I have a 2019 Mac. It has been suggested that I upgrade to SSD. Beach balls are driving me crazy. Does this make sense? Can I just take it into an Apple Store to get that done? Do they have the parts? Do I need to take the external hard drive with Time Machine backups with me? Approximately what would it cost?
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
iMac 21.5″, macOS 13.4
Hi there!
You can use an external SSD, which is an upgrade process you can easily do yourself. This will be a huge improvement over the internal disk. To learn more, take a look at Use an external SSD as your startup disk … - Apple Community.
The external SSD can be purchased at an Apple Store: LaCie 500GB Mobile SSD Secure USB-C Drive - Gray - Apple.
An Apple Store cannot install an internal SSD.
Hope this helps!
Jack
Hi there!
You can use an external SSD, which is an upgrade process you can easily do yourself. This will be a huge improvement over the internal disk. To learn more, take a look at Use an external SSD as your startup disk … - Apple Community.
The external SSD can be purchased at an Apple Store: LaCie 500GB Mobile SSD Secure USB-C Drive - Gray - Apple.
An Apple Store cannot install an internal SSD.
Hope this helps!
Jack
padams35 wrote:
My local Apple Authorized Service Provider advertises $140 + parts, but that might be for replacing the SATA HDD with a SATA SSD.
Yes, I also suspect that is for doing the internal drive change. Most providers in my area (NW US) charge from US$60-80 per hour and those with whom I've spoken estimate the opening, servicing, and resealing a sealed-case iMac as a two hour job. Your guy falls within that range.
The external SSD solution requires no disassembly can can be done by a user with average skills at home.
Installing a super fast Apple NVMe blade SSD may not be possible.
Indeed! Per OWC, the blade option is only available if the computer shipped with a factory SSD or factory Fusion drive. Apparently, those are the only ones fitted with a functional blade socket.
Call and ask. My local Apple Authorized Service Provider advertises $140 + parts, but that might be for replacing the SATA HDD with a SATA SSD. Installing a super fast Apple NVMe blade SSD may not be possible.
I too would recommend using an external SSD. Almost any sufficiently large SSD will work (avoid drives with fancy extras like fingerprint scanners). For a safe pick you can purchase a LaCie drive through the Apple Store.
I agree 100% that, based on long history here, the external SSD option is likely what you need.
However, so we are not overlooking something else like software interferences or RAM starvation that could contribute to the beach-balling and other signs of slowness, please post a system config report. Fortunately there is a safe, secure way to do that.
We can quickly and within the confines of these forums help you determine what issues are at play if you use EtreCheck Pro, available here:
The free version will do nicely for this purpose, although the app is worthy of our financial support.
We can see hard data about drive performance, software issues, and RAM usage. Etrecheck is the development of a long-serving and trusted contributor here expressly for displaying information in these forums to help us help you. It will not reveal any personal or secure information.
See this excellent user tip on posting text reports like EtreCheck. It is better illustrated than mine.
How to use the Add Text Feature When Post… - Apple Community
That Mac has two USB-C (Thunderbolt 3) ports and four USB-A (USB 3) ports. So you have a range of options for external SSDs.
The third option is most expensive, and will give you speeds rivaling those of many internal PCIe SSDs. But if you are using a mechanical hard drive (HDD) now, even the first option will result in a huge speedup in startup times, and application launch times.
iMac SSD upgrade
