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New Late iMac 2012 has 2 Drives?

hackerwayne

hackerwayne

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Feb 17, 2012
789
13
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
So, recently i read a post somewhere online saying that the Fusion drive in Mac Mini consist of 2 drives, 1 HDD and 1 SSD, does that mean the iMac too? I know the 2011 model can easily be upgraded, how about the upcoming super slim iMac? Its a good news to me if it comes with 2 drives or probably 1 HDD and 1 SSD sticks (similar to those on MacBook Airs). What do you guys think? Will it come with 2 different drives?
 
hackerwayne said:
So, recently i read a post somewhere online saying that the Fusion drive in Mac Mini consist of 2 drives, 1 HDD and 1 SSD, does that mean the iMac too? I know the 2011 model can easily be upgraded, how about the upcoming super slim iMac? Its a good news to me if it comes with 2 drives or probably 1 HDD and 1 SSD sticks (similar to those on MacBook Airs). What do you guys think? Will it come with 2 different drives?
Click to expand...

Yeah it will. It is a 128gb ssd and a 1tb hdd with the os on the ssd so you get fast boot times.
 
ipodmac said:
Yeah it will. It is a 128gb ssd and a 1tb hdd with the os on the ssd so you get fast boot times.
Click to expand...

the ssd will not be specifically contain the os, but apps and files you use most.

The Fusion Drive is as said one enclosure with a 128gb ssd and a 1 tb 7200 rpm hdd inside.

It is not possible to interchange the ssd with a larger one, say a 256 gb one. if you want more ssd space, the 768gb ssd is the only other option if you dont wanna try your luck with replacing it yourself. iFixit will do a guide if its at all possible.

I myself wish that it was possible to BTO a 27 imac with 256gb sdd. the gap from Fusion Drive to the 768gb is to large, and the added cost is too high

hope this answers your question
 
imacanon said:
The Fusion Drive is as said one enclosure with a 128gb ssd and a 1 tb 7200 rpm hdd inside.
Click to expand...

I think everything I have read says it is 2 enclosures joined in software... I think some one even got Fusion Drive mode on an older mac enabled with some hacks and was able to fuse his own SSD and HDD into 1 Fusion Drive...
 
I was under the impression a fusion drive was simply a 1/3tb regular hard drive alongside 128gb of flash storage (like the kind they have in the rMBPs).

There is only room for 1 regular hard drive in the iMacs now.
 
Don't confuse the Fusion drive with the hybrid drives on the market like the Seagate Momentus XT. These hybrids have flash ram built into them to work like extended cache and can't be used for user decided storage. Fusion is two separate drives. One is a standard platter hd and the other is a " blade" style ssd like the ones OWC sell to upgrade the 2011/12 Retnia MacBook Pros. Go back through the keynote posted on the Apple website and freeze the screen when it shows a cutaway view of the 2012 iMac. The ssd is in the lower left center of the screen. There's a screenshot of it somewhere in the forums, but I lost track of it.

Dale

Found it...

Link to photo of 2012 iMac mother board
 
Last edited:
the funny thing i you look on the back of the imac 2012 they had a place where the hard is located and another where the ssd. If it is easy to open and user accessible I believe you can install sad and have a hard drive for both. That would be awesome

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I just read the post above. exactly
 
DIMEZ said:
the funny thing i you look on the back of the imac 2012 they had a place where the hard is located and another where the ssd. If it is easy to open and user accessible I believe you can install sad and have a hard drive for both. That would be awesome

----------

I just read the post above. exactly
Click to expand...

Its confirmed a good news for us DIYers xD, it uses same type of SSD as what the 13" rMBP uses along side with a 2.5" 1TB drive. RAM and processor too is still upgradable provided you gotta remove the screen first.
 
hackerwayne said:
Its confirmed a good news for us DIYers xD, it uses same type of SSD as what the 13" rMBP uses along side with a 2.5" 1TB drive. RAM and processor too is still upgradable provided you gotta remove the screen first.
Click to expand...

looks like you will have to order the fusion drive though...
 
ipodmac said:
Yeah it will. It is a 128gb ssd and a 1tb hdd with the os on the ssd so you get fast boot times.
Click to expand...

DIMEZ said:
looks like you will have to order the fusion drive though...
Click to expand...

I can order a 1TB standard iMac and add a SSD stick on it. Some might not have the connector soldered, but i have no problem soldering that in. Buying a cheapest 21.5" with i5 3330 and upgrade it to i7 3770 + 256GB SSD stick seems like a good deal
 
hackerwayne said:
Its confirmed a good news for us DIYers xD, it uses same type of SSD as what the 13" rMBP uses along side with a 2.5" 1TB drive. RAM and processor too is still upgradable provided you gotta remove the screen first.
Click to expand...

Apparently not all of the iMacs have the actual connector for the SSD. The one iFixit tore down (base model 2.7Ghz 21.5") did not have the connector soldered onto the logic board, although there was a place for it.

The high end (2.9Ghz) 21.5" model apparently does have the connector (link). This makes sense because that's the only 21.5" you can order with the Fusion option.

I'm not sure how easy it will be to solder that connector on, or even to find one of those connectors since it's proprietary. The contact points look really tiny: http://guide-images.ifixit.net/igi/ZTSiyt32BumalDcI.huge
 
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