Should I buy this?

[ejemplo1111]

Hello everyone
i need some advice , I was ready to buy:

New iMac 27" 3.3ghz / M390 8gb memory
128 gb SSD
$2299 plus taxes (about $2500 total)

But then I came upon this :

From a family member, late 2015 iMac 27"
3.3ghz / M390 8gb (purchased 5 months ago new so still under Apple warranty until 2017)
2 TB FUSION DRIVE
$1600

I always wanted SSD but now it's a very tough call since there is a $900 difference , money I can use to purchase extra memory ram , would I really suffer by getting the FD?

Thanks for reading !
(Ps - I posted this question in the middle of another thread but it got soon shut down due to arguments between users, to those who helped me there , I never got a chance to say thank you!)

 

[Weaselboy]

I always wanted SSD but now it's a very tough call since there is a $900 difference , money I can use to purchase extra memory ram , would I really suffer by getting the FD?

I would easily go for the one from the family member and save the $900. The 2TB Fusion drive actually uses a 128GB SSD inside as part of the Fusion drive. So even if you do not like the Fusion setup, you can separate the Fusion drive and have a 128GB SSD with a free hard drive for way less money.

 

[ejemplo1111]

Any cons I should be aware of regarding "defusing" the drives ? I have read many good n bad things about it but don't know how it's done

 

[Weaselboy]

Any cons I should be aware of regarding "defusing" the drives ? I have read many good n bad things about it but don't know how it's done

The downside is it is a bit more of a hassle managing what you put where, where with the Fusion it manages all that for you. You can nuke the whole Fusion setup by running the below command in Terminal.

diskutil cs delete "Macintosh HD"

Just beware that this erase everything on both drives and you will have to start completely from scratch by reformatting the two drives then reinstalling the OS and all your apps and data in whatever of the two drives you want.

I would give it a try for a while first. Many people are quite happy with the Fusion setup.

 

[ejemplo1111]

Can I fuse it again if I'm not happy with the setup? And how will I do that ?

Thank you!

 

[Weaselboy]

Can I fuse it again if I'm not happy with the setup? And how will I do that ?

Thank you!

Yes... see my post #14 here. You are quite welcome.

 

[maflynn]

Any cons I should be aware of regarding "defusing" the drives ? I have read many good n bad things about it but don't know how it's done

The downside that comes to my mind (and one that I ran into), is your home folder being too big to fit on the SSD.

I defused my iMac and I was forced to hard link my home folders to the spinning drive, it got to the point where most of my stuff was on the slower drive and it seemed I was defeating the purpose of defusing.
My pictures, music, and Library folders all had to move. I might have managed my Documents folder on the SSD portion but at that point, I gave up.

 

[ejemplo1111]

I read somewhere that the system does an amazing job of organizing all files on the fusion.

I end up getting the used one with fusion drive , as a plus , he already had 16gb of ram installed , so I think that should be enough for most purposes

Thanks everyone for taking their time to answer my post !

 

[Weaselboy]

I read somewhere that the system does an amazing job of organizing all files on the fusion.

When Fusion first came out Ars Technica did a really good article here how it all works. Long read, but interesting.

 

[maflynn]

I read somewhere that the system does an amazing job of organizing all files on the fusion

It really does and if you have no need to split up the drives and live with a more complicated situation, then by all means keep it fused.

 

[varian55zx]

It really does and if you have no need to split up the drives and live with a more complicated situation, then by all means keep it fused.

Very well said, malflynn.

Keeping them fused is a great option. Great.

I don't need to tell people to unfuse their drives, I merely state the facts (on which I am very knowledgeable), and let people decide for themselves.