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Which will be your ordering Preference? Fusion or Non-Fusion?


  • Total voters
    177

WizardHunt

macrumors 68000
Original poster
May 11, 2007
1,694
38
Las Vegas, Nevada USA
When you ordered or When you will order will you choose Fusion or Non-Fusion? You can give your reasons why or why not in the discussion if you wish.
Keep in mind that this is only for the 2012 iMac Orders of 21.5 or 27in Models.

I'm Going Fusion:

I'm Going Non-Fusion:

Why?
 

trustever

macrumors 6502
Jan 14, 2013
290
0
WizardHunt Big man, rally nice poll...

I think I will get mine no fusion and after a while, when I am sure that the machine has no defects, crack the damn thing open and replace the HDD with a SDD... don't really like to do half things!!
 

Nismo73

macrumors 65816
Jan 4, 2013
1,157
970
I've been starting to rethink this whole fusion thing...I have the 1 TB fusion, I just unloaded my pics and videos from 64gb ipod touch and a few other things, and the drive has 51gb already - I just got the computer Friday morning! So about half of the SSD is gone already and I thinking how I might not like things to go back and forth b/t the two disks once I get up to 120gb on the SSD drive.

Since I'm really not going to do much gaming and hard-core photoshopping on the computer, I might as well get the base 27 w/ the 3TB non-fusion drive, which should be the faster Seagate. That would save me $600 that would go towards the new PS4 this fall. :)

I don't know...still thinking about.
 

WizardHunt

macrumors 68000
Original poster
May 11, 2007
1,694
38
Las Vegas, Nevada USA
I did order mine with no Fusion as I don't trust the fusion drive yet. I heard some stories where they are having some problems regarding using the Fusion and that it fills up too fast. The reason I ordered my 3TB without Fusion is so I can add my own SSD (only a larger one like 240GB or even a 480GB) to my iMac later on. I may even try to make my own Fusion Drive using Terminal. I don't exactly know the commands but it should be easy enough to find that out on the internet or even perhaps on this MacRumors forum.

I do a lot of Video and Photo work and feel that I would not get the full effect of the Fusion since I would not want to fill it up so fast and if I use a external Drive, either a HHD or SSD then if I want speed to speed up my processing of the videos then I would need a external SSD. So I opted out for the Fusion Drive and ordered only the 3 TB.
 

large farva

macrumors regular
Jan 14, 2013
162
0
Melbourne, FL
I didn't go with the Fusion Drive because, well, like the person above me said, I just don't trust it yet. Yeah, it's the new "hip thing", but I try as best I can to stay away from "the new hot thing" until it's been proven for a while. Yeah, people will say "Oh Apple has tested the Fusion Drive" and "Apple wouldn't put something on the market unless it was flawless". Well, I personally wasn't there when they tested it, and I haven't seen anything published, therefor I have no way of believing that they thoroughly tested the Fusion Drive concept, through every single possible scenario that any person might put the hardware through on a day to day basis. I choose not to "just simply believe that a unit's been tested and that it's fine". Who knows, everything might turn out peachy, and that would be wonderful, and I would probably opt for one in the future, but from what I've seeing now, with the SSDs filling up too fast, the small capacity, and other issues, I just don't trust it yet...
 

Val K

macrumors member
Dec 19, 2012
33
0
Italy
3tb fusion because it's a smart choice to have the speed of a ssd harddrive and the storage of a traditional one. I've read a lot of good reviews about it.
 

large farva

macrumors regular
Jan 14, 2013
162
0
Melbourne, FL
3tb fusion because it's a smart choice to have the speed of a ssd harddrive and the storage of a traditional one. I've read a lot of good reviews about it.

They also published good reviews on the successful use of electro-shock therapy on mental patients.. LOL... Some things look like really good ideas at first, but then turn out to be utter crap, and some things look like horrible ideas, and turn out to wonderful, then you have the other two. Ideas that look like they'll be wonderful and they turn out to be wonderful, then ideas that look like they're crap, and they turn out to be crap. Ya never know until ya use it for a while. It'll be interesting to see how it pans out 6 months to a year from now..
 

Val K

macrumors member
Dec 19, 2012
33
0
Italy
They also published good reviews on the successful use of electro-shock therapy on mental patients.. LOL... Some things look like really good ideas at first, but then turn out to be utter crap, and some things look like horrible ideas, and turn out to wonderful, then you have the other two. Ideas that look like they'll be wonderful and they turn out to be wonderful, then ideas that look like they're crap, and they turn out to be crap. Ya never know until ya use it for a while. It'll be interesting to see how it pans out 6 months to a year from now..

I think that the most important thing is to have the OS and the most used software permanently on the ssd and i bet that Fusiondrive will do this for its entire lifespan... so let's say that I bet on it.
If I'm wrong, you're allowed to say "I told you".
 

Tri-stan

macrumors 6502
Oct 27, 2012
268
0
The problem with the fusion drive is that if you do alot of photoshop work like me there simply is no space left on fusion ssd for scratch disk space given that I don't want the additional cost of another ssd for the scratch disk. Fusion also limits oprions for dule boot in windows and osx so no fusion all the way. Its good for ssd like performance but no good for professional work.
 

smoking monkey

macrumors 68020
Mar 5, 2008
2,335
1,468
I HUNGER
Fusion = For people who just want a computer and will never do anything out of the ordinary with it. This is definitely the majority.

Non Fusion = Techie/geeky types or special needs users who like to open their imac and install their own SSD or do other things like multiple partitions and dual boot systems etc. They are definitely the minority.


Neither group is wrong. But I think when people argue one way or the other they need to be really clear about what type of user they are otherwise it can come across as really bad advice.

Personally I think if you need to ask -- "Do I need Fusion?" -- it means yes, you probably do, because it basically means you don't know enough about computers to do the other options properly.

I need it. It's great. But I'm certainly an average user.
 

Val K

macrumors member
Dec 19, 2012
33
0
Italy
I don't think that fusiondrive is for dummies and plain hdd for prosumer. It seems like a way too much reductive.
I'm the average prosumer and I have a mid 2012 macbook air with 256gb ssd and the advantages are: fast boot, fast opening of heavy software and fast finder/spotlight caching. Other things are unnoticeable to me.
Problems like "other things like multiple partitions and dual boot systems etc." sound odd to me: if you need a mac, why bootcamp? If you still need windows for intensive application that cannot run under osx or vm, buy a pc. You can also add a partition to your fusiondrive and still disable fusiondrive and then use the two disks as you want, so "Non Fusion = Techie/geeky types or special needs users" is totally wrong for me.
Then, fusiondrive always set 4gb of free space for caching, so I also think that a heavy photoshop user shouldn't be affected.
Do I need FD? Yes, because i know enough about computers to understand what FD is.
 

MacAlien

macrumors 6502
Oct 17, 2012
499
171
Boston
I'm old. I don't trust some fancy "Fusion Drive" yet. ;) Plus, that's a really tiny SSD comparatively speaking. Sure, faster than HDD it's pretty rare I'd adopt any new 1st gen device anyways.
 

crows

macrumors member
Nov 26, 2012
90
0
the "fusion drive" is just software, takes an ssd puts the most used files in it and other stuff goes to the hdd, pretty straight forward to me there's no need to be "proven" either it works or it doesn't, and if it doesn't work you just download the patch to fix whatever bug and just continue with your life. There's no new technology what they did was use 2 existing technologies differently through software. Aside of life span issues with the ssd or other hard drive failures there's really nothing to worry about, IMHO if you want the speed benefit of having an ssd in your computer get it if not then just go HDD only, the only negative point I can think of is paying Apple tax for a 128gb ssd essentially it costs you $250 which is high for a ssd of that size.
 

itsamacthing

macrumors 6502a
Sep 26, 2011
895
514
Bangkok
To fusion or not to fusion, THAT, is the question. If the fusion drive was 256 flash and 3tb HDD, I would have gone for it. But at 128, that was too much if a step backwards. I'm in the 768 Flash club
 

captainron

macrumors newbie
Jan 26, 2013
11
0
They also published good reviews on the successful use of electro-shock therapy on mental patients.. LOL... Some things look like really good ideas at first, but then turn out to be utter crap, and some things look like horrible ideas, and turn out to wonderful, then you have the other two. Ideas that look like they'll be wonderful and they turn out to be wonderful, then ideas that look like they're crap, and they turn out to be crap. Ya never know until ya use it for a while. It'll be interesting to see how it pans out 6 months to a year from now..

You obviously don't no much about ECT. It is a fantastic modality for those people who are at risk of suicide coming out of abject depression and is still used with great effect.
 

Yebubbleman

macrumors 603
May 20, 2010
5,751
2,337
Los Angeles, CA
When you ordered or When you will order will you choose Fusion or Non-Fusion? You can give your reasons why or why not in the discussion if you wish.
Keep in mind that this is only for the 2012 iMac Orders of 21.5 or 27in Models.

I'm Going Fusion:

I'm Going Non-Fusion:

Why?

I didn't get a 2012 iMac, nor a 2012 Mac mini, nevertheless I'm going to place myself in the position of someone with a $2000 Apple gift card wanting to buy a non-Mac-Pro Mac desktop computer, and in that reality, I'm going to choose Fusion. My reasoning is simple; hard drives have great capacity, SSDs have great speed, I don't Boot Camp, therefore the best of both worlds is a no-brainer. This is especially true on the 21.5" iMac and higher-end Mac mini where the 5400RPM 1TB drive is the only hard drive available at all. The 7200RPM drive on the 27" iMac makes the Fusion option seem less dire, but even still, SSD speeds are still way faster than that of a 7200RPM hard drive. Performance and smoothness tend to be common goals when buying a new computer to replace an old one.
 

seanm9

macrumors regular
Dec 29, 2007
143
0
Cape Cod, MA
i ordered mine with a plain old 1 TB HDD... if and when I need more storage/speed i figure I can use the Thunderbolt port and get a big SSD.... then I can use the SSD as a Boot Drive and put my user folder on the internal.

or even roll my own fusion at that time... imagine a 480+ GB Thunderbolt SSD fused to the internal spinner...
 

WizardHunt

macrumors 68000
Original poster
May 11, 2007
1,694
38
Las Vegas, Nevada USA
this is some good feedback here. . . Keep it coming. . . I see the ratio is about 25-30% on average for Non-Fusion and about 70-75% for Fusion so far.
That is about what I thought it would be but wanted to do this survey to see how close I was. But the voting is not over. Keep voting even if you don't want to make a comment. But all Comments are welcomed and encouraged.
 

Megaoctane

macrumors regular
Jul 26, 2012
110
0
Norway
I ordered the 1TB FD.
I've had SSD in my mac mini (which i sold when i ordered the iMac), and SSD in my Dell Laptop, and my earlier windows setups.
so i couldn't live without the speed of SSD. For the iMac, the cheapest SSD like setup is the 1TB fusion drive, and that is what i ordered.

People have different needs and ways they use their computers.
I have a Synology NAS with 2x2TB disks in RAID, and have my entire music, movie and tv show library on it. It serves as DLNA provider for my 55" LG TV. I have never managed to max up my SSD's earlier. If I am nearing the point of filling up a 128GB SSD, then i haven't "cleaned" up in my downloads and pictures.
 

rjs2

macrumors member
Dec 18, 2012
44
0
UK
I went fusion and am happy as pie with it. really fast at booting/opening apps.

I don't want to be messing about with external disks all over the place

If you don't trust it because it's new tech, then don't get an iMac - it's full of new tech!
 

krspkbl

macrumors 68020
Jul 20, 2012
2,041
4,925
im sticking with the 1tb HDD. im only going to be using it for internet, light gaming (mine craft/chess/football manager), listening to music/watching films and word processing.

i tried out the imac in store and i was amazed at how fast it was for a 5400rpm HDD. everything was loading up really fast. i have a 256gb ssd from my old macbook. if i can get that inside the imac then that'll do me. for now ill just use the HDD. i dont want to open the imac the day i get it! same goes for ram. need to take the whole thing apart to put new ram in the 21" model.
 
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