Should I get a Fusion drive?

[xXEric702xX]

I've been thinking whether or not I should just get a fusion drive. I am getting a 21.5" imac and i mainly just use my imac for video editing, gaming, and audio editing with programs such as fruity loops. I got the i7 to help my gaming and video editing out. If i get a fusion drive, I suppose it would mainly just be used for my OS X bootup. If i get a external SSD, however, I could use it for both windows and OS X. I was wondering if i should get an external SSD or fusion drive or if i really need it because I only video edit and audio edit for a hobby, not a job, so I really don't have to finish it by a certain date, but it could still be nice to have. I've been thinking about this SSD:
http://www.amazon.com/Elgato-Thunder.../dp/B007FNKAXC

I've heard that SSD's are still faster than the fusion drive so what do you think?

[Chris Blount]

You will get varied opinions about this but as a Fusion drive user in my 21.5" iMac with i7, it was well worth the money and the machine runs like a champ.

With what you do with your computer, you will love having the extra speed in all of your applications.

Be careful in a thread like this. People that try to keep you from getting the Fusion drive are the ones that have never used one. That's all I'm going to say about that.

[Coffee Minutes]

Yes, get it. Lots of positive reviews. Go with 1Tb and use an external.

[torana355]

Get it, ive not seen one person that has actually used a fusion setup say a bad thing about it. Ive used plenty of all SSD systems and my current Fusion setup is just as fast with a whole lot more storage.

[Tanax]

Get regular HDD in iMac + external SSD and make your own Fusion Drive with OS X built-in tools. Half the price and lets you upgrade your SSD-part much more easily.

[majkom]

Originally Posted by Tanax

Get regular HDD in iMac + external SSD and make your own Fusion Drive with OS X built-in tools. Half the price and lets you upgrade your SSD-part much more easily.

Stop misleading people... saying A (you can get your own fussion with external ssd) and not saying B (you have to hack it through terminal and who knows what happens after os x update) is simply misleading for people.

[seble]

Yes if you want overall faster computing (not for executing tasks but for starting them) but please people there's about a trillion threads on this now, use the search then make the relevant decision!

[Tanax]

Originally Posted by majkom

Stop misleading people... saying A (you can get your own fussion with external ssd) and not saying B (you have to hack it through terminal and who knows what happens after os x update) is simply misleading for people.

Actually I said that he had to use the built-in tools in OS X to create it, using diskutil and terminal. Start reading what I write perhaps? And it's hardly "hacking". Diskutil is a very well-used tool. I just think it's unneccessary to pay Apple-tax for something you can create very easily yourself.

Telling everyone blindly to get Fusion Drive is misleading people if anything since you don't even know if they are capably or comfortable with using diskutil and terminal. Not to mention you're making them waste their money.

I'm simply giving them an option.

[majkom]

Originally Posted by Tanax

Actually I said that he had to use the built-in tools in OS X to create it, using diskutil and terminal. Start reading what I write perhaps? And it's hardly "hacking". Diskutil is a very well-used tool. I just think it's unneccessary to pay Apple-tax for something you can create very easily yourself.

Telling everyone blindly to get Fusion Drive is misleading people if anything since you don't even know if they are capably or comfortable with using diskutil and terminal. Not to mention you're making them waste their money.

I'm simply giving them an option.

OMG, but telling anyone you just have to use built in tools is quite different than telling him you have to do it through terminal... most OS x users even dont know that there is some terminal... and last thing, no one has tested what happens with os x upgrade, take trim enabler, after each upgrade, kext files are rewritten and trim is disabled, in case of fussion, if something like this happen, you loose your system disk.. I dont say this is a must scenario, but did anyone test external fussion against this risk? I doubt it...

BtW, I am last man telling everyone paying apples bloody tax for fussion.

[gnasher729]

Originally Posted by Tanax

Get regular HDD in iMac + external SSD and make your own Fusion Drive with OS X built-in tools. Half the price and lets you upgrade your SSD-part much more easily.

Very bad advice. Very, very bad advice. Creating a Fusion drive from an internal and external hard drive is just asking for Trouble with a capital T. If the external drive is ever unplugged, your computer is suddenly confronted with half a disk drive, and total corruption is most likely.

[Chris Blount]

Originally Posted by Tanax

Actually I said that he had to use the built-in tools in OS X to create it, using diskutil and terminal. Start reading what I write perhaps? And it's hardly "hacking". Diskutil is a very well-used tool. I just think it's unneccessary to pay Apple-tax for something you can create very easily yourself.

Telling everyone blindly to get Fusion Drive is misleading people if anything since you don't even know if they are capably or comfortable with using diskutil and terminal. Not to mention you're making them waste their money.

I'm simply giving them an option.

It's always good to introduce alternatives but in this case there could be some serious caveats as noted above. Also, the Fusion drive is tested and approved by Apple. "Hacking" OSX to create "Fusionstein" is something some people may not want. I also think it's a bit unfair to call it misleading to suggest buying the Fusion drive. It's not a waste of money when you get a fully functional Fusion drive backed by Apple.

[Tanax]

Originally Posted by majkom

OMG, but telling anyone you just have to use built in tools is quite different than telling him you have to do it through terminal... most OS x users even dont know that there is some terminal... and last thing, no one has tested what happens with os x upgrade, take trim enabler, after each upgrade, kext files are rewritten and trim is disabled, in case of fussion, if something like this happen, you loose your system disk.. I dont say this is a must scenario, but did anyone test external fussion against this risk? I doubt it...

BtW, I am last man telling everyone paying apples bloody tax for fussion.

Well, not to burst your bubble but terminal does in fact come built-in with OS X. But fair enough, I agree the most users might not feel comfortable with using it. Heck, I'm not that high on using it either.. but following the 6 or so very simple steps in order to fuse two drives together into a "Fusion Drive" is simple enough. Perhaps not for grandma and grandpa, but well enough for those who can copy-paste. An OS X upgrade shouldn't affect anything at all since the diskutil is something built-into UNIX and so an OS X upgrade shouldn't affect it - unless OS X removes UNIX-support but I highly doubt that since it's built on UNIX. Regarding trim though, I'm not sure.

Originally Posted by gnasher729

Very bad advice. Very, very bad advice. Creating a Fusion drive from an internal and external hard drive is just asking for Trouble with a capital T. If the external drive is ever unplugged, your computer is suddenly confronted with half a disk drive, and total corruption is most likely.

I don't know about you, but I'm not planning on bringing my iMac along with me anywhere so I won't unplug it. And also, if you disconnect a drive from a fused drive(consisting of two drives), it will still be able to access the still connected drive. Nothing will be "corrupted", you will simply be unable to access the disconnected drive. Since the disconnected drive would be the SSD - and thus contain the OS X installation - you will most likely be unable to even log into the system. When you boot, it would be a flashing question mark, indicating that it can't find an OS X installation. At that point you would just connect your SSD once again and reboot.

Originally Posted by Chris Blount

It's always good to introduce alternatives but in this case there could be some serious caveats as noted above. Also, the Fusion drive is tested and approved by Apple. "Hacking" OSX to create "Fusionstein" is something some people may not want. I also think it's a bit unfair to call it misleading to suggest buying the Fusion drive. It's not a waste of money when you get a fully functional Fusion drive backed by Apple.

It's not hacking, I think you people have some very odd definition of what hacking means. But again, fair enough that some people might not want to try this on their own because they lack the suffecient technical skills. That doesn't mean that it's "misleading" to suggest it to them. If everyone just says "Get Fusion" and don't inform them of this option, then even the technical suffecient people who would be able to actually perform this "upgrade" on their own, would miss out on it and pay unnecessary money to Apple. And that, my friend, IS a waste of money - thus misleading. Giving the option to everyone is most fair for everyone and the least misleading, then they can decide if they feel comfortable with performing this themselves or if they want to pay up and get Apple's Fusion Drive.

[Chris Blount]

Originally Posted by Tanax

It's not hacking, I think you people have some very odd definition of what hacking means. But again, fair enough that some people might not want to try this on their own because they lack the suffecient technical skills. That doesn't mean that it's "misleading" to suggest it to them. If everyone just says "Get Fusion" and don't inform them of this option, then even the technical suffecient people who would be able to actually perform this "upgrade" on their own, would miss out on it and pay unnecessary money to Apple. And that, my friend, IS a waste of money - thus misleading. Giving the option to everyone is most fair for everyone and the least misleading, then they can decide if they feel comfortable with performing this themselves or if they want to pay up and get Apple's Fusion Drive.

If you notice, my comment about hacking was in quotes. Lighten up.

NOT a waist of money when you get something that WILL work for sure and is warranted. Nough said.

[aneftp]

Right now a 120gb thunderbolt/USB 3 SSD external is about $200? A 256gb SSD external is about $300?

And apple has 128gb SSD/1tb/3tb fusion for $250 internal.

I'd just suck it up an get the internal fusion from Apple officially.

1. Cost savings right now is top little to have to deal with external cable/drive
2. No extra configurations needed with Internal built in 128gb SSD/1tb/3tb fusion.

Pretty simple answer I think.

[Apple fanboy]

Pretty happy with mine. I went for the 1 TB as its enough for my needs. If I need more in the future I'll go external. It's quiet, quick and means I don't have to manage where things are kept (which suits me).

[torana355]

Ive got my fusion drive setup really well, i partitioned the main HDD into 3 partitions, one 500GB one for Windows, One 500gb one to fuse with the 128gb ssd and a 2TB partition for all my media. So i have a 612gb fusion drive for all Apps and the OS. This way my Video files never get wasted on the ssd yet i still have over 600GB of space to work with on the fusion drive. My fusion drive has over 200GB on it and it still runs at full ssd speed for everyday tasks. Happy as can be

[Tanax]

Originally Posted by Chris Blount

If you notice, my comment about hacking was in quotes. Lighten up.

NOT a waist of money when you get something that WILL work for sure and is warranted. Nough said.

Yes, but I still think it's a much too serious word to use - even in quotes. Writing 6 or so commands to create a fused drive out of two drives is hardly considered hacking nor "hacking". Or perhaps you think it's "hacking" to delete a folder with the terminal too just because it's not using a GUI? XD

And yes, it is a waste* of money to purchase something if you don't need it - which is the case if someone can and prefer to do something themselves.

waste
/wāst/

Noun
An act or instance of using or expending something carelessly, extravagantly, or to no purpose: "it's a waste of time".

[Coffee Minutes]

Originally Posted by aneftp

Right now a 120gb thunderbolt/USB 3 SSD external is about $200? A 256gb SSD external is about $300?

And apple has 128gb SSD/1tb/3tb fusion for $250 internal.

I'd just suck it up an get the internal fusion from Apple officially.

1. Cost savings right now is top little to have to deal with external cable/drive
2. No extra configurations needed with Internal built in 128gb SSD/1tb/3tb fusion.

Pretty simple answer I think.

I agree totally.

Fusion is one of the main features differentiating it from the previous version. It's designed to enhance your overall experience by making the system more snappy (quick), overall. It's like getting a BMW with velour seats when you really should have gone with leather!

Either way, SSD storage is the future, and Fusion will help branch your system into the future, when SSD drives will be more common and in larger capacity as standard. Having an internal fusion drive will ensure your computer remains more future-proof. Makes sense to order it with Apple for the small cost difference.

[nosnhojm]

Originally Posted by Tanax

And yes, it is a waste* of money to purchase something if you don't need it - which is the case if someone can and prefer to do something themselves.

I agree; it is a waste of my money to buy SSD and an external TB or USB 3.0 enclosure, a waste of my time to configure and maintain the self-managed fusion drive, and a waste of my desk space to store this unnecessary equipment. Why bother with a minimalistic all-in-one machine if you intend to permanently connect such peripherals? My opinion is to go with a fusion drive, else get a Mac Pro.

[Tanax]

Originally Posted by nosnhojm

I agree; it is a waste of my money to buy SSD and an external TB or USB 3.0 enclosure, a waste of my time to configure and maintain the self-managed fusion drive, and a waste of my desk space to store this unnecessary equipment. Why bother with a minimalistic all-in-one machine if you intend to permanently connect such peripherals? My opinion is to go with a fusion drive, else get a Mac Pro.

Of course everyone has different needs. I hardly think it's much "maintaining" to do this. And even if it is, you can still go back to just manually store your apps on the SSD and have your media-files on the internal HDD.

A single 2.5" enclosure hardly takes up any space either. That's just a silly argument IMO. In that case you might as well throw out your mouse/trackpad and the keyboard and just use your phone to wirelessly control your iMac to avoid any clutter on your precious desk. A desk for me has a purpose - to be able to put things there. And while I do appreciate AIO-solutions that take up as little space as possible, connecting peripherals is not a problem for me.

Like I said, everyone has different needs, and that's why I said that it's a waste of money IF you have the skills to create your own Fusion Drive AND want to do it. If you don't want to do it, then yes, it's a waste of money to get the external SSD.

[benwiggy]

I've got a Fusion drive and it's brilliant. I'm well "into" the HDD, but I couldn't tell you which files or when it's being used. It gives the impressive of a 1Tb SSD.

Yes, you can build your own, but the shop option is fine too.

[Chris Blount]

Originally Posted by Tanax

Like I said, everyone has different needs, and that's why I said that it's a waste of money IF you have the skills to create your own Fusion Drive AND want to do it. If you don't want to do it, then yes, it's a waste of money to get the external SSD.

This all goes back to my original statement. Those who have never used a Fusion drive will try to talk you out of it. I'm glad you are smart enough to create your own Fusionstein drive even though you don't really know for sure you are actually creating a Apple sanctioned Fusion drive that functions EXACTLY as intended by Apple.

People on this forum crack me up because they act like they have some sort of inside knowledge about how the Fusion drive works when in actuality they don't have a clue and are guessing. Until someone reverse engineers a Fusion drive and are able to decipher the software behind it, they basically have zero credibility.

[Tanax]

Originally Posted by benwiggy

Yes, you can build your own, but the shop option is fine too.

Just so no one misunderstands me, I'm not saying Apple's Fusion Drive is bad. I'm just saying that it would be cheaper to do it yourself and it wouldn't even be very difficult But I'm glad that you enjoy yours. As said, everyone has different needs and priorities.

[hfg]

For those concerned about their video, music, etc. files migrating to the Fusion SSD there is an easy solution.

Fusion allows you to make one additional partition, normally used for BootCamp, which is always on the hard disk and no longer a part of the Fusion management. You can keep it formatted as jhps+ and put your "static" files on that drive, symlinked as before if desired. Use it any way you like.



-howard

[Tanax]

Originally Posted by Chris Blount

This all goes back to my original statement. Those who have never used a Fusion drive will try to talk you out of it. I'm glad you are smart enough to create your own Fusionstein drive even though you don't really know for sure you are actually creating a Apple sanctioned Fusion drive that functions EXACTLY as intended by Apple.

People on this forum crack me up because they act like they have some sort of inside knowledge about how the Fusion drive works when in actuality they don't have a clue and are guessing. Until someone reverse engineers a Fusion drive and are able to decipher the software behind it, they basically have zero credibility.

I'm not trying to talk anyone out of it XD I'm just providing an alternative option in case they didn't know it existed.

And I never claimed that I had any "inside knowledge" but you are spot on that there is software magic going on behind the scenes, NOT hardware magic. Ergo, the logical conclusion is that you can use your own hardware and combine it with the software magic. The guides that I've found seem to provide a very valid option and way of doing just that.