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512 GB SSD - how much pain?

J

jobinhosyntax

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 16, 2020
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My tax year ends on the 31st and had plans to buy a BTO iMac but a spanner just got thrown in my cog.

I just found out due to the way Apple invoice and current long lead times, I may have to go stock configuration, which suits me apart from the storage, so I'll have a 512 SSD. I was considering a 2TB. It could be worse, however I'm currently rocking a 1TB SSD which is 3/4 full and love the simplicity of it all internal, I guess I'll get a 1TB external. Are these any good and do I have little to be concerned about? I heard 512 internal will be slower and could fail sooner - hopefully that's not true!
 
SSD lifetimes are based on how many cells there are to wear out over time. 512GB will physically have fewer cells than 1TB, just as 1TB<2TB<4<8; The more cells there are the more you can spread out each write and extend the lifetime. That said unless you're doing a full drive write (i.e. writing 512GB of data every day) I doubt you'll see an issue with the lifespan of the drive within reasonable usage expectations of the computer.
With respect to speed, a similar situation applies that being able to spread a read/write over more cells will inherently be faster, but I also doubt you'll really notice it much. The drives are super fast anyway.

I am personally getting it with 2TB, but I have with my last iMac used 50/50 with external storage and it works perfectly fine. You can get some excellent external SSDs that are super fast and reliable, and unless you're otherwise short on ports you'll hardly ever notice it's there, if your space allows for tugging it away behind the Mac. You can even get a little shelf thingy to hide it on the Back of the iMac; There are accessories made for this.
And should you desire to make it even more seamless it's even possible to essentially make a Fusion Drive between the internal SSD and an external SSD with diskutil apfs create -main <fastestSSD disk number> -secondary <slower SSD disk number>
 
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jobinhosyntax said:
I heard 512 internal will be slower and could fail sooner - hopefully that's not true!
Click to expand...

I don't know where you heard that. That "theory" might apply to spinner drives but has not been my experience with Apple supplied SSDs. If you really need the extra storage, why not wait on getting one with 2TB? So you pay a bit more in taxes.... ;)
 
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casperes1996 said:
SSD lifetimes are based on how many cells there are to wear out over time. 512GB will physically have fewer cells than 1TB, just as 1TB<2TB<4<8; The more cells there are the more you can spread out each write and extend the lifetime. That said unless you're doing a full drive write (i.e. writing 512GB of data every day) I doubt you'll see an issue with the lifespan of the drive within reasonable usage expectations of the computer.
With respect to speed, a similar situation applies that being able to spread a read/write over more cells will inherently be faster, but I also doubt you'll really notice it much. The drives are super fast anyway.

I am personally getting it with 2TB, but I have with my last iMac used 50/50 with external storage and it works perfectly fine. You can get some excellent external SSDs that are super fast and reliable, and unless you're otherwise short on ports you'll hardly ever notice it's there, if your space allows for tugging it away behind the Mac. You can even get a little shelf thingy to hide it on the Back of the iMac; There are accessories made for this.
And should you desire to make it even more seamless it's even possible to essentially make a Fusion Drive between the internal SSD and an external SSD with diskutil apfs create -main <fastestSSD disk number> -secondary <slower SSD disk number>
Click to expand...

Thanks - that doesn't sound so bad then, my current System files amount to around 200GB. I'll just have to become accustomed to organising document files externally, which I'm sure is pretty straight forward. Did you back up your external SSD on to a secondary drive?
 
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SSD speeds do improve the larger they are as there are more cells for them to access. Longevity might also benefit from more cells, but MBTF is so high now it arguably probably doesn't make a difference in real-world terms.
 
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Compromising by downgrading what you already now have would not be a choice I would make. It would bug me every time I used the machine. Especially as you need to plan on not using more than about 400GB of the 512GB (to allow for swaps, caching, etc). Deferring the tax break another year is only a one time annoyance?
It would be different if you now only have 512GB, as you would not feel that you have lost something.
But everyone makes different compromises!
 
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chscag said:
I don't know where you heard that. That "theory" might apply to spinner drives but has not been my experience with Apple supplied SSDs. If you really need the extra storage, why not wait on getting one with 2TB? So you pay a bit more in taxes.... ;)
Click to expand...

Good to know. Well it'll basically be a free computer, I'd rather not pay double and it doesn't sound like 512 will be too debilitating with an external SSD. Thankfully I want the i7 8-core and 5500XT, and as a bonus I won't have to wait long to receive it.
 
wilberforce said:
Compromising by downgrading what you already now have would not be a choice I would make. It would bug me every time I used the machine. Especially as you need to plan on not using more than about 400GB of the 512GB (to allow for swaps, caching, etc). Deferring the tax break another year is only a one time annoyance?
It would be different if you now only have 512GB, as you would not feel that you have lost something.
But everyone makes different compromises!
Click to expand...

I'd agree were it a compromise on CPU but my storage is kind of set and forget. My working files are in the cloud, my system files are < 200GB so will be plenty of space for caching etc, and document resources will be moved externally - I doubt I'll even notice the difference, hopefully.
 
jobinhosyntax said:
I'd agree were it a compromise on CPU but my storage is kind of set and forget. My working files are in the cloud, my system files are < 200GB so will be plenty of space for caching etc, and document resources will be moved externally - I doubt I'll even notice the difference, hopefully.
Click to expand...
OK sounds like you have a good plan and will be happy with it.
One big advantage of ordering stock is you don't have to endure the wait!
 
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jobinhosyntax said:
Thanks - that doesn't sound so bad then, my current System files amount to around 200GB. I'll just have to become accustomed to organising document files externally, which I'm sure is pretty straight forward. Did you back up your external SSD on to a secondary drive?
Click to expand...

Yeah. With a lot of things it's really simple as well. Your photos library for example. Once you place it on the external drive and point the Photos app to it, importing images into the Photos app will just be transparent and on the external drive without having to think about it. So yeah it's really not that bad to get used to and you'll rarely think about it.

For all backup of all data I use a network attached drive. That includes my laptop, my external disks whenever they're plugged into one of my computers, and everything else I back up, like my Raspberry Pi webserver. The more important data also exists on iCloud as well as some less important but often accessed data :)
 
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What do folks recommend as the fastest external SSD for reading audio samples?

LaCie Rugged Pro seems to be up there... 2800 read and writes would beat the internal SSD too.
 
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By the way, may I ask a question is that the internal drive 500 GB of my 2011 iMac is now almost full due to storing pictures in Photos app and music & videos in iTunes app on the internal drive. Now I am going to move all my photos and music & videos from the internal drive to store in an external 1TB SSD which can still be accessible from Photos and iTunes apps on the iMac. Could someone guide me how to do that? I also have an external drive 500 GB used as Time Machine for the internal drive since the beginning. Thanks folks in advance for your kindly help!
 
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I personally have 512Gb and almost 300Gb of free space. I keep my big files on my external 6TB thunderbolt drive :D
 
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James Bond 007 said:
By the way, may I ask a question is that the internal drive 500 GB of my 2011 iMac is now almost full due to storing pictures in Photos app and music & videos in iTunes app on the internal drive. Now I am going to move all my photos and music & videos from the internal drive to store in an external 1TB SSD which can still be accessible from Photos and iTunes apps on the iMac. Could someone guide me how to do that? I also have an external drive 500 GB used as Time Machine for the internal drive since the beginning. Thanks folks in advance for your kindly help!
Click to expand...

See https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT201517
 
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