Fusion Drive or Not? Upgrade RAM?

[ajkr711]

I currently have a late 2006 edition iMac with 160gb hard drive, 1gb RAM and a 2.0GHz processor.

Needless to say, I need something more at this point. We've gotten more into some minor photo editing and some home video editing, but nothing much more than that (other than the normal iTunes, Office Suite, etc).

I'd like to keep this computer for another 5 years, but am trying to weigh whether or not the Fusion drive would be beneficial. Is 8GB of RAM enough? I know anything I get will be better than what I have now, but I'd like to try to maybe get a little more than what I need knowing that I want to keep this for a long time.

Any thoughts?

 

[metssuck]

I went with the fusion drive 3TB option just so that I don't have to worry for a while to get to the point where I need to delete stuff just to make room (I'm out of room on my 750GB MBP).

As far as the RAM, always buy after market (assuming you are getting a 27" iMac) as it's much MUCH cheaper and you are able to install it yourself pretty easily.

 

[G5Dual]

Yes, get the max RAM

Just received my iMac 27" late 2012. The 27" has user swappable RAM unlike the 21", so I bought just the stock 8GB RAM. Then bought two 8GB SIMMs from reputable 3rd party ($79) and installed them to get a total of 24GB RAM.
Note that new iMac 27" has strange layout of existing 8GB stock (2x4GB) RAM. Existing RAM was in the 2nd and 4th slots from the top. I put new 16 GB RAM (2x8GB) into slots 1 and 3. Went in so easily (none of the expected click or snap feeling) I thought they could not be seated, but they were! All worked perfectly.
If you get the 21" iMac, GET THE 16GB option! The 8GB size will be overcome by fat apps and OS upgrades in a year or two.
Also bought the 3TB Fusion setup. FAST! But even the 7200 RPM drives in the27" are going to be fast...so it's just a matter of money. One lesson: always get a bigger drive than you think you need.

 

[ajkr711]

I should have been a little more specific....I'm leaning towards the 21.5" as I'm not a gamer and I don't do a ton of video editing and quite frankly don't feel like I really need the 27" real estate.