Ok, not so old, a 2017 27”. A few years ago the Fusion Drive was getting really slow and I got a local shop to put in a 2.5” sata ssd that was better but not amazing.
It was ok until 3+ months ago when it started crashing regularly, breech balling all the time and randomly freezing then carrying on a few minutes later with no obvious reason.
No errors, all disk tests came back normal. I even ran some full on memory tests.
My wife has resigned herself to me buying a new machine and screen, but in amongst decision paralysis between M2 mini pro and M1 studio I tried a Thunderbolt ssd. Stupidly bought a too small one, but migrated my setup onto it and it was amazing. Read and write at 500-800 (better than internal ssd) and no more problems!
I was looking at just buying a larger version when I started looking at blade ssd for internal but decided the cost and effort vs risk of damage was too much when I saw nvme external enclosures.
Fast forward and I have 2TB Samsung 980 pro in a external Thunderbolt enclosure running at 2400-2700 read and write!
My iMac is lightning fast again and thankfully none of the slow boot speeds I’ve read about.
Plus 2TB for price of a slower 1TB external drive. Ok mine isn’t rigged and portable but I don’t need it to be.
Wish I had done it sooner!! Cheaper than a new machine!
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