Last year I purchased an iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2015) with a 1 TB fusion drive. Would an external thunderbolt SSD be faster than the internal fusion drive? I'd like to use it as my primary drive. Also, does it matter which version of the thunderbolt enclosure I buy?
IMAC (RETINA 5K, 27-INCH, LATE 2015), macOS High Sierra (10.13.2), 16 GB, 1 TB Fusion drive
I bought Lacie thunderbolt bus powered rugged which came with platter 2.5 hard drive. Pulled that out and inserted SSD. Run it on my wife's mid 2011 iMac and I have a couple used to run external on my 2013 Mac Pro. write speeds are about 260 and ready 310. I like the first model which did not have the built in thunderbolt cable but even the built in is ok. I use both. Its a no brainer and I would not spend too much thought on is it faster than a fusion drive. I'd just use the fusion drive as data storage.
I bought Lacie thunderbolt bus powered rugged which came with platter 2.5 hard drive. Pulled that out and inserted SSD. Run it on my wife's mid 2011 iMac and I have a couple used to run external on my 2013 Mac Pro. write speeds are about 260 and ready 310. I like the first model which did not have the built in thunderbolt cable but even the built in is ok. I use both. Its a no brainer and I would not spend too much thought on is it faster than a fusion drive. I'd just use the fusion drive as data storage.
Thanks, but doesn't really answer my question. I'm not happy with the performance of the fusion drive and I'm hoping that a thunderbolt SSD would perform better.
Speed comparison? Thunderbolt SSD v Fusion Drive
