[Ben Jenssen]

I would be thinking more, would it make sense to change the internal drive for an SSD. I've done that before, on a 2010 imac, and the difference was BIG; Short startup time, fast app launces, loading of sessions and snappy performance overall. The internal drive connects via PCIe and is fast enough to run your sessions AND system off most likely.

It's quite fiddly, but not too difficult. I had never opened an imac before, but with instruction videos on youtube and the right tools, I managed.

One snag I found, though, was that swapping the internal drive screws up the temp/fan system somehow, this is a known issue, and there migh be solutions. My solution was to install software that lets you set fan speed manually. That resulted in the imac fans running at the slowest speed, which gives a slight noise.

Added: I've also heard that people have taken out the superdrive and put a SSD there, that might be a solution. Perhaps talk to a mac service technician. Might not be all that expensive.