Is the Fusion or 256GB flash worth $439 plus 150 gift card

[DynamicNotch]

over the base 1TB 5400 rpm Imac?

 

[MacOG728893]

over the base 1TB 5400 rpm Imac?

Completely subjective, but my opinion is absolutely.

 

[silvetti]

YES YES YES

I have an old Mac Mini Early 2009 that came with a 5400rpm drive and after changing it to 7200rpm it was ULTRA fast. Now I changed it again to an SSD and it is RIDONCULOUS

Do it!

If you want no noise from spinning platters get SSD, if you don't mind noise maybe get Fusion Drive as it will save you on external storage for iTunes library etc...

 

[Tanax]

YES YES YES

I have an old Mac Mini Early 2009 that came with a 5400rpm drive and after changing it to 7200rpm it was ULTRA fast. Now I changed it again to an SSD and it is RIDONCULOUS

Do it!

If you want no noise from spinning platters get SSD, if you don't mind noise maybe get Fusion Drive as it will save you on external storage for iTunes library etc...

It's not enough to only take into consideration the noise from the spinning platters. Also take into account that neither the internal SSD nor the internal HDD in a Fusion Drive is user- replaceable/upgradeable. Should you ever want to increase your SSD-portion (128GB) of your 1TB Fusion Drive, you can't do it. Should you ever want to increase your HDD-portion of your 1TB Fusion Drive, you have to do it externally any way.

Why not get the 256GB SSD and get an external HDD right from the start and save you the hassle as well as getting a larger SSD for the same money.

 

[bplein]

When I bought my Late 2012 27", I went for a 1TB Fusion Drive, but immediately bought an external thunderbolt adapter and put in a new 256GB Samsung SSD, and turned THAT into the boot drive. I have it attached to the back of the monitor where it cannot be seen.

Benefits:

• Ultra fast boot and apps and personal data on SSD, no compromises there.
• I put all my libraries of pictures, music, etc. on the 1TB Fusion drive
• If I need to bring it in for service, I can quickly remove my boot drive which has most of my personal data, and let Apple boot from their external bootable drives as they always do anyhow.

To me, this is the best of both worlds. I wanted to get the Fusion drive option up front so I'd have both the internal SSD as well as HDD so all brackets, etc. are in there for future upgrades, if necessary.

 

[DynamicNotch]

Just called apple sales and they said that the Fusion drive has less moving parts than pure SSD and the SSD is noisier.
Do I need one-to-one?

 

[djc6]

I stopped by my local Micro Center at 6PM today and they still had over a dozen of the $999 iMacs in stock. I snagged one for my parents to use - they have a nine year old Dell Optiplex GX280 that needs to be replaced before XP support expires.

I initially thought they should get the base iMac+Fusion drive, but the $999 deal at Micro Center made me rethink that. My options were these:

$1079.99 for the iMac ($999 sale+$80 in tax) or $1499.99 for the base iMac+Fusion drive at MacMall (no tax, free ship). I decided the $420 difference wasn't worth it for them.

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Just called apple sales and they said that the Fusion drive has less moving parts than pure SSD and the SSD is noisier.
Do I need one-to-one?

SSD = no moving parts.

Fusion is a normal spinning HDD plus an SSD combined. So it has moving parts. Additional noise would be negligible; both units still have fans.

 

[Roman2K~]

Just called apple sales and they said that the Fusion drive has less moving parts than pure SSD and the SSD is noisier.
Do I need one-to-one?

What they told you is ridiculous. In reality it's the exact opposite:

• the Fusion drive has moving parts (in the HDD) while there are none in a pure SSD configuration
• the Fusion drive is noisy (continuous hum) while a pure SSD configuration is silent, the only source of noise in the whole machine being the sole system CPU fan