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Fusion Drive Now Available as Option for Low End 21.5" iMac
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I've had many issues with 2.5" drives in the past so I wouldn't really want to have one inside the new imac. Macs are not dispensable components in my opinion.
Were I to buy one today I'd still go for the ssd option and then use an external USB3 drive for expanded storage or dual boot.
Were I to buy one today I'd still go for the ssd option and then use an external USB3 drive for expanded storage or dual boot.
Basically yes because the HDD is not getting accessed as much if at all.
Only if you have less than 128gb of data. If you have more than that it gets accessed just as much if not more. If you have less than that then why would you need a fusion drive in the first place - which goes back to my original point!
I wish...
In New Zealand its a $400 add-on.
($250USD = around $300NZD!!!)
That's $250 plus sales tax though.
For us geeks, it's not much work at all. For the other 99.99% of people who buy iMacs, it is. USB 3.0 will never reach speeds that are even comparable with SATA 3. Manually handling stuff is something most people don't want to do. You and I and pretty much everyone in this forum don't count for "most people" who buy Macs.
Creating a Fusion Drive on a MacBook Air/Pro or Mac Pro isn't hard. It's primarily just some commands in Terminal. But due to the nature of the iMac, you'd have to open it up (difficult) and find the right SSD form factor (it's not 2.5") and then do the stuff in Terminal.
This is the craziest metaphor I may have ever heard on this site, which is saying something. Congrats.
You don't have to open it up, just run it externally via USB3. It can reach speeds of 300/400 mbps read/write. That's almost as fast as internal drives. It is at least a very very acceptable speed. And buying a USB3 enclosure is something way more than only 0.001% can do. The commands can be frightening but it is seriously like 6 or so terminal commands, I think way more than 0.001% can copy-paste a few commands as well.
But true, some people want it easy and they will have to pay for it. That's kind of the general thing here in life, want it easy? Pay for it. Can you do it yourself? Then you can save your money.
Yes, I too yearn for the good old days when people got together and formed cooperative enterprises to make complex technology products for others without any attempt to profit from their labor.
You own a Fusion Drive or have run it through your own tests? Most of the performance numbers I've seen suggest otherwise. It's not the only solution, but from what I've read, it's actually a clever solution that's shifts focus from user-oriented drive management to OS-level drive management. Most of the DIY Fusion drives are not as good at the setup Apple is implementing, and most of them require above-average knowledge of system mangament.
What Apple has done is streamlined and simplified the setup, and yes you pay for it, but for the average user, this is good thing.
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Yeah, well some people are tech savvy and like to save money. If you don't know what I'm talking about, order a fusion drive from Apple after you already bought your older Mac without it....oh wait you can't.
Exactly. The same argument here is found in cars: "why pay money to have someone change your oil when you can do it yourself for cheaper?" Of course it's cheaper if you do it yourself! But what Apple has done is simplified things for the average user, and that will cost money until it becomes standard.
Only if you have less than 128gb of data. If you have more than that it gets accessed just as much if not more. If you have less than that then why would you need a fusion drive in the first place - which goes back to my original point!
Your first point is essentially correct, about having less than 128 GB of content. However, the second point may not necessarily be true: If you have more than 128 GB of content, but use less than that amount regularly, then the HDD drive will only be accessed rarely. This will also save the SSD from the burden of too many writes. Only in scenarios where you frequently work with large amounts of data (tens to hundreds of GB), and in which the data is often different, will the Fusion drive setup give you more SSD writes than a just a big SSD alone.
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$300 here in AU but it's not the hardware, if it was just a 128Gb SSD plus HDD then yes it's a rip off but the Fusion make it all worth it. Basically for your money you get a 1Tb drive almost as fast as SSD for most customers.
128Gb HD in any Mac's should be legaly Banned!!! what a joke!!!
Wow, talk about entitlement issues.
I don't want lins or a video, just you to state what YOU did. I would first state double sided tape is not great but then you don't currently have much choice, but can you say you simply used lots of guitar picks to separate the screen from the chassis? And if so was it easier then the the magnets used in the last iMac?
I would get the Fusion if it had a 7200rpm drive in it, reading this thread reminded me it doesn't so I would always go the self upgrade router with an SSD and big 7200rpm HDD. But it's ludicrous for Apple to use glue to hold the screen on! It's like a chepa Chinese make of computer, cutting back on screws. The annoying thing is the Fusion HDD' are just normal drives if they are not hybrids, and if they are 5200rpm drives then they are also dirt cheap especially in Apple's bulk buys, but the consumer a premium price for those drives, meh I better stop before I think Apple sees MUGG written on everyones foreheads..
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Are these figures that you personally obtained or from the vendors? I'm also curious which SSD and USB 3 enclosure you are using.
I never said that 0.001% aren't capable of buying an enclosure. It's something they probably don't think of and/or care about. And copying/pasting Terminal commands is all good and easy but if someone leaves out just one character, not many people know how to go from there. Copying/pasting is easy, but the potential consequences may not be. It's really easy to miss something tiny.
So don't buy it.
So there's high-capacity SSD's that are less than $100? I haven't looked.
Yes you can. They are called "hybrid" drives. Apple may have come up with an elegant solution that is powered by the OS, but they didn't invent hybrid drives. Just created their own and called it Fusion. I, for one, am grateful they finally did. It's a big step in the right direction.
I bought the 21.5" upgraded model to get the Fusion drive. Even if I knew back then that they would offer the Fusion drive on the base model, I don't think I would have delayed my purchase. I've already got a lot of use out of the machine, and I now have a slightly faster processor, and a much better graphics card.
It's a great computer. The display is fantastic, it makes zero noise (I cannot hear the fans or HDD over the external drives sitting on my desk), and it is very fast. Beach balls are less frequent than on my 13" MBP (with 128 GB SSD); which is to say, very infrequent.
The 7200 vs 5400 rpm complaints are mostly pointless, except in certain usage scenarios, like random reads/writes. Because the platters are smaller, the data density is higher, and the actual transfer speeds are in some cases, greater than 7200 rpm drives of the same capacity.
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Fusion drive does not equal hybrid drive. Do a Google search for the arstechnica article explaining the difference.
It's a great computer. The display is fantastic, it makes zero noise (I cannot hear the fans or HDD over the external drives sitting on my desk), and it is very fast. Beach balls are less frequent than on my 13" MBP (with 128 GB SSD); which is to say, very infrequent.
The 7200 vs 5400 rpm complaints are mostly pointless, except in certain usage scenarios, like random reads/writes. Because the platters are smaller, the data density is higher, and the actual transfer speeds are in some cases, greater than 7200 rpm drives of the same capacity.
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Fusion drive does not equal hybrid drive. Do a Google search for the arstechnica article explaining the difference.
I hate to break it to you, but all your files are on 2 separate disks. The so called "fusion" drive is just 2 separate drives. One SSD and one HD joined by your system software into one "Logical Drive". The drive you think is one HD is really 2 regular separate drives.
It's something Apple has always done and part of their commercial success. Graphics cards were a biggie back before QE...etc.
Apple would put low-end graphics cards into their cheaper configurations and then refuse to support these cards in the future.
The 64-bit Darwin kernel is another example. Early Core 2 Duos are 64-bit but have to use the 32-bit kernel. Why? Apple didn't bother making a driver...
In most Macs none of these things can be upgraded so you have to buy something newer or miss out if you selected the low-end model.
Buying a Mac Pro or hackintoshing seems to be the only real option for those who want to customise.
Pity because I think there's a MASSIVE market for machines pretty well identical to the Mini/iMac (with the same price) where you can replace the HD, GPU and CPU amongst other things without a worry.
My hackintosh has is basically a:
- Quad core i5 3570 (where do the bloody dual core i5s that Apple uses come from?!?)
- 8gb RAM
- 2TB of storage (fusion drive)
- Geforce 660Ti with 2Gb VRAM
Above is a $700 machine. Why doesn't Apple offer a low-end tower that can be upgraded?
They have a teired pricing model that relies on people buying into their ecosystem. No complaints there... all amazing computers and I love Apple BUT this model is nothing new to Apple.
The biggest issue is when people don't want 1 potentially more desirable feature, but do want another (e.g. Those who want a smaller screen and a better HD... maybe they find 27" screens waaaay too big?)
People in that category can either suck it up, get a Mac Pro (even a 2nd hand one! They last...) or build a hackintosh.
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