozens of these upgrades now, but to do the first one, without breaking anything, would be stressful. You can get even more speed by using an external usb 3.1 ssd than an internal one, so thats a viable alternative .....
this is the original spinner in a 2017 after 4 years .....

this is an internal 2tb crucial ssd :

and this is an external usb 3.1 blade ssd on the TB3 bus: