Fusion drive upgradability questions

[Loa]

Hello,

If I buy an iMac with a fusion drive, is it a 3.5 HDD and a 2.5 HDD, or a 3.5 with a m.2 ssd?

Also, if I buy one with just an SSD, can I open the iMac (with difficulty, I know) and add a 3.5 HDD inside?

(I'm not planning on using a fusion drive, I just want to know if I could put a 10TB 3.5 and a 2TB m.2 SSD inside an iMac.)

Thanks.

 

[ddmcnair]

Hello,
I would stongly suggest staying from Fusion / Hybrid. It is literally the worst of both worlds. Not enough SSD and the unreliablity of HDD. I work at a place that had 1,000 Dells with hybrid drives. In the 5th year we replaced over 30 of those drives, and when they go...they are gone. Go SSD all the way, and use Time Machine, with an HDD.

 

[mikehalloran]

Hello,

If I buy an iMac with a fusion drive, is it a 3.5 HDD and a 2.5 HDD, or a 3.5 with a m.2 ssd?

Also, if I buy one with just an SSD, can I open the iMac (with difficulty, I know) and add a 3.5 HDD inside?

(I'm not planning on using a fusion drive, I just want to know if I could put a 10TB 3.5 and a 2TB m.2 SSD inside an iMac.)

Thanks.

Depends on the year

Depends on the year. You can always add a 2.5 which runs cooler. With SSDs now up to 4TB, why install an HDD?

(Don’t. A USB 3 dock can be had for $20 and an HDD runs no faster than on the inside).

You’re welcome.

 

[badgerbadgerx2]

I would stongly suggest staying from Fusion / Hybrid.

Dude, come on. Dont just post a guess. A Fusion drive is NOT the same as a hybrid drive. 2 totally different things. Hybrid drives suck. They always have. Since day 1.

Fusion drives are a combination of PCIe (with special apple connection) and 3.5" HDDs.

mike is correct -- if you want more storage, add it externally. There is no advantage in adding a HDD internally vs externally. Speed is the same.

 

[Zdigital2015]

Hello,

If I buy an iMac with a fusion drive, is it a 3.5 HDD and a 2.5 HDD, or a 3.5 with a m.2 ssd?

Also, if I buy one with just an SSD, can I open the iMac (with difficulty, I know) and add a 3.5 HDD inside?

(I'm not planning on using a fusion drive, I just want to know if I could put a 10TB 3.5 and a 2TB m.2 SSD inside an iMac.)

Thanks.

The 21.5” iMac uses 2.5” HDDs and the 27” uses 3.5” HDDs. Both use Apple proprietary NVMe blade SSDs that are NOT m.2.

The 1TB Fusion contains a 32GB NVMe blade and the 2Tb and 3TB contain a 128GB NVMe blade.

If you buy one with just an SSD, you can add a 2.5” SSD to either size iMac, but as others have mentioned, I would not bother. Pick up a decent 2.5” USB-A or USB-C enclosure and use that instead of cracking open the iMac.

Also, I would instead simply pick up something like LaCie’s 2BIG Dock with either USB-C or Thunderbolt 3 and be done with it if you need spinning storage. The heat build up in the iMac chassis is not worth it.

I would also simply BTO the 1TB or 2TB NVMe SSD when you configure your iMac and be done with that as well. The 1TB in my i9 27” iMac runs at 2600MB/s and Read/1924MB/s Writes. You won’t save a great deal of money with Apple’s price reductions and you get to keep your warranty.

Good Luck!

 

[Loa]

Thanks for the info.

The heat build up in the iMac chassis is not worth it.

That's an interesting point I hadn't considered, having used exclusively Mac Pros and Power Macs in the past.

I think I'll save the hassle and go external. Thanks.