Review on Fast & Reliable Transcend 512GB Thunderbolt 💨 Solid State Drive StoreJet 500 for MAC (TS512GSJM500) by Alex Maynard

I'm another old iMac user (2011) who needs a faster boot drive. Replacing the internal hard drive with an SSD is too much of a hassle for me (after all, Apple considers it "not user replaceable"), so I looked for a Thunderbolt hard drive instead. I bought the 1TB model to match the size of the internal hard drive. This Transcend device is the only Thunderbolt 2 SSD left on the US market. It also has a USB 3.0 5Gb/s port, so it will still come in handy in the future if the iMac ever fails. As other reviewers point out, this is a huge speed boost over an internal hard drive. I measured it at 4x speed on both read and write using the Blackmagic Test App. The launch time is now just 30 seconds instead of more than 3 minutes, and folders and apps are responsive as soon as they load instead of waiting another 30 seconds or more. In general, applications open much faster, making the computer more responsive. If I had known how well it works I would have bought it many years ago. I've only had it a few days so I can't comment on its reliability. There are many reviews here from users where a drive failed shortly after purchase. If this happens to me I will report the follow up but I don't expect any problems. The only real downside is that Thunderbolt hardware is more expensive. An SSD of the same size with USB 3.1 costs about half as much. I'm more than willing to pay more because USB 3.1 just doesn't fit my iMac. If your computer has both USB 3.0 ports and Thunderbolt, don't rush to buy this drive. If your computer doesn't have any Thunderbolt ports at all, why are you reading this? ;)