My 4 Years Old iMac is Now SSD Enabled

Date:  Mar 9, 2015

Few months ago, I found my iMac very slow.  A lot of time, you will see the hour glass comes out and a lot of applications seems like forever not responsive.

I have done a clean install, and the performance is still the same.  I could not figure out what went wrong?  So, I blame it on the iMac processor & Yosemite OS.

On February 24, the unthinkable has happened.  My 2TB Hitachi Hard Disk (comes with the iMac) turned RED.

And I found out that S.M.A.R.T reported error “Please do a backup as soon as possible” kind of message.

That is when I knew my iMac has come to the end of life. 

After 4 years…. I bought it since 2011.  It has served me well.

Then, my colleague advise me to look into the option of changing the hard disk to Fusion Drive or SSD.

Fusion Drive is a technology that has a hybrid of SSD and Hard Disk, and Apple OS and other applications will be installed onto the SSD to run faster.

After checking with IDT @ Simlim.  It was found that, my mid-2011 iMac cannot support the Fusion Drive.  

However, there is an alternative to make it a “Fusion Drive” effect.  In order to do that, you will need to take out the 3.5” hard disk and replace it with a SSD.  And then, you take out the CDROM, and install a bracket to mount a 2.5” hard disk.  The performance will somewhat be slower than a 3.5” hard disk.

As I might need the CDRom from time to time, I decided to go with 1TB of SSD instead of the Fusion Drive alternative.

The technician at IDT @ SimLim used a sucker to suck the monitor screen out.  And then, he carefully unscrew all the screws.  Over at the left hand side, there is a tiny wire connection needed to be disconnect first.

And walaaaaaa… This is the hard of the iMac after removing the 3.5” hard disk.

So, they mount a bracket there to fit the Samsung SSD drive on it.

After that, they installed the Yosemite onto the SSD by mirror copy it from another hard disk.  All these are done within 1 hour.  Very fast.

Once I brought my iMac home, I run the migration assistant software that comes with the Mac.  It takes a couple of hours to restore my files and settings from the Time Machine.  So the next day when I wake up, the machine is FASTER because of the SSD.  Because it is faster, the CPU is not always waiting for some applications to do the writings.  So, the whole systems seems faster too.

I managed to clean up a lot of junks and movies.  

Since I only have 1TB SSD hard disk so, I will try to clean up my iPhoto.  As you can see, my photos for all these years have reached 368GB.  That is when I backup and move away all the Videos files to my Sinology backup drive.

So, I think my iMac can probably last me for another 4 years.  And it is totally worth it.

It is very fast just like my laptop (MBA) like that.

My New iMac

Date:  Mar 19, 2012

OK.  One of the main reason for this upgrade is... I am really tired of moving my photos and videos here and there just to make room space for iPhotos.  Everytime, when I come back from an event with my camera (and my wife's too), I end up with few hundreds new high resolutions RAW photos, and it takes up space.  I have tried many methods, and were not so committed to it.  So, one fine evening, I decided that I had enough with my 350Gb old iMac, and I ordered a new iMac online.

So, my new iMac have 2TB of hard disk space, Vs. 350Gb that I have with the old iMac.  See the reason why I wanted to buy?

And it came after 2-3 days.  I remember, I just came back from entertaining a client at MBS, and when I arrived home, it was 2AM in the morning.  So, I quickly open up the box, and put the new 27" iMac on my table.  And plug in my Time Machine hard disk.  The new iMac booted up, and asked if I wanted to restore it from the Time Machine, I say YES.  Then, I go to sleep.  (It will take 2 hours to do the transfer).

When I wake up the next morning, I was greeted with this familiar log in screen, and I start and continie my surfing, my blogging, my daily routines on the new iMac.

And folks, I must say, that is the only reason why you want to buy Apple products, buy the iMac or the MacBook Air.  When I log on to the new iMac, everything on it is the same as it is on the old iMac.  The account transfer process is smooth and without human intervention.

I am glad that I have changed from Windows to Apple. This is since Steve Jobs passed away.

Network Performance (2) - Is Gigabits Network Fast?

Date: Aug 21, 2011

The Network Flow tools in the Resource Monitor admin tool from Synology provides some info that drive us to think about our network.

Compare of WiFi Vs. LAN

Test 1.  GI transfered a movie file which is 939.4MB over the WiFi using my iMac.  And then, I transfered it back.  Then, I transfered another bigger file to the Synology, and then, I transfer it back.  My iMac is connecting to the synology via a cat6 cable and it is connecting to my switch at 1000Mbps port speed.  The file transfered at top speed of 60000KB/s (about 468.75Mbps).  OK, that is fast.  The 1GB file is transfer less than 1 min.  This is really fast.  You need to have very good cabling system at home, with cat6 cables, and Gigabits switch in order to do so.

Test 2.  If you turn off the Ethernet port, and launch your WiFi port.  Now, you get WiFi speed for the file transfer.  As you can see, the highest I can achieve is 10000KB/s (about 78.125Mbps), comparing it to the Gigabits network 468.75Mbps, that is a huge difference.

As a conclusions, in order for you to implement a Gigabits network, you have to have the router that has gigabits switch port, and a gigabits switch, as well as your network port on your PC must support Gigabits too.

But, the incoming Internet from Singtel is only 50Mbps at max, so, why do you need a Gigabits network at home?  This is for your NAS.  So that you can transfer file much faster to and from the NAS.  i.e. If you backup your iTunes on the NAS/Synology.