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Any of you with 512GB SSD regret not getting a large storage?
- Thread starter Benz63amg
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I think 1TB is the absolute minimum, especially if you are using iCloud to store pictures. You also want to keep about 20% free space on SSD for optimal performance.
I really prefer to have a complete download of everything hosted on iCloud (or any other cloud provider). I've got decades of photos and videos and other data that's important to me and I don't trust ONLY having it on someone else's server.
I like to have a 1TB drive minimum on board on my primary Mac. But also, since the OP is specifally asking about iMacs, it's pretty easy to use fast external drives these days and not a big deal to leave one plugged into a desktop. Large SSDs are finally getting pretty affordable and the interface is fast enough that you're not taking as much of a hit speed-wise as you used to.
With a MacBook, if that's your primary machine? I say go 1TB because using an external with a laptop is always irritating.
I like to have a 1TB drive minimum on board on my primary Mac. But also, since the OP is specifally asking about iMacs, it's pretty easy to use fast external drives these days and not a big deal to leave one plugged into a desktop. Large SSDs are finally getting pretty affordable and the interface is fast enough that you're not taking as much of a hit speed-wise as you used to.
With a MacBook, if that's your primary machine? I say go 1TB because using an external with a laptop is always irritating.
My iMac is my primary machine. I bought the 2017 when it first came out and got it with 512 but started regretting it within a few weeks. It's not that I was running out of space, I still had about 200GB free, but I just wish I had more "breathing room" so to speak. When I upgraded to the 2020 iMac last month, I got it with 1TB and am more than happy. Spending only $180 bucks for double the storage was worth it for the peace of mind especially when I set up a Boot Camp partition later.
With my MBP being my secondary machine, the 256 base storage they come with is fine, though I upgraded to the 10th gen i5 with 16GB RAM and 512 storage because the sale at Best Buy back in June was too good to pass up.
With my MBP being my secondary machine, the 256 base storage they come with is fine, though I upgraded to the 10th gen i5 with 16GB RAM and 512 storage because the sale at Best Buy back in June was too good to pass up.
Purchased iMac 2020 with 10 Core Core i9, 5500XT and 512GB. Do not regretting still. But may be my usage pattern is not common: no gaming, very small amount of photo/video (less then 10GB). Main tasks - Excel/Google spreadsheet + Parallels/MS Project.
Besides: at the cost of 1TB upgrade one could get 1TB external SSD with TB3 interface (Samsung Portable SSD X5 1ТБ).
Besides: at the cost of 1TB upgrade one could get 1TB external SSD with TB3 interface (Samsung Portable SSD X5 1ТБ).
I have 256 GB in my 2017 16 GB Core m3 MacBook and only about 1/3rd of that is used.
I have 1 TB in my 2017 iMac and over half of that is used, but it’s easy to add storage to that. I already own a 1 TB Samsung T5 USB-C SSD that I use for file transfers and backups, but if I wanted to add additional storage for regular use, I’d get a 1 TB Samsung X5 Thunderbolt 3 SSD.
The difference in usage of storage here is on the iMac I have a copy of my entire Photos library stored locally. On my MacBook I do not. It’s accessed through iCloud. I have the 2 TB iCloud plan, which is enough for our entire family to share.
On an iMac I think 512GB is fine for many people. Do you really need to access your 5 year old files that you hardly ever look at on the PCIe SSD? If you need more space external drives are easy to add, and can still be quite speedy if you choose the right type of drive. 512GB was too small for me on my MacBook Pro, and external drives are less convenient with a laptop. Having said that, the 1TB option is reasonably priced, so I went with that for my iMac, and after migrating everything it is currently half full. I’ll still need to use some external storage when I start building my VM lab environment.
Software compatibility of course. If your established workflow is mission critical for your income, it would be foolish to be an early adopter of ARM Macs for your main machine(s).
I suspect a lot of businesses will be buying the last Intel Macs, with Apple Care. They would upgrade to ARM at the next cycle in 3 years or so, after their Apple Care runs out, and after all the software issues have been worked out.
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Sure, in theory. As it relates to the OPs question, I don’t think either of those rationales apply.
Someone who has specific software needs would probably know whether 512 would be enough. And this doesn’t sound like a company purchase.
The OP hasn’t said much either way. We can’t make any assumptions about what the OP is running.
BTW, initial benchmarks have software video encoding with open source encoders running much faster on Intel. This makes sense since such code is heavily optimized on Intel, some even hand optimized in assembly.
No I think that's fine. Even if you have lot's of pictures, you can either optimise your library, or take out for $2.99 a month, and extra 200GB. Personally most things in 202 are streamed, so unless you have a workflow requiring mass storage, no point spending the money of more storage. Even MKBHD keeps his low, and uses external to manage data.
These are my current usage statistics on my current 2TB fusion drive 2019 iMac, iTunes backups, my photo library and iTunes library all take up space, I don’t think personally I can live with 512gb,
Can iPhone backups be backed up onto an external drive? Why does system files take so much place? If that was to be the case on a 512Gb SSD then I would barely have any space to have my iTunes library and the storage would be over half full
Can iPhone backups be backed up onto an external drive? Why does system files take so much place? If that was to be the case on a 512Gb SSD then I would barely have any space to have my iTunes library and the storage would be over half full
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A lot of that data (iTunes, documents, music creation) can be put on external drives, but it may be more convenient on your internal drive, depending upon your preferences. I have all my iTunes music and my documents on my home NAS. However, I have my Photos directory local on the iMac (in addition to being in iCloud) because Apple has designed it to only work with Mac file systems.
However, if you want it all on your internal drive, then I would recommend a 2 TB drive, not 1 TB drive.
You still haven't told us all the important applications you run though.
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Is my 2TB fusion drive really prone to failing and is as bad as people on this forum make it seem? Because that’s the main reason im considering to upgrade to a 2020 iMac ( the highest tier 27 inch with 5500 graphics and 512ssd), I don’t want to do a BTO and pay 180$ additional for 1Tb SSD storage and have to wait two weeks for Apple to ship it to me and I’d much rather walk into the Apple Store one walk out with one, speed wise the fusion drive has been terrific all around and has served me very well for over a year now but I don’t understand why people on this forum keep bashing it and making anyone that owns an iMac with a fusion drive feel bad about their choice and have a feeling that their iMac will fail due to the fusion drive
Fusion is higher risk for failing than non-Fusion, but if it is working fine and you have multiple backups, and you don't mind the lower performance than pure SSD, then I wouldn't worry about it.
Personally though, if I had a Fusion drive, I'd split the drive into separate 128 GB SSD and 2 TB hard drive, and install the OS on the SSD and the data on the hard drive, but that's just me.
And I don't understand why it's such a big deal for you to go BTO. You have a functioning machine already, so there is no need to be able to walk out of the Apple Store with a machine. You've already described why it's a big disadvantage in your case. I personally never get new Macs in-store, because they never have the models I want.
I have a 2TB 2017 iMac with a fusion drive. The spinning HDD failed 2 years and 2 months after I bought it. I took it to a local Apple authorised dealer who took out the 2TB HHD and replaced it with a 2TB Samsung SSD 860 QVO. I take daily back ups so got back to where I was no problem. I was thinking of having the spinning HD replaced with a 2TB SSD in any case so took the failure on the chin. If you want to play around with speed and have a Thunderbolt 3 port then buy a Samsung SSD X5 boot from that. Also, keep an eye on your drives by using a monitoring app like DriveDx.
I'm still on my original hard drive on my 2010 iMac.
It hasn't seen too much write usage since 2017 though. It's on every day, but since 2017, it's mainly been used as a monitor (for my 2017 iMac). Nonetheless, it has seen 7 years of active daily usage, and 3 additional years of being powered on with little usage.
It hasn't seen too much write usage since 2017 though. It's on every day, but since 2017, it's mainly been used as a monitor (for my 2017 iMac). Nonetheless, it has seen 7 years of active daily usage, and 3 additional years of being powered on with little usage.
So are you saying that a regular Hdd is more reliable than a fusion drive? I used to have a 2011 iMac with a 1Tb hdd it worked perfectly for years, I sold it in 2018 to upgrade to a high tier 2019 iMac with a 2TB Fusion drive, 580x graphics and i5 3.7
No, both are the exact same. Mechanical is mechanical. Consumer grade is consumer grade.
In fact, the FD might even be less reliable because of its very low SSD portion. An SSD must always have at least 15 % free space for maintaining memory cells "healthy" and keep wear even across them. Hard to respect this with a 32 GB SSD (I think ?) or even the 128 GB for higher FD capacity.
I have 512 GB in my Late 2013 MBP. Never felt the need to have more as of now, but I have an 8 TB NAS always plugged in, so that's why. I'd get 1 TB in a new iMac today for improved transfert speed, but I doubt I'd ever take the 512 GB more it would offer me.
I’m saying if it’s working fine now, it may continue to work fine for years. However like I said, you must have multiple backups, regardless of the type of drive. Also, my personal preference would be to separate the SSD from the HD. Fusion drives add risk vs two separate drives, since they add a software layer and also, if either drive dies, the data on both drives is toast.
Of course, no problem. I can't even imagine to clutter precious SSD with such junk like backups, iTunes library, mp3 or pictures from your whole life. There are "dead assets" on your drive. I have iPhone (third one, so cumulative backup) and iPad - all backed up on external drive. The same with mp3 library or even games. I put some huge audio software libraries on external drive too (SDXC card).
I went to access a big file in one of my folders. It wouldn't open. Tried copying it to another part of the drive. Couldn't. Tried copying it to an external drive, couldn't. Tried a file next to it. Same thing. Tried files elsewhere on the drive, these were OK. Downloaded and ran DriveDX. This told me that the drive was failing due to read failures (bad blocks, etc). Tried to do a repair in Disk Utility but couldn't. As my machine earns me my living I cannot have work files being saved to the hard drive without my being able to trust that I can open them later. So machine had to be opened up and fixed, pronto. Used my 2015 Macbook Pro while I waited.