I have an iMac 21.5 in late 2012. I did a speed test on the HD and it's only getting around 50 megabytes per second which is pitiful. would I be able to run the system on an external SSD drive? if so could I run a thunderbolt to USB-C drive setup on this Mac or would I be better off using the USB 3 ports? Many thanks
iMac 21.5″, 10.14
gonadgranny wrote:
Hi yes thunderbolt would be best but i'm not sure which version I have. I have tried looking on the supplied link but it doesnt say and I think only version 3+ support data transfer (As opposed to just being used for an external display)
You are correct.
The 2012 iMac has Mini DisplayPort/Thunderbolt 2 and USB-A 3.0.
Thunderbolt 2 does not and can not be converted to USB-C/Thunderbolt 3/4.
Thanks this is very helpful I will certainly be purchasing an external SSD now. The only thing I'm still unsure about is whether i can get even better speeds by connecting a USB C SSD to the thunderbold port using an adaptor. Ive had a look for an adaptor but can only find USB C to mini displayport which I believe is for video. Any thoughts on this? Many thanks.
Your best bet is to get and use a USB-A 3.0 SATA SSD.
It will only give 5G speeds, but that is still 6 or 7 times faster than your current internal drive.
gonadgranny wrote:
Hi yes thunderbolt would be best but i'm not sure which version I have. I have tried looking on the supplied link but it doesnt say and I think only version 3+ support data transfer (As opposed to just being used for an external display)
You are correct.
The 2012 iMac has Mini DisplayPort/Thunderbolt 2 and USB-A 3.0.
Thunderbolt 2 does not and can not be converted to USB-C/Thunderbolt 3/4.
Thanks this is very helpful I will certainly be purchasing an external SSD now. The only thing I'm still unsure about is whether i can get even better speeds by connecting a USB C SSD to the thunderbold port using an adaptor. Ive had a look for an adaptor but can only find USB C to mini displayport which I believe is for video. Any thoughts on this? Many thanks.
Your best bet is to get and use a USB-A 3.0 SATA SSD.
It will only give 5G speeds, but that is still 6 or 7 times faster than your current internal drive.
My 2015 iMac 21.5" HDD was running at about 90 MBps. Once I started booting for an external Samsung T7 SSD, it ran consistently at approx. 450 MBps. And that was using one of the USB-A ports.
Once I replaced then internal HDD with an SSD the speed is now consistently at about 540 MBps.
The external SSD was entirely sufficient to revive an old machine which is now our backup iMac until it fails and is replaced
FWIW. the Thunderbolt ports support up to 10Gbps. The USB 3.0 ports up to 5Gbps. So I know which I would use.
You will need to use a USB-C to USB-A adapter or purchase an external SSD that already comes with both USB variants.
Hi yes thunderbolt would be best but i'm not sure which version I have. I have tried looking on the supplied link but it doesnt say and I think only version 3+ support data transfer (As opposed to just being used for an external display)
On my 2015 iMac I got approximately 450 MBps with an external drive. On the 2020 machines, each has a dedicated cloned bootable drive. They both are connected via the USB-C port and speeds are consistently around 980 MBps to just over 1,000 MBps. 1,050 MBps is advertised as max speed so I'm very satisfied
The USB-C port is designed to be faster than the -A. Reliability and such are as near perfect as I can imagine. All of our external SSDs are Samsung T7 drives and we've had no problems.
Thanks this is very helpful I will certainly be purchasing an external SSD now. The only thing I'm still unsure about is whether i can get even better speeds by connecting a USB C SSD to the thunderbold port using an adaptor. Ive had a look for an adaptor but can only find USB C to mini displayport which I believe is for video. Any thoughts on this? Many thanks.
As far as I know, all versions support data transfer. The only difference is the speed. Thunderbolt 4 now being the fastest @ 40Gbps.
Smashing, thats exactly what i'll do. Thanks all of you for the help!
One question; as I dont hadve a SATA port on my computer(I'll be using usb 3), is there any advantage to me getting a SATA SSD over a USB C SSD drive? Thanks.
Running the system of an external SSD drive
