So a Fusion drive will make THAT much of a difference rather than an SSD drive?
Damn, I just bought Fusion
You can't upgrade the hard drives o0n 27" iMacs can you? (retina)
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How long til I need to replace iMac?
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So a Fusion drive will make THAT much of a difference rather than an SSD drive?
Damn, I just bought Fusion
You can't upgrade the hard drives o0n 27" iMacs can you? (retina)
OP:
The 2012 iMac you have, has USB3, is this correct?
If you don't have an internal SSD, you could do this:
Buy a "bare" SSD of your choice.
Also buy either an external 2.5" enclosure, or a USB3/SATA docking station.
Connect it to the iMac, install an OS onto it, and use that as your "external booter".
You will get speeds that are the equivalent of a thunderbolt-based drive, but at far less cost.
I've seen pics of setups where the owner used a small enclosure, and velcro'ed the enclosure to the back of the iMac's stand -- very clean.
You should understand that by using USB3, you will -not- be able to use TRIM, but I've been booting and running my own Mac (Mini) this way for almost two years now, with little (next-to-nothing, really) evidence that the drive is "slowing down".
Works great!
The 2012 iMac you have, has USB3, is this correct?
If you don't have an internal SSD, you could do this:
Buy a "bare" SSD of your choice.
Also buy either an external 2.5" enclosure, or a USB3/SATA docking station.
Connect it to the iMac, install an OS onto it, and use that as your "external booter".
You will get speeds that are the equivalent of a thunderbolt-based drive, but at far less cost.
I've seen pics of setups where the owner used a small enclosure, and velcro'ed the enclosure to the back of the iMac's stand -- very clean.
You should understand that by using USB3, you will -not- be able to use TRIM, but I've been booting and running my own Mac (Mini) this way for almost two years now, with little (next-to-nothing, really) evidence that the drive is "slowing down".
Works great!
So a Fusion drive will make THAT much of a difference rather than an SSD drive?
Damn, I just bought Fusion
You can't upgrade the hard drives o0n 27" iMacs can you? (retina)
Yes you can, both the Blade SSD and HDD partitions. Even easier in your case as you have iMac 2012 which should be the same SSD as the rMBP 2012, though this will need to be confirmed. Transcend is selling Jetdrive 725 which goes up to 1TB for way cheaper than Apple's SSD. Mine is currently arriving with DHL on Monday. The HDD partition can be upgraded with any 2.5 SSDs.
You shouldn't worry about upgrading your Fusion right now though as though pure SSD setups are faster but Fusion is not slow by all means. Unless you require drive speed for your work.
No I have the new iMac retina 27" that just came out 2 months ago IF that makes a difference?/!!
No I am fine with the Fusion. This computer is super fast but I was thinking 3 years down the road and couldn't remember if I had read it could upgrade the drive or not
My iMac is a 2011, had it 3 years this April. One of the most reliable machines I've had. Still boots in under a minute.
I didn't upgrade to Yosemite, I don't like ugly.
I didn't upgrade to Yosemite, I don't like ugly.
I did every two years (I try and time the new purchase when Intel's "tock" - the new microarchitecture - hits). I did replace my late 2013 after only a year for the new 5K model and I might replace this with the next 5K release depending on how/if it addresses the heat issues of the current model.
One of the oldest machines I've had was a Dell OptiPlex GX1 PIII 733. I purchased it used in 2003 and didn't replace it until a 2007 MB. My first Mac. It was an early 2007 model and is my current laptop. I say replaced, but in fact I kept the Dell as I liked having a desktop machine around and finally took it out of service with a 2009 Mac Mini. That machine was short lived as I sold it and bought a 2012 Mac Mini 2.3 i7. There really was a speed difference between the two, but mostly it was that I couldn't Airplay mirror, which was important to me and I started to feel that all my computers were getting old at the same time. I use the laptop to take notes and though I'd like something slimmer, it's fine for what I need it for. It's running Lion, which is unsupported as of October, 2014. That's EOL as far as I'm concerned for it, but will probably wait for Skylake to get a new laptop or go used as performance isn't as much an issue as current OS support. I'm not sure how old the Dell was but the PIII 733 chip was released October 1999. Lets call it 2000.
2000 Dell PIII -- 9 years
2009 Mac Mini -- 3 years
2007 MB -- 7 years and counting; will probably be 8 years total
2012 Mac Mini -- will probably keep until unsupported
Back in the 90s machines really did go out of date fast, but these days, for most people, I think a 2 or 3 year replacement cycle is a little excessive. One could argue for replacing when the machine still has value and you'll never have an old machine.
It was an early 2007 model and is my current laptop. I say replaced, but in fact I kept the Dell as I liked having a desktop machine around and finally took it out of service with a 2009 Mac Mini. That machine was short lived as I sold it and bought a 2012 Mac Mini 2.3 i7. There really was a speed difference between the two, but mostly it was that I couldn't Airplay mirror, which was important to me and I started to feel that all my computers were getting old at the same time. I use the laptop to take notes and though I'd like something slimmer, it's fine for what I need it for. It's running Lion, which is unsupported as of October, 2014. That's EOL as far as I'm concerned for it, but will probably wait for Skylake to get a new laptop or go used as performance isn't as much an issue as current OS support. I'm not sure how old the Dell was but the PIII 733 chip was released October 1999. Lets call it 2000.2000 Dell PIII -- 9 years
2009 Mac Mini -- 3 years
2007 MB -- 7 years and counting; will probably be 8 years total
2012 Mac Mini -- will probably keep until unsupported
Back in the 90s machines really did go out of date fast, but these days, for most people, I think a 2 or 3 year replacement cycle is a little excessive. One could argue for replacing when the machine still has value and you'll never have an old machine.
One of the oldest machines I've had was a Dell OptiPlex GX1 PIII 733. I purchased it used in 2003 and didn't replace it until a 2007 MB. My first Mac.
2000 Dell PIII -- 9 years
2009 Mac Mini -- 3 years
2007 MB -- 7 years and counting; will probably be 8 years total
2012 Mac Mini -- will probably keep until unsupported
Back in the 90s machines really did go out of date fast, but these days, for most people, I think a 2 or 3 year replacement cycle is a little excessive. One could argue for replacing when the machine still has value and you'll never have an old machine.
Lol I had a Dell Dimension 8100 from 1999 until 2013. It was a bare to use especially toward the end but aside from a hard drive and main fan replacement it ran fine. A few of those years the processor did near constant encoding. A shame Dell went to junk IMO.
Wow, you really hung in there. That PIII 733 chip was over $700 new and really was a workhorse for the time period. The 256 MB of RAM was kind of a problem. Think about that:
( 32 GB + 16 GB ) / 2 = 24 GB =~ 25 GB
25 GB / 100 =~ 256 MB
So something around 100 times less than a high end machine today.
It's viable until one of three things happen:
1. You can no longer get the latest security updates to the OS (by virtue of not being able to run the latest version of OS X and then losing the ability to get security updates for the OS you have installed, assuming it's the last supported release for that computer), the browser you use, iTunes, Adobe Flash Player or anything else that you use.
2. Your machine is too slow to optimally run a software product that you want to use on it.
3. You need to get it repaired and the cost of repair exceeds the cost/hassle of buying an iMac of similar or newer vintage.
It's hard to tell when that will happen for you. I can't speak about 2, but 1 probably won't happen for another three years at least. 3 will likely happen five years from now if you're in California, three years if you're not (by virtue of the machine being deemed obsolete by warranty laws and parts not being available for it).
From a former PC at home user:
My last computer I purchased before 12/22/14 was an early 2008 24" iMac, fully spec'd out. It currently has 6GB RAM, and it was starting to show it's age. For a guy that used to replace his computer every 1.5-2 years, it's pretty amazing to keep one for 6.5 years.
I ran Lord of the Rings Online, Yosemite Server (serving Time Machine backups), VMWare, and all sorts of other programs on it.
Total reloads of the OS: 1* (Something I never dreamed of with Windows)
Satisfaction:
*Wiping and reloading the O/S, not upgrades
Well, yes. Macs from 2013 onwards use Apple's new style SSD which is even faster but currently only OWC offers parades aside from used ones on eBay (OWC's got up to 2TB but they're slower than Apple's SSDs). Both options are not financially sound. There might be more options in the future.
I've got the iMac 5K too. If it's super fast for you now I'm sure in 3 years time when OSX Yellowstone or whatever hits it'll still be fast.