21.5" 3TB iMac

[Aragornii]

so I'm in the market for a new iMac. I want a 21.5 inch but also need a 3 TB fusion drive which is only available on the 27 inch. I can buy an external drive for the 21.5 inch to get my total storage up to 3 TB, but at that point i've spent more money and have lower performance than if I would have bought a 27 inch iMac with internal 3TB fusion drive.

Thoughts?

 

[PatriotInvasion]

so I'm in the market for a new iMac. I want a 21.5 inch but also need a 3 TB fusion drive which is only available on the 27 inch. I can buy an external drive for the 21.5 inch to get my total storage up to 3 TB, but at that point i've spent more money and have lower performance than if I would have bought a 27 inch iMac with internal 3TB fusion drive.

Thoughts?

27" all day if you can part with the cash. More screen real estate, more powerful, user-upgradable RAM slots (if needed in the future), and way better resale value down the line.

Size wise, it really doesn't take up that much more space than the 21.5". Only reason someone should truly get the 21.5" is if the extra $500 is a deal breaker. For many it's too steep, but for me the significantly bigger screen, pixel real estate, dedicated GPU, and peace of mind that a better iMac doesn't exist is worth $500 spread over the 3-5 years I'll have the Mac.

 

[firedept]

so I'm in the market for a new iMac. I want a 21.5 inch but also need a 3 TB fusion drive which is only available on the 27 inch. I can buy an external drive for the 21.5 inch to get my total storage up to 3 TB, but at that point i've spent more money and have lower performance than if I would have bought a 27 inch iMac with internal 3TB fusion drive.

Thoughts?

Do you have room to accommodate a 27? If so, then go with it. But are you not still going to want to buy an external drive for backup? This then becomes even more expensive than a 21 with an external drive. Unless you already have an external that is at least 3TB or larger.

What I have done is gone with the 1TB Fusion, (but with the 27 instead of 21 due to design work I do, need the screen real estate), and have 3 external drives. 2 drives are for back up, one is for Time Machine and one I use with Carbon Copy Cloner. My third drive is for storing all my files, instead of keeping them on my internal drive. And that third drive is backed up to the cloud.

Yes I know that is a lot of external drives, but they do not need to be purchased all at once and the cost can be spread over time. Just some things for you to think about.

 

[Aragornii]

27" all day if you can part with the cash. More screen real estate, more powerful, user-upgradable RAM slots (if needed in the future), and way better resale value down the line.

Size wise, it really doesn't take up that much more space than the 21.5". Only reason someone should truly get the 21.5" is if the extra $500 is a deal breaker. For many it's too steep, but for me the significantly bigger screen, pixel real estate, dedicated GPU, and peace of mind that a better iMac doesn't exist is worth $500 spread over the 3-5 years I'll have the Mac.

Do you have room to accommodate a 27? If so, then go with it. But are you not still going to want to buy an external drive for backup? This then becomes even more expensive than a 21 with an external drive. Unless you already have an external that is at least 3TB or larger.

What I have done is gone with the 1TB Fusion, (but with the 27 instead of 21 due to design work I do, need the screen real estate), and have 3 external drives. 2 drives are for back up, one is for Time Machine and one I use with Carbon Copy Cloner. My third drive is for storing all my files, instead of keeping them on my internal drive. And that third drive is backed up to the cloud.

Yes I know that is a lot of external drives, but they do not need to be purchased all at once and the cost can be spread over time. Just some things for you to think about.

Thanks for the great feedback. Since I use an external 3TB Airport Extreme for backup the sense that I'm getting is to go with the larger internal drive and take the bigger screen as a bonus.