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Can I leave SSD for the moment?

C

conkerbot

macrumors member
Original poster
Nov 26, 2010
51
24
Hi,
well I'm looking at buying the new 27" iMac, and am just looking at what spec to get. Pretty decided on getting the 3.4GHz with 2Gigs of VRAM and upping the RAM myself at a later date.

However, where I'm stuck is whether or not to get the SSD option. I do love the idea of the responsiveness, but even with my student discount it is a lot of money. I'm not up for opening it up and installing my own either, so I was wondering if there's been confirmation on whether Thunderbolt devices will be bootable (if so, I'll skip the SSD at the moment and buy a little big disk when it comes out).

Otherwise, considering I want this machine to last a good three or four years under my demanding workload, I'll just bite the bullet now and get the SSD.

Cheers :)
 
If you expect it to last, I'd go for the SSD. Of course it'll cost more, but in the long run, you'd probably be more satisfied with it also.
 
rkaufmann87 said:
Also you cannot upgrade to the SSD or larger HD at a later date. Please read:

http://blog.macsales.com/10146-apple-further-restricts-upgrade-options-on-new-imacs

Roger
Click to expand...

Please do yourself and those who you offer advice to a big favour and check your facts before spreading more false information. The OCW article is a lie as many people on Mac Rumours (including myself) have successfully installed SSD and / or replaced standard HDD with larger non-oem drives.

@OP I would wait to see the specs on the news SSDs from Apple. If they turn out to be SATA3, they may well worth the price, otherwise you may be better off with a retrofitted SATA3 SSD for 1/2 the price and double the speed. I got the Vertex 3 which reads and writes 500MB/s on the new iMacs with a boot time less than 10 seconds.
 
maxinc said:
Please do yourself and those who you offer advice to a big favour and check your facts before spreading more false information.

If they turn out to be SATA3, they may well worth the price, otherwise you may be better off with a retrofitted SATA3 SSD for 1/2 the price and double the speed. I got the Vertex 3 which reads and writes 500MB/s on the new iMacs with a boot time less than 10 seconds.
Click to expand...

1) I was going to write that other people have switched out their HDD's on the forum and at this point it seems unclear why some of them don't cause the fans to go crazy.
2) He doesn't want to open the machine up, so this isn't an option. And, since our HDD's are SATA II (if the article is correct about that) then I highly doubt they'll be upgrading the SSD's to SATA III.

Adding the SSD adds a month to delivery or something so I would wait until Lion comes out and you see what is really going on internally. Then you'll know what you're getting into. If you plan for it to last a few years and the effort/worry you'll save by having it delivered with the SSD inside it's really only a ~$100/year or something!
 
Thanks for the responses.

Well I really dislike the idea of retrofitting just in case I do something wrong, and to be honest having worked with two friends (Windows) PCs one with a Intel 320 SSD and one with a Vertex 3 I really can't say I noticed much difference in responsiveness between them, and as that's my main concern I think I'd just go with the Apple option?

If you plan for it to last a few years and the effort/worry you'll save by having it delivered with the SSD inside it's really only a ~$100/year or something!
Click to expand...
- And I think this argument swung it towards me getting the SSD, as logically it will be pennies a day in cost terms.
 
conkerbot said:
And I think this argument swung it towards me getting the SSD, as logically it will be pennies a day in cost terms.
Click to expand...

If you're really uncomfortable with disassembling the computer then you should probably order it installed. As of right now it will take a month to be delivered, which I think we all expect that time to drop as soon as Lion comes out and the first BTO orders start being delivered. The iMac is already super fast but if you have to shut down and restart in bootcamp for windows dominant applications it might be very handy (this is what I intend to use it for) otherwise it will speed things up dramatically where you may or may not need them. I have never used a SSD but I'm sure that once I do I will be unsatisfied with everything else. In the end, if you can afford to spend the extra money and plan to keep the computer for a number of years-do it! Otherwise wait and see if the factory installed drives are SATA III and what the lag time will be on your order, if that is unsatisfactory then I would suggest looking into some kind of turnkey service to have the correct drive installed.
 
Last edited:
maxinc said:
Please do yourself and those who you offer advice to a big favour and check your facts before spreading more false information. The OCW article is a lie as many people on Mac Rumours (including myself) have successfully installed SSD and / or replaced standard HDD with larger non-oem drives.

@OP I would wait to see the specs on the news SSDs from Apple. If they turn out to be SATA3, they may well worth the price, otherwise you may be better off with a retrofitted SATA3 SSD for 1/2 the price and double the speed. I got the Vertex 3 which reads and writes 500MB/s on the new iMacs with a boot time less than 10 seconds.
Click to expand...



Can you give us details of this upgrade"
 
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