Increase MAC performance with SSD upgrade

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.

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.

Posting a link to the actual Apple legal contract terms should be trustworthy?

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

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.

@ Steve626:

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

Posting a link to the actual Apple legal contract terms should be trustworthy?

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.

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.

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.

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.