3TB Fusion v 512 SSD

[acculess]

About to put an order in on new Retina iMac but cannot make my mind up whether to go for the 3TB Fusion or 512 SSD (I will definitely be upgrading the CPU / GPU and RAM).

I don't have much in the way of Apps installed on my current (mid 2010) iMac - around 25Gb worth, plus another 40Gb for Parallels so the Fusion should be able to store these comfortably on the SSD part of the drive.

I have a lot of movies / music files. I currently store the music (c.130Gb) on the hard disk of my existing machine and the remainder of the movies (c.600Gb of movies on an external drive).

I like the idea of having all of the files together on one drive as it makes back up easier and also means I can link to DropBox a lot easier for cloud back up. However, the speed of going all SSD and just accessing the media content via an external drive also appeals.

The price difference is just £112 so not too significant compared to the overall cost of the machine.

Any thoughts?

Thanks

 

[silvetti]

SSD all the way.

I hate the mechanical drive noise.

But that's just me.

 

[Wahlstrm]

SSD. Newer use a spinning disk in an iMac.

The HDD is placed right infront of your face at ear-level, witch makes it quite hard to ignore when spinning..

After using the 2009 27" with a hdd that made a lot of noice (7200rpm is never quiet) and later on failed.. I would never buy another Imac with a HDD in it..

 

[thedeske]

Agree with SSD only. Need big space? Park those noisy 747s outside

 

[pasadena]

I also vote for SSD in your case. And save on the RAM, order some from Crucial.

 

[Serban]

Go for 512 ssd

 

[mstgkillr]

I'm going with the SSD also...

 

[luminouslight]

SSD all the way in my opinion. Can always add an external later on if you need more storage.

 

[icemantx]

I am wondering the same thing. All SSD or 3TB Fusion. I am leaning all SSD but also considering 1TB SSD but a $500 premium over the 512GB seems a bit excessive in cost.

However, since the SSD is likely not upgradeable for an economical price, would there be a reason to get the 1TB SSD if I primarily use the iMac for iTunes, iMovie, iPhoto, Safari and email? My iPhoto library is roughly 250GB and growing.

Currently I have an aging early 2009 iMac with an upgrade to a 2TB Fusion (256 GB Crucial SSD).

I would imagine if I really want all SSD and more storage I could get an external 1TB SSD from Samsung or Crucial?

Thoughts?

 

[acculess]

I'm not too worried about the noise (I've already got a HDD iMac so am used to that - and besides I tend to have music on so rarely notice it...) however, won't it make the process for backup a lot more complicated having content spread across an internal SSD and external drives, no?

 

[DerekS]

I did fusion in 2012 and was disappointed, it got very slow over time.

I knew I'd be going ssd on this bad boy. The price on the ssd is annoyingly high, but I don't want regrets!

 

[icemantx]

I did fusion in 2012 and was disappointed, it got very slow over time.

I knew I'd be going ssd on this bad boy. The price on the ssd is annoyingly high, but I don't want regrets!

Would you get the 512GB or pay up for the 1TB?

 

[fastlanephil]

There's nothing wrong with a HDD for many folks. it all depends on what you're doing with your iMac. If you're using Bootcamp, Windows will install on the 5400rpm HDD of a Fusion drive so it won't be as snappy as your OSX. Otherwise the Fusion drive is the best deal as far as I'm concerned which I have in my 2012 Quad Core 2.6 i7 Mac Mini.

 

[kathyricks]

My late Oct. 2013 rMBP has the exact same 256 GB SSD that is a no cost option on the new 5K iMac. It's a totally silent SSD and performance has not slowed down during the past year that I've been using it. So I am sold on SSD's and will be getting one when I order a new 5K iMac.

 

[Jeff Flowerday]

I am wondering the same thing. All SSD or 3TB Fusion. I am leaning all SSD but also considering 1TB SSD but a $500 premium over the 512GB seems a bit excessive in cost.

Well the 1TB offers higher speed over the 512Gb not just double the space. If you'll be able to tell the extra 250MB/sec or not is questionable.

 

[^^BIGMac]

For those that would rather opt for the 512 SSD, where are you gonna put all your data? I just don't know who that would work. I have a 128 SSD on my 2011 MBP and it's a problem for video storage, photos etc.

Maybe I'm just confused. What setup would folks use?

 

[profets]

I am wondering the same thing. All SSD or 3TB Fusion. I am leaning all SSD but also considering 1TB SSD but a $500 premium over the 512GB seems a bit excessive in cost.

However, since the SSD is likely not upgradeable for an economical price, would there be a reason to get the 1TB SSD if I primarily use the iMac for iTunes, iMovie, iPhoto, Safari and email? My iPhoto library is roughly 250GB and growing.

Currently I have an aging early 2009 iMac with an upgrade to a 2TB Fusion (256 GB Crucial SSD).

I would imagine if I really want all SSD and more storage I could get an external 1TB SSD from Samsung or Crucial?

Thoughts?

I would attempt to go all SSD, like the 512GB or 1TB. I'm debating the same thing myself, and use my Mac for similar things like you mentioned. My photo library is large, and growing fast too. It's not cheap but I feel like I'll regret not going all the way with 1TB SSD if I really want to future proof it.

Of course you could always add an external drive and stick with 512 internally. That really depends on how much it would bother you to see a drive hanging off the back of your iMac.

 

[ElectronGuru]

I'm not too worried about the noise (I've already got a HDD iMac so am used to that - and besides I tend to have music on so rarely notice it...) however, won't it make the process for backup a lot more complicated having content spread across an internal SSD and external drives, no?

I don't see how. Fusion doesn't provide backup unless you reformat them as separate drives and use the HDD as a time machine target. So short of that, you still need an external solution of some kind. With SSD only, your just avoiding the risk of being stuck with a dead HDD inside your shiny computer.

For those that would rather opt for the 512 SSD, where are you gonna put all your data? I just don't know who that would work. I have a 128 SSD on my 2011 MBP and it's a problem for video storage, photos etc.

Maybe I'm just confused. What setup would folks use?

Avoiding an internal HDD doesn't mean avoiding them all together. There are plenty of good usb3 and TB boxes for filling with huge capacity for whatever you need. Ideally, separate volumes for media and backup.

 

[thedeske]

Of course you could always add an external drive and stick with 512 internally. That really depends on how much it would bother you to see a drive hanging off the back of your iMac.

Hanging Off? OK, but most have a backup drive "Hanging Around" anyway, so what's the big deal. My last was a 512 and it worked out just fine. Plenty of room for projects. These days, media collections are huge, so most will need a set of externals well past 1TB.

That extra 500 gets you a darn good external (or 2) (or 1 and RAM)

 

[Ray2]

Its a function of whether you care what files get loaded on the ssd portion of the Fusion. I do image processing. That's what I want on the ssd at least until I'm done with them. With a Fusion, it may be full of emails and who knows what else.

Besides the other comments above that suggest ssd.

 

[DotCom2]

I'm struggling with this decision as well.
Love SDD but still so pricey.
Almost thinking of going with fusion now and SDD on next computer replacement when hopefully prices for SDD have come down.

 

[acculess]

I don't see how. Fusion doesn't provide backup unless you reformat them as separate drives and use the HDD as a time machine target. So short of that, you still need an external solution of some kind. With SSD only, your just avoiding the risk of being stuck with a dead HDD inside your shiny computer./QUOTE]

What I meant was that if everything I want to keep safe is on a single Fusion drive back up to an external drive is easy. If my content is spread across an internal SSD and my media on an external drive then I need a more complicated backup process (probably having to manually back up the external media drive)

 

[profets]

Hanging Off? OK, but most have a backup drive "Hanging Around" anyway, so what's the big deal. My last was a 512 and it worked out just fine. Plenty of room for projects. These days, media collections are huge, so most will need a set of externals well past 1TB.

That extra 500 gets you a darn good external (or 2) (or 1 and RAM)

Lol, not literally hanging off. But an extra device connected and sitting on the desk. It's a legit question that may bother some people. I know in my office the rear of my desk is exposed, and with my iMac the only wire going to it is a power cable. In that setup I'd prefer not to have external devices around. Though at home right now, I have a TDB with a thunderbolt drive connect to it and sitting filled with media.

 

[pasadena]

For those that would rather opt for the 512 SSD, where are you gonna put all your data? I just don't know who that would work. I have a 128 SSD on my 2011 MBP and it's a problem for video storage, photos etc.

Maybe I'm just confused. What setup would folks use?

It really depends on your usage. My usage is primarily development, so no really big files (even the databases are small enough).

I have a 256GB SSD on my rMBP (my primary machine). My biggest files (that I don't access that often), iTunes library, books and movies (ripped DVDs mostly) are on a NAS. I also have all my backups on the NAS.

My SSD is ~75% full and I probably have more than a few GBs of junk to clean up. So I went with the same size on the iMac. If I ever need more space with a fast enough access, I'll just buy an external SSD with USB3 or TB2 (if those ever go down in price).

 

[ElectronGuru]

What I meant was that if everything I want to keep safe is on a single Fusion drive back up to an external drive is easy. If my content is spread across an internal SSD and my media on an external drive then I need a more complicated backup process (probably having to manually back up the external media drive)

Well, extra volumes do add steps to setup a back up system, but not unduly so. Time machine should see both drives and request to add both to your configuration. If there's more workload, its with workflow. Deciding for every application, which kinds of files to put on which volume and getting them to remember. i.e., having more than one documents folder.