New base 21.5" iMac good for wife?

[Cody1992]

Ah! But there we go. Storage space. I said 70%, because practically every non-techy I talk to use less than 128gigs. With that in mind, SSDs make more sense, do you not agree? Perhaps the people I surround myself with (other than the techies) just use way less space than average, but now you know the basis of my claim.

I definitely understand where you are coming from, I tend to download my media and keep it on my computer whereas many of my friends often question my reasons. "You can just stream it", they say. "Why would you want to have it on your computer if it's all the same". In short, I agree that many of them don't use more than 100GBs, leaving their hard drives mostly open.

The thing is that's not really my point. My point is that they don't need it, do any of you remember needing "retina" quality screens before they came out? Sure they looked amazing, still do, but it didn't alter the functionality of the device. Most people won't even recognize the speed difference aside from booting the computer up. Simply put, they see an added cost for something they don't even think they need, and on top of all of that, it seems to have much less space!
I would like to add that going through these forums I have encountered a lot of posts about Macs using HDD that completely undermine the user experience. I have two things to say about these people; they are either lying, or they have defective hardware. Even many of the forum regulars quickly and sharply reply "get an SSD" as soon as "my computers slow" is mentioned, when it often has nothing to do with the storage. I won't name any users but you guys are kind of wack... Dozens upon dozens of posts just telling users that they should get an SSD because YOU are right and THEY are wrong. That's not how this works, people have different needs and expectations. Some of yours are obviously unrealistically high. Sometimes you guys talk about SSDs as if they're the second coming of Christ; how you can't live without them and "any computer sold in 2015 should have an SSD, no questions". Yes, questions please!

 

[casperes1996]

I definitely understand where you are coming from, I tend to download my media and keep it on my computer whereas many of my friends often question my reasons. "You can just stream it", they say. "Why would you want to have it on your computer if it's all the same". In short, I agree that many of them don't use more than 100GBs, leaving their hard drives mostly open.

The thing is that's not really my point. My point is that they don't need it, do any of you remember needing "retina" quality screens before they came out? Sure they looked amazing, still do, but it didn't alter the functionality of the device. Most people won't even recognize the speed difference aside from booting the computer up. Simply put, they see an added cost for something they don't even think they need, and on top of all of that, it seems to have much less space!
I would like to add that going through these forums I have encountered a lot of posts about Macs using HDD that completely undermine the user experience. I have two things to say about these people; they are either lying, or they have defective hardware. Even many of the forum regulars quickly and sharply reply "get an SSD" as soon as "my computers slow" is mentioned, when it often has nothing to do with the storage. I won't name any users but you guys are kind of wack... Dozens upon dozens of posts just telling users that they should get an SSD because YOU are right and THEY are wrong. That's not how this works, people have different needs and expectations. Some of yours are obviously unrealistically high. Sometimes you guys talk about SSDs as if they're the second coming of Christ; how you can't live without them and "any computer sold in 2015 should have an SSD, no questions". Yes, questions please!

Your points are completely fair. I for one literally do need retina and an SSD (for many reasons, one is Final Cut, another is eyesight). I am however aware that not everyone does. In some cases, it is the reason for a slow machine however, and HDDs fail more often than other components in a computer, and are prone to slowing down over time.
In the discussion of whether people who buy a new computer should get an SSD, I still think most should. Since we agree they don't need the extra space, so they might as well get the faster storage, if it's the same price, and it is, if you compare a 1tb HDD to a small SSD. If one of my not so tech savvy friends asked me for advice, I would suggest an SSD, even if it's 1/10th the size of a similarly priced HDD.

 

[matreya]

I bought my first SSD 4.5 years ago, and I would never go back to booting MacOS X from spinning rust... I've never said you need an SSD, but it sure makes using a mac nicer, for me. If you're one of the people who's happy running Yosemite on 6 year old gear and waiting 10 hops for an app to start, good luck to you. Those of us that are prepared to pay for newer faster gear should be able to do so, and suggest SSDs as a way of breathing new life into an old Mac or that a fusion drive will improve the experience of a mac with only a 5400RPM HDD in it, without being called names.

 

[Khalanad75]

I bought my first SSD 4.5 years ago, and I would never go back to booting MacOS X from spinning rust... I've never said you need an SSD, but it sure makes using a mac nicer, for me. If you're one of the people who's happy running Yosemite on 6 year old gear and waiting 10 hops for an app to start, good luck to you. Those of us that are prepared to pay for newer faster gear should be able to do so, and suggest SSDs as a way of breathing new life into an old Mac or that a fusion drive will improve the experience of a mac with only a 5400RPM HDD in it, without being called names.

From what I have seen in the forums, it's more the people who are perfectly fine with platter drives who get called names or poked at more.

 

[Samuelsan2001]

I definitely understand where you are coming from, I tend to download my media and keep it on my computer whereas many of my friends often question my reasons. "You can just stream it", they say. "Why would you want to have it on your computer if it's all the same". In short, I agree that many of them don't use more than 100GBs, leaving their hard drives mostly open.

The thing is that's not really my point. My point is that they don't need it, do any of you remember needing "retina" quality screens before they came out? Sure they looked amazing, still do, but it didn't alter the functionality of the device. Most people won't even recognize the speed difference aside from booting the computer up. Simply put, they see an added cost for something they don't even think they need, and on top of all of that, it seems to have much less space!
I would like to add that going through these forums I have encountered a lot of posts about Macs using HDD that completely undermine the user experience. I have two things to say about these people; they are either lying, or they have defective hardware. Even many of the forum regulars quickly and sharply reply "get an SSD" as soon as "my computers slow" is mentioned, when it often has nothing to do with the storage. I won't name any users but you guys are kind of wack... Dozens upon dozens of posts just telling users that they should get an SSD because YOU are right and THEY are wrong. That's not how this works, people have different needs and expectations. Some of yours are obviously unrealistically high. Sometimes you guys talk about SSDs as if they're the second coming of Christ; how you can't live without them and "any computer sold in 2015 should have an SSD, no questions". Yes, questions please!

While I understand your point, if you are spending that amount of money on a computer getting one without the obvious benefits of the ssd and the retina screen is just a bit silly.

 

[Lankyman]

From what I have seen in the forums, it's more the people who are perfectly fine with platter drives who get called names or poked at more.

People were fine with horse and plough before the advent of tractors but let's face it things move on. I was relatively happy with a 7200 rpm HDD in my 4 year old iMac. However, the inclusion of an SSD has breathed fire into the machine not just new life. It was never this good when it was new.

If anyone has used the base iMac with the low performing CPU and a 5400 rpm HDD then they will know the meaning of the word 'frustration'. That is a machine you would want to take a stick to and beat it repeatedly.

 

[tdb2284]

People were fine with horse and plough before the advent of tractors but let's face it things move on. I was relatively happy with a 7200 rpm HDD in my 4 year old iMac. However, the inclusion of an SSD has breathed fire into the machine not just new life. It was never this good when it was new.

If anyone has used the base iMac with the low performing CPU and a 5400 rpm HDD then they will know the meaning of the word 'frustration'. That is a machine you would want to take a stick to and beat it repeatedly.

I just bought the 21.5 inch model, non retina..with the Iris Pro graphics, 8gb of Memory and 1TB hard drive space.. I am wondering if i should have waited for them to refresh the 21.5 models.

 

[matreya]

I just bought the 21.5 inch model, non retina..with the Iris Pro graphics, 8gb of Memory and 1TB hard drive space.. I am wondering if i should have waited for them to refresh the 21.5 models.

You should have opted for the fusion drive at least....

 

[tdb2284]

You should have opted for the fusion drive at least....

How big of a difference would that make? We use the mac for day to day stuff. Web, email, light gaming..netflix.

 

[matreya]

How big of a difference would that make? We use the mac for day to day stuff. Web, email, light gaming..netflix.

Compared to the 5400RPM HDD used in the iMac, a fusion drive would be heaps faster to boot and load apps, even loading webpages is faster because the web browser cache is loading faster.

 

[Lankyman]

I just bought the 21.5 inch model, non retina..with the Iris Pro graphics, 8gb of Memory and 1TB hard drive space.. I am wondering if i should have waited for them to refresh the 21.5 models.

Hopefully it's not to late to return it - claim mental aberration, they'll believe you. Once you've done that go home and order the proper model online.

 

[RenoG]

Hey OP you get your computer for your wife yet? I'm curious to hear how she likes it and how the adjustment for her is going.

 

[Cody1992]

I bought my first SSD 4.5 years ago, and I would never go back to booting MacOS X from spinning rust... I've never said you need an SSD, but it sure makes using a mac nicer, for me. If you're one of the people who's happy running Yosemite on 6 year old gear and waiting 10 hops for an app to start, good luck to you. Those of us that are prepared to pay for newer faster gear should be able to do so, and suggest SSDs as a way of breathing new life into an old Mac or that a fusion drive will improve the experience of a mac with only a 5400RPM HDD in it, without being called names.

I am sorry to use you as an example but you have exactly the mentality that I find unhelpful on these forums. You literally just said you haven't used a Mac with an HDD for the past 4.5 years. What makes you think any app I open takes more than 1 or 2 bounces? It can't be from experience as was just covered; no it's your preconceived notion of SSDs reigning supreme over HDDs. You, and many on this forum, are unfairly tough on HDDs when the truth is that they are not nearly as bad as you guys make them out to be.

People were fine with horse and plough before the advent of tractors but let's face it things move on. I was relatively happy with a 7200 rpm HDD in my 4 year old iMac. However, the inclusion of an SSD has breathed fire into the machine not just new life. It was never this good when it was new.

If anyone has used the base iMac with the low performing CPU and a 5400 rpm HDD then they will know the meaning of the word 'frustration'. That is a machine you would want to take a stick to and beat it repeatedly.

I assume you are joking...

 

[matreya]

I am sorry to use you as an example but you have exactly the mentality that I find unhelpful on these forums. You literally just said you haven't used a Mac with an HDD for the past 4.5 years. What makes you think any app I open takes more than 1 or 2 bounces? It can't be from experience as was just covered; no it's your preconceived notion of SSDs reigning supreme over HDDs. You, and many on this forum, are unfairly tough on HDDs when the truth is that they are not nearly as bad as you guys make them out to be.

There you go, based on the information available, you assumed I hadn't used a hard drive to boot from for the past 4.5 years. Before SSD prices came down, my bootable clone drive was a 7200RPM drive connected via USB3. I managed to screw up my keychain, so I quickly rebooted into my clone and re-cloned it back to my internal SSD. Going back to a hard drive to boot up was slow... slow to boot, slow to launch applications, it was like walking in wet concrete up to my knees.

But nothing I or anyone else will convince you, clearly SSDs are outside your budget, and so you and those like you feverishly try to reinforce your perception that everything is fine with using Macs with HDDs as boot/application drives.

As SSD prices drop further you're going to find it harder to find any product using a regular old and slow HDD. If the speed improvements are imaginary, explain the switch to SSD.

 

[Lankyman]

I assume you are joking...

About the base iMac you mean? Certainly not, it's a hateful bit of kit, a Mac Air without the speed of an Air or the superior storage media of the Air.

In the UK it's what we call a 'supermarket special'. That's not a good thing BTW.

 

[Cody1992]

There you go, based on the information available, you assumed I hadn't used a hard drive to boot from for the past 4.5 years. Before SSD prices came down, my bootable clone drive was a 7200RPM drive connected via USB3. I managed to screw up my keychain, so I quickly rebooted into my clone and re-cloned it back to my internal SSD. Going back to a hard drive to boot up was slow... slow to boot, slow to launch applications, it was like walking in wet concrete up to my knees.

But nothing I or anyone else will convince you, clearly SSDs are outside your budget, and so you and those like you feverishly try to reinforce your perception that everything is fine with using Macs with HDDs as boot/application drives.

As SSD prices drop further you're going to find it harder to find any product using a regular old and slow HDD. If the speed improvements are imaginary, explain the switch to SSD.

I have nothing to say to you, you just called me out on making assumptions and then turned around and made your own. You're right, you can't convince me. Apparently you're willing to lie to yourself and others about the performance of HDDs though, so that's okay. No one is saying that HDDs are better than SSDs, and I guess that's something personal to you because you seem to be dissatisfied with them, yet I am sure you keep a back up of all of your files on one.
In any case, nice try at putting me down but FYI, you're wrong about the money part

About the base iMac you mean? Certainly not, it's a hateful bit of kit, a Mac Air without the speed of an Air or the superior storage media of the Air.

In the UK it's what we call a 'supermarket special'. That's not a good thing BTW.

I meant the tractors part but thanks for the condescending tone! Glad I could be your fool

 

[matreya]

I have nothing to say to you, you just called me out on making assumptions and then turned around and made your own. You're right, you can't convince me. Apparently you're willing to lie to yourself and others about the performance of HDDs though, so that's okay. No one is saying that HDDs are better than SSDs, and I guess that's something personal to you because you seem to be dissatisfied with them, yet I am sure you keep a back up of all of your files on one.

Awful lot said for not having anything to say to me

Of course I use hard drives, in RAID arrays to backup my files. But I wouldn't use a hard drive as a system disc after experiencing the superiority of SSDs. If you want to believe that I am lying to myself and others, that's your prerogative. The world is moving from HDDs to SSDs for main system drives, of course, none of us are forcing you to change, but we'll argue against your assertions regarding SSDs and HDDs.

Despite all the words you avoided answering why, if you think the speed improvement is negligible, there's a switch from HDDs to SSDs as main system drives?