External SSD for Statrup

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Level 1

9 points

External SSD for Statrup

I have a 21.5 inch, 2017 iMac, 2.3 GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i5, 8 GB 2133 MHZ DDR4, running CATALINA 10.15.7. It has a 1 terabyte spinning HD with 620 GB still available.

It is running way, way too slow, so I am thinking of buying an external SSD to use as a startup disk. I don't want to spend extra for speed I don't really need, so I'm not sure thunderbolt 3 connection is necessary. I’m not a gamer or video editor - just a run of the mill, non-pro, home user. Can anyone recommend a good external SSD that will speed up my old, slow Mac?

Posted on Nov 30, 2020 12:09 PM

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Answer 1

rkaufmann87

Level 10

148,470 points

Nov 30, 2020 12:16 PM in response to Popsfarb

You can use a Thunderbolt 3 external SSD or a USB 3 external SSD. The Thunderbolt 3 option would be the faster of the two.

My recommendation would be the following:

https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/owc-envoy-pro-ex-thunderbolt-3 or you can get

https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/ssd/owc/imac-21.5-inch/2013-2019 & a https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/on-the-go

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Answer 2

Tesserax

Level 10

157,902 points

Nov 30, 2020 12:15 PM in response to Popsfarb

A number of external SSD drives may fit the bill for what you are looking for, but before going that route, would you want to first troubleshoot the potential reasons that your current configuration is not performing well? Of course, you don't have to, as this is only a suggestion, and I'm sure you will get a number of replies with recommendations on which external drives to get. One important question about the external drive is how portable you will want it.

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External SSD for Statrup

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