2019 iMac Fusion vs. SSD Question

[LA_LEE]

Couple of questions about the 2019 entry level iMac 27" machine. If I get the machine with the fusion drive can I swap out the drive for a 1 TB SSD myself? It's a major concern as I have changed all my drives to SSD and love them! I know ram is user expandable and I will do that myself.

If not then I will pay the premium price for the 1 TB from Apple at $500 because the speed will be worth it.

Please let me know your experience and advice on this. It is my first Apple computer so I am not familiar with them but it's time for a new computer and as I use it mainly for photo editing and web design I think the screen will make it worth the change from Windows to Mac OS.

Thanks

 

[CheesePuff]

You can swap it out... but it voids your warranty, is a bit of a pain and a lot of effort. And need to re-apply the tape for the monitor.

 

[nemoryoliver]

What kind of SSD are you going to replace? SATA or NVMe?

 

[alisalem]

Go with a 512 GB internal SSD and an external USB 3 / Thunderbolt drive (which could either be an SSD or an HDD) for data.

 

[Rupert Beehsley]

I jave just spent 3 weeks arguing this with myself! After all the advice I received on here, and from users I know personally, I went for the 512gb ssd, and its great. If you configure all three machines in the Imac range with a 512ssd you will find that the price difference between the models becomes less, so I went for the i5 9th gen, 580x. I added another 16gb of ram from Crucial for £65.

 

[ondert]

It doesn’t void your warranty if swapped by an authorized Apple reseller which I went for. However, in any case I would go for the pure ssd iMac and plug external ssd for storage.

 

[Fishrrman]

As mentioned, if you open it yourself while it's still under warranty, you VOID any warranty that is left.
If you break something (and that's very possible), you will PAY to have it all put back together -- and they'll only restore it back to the fusion drive configuration that it sold with.

SSD "right out of the box" is the better choice,
BUT...
The 1tb SSD is overpriced in my opinion (unless you have $$$ to toss away).

The 512gb SSD is a better buy.
If you need more storage space, plug in an EXTERNAL USB3 drive (SSD or HDD).

You could even do this:
- get a USB3.1 gen2 enclosure (connects to USBc port)
- get an nvme blade SSD
- put it together,
.... and then you'll have a USB3.1 gen2 drive that is TWICE AS FAST as any USB3 drive.

 

[maflynn]

its 2019, OP, do you really want to buy a computer with such old and outdated technology. Get the SSD, you'll be much better off.

 

[Marsell]

Y

As mentioned, if you open it yourself while it's still under warranty, you VOID any warranty that is left.
If you break something (and that's very possible), you will PAY to have it all put back together -- and they'll only restore it back to the fusion drive configuration that it sold with.

SSD "right out of the box" is the better choice,
BUT...
The 1tb SSD is overpriced in my opinion (unless you have $$$ to toss away).

The 512gb SSD is a better buy.
If you need more storage space, plug in an EXTERNAL USB3 drive (SSD or HDD).

You could even do this:
- get a USB3.1 gen2 enclosure (connects to USBc port)
- get an nvme blade SSD
- put it together,
.... and then you'll have a USB3.1 gen2 drive that is TWICE AS FAST as any USB3 drive.

yes it is up to 1000mbs fast, so don’t bother getting the Samsung 970 evo, crucial P1 or intel 660p will do

 

[whosthis]

It doesn't come with cheapish Intel 660p (which is sub-standard in many ways, but admittedly often a reasonable buy).

It's a quality SSD, and has speeds of about 2000 - 2500 MB/s.

After the price adjustments the SSD is still not cheap but not excessively expensive. If you want something similar externally, you absolutely need a quite expensive TB3 enclosure (good luck finding a good one). At the very least, you want USB-C (which would give at least 10 GBit). Both options will not only clutter your desktop, but also occupy one of the scarce USB-C ports (of which you only have 2 - and it's easy to run out of them, like a 2nd screen, 10GbE adapter etc).

Also note, that changing the internal SSD *might* bring problems for OS or firmware updates further down the road.