Instructions on how to set up an external SSD as a startup Mac volume.
The hardest point in being a Mac owner is when you believe new models are on the way as you struggle with a slower older system. With the initial three M1 Apple silicon Mac models nearly five months old, there’s hope that additional updates—potentially even faster than the first M1 Macs—could appear as soon as April, though they might not be out until the fall.
Not all of us will have the budget to upgrade when they do appear, but we might still feel jealous of the speed. If you’ve got a Mac that uses a Fusion drive—or, even slower, a hard disk drive—as its startup volume, there is a way to add zest to it, and the improvement may shock you.
Starting a few macOS releases ago, Apple improved its management and use of RAM, resulting in less swapping of active software to a drive and back, which particularly slows down a Mac with an hard drive or Fusion drive. If you have a Mac that allows for easy RAM upgrades, that’s a place to start to get a speed boost. RAM prices for Macs that are upgradable remain low relative to the value provided—$100 or $200 could provide a good boost.
However, the biggest single update you can do to see dramatic improvements is to switch your startup volume from a hard drive or Fusion drive to a SSD. If you have a Mac that allows the replacement (whether it’s easy or difficult to do) of its internal drive with an SSD, maybe you already made this upgrade.
Read more at MacWorld.com