Buying a new iMac

I have a late-2013 rMBP with 516GB SSD. I have 370GB free. Photos I don't want to see often are backed up on Flickr and on an external hard drive. I have 18GB of audio, no movies, and 18GB of photos. Apps, 172GB. I could've easily made do with the 256GB SSD.

But the speed -- boots up in seconds. You'd probably get similar speed from the Fusion, but I would skip the 5400 drive.

 

Fusion sounds like your best bet. Avoid the classic HDD.


SSD would work great IF you have a small iTunes library, iPhoto library, and don't plan on having any HD movies or tv shows. Of course with the iMac you can always buy a 5TB external hard drive for $140 and be set with storage for life.

 

Your options are really fusion or SSD IF you don't need the storage go SSD.

 

I'm a Fusion fan. It's about getting painless, near-SSD performance at a very affordable price.

You have a 500GB HDD now. Were you using more than 256MB of that drive? If so, then the 256MB SSD will probably not be enough, or may entail sacrifices or hard work.

While external drives are cheap, they do not benefit from Fusion's speed. While there are those who will say, "Only the OS and apps require SSD speed," not my experience. You work with data throughout the day, and for anything but streaming media, you'll gain small benefits on a constant basis - adds up to an overall zippier experience, no matter what you do.

 

At this point I'm just piling on, but I agree that the Fusion option best fits what you seem to need. ApfelKuchen sums up Fusion's advantages pretty well.