Crucial 960GB SSD

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Hey guys n gals!

Have a bit of a crazy one today, couldn't believe the answer myself when I saw it. Ok so last year I got a 240GB SSD from crucial. Formatted it to Mac journaled and used Carbon copy clone to clone my hard drive. I started up my macbook pro to test it by holding down the option key and using the new 240GB SSD to log-in to my Macbook pro. I then opened up my Macbook Pro and put it in. Started it up and still, all was well. I then used disk magic after the macbook was fully back together again and it showed read and write speeds of around 200mb/s. Not the fastest SSD but I was more than happy with it as my 5400RPM HDD that was in there before had around 50mb/s read and write.

This year I decided to get a 2nd hand iMac 2012 model. Inside is a 7200RPM hard drive. I bought a 960GB SSD from crucial (Was happy with my last purchase) and did exactly the same thing again. Formatted it to mac journaled and used Carbon Copy Clone to clone the hard drive. Now the manufacture is saying that the 960gb edition has roughly 400 write speeds and 500mb read speeds. So before I was going to open up my iMac with a hairdryer and replace the hard drive with the new SSD drive, I thought to myself "Lets give that disc magic program a quick run and see if it does the read and write speeds the manufactures are saying.

This is where it gets unsettling:
Mac 3,5" 7200RPM read and write speeds = 120MB/s
Crucial 960GB SSD read and write speeds = 20MB/s

Yes 20MB/s!!!!!!!!!!

I had to look twice myself when I saw it and was wondering why?
How? This is crazy!

Anyway, so I was looking online (Google) for some answers and found nothing. It seems no one has had this happen to them before. I was thinking maybe someone in Macforums has had or heard of this problem before.

I am wondering if it is because it is not connected with the main HDD connectors in iMac.
Is it maybe that the cable that is connected to the SSD is maybe USB 2.0?
I don't know if it is 2.0 but I'm just thinking out load here.
Or is it maybe that the SSD is defective? (I hope not)

Does this iMac start up faster than before? a little yes.
Does it copy and paste the same file on the desktop faster? No, it looks like 20mb/s copy & paste.
The shut down is quick also.
Programs start up faster than before? Yes they do.

So I hope this answers a few questions. It seems to behave like an SSD apart from when it comes to testing high read and write speeds :(

again, I don't know if this has to do with the fact that I used the option key to enter my mac sad rather than connect it to the main hard drive Sata 3 connection pieces inside the mac.

Any help on this situation would be greatly appreciated.

I don't have much time as I will send it back to amazon if I can't sort this out. It was expensive and I am not happy with 20MB/s read and write lol

I've included some disk magic pics below for comparison.

Many thanks in advance!

SSD.png

HDD.png
 

RavingMac

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If you are running the SSD external it will definitely be limited to max via your USB.

I have the 48GB Crucial M500, just installed last night and it is much snappier than the stock drive.
 
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Hello Raving Mac. Thanks for your reply. Yes the SSD is connected via external at the moment. But I didn't think it would be that slow. When you say 48GB I take it you mean 480GB SSD?
I just don't want to take the iMac apart to find out the read and write speeds have not changed lol

regards...
 

Raz0rEdge

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Unless your iMac has USB3, USB2 maxes out at 480 mbps (mega-bits per second) and that equates to a max 57.2MB/s. Under normal circumstances, you're usually in about half that rate, so more in the 20-25 MB/s..

So in this case, you are right where you could possible be with USB 2..

USB 3 has a theoretical max of 5,000 mbps and routinely hits 70 MB/s speeds. Under ideal circumstances, you could even get up beyond 250 MB/s..
 
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Hello Raz0redge. Thank you for the lesson in USB 2 and 3 because I always thought it was mega bytes! :D That does explain a little then :) I was expecting a 400 megabyte transfer with USB 2.
The 2012 iMac has 4 USB 3.0 ports. I'm not sure is there is such a thing as a USB 2 Kabel which would be the reason for slowing it down. but after hearing all this I will give it a go. Take it apart and then swop the drives out and run a new test. I'll post the results later.

Many thanks for all your help guys!

kind regards.
 

Raz0rEdge

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With your USB 3 ports, you should be getting potentially better performance. I honestly don't know if you need any special class of cable to get the higher USB 3 speeds or the ones we all have lying around is sufficient..

But if you do swap out your HD with the SSD, you should see significantly higher numbers with the built-in SATA interface..
 

chscag

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You do realize that your 2012 iMac has two connectors for hard drives? You do not have to remove the 7200 RPM drive if you don't want to. You should be able to attach the new SSD as a second drive. Also, be very careful with that hair dryer. Removing the front panel on the 2012 and 2013 iMac is not an easy task. You might want to look over the instructions at iFixit: The free repair manual.
 
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Really? two connectors? I didn't know that. I was watching a lot of videos on youtube on how to do it and noticed I needed some double sided tape. I will go and buy that tomorrow. I don't think I'll be keeping the HDD in the iMac as I don't want spinning drives connected to the iMac if they don't have to be. Otherwise it will slow it down.
So I will find out tomorrow. Maybe I should video it just in case it goes wrong and then use it as a don't do video on youtube hahahaha
Wish me luck :)
btw, once all this is over and the tests have been done, I'll post them as a reply just in case someone else has questions or were wondering like me :D
 

RavingMac

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Hello Raving Mac. Thanks for your reply. Yes the SSD is connected via external at the moment. But I didn't think it would be that slow. When you say 48GB I take it you mean 480GB SSD?
I just don't want to take the iMac apart to find out the read and write speeds have not changed lol

regards...

Typo, was supposed to be 480GB
 
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Ok, so here is the result!:

Did pretty much what I saw on youtube. Removed the LCD Panel and replaced the 1TB 3.5” HDD with the 960GB SSD from crucial. The only hard part was putting it back together again as I did not want the LCD Panel to pop out by a millimetre or two like I saw in some videos. Got it in the end ;)

As RavingMac mentioned earlier, an external SSD will be limited on it’s read and write speeds via USB.

The end result after everything was connected and powered up was this:

1TB HDD 7200RPM - As seen on the post above, roughly 120mb/s read and write speeds.

960GB SSD from Crucial - an amazing 430mb/s write and 490mb/s read.

I’m really happy with this result.

As I live in Germany, the price is in €. The 960GB SSD from crucial cost me 420€.

If you guys have any questions, the just ask :)

960GB SSD.png
 
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Congrats on your install. I've got to put a better drive in my Mac Mini myself, I've just been to cheap to lay out the cash.
 
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Hello Algus,

Yeah, the drive is not cheap but going from a HDD to SSD really makes the computer react a whole lot faster and it feels like a new computer at the same time :)

I bought a 240GB SSD as mentioned before for my macbook pro and it was the best upgrade to my 2009 laptop. Sadly by doing this to my 2012 iMac I have lost the warranty but I really could not afford to by it from apple straight up. a 1TB SSD from them would have cost me 1000€.

The 240GB SSD from Crucial costs roughly 150€ or 150$ depending on where you live.

I have not upgraded my mac mini to SSD as I hardly use it. It is more of a media centre to me as it is connected to my 55" LED TV.

I use my iMac as my main computer for editing and storing pictures. I have over 120GB of pictures so I do need fast access to all of it at once and the ability to work with picture editing software at a fast speed.

Kind regards,

Robin
 
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Congratz on the install.
 

Raz0rEdge

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Those are some excellent numbers. Once my 2009 iMac begins to feel sluggish (hasn't yet), I might consider this upgrade to keep it "relevant" for a few more years before I decide the next logical upgrade..

Thanks for posting your results back..
 

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