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Deciding between 1TB and 3TB Fusion (Boot Camp Support)

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pete78

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 14, 2011
64
0
Hi all,

So I am ready to order my iMac (btw, this will be my first iMac after owning PCs for years). The only thing holding me back is deciding between the 1TB or 3TB Fusion drive.

I love the idea of having more internal storage, which the 3TB offers, but I don't like the idea of not being able to use Boot Camp (if I need to). Right now, all I can see needing Windows for is running Office for work, and perhaps doing some work remotely via Citrix and the like (again, or work). From what I understand, a virtualization software like Parallels would work well for my purposes, but what if I needed to do more in Windows in the future? I just can't predict right now (especially since I intend on keeping the iMac for at least 3 years), but I wouldn't want to be stuck. In any event, for sure, I will not be gaming on the iMac.

No one really knows for sure if Apple is ever going to support Boot Camp for the 3TB drive. I asked Apple support and they couldn't provide an answer.

I could go the 1TB route, and have the flexibility of Boot Camp (if needed), but then I would need to rely on external drives sooner than I would with the 3TB.

What would you do if you were me? Can I assume Apple will support Boot Camp for the 3TB?

Thanks!
 
Macman45

Macman45

macrumors G5
Jul 29, 2011
13,197
135
Somewhere Back In The Long Ago
I can't answer the Bootcamp question as it's not something I've ever wanted to do, but I went for the 3TB Fusion on my upgrade as there should in theory be more space for frequently used apps to populate the SSD side of the drive.

I use a lot of intensive applications, often in multitask mode. I'd say you could probably save a few $$ if you don't plan on doing a lot of intensive stuff. You might find that the 3TB supports Bootcamp out of the box, but Apple are unlikely to shout about it.:)
 
V

vladfein

macrumors regular
May 28, 2012
151
0
Macman45 said:
I went for the 3TB Fusion on my upgrade as there should in theory be more space for frequently used apps to populate the SSD side of the drive.
Click to expand...

Are you saying that SSD is larger than 128GB on the 3TB fusion?
 
T

torana355

macrumors 68040
Dec 8, 2009
3,609
2,676
Sydney, Australia
The 3TB fusion has another big plus side that not many people are aware of, the 1TB fusion comes with a slow WD blue HDD where the 3TB fusion comes with the Seagate 7200.14, this is by far the fastest HDD on the market with over 200MB/s transfer speeds. This really helps to make the fusion drive seem like an all SSD mac. Im glad i got the 3TB version now that ive used it for 2 days, if Apple do bring out a patch to support bootcamp with it then i will be really cheering.
 
P

pete78

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 14, 2011
64
0
torana355 said:
The 3TB fusion has another big plus side that not many people are aware of, the 1TB fusion comes with a slow WD blue HDD where the 3TB fusion comes with the Seagate 7200.14, this is by far the fastest HDD on the market with over 200MB/s transfer speeds. This really helps to make the fusion drive seem like an all SSD mac. Im glad i got the 3TB version now that ive used it for 2 days, if Apple do bring out a patch to support bootcamp with it then i will be really cheering.
Click to expand...


I didn't know that, that's interesting. I thought the 1TB and 3TB Fusion drives had the same kind of HDD (except for the size of course). Is this documented somewhere? Thanks.
 
T

torana355

macrumors 68040
Dec 8, 2009
3,609
2,676
Sydney, Australia
pete78 said:
I didn't know that, that's interesting. I thought the 1TB and 3TB Fusion drives had the same kind of HDD (except for the size of course). Is this documented somewhere? Thanks.
Click to expand...

Its not documented but so far it seems all the people with the 1TB fusion have has the WD blue drive in them and all the 3TB have has the seagate, Apple may use other drives aswell but so far ive only seen these two used.

Edit: Scrap that idea there are 1TB fusion iMacs with the 1TB version of the seagate aswell.
 
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D

drewaz

macrumors 6502
Dec 4, 2012
495
264
Phoenix
Office for Mac integrates well with the PC version, and I use Citrix on a Mac to log into my work system without any problems.
 
TweakOnline

TweakOnline

macrumors regular
Dec 17, 2012
206
1
Europe
torana355 said:
Its not documented but so far it seems all the people with the 1TB fusion have has the WD blue drive in them and all the 3TB have has the seagate, Apple may use other drives aswell but so far ive only seen these two used.
Click to expand...

Wow, I didn't know that.

But could you post picture's of the 200Mb's write speed? :eek:
 
H

harlex

macrumors member
Nov 23, 2011
63
0
Boot Camp

I have ordered the 27" with the 3tb fusion. I can't see why it won't accept bootcamp as bootcamp is a programme within the operating system and the fusion is only an hdd with a stack of ram to make it faster. You can also use Parallels. I need windows also as it is the only platform my editing system will work on.
Buy with confidence.
 
T

torana355

macrumors 68040
Dec 8, 2009
3,609
2,676
Sydney, Australia
TweakOnline said:
Wow, I didn't know that.

But could you post picture's of the 200Mb's write speed? :eek:
Click to expand...

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/foru...b-review-1tb-platter-monster-unleashed-6.html

----------
harlex said:
I have ordered the 27" with the 3tb fusion. I can't see why it won't accept bootcamp as bootcamp is a programme within the operating system and the fusion is only an hdd with a stack of ram to make it faster. You can also use Parallels. I need windows also as it is the only platform my editing system will work on.
Buy with confidence.
Click to expand...

Bootcamp does not work due to the 2.2TB limit that Windows has under MBR. There are ways around it if you are confident using the terminal.
 
TweakOnline

TweakOnline

macrumors regular
Dec 17, 2012
206
1
Europe
torana355 said:
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/foru...b-review-1tb-platter-monster-unleashed-6.html
Click to expand...

WOW, kidding me!? :eek:

cdm_r.jpg
 
T

torana355

macrumors 68040
Dec 8, 2009
3,609
2,676
Sydney, Australia
TweakOnline said:
WOW, kidding me!? :eek:
Click to expand...

Yep check out the conclusion:

"We admittedly had some high expectations for this new hard drive and boy did Seagate deliver throughout our testing. One word comes to mind: domination. In many benchmarks it was light years ahead of the competition, routinely handing embarrassing defeats to Western Digital Blacks and previous generation Barracudas alike. This really is a genre defining product and could usher in a new dawn for spindle-based storage if Seagate sees fit to cascade 1TB platter technology down into lower price points. "
 
TweakOnline

TweakOnline

macrumors regular
Dec 17, 2012
206
1
Europe
torana355 said:
Yep check out the conclusion:

"We admittedly had some high expectations for this new hard drive and boy did Seagate deliver throughout our testing. One word comes to mind: domination. In many benchmarks it was light years ahead of the competition, routinely handing embarrassing defeats to Western Digital Blacks and previous generation Barracudas alike. This really is a genre defining product and could usher in a new dawn for spindle-based storage if Seagate sees fit to cascade 1TB platter technology down into lower price points. "
Click to expand...

Jesus christ, this hdd is crazy fast!
Can't wait to get my hands on my 27'' iMac! :D
 
H

Hexley

Suspended
Jun 10, 2009
1,641
504
I hope my 1tb fusion drive is a seagate. Makes me wish I got a 3tb fusion drive if it is a seagate.

torana355 said:
Its not documented but so far it seems all the people with the 1TB fusion have has the WD blue drive in them and all the 3TB have has the seagate, Apple may use other drives aswell but so far ive only seen these two used.

Edit: Scrap that idea there are 1TB fusion iMacs with the 1TB version of the seagate aswell.
Click to expand...
 
W

Westacular

macrumors regular
Oct 9, 2007
120
4
pete78 said:
I love the idea of having more internal storage, which the 3TB offers, but I don't like the idea of not being able to use Boot Camp (if I need to). Right now, all I can see needing Windows for is running Office for work, and perhaps doing some work remotely via Citrix and the like (again, or work). From what I understand, a virtualization software like Parallels would work well for my purposes, but what if I needed to do more in Windows in the future? I just can't predict right now (especially since I intend on keeping the iMac for at least 3 years), but I wouldn't want to be stuck. In any event, for sure, I will not be gaming on the iMac.
Click to expand...

Dual-booting is a pain, in my experience. If you're not using Windows for gaming or heavy-weight pro apps, the performance of Parallels or VMWare should be fine -- and not needing to shut down and restart into Windows just to do one task there is a huge advantage for virtualization. In your situation, I'd go for the 3TB. (I did, even though I might be tempted to play games in Windows at some point.) Who knows, maybe we'll get lucky and Apple will make the updates to Boot Camp needed to support booting Windows on 3TB hard drives, and have the best of both worlds.
 
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