21.5" base with 16GB RAM or 21.5" top with fusion?

[MrMister111]

I've gotto decide (quickly!) on which to get...

21.5" base with 16Gb RAM or 21.5" top end with fusion?

£1107 for the base with 16Gb RAM, £1275 top end with fusion. (these are HE)

I use it as a standard machine, no games, iLife, browsing, iTunes etc.

What should I buy?
cheers

[Mac4Music]

Get the top end 21.5 with the Fusion Drive. That's what I ordered btw!

[MrMister111]

Originally Posted by Mac4Music

Get the top end 21.5 with the Fusion Drive. That's what I ordered btw!

so just the standard 8Gb then?

Or I should add to the choice a base 27"... Think these might be too big to be honest though, too high resolution for my eyes!

[tann]

Originally Posted by MrMister111

so just the standard 8Gb then?

Or I should add to the choice a base 27"... Think these might be too big to be honest though, too high resolution for my eyes!

What you will be doing 8gb of ram will be more than enough .

Go with Fusion, the general speed increase throughout the system (especially loading apps, startup, shutdown) will make anything without an SSD seem ancient and irritating

[MrMister111]

Originally Posted by tann

What you will be doing 8gb of ram will be more than enough .

Go with Fusion, the general speed increase throughout the system (especially loading apps, startup, shutdown) will make anything without an SSD seem ancient and irritating

Just general work, iLife, iTunes, office, iMovie editing from full HD camera (AVCHD), iPhoto a lot.

Remember though RAM requirements go up all the time, I'm planning on keeping this for at least 5 years, and no upgrade opting for RAM on 21.5" version

[tann]

Originally Posted by MrMister111

Just general work, iLife, iTunes, office, iMovie editing from full HD camera (AVCHD), iPhoto a lot.

Remember though RAM requirements go up all the time, I'm planning on keeping this for at least 5 years, and no upgrade opting for RAM on 21.5" version

I see that, I still think that 8gb should be enough for all of that (taking into account new versions of the OS and iLife etc) for a few years. Maybe if you were trying to do them all at once (with stuff going on in each thing) you might occasionally run out, but that probably won't be often (if at all).

With fusion (the way I see it) you get a much snappier machine from day 1, that will consistently be snappy each time you do anything! I recently upgraded my macs hard drive to an ssd, the difference really is night and day (and my laptop can only support sata 2 hard drives so it's a fair bit off what a new sata 3 laptop would be like in terms of speed). I can't imagine going back now.

I hope you let us know what you pick though, I'd look at your current usage (assuming you did what you mentioned above) and see what sort of ram requirements everything used, maybe add on a bit for 'future update usage' and see what's what!

[Steve121178]

I run VM's so the 16GB option was a no-brainer for me.

[Chupa Chupa]

Neither. 16GB is overkill if you aren't using Fusion/Parallels, Photoshop or video FX programs. Heck I do use those (hobby only) and still got the stock machine.

Don't be a Fusion Drive guinea pig. You increase the odds of drive failure or data corruption. I'd wait to see if Apple has perfected it. Buy a SSD and USB or Thunderbolt enclosure for files that need fast data flow.

[MrMister111]

Well I ordered.... a....

21.5" top end with a fusion, couldn't resist the fusion option. Got 3 year applecare to as is a HE buy, so should be ok in case of failures.