Switching from PC

[aoaaron]

I disagree. There is a place for the Fusion drive when maximum storage for lowest price is needed, with better performance than a straight HDD. That place is not everywhere and it doesn't work well for many use cases. Heavy LR users would seem to be one of them.

With any sort of luck, SSD prices will drop over the next couple years, and then we won't need spinning rust for anything but specialty usages.

I think a fusion drive would be a very niche purchase if people were educated on them a little more.

An SSD is just so so so so so much nicer and unless you need tonnes of storage on your device and dislike external hard drives, I struggle to really understand how in 2018 a company such as apple can price their devices so extortionately yet offer tech from so long ago.

 

[c0ppo]

We are talking about a desktop computer. If you want speed and a lot of storage at the same time, get SSD version, and plug in some external drives. It's not like you have to move your iMac every 3h...

Apple and their FD with 5400rpm HDD... A joke.

 

[aoaaron]

We are talking about a desktop computer. If you want speed and a lot of storage at the same time, get SSD version, and plug in some external drives. It's not like you have to move your iMac every 3h...

Apple and their FD with 5400rpm HDD... A joke.

Yup totally agree.

Its an obvious cashgrab and people defending them .... I can't understand their line of thinking. Then add insult to injury which the huge premium apple charge for SSDs and its just insulting.

 

[nambuccaheadsau]

Yawn.

Amusing.

Amused.

I am surprised such a superior animal as vkd comes to the common water hole to slobber!

 

[SaSaSushi]

By the way, I'll point out that "vkd" has a Fusion with a much larger than standard front-side SSD. It will perform like Apple's 2 or 3 Tb Fusion drives, which are much more likely to give predictable, good results. It's still a caching filesystem, though, and can still be forced to run at HDD speeds by the right sequence of I/O operations.

I had the previous 1TB Fusion drive with 128GB SSD in my Late 2013 iMac and I ended up de-Fusing it after it slowed down considerably, using the HDD for storage. That is, until the HDD crashed.

Putting aside the whole debate over Fusion Drive slowdown, there is the fact that a Fusion drive adds a noise and heat-generating spinning drive to the extremely narrow confines of the interior of an iMac and it is not a matter of if the HDD will fail but when. When it does, you'd better hope you have AppleCare because Apple will charge $400+ for the job otherwise. When mine failed I had a few months of AppleCare left. Then when I sold that machine used about 8 months later, the replacement HDD from Apple failed. Luckily, Apple did the second replacement for free as well due to delays on their end.

I like to keep my spinning drives in external enclosures where they can be easily replaced.

I agree that the 1TB Fusion drive with the 32GB SSD component is absolutely to be avoided. Go 2TB-3TB FD if you must but better yet, go pure SSD.

 

[Kawawolf]

Different strokes for different folks I guess. I have no issues with my 1tb drive with the itty bitty 32gb portion. Plenty fast for what I do with the computer. I'm not a serious photo editor or video editor, so for the general tasks of web browsing, playing videos or music, and working on office documents, you don't really notice running off of the 1tb drive. I've used SSDs and can't argue with the speed increase, but it honestly hasn't reared its ugly face here for me.

That being said, I would certainly recommend the OP getting an SSD working with large raw image files; definitely would see a benefit there.

 

[theluggage]

I have no issues with my 1tb drive with the itty bitty 32gb portion. Plenty fast for what I do with the computer.

If it suits your needs, fine. But when it comes to advising others: the difference between the 1TB Fusion and the 256GB SSD is only $100, and it will probably make even basic tasks that bit slicker - plus the noise, heat, reliability and vibration arguments. Even the $300 extra for the 512GB has to be seen in the context of "investing" $1800 in a new computer. So people need to think through what the "added value" of 1TB of slow storage vs. 256GB of fast storage will be to them.

You don't need 1TB of storage for office docs, web browsing or even a modest music collection - and the things that you might need it for - e.g. video collections or a serious lossless music habit - can easily outgrow 1TB and are exactly the sort of thing that makes sense to keep on a NAS (so, e.g. you can access them from tablets, set-top-boxes etc. without having your iMac turned on, and they don't have to be sent back to Apple with your iMac if it needs repair).

Plus everybody needs some form of additional external storage (be it external drive, NAS or cloud) for backup anyway.

 

[aoaaron]

its not issues, its a matter of performance and user experience. an SSD is significantly nicer and snappier than a hard drive.

 

[cincygolfgrrl]

Everyone, it seems, has a different solution to the OP's question. My turn.

I used a 2011 11" MacBook Air with an external monitor for my Lightroom projects before purchasing a late-2013 27" iMac right before retina screens came out. I ordered it with a 512GB SSD. If you get the 27" iMac you'll really appreciate the extra screen real estate working with your photos. The screen can seem excessive at other times, but you'll find a way to manage that, too.

I have a current projects directory in the Pictures folder on the SSD that I use for all work-in-progress. When it's complete I archive on a USB3 spinner (backed up on another local drive + time machine + an off-site online backup). If I have to go back to look at prior work I do have to wait an extra beat or two, but it's not an everyday thing so it doesn't matter much to me.

I have no experience with fusion drives so I can't comment on how well they work, 'though everyone else around here seems to have an opinion—informed or not. I switched from a PC to a Mac six years ago and have no regrets. Enjoy

 

[Jack Burton]

Thank you all for taking the time to respond - Much appreciated

In regards of RAM upgrading, if the Mac comes with 8GB of RAM can I add one strip of 16GB or two 8GB strips or do they all have to match to have similar speed? I have hear that Mac's don't like non-matched RAM quantities?

Another question I have is referb items. I hear a lot of people recommend them and I have always been a bit leery of the purchase of refurbs. How many here have ordered refurbs from Mac and what has been your experience?

I was looking at a iMac 4.2Ghz quad core but heard they run really hot - Any truth to this?

A refurb bought from Apple carries the same warranty and is eligible for Apple care. Basically you can get a refurb iMac and apple care with 2x the ram for the same price as new.

You will add ram to the iMac in pairs, not one at a time. It's simple to do and take a few minutes tops.

As for how they perform, no complaints so far. My office bought me one and I liked it so much I ordered the exact same config for home. Both are going strong, and if there are issues I can take it to my local apple place for care under warranty.

If I need more space beyond my 1TB SSD, I'm going to use a thunderbolt 3 external SSD for more silent fast performance.

I'm running the i7. You will hear it when taxing all cores like in C4d rendering or some operations in the adobe suite, but generally it's been silent or near silent. I don't notice it 99% of the time in my open office. I hear it a bit more in my quiet rural home, but it's quieter than my PC and my previous apple laptop.

 

[Samuelsan2001]

the fact apple still offer the fusion drive is a joke.

27 inch / ssd /etc.

Really?? Go and look at the specs and price of a microsoft studio, pathetic...

 

[aoaaron]

Really?? Go and look at the specs and price of a microsoft studio, pathetic...

ya the studio is old and over priced.
i think once its refreshed, it will be way way way better value.
its very very easy to compare a product at the end of its life cycle, due a refresh, to one which has been updated and paint a perfect picture.


but i do agree, for all the good and innovation MS after been doing recently, the surface studio was very underpowered.

its probably more apt to compare newly released products such as the surface book pro 2 vs the macbook pro.

 

[Samuelsan2001]

ya the studio is old and over priced.
i think once its refreshed, it will be way way way better value.
its very very easy to compare a product at the end of its life cycle, due a refresh, to one which has been updated and paint a perfect picture.


but i do agree, for all the good and innovation MS after been doing recently, the surface studio was very underpowered.

It's probably more apt to compare newly released products such as the surface book pro 2 vs the macbook pro.

The surface studio was poor at release....

Yeah not keen on the surface book either to be honest. Its still expensive has a silly design and is rubbish as a tablet, it does have some graphics chops though, but I game on a console so have no need of it in a laptop, and if I want to video edit or use a 3d modelling app I'd much rather use a Desktop and a wacom tablet for input.

The surface laptop is nice and the surface pro is ok.

I just don't want a touch screen on a notebook device it ruins my shoulders and is horrible to use.

 

[Jack Burton]

I love the idea of the surface book and surface studio. But in my tests the palm rejection is what creates the wobble on the devices. drawing a straight diagonal line produces these small wobbles from your hand interacting with the screen - the line always "pulls" in the direction of your hand. it manifests in normal drawing and painting as unwanted marks and inconsistent strokes.

I have not tested to see if it resolved issues when you disable touch input on a canvas in a drawing app, as I don't use any windows devices anymore. Disabling touch input for drawing works flawlessly in Procreate on the iPad Pro.

If MS could just iron that out, man... I don't know if it's a software issue or hardware limitation, but it exists and it frustrates me.

Our surface book devices have started to exhibit issues, too. Docking, power, screen flickers. One has been sent back to MS. Again - great idea. But there are simply too many issues to suggest these to anyone.

Get a Wacom mobile studio or cintiq if you must draw on a desktop OS. Otherwise get an iPad Pro (and even then you can draw on your Mac with it). I think the iPad is a great gateway device to test your needs. At the very least you can buy refurb, and sell it later for a good amount if you need to move to a more expensive or different device.