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Replacement iMac.....upgrade processor or upgrade to fusion drive?

N

nickosbad

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 16, 2009
194
48
Hi all, due to an unfortunate incident, my insurance company is replacing my iMac
I had a 3.06 I3 that I had upgraded to an SSD

The one I have been offered is the 2.7 I5 and I am co spidering a bit of an upgrade
I can only really afford to upgrade either to the 2.9 I5 or upgrade to the fusion drive
Considering the main uses are handbrake encodes and acting as a server for my Apple tv which would I likely benefit from most??

I loved the speed of the SSD but am not sure if it benefited really

Cheers, Nick
 
Given that choice, I would get the Fusion. The difference between 2.7 and 2.9 will not be noticeable unless you are sitting there comparing two large HB encodes with a stopwatch.
 
Hmmmm.... The more I think about it the more I'm leaning towards a 256 SSD as most of my content is on an external drive anyway!!
 
nickosbad said:
Hmmmm.... The more I think about it the more I'm leaning towards a 256 SSD as most of my content is on an external drive anyway!!
Click to expand...

+1. I went for a 256GB SSD in my 21.5" iMac for the sake of pure speed and reliability alone.

Besides, all my media is stored externally in an NAS.

I've had that iMac since October 2013 and to date, it's got 205GB free.
 
Honestly replace everything.......

Yes a fusion drive will see the first immediate benefits, you also have to think about your cpu. You can always upgrade your internal hard drive, but you're stuck with the CPU + GPU that your computer comes with.


From my experience though these CPU's are more than powerful and even the most intensive video programs I've come close to 70-80% on an 3.4 i7.

What I did have problems with is the gpu, 2GB graphics card is not enough for my current workflow, so I couldn't even think about having less. I'm a firm believer that you should only upgrade when you need too, IF your current model was fine then stick to the basics and no need to spend the extra money on anything more powerful than you already had

peace
 
Handbrake can take the Benifit from a faster CPU. However, most likely you will just setup the queue and let the computer run it, rather than sitting in front of your comouter and watching it with a stop watch. Therefore, the benifit is virtually transparent for you.

On the other hand, there is almost no real benifit on using SSD for Handbrake or as media server for Apple TV. However, you can feel the speed difference when you actually use your computer (start up you Mac, load Handbrake, import / export files, etc). And this is quite a important factor on a user point or view, because this will be your real world experience.

Therefore, go for the SSD, unless your Mac run Handbrake for 24/7 and still can't finish all the job.
 
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