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iMac Purchase Advice (Urgent!)
- Thread starter novi4ok
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At first I was going to complain that it isn't fair to say no one has the remotest clue about if hex-core iMacs would be coming out. I'd say there are clues. But then I got the unfeature part in you post about no upgrade-able RAM and I got very sad. I'm eying the next generation iMac and I was planning on upgrading RAM as I needed it through the years of ownership. As I've done for all my prior Macs and as I've had friends do as they stretch their Macs well past the five year mark. If the 2018 iMacs are not RAM upgradeable then the cost to own them and use them for years goes up a lot.
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That’s good! I will pick one of those up then, really appreciate the help. I just hope I didn’t make a mistake with the SSD but will see how it goes
I think you will be fine with 256 SSD if you are generally just holding System and Programs on it and files (photos, movies, etc.) are in the external SSD. 256 will hold a ton of programs, more really than anyone needs. It is files that take up lots of room, and really only media files at that. And in the program area it is just games that take up room. Productivity programs like Word or Excel don't move the needle (I think MS Office is 6 gb in total).
No they haven't (Unless I missed something), all the talk has been strictly rumors. Blooberg ran a story saying that apple may be looking to switch as soon as 2020. I typically live under a rock, so I could very well have missed any Apple response that came
You haven't missed anything, it's all rumors for now. Plus, ARM CPUs are nowhere near as powerful as Intel's desktop-class CPUs yet; the fastest ARM CPU is barely able to keep up with Intel's slowest ultramobile 3.5-7W Y-class CPU offering. If there is any merit to this story whatsoever we'll be seeing ultraportable MacBooks upgraded with the new chips first and desktop-class hardware like the iMac, iMac Pro and Mac Pro at the very very VERY end.
And to whoever said the Fusion Drive is loud as hell: I beg to differ. It is completely inaudible. I just got an amazing deal on a 27" base model ($1,400) with 1TB Fusion Drive and was quite skeptical, too. But it's surprisingly quiet and surprisingly fast. Might still swap it out for an internal SATA SSD in a year when the iMac is out of warranty but for now it might actually do. And that's from someone who's only used notebooks with SSDs for the past seven years.
And to whoever said the Fusion Drive is loud as hell: I beg to differ. It is completely inaudible. I just got an amazing deal on a 27" base model ($1,400) with 1TB Fusion Drive and was quite skeptical, too. But it's surprisingly quiet and surprisingly fast. Might still swap it out for an internal SATA SSD in a year when the iMac is out of warranty but for now it might actually do. And that's from someone who's only used notebooks with SSDs for the past seven years.
Thank you all for the helpful advice! My iMac was delivered today and I quickly connected it to an external hard drive to use the time machine.
It crashed a few times (almost had a heartattack lol) but it’s running well now and I have all the files I needed!
I love the screen and it’s great for work!
It’s hard to keep up with product cycles nowadays, so I am a bit relieved now that I didn’t wait till June (not that I could really).
Gonna order some RAM later, is Kingston Fusion good? That’s the most common one sold here.
It crashed a few times (almost had a heartattack lol) but it’s running well now and I have all the files I needed!
I love the screen and it’s great for work!
It’s hard to keep up with product cycles nowadays, so I am a bit relieved now that I didn’t wait till June (not that I could really).
Gonna order some RAM later, is Kingston Fusion good? That’s the most common one sold here.
I have to disagree with the people here pushing Fusion drivers, which is IMO more about Fusion drive owners convincing themselves (because they didn't get the SSD option). An iMac with a Fusion drive will be significantly more noisy and have noticeable slowdowns, when the hard drive portion is being used. It's not "noisy as hell" obviously, but getting rid of that hard drive noise is a huge deal. Internal hard drives should definitely be avoided if you can afford it, especially in non-upgradable AIO machines.
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Also, fusion drives have one more point of failure. In a hard to repair AIO it's important to limit those.
Very good point, and the hard drive is one of the most temperature-sensitive components in a computer. It's no secret that iMacs tend to run hot, because of their compact design. SSDs in general are safer, and have lower failure rates in my experience. In nearly 9 years of using SSDs, I've never had a single error or issue with data loss. Conversely, I've had several hard drives go bad.
Don't get me wrong: I agree with every word you said. Fusion Drives are nowhere near SSDs and if possible one should ALWAYS opt for the SSD option, no questions asked.
However, and this is a very big however, there are amazing deals on the base model floating around the interwebz. I got a brand-new 27" 2017 iMac base model (i5/8GB/1TB FD) for $1,400 including tax. Would I have configured a CTO model on Apple's website and merely swapped the 1TB Fusion Drive for a 512 GB SSD it would have cost me close to $2,000 with tax. Thus, in certain cases a a FD model can be a very good option. Plus, at least my internal hard drive is completely inaudible. I am very sensitive to noise, which is the only reason why I got this iMac in the first place and am going to replace my mostly stationary 2015 15" MBP which was way too loud when connected to an external display, and I cannot hear the hard drive at all. That doesn't mean that I'm not going to get rid of it sooner or later but as we speak I'm torn between two options:
1) Get a 512GB Samsung T5 for $170
2) Wait for a year until warranty expires, then get an internal 512GB SATA SSD and replace the internal HDD
Even if I end up getting the 512GB Samsung T5 I will still have saved over $350 compared to the internal SSD option. I don't think anyone would ever in all seriousness claim that a Fusion Drive is capable of keeping up with SSDs. Do I wish for Apple to get rid of spinning drives in their iMacs and Mac Minis? Absolutely. Do I see it happening anytime soon? Absolutely not, because selling users their proprietary SSDs is a cash cow for Apple.
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I don't know. You can always expand your storage via Thunderbolt 3. That said, 256GB is just absurdly small, and you will be working off of
I disagree with the advice about the Fusion Drives. I have an iMac 5K with a Fusion drive and it seems very fast. The SSD portion is 128GB, and from what I understand the files you use most frequently are kept on that and the things that are less active are moved to the bigger HDD portion. It's a hell of a lot faster than a plain HDD and honestly I find it very quick to work with.
Another thing you should know: if you're buying from Apple, you've got a window (14 days? I'm too lazy to look it up) in which you can put it through its paces and then exchange it if it's not what you want. If it was me, I'd try the fast processor / fusion drive combo and see how that works for you.
Fair point. I opted for AppleCare so I'm insured against this for a while. SSD prices (from Apple) are still unfortunately so absurdly high.
mj wrote above:
"I'm torn between two options:
1) Get a 512GB Samsung T5 for $170
2) Wait for a year until warranty expires, then get an internal 512GB SATA SSD and replace the internal HDD"
I vote for option 1.
Fastest, easiest, cheapest, safest (least invasive).
You could even add the t5 right now and enjoy a boost in speed immediately.
A request:
Since you have a nearly-new 1tb fusion iMac, could you use BlackMagic Speed Test to check the fusion drive, and post the read/write specs here?
"I'm torn between two options:
1) Get a 512GB Samsung T5 for $170
2) Wait for a year until warranty expires, then get an internal 512GB SATA SSD and replace the internal HDD"
I vote for option 1.
Fastest, easiest, cheapest, safest (least invasive).
You could even add the t5 right now and enjoy a boost in speed immediately.
A request:
Since you have a nearly-new 1tb fusion iMac, could you use BlackMagic Speed Test to check the fusion drive, and post the read/write specs here?
First image with default settings (5GB). Write peaks at around 650 MB/s after about two to three seconds, Read at over 800 MB/s. Both then subsequently go down to what you can see on the screenshot.
Second image with file size set to 1GB - shoots up and stays there, doesn't go down at the end.
Second image with file size set to 1GB - shoots up and stays there, doesn't go down at the end.
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One thing about fusion drives: if you're planning on using Bootcamp, Windows will be installed and run on the spinning part of the drive, and won't use the SSD part. That's one of the reasons why I never gave FD a chance (not the only one, but an important one).