Am I missing out without a Fusion drive?

[Gelite55]

Am I missing out without a Fusion drive? I have a 21.5" iMac (2012).

[iWas]

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]

Originally Posted by iWas

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]

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.

[throAU]

For your purposes: no.

[iWas]

Originally Posted by Gelite55

I only surf the web 85% of the time.

Originally Posted by Gelite55

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.

Nope

[kflanary]

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]

Originally Posted by kflanary

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.

[Chris Blount]

Originally Posted by Gelite55

Am I missing out without a Fusion drive? I have a 21.5" iMac (2012).

In simple terms, yes.

People who say you are not missing out don't have one and come up with excuses on why you shouldn't have one.

[Wakeywarrior]

Originally Posted by kflanary

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]

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]

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]

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]

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.

[Ddyracer]

Originally Posted by Icaras

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]

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"