Answers: Which Retina iMac do I Get?

[theosg]

I'd do some more research about USB3 vs Thunderbolt if I were you.
From lots of reading as I prep for new iMacs and attached storage...
It seems like the cost of TB isn't justified for a typical SATA HDD single drive external.
If you're talking about external RAID stripes or premium SSD externals, probably want TB but your paying $$$.

I'm satisfied that for my money, having a few USB3's using scheduled cloning and time machine...
provides a combo of performance, backup, offsite (rotating one HDD offsite) and file version history w/ time machine that I simply wouldn't be able to match with TB due to the cost/TB.
I was pretty satisfied with firewire 800 devices once the cost came down. TB is still at that "ouch" point in pricing.

Let me know if I'm missing something.

 

[twilexia]

I'd do some more research about USB3 vs Thunderbolt if I were you.
From lots of reading as I prep for new iMacs and attached storage...
It seems like the cost of TB isn't justified for a typical SATA HDD single drive external.
If you're talking about external RAID stripes or premium SSD externals, probably want TB but your paying $$$.

I'm satisfied that for my money, having a few USB3's using scheduled cloning and time machine...
provides a combo of performance, backup, offsite (rotating one HDD offsite) and file version history w/ time machine that I simply wouldn't be able to match with TB due to the cost/TB.
I was pretty satisfied with firewire 800 devices once the cost came down. TB is still at that "ouch" point in pricing.

Let me know if I'm missing something.

Thanks for your thoughts. I realize TB is more expensive but I have a unnatural fear of external USB drives, especially since I have had 2 fail on me (one is Western Digital another is Seagate).

 

[fat jez]

But it's the same drive? Only the interface to the Mac is different. Inside the enclosure is the same SATA hard drive.

 

[theosg]

But it's the same drive? Only the interface to the Mac is different. Inside the enclosure is the same SATA hard drive.

+1
I hate to tell you this...
You simply need to get over your unnatural fear.

All drives – solid state, spinning platter, or otherwise – can fail.
Your confirmation bias is painting your thinking.

There might be statistical differences between the types, manufacturers, or models...
But those differences Will Not Matter to you if your data is gone.
Acting as if every drive might fail is Reasonable.
Acting as if data is safe simply because it is on an SSD is not reasonable.

The best advice anyone can give you is to Include cost of redundant backup into all of your thinking and decisions.
It would be, imho, lunacy of the highest order to spend the money on a 1TB SSD IF that comes at such an expense that you can no longer afford redundant backups of the data stored on that SSD!!!

In other words:
If you have unlimited funds, buy the 1TB SSD.
If your funds are limited, then make sure the $700-$900 upcharge leaves you enough $ for backup
(Meaning 2 or 3 full backups at least 1 off-site)

Hope this helps!

 

[Sirmausalot]

I think this is a proper perspective. All drives are subject to failure and all data is subject to corruption/loss. You need to have backups and redundancies in place for your data. Start with an external time machine backup and backup critical files to the cloud in case of fire, flood, etc.

The question then is what is the best performance you can get for your budget. Clearly, the 1TB Flash is best, followed by the 512GB flash. After that, IMHO, the 2 or 3TB fusion is a better budget choice than a 256GB flash because you still get 128GB flash dynamically linked to an internal massive drive for fantastic price/performance/size. Although this choice is arguable, reliability is not an argument I buy.

My choice was the 512GB flash and I am running a 4TB portable RAID drive for both backup and about 2TB of data for a 4K movie that I am editing. And although the drive consists of spinners, I can get my data off nearly instantaneously and the large project loads up in seconds. (It's a seagate backup fast and is a fantastic choice for this machine!). I can apply color effects and LUTs and the footage plays back in real time thanks to the m395X (though there are a couple of Premiere Pro and El Capitain bugs that are being worked out by Apple and Adobe)

And even an external SSD on USB 3, although lower in benchmarks than the internal NVFlash is going to be so rapid you can't even tell the difference.

Fantastic new computer and Kudos to apple for again getting it right. Worth every cent.

+1
I hate to tell you this...
You simply need to get over your unnatural fear.

All drives – solid state, spinning platter, or otherwise – can fail.
Your confirmation bias is painting your thinking.

There might be statistical differences between the types, manufacturers, or models...
But those differences Will Not Matter to you if your data is gone.
Acting as if every drive might fail is Reasonable.
Acting as if data is safe simply because it is on an SSD is not reasonable.

The best advice anyone can give you is to Include cost of redundant backup into all of your thinking and decisions.
It would be, imho, lunacy of the highest order to spend the money on a 1TB SSD IF that comes at such an expense that you can no longer afford redundant backups of the data stored on that SSD!!!

In other words:
If you have unlimited funds, buy the 1TB SSD.
If your funds are limited, then make sure the $700-$900 upcharge leaves you enough $ for backup
(Meaning 2 or 3 full backups at least 1 off-site)

Hope this helps!

 

[twilexia]

I think this is a proper perspective. All drives are subject to failure and all data is subject to corruption/loss. You need to have backups and redundancies in place for your data. Start with an external time machine backup and backup critical files to the cloud in case of fire, flood, etc.

The question then is what is the best performance you can get for your budget. Clearly, the 1TB Flash is best, followed by the 512GB flash. After that, IMHO, the 2 or 3TB fusion is a better budget choice than a 256GB flash because you still get 128GB flash dynamically linked to an internal massive drive for fantastic price/performance/size. Although this choice is arguable, reliability is not an argument I buy.

My choice was the 512GB flash and I am running a 4TB portable RAID drive for both backup and about 2TB of data for a 4K movie that I am editing. And although the drive consists of spinners, I can get my data off nearly instantaneously and the large project loads up in seconds. (It's a seagate backup fast and is a fantastic choice for this machine!). I can apply color effects and LUTs and the footage plays back in real time thanks to the m395X (though there are a couple of Premiere Pro and El Capitain bugs that are being worked out by Apple and Adobe)

And even an external SSD on USB 3, although lower in benchmarks than the internal NVFlash is going to be so rapid you can't even tell the difference.

Fantastic new computer and Kudos to apple for again getting it right. Worth every cent.

Which 4TB portable RAID driver do you have? And what's the transfer speed on that?

 

[dsc888]

My choice was the 512GB flash and I am running a 4TB portable RAID drive for both backup and about 2TB of data for a 4K movie that I am editing. And although the drive consists of spinners, I can get my data off nearly instantaneously and the large project loads up in seconds. (It's a seagate backup fast and is a fantastic choice for this machine!). I can apply color effects and LUTs and the footage plays back in real time thanks to the m395X (though there are a couple of Premiere Pro and El Capitain bugs that are being worked out by Apple and Adobe)

That's exactly what I'm planning on doing. I have a 2TB Time Machine backup currently but do plan to upgrade as my files get larger and larger, especially now that I've starting shooting in 4K.

Can you share the particular models of drives you are using externally? Thank you.

 

[Sirmausalot]

Which 4TB portable RAID driver do you have? And what's the transfer speed on that?

This one http://www.seagate.com/external-hard-drives/portable-hard-drives/performance/backup-plus-fast-hdd/

It is rated up to 220 MB/s but Blackmagic speed disk test has it more like 175 MB/s -- either way about twice as fast as any other external drive save SSDs (which might be twice as fast again but not even available in that size!) You can find it for about $199 As I mentioned, it plays back 4K video from a Blackmagic camera just fine. It is also bus powered, and super, super small and lightweight compared to a full sized RAID drive. Seems really, really well built. (I have two

 

[Sirmausalot]

That's exactly what I'm planning on doing. I have a 2TB Time Machine backup currently but do plan to upgrade as my files get larger and larger, especially now that I've starting shooting in 4K.

Can you share the particular models of drives you are using externally? Thank you.

Although I am using the Seagate Backup Fast quite happily, if someone prefers Thunderbolt (and the additional cost associated with it) you could look into this Western Digital http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=1240 It is possible the transfer rate is higher because Thunderbolt might be more efficient and need less overhead than the USB3, or I could just be making that up. Only real world test will tell.

 

[dborod]

In terms of budget and performance I ordered last years 5k iMac with the 1TB fusion and m290x... In regards to the Fusion drive it has the full 128GB SSD which is nice...

The 1 TB fusion drive only has 24 GB of SSD now. You need the 2 or 3 TB fusion drive to get 128 GB of SSD.