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Yes I’m sort of regretting my 512GB drive / underestimated my storage needs and should have bit the financial bullet and went with a larger drive. Running photos and videos off external isn’t enjoyable for me
That's pretty much the same reason I decided on the larger drive. I know that I can have external SSD drives but I'd like to run as much on the local drive as I can & save the external drive for my parallels pvm & some other less frequently used collections.
For my setup I much prefer fast external storage. I have a small 2TB SSD where all my RAW photo and video files live (+ it hosts my macOS Photos library), another SSD for my audio libraries (Native Instruments, Ableton and Logic Pro), and a third drive that occasionally backs it all up.
I like being able to go from my iMac to my Macbook and having everything synced, and I like having plenty of space available internally. 512 seems to be the sweet spot for me. I currently have 317GB available, which is more than enough for those times I need to temporarily dump a bunch of files on the main drive for transfers, etc.
I recently upgraded to a 2TB Glyph Atom from a 1TB G-technology drive like this because I needed more space. It's a little pricey (I got one on sale for 389 USD). The G-technology drives I linked are more reasonable right now.
My audio libraries are on a Samsung 860 Evo SSD in an external enclosure.
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I've been reading many of your comments, and for my own understanding also looked at the Turbo Boost link provided in a different post which was very helpful, the reassurance that the 2017 i5 3.8 is good enough is sticking to me, but the making of a decision is becoming increasingly painful.I replaced my 6-core nMP with the 2017 5K imac i5 3.8 2 years ago. 80% music production 20% light imovie to youtube video editing. I bought the i7 first and it ran way hot ramping fans often. The 3.8 only ramps fans a little on long video renders. I was very worried when i made the change that Logic/ProTools/StudioOne would run out of CPU with an i5 (coming from a 6C/12T machine) but surprisingly the i5 has handled everything with no issue for 2 years! I run most of my current virtual instruments from a TB3 SATA SSD 4 bay cage. Never an issue. The new 2019 i5 is faster than the 2017 (good for low latency performance) and has 50% more cores = 50% more plugin power (for audio). It is my belief that this would serve the needs of a great number of musicians. I certainly want it ... or the i9! LOL
Equally, I understand that the next step if ever required would be to go with either 2019 i5(which speed?) or i9(which speed)?
In terms of capacity, how much is actually stored on your SSD internal drive?
More importantly, how high could the plugin/VI instrument count go with heavy loading instruments such a Omnisphere, Trillian, Diva, Nexus etc? 50+ instruments?
Took the plunge and replaced the 2012 imac with a new model.
27". Went with the 3,7 6 core 9th gen i5 processor - after a lot of reading determined that would be good enough for me - so much better than 2012, but I probably didn't need the little extra i9 power. 3TB fusion (yah, have that much stuff), and 64GB of memory from macsales/owc.
27". Went with the 3,7 6 core 9th gen i5 processor - after a lot of reading determined that would be good enough for me - so much better than 2012, but I probably didn't need the little extra i9 power. 3TB fusion (yah, have that much stuff), and 64GB of memory from macsales/owc.
how horrible is a Fusion Drive?
was thinking of getting a family computer. if for me (photography/design) I'd go SSD and probably some higher-end components but my wife is asking for a family computer can we get by with something more straight from Apple and not BTO?
For my photos, I'd get an external anyway and use that for storage. so, theoretically only software would be on the main drive and maybe even iTunes/music whatever.
I wish they'd offer a higher capacity Fusion for non-BTO as it seems all are 1TB only
was thinking of getting a family computer. if for me (photography/design) I'd go SSD and probably some higher-end components but my wife is asking for a family computer can we get by with something more straight from Apple and not BTO?
For my photos, I'd get an external anyway and use that for storage. so, theoretically only software would be on the main drive and maybe even iTunes/music whatever.
I wish they'd offer a higher capacity Fusion for non-BTO as it seems all are 1TB only
Not true, Apple offers a 2TB fusion 2019 iMac in stores that isn’t BTO.
If you’re going to get an external drive for storage anyway, why do you need 1-2TB internal? I’d pay the extra money for an SSD. If you decide to go with the fusion drive, get the 2 or 3TB option because the 1TB drive doesn’t give you enough fast storage for loading apps.
We were hoping not to BTO for the family. Sometimes there are deals on regular iMac offerings and none seemed to offer SSD as a standard.
And yes we wouldn’t need that large of an internal but what I read was 2-3tb fusions have more ssd portion
Thanks for the tip. I’ll look into that one. It seemed I only saw 1TB Fusion at first.
Exactly the same, plus extended keyboard.
I will be using it (plus some 4Tb external drives) for general tasks and photo editing.
Hi guys,
I'm about to order an iMac. Just an everyday user but tired of the slowness of my i5 Samsung laptop which at 9yo is past its best and been in the repair shop too often. I've kinda decided on the following spec:
I'm about to order an iMac. Just an everyday user but tired of the slowness of my i5 Samsung laptop which at 9yo is past its best and been in the repair shop too often. I've kinda decided on the following spec:
- Processeur Intel Core i7 hexacœur de 8e génération à 3,2 GHz (Turbo Boost jusqu’à 4,6 GHz)
- 16 Go de mémoire DDR4 à 2 666 MHz
- Radeon Pro 560X avec 4 Go de mémoire GDDR5
- SSD de 512 Go
- Magic Mouse 2
- Magic Keyboard avec pavé numérique - Français
- Kit d’accessoires
That’s fine for most users. Like 99%. If you can afford pure SSD, it’s a no brainer. One suggestion is to go with 8 GB RAM and buy another 8 separately. I bought an iMac with 8 and immediately ordered 16 GB from OWC. Apple’s RAM prices are too high and RAM is user replaceable.
Now I'm a complete technophobe as you've probably guessed. I understood that with the 21.5" iMac that you couldn't upgrade RAM,make changes to original machine or have I got that wrong or could the extra 8GB be connected externally? Thanks in advance for help.
RAM on the 27 inch can be added/replaced manually. I didn't realize you were referring to the 21.5---sorry!
Wait, are you guys saying that on the 2019 iMac 21.5", RAM is not user-replaceable? Is this true?That's okay. I was sure I'd read somewhere about it - probably on here
No, the RAM on the 21.5" is not user accessible. You would have to remove the screen yourself or have Apple or an authorized repair center do it for you.
I read that it's only the 27" that can be upgraded/changed. Am sure a non-technophobe person like myself will be able to confirm.
Okay. Only RAM on the 27 can be modified post-purchase. That is a fact. If you’re buying a 21.5, get as much as you need at purchase time because you cannot change it later.
The 1 TB Fusion Drive has a 32 GB SSD, which I would not recommend.
The 2 and 3 TB Fusion Drives, however, have 128 GB SSDs.
I have a 3 TB Fusion Drive in my 2015 iMac and was so pleased with it that I had no hesitation whatsoever in configuring my 2019 iMac with another 3 TB Fusion Drive. I’ve never had the slightest reason to regret my choice. For my uses, it’s lightning fast, and I get lots of internal storage at a great price.
(There are some use cases where a Fusion Drive would not be optimal, e.g. database access - involving many reads and writes - to a VM large enough that macOS can't keep it stored in the SSD portion of the Fusion Drive.)
If you don't need more than 512 GB of internal storage, the SSD should be a great choice.
I've ended up going for latest Macbook Pro i9. I think for what I need it will do just fine. Gave up on 21.5" when remembered couldn't add at a later date and the 27" price I couldn't justify for my needs. Apple had an offer on of 200€ gift card on certain models but turned out not the new Macbook Pro. However after a bit of wrangling on the French site they gave me 159€ off which was great and better than nothing.