Philly_Phan
You’re a level 6 contributor here and you do not know why a baseline iMac that you purchased is slow?
I have posted here many times, MANY TIMES why the most of the baseline 21 inch iMac models are dog slow.
Here I go posting this info, once again, for your benefit.
For staters, you gotta already know that the newest macOS versions, from like Yosemite and newer need a full 8 GBs of RAM, just for the OS.
So, you are already in the hole with NOT having enough available RAM for other running applications.
Next.
In order to speed that iMac up, you are going to have to spend some extra cash to get this basic, baseline iMac up to par.
You, at least purchase one of the two models that have independent GPUs. So, that was good.
Fortunately, starting with these new 2017, 21 inch screen iMac models, Apple has returned to being able to upgrade the RAM in the 21 inch screen model iMacs.
The bad news is that, in order to retain any AppleCare warranties, you will have to pay Apple prices to install the extra 8 GBs of RAM in these 21 inch screen iMacs as the RAM is not “user installable” in any of the new, 2017, 21 inch screen iMac models.
Only Apple Stores are ONLY allowed install the additional RAM into these new, 2017, 21 inch screen iMac models.
Next.
The Apple is STILL using hard drives and fusion drives in these 21 inch screen iMacs that are 33% slower 5400 RPM laptop hard drives instead of the “normal” and “ desktop standard” 7200 RPM mechanical spinning hard drives.
This means 33% slower read/writes to these drives and slower seek times!
And the SSD attached to these 5400 spinning laptop hard drives is a measly 28 GBs of SSD storage!
The ONLY viable and speedy storage drive options in these new, 2017, 21 inch screen iMacs IS THE SSD drive option!
The fix?
Forget the internal hard drive (use it strictly as a backup storage and emergency boot drive) and purchase an external USB 3.0/3.1 connected 256, 500 GBs or 1.0 TB pure all SSD drive.
Install a Mac OS (or purchase and use data cloning software, like CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper to clone your current internal system setup) to this external SSD drive and make the external SSD drive your permanent boot drive!
Your iMac will run A WHOLE LOT FASTER than it does now from an external USB 3.0/3.1 SSD drive!
A WHOLE LOT FASTER from an external SSD drive!
That is all I can recommend in, sort of, a nutshell.
These added purchased improvements will make a fairly HUGE performance in your current iMac model.
OR
Sell this iMac and purchase one with 16 GBs of RAM and a pure internal SSD.
