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2017 with Fusion or 2020 with SSD

jwar1976

jwar1976

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jan 29, 2019
240
78
Norwich
Hi all,

I have started saving for my first ever 27” iMac which will be used for Photo & Video Editing and have noticed that there isn’t much in the pricing between say a 2017 iMac with 1TB Fusion and a 2019 / 2020 with a 256gb SSD. In regards to storage I do subscribe to 1tb Creative Cloud & also have a 8tb Synology drive which can be used to hold images and has apps for making it a iTunes server. So I am wondering is 256gb going to be enough for OS, Apps and videos, edited videos will be transferred to my server.

Can anyone here advise ?

Many thanks
 
velocityg4 said:
Definitely the 2020/2019 with SSD is a much better choice. If you need more room for videos locally. Use a cheap external HDD or SSD.
Click to expand...

Thank you very much for that, whilst I have had a iPad Pro & MacBook Pro for awhile now, Macs themselves are still a new thing to me and while the Ram on the 27” is easily upgraded, I wouldn’t dare to indulge in changing the storage if the fusion became unreliable. Also from what I understand the 2019 / 2020 model would have a decent lifespan on it before it becomes Vintage / Obsolet.
 
Do not, DO NOT buy ANY iMac that has a "fusion" drive in it, or a platter-based HDD.
DON'T DO IT!

Instead, buy one with an SSD inside.
It doesn't have to be too large (too much $$$).
512gb will be "enough".

If you still need more storage, buy an EXTERNAL USB3 SSD, plug it in, and use it.

BE AWARE:
The 2020 27" iMacs ALL come with SSDs inside. No problems there.

If you want a 2019 or 2017 iMac, THIS is where you have to be careful.
I'd suggest looking at the Apple online refurbished store -- good deals to be had there.

But there are "rules for buying" from the Apple refurbished store:
1. You must know what you want -- easy to get confused.
2. You must check several times each day -- morning, noon, evening, night -- to keep an eye on the stock (comes and goes quickly)
3. If you see what you want, you must not procrastinate -- it will probably be gone in hours, or even in minutes.
4. For a 27" iMac, it's easy to add more RAM yourself, so 8gb is all you need to start with.
 
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jwar1976 said:
Thank you very much for that, whilst I have had a iPad Pro & MacBook Pro for awhile now, Macs themselves are still a new thing to me and while the Ram on the 27” is easily upgraded, I wouldn’t dare to indulge in changing the storage if the fusion became unreliable. Also from what I understand the 2019 / 2020 model would have a decent lifespan on it before it becomes Vintage / Obsolet.
Click to expand...

It would have a better lifespan. Although with ARM Macs out now. I'm not sure if it will last any longer than the 2017 for OS upgrades.

The 2020 does have a more recent GPU. Both the 2020 and 2019 have better CPU. Obviously the 2020 is the best. Although if buying used it really depends on the specs as the 2019 can be better than the 2020 in some instances if comparing high end 2019 to low end 2020. Although I believe all 2020 have hyperthreading.

Assuming Apple doesn't do a mass dump in OS support from Universal to ARM only. The 2020 may last a little longer due to the more recent GPU generation.

As you have a Macbook right now. Unless you need an iMac now. I'd suggest waiting for the ARM models if you want the longest OS life and don't need x86. Although if they follow the M1 Macs. The RAM will be integrated in the SoC. So no RAM upgrades or AMD graphics but a huge performance boost and lower power usage.
 
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Fishrrman said:
Do not, DO NOT buy ANY iMac that has a "fusion" drive in it, or a platter-based HDD.
DON'T DO IT!

Instead, buy one with an SSD inside.
It doesn't have to be too large (too much $$$).
512gb will be "enough".

If you still need more storage, buy an EXTERNAL USB3 SSD, plug it in, and use it.

BE AWARE:
The 2020 27" iMacs ALL come with SSDs inside. No problems there.

If you want a 2019 or 2017 iMac, THIS is where you have to be careful.
I'd suggest looking at the Apple online refurbished store -- good deals to be had there.

But there are "rules for buying" from the Apple refurbished store:
1. You must know what you want -- easy to get confused.
2. You must check several times each day -- morning, noon, evening, night -- to keep an eye on the stock (comes and goes quickly)
3. If you see what you want, you must not procrastinate -- it will probably be gone in hours, or even in minutes.
4. For a 27" iMac, it's easy to add more RAM yourself, so 8gb is all you need to start with.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the detailed reply, the pricing structure is crazy, for used with warranty and a price of £1,500, I am able to get

2020 with 256gb ssd
2019 with 512gb ssd
2017 with 1tb ssd

I will keep an eye on the refurbs as well once I have money saved
 
velocityg4 said:
It would have a better lifespan. Although with ARM Macs out now. I'm not sure if it will last any longer than the 2017 for OS upgrades.

The 2020 does have a more recent GPU. Both the 2020 and 2019 have better CPU. Obviously the 2020 is the best. Although if buying used it really depends on the specs as the 2019 can be better than the 2020 in some instances if comparing high end 2019 to low end 2020. Although I believe all 2020 have hyperthreading.

Assuming Apple doesn't do a mass dump in OS support from Universal to ARM only. The 2020 may last a little longer due to the more recent GPU generation.

As you have a Macbook right now. Unless you need an iMac now. I'd suggest waiting for the ARM models if you want the longest OS life and don't need x86. Although if they follow the M1 Macs. The RAM will be integrated in the SoC. So no RAM upgrades or AMD graphics but a huge performance boost and lower power usage.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the reply, I hadn’t even considered the ARM ones. My early 2015 MacBook Pro is good for basic tasks, but when editing video it slows down to a halt. I don’t need to get one right away as my workload is currently majorly reduced due to the Weather & Pandemi, so I will be looking to get an iMac for around March / April time as hopefully by then the sports photography will be back along with any video projects. When it comes to technology I like to ask plenty of things in advanced that I am unsure of, so that when the time come, I know exactly what I am looking for.
 
I have the 2017 iMac with 2tb fusion. Back then, I really needed a large hard drive and 2tb ssd is/was a very expensive add-on. So it was a trade off. Of course I wish I had SSD but it was beyond what I could go for at the time.

If 256gb is sufficient then great. Otherwise 2tb fusion is a great way to get a cheap 27”. The fusion is not soooo bad. It does come with 128gb of ssd. The remainder of 2tb-128gb is the slower hard drive speeds.

I‘m hoping the 2017 iMac will still get another 5 years of O/S upgrade/security upgrade support.

Personally, I think 256gb is too small except for those that just do basic stuff (i.e. web surfing, YouTube). If you are an iPhone/iPad user, then a decent rule of thumb would be for the mac to be twice as large as the iPhone’s disk space. Allows you to save all iMessages in the cloud (toggle to indefinitely instead of purging after 1year), turn on iCloud drive, pay (i forget how much per month it cost) for at least the 50GB of iCloud storage. That iCloud space will take the same amount of space on the iMac....although you can turn on “optimize” allowing you to download something on demand (not ideal but decent).
 
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j_in_tx said:
I have the 2017 iMac with 2tb fusion. Back then, I really needed a large hard drive and 2tb ssd is/was a very expensive add-on. So it was a trade off. Of course I wish I had SSD but it was beyond what I could go for at the time.

If 256gb is sufficient then great. Otherwise 2tb fusion is a great way to get a cheap 27”. The fusion is not soooo bad. It does come with 128gb of ssd. The remainder of 2tb-128gb is the slower hard drive speeds.

I‘m hoping the 2017 iMac will still get another 5 years of O/S upgrade/security upgrade support.

Personally, I think 256gb is too small except for those that just do basic stuff (i.e. web surfing, YouTube). If you are an iPhone/iPad user, then a decent rule of thumb would be for the mac to be twice as large as the iPhone’s disk space. Allows you to save all iMessages in the cloud (toggle to indefinitely instead of purging after 1year), turn on iCloud drive, pay (i forget how much per month it cost) for at least the 50GB of iCloud storage. That iCloud space will take the same amount of space on the iMac....although you can turn on “optimize” allowing you to download something on demand (not ideal but decent).
Click to expand...
Thank you for replying with a different aspect on how to look at things. while My iPad Pro is only the 64gb version, my iPhone 12 pro is the whopping 512gb edition. So a 1tb would be essential in that way of thinking.
 
jwar1976 said:
Thank you for replying with a different aspect on how to look at things. while My iPad Pro is only the 64gb version, my iPhone 12 pro is the whopping 512gb edition. So a 1tb would be essential in that way of thinking.
Click to expand...
Not sure how you handle videos/pics on your iPhone/512 and if you will be using the iMac photos app or not, but if you do use/will use the Mac Photos app, then I'm going to guess you will be running it off the Synology. Otherwise, to run Photos directly on the iMac won't be workable. Therefore, any disk requirements for video/pics on the Mac won't be a consideration.

Just an example for my case, I have a 3tb Photos library and a 8tb iMovie library on a Drobo. I wish it could all reside on a Mac, but unfortunately back then it wasn't possible. It is now I believe and getting a custom iMac with a 16tb drive (not ssd) would be how I would like it if I could re-do my setup(s).

I wonder if the new iMacs will shrink and won't even allow 3.5 disk. That's my guess. I think the largest SSD is 8tb and probably is beyond affordable. Then again, my Drobo with drives are unaffordable. This is what happens when you become a digital hoarder. What do normal people? Take a video and delete it a few later when you need space? o_O
 
j_in_tx said:
Not sure how you handle videos/pics on your iPhone/512 and if you will be using the iMac photos app or not, but if you do use/will use the Mac Photos app, then I'm going to guess you will be running it off the Synology. Otherwise, to run Photos directly on the iMac won't be workable. Therefore, any disk requirements for video/pics on the Mac won't be a consideration.

Just an example for my case, I have a 3tb Photos library and a 8tb iMovie library on a Drobo. I wish it could all reside on a Mac, but unfortunately back then it wasn't possible. It is now I believe and getting a custom iMac with a 16tb drive (not ssd) would be how I would like it if I could re-do my setup(s).

I wonder if the new iMacs will shrink and won't even allow 3.5 disk. That's my guess. I think the largest SSD is 8tb and probably is beyond affordable. Then again, my Drobo with drives are unaffordable. This is what happens when you become a digital hoarder. What do normal people? Take a video and delete it a few later when you need space? o_O
Click to expand...
In all honesty I very rarely use my phone to take photos or record video, I mainly use my Canon 5D MK 3 DSLR or my Canon M6 Mark II Mirrorless for photos & short video projects. I am glad I have the 1tb Creative Cloud & 8tb Synology as the Raw files on the mirrorless can go upto 50mb per image, and when you shoot high speed continuous at 7fps, it is a storage killer. 😱
 
nambuccaheadsau said:
Really no brainer. Go SSD every time. Fusion was a nine year old solution to hybrid drives and economics have kept it alive when it should have been abandoned five or six years ago.
Click to expand...
SSD drives are fantastic, when I bought my 2015 MacBook Pro, I removed the 128gb transcend jet drive which was really slow and replaced it with a 1tb NVME drive, noticed an instant improvement. Over the years I have mainly dealt with PC’s, so know the difference in performance with a regular drive and SSD or even a regular drive compared to a SSHD.
 
Depending which drive you go with if you get a TB3 NVMe SSD the performance may be similar to what you would get with an internal NVMe SSD.
 
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