Reddit reviews (Old Model) Seagate Backup Plus Portable Thunderbolt Adapter

> How can I speed it up?

One thing you can do is to upgrade its RAM.

Your iMac supports up to 32 GB RAM, according to this source:

• https://everymac.com/actual-maximum-mac-ram/actual-maximum-imac-ram-capacity.html
  
  The RAM you buy must match the following specification:
  
  PC3-10600 1333 MHz DDR3, 204-pin
  
  This RAM should work, for example:
  
  
• https://www.amazon.com/SAMSUNG-10600-SODIMM-LAPTOP-MEMORY/dp/B0067GGPXC
  
• https://www.amazon.com/Crucial-PC3-10600-SODIMM-204-Pin-Memory/dp/B008LTBIT4
  
  I suggest that you install 4 x 8 GB RAM modules, in order to use all available RAM slots. This ensures optimal distribution across the RAM modules. The RAM modules which are currently in your iMac have resale value, too.
  
  Do NOT try to put in a higher total amount than 32 GB RAM. This can lead to the iMac not recognizing the RAM at best, to kernel panics / crashes of macOS at worst.
  
  This video shows the RAM upgrade, it is very easy:
  
  
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8Sj10wYXAI
  
  -----
  
  > Is there a way I could speed it up maybe with an external SSD that I could format as the internal storage?
  
  Yes, you can boot the iMac from an external SSD connected via Thunderbolt 2. This does hamper the SSD a bit, they reach about 300 MB/s instead of the 500 MB/s they'd have when inserted into the iMac itself. Make no mistake, though, those speeds are still going to beat the speeds of the internal HDD easily.
  
  Any of these SSDs should work:
  
  
• https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Inch-Internal-MZ-76E1T0B-AM/dp/B078DPCY3T
  
• https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Ultra-Solid-State-SDSSDHII-1T00-G25/dp/B01N1862SW
  
• https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-512GB-V-NAND-Solid-MZ-76P512BW/dp/B07836C6YV
  
  You will need an adapter like this to connect the SSD to the Thunderbolt 2 port:
  
  
• https://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Backup-Portable-Thunderbolt-Adapter/dp/B009HQCARY
  
  Do NOT connect the SSD to the USB-A 2.0 ports. Those ports do not have sufficient transfer speeds to properly handle the SSD. Use Thunderbolt 2 only to connect the SSD.
  
  Read this article for the details:
  
  
• https://robinmonks.com/2013/10/speed-up-your-mac-with-an-external-ssd/

There's this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B009HQCARY/ref=psd_mlt_nbc_B007IJ7UKE_b

It's not an enclosure exactly, but it is a portable thunderbolt to SATA adapter.

Not a full enclosure but... These work great with all SATA drives I've used.

What you're wanting to do sounds like a lot of trouble. If you really want a Thunderbolt SSD, just get one. Who's going to buy a used 1TB HDD and what are you really going to make off of it? How much time will you waste selling and shipping it? What's your time worth?

Besides, you'll have no warranty on the part that is most likely to fail once you take it apart.

This? http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B009HQCARY/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1418504059&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SY200_QL40

I like this for ssds http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B009HQCARY/ref=mp_s_a_1_10?qid=1398676452&sr=8-10&pi=AC_SX110_SY165_QL70

After looking at the things that others posted. I see that there are a few things that I still need to add on. I just went online and bought:

• Thunderbolt http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Backup-Portable-Thunderbolt-Adapter/dp/B009HQCARY/
  
• Thunderbolt cable http://www.amazon.com/Apple-MD862ZM-Thunderbolt-Cable-VERSION/dp/B00B3Y4U4E/
  
• Plastic spudgers (I only have one, and it's half broken)

I have been shooting with this camera for 2-3 months now. It is unfortunate that they dropped the price of the camera relatively soon after I bought it, but I have been shooting a lot of projects on it, so I have paid off the camera.

The sensor size is still pretty frustrating sometimes. My nice Zeiss ZF 21mm f/2.8 now has a field of view of a 48mm. The Tokina 11-16 f/2.8 is a good lens for the wide end if you get a good copy, but is soft wide open.

I am thinking of switching to the MFT mount and getting the nikon to MFT speedbooster to help with the wide angle issue. If anyone is interested in my BMCC EF I will be selling it soon.

You are going to need to spend money on accessories to get the camera to work properly.

1. Fast hard drives. I use G-drive 4TB usb 3.0 drives.
   
2. An External battery. I bought a Anton Bauer Dionic HC battery, plus the charger and battery plate for the BMCC, which was about $1200, but I can use with future cameras if I buy a new plate. The battery does last all day which is cool.
   
3. IRND filters, otherwise your footage is going to have lots of IR pollution, and you won't be able to get the blacks to look right, they will be a muddy brown. I use the Tiffen 77mm Indie IRND kit, they skew green on the stronger NDs (1.8, 2.1), but I am able to fix in post with the raw files. There are better options out there, but I like not having to use a matte box, and am willing to spend the time in post to fix the color skew since I grade all my footage anyway.
   
4. Shoulder rigs, stedicam, dolly/slider, and tripods. This really depends on your style of filming, and also the production and what kind of camera movement fits the story.
   
   I'm editing with a retina macbook pro with 16GB ram. don't even think about try to edit raw natively. all my footage gets transcoded to Prores overnight, then I edit it, and export the xml back to resolve to grade the footage. Sometimes I will also grade in Lightroom.
   
   Filmconvert Pro and Neat video are a good combo for plugins. Remove the noise with Neat video, then add a film look and maybe some grain back in with Filmconvert.
   
   I always have my laptop around when on a shoot, not knowing when an ssd is going to fill up is tough. I would say get 2 ssd's minimum, and having a way to offload footage while on set is always a good idea. I use this dock: http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Portable-Thunderbolt-Adapter-STAE128/dp/B009HQCARY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1376263832&sr=8-1&keywords=seagate+thunderbolt+dock
   
   and these to offload the footage, sometimes I have been stuck without power, so those drives are good because they don't require external power. http://www.amazon.com/G-Technology-G-DRIVE-Portable-FireWire-7200RPM/dp/B009VQ7KPM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1376263854&sr=8-1&keywords=g-drive+mini
   
   overall I'm very happy with the footage, but it has been a lot more work than shooting with a 5D. There are still times I favor using a 5D over the BMCC, such as low light scenes where I can't use lights or projects with super short turnaround times.
   
   I have shot with the Scarlet before, but I would never buy one right now. It doesn't make sense to invest a ton of money in a camera unless you know you can pay it off. Spending that money on the other aspects of production (lighting, sound, production design, actors) is way more important.

Sorry... I'm an old jaded IT guy. I can't help it sometimes.

I'd recommend going with an external SSD, but thunderbolt 1 enclosures are becoming hard to find, and I think USB3 might be a bit too painful for a VM.

Instead, I'd probably steer you towards upgrading the internal SSD, which is still thankfully an option on this model. Check out the kits at OWC.. This is a very easy upgrade to do yourself and be sure to get the kit, which includes an enclosure for the old SSD; this makes for an easy migration.

Good luck.

Here is the desktop version of your link

Answered to someone else below:

It's a Samsung EVO 840 in a seagate goflex thunderbolt dock which is supposed to be for their proprietary backup drives but you can actually stick and SATA drive in it (it did not cost $250 back when I bought it. I think it was a little over $100). It's an old, discontinued model that caps the speed of the drive at around 390MB/s but access times are still low and it's still 100000x the speed of an HDD haha.