Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Gelite55

macrumors regular
Original poster
Dec 12, 2012
155
0
Am I missing out without a Fusion drive? I have a 21.5" iMac (2012).
 

iWas

macrumors newbie
Dec 3, 2012
7
0
I wouldn't quite say you are missing out, but I know that I wouldn't want to go back to a computer that didn't have an SSD after having one for just under 3 years. They speed things up considerably and make the computing experience more enjoyable because you are spending less time waiting for the computer to boot, programs to load and install, files to be accessed, etc. Your mileage may vary.
 

Gelite55

macrumors regular
Original poster
Dec 12, 2012
155
0
I wouldn't quite say you are missing out, but I know that I wouldn't want to go back to a computer that didn't have an SSD after having one for just under 3 years. They speed things up considerably and make the computing experience more enjoyable because you are spending less time waiting for the computer to boot, programs to load and install, files to be accessed, etc. Your mileage may vary.

I only surf the web 85% of the time.
 

Gelite55

macrumors regular
Original poster
Dec 12, 2012
155
0
If I were to upgrade from the base to 16GB RAM and 1 TB Fusion I'd be looking at $600 more. I'm wondering if it's really worth it.
 

kflanary

macrumors newbie
Dec 21, 2012
17
0
I am in the same boat. I purchased a base 21 and my 14 days is up. I love the machine, but am totally torn on upgrading to Fusion. I do a lot of web browsing as well, but do a ton of word and excel and outlook. Outside of that it's mainly 1 vm on a rare basis and some iPhoto. Not sure if Fusion would help with those or not. I realize probably not help out on the web stuff, but not sure on the other applications. Anyone have a good feel for that?
 

HabSonic

macrumors regular
Jul 31, 2011
151
6
Canada
I am in the same boat. I purchased a base 21 and my 14 days is up. I love the machine, but am totally torn on upgrading to Fusion. I do a lot of web browsing as well, but do a ton of word and excel and outlook. Outside of that it's mainly 1 vm on a rare basis and some iPhoto. Not sure if Fusion would help with those or not. I realize probably not help out on the web stuff, but not sure on the other applications. Anyone have a good feel for that?

You don't need it. It would be a little bit faster, but odds are you won't notice it. A 5 years old computer would be more than enough to do what you're doing.
 

Wakeywarrior

macrumors member
Oct 14, 2012
47
0
I am in the same boat. I purchased a base 21 and my 14 days is up. I love the machine, but am totally torn on upgrading to Fusion. I do a lot of web browsing as well, but do a ton of word and excel and outlook. Outside of that it's mainly 1 vm on a rare basis and some iPhoto. Not sure if Fusion would help with those or not. I realize probably not help out on the web stuff, but not sure on the other applications. Anyone have a good feel for that?

I'm sure I read, in UK at least, that you could return now until beginning of Jan, although not sure what cut off date was.
 

Icaras

macrumors 603
Mar 18, 2008
6,344
3,393
Yes, you are missing out. Any typical day to day general computing tasks will benefit greatly from SSD, pure and simple.

Though I wish Apple would have offered various sizes of SSD only configurations, I still love my Fusion drive and I would take it over just a mechanical only drive any day.
 

rpramanik

macrumors regular
Aug 8, 2008
121
10
San Francisco, USA
fusion is amazing

I have a ssd on my MBPr and the fusion 3TB on my iMac...
feels same, and quiet. well worth it, don't know longterm stability... but good integration and hidden from user. it just 'works'
 

Hexley

Suspended
Jun 10, 2009
1,641
504
I decided to get Fusion Drive as there was no cheaper way to do it other from Apple. OWC does sell a 2012 iMac-compatible SSD but it cost more than the money being asked for a CTO.

In the future I hope SSDs designed for the Retina MBPro and 2012 iMac will become plentiful and as cheap as 2.5" SSDs.
 

henry72

macrumors 68000
Jun 18, 2009
1,523
913
New Zealand
I'm thinking the same too but the thing is once the application is loaded, it's fast enough in my opinion. So you can just put your iMac on sleep mode like most people do. Then you won't notice a dramatic different between FD and Hard Drive. :D
 

Ddyracer

macrumors 68000
Nov 24, 2009
1,786
31
Yes, you are missing out. Any typical day to day general computing tasks will benefit greatly from SSD, pure and simple.

Though I wish Apple would have offered various sizes of SSD only configurations, I still love my Fusion drive and I would take it over just a mechanical only drive any day.

Yeah, get fusion, it will have almost the same read speed as the retina MacBook. The write will slow in comparison with 315 mb. compared with the 15 retina Mac with 400mb write. This stats is for the 27 inch 2012 vs the 15 inch 2012 MacBook pro retina.


The 21 inch I think has the same speeds in terms of ssd fusion but the hdd is slower.
 

tom vilsack

macrumors 68000
Nov 20, 2010
1,880
63
ladner cdn
I'm sitting on my 2006 macbook that i put a ssd into...i bet my 6-7 year old computer boot's faster then your imac (lion),opens up pretty much any program in a sec or so,basically makes your new imac look like one built in 2006!

How apple can get away with putting in a 5400rpm harddrive into a modern computer and not get called out by every tech web site,mag ect is beyond me.Maybe they should rename these base imacs "Hewett Packard edition"
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.