Anyone got a 2015 i7 iMac with a large Apple supplied SSD?

Feek

Feek

Feek

Commissario
Joined
16 Oct 2002
Posts
343,998
Location
In the radio shack
I'm considering changing my iMac later this year and am looking at the i7 27" iMac which I'll spec with the 1Tb SSD. Yes, it's expensive.

Anyone got one? What did you have before, how are you finding it?

Just after some general real world opinions rather than specific reviews.

I do appreciate this would be a build-to-order so there probably aren't many out there and I'll be lucky to find someone with one.
 
Future proofing myself! My current iMac is five years old and I expect the replacement to last at least that amount of time. Realistically I could keep my existing machine for probably another two or three years but I'll sell it while it's still got some value.
 
hey,

i have the quad core 3.8ghz with 256gb flash storage. its rapid. simple and that. you will love the speed with the SSD compared to the fusion drive.



RTJ
 
rip-the-jacker said:
i have the quad core 3.8ghz with 256gb flash storage. its rapid. simple and that. you will love the speed with the SSD compared to the fusion drive.
Click to expand...
Thanks!

/edit - 3.8GHz? I don't see that as an option for any of the models. Which one is it?
 
This is what I've got now - Obviously the CPU and GPU are quite old technology.

system-20160520-191637.png


Hoping I'd see quite a performance increase, is that right?
 
I'm sort of torn on SSD sizes, though I don't know what you use your machine for. I put a 240GB SSD in my MacBook Pro back in 2012 and I have a 256GB SSD in my PC and in my MacBook Pro Retina now, and neither of them are over half filled. The size of OSes and the actual applications that I want to run haven't really been getting any larger, and I have a NAS for the larger media content. I'm of the opinion that if you store enough stuff on your boot drive that you need a 1TB SSD then chances are you're going to fill a 1TB SSD before too long as well.

I'd struggle to justify going past 512GB for an SSD, but it totally depends on your usage. The Samsung T3 USB 3.0 SSDs don't need any strange software installing any more to work on a Mac, and you can get 1TB for under £300. So if you needed a quick local drive for photos or whatever, just plug one of those into the back and velcro it to the case.
 
Last edited:
It's used for general day to day stuff, along with photo and movie editing. I play a few games, nothing too demanding and I have a handful of VMs which I use occasionally. It also hosts all my media through iTunes which I stream to an Apple TV. At the moment I have the Apple 250Gb SSD and I replaced the internal 2Tb drive with a 4Tb drive. Checking last night, I have just over 1.1Tb free.

Most of my data is the iTunes media and I reckon that if I move my entire iTunes library to an external drive, I'd have around 350-400Gb left. If I buy with a 500Gb SSD, it's getting too close for comfort so my idea is to get the 1Tb Flash version and hang a 4Tb external drive out of the back for the iTunes library.
Not sure what would be better, either USB3 or Thunderbolt.

I'll buy 32Gb of third party RAM in two sticks so have a total of 40Gb.

Like I said, this is a computer which will last me a minimum of five years so I'm speccing it high.
 
I'm fortunate enough to have a 1TB SSD in my work rMBP. It's invaluable because I frequently use multiple VMs.

That being said, for my personal rMBP I opted for the 512GB option back in 2013. For a mobile Mac I like to keep it fairly clean so 512GB is more than enough and the premium on 1TB wasn't justifiable (it's still pretty similar for Macs).

For your scenario, I think the large Fusion Drive is the sweet spot. You don't have many big-data-things that you need to access constantly and at super high speed but do need it on hand. Also, with the 27" you atleast know that the HDD component of the Fusion Drive is a 3.5" 7200RPM drive.

In terms of performance, I expect you'll be impressed compared to a 2011 SSD.
 
I feel a 3Tb Fusion drive would be a backwards step as I currently have a Fusion drive made up from a 250Gb SSD and a 4Tb 7200RPM drive. Doesn't the Apple Fusion drive now only have 120Gb?

Plus, I already have almost 3Tb data. If I ordered with a 3Tb Fusion, it'd be full very quickly.
 
Feek said:
I feel a 3Tb Fusion drive would be a backwards step as I currently have a Fusion drive made up from a 250Gb SSD and a 4Tb 7200RPM drive. Doesn't the Apple Fusion drive now only have 120Gb?

Plus, I already have almost 3Tb data. If I ordered with a 3Tb Fusion, it'd be full very quickly.
Click to expand...

It does use a 120GB SSD but it is dynamic about what gets stored there so the size isn't so much of a limitation. The fusion drive firmware automatically allocates frequently used data to it, and moves static data off it.

It is also a much higher performance SSD than the one in your 2011 iMac.

That being said, it could be a limitation if you definitely need 3TB of data on there.
 
Its such a shame that Apple don't have a Mac Mini Pro type device which is a larger case than the standard mini but houses desktop components. You could have limited choices like all the other models. Something like:

6500 i5 or 6700 i7
16Gb or 32Gb Ram
960, 970 or 980ti graphics
256Gb, 512Gb or 1Tb SSD
USB 3, USB C, WiFi and Bluetooth.
Mini ITX platform in a nice silver box. Can sit in-between the mini and the Mac Pro.

I would love to buy one of those!
 
I have the 5k Retina iMac and at the time couldn't get hold of the SSD units quick enough (my old one had blown up). The Fusion drive isn't terrible - but if you're used to a full SSD it will start to frustrate you.

I ended up buying a Samsung 850PRO, connecting it via USB3, and booting from that. Far better. Proper internal SSD will only be faster.

I use the internal Fusion drive as a dump area. For what it's worth, you can also split the fusion drive into two - it's SSD (128Gb), and the spinner. I tried that - installing OS & apps on the SSD, but I just ran out of patience and room.
 
Thanks for the comments, especially the last two.

I'm pretty much decided on what I'm going to do, it'll have a 1Tb SSD and I will get an external drive for the iTunes library, it's just whether I go USB or Thunderbolt.

At the moment, I'm using a second monitor through the displayport, I guess I'll need a Thunderbolt>Displayport adapter.

Also, I'm probably about two months away from this purchase and there are (as always) various rumours about what's likely with the iMac. The CPU is current but there are some views that the GPU may well be upgraded in time for "back to school".
 
I use LaCie 5big 20GB Thunderbolt 2 for external storage. It has an extra Thunderbolt port which I use to daisy chain my 2nd monitor. Its fast and flexible and I've been using it since 2012.

I have another drive connected that I use to clone my internal SSD every evening. Just in case I lose my MBP or something I can get back up and running via Mac Mini.
 
I can't believe I didn't think to come in here first but I've got a 27" iMac coming tomorrow and I opted for the 1TB fusion drive (24GB SSD :( ). It's a work machine so I didn't think it'd be that bad. I've been having second thoughts since it was ordered and as it's a work machine I'm a little limited in what I can do.

Would a thunderbolt SSD drive be faster than the Fusion drive? I have a few SSDs knocking around that I could use in a Thunderbolt caddy.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom