Fusion or SSD

lovememac said:

Hi all. Im waiting on the delivery of the OWC mac mini kit and was wondering which route would be best to take.

1) Install SSD and create a Fusion drive.

2) Install SSD for boot and apps and leave the 1TB stock drive for storage.

Which would be better and what would the benefits be?

Click to expand...

The difference is simple: If you want to control what goes on to each drive yourself, then do not go the Fusion Route. If you don't care and figure the OS will do the job just as well then go Fusion.

There are pros and cons all over this forum discussing the differences. Right now my 2012 is not set up for Fusion, but that is more because I was too lazy to completely redo my drives (I just installed the new SSD, cloned the HD to the SSD and whiped the HD clean). Fusion is pretty cool and I've really considered going the Fusion route for my wife's Macbook Pro that is running a 120GB SSD and a 500GB HD. She seems to regularly forget to copy all of her data files to the HD and then complains when her SSD is full....

lovememac said:

Thanks Paul. Im pretty good a organising my files and will often sit down once in a while and double check that everything is where i want it (although having fusion do it for me is tempting). My main concern with fusion tho is that if anything were to go wrong both drives would fail and would then have to replace both as opposed to one if they were separate.

Click to expand...

as long as you have backups fusion is not a problem.

what size ssd do you have and what size is the internal?

okay you have the 1tb as the hdd. what is your ssd?

lovememac said:

My main concern with fusion tho is that if anything were to go wrong both drives would fail and would then have to replace both as opposed to one if they were separate.

Click to expand...

Not quite true. Chances are that only 1 drive would fail at any given time. Yes, this would cause all the data on both drives to be lost. However, only the single, actual failing drive would need to be replaced.

How much total disk space do you need for everything? If you only have a few hundred GB's, it would be a good time to maybe try Fusion out to see how you like it. You'll obviously need more that 128GB to "saturate" the SSD and even get anything moved over to the HDD. But if you don't have a lot, you could easily clone everything, give it a whirl for a few weeks, and then go back to a traditional SSD/HDD arrangement if you don't see any benefit. If you are not a power user and don't transfer huge files nor work on huge projects, the FD will seem like one big 1.1TB SSD, except in rare instances when maybe you launch something you haven't used in a while.

I went from a self-managed internal SSD and external FW800 HDD arrangement to a "fused" internal SSD/external HDD and I couldn't be happier. Times are rare that I actually notice the HDD's slower speed; I can only imagine how seamless it would be if my HDD was internal!

lovememac said:

Was just going for the Samsung 840 Pro 128gb. I have a 128gb ssd in my MBA before i bought the mini mac and stored everything on external and only used about 40-50gb so dont think i need any bigger or will do in the near future.

Click to expand...

well I would say if you have the ssd on hand drop it in and try fusion.

you are a good candidate since you don't have 500 to 800gb info.

you won't run into the fusion issue of small ssd big hdd.

if you don't like it you can break it up.

I have 2 fusion setups in my home a 256 gb ssd with a 500gb hdd= 756gb fusion.

that is on my dual 2012.

I have a 500gb ssd and a 1tb hdd = 1.128 tb fusion on my quad 2012.

Mike in Kansas said:

If you only have a few hundred TB's, it would be a good time to maybe try Fusion out.

Click to expand...

Few hundred TB's eh? Heh.

donlab said:

Few hundred TB's eh? Heh.

Click to expand...

Thanks for catching my typo! Fixed.

lovememac said:

Sorry should have been more specific. I had 40-50gb on the SSD and around 200-250 on external. Could probably loose some off the SSD as i have a few app that i dont use. Would this cause any problems with the 128+1tb or should i just go for the 256 to be on the safe side?

Click to expand...

It is always about the money. The 256 is better but cost more.

Your numbers should not flood the ssd. I go with this logic.

"I am paying 30 for the cable. I am risking the warranty.

I might as well buy a 256gb over a 128gb."

BUT WITH TIGHT MONEY AND YOUR USEAGE NUMBERS A 128GB IS OKAY.

lovememac said:

Decided to go for the 256 samsung 830. Got a good deal on the last one from eBuyer. Apparently the 840's are a bit buggy and the 830 is only slightly slower than the 840 pro.

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I am happy you got a good deal. With the 256gb you should be set it and forget it.

lovememac said:

Im pretty good at organising my files and will often sit down once in a while and double check that everything is where i want it (although having fusion do it for me is tempting).

Click to expand...

Fusion drives move data at the BLOCK level between the SSD and the hard drive. So it can move data at the sub-file level between the two drives, without affecting the file/folder organisation.
So say you have an iPhoto Library. That file/package needs to be at ~/Library/Pictures, but Fusion can move the blocks that you don't ever use off to the hard drive, while keeping the blocks that you use a lot on the SSD.

This is going to be WAY more efficient than a person moving files and folders between two disks is ever going to be.

lovememac said:

My main concern with fusion tho is that if anything were to go wrong both drives would fail and would then have to replace both as opposed to one if they were separate.

Click to expand...

If one device fails, then the volume will be corrupted, but the other hardware won't be broken. You just need to replace the one broken drive, reformat the Fusion volume, and restore.

paulrbeers said:

Fusion is pretty cool and I've really considered going the Fusion route for my wife's Macbook Pro that is running a 120GB SSD and a 500GB HD. She seems to regularly forget to copy all of her data files to the HD and then complains when her SSD is full....

Click to expand...

That's exactly what Fusion is made for. No complaints anymore until the whole 628 GB are full. And when she moves the data files herself, they are now on the slower HD. With fusion, anything that is still used says fast, and only things that are rarely or never used are slow.