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To SSD or not SSD

J

JustMe74

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 5, 2011
18
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I'm about to order a 27 inch iMac, and I'm agonizing over the SSD option. I'd like re speed, but 256 gb is fairly small. Can I put my iTunes downloads and Bootcamp partition on the regular hard drive (sorry, I'm a Mac newbie) ?

Will the SSD really make that much of a performance difference? I plan on using the computer mostly for work, but also for some games (I play MMOs and RPGs; very rarely play FPS other than the occasional game of Team Fortress 2). I'm planning on maxing out all of the other options (CPU, RAM, etc.)
 
You can move pretty much everything else besides the OS and apps to the HD by moving your Home folder. SSD is definitely the biggest upgrade in today's computers but it is quite expensive in iMac since there is only option for 256GB.

I might pass on the SSD for now and get a Thunderbolt enclosure with an SSD later on.
 
I had the same question and was struggling with this when I was ordering my BTO iMac. I read online that SSDs only have a limited number of writes (if it's NAND which I believe Apple uses). Anyone know if this is true? I ended up just ordering 2 x 1TB HDs.
 
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I dont mind spending the money if it is a huge performance increase.

The home folder is the users profile folder? On my MacBook Pro I copies this once by logging in as root, copying and then editing the location in the user settings.... Is that what we're talking about?
 
An SSD isn't going to give you any more FPS in games. Loading times in levels should be cut down but you are still at the mercy of the servers to some degree.

They will improve overall system responsiveness and load times.
 
I'm undecided as well but the $600 price tag has me leaning toward skipping the SSD. :eek:

Why can't they offer a 64 GB SSD option for install of the OS? The 1 TB hard drive is plenty of space and if not there is a TB port on the back anxiously awaiting the addition of more disk space if and when anything using TB is released.
 
Hellhammer said:
I might pass on the SSD for now and get a Thunderbolt enclosure with an SSD later on.
Click to expand...

What gentleman here said.

It's not like if HDD is so slow that moving from HDD to SSD could compare to getting your very first HDD after having to boot from tape drive.

Once Thunderbolt SSD drives become available in a couple of months, you can just get one of those, install OSX on it and just keep your /Users on your old drive.
 
As the SSDs have a delay of some weeks anyway I'd just wait and see how well they perform. This would also give a chance to wait for the Lion announcement at WWDC.
 
i got my MBP w/SSD last September. Wow is all I can say.

I use mine for consulting though, so I appreciate it booting in 30 seconds, VMware Fusion starting windows in about the same time or less.

I would say it depends on your usage of the machine - but if you use a ton of memory, or use Fusion at all, you'll definitely notice it the improvement.

I'm thinking of getting the iMac as well - however I think I'll get the 1TB SATA + SSD so that I can put the data on the SATA drive and the applications on the SSD drive.

Thunderbolt drive can always complement the machine later.
 
I ordered mine with a the SSD + 1GB. I've just been drooling over the fast boot and app load times. If you don't order it with SSD you'll have to get the cabling and special iMac mount to get it in there internally (I'm sure they will become available). It's expensive, but I thought the SSD would give me more cost/benefit than the i7 CPU, 2GB video memory or 16GB RAM (went with 8GB).
 
sanity said:
I ordered mine with a the SSD + 1GB. I've just been drooling over the fast boot and app load times. If you don't order it with SSD you'll have to get the cabling and special iMac mount to get it in there internally (I'm sure they will become available). It's expensive, but I thought the SSD would give me more cost/benefit than the i7 CPU, 2GB video memory or 16GB RAM (went with 8GB).
Click to expand...

what kind of shipping time do you have on your order - i was about to order the same configuration. however i noticed that when i clicked on anything SSD related it bumped the shipping time out to 4-6 weeks.
 
I choose not to SSD. It's rare that I turn my computer off or restart so having a fast boot time isn't a big deal. I also typically use the same apps so also having them boot up fast isn't a big deal since I only do it once every so often. I would like to have an SSD in the future, but right now because of cost I decided to allocate my money on a bigger standard hard drive and other items.
 
I SSDed. After owning a MacBook Air, I just can't go back to not having one. So I waited for this iMac, I'm selling my 2006 Mac Pro this Saturday and never looking back :D
 
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SiskoKid said:
I SSDed. After owning a MacBook Air, I just can't go back to not having one. So I waited for this iMac, I'm selling my 2006 Mac Pro this Saturday and never looking back :D
Click to expand...

Same. I can't believe what a difference it makes on my air. I do wish smaller/cheaper options were available though. I could put all my stuff on a 128 gb drive and would even be fine with a 64 gb + 1 tb hdd set up.
 
Is there any chance the Apple SSDs will be SATA III? Then the price wouldn't be so bad relative to other 6GB/s SSDs
 
andrew.bussman said:
I had the same question and was struggling with this when I was ordering my BTO iMac. I read online that SSDs only have a limited number of writes (if it's NAND which I believe Apple uses). Anyone know if this is true? I ended up just ordering 2 x 1TB HDs.
Click to expand...

It's a non-issue. Even if you write 10 GB a day, the drive will work for about 3-4 years if I recall correctly. Even then it will still be readable.
 
natasha69 said:
what kind of shipping time do you have on your order - i was about to order the same configuration. however i noticed that when i clicked on anything SSD related it bumped the shipping time out to 4-6 weeks.
Click to expand...

Probably related to the Z68 chipset.
 
:apple: really make things hard by only providing one option for SSD

They came with 128Gb up to 512Gb SSD for Macbook Pro, why the hell we didn´t get the same for new iMac

It make things hard, unless they stock 256Gb for additional $300, it´s really insane to use SSD option

To be realistic, they should include 128Gb SSD option for new iMac, a $200 additional for faster performance wouldn´t hurt

But $600 for an SSD? what the hell man, I´d rather add a bit of money and looking for preowned basic Macbook Air, at least I have 2 Macs for backups
 
iSayuSay said:
:apple: really make things hard by only providing one option for SSD

They came with 128Gb up to 512Gb SSD for Macbook Pro, why the hell we didn´t get the same for new iMac

It make things hard, unless they stock 256Gb for additional $300, it´s really insane to use SSD option

To be realistic, they should include 128Gb SSD option for new iMac, a $200 additional for faster performance wouldn´t hurt

But $600 for an SSD? what the hell man, I´d rather add a bit of money and looking for preowned basic Macbook Air, at least I have 2 Macs for backups
Click to expand...

The SSD option is 500.00 not 600.00.
 
theSeb said:
It's a non-issue. Even if you write 10 GB a day, the drive will work for about 3-4 years if I recall correctly. Even then it will still be readable.
Click to expand...

I think it is more like writing 100 GB a day and the drive lasting for 10 years. I don't recall the numbers, but I do recall that someone worked it out and it really is a non-issue in practice.
 
iamthedudeman said:
The SSD option is 500.00 not 600.00.
Click to expand...

O thanks for correcting, I was mistaken by last year´s model. But still, unacceptable :lol:

EDIT: Oh wait !! I wasn´t mistaken. It is $600 if you´d like to keep your 1Tb HDD .. NO WAY I´m gonna waste my HDD for SSD as the only iMac storage .. I think nobody will either, huh?
 
Last edited:
Thanks for all of the help. I decided to just go ahead and order it with the SSD + 1 TB hard drive. I don't mind the wait, since I have a perfectly fine (but aging) Windows PC that I can use until the new iMac arrives.
 
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