need suggestion for imac 2017 512ssd or 2TB fusion drive

[icefire009]

Hi guys
I am currently planning to buy iMac 27inch with base model of 512SSD or the high end model (AMD 580 8G) with 2TB fusion drive (128G ssd included)

I am fully aware of the pure ssd is much better than a fusion drive, but i am expecting my imac can hold at least 5 years, so 512G ssd is just not enough for me. I have done some researches about the speed of fusion drive and pure ssd for 2017 imacs, and the pure ssd can have 2000mb/s for both writing and reading speed, while the 2 tb fusion drive can still have 700 mb/s writing and 2000/s reading speed, which is still faster than my 2014 macbook pro.

So my question is, can the fusion drive always hold speed in the beginning, or it will drop gradually after using a period of time? and how the fusion drive decide what files or applications are stored in ssd and hdd?

Thanks in advance,

 

[geoelectric]

Only way you'll always see that speed is if you never go beyond the size of the fusion partition, and if that were going to be true you wouldn't even need to ask. In general, fusion drives boot relatively fast and your most used apps run fastish. Everything else is pretty slow, and that ssd part really isn't that big.

Here's the thing: you can add an external spinning hard drive that'll be as fast as the non-ssd part of the fusion drive for pretty cheap. And by the time you outgrow your ssd you might be able to add an external high-cap SSD cheaply too. Your only loss then is automatic management of what's on where, and I'm not sure that's a loss. You probably know pretty well what you use often and what you don't, and I bet it doesn't change all that much. Add in increasingly cheap cloud storage and streaming for media and that ssd starts looking pretty good.

 

[PJivan]

Hi guys
I am currently planning to buy iMac 27inch with base model of 512SSD or the high end model (AMD 580 8G) with 2TB fusion drive (128G ssd included)

I am fully aware of the pure ssd is much better than a fusion drive, but i am expecting my imac can hold at least 5 years, so 512G ssd is just not enough for me. I have done some researches about the speed of fusion drive and pure ssd for 2017 imacs, and the pure ssd can have 2000mb/s for both writing and reading speed, while the 2 tb fusion drive can still have 700 mb/s writing and 2000/s reading speed, which is still faster than my 2014 macbook pro.

So my question is, can the fusion drive always hold speed in the beginning, or it will drop gradually after using a period of time? and how the fusion drive decide what files or applications are stored in ssd and hdd?

Thanks in advance,

There is an interesting article that mention also how FD will works on High Sierra and APFS https://arstechnica.com/apple/2017/...eview-a-quick-look-at-the-stuff-you-cant-see/

 

[Tjmckay4]

Add in increasingly cheap cloud storage and streaming for media and that ssd starts looking pretty good.

That's the way I'm going to go. I have a 2011 iMac running off an 120gb SSD with my data stored on the internal 3tb HDD. I will purchase a new 27" base or mid with 512gb.

I'm currently being ruthless by cutting back on the stuff I don't really need on the 3tb. I don't have any TV shows/movies as I have Netflix and now Stan (Australia). The issue is with the 700+ Gb synced with Dropbox. I will go through my home movies and photos and just archive for protection (not sync) with Dropbox and store them on an external HDD.