To everyone using an external thunderbolt SSD as a boot drive...

[R1PPER]

How has your long term experience been with this setup?

I have a late 2013 base model 27" iMac (quad i5, 1tb spinner hdd, 24 gig ram), and I am interested in adding an SSD.

I have read that a USB 3.0 enclosure will be adequate for adding an SSD, but TRIM isn't supported over USB 3.0.

I've also ready that quite a few people have bought a thunderbolt enclosure and attached it to the back of the iMac base. I am looking at a Samsung 840 evo 240gb SSD, and I am completely lost as to which SSD to get. I've seen conflicting stories as to whether or not an external enclosure with its own power source is necessary or not.

I am just curious as to the long term experience of the external SSD setup as a boot drive? Have any of you experienced serious problems with this setup?

Also, could you please provide which SSD you are using and which external thunderbolt enclosure?


Thanks in advance ladies and gents.

My lace 256 ssd thunderbolt Died. Im now running an internal Sata 3 solution which works great.

 

[bplein]

It will with this driver.

Your definition of "will" is a lot looser than the dictionary. And a lot looser than that site. That driver depends on the USB-SATA chip that is in the external enclosure.

Still doesn't allow you to have native access to the SSD. USB3 is great for what it is, but it's still something extra that sits between the PCIe bus and your SATA SSD that masks the true identity of the SSD behind it.

 

[Weaselboy]

Your definition of "will" is a lot looser than the dictionary. And a lot looser than that site. That driver depends on the USB-SATA chip that is in the external enclosure.

Still doesn't allow you to have native access to the SSD. USB3 is great for what it is, but it's still something extra that sits between the PCIe bus and your SATA SSD that masks the true identity of the SSD behind it.

Nonetheless, it will work, so your comment was incorrect. If you look at that list of drives that it has been tested with you will see it includes any chipset that supports UASP, which is required to get top performance from an SSD to begin with. It is not like some small subset of drives that can't be easily found.

 

[bplein]

Nonetheless, it will work, so your comment was incorrect. If you look at that list of drives that it has been tested with you will see it includes any chipset that supports UASP, which is required to get top performance from an SSD to begin with. It is not like some small subset of drives that can't be easily found.

Ha!

So yeah, awesome. It WILL work. Unless it doesn't because you didn't consult a web page before buying. Or maybe you need to use it to transfer data to a friend, but he doesn't have your driver.

That's my point. You can hack things together that work some/most of the time, or you can choose stuff that doesn't work, or you can choose native implementation at a cost. It's very much like the Hackintosh argument... feel free to go ahead and use your workarounds to save money on hardware.

My $100 investment in a native TBolt enclosure with known good performance has worked brilliantly for me. I use one for a boot device, and a second I have used to (1) upgrade firmware on SSDs, (2) do some temporary migration/relocation on a Mac Mini running VMware ESXi (yes, you can make your TBolt ports work on VMware ESXi). All for pennies a day, less than $3/month and dropping every day I use it.

That being said, it appears that Apple is abandoning TBolt in favor of USB-C. That will change my future buying habits more... if they abandon TBolt on the iMac or MacPro in the future, well, Tbolt is effectively dead at that point.

(edited later... I mean MacBook Pro, not MacPro, but the point remains)

 

[bizzle]

Your definition of "will" is a lot looser than the dictionary. And a lot looser than that site. That driver depends on the USB-SATA chip that is in the external enclosure.

Still doesn't allow you to have native access to the SSD. USB3 is great for what it is, but it's still something extra that sits between the PCIe bus and your SATA SSD that masks the true identity of the SSD behind it.

We use it in my shop and I've yet to come across any enclosures that it hasn't worked on and we have all sorts of junk hanging around plus drives from customers. Chill with the butt hurt.

 

[Weaselboy]

Ha!

I was not arguing that USB is as good as TB, because I don't think it is. I was simply pointing out you were mistaken in your comment that SMART will not work over USB.

 

[bplein]

Guys, I get it, and I am not the one who appears butt hurt. I was wrong about SMART alone, because apparently you can hack your Mac to make SMART work with most USB3 enclosures... that's fine. It doesn't enable TRIM, it doesn't enable proprietary SSD firmware update software, etc. That's why I spent a few more dollars on a TBolt enclosure, so I could choose the SSD I put inside, and get native access.
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I was not arguing that USB is as good as TB, because I don't think it is. I was simply pointing out you were mistaken in your comment that SMART will not work over USB.

Understood and agreed.

 

[JavierDiaz4]

I want to thank everyone who helped in this topic with this setup. My Evo and Delock Thunderbolt Enclosure are now one with my 2011 IMac and she is a dream now. Thanks again.

 

[bplein]

Congrats, I think you'll love it.