27" 2017 iMac - *** decision made ***

[Feek]

I'm on the verge of ordering one of these to replace my aging 2011 iMac and have some decisions to make.

CPU is easy - I'll opt up to the i7.

Memory is easy - I won't buy any additional memory from Apple but will source it elsewhere.

What I'm undecided about is the SSD/Fusion thing.

My current iMac came with the factory Apple 250Gb SSD and 2Tb mechanical drive. I soon filled it up with my large iTunes media library. I've got a lot of films and TV shows and my iMac is the server for the whole house. I replaced the internal 2Tb drive with a fast 4Tb drive drive and made it into a Fusion drive.

Because a lot of the media is being accessed regularly, I suspect the logic behind the Fusion drive isn't really working well for me and I notice a lot of disk activity during normal use which is far from ideal and defeats the point of the SSD really.

I also understand that the new Fusion drives only have 128Gb of SSD. That's not enough.

I'm considering just a 500Gb SSD for applications, documents and photo library and having my iTunes library on an external 4Tb or even 6Tb mechanical drive. Using either USB3 or the new USB-C port, access to this media will be quick enough.

How does this sound, is this a sensible way to do it?

 

[Valo]

Your plan sounds good to me, with a large SSD as your main drive. In your situation I don't think the fusion drive is worth it, my understanding when I ordered mine on my 2013 iMac was the SSD part was only used to store regularly accessed content and that macOS would intelligently manage this in the background, basically it's just a fancy cache. So if you are accessing content via another machine you probably won't get any benefit from it.

If you are planning on putting your iTunes library on an external drive have you considered scalable storage like a Drobo? They've got new USB-C (Drobo 5C) and Thunderbolt 3 (Drobo 5D3) models and would give you some redundancy against data loss, the ability to easily increase storage as they size of your iTunes library increases and can act as your Time Machine backup as well.

You can also mix and match drives both mechanical and SSD drives.

 

[arty]

When I got mine a few years ago, I opted for a 512GB SSD and a separate 4-bay Synology NAS for longer-term / less operational storage. At the time, I just moved my iTunes library to the NAS (nowadays I don't use iTunes) and this worked perfectly for my usage.

 

[Deleted member 138126]

Agree with arty, separate your storage onto a Synology so you can power off the Mac without losing access to the data. A Synology will give you 3-2-1 backups: 3 copies, 2 local, 1 remote (backup your important files from the Mac to the Synology, and back that up to the cloud).

 

[shiver]

Pure SSD all the way, the new ones are incredibly fast.

Host your other media off on some kind of NAS as suggest.

 

[Feek]

Thanks for the advice - The Drobo is actually looking the most attractive to me so far. Yes, it's more expensive than just hanging a single drive out of the back of the iMac but I have a box of older HDDs I can slap in to give me the capacity while I get some better/faster drives.

/edit - And of course, Cali used to advertise the Drobo

 

[Deleted member 138126]

Drobo is a lot less flexible than a Synology. Is a Drobo a lot cheaper?

 

[Feek]

I have no idea. I want a device which simply presents itself as a drive to the Mac, not a network attached drive. What specific Synology box are you thinking of?

 

[Valo]

Thanks for the advice - The Drobo is actually looking the most attractive to me so far. Yes, it's more expensive than just hanging a single drive out of the back of the iMac but I have a box of older HDDs I can slap in to give me the capacity while I get some better/faster drives.

/edit - And of course, Cali used to advertise the Drobo

I've got a Drobo5N and I've been really happy with it. That's was one of the things that really sold it to me, the easy ability to scale and expand the storage as and when it's required. It's a perfect way to reuse old hard drives.

 

[Feek]

Although I'm not going to have the iMac for over a month, I've just ordered a Drobo 5C from Amazon - At £311 they're pretty much the lowest they've ever been on there and I don't want to miss the price.

 

[DoubleCheese]

If you move your iTunes media to the Drobo can you access/stream the media while the iMac is off?

 

[Feek]

Doesn't matter. I never turn my iMac off, I just use a hot corner to blank the screen. It doesn't even go into suspend.

 

[Feek]

Although the 5C is USB-C, it appears from the manual that I can actually use it via USB-2 as well so I'll be setting that up on the existing iMac before I get the new one. That'll be interesting to try.

 

[Valo]

Although I'm not going to have the iMac for over a month, I've just ordered a Drobo 5C from Amazon - At £311 they're pretty much the lowest they've ever been on there and I don't want to miss the price.

That's great Feek. Glad you got it at a great price. I'd be interested to hear your thoughts once you've got it setup.

You made a decision about your new iMac yet?

 

[Feek]

Yup, I'm going for the one I suggested with a 500Gb SSD. It'll be ordered at the end of the month.

Waiting for Amazon to deliver the Drobo, it should be here today.

 

[Feek]

I'm well and truly committed to doing this now. I have the Drobo, it has 3 x 3Tb drives and a couple of old 2Tb drives in it and I've already moved a big chunk of my media over.

Still using my current iMac so it's slow via USB2. I expect this to be faster on the new iMac once it arrives but I'm still not finally decided on which size SSD to go for. I won't be ordering until the end of the month so I'll probably have talked myself into the 1Tb SSD by that time

 

[ddoubleep]

I'm also finalising my final iMac spec. What's making you go for the i7 over the i5?

I've read over at MacRumors that the fans and heat generated by the i7 makes it hot and noisy over any previous i7 iMac. I'd want my desktop silent so considering the i5.

SSD wise I'm thinking 512 but apparently is a backlog or orders for 512 configurations.

As for GFX not sure whether to get the i5 with the 580 or just go base and lots more RAM. System use is coding, VMs, Lightroom and video editing.

Any suggestions? I did find a reseller offering a discount and another years warranty so keen to order this week.

Thanks.

 

[Feek]

What's making you go for the i7 over the i5?

Pure grunt and future proofing. I want a machine that's going to last me for at least as long as my current iMac which I've had for almost exactly six years. Realistically, I don't need to replace it, I just want to. Yesterday I broke the Fusion drive and it's demonstrated to me that I shouldn't have set it up in the first place! The performance gain is fantastic now that everything is on the SSD.

Some fan noise and heat doesn't worry me. This isn't a silent room, the Drobo isn't silent so that's not a problem.

Out of interest, I wonder what reseller you're looking at. OcUK don't sell Macs so it's fine to post. If the price is right, I could use them instead of what I'm currently planning.

 

[ddoubleep]

Thanks for the insight into why you've decided on the i7. I've only ever had a MacBook Pro which has been silent so am used to working with no whirring, humming and noise. I don't mind it making noise when encoding final production work but general day to day would annoy me. The price difference from base to say i7 spec isn't all that in the grand scheme of things hence still considering it.

I wasn't sure if was ok to post hence refrained. Take a look at KRCS who are offering 10% off until the 16th and two year warranty. Just need to sort out my spec and order. What were you currently planning?

Cheers.

 

[Feek]

What a horrible site they have to navigate through to try and find custom options. I can beat that price elsewhere though so I won't use them.

I'm pretty much decided now.
i7
8Gb RAM (buy 32Gb from a third party afterwards)
1Tb SSD
Trackpad 2 (Apple have shown over and over again that they can't make a decent mouse)
Wireless keyboard with keypad

Ordering around the end of the month.