DIY Fusion Drive - unresolved questions about music files, etc

[kenoflife]

First post here.

Just got a refurb'd mac mini i7 2012 - I'm considering whether to put in a Crucial M4 256GB SSD drive I have around, and whether to create a DIY fusion drive with it, I have a few questions based on reading a lot of the material in here...

1. Is there really an issue with large music files w/ a Fusion setup?
It says here http://blog.macsales.com/15617-creating-your-own-fusion-drive:

The trouble comes when you start working with larger files, such as with pro audio, video and large-scale photo work. Often, these files far surpass the 4GB size, so you will see fast SSD transfer speeds followed by a precipitous drop in speed when it transfers over to the hard drive. For a full rundown of testing, check out Lloyd’s writeup at Mac Performance Guide.

Some people seem to think OWC is overstating their case in general regarding DIY fusion or something? - I use big files w/ Logic Pro, so I'd like to know. Maybe using a 256GB SSD instead of the 128GB SSD within the Apple Fusion helps?

2. Is a Crucial M4 somehow a lesser drive for a 2012 mac mini than another SSD? Someone just posted that it doesn't do it justice, compared to others, as it doesn't have SATA 6GBSSD - but it DOES, doesn't it?? http://www.amazon.com/Crucial-256GB-2-5-Inch-Solid-CT256M4SSD2/dp/B004W2JL2A
quote:

"you have a 2012 Mac Mini, which comes with SATA 6GBit/s support. So you might want to think about getting Samsung 840 Pros or OCZ Vectors instead of the m4s.
And if not, I'll still encourage you to pick the SanDisk Ultra Plus over the m4. The m4 is really slow at 4K random reads, the Ultra Plus on the other hand isn't, and it's some dollar less expensive, too"

3. Are there really issues w/ Corsair Vengeance 16GB on this machine? - quote:

"Too many people have had problems with the Corsair Vengeance"

4. If I put in 2 Crucial SSD 256 M4's (I have another around) - would I want to create a DIY fusion drive and have it operate as a single drive -or is that really just for a SD/HDD setup?

5. If I do a DIY Fusion setup - would it be more beneficial to replace the Apple 5400 rpm 1TBHDD w/ a Scorpion 7200rpm - would I notice much difference under fusion?

Thanks!

 

[philipma1957]

First post here.

Just got a refurb'd mac mini i7 2012 - I'm considering whether to put in a Crucial M4 256GB SSD drive I have around, and whether to create a DIY fusion drive with it, I have a few questions based on reading a lot of the material in here...

1. Is there really an issue with large music files w/ a Fusion setup?
It says here http://blog.macsales.com/15617-creating-your-own-fusion-drive:

The trouble comes when you start working with larger files, such as with pro audio, video and large-scale photo work. Often, these files far surpass the 4GB size, so you will see fast SSD transfer speeds followed by a precipitous drop in speed when it transfers over to the hard drive. For a full rundown of testing, check out Lloyd’s writeup at Mac Performance Guide.

Some people seem to think OWC is overstating their case in general regarding DIY fusion or something? - I use big files w/ Logic Pro, so I'd like to know. Maybe using a 256GB SSD instead of the 128GB SSD within the Apple Fusion helps?

2. Is a Crucial M4 somehow a lesser drive for a 2012 mac mini than another SSD? Someone just posted that it doesn't do it justice, compared to others, as it isn't SATA 6GBSSD - but it is, isn't it? man.

3. Are there really issues w/ Corsair Vengeance 16GB on this machine - or is that just someone's rumor?

4. If I put in 2 Crucial SSD 256 M4's (I have another around) - would I want to create a DIY fusion drive and have it operate as a single drive -or is that really just for a SD/HDD setup?

5. If I do a DIY Fusion setup - would it be more beneficial to replace the Apple 1TBHDD w/ a Scorpion 7200rpm - would I notice much difference under fusion?

Thanks!

5) a 7200 rpm hdd is better but you would need to use most of your space for the difference to be noticed.

lets say you have a 250 plus a 1tb 7200 rpm hdd {only hitachi makes it} = 1.25 tb fusion drive loaded with 980 gb of stuff on the machine. lets say the vast amount is eyeTV recordings 50 of 18gb in size. lets say you need to send copies of these recordings to an external drive. this would be best done with the 1tb 7200rpm hitachi as the hdd part of your fusion drive. the read would be faster off the 1tb hitachi and most of those recording would be on that part of the fusion drive.

I have done tests with a 1.5tb fusion that has a 500gb samsung ssd and a stock 1tb oem 5400 rpm hdd. if you load that fusion up with a lot of eyetv files of 18gb. then do a click and drag to an external drive that can write fast. in my case a raid0 using 2 4th hitachi hdds that can write at 260. what happens at first is a copy speed at 240 it goes down to 130 after a few hundred gb are written why because the read on the ssd ends and then the info is read off the hdd part of the fusion.

as for 4) 2 x ssds would be a raid0 not a fusion they would be faster then the fusion. you need 2 backups a tm and a super duper clone at least 1 or 2 times a week

3) I have used a)crucial b)kingston and c)kingston plug n play flawless for all 3 types never got a hold of the corsair

2) the crucial are fine reliable ssd's they are faster then sata II but they are not a fast sata III . if I had them on hand I would use them rather then buy a samsung 840 BTW I would prefer samsung 830 since they are known to work without fail(99%) and are fast.

1) the issue with large video files like 3 hour eyeTv files of 18gb does exist. when I copied a 200gb iTunes of songs from an external raid0 to the fusion I could not make it screw up. but my iTunes is all cd in lossless so each cd is about .8 gb


if I were you and had the 2x ssd on hand I would put them into the mini as a raid0.

i would pull the stock 1tb in it and use it as an external clone booter of the raid0 .

I would use a 2tb external as a time machine. and if I was a bit paranoid I would have a second hdd as a clone booter

 

[kenoflife]

considering that raid0 idea....