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When my ........... dies I won't miss ............ (a.k.a. A welcome upgrade opportunity)

fredbert

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My 2007 iMac is still going on and on and on. The DVD drive failed years ago and I've replace the HD two, now with a 1TB Seagate SSHD.

When it finally dies I won't miss it being stuck on USB2 or Firewire 800/400. In its day Firewire was fast but now disks are bigger it takes ages to transfer reasonable sized (greater than 100GB) and that's iMac to FW disk. Try FW disk to another and it's even slower. Then iMac or FW disk to USB2 ... get the calendar out. And don't even think that it's a good idea to try two transfers at the same time to speed things along.

That's when FW800 is working. Sometimes theres a earthing issue and the port stops working until a reboot (with SMC reset).

Pity there's nothing iMac-y or Mac Mini-y that's reasonable priced anymore. Have been a Mac user for 30 years so don't relish moving to something else.
 
One that happened last year:

From an audio perspective I didn't need to upgrade an old Denon AVR-1802 but meant HDMI switch and breaking out optical audio from Apple TV 4's single HDMI interface.

Oh the joy when it stopped working. Did I try to fix it? Well a bit, no fried components, but not so hard that a new one wasn't firmly in my sights.

The new AVR with loads of HDMI inputs is soooo much better, sounds better too :cool:
 
The last truly upgradeable Mac was the aluminium cased Mac Pro from 2012, prior to the 2013 redesign into a fat, black Pringles tube. That took expansion cards and additional internal disks. Even my very old PowerMac G4 tower had 5 internal disks with the help of a PATA expansion card, and ultra-wide SCSI!

The later Macs have become increasing less upgradeable: from not at all, to RAM only, or RAM and disk. The newer Macs rely on Thunderbolt for expansion (extra displays, disks, network etc).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Anyway, I was hoping to hear some other stories of people not being able to fully justify upgrading but looking forward to it :)
 
We have a 2008 iMac and upgraded to a new iMac in 2017 when they were renewed.

Like yours, ours kept going, that’s what I like about these machines.
It developed some partial screen problem, but it was readable. It got to a point where it became too slow, especially when editing RAW photos.

As usual, I’ve been able to justify getting a new one :-)
I think it’s a man thing, we’re able to justify anything. A new car, a new computer, tablet, phone or whatever. Women tend to be more rational about such decisions, but I can find a 1001 reasons to answer the why do you need it question:-)

I contemplated upgrading the HD to SSD but wasn’t brave enough to pry it open. Did you do that yourself?

On my crystal ball, I see a new gadget in your near future. You’re gliding very smoothly through the justifications phase. It’s just the aim is not on target yet :)

You started with that dodgy 918 on amazon and now the iMac. Your finger is on the trigger 😁
 
Can you get add-in pcie cards for macs? Like a thunderbolt or usb3 or something?
As @fredbert said. There is no way to do this on an iMac. The only thing you can upgrade without disassembling it is RAM and that's on a 27" one.
Anyway, I was hoping to hear some other stories of people not being able to fully justify upgrading but looking forward to it :)
Well I upgrade coz I have (atm) a limiting space, love the form factor and wanted a fresh one considering that my 2010 model was EOL. But as @WST16 said, I'll always find a reason :D.
I contemplated upgrading the HD to SSD but wasn’t brave enough to pry it open. Did you do that yourself?
I upgraded my 2010 model with OWC 6G SDD back in the day but it was still under warranty so didn't do it my self. One more reason why I love to max out an imac configuration, I don't want to open it up again until the next computer.
 
I contemplated upgrading the HD to SSD but wasn’t brave enough to pry it open. Did you do that yourself?
Yep! Being so long out of warranty, when the first disk had died I followed the iFixit guide but without their 'spudgers'. The glass (plastic?) screen is held in by strips of magnets so a craft knife in a corner was enough to lift it off. Used a bigger standard HD that time.

After upgrading a 2012 Mac Mini to SSD I saw how much better doing an SSD upgrade was vs more RAM with a slow HD. So the next time, because it was getting soooo sloooooow, I would have used an SSD but that size was a fair way to a new iMac. I used a Seagate SSHD, which is like a fusion drive with 8GB flash disk and a spinning disk. It made a huge difference given the relatively small price and why I can't justify changing yet.

That dodgy Amazon 918 seller has disappeared but not before the changing their name. Glad I didn't bite :cool:

I'm still hankering after a DS918+ but hoping something new will come along ... DS920+ anyone?

But as @WST16 said, I'll always find a reason :D.
Of course :ROFLMAO:

It doesn't stop me doing the configurator until I get to the end price.
 
I'm still hankering after a DS918+ but hoping something new will come along ... DS920+ anyone?
Considering that 1019+ is out (918 with 5 bays) not sure we will see a new 4bay anytime soon. This year I think not for sure. Next year, depends. All + 4bay models have a dynamic rate of release. 412+, 415+, 916+, 918+... so its 2-3y and sometimes its 18monts but it mostly depends on the SOC being used inside it.
 
It's that every step is ~£100 more than the last. Hence why I got the DS218+ vs the DS918+ ... couldn't quite justify it. If my media library was primarily on the NAS then that would have been a tipping point but it isn't, I have CCC sync tasks that copy over items from iMac's iTunes and another folder to an eSATA disk.
 
I looked at iFixit several times and the iMac was out of warranty during that time, but couldn’t bring myself to “peel off” the screen no matter how many times I went through the guide :-)

The best I could manage was upgrading a 2010 MacBook Pro with a SSD, which was a stroll in the park. It made a huge difference when booting up and launching applications. I think buying a new computer now with a mechanical drive is a huge mistake. The prices keep coming down, eventually they’ll be the standard.

I have the 2017 iMac with an SSD and the speed is amazing. I don’t even bother to put the machine in sleep when I’m done, I just do a shutdown because starting it up is blazingly fast.

On the DS118 I have a 512 SSD and I love it. It runs silent and fast with less heat I think too.

I wish I can upgrade the 216 with SSD drives but I need at least 2x4TB and the cost is too high at the moment. A Samsung pro 4TB is over $900!
 
I think buying a new computer now with a mechanical drive is a huge mistake.
Agreed. I’m in the process of getting 6x512GB SSDs for 918 and 718 to turn them into fast machines for apps and services and use RS models for storage with HDDs.

Regarding macs, since 2010 I’m running them all on ssds and have no idea using spinning drives ever again. When I get a laptop nowadays with hdd to troubleshoot, 1st thing I say, I know what’s wrong, get an ssd and then we will see ;).
 
Hi gents, Re: SSD in NAS

Silent: ok, but I like the HDD sound :)

Heat: there is no big differences, of course up to NAS operation site (living room, basement, ...)
internal temperature of my rack with all of my NASs (HDD based) is about 28-31C (with regulated airflow based on 5 fans & sensors), NASs fan speed mode is in Quiet mode, HDD temp is about 33-35C. There are also others devices in the rack as switch, two routers, UPC.
I have also air condition "backup" :cool: for them, when temp in rack is higher as 35C (summer is coming), automated switch on.
From my previous experience, the SSD can provide difference with maybe a couple of degrees down, no more.
Recommendation: use periodical prophylactics (clean a dust from NAS fans and from bays), it will help you to prolong a lifetime of your Discs, also your NAS.

Speed: this is another interesting topic (we can open it in another "Benchmark thread", Rusty/SynoMan)
Are you able to utilize your HDD/SSD by speed of your LAN or WAN? For newbies click here.
For newbies: use PuTTY, OpenSSH or similar SSH client --> connect to your NAS and try check your HDD/SSD speed by command:
hdparm -t /dev/sdX ... where X is parameter for your disc (a,b,c,....)
My internal speed of HDDs is about 150MB/s = 1200Mbps it is over 1Gbps LAN and pretty sure over all of your WANs.
Of course, it still up to your primary target and possibilities. No doubt.
 
Regarding macs, since 2010 I’m running them all on ssds and have no idea using spinning drives ever again. When I get a laptop nowadays with hdd to troubleshoot, 1st thing I say, I know what’s wrong, get an ssd and then we will see ;).
Indeed, I upgraded a friend's MBP 2010 from crashed HD to SSD and it was like a new machine. Of course he had a separate HD for TM backups that he hardly ever used. Fortunately my old copy of Data Rescue managed to save most of files.

The impact of a HD on paging is dramatic, so extra RAM will eventually force paging and slowdowns. That's why I upgraded the Mac Mini to SSD instead of max'ing the RAM. It worked!

Silent: ok, but I like the HDD sound :)
You obviously never had a 'clacking' LaCie external drive that was worryingly noisy it that "sounds like it's failing" sort of way, from day one :eek:
 
Silent: ok, but I like the HDD sound :)
The clicking sound makes me feel like the disk is about to fail. Often times I just pause in front of my NAS listening to the sound and thinking, is that normal :-)

Speed: this is another interesting topic (we can open it in another "Benchmark thread", Rusty/SynoMan)
Of course LAN will always be the bottleneck is most cases. I was referring to when I copy to it over the USB 3 port. I like to do that when I transfer RAW photos.
 
You obviously never had a 'clacking' LaCie external drive that was worryingly noisy it that "sounds like it's failing" sort of way, from day one :eek:
The clicking sound makes me feel like the disk is about to fail. Often times I just pause in front of my NAS listening to the sound and thinking, is that normal :)
Disassembled HDDs which have souns like 8-cylinders HEMI or totally silent is still better last chance to repair them like death SSD :cool: .

Definitely I like SSD, but still out of My current NAS architecture.
But I have (mentioned in another threat) plan to build our own MCHL NAS infra based on RS/XS range with RAID10 and SSD. Now we test Docker with our own MCHL solution and from June we have to find a decision (performance/cost/nda reasons).
 
Sounds you've got some enjoyable playing to do ... using other people's money? Always the best way. I once spec'ed out, built, and developed a Sun E450 with loads of disks and bits. Cost was loads but we ran the system I hacked together for quite a few years and got another built too. Was ahead of our firewall vendor in what we did. And I got paid to do it :ROFLMAO:

Re. HD vs SSD ... expect them to fail, have backups, and you won't be upset when it does happen.

Another reason I can't justify upgrading the iMac is this MBA 2014 I'm using. Sure it's lower spec (4GB RAM, 128GB SSD) but great for combining older iPad and even older MB black plastic ... lighter, more powerful, full OS. Faster than iMac and does what I need. Added a Samsung T5 500GB external SSD which is as quick to boot from as the internal disk. Blackmagic speed test (1GB)...

Internal SSD: 318MB/s write ; 627MB/s read
Samsung T5: 412MB/s write ; 418MB/s write
 
Sounds you've got some enjoyable playing to do ... using other people's money?
this is my primary job = data interpretation, and ML/DL is daily helpful tools, no borroved capital, just step by step increase of technologies. Like it.
 

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