Ideal external for new iMac

[cpo]

I will be buying a new iMac, debating on the 512 Flash or the 1TB Fusion with an external. The question is, what would be an ideal external. I have looked at this . . .Mercury Elite Pro Qx2 4TB. I was wondering if it could be set up as a Raid 1 on two of the disks and use the 3rd for TM back up and the 4th for extra storage.

 

[jav6454]

I will be buying a new iMac, debating on the 512 Flash or the 1TB Fusion with an external. The question is, what would be an ideal external. I have looked at this . . .Mercury Elite Pro Qx2 4TB. I was wondering if it could be set up as a Raid 1 on two of the disks and use the 3rd for TM back up and the 4th for extra storage.

Get a 512GB internal SSD, and then use savings for bigger external.

 

[yjchua95]

Get a 512GB internal SSD, and then use savings for bigger external.

This.

Read/writes for:
SSD: 750/650 MB/s.
Fusion: 550/350 MB/s.

A Fusion is just as likely to fail as a HDD, because it's still got a HDD in it. When the HDD part fails, the entire Fusion drive fails. You can't just work off the SSD sector.

So get a pure SSD for speed and reliability.

For a good external drive, I suggest a Buffalo HD-PATU3 Thunderbolt drive. It's got a pretty decent read/write of around 105-110 MB/s. Or you could buy the SSD variant of the same drive, the HD-PATU3S.

I've seen one guy take apart a HD-PATU3 and put a Crucial M4 SSD in it, and achieve read/writes of around 360-370 MB/s over Thunderbolt.

 

[cpo]

Thanks for the input
I will be buying the 512GB SSD, so now I am moving on to figuring out the storage/back up scenario. Can any one offer their opinion on the OWC Mercury Elite Pro Qx2. I was thinking this unit would give me the redundancy that I am looking for as well as extra storage.
Any thoughts.

 

[AppleFan360]

One note. SSD's do fail just like regular HDD's. They only have so many read/write cycles. The fact that they are more reliable is somewhat of a myth.

 

[thedeske]

Agree with above members - 512 Flash Drive. Have the same config on my model from early this year & it makes all the difference. For externals, I keep a simple WD Passport and a 4TB Caldigit AV Pro. 2 local backup drives = peace of mind.

 

[7enderbender]

I will be buying a new iMac, debating on the 512 Flash or the 1TB Fusion with an external. The question is, what would be an ideal external. I have looked at this . . .Mercury Elite Pro Qx2 4TB. I was wondering if it could be set up as a Raid 1 on two of the disks and use the 3rd for TM back up and the 4th for extra storage.

Just went through that question with my Mac Mini. Decided against the fusion drive and went with a 250GB flash drive internally and a G-Technology USB3 2GB external. They have them at a discount at B&H at the moment.

And that way you can later easily swap drives, expand, etc. Speed difference between USB3 and internal HDDs seems to be negligible today.

Then system SSD and data drive will be backed up to an external server solution with RAID that I'm investigating right now.