Ssd or fusion drive? Ah!

[Ghost31]

I'm starting to look at the Mac mini and I can't figure out wtf a fusion drive is and if I want that over the ssd. In check out it asks 256ssd or 1tb fusion drive. Which is better?

 

[Micky Do]

SSD for maximum performance. Fusion to get 5 times the storage, with a small trade off in performance. Your choice, based on your desire and/or needs.

 

[Starfia]

Yep. The Fusion Drive really does feel almost like a Flash drive (really fast startups, opening of applications – anything that requires reading from the disk), and even though it's secretly two hard drives and software making them work together, you'd never know.

 

[danb1979]

I've just installed a 250GB SSD alongside the OEM 1TB hard drive and it's running via Fusion

It lists as a 1.24TB fusion drive and the boot speeds alone are crazy fast compared to just the OEM 1TB HDD; more or less 11 seconds now compared to close to 2 mins 30secs etc...

Obviously read/write speeds are sky high in comparison also

This way; the Mac puts all the main user programmes onto the SSD for me and they boot up uber-fast and everything else is on the 1TB HDD

Highly reocmmended

 

[navaira]

How does the SSD vs HDD bit work with the fusion drive? Does the Mac put apps/data on the SSD part automagically or do you have/get to choose? This has been bugging me for quite a while. (I hope the OP doesn't mind me asking that here.)

 

[danb1979]

What's used most will be run via the SSD; the rest will be via the OEM HDD

 

[navaira]

Yeah, but how does it work – does the OS move things by itself?

 

[Micky Do]

Yeah, but how does it work – does the OS move things by itself?

Yes….. it just works.

 

[danb1979]

Sorry, yes!

The OS manages the storage for you

http://www.techradar.com/news/compu...t-it-is-and-how-it-speeds-up-your-mac-1154051

 

[Celerondon]

How does the SSD vs HDD bit work with the fusion drive? Does the Mac put apps/data on the SSD part automagically or do you have/get to choose? This has been bugging me for quite a while. (I hope the OP doesn't mind me asking that here.)

Automagically - e.g., Fusion Drive

The link posted by danb1979 is from 2013 but it provides a good overview of the Fusion Drive (FD) storage system. Articles like that Tech Radar piece helped to dispel the misinformation created by confusion regarding the origin and function of Apple’s automatic tiered storage system.

The FD storage option was announced in October 2012. From the start, experts guessed that Apple had merely relabeled an existing technology that was nothing more than a simple caching scheme. Could they have been more wrong?

Here is a link that shows one of the sources for Apple's storage breakthrough.
http://web.cse.ohio-state.edu/news/news179.shtml
This award winning research paper was published in 2011.

For years folks have speculated that FD might be a transition technology with poor durability prospects and limited utility. Apparently Western Digital had a different opinion! Take a look at their “new” Dual Drive. Does it look familiar?
http://mac360.com/2015/01/the-macs-fusion-drive-goes-mainstream/
http://www.storagereview.com/wd_demonstrates_first_pcie_hard_drives
It took WD a couple of years to mimic Apple’s tiered storage solution. Now their customers can also get PCIe class performance from a relatively inexpensive HDD based storage array!

 

[iceman42]

if you do video editing i would get ssd it would be a lot faster than the fusion drive. if you just do simple everyday thing then you should get the fusion drive.

 

[Algus]

The fusion drives are lovely if you want a lot of storage and don't fool around with other OSes. With Boot Camp, Windows is installed exclusively on the HDD. It'll be slower than your OS X partition by a good amount. That's a no go for me unfortunately.

One of the things holding me back from the 5k iMacs right now is how much a 1 TB SSD costs. I've spoiled myself by putting one in my Mini and now I can't go back.

 

[ixxx69]

Which is better?

It depends on your needs and usage, but with no further info, I generally recommend getting an SSD.

If you need more storage than the SSD can hold, I suggest getting an external HDD to go with it.

If you don't want an external HDD, then get the Fusion.

 

[Ghost31]

It depends on your needs and usage, but with no further info, I generally recommend getting an SSD.

If you need more storage than the SSD can hold, I suggest getting an external HDD to go with it.

If you don't want an external HDD, then get the Fusion.

I don't really need much space. If I ever do, I can always hook up an external hard drive for permanent data storage and projects and such. I would prefer faster speed in daily tasks, so I think I'll probably end up going with SSD

 

[gsmornot]

So, in line with this, would you guys go with the ssd and add an external spinning drive, buy with fusion drive, or buy with 1tb drive and add an external ssd?

Looking at the stock mid model but adding later an external ssd.

Edit: Found my answer. Go with the internal fusion drive. Right now fusion is the same price as ssd alone so might as well. https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/mac-mini-ssd-and-other-setup-questions.1950295/#post-22465945

 

[Celerondon]

Edit: Found my answer. Go with the internal fusion drive. Right now fusion is the same price as ssd alone so might as well.

I think that ixxx69 is correct in advising that "it depends upon your needs and usage" but your selection of the Fusion Drive (FD) provides a hidden benefit that is perhaps superior to the advantage historically enjoyed by server minis. A 2014 FD equipped mini contains mounting hardware and cabling for both internal storage interfaces. There are connectors for both PCIe and SATA available on the logic board but the FD models are the only minis that come with the full kit of brackets and interface bits.

This invisible feature can reduce the cost and complexity of future upgrades.