SSD for 2011 iMac

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mahfoudhhi


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I have the below iMac. It got too slow after I replaced the harddisk with 2 TB harddisk in a shop out of Apple. as I remember.
I am thinking of replacing the harddisk with 2 TB SSD. is that possible for this old device? and will it make the device faster?
Screen Shot 2017-06-07 at 11.14.06 PM.png

Thank you in advance.
 
pigoo3

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Yes you can install an SSD in a 2011 iMac. But you need to be careful how the word "faster" is defined & understood.

SSD's make things like boot times quicker...file opening quicker...file saving faster...application launching quicker. Basically anything storage related will be faster. All of this does make the computer feel faster. What an SSD doesn't do is make activities related to the CPU or graphics faster. The computers CPU and graphics are what they are.

As far as the SSD you mentioned...do you really mean a 2 TB SSD? That's a pretty BIG SSD!!! For example...a 2 TB SSD from Macsales.com costs over $800 dollars. Are you really prepared to install an $800 SSD into a computer worth approx. $350 bucks?;)

- Nick
 
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pigoo3 said:
Yes you can install an SSD in a 2011 iMac. But you need to be careful how the word "faster" is defined & understood.

SSD's make things like boot times quicker...file opening quicker...file saving faster...application launching quicker. Basically anything storage related will be faster. All of this does make the computer feel faster. What an SSD doesn't do is make activities related to the CPU or graphics faster. The computers CPU and graphics are what they are.

As far as the SSD you mentioned...do you really mean a 2 TB SSD? That's a pretty BIG SSD!!! For example...a 2 TB SSD from Macsales.com costs over $800 dollars. Are you really prepared to install an $800 SSD into a computer worth approx. $350 bucks?;)

- Nick
Click to expand...

Thank you very much Pigoo3. a very good and comprehensive answer to my question.
But, wow, I did not expect it to be this expensive. I think I will change my mind. do you know how much is 1 TB SSD?
 
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mahfoudhhi


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Thank you again. I opened the site you gave me and found out that it is about 389$.
 
harryb2448

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Silver M1 iMac 512/16/8/8 macOS 11.6
When I had that model I purchased a Silicon Power 240GB Thunderbolt SSD external drive and connected via the TB port.

It was fast, and after cloning the operating system to it, into System Preferences and select it as the Boot Drive.
 
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mahfoudhhi


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harryb2448 said:
When I had that model I purchased a Silicon Power 240GB Thunderbolt SSD external drive and connected via the TB port.

It was fast, and after cloning the operating system to it, into System Preferences and select it as the Boot Drive.
Click to expand...

Thank you Harryb2448.
 
Randy B. Singer

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mahfoudhhi said:
.... I did not expect it to be this expensive. I think I will change my mind. do you know how much is 1 TB SSD?
Click to expand...

For folks on a budget (I guess that's most of us these days), if you want the speed of an SSD, without a huge expense, what I usually recommend is that you install an SSD of small to moderate size internally,
https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/ssd/owc/imac-21.5-inch/2011
and then get a good sized RDHD (rotating disk hard drive) to attach externally.
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/1394/USB/EliteAL/eSATA_FW800_FW400_USB

Then put the MacOS on the SSD, along with the applications that you use frequently. Everything else goes on the external RDHD. That way you get the speed advantages of having an SSD, with the large storage capacity advantage of a RDHD, without the huge expense of simply purchasing a very large SSD.
 
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Randy B. Singer said:
For folks on a budget (I guess that's most of us these days), if you want the speed of an SSD, without a huge expense, what I usually recommend is that you install an SSD of small to moderate size internally,
https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/ssd/owc/imac-21.5-inch/2011
and then get a good sized RDHD (rotating disk hard drive) to attach externally.
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/1394/USB/EliteAL/eSATA_FW800_FW400_USB

Then put the MacOS on the SSD, along with the applications that you use frequently. Everything else goes on the external RDHD. That way you get the speed advantages of having an SSD, with the large storage capacity advantage of a RDHD, without the huge expense of simply purchasing a very large SSD.
Click to expand...

Thank you Randy. very good idea.
 
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Can I install internal SSD disk to my 2011 iMac along with the current Harddisk

Can I install internal SSD disk to my 2011 iMac along with the current Harddisk?
 
pigoo3

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Threads merged...same topic. Not necessary to start a new thread for the same topic.:)

Thanks,

- Nick
 
pigoo3

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mahfoudhhi said:
Can I install internal SSD disk to my 2011 iMac along with the current Harddisk?
Click to expand...

Yes you can!:) In fact what's really cool is that you can install an SSD into a 2011 21.5" iMac without losing anything. With some computer models you need to install the SSD where the optical drive resides...thus losing the functionality of the optical drive (which for some folks is not a big deal anyway). But with a 2011 21.5" iMac you don't lose any functionality installing an SSD.

Installing an SSD in a 21.5" 2011 iMac is not the easiest of projects...but it can be done if you are careful. Here's a 15 minute video from OWC (macsales.com) showing how to install an SSD in a 2011 21.5" iMac:

https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/K21IM11SE120/

- Nick
 
pigoo3

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If the SSD install project mentioned above seems a bit too difficult...there is another option to install an SSD into a 2011 21.5" iMac. But in this case the original HD is replaced with the SSD. Here's a 7+ minute video from OWC (macsales.com) on how to do it:

https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/KITIM11HE240/

- Nick
 

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