Upgrade to 2010 iMac for SSD potential

[jazzer15]

I very recently purchased a refurb late 2009 27 inch i7 iMac. It is more computer than I currently need. I do have one concern that SSD is supposedly much faster than a conventional hard drive and although a solid state drive is now pretty pricey, they will come down in price and I suspect become more mainstream over the next couple of years.

Does it make any sense to consider swapping my computer for a late 2010 i7 refurb (+ $200) so that I have an upgrade path to SSD in the future?

 

[Hellhammer]

I would just keep it and sell it in few years. By then, you should be able to get SSD for much less, even from Apple

 

[BOSS10L]

Agreed. CPU speed/# of cores and how much RAM is installed will have a much more noticable speed factor than an SSD will. Not only that, but on iMacs, it's a pain in the butt (to nigh impossible) to switch out HDDS. Not worth the headaches, IMO.

 

[WilliamG]

Or... put an SSD in your iMac now like I did? I had my iMac less than 24 hours before an SSD went in it. HDDs are good for nothing but backup/media storage.

 

[jazzer15]

Or... put an SSD in your iMac now like I did? I had my iMac less than 24 hours before an SSD went in it.

Well, that would be the point. I don't think I can do that with a Late 2009 model. That's why I was trying to figure out whether it made sense for me to swap for the Late 2010 model.

As far as buying a new model and doing it now, I think the prices are still a bit high and although I don't mind installing a drive in a PC tower, I wouldn't want to try an installation like that in an iMac -- I agree with BOSS10L on that. .

How much benefit is there other than booting (the computer is always on anyway -- or sleeping) and opening a program (I can wait the extra few seconds)? The data is going to be on HDD anyway and need to be accessed.

 

[BOSS10L]

Watch this video:

http://www.youtube.com/user/jon4lakers?blend=1&ob=4#p/u/1/iOEi5Kxpt0A

It's a speed test between the new MacBook Air with SSD and an older MacBook. Not worth the extra money for the minimal speed increase IMHO. As I already said, the speed of the CPU, the number of cores and the amount of RAM will make much more of a difference than having an SSD installed.

Enjoy your i7, they're great machines and when the specs get better and the prices drop in a few years, sell the i7 and upgrade.

 

[mmomega]

Mine is a late 09 model and I installed an SSD in it just fine. The Intel drive came with the 2.5->3.5" adaptor plate in box. The absolute worst part for me was reinstalling os x afterwards. Quite an easy upgrade.

 

[WilliamG]

Well, that would be the point. I don't think I can do that with a Late 2009 model. That's why I was trying to figure out whether it made sense for me to swap for the Late 2010 model.

Mine is a 2009 model, running an SSD since day 1. No trouble whatsoever. Almost a year now with my OCZ Vertex.

 

[jazzer15]

Thanks everyone.

That's an easy answer then. I don't really feel a need for the SSD now, but it's nice to know it's an option just in case I should decide it's something I really want and I'm not ready to sell the computer, although I suspect I'm more likely to do as BOSS10L suggested and sell and upgrade a few years out if it comes to that. I guess I was under the impression it couldn't be upgraded because OWC will only do their "turnkey" upgrade on a Mid 2010 iMac.

Anyway, it looks like I'll be keeping the computer and enjoying it! (I really didn't want to have to go through the return process and have to set up a new computer anyway. )

 

[WilliamG]

As I've said a millllllion times before, SSD is the best upgrade, ever, these days. You'd be mad not to, in my opinion.

 

[duky]

I'd trade my iMac for an iMac with an SSD for $200 in a second. People who have never used SSDs write them off as "not that big of an improvement" or "just make booting the computer faster" but they impact the entire user experience and you will not regret getting an SSD in your iMac. In fact (depending on what you do with the iMac of course) chances are the SSD would likely be a more significant upgrade than Core i3 > Core i7 or 4GB RAM > 8GB RAM. My MBP with the X25-M felt way faster than my i7 iMac (MOST OF THE TIME) and so does my MBA. But, when it comes to photo or video editing etc I turn to the iMac because that's what it was made for, processor heavy tasks. Point is, the iMac is already a beastly machine but the SSD upgrade will be well worth $200! Unless you're strapped for cash of course, then you might want to buy food or something instead

 

[jazzer15]

Thanks for your thoughts. Unfortunately it's not simply a $200 decision. The $200 difference was to get a Mid 2010 refurb (if/when available) instead of the Late 2009 that I purchased. If I got a New i7, that would be $500. In either case that would be BEFORE the SSD upgrade. Based on what I've read here it seems that I could upgrade my late 2009 i7 with an SSD at some point, so I am happy to keep and use the machine that I originally decided on. For what I do, I think the HDD will be more than sufficient for now (maybe ignorance is bliss, but if I don't know what I'm missing I won't miss it ). Additionally, I got a bonus in that the refurb they sent me had a 2TB drive in it instead of the 1 TB I had ordered .

 

[duky]

Ah okay, I thought for $200 you could swap your current one for a 2010 refurb with the SSD. I guess that's too good to be true. Yeah don't bother in that case, the iMac is fast enough. I'm also contemplating upgrading my iMac in the next couple of weeks to a refurb current gen w/ SSD (despite Apple's SSD being weaker than the other options out there) but I would have to get a great deal on selling my current model to do so. You're right, ignorance is bliss: I think my biggest mistake was ever forking up the money for an SSD because now conventional hard drives will never feel the same!

 

[dwd3885]

you have the same upgrade path in the 2009 imac than he 2010 ones do. The 2010 has the ssd availability, but unless you order it with both drives, you won't get any brackets or anything for the ssd so if you wanted to upgrade to ssd at some point down the line, you would have to work at it.

You keep your 2009 i7. If you want to add an ssd, you can replace the superdrive in your imac with the ssd. While I haven't done it yet, it doesn't look like it would be any harder than if you got the 2010 iMac.

 

[wirelessness]

Agreed. CPU speed/# of cores and how much RAM is installed will have a much more noticable speed factor than an SSD will.

Totally disagree. It's already been established that the jump in performance from an 2009 iMac to a 2010 iMac is around 10-20% at the most. Currently the single most significant improvement you can make to pretty much any system is upgrading the OS/Boot drive to a quality SSD.

This video is a pretty good example of how much faster a Mac can run with a quality SSD.