Home made Fusion Drive question

[Robdogg3058]

Hi

I was in an Apple store last night and have to say I was really impressed with the i7 2.3 Mini. It will definitely be enough for Lightroom and the virtual machines I need to run. I was wondering if anyone knows which 128GB SSD drive Apple use if you buy the fusion option. The machine I saw only had the stock 5200rpm drive in and it was not that slow. It may become slower once I start using it more heavily.

If I was to buy the SSD myself with a dual drive kit would I benefit much from getting a 256GB SSD instead of a 128GB SSD?

Which SSD's would you suggest?

I was also wondering if it is better to spend more on a fast SSD than upgrade to the 2,6Ghz model? I would be putting 16GB RAM in which ever model I get.

Thanks
Rob

 

[xlii]

Back in November 2012 I installed diy fusion drive in my 2.3 GHZ 2012 mini. It's been running fine ever since.

If I were you, I would stick with the 2.3 and spend the savings over the 2.6 on the best ssd I could get. The stock drive in my was a 5400 1TB drive.

In my opinion I would get the largest ssd I could afford. That said, I could only afford a 128 GB Samsung 830, but it has performed well and I am pleased with the machine these past 9 months or so.

If you go the diy fusion route just read the instructions and make sure you have the correct tools to do the job. It is not all that hard but you do have to be careful not to break a connector.

 

[OneMike]

I installed an SSD as well a few weeks ago. I didn't do a fusion setup though. I just set it so my main is the SSD and I use the other as storage. My SSD is 120GB.

I used the ifixit kit http://www.amazon.com/iFixit-Mini-Dual-Hard-Drive/dp/B00BJ8U3OU/ comes with a nice set of tools

 

[Robdogg3058]

Thanks for the info. Does running your ssd as a fusion drive impact it's performance much? Would it be quicker if I kept them separate?

 

[Robdogg3058]

If I was going to create the fusion drive by adding a SSD does it make much difference if I add a 128GB, a 256GB or a 512GB SSD to the existing 1TB 5200RPM drive?

 

[jwjsr]

I did diy samsung 840 250gb fusion and it was not worth the risk and uncertainty for $100 dollar savings.
They say the bigger the sad the faster but probably not noticeable.

 

[gnasher729]

Thanks for the info. Does running your ssd as a fusion drive impact it's performance much? Would it be quicker if I kept them separate?

It does impact speed a lot. In a very positive way.

1. If you use a 128 GB SSD drive as part of a Fusion drive, then it will not contain maybe 100 GB of the files that you think are most important for speed, but it will contain 124 GB of the data that is actually most important for speed. For example, every time you launch iTunes, it will load all the album art. With a Fusion drive, just that album art goes on the SSD drive, not the music which may be untouched for ages. That's something that's impossible to do if you organise your data by hand.

2. 4 GB of the SSD drive are used as a write cache. That means when you copy files, or download files, or change files, they are first written to the SSD drive at maximum speed. As far as the user is concerned, it is very fast. Then when the user doesn't do anything for a bit, Fusion drive copies the data where it actually belongs. It doesn't matter how long that takes, because you don't notice it and it doesn't slow anything down.

----------

If I was going to create the fusion drive by adding a SSD does it make much difference if I add a 128GB, a 256GB or a 512GB SSD to the existing 1TB 5200RPM drive?

In cost, yes. In speed, quite unlikely.

 

[philipma1957]

I have a 1tb ssd and a 1tb hdd in a diy fusion setup.

If you get a ssd and want to build a diy fusion drive get the biggest ssd you can get. (afford)


http://www.crucial.com/store/partspecs.aspx?imodule=CT960M500SSD1 this is the one I use

 

[Robdogg3058]

I was thinking of getting either the Samsung 250GB 840 EVO or the 256GB 840 PRO. just wondering if its worth the extra £40 for the pro if its used as a fusion drive?

 

[jwjsr]

the threads here say the 840 pro writes faster and will outlive the non- pro but at the same time the non-pro should last at least ten years

 

[philipma1957]

I was thinking of getting either the Samsung 250GB 840 EVO or the 256GB 840 PRO. just wondering if its worth the extra £40 for the pro if its used as a fusion drive?

only if you write a lot of data every day.

the threads here say the 840 pro writes faster and will outlive the non- pro but at the same time the non-pro should last at least ten years

this is true for almost everyone.

you would be in trouble if you recorded eye tv 24/7 as uncompressed files.

it would use 20 gb for 3 hours . so 160gb in 1 day would mean you would fully write over the drive in 1.5 days after 1000x or 1500 days it will most likely be dead. not many people would ever use an ssd like that.

 

[ioannis2005gr]

I installed an SSD as well a few weeks ago. I didn't do a fusion setup though. I just set it so my main is the SSD and I use the other as storage. My SSD is 120GB.

I used the ifixit kit http://www.amazon.com/iFixit-Mini-Dual-Hard-Drive/dp/B00BJ8U3OU/ comes with a nice set of tools

good choice but does it void the warranty in case it falis? or you are going to bring back the initial configuration before you return it for service...?

 

[OneMike]

good choice but does it void the warranty in case it falis? or you are going to bring back the initial configuration before you return it for service...?

According to apple only the ram is user serviceable. So it would void warranty technically. You could always just put back to stick if you had an issue. Not sure what I'd do personally. Usually switch macs too fast. Think I will keep this one a while though.