SSD Life problem

[turtlez]

I generally like to last about 5-6 years before replacing. My main source of income is indesign/photoshop/illustrator work and I don't need the latest and greatest each year to do it so I am fine. I just want to make sure this iMac is not going to be an expensive repair job for the 5-6 year period.

 

[Dave26]

I generally like to last about 5-6 years before replacing. I just want to make sure this iMac is not going to be an expensive repair job for the 5-6 year period.

I agree i've invested in the new iMac with near top specs (all accept the 32GB Ram which i'll upgrade later if i need it) After spending £2301.80 (with student discount) I also want my machine to last 5-6 years. After investing in the 3TB fusion drive i have seen conflicting posts on this forum, some people say they don't trust the fusion and not to buy it. There is even another thread that someone started saying "DON'T BUY THE 2012 iMac" because there are issues with them.

 

[turtlez]

I agree i've invested in the new iMac with near top specs (all accept the 32GB Ram which i'll upgrade later if i need it) After spending £2301.80 (with student discount) I also want my machine to last 5-6 years. After investing in the 3TB fusion drive i have seen conflicting posts on this forum, some people say they don't trust the fusion and not to buy it. There is even another thread that someone started saying "DON'T BUY THE 2012 iMac" because there are issues with them.

I like the idea of Fusion I just want to know that there won't be any background large scale moving on a regular basis between the two fused drives. If the moving is only a one off thing depending on how frequently i change my most used Apps, I will be fine with it. I don't pay much attention to the DON'T BUY THIS DON'T BUY THAT! threads because it is usually someone who just happened to be unlucky and feels they can speak for all units that shipped out. Anger and frustration leads to high pitch noises

 

[RoastingPig]

well in 4-5 years i believe there will be 3tb ssd for like 100 bucks

 

[Dave26]

I like the idea of Fusion I just want to know that there won't be any background large scale moving on a regular basis between the two fused drives. If the moving is only a one off thing depending on how frequently i change my most used Apps, I will be fine with it. I don't pay much attention to the DON'T BUY THIS DON'T BUY THAT! threads because it is usually someone who just happened to be unlucky and feels they can speak for all units that shipped out. Anger and frustration leads to high pitch noises

I think from what was said at the keynote, the applications and documents are only moved when you use something all the while, for example if you use Aperture and not iPhoto then Aperture will be put on the SSD side and iPhoto moved to the HDD side. From what i have seen on the keynote i don't think there is any constant movement of files. I could however be wrong i'm not an expert on this!! I'm looking forward to seeing how fast my 3TB fusion drive is tomorrow when it arrives

 

[turtlez]

I've never paid attention to write/read amounts since I got this iMac (first time SSD) but now that I am observing I am noticing the SSD is constantly writing even when idle. varying from 100-400kb/s write speeds on idle. I left my mac idle without sleep for 1 hour and noticed an extra 400mb on the total writes since last restart. That is going to rack up the writes and decrease the life faster so my question is. Is it normal behaviour for sourcing constantly from the OS or should it just idle the SSD with the idled behaviour of the computer?

PS. I also noted increased hard drive write collection after sleeping the computer for a few hours

 

[mikeorchard]

I've never paid attention to write/read amounts since I got this iMac (first time SSD) but now that I am observing I am noticing the SSD is constantly writing even when idle. varying from 100-400kb/s write speeds on idle. I left my mac idle without sleep for 1 hour and noticed an extra 400mb on the total writes since last restart. That is going to rack up the writes and decrease the life faster so my question is. Is it normal behaviour for sourcing constantly from the OS or should it just idle the SSD with the idled behaviour of the computer?

It's a fusion drive. Therefore the OS and all associated page files etc are on the SSD, hence even when idle there will be activity.

Stop worrying.

 

[Mike in Kansas]

I've never paid attention to write/read amounts since I got this iMac (first time SSD) but now that I am observing I am noticing the SSD is constantly writing even when idle. varying from 100-400kb/s write speeds on idle. I left my mac idle without sleep for 1 hour and noticed an extra 400mb on the total writes since last restart. That is going to rack up the writes and decrease the life faster so my question is. Is it normal behaviour for sourcing constantly from the OS or should it just idle the SSD with the idled behaviour of the computer?

PS. I also noted increased hard drive write collection after sleeping the computer for a few hours

Again, see Hellhammer's responses earlier in this thread. These small amounts of writes will do nothing to decrease life...

 

[turtlez]

Today I ended up using 46GB of writes with just Photoshop painting on a fairly small sized canvas with less than 10 layers. Guess I better go get Apple Care

 

[bflowers]

If you your are going to throw out statistics don't make them up.

If you had ever taken a statistics class, the joke is that 75.4% of all statistics are made up. You just have to give the right number of decimal places to make is sound plausible. Therefore, the 99% should have been 98.9%. See, now you believe that he knows what he is talking about!

 

[turtlez]

If you had ever taken a statistics class, the joke is that 75.4% of all statistics are made up. You just have to give the right number of decimal places to make is sound plausible. Therefore, the 99% should have been 98.9%. See, now you believe that he knows what he is talking about!

I bet there is a 100.00% chance you are telling the truth

 

[maxosx]

Today I ended up using 46GB of writes with just Photoshop painting on a fairly small sized canvas with less than 10 layers. Guess I better go get Apple Care

I buy AppleCare on each new Mac I buy, without fail. First is because the AppleCare unit does a great job of taking care of its customers & their computers.

Second is because I appreciate the fast turnaround times in the event one must use the service. Twenty years of reliable Macs, doesn't preclude one from experiencing a component failure. With the price of my fully optioned, non user serviceable MBP Retina being over $3k, AppleCare is a must.

Third, I don't care if we're talking about SSD's HDD's or any other component, early failure is always possible. I just use mine, enjoy them, and don't obsess over the "what if's".

 

[turtlez]

I buy AppleCare on each new Mac I buy, without fail. First is because the AppleCare unit does a great job of taking care of its customers & their computers.

Second is because I appreciate the fast turnaround times in the event one must use the service. Twenty years of reliable Macs, doesn't preclude one from experiencing a component failure. With the price of my fully optioned, non user serviceable MBP Retina being over $3k, AppleCare is a must.

Third, I don't care if we're talking about SSD's HDD's or any other component, early failure is always possible. I just use mine, enjoy them, and don't obsess over the "what if's".

I always get it too, I just held off the auto subscription to wait for a bit more money to come in before I got it this time, figured I had a year so I held off. Now I want to get it straight away

 

[bflowers]

I bet there is a 100.00% chance you are telling the truth

Now see, I don't believe you; you used to many decimal places on 100%!

I also buy Apple care the vast majority of the time. I haven't purchased it on my new iMac yet, because I figured I could delay the extra charge a bit after dropping so much on the iMac. Only two exceptions.

1. My daughter smacked my dad's MacBook Pro with a bead neckless. AppleCare said no accidental damage coverage for the broken LCD, but I was able to cancel the remaining AppleCare, took the prorated refund and spent it on MacService replacing the screen for me.

2. My last MacBook, purchased on Black Friday three years ago at BestBuy. Took their geeksquad coverage because it covered accidental damage and battery replacement for about the same price. Repair turn arounds were slow, as they sent it off to Apple the first time, and their own facility the second (which involved waiting for parts). Overall, I got a new LCD when the video ribbon cable went bad, a new plastic shell due to cracks at the hinge, bottom shell where the rubber separated from the case and a new battery. Well worth it I think!

 

[turtlez]

Third, I don't care if we're talking about SSD's HDD's or any other component, early failure is always possible. I just use mine, enjoy them, and don't obsess over the "what if's".

Yeh I am usually like that but the newness of the iMac always changes me. However after reading what you said it got me back to my natural state of mind. Instead of researching I just put the computer to sleep and went to bed without thinking another thing of it. Feel much better about everything already. At my current rate of usage I should get about 5-6 years out of it in theory and that is a pretty damn good amount when I compare it to HDDs plus I'll more than likely be ready for the upgrade to the next iMac by then and of course have an external drive with everything backed up.

Thanks for the reply