I have an iMac 12,1 -- mid 2011, 21.5"

It has a ThunderBolt port. Not compatible with the current ThunderBolt 3, I need the original ThunderBolt or ThunderBolt 2. The port on this iMac is backwards compatible with the older video display port. I am currently using this port for a second display.

I want to add an SSD drive, maybe 250 GB or so, to hold the boot image of the OS and a few other disk-intensive things. Opening the iMac to install an SSD is more than I really want to attempt. The easiest way to do this would be an external SSD via the ThunderBolt connection, which is much faster than FireWire.

My problem: There is only one ThunderBolt port on the iMac. I want to keep the second monitor capability. I have not been able to locate an external ThunderBolt enclosure with daisy-chaining, nor an affordable ThunderBolt dock that will support both a ThunderBolt drive and a second display.

I have not been able to figure out how to accomplish this. Does anybody have a suggestion that won't break the bank?

Would this work?



eBay

There are dozens of port expanders/docking stations available that will work. The Belkin units Apple sells on the store site are not the worst, but you can probably do better features and price-wise.

quote:

Originally posted by architect:
There are dozens of port expanders/docking stations available that will work. The Belkin units Apple sells on the store site are not the worst, but you can probably do better features and price-wise.

Unless I'm mistaken (a distinct possibility!) the Belkin units, which are available on eBay at lower cost than from Apple, have two ThunderBolt ports: one is used to connect the dock to the computer, so there is only one available. That does not solve the problem of connecting to both a ThunderBolt drive and the second display. Unless, of course, the ThunderBolt drive has a second port for daisy-chaining, in which case I would not need the dock.

Kkina's suggestion might work, I have sent an inquiry to Avastor.

I have an appointment at the Apple Store later this morning to get the $29 battery replacement on two iPhones -- mine and my wife's. I'll be face-to-face with a "genius" so I'll pick his / her brains on this.

One solution, of course, is to have the SSD installed internally in the iMac, but I'd have to pay somebody to do that, so if I can find an external ThunderBolt drive / enclosure that will daisy chain, it would probably be somewhere near a break-even and I would be able to re-use the drive easily if this iMac dies.

 
There are plenty of Thunderbolt docks out there. I have been using one for years. Typically, they have two TB ports for daisy chaining. The display must be at the end of the chain. The docks come with other useful stuff, such as several USB 3.0 (or higher) ports, a Gigbit ethernet port (I've never found a use for that one), audio in and out, HDMI port, and some have eSATA. I keep several SSD's in external cases (Oyen Digital makes nice and relative inexpensive ones). For the SSD's, though, USB 3.0 is more than sufficient to achieve the transfer speed that the SSD is capable of.
 

Will it boot from external? Sounds like a bigger pain in the ass than opening it up. I know its apple, but it cant be buried that deep, its a component that has various options in assembly process, needs to be accessible.

OWC Thunderbolt 2 dock.

Per OWC: Thunderbolt, FireWire, & Ethernet are bootable on all Macs w/ a Thunderbolt port.

I think V-tail is looking not to spend too much is the problem.