george287

Q: Increase MAC performance with SSD upgrade

I have a 21.5 inch iMac model 14,1 (Late 2013) with 8 GB of memory and a 1 TB drive. I am running some memory intensive applications on it such as Adobe CS 5.5 and VMWare Fusion 8.1.1. I have Applecare on the machine until September 2017. I find myself running out of memory quite often. My goto solution would be to increase the memory and replace the hard drive with an SSD. However I am concerned that doing so will void my Applecare. My research indicates that, while frowned upon, I can upgrade my memory and keep my Applecare as long as it is done by an authorised Apple tech but if I do the SSD then I am out of luck for those installed components. My thinking is that I can get an external SSD and move the 'WIndows 10' VM(s) to it, as well as enlarge and move the system swapfiles to the SSD.

 

My questions are am I right about the Applecare and the Warranty and will my plan to use an external SSD to speed up performance and relieve memory constraints work?

 

 

 

 

 

I f

iMac, OS X El Capitan (10.11.6)

Posted on Aug 10, 2016 2:35 PM

Close

Q: Increase MAC performance with SSD upgrade

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

  • by steve626,Helpful

    steve626 steve626 Aug 10, 2016 5:52 PM in response to george287
    Level 4 (1,551 points)
    Aug 10, 2016 5:52 PM in response to george287

    I have a 2010 Macbook Air and also a 2008 iMac -- both with only 4 GB memory (you have twice as much), both running El Capitan, and both with SSD's -- and both perform great. The 2008 iMac used to have a spinning disk which recently failed, with the replacement SSD, it's a remarkable transformation with the new SSD, it seems very fast to me. Both have Photoshop CS4, which is not used much anymore, but they run that software fine, along with MS Office 2011 and other programs such as Safari, Firefox, Mail etc. (Firefox + Photoshop together  put a noticeable load on the machines, actually, but while I sometimes hear the fans come on the Macbook Air, it keeps up just fine, no slowdowns.) You will be in great shape with an SSD for your newer computer. These older machines I am using have Core 2 Duo processors, relatively slow chips, but they seem very fast with the SSD.

     

    You need to verify with Apple directly about your AppleCare and if that would be affected. I don't know that anyone who is not from Apple should be trusted with that question.

  • by babowa,Helpful

    babowa babowa Aug 10, 2016 5:52 PM in response to george287
    Level 7 (32,034 points)
    iPad
    Aug 10, 2016 5:52 PM in response to george287

    Here is the link to the Applecare for Macs terms (for the US - if you live elsewhere, you can choose another country):

     

    http://www.apple.com/legal/sales-support/applecare/appmacnaen.html

     

    Here are a couple of excerpts:

     

    Damage caused by (a) a product that is not the Covered Equipment (b) accident, abuse, misuse, liquid contact, fire, earthquake or other external cause, (c) operating the Covered Equipment outside the permitted or intended uses described by the manufacturer, or (d) service (including upgrades and expansions) performed by anyone who is not a representative of Apple or an Apple Authorized Service Provider (“AASP”);

     

    And

     

    Your use of or modification to the Covered Equipment, the Mac OS, Apple TV Software, or Consumer Software in a manner for which the Covered Equipment or software is not intended to be used or modified;


    As long as there is access to the battery compartment, there is no problem if a consumer adds RAM (in fact, there are Apple articles explaining how). Unfortunately, your model does not have access - see the notes here:

     

    Install memory in an iMac - Apple Support

     

    As long as the AASP does not damage anything by installing RAM or an SSD, you should be fine (except those parts will not be covered and neither would the damage). The newer 21.5" iMacs are literally glued together, so the cost (at an AASP) of taking one apart, installing something, and then putting it back together, are not going to be cost effective (in my humble opinion).

     

    @ Steve626:

     

    I don't know that anyone who is not from Apple should be trusted with that question. 

  • by george287,

    george287 george287 Aug 10, 2016 6:03 PM in response to george287
    Level 1 (12 points)
    Desktops
    Aug 10, 2016 6:03 PM in response to george287

    Thank you for your replies.

     

    I upgraded a Macbook Pro 2011 to 8 GB and added an SSD awhile ago and the improvement was noticeable. I am very happy with the result and I am able to use Windows and CS 5.5 on it w/o issue.

     

    What I am proposing here is that, because the new Macs are glued together and (By design?) are difficult to upgrade, I want to attach an external SSD via USB 3.0 and move the VMs and the swapfile over in order to increase performance of the WIndows 10 applications and the Adobe CS 5.5. I am thinking that the bottlenecks are disc IO and memory paging, which with the faster IO of the SSD should be faster.

     

    No one can really know if this will work w/o trying it but I was hoping maybe someone had and could share their experience. I was also hoping that the more technically astute readers out there could sanity check my idea and give me feedback.

  • by Lanny,

    Lanny Lanny Aug 10, 2016 6:13 PM in response to george287
    Level 5 (7,952 points)
    Desktops
    Aug 10, 2016 6:13 PM in response to george287

    will my plan to use an external SSD to speed up performance and relieve memory constraints work?

    An internal SSD would be a better choice. A SSD has nothing to do with, "relieving memory constraints." That would require upgrading your RAM.

     

    SSD upgrades, note the instructional video offered: https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/ssd/owc/imac-21.5-inch/2013-2014

     

    RAM upgrades: https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/iMac/2012_27/DDR3L

  • by george287,

    george287 george287 Aug 10, 2016 7:40 PM in response to Lanny
    Level 1 (12 points)
    Desktops
    Aug 10, 2016 7:40 PM in response to Lanny

    Thank you for your reply.

     

    As to your assertion that an " SSD has nothing to do with, 'relieving memory constraints.' That would require upgrading your RAM."...

     

    A system uses virtual memory, in the form of swap space, as a way of extending memory. If the swap space is on an SSD it stands to reason that the faster IO would result in faster paging. It may not be a substitute for adding physical RAM but it should be faster than swapping to the internal drive. I am wondering if I would notice a difference or not.

  • by Lanny,

    Lanny Lanny Aug 10, 2016 8:13 PM in response to george287
    Level 5 (7,952 points)
    Desktops
    Aug 10, 2016 8:13 PM in response to george287

    Real RAM will always be faster than swapping files to a hard drive, even if it's a SSD. The goal would be to have enough real RAM to minimize the use of virtual memory. Keep in mind that since the introduction of new memory management in Mavericks and later OS X versions, frequently used items are retained in RAM when available instead of returning it and retrieving it again from the internal drive.

     

    Monitor your use of real RAM by looking at your Memory Pressure in Activity Monitor. As long as it is green, you should be okay. Ordinarily, 8 GBs of RAM should be sufficient, but your use of VMware and Adobe CS apps simultaneously, may benefit by upgrading to 16 or 32 GBs. Only you can make that decision.

  • by steve626,

    steve626 steve626 Aug 11, 2016 9:21 AM in response to steve626
    Level 4 (1,551 points)
    Aug 11, 2016 9:21 AM in response to steve626

     

     

    @ Steve626:

     

    I don't know that anyone who is not from Apple should be trusted with that question.

     

    Did not mean to impugn your "honesty" or that of anyone else here. What I was suggesting was that rather than read through what is a fairly lengthy terms document with differences not only for different countries but also for the different states within the U.S., it might be "safer" for the individual to review the details of what might void the protection plan with Apple directly since the plan and its exceptions make for a fairly long read and a mistake or misunderstanding could cost someone ~ $thousands.

  • by steve626,

    steve626 steve626 Aug 11, 2016 9:31 AM in response to george287
    Level 4 (1,551 points)
    Aug 11, 2016 9:31 AM in response to george287

    george287 wrote:

     

    What I am proposing here is that, because the new Macs are glued together and (By design?) are difficult to upgrade, I want to attach an external SSD via USB 3.0 and move the VMs and the swapfile over in order to increase performance of the WIndows 10 applications and the Adobe CS 5.5. I am thinking that the bottlenecks are disc IO and memory paging, which with the faster IO of the SSD should be faster.

     

    The limitation of the external drive will likely be the external cable and interface, not the speed of the drive itself. Thunderbolt might be much faster (in principle) than USB 3, but I have read some online reviews of external SSD's where the actual realized speed was not that different from external spinning drives and the reason was believed to be due to the slowness of the interface and cable. I'm not sure how this can be tested before you embark on this, but there are reviews and benchmarks published online with external SSD's versus conventional drives (external and internal). I recall seeing some in MacLife recently. If you do try it, at worst you might be out the cost of the external SSD.

     

    For instance, if you make an external "clone" (say with CCC or SuperDuper) of your internal drive, booting from and running from that external (say, through USB 3) is noticeably slower than from the internal (this is what I have observed), even though the speed of the (spinning) drives is comparable. The difference is the external interface/cable, and if this is indeed really the limitation, then using an SSD for the external instead of a spinning drive might not make much of an improvement. I'd be concerned about swapfiles being on the external and having to send many bits back and forth through USB 3.

  • by babowa,

    babowa babowa Aug 11, 2016 10:21 AM in response to steve626
    Level 7 (32,034 points)
    iPad
    Aug 11, 2016 10:21 AM in response to steve626

    What I was suggesting was that rather than read through what is a fairly lengthy terms document with differences not only for different countries but also for the different states within the U.S., it might be "safer" for the individual to review the details of what might void the protection plan with Apple directly since the plan and its exceptions make for a fairly long read and a mistake or misunderstanding could cost someone ~ $thousands.

    I understand what you were trying to say; however, I will bet that you would not get a definitive answer from Apple - which would need to be in writing in order to stand up to any arguments later. An oral statement would have absolutely no validity if there should be an argument later.

     

    These legal terms are composed by a legal team which always words the terms thus that any attorney can argue for and against later. Additionally, the legal team works for the company that has hired them, so although the terms must comply with consumer laws, they will always have verbiage that will allow the company to use some clause to deny if they wish.

  • by george287,

    george287 george287 Aug 12, 2016 7:46 AM in response to steve626
    Level 1 (12 points)
    Desktops
    Aug 12, 2016 7:46 AM in response to steve626

    Steve626:

     

    Your reply got me thinking so I did some further research.

     

    USB 3.0 is capable of speeds up to ~640 MBps. A Typical external SSD has read/write speeds in the neighborhood of 400 - 500 MBps, while the typical HDD runs about 50 - 250 MBps. Therefore I should see a difference with an SSD. My goal is to increase performance and these numbers indicate that adding an external SSD might do it.

     

    Earlier I mentioned the Macbook Pro that I had upgraded to 8GB and replaced the internal HDD with an SSD. The performance was markedly improved and it is now adequate for my tasks. What I did not mention was that I also had a late 2009 27 inch iMac with 16GB RAM, a 1st generation i7 CPU, and a 2 TB 10k internal drive. The experience of running VMWare and CS 5.5 was much slower than the Macbook, even though the iMac had twice the CPU cores and twice the memory. This is purely anecdotal but it indicates the greatest boost will come from the SSD so I think that I am on the right track. The swap part is purely theoretical but if I buy the drive I will be able to test.

  • by steve626,

    steve626 steve626 Aug 12, 2016 8:40 AM in response to george287
    Level 4 (1,551 points)
    Aug 12, 2016 8:40 AM in response to george287

    Others may have experiences to share that are relevant, but the USB 3 speed of 640 Mbps is largely theoretical and in practice (real world use) is not realized. Have a look at this article:

     

    http://www.macworld.com/article/2039427/how-fast-is-usb-3-0-really-.html

     

    They tested SSD's and spinning external drives connected through USB 3 (as well as USB 2 and Thunderbolt).

     

    The spinning drive achieved about 115 MBps through USB 3, and about 150-200 MBps for the SSD. Nowhere near the theoretical 640 MBps, although it does show a moderate (but not dramatic) advantage for the SSD.  Thunderbolt was better than USB 3 in these tests, 190 to 370 MBps for the SSD. 

     

    People have posted benchmarks online that seem to show that internal SATA transfer speeds achieved in real life are much faster than speeds achieved via external USB 3 interfaces. That might lead one to believe that the best results will be from an internal SSD, versus an external SSD via USB 3. Maybe a compromise is to get the external SSD, try it out, and if you want to later, you can pay an authorized Apple service center to install the SSD inside the iMac to get even faster speeds. The SSD will be covered under its own warranty (Samsung has a good warranty on these drives) and the rest of the iMac is covered if you use an authorized provider.

  • by george287,Solvedanswer

    george287 george287 Aug 16, 2016 6:38 PM in response to george287
    Level 1 (12 points)
    Desktops
    Aug 16, 2016 6:38 PM in response to george287

    I went ahead and ordered a SanDisk Extreme 480GB external SSD (USB 3 of course) and hooked it up. The SanDisk had the right combination of size, performance and price ($149). I attached it and copied my Windows 10 VM over to it. I adjusted the VM to use 2GB of memory (it had previously been allocated 4GB). I fired it up and the effect was immediate. It booted faster and once up, it behaves as if it is native to the machine rather than on an emulator. Within the Windows 10 VM I upped the swap space to 8GB using Control Panel.

     

    I also experimented with with setting up OS X's swap space on the SSD by using a symbolic link from /private/var/vm to a directory on the SSD. The system showed no discernable difference and it caused a couple of crashes so I got rid of the symbolic link. I may revisit this sometime in the future.

     

    I couldn't be happier with the results. The VMs performance makes my Widow's apps seamless in the MAC environment. Since I lowered the VM's memory allocation I have more memory for my other applications and since the SSD is really NVRAM my WIndows VM actually has more memory than my iMAC. The SSD is slower than RAM but in practical terms I am not noticing. I have VISIO, Freecell and MS Project running at the same time and I am not seeing any slowdown. On the MAC I also have Adobe Bridge and Chrome, along with many utility apps. The performance is fine and my memory usage is down from what it was thanks to the adjustment in VM memory allocation.

     

    I have no doubt that replacing my internal drive along with increasing my system RAM would have yielded more speed. But to do that I would have had to open up the machine, or pay someone to do so, and strip it down in order to access the memory slots. I would also have voided my Applecare for the memory and the HDD. The cost of the parts plus the labor would have been at least $300. So in the end, I got greater performance at half the price and I get to keep my warranty. Yay.

     

    Thanks everybody for your help and comments.