iMac 27", Late 2015 Fusion Drive Upgrade

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Level 1

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iMac 27", Late 2015 Fusion Drive Upgrade

Hi,

I wonder if anyone could give me some advice on what to do. I bought a second hand iMac "27, Late 2015, 1TB Fusion Drive with 24GB SSD NVMe, i5-6500 4x3, 20GHz, 16GB RAM DDR3 1867 MHz, Radeon R9 M390.

I'm thinking of upgrading it to Fusion Drive with 1TB SSD (24GB NVMe stays) which would cost 280 euros (a certified Apple service would do it, not myself).

But I'm not sure it's worth it - how much faster would the iMac really be? I'm also not sure if the current 24GB is enough for the operations that I do. If it's not enough, then I guess SSD would make sense.

I need the iMac for photo editing in Lightroom and Photoshop, and sometimes some design work. I didn't even try how fast the "new" second hand iMac is (long story why...) and it's now at Apple service, waiting for me to decide what to do, so I don't even know how fast it is now, without the upgrade.

Does anyone have experience with this, specifically for photo editing? Is the upgrade worth the price?

Thanks :)

Barb

Posted on Dec 2, 2021 4:46 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Jack-19

Level 8

46,008 points

Dec 2, 2021 6:09 AM in response to Barb333

Welcome to Apple Support Communities.

+1 - A USB external SSD is much more cost effective and will result in very similar performance as a new SSD installed internally. Plus, there's no risk of anyone opening the iMac.

For more info, setup instructions, and what external SSD to buy, please read: How to Setup and Use an External SSD as y… - Apple Community.

Cheers,

Jack

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Answer 2

Eau Rouge

Level 8

42,590 points

Dec 2, 2021 6:03 AM in response to Barb333

To replace the internal drive means taking the screen off to get inside, do you

trust your Apple service provider to do this.

Easiest and cheapest way would be to buy an external USB 3.0 SSD drive, install an OS on that

and use that as your startup disk.

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Answer 3

Barb333 Author

Level 1

8 points

Dec 2, 2021 7:27 AM in response to Jack-19

Thank you for your suggestions but the price of an external 1TB SSD drive from the article starts around 200 eur, so it doesn't make a huge price difference, especially considering that out of 280 eur that I have to pay for the replacement, I already paid 60 eur because they had to open it (for another, unrelated reason but the 60 eur would go towards the replacement).

So basically, I have to pay 220 eur more now if I want them to replace the HDD with the SSD. It's an official Apple service and they offer a 90-day warranty. Either way, they already opened it...

The main question is, is the difference in speed worth 200 eur if I need the computer mainly for photo editing - how much faster will it really be?

And also, wouldn't the Fusion Drive with 1TB SSD + 24GB NVMe be faster than an external SSD (without NVMe Fusion drive)?

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Answer 4

Eau Rouge

Level 8

42,590 points

Dec 2, 2021 8:55 AM in response to Barb333

You can buy SSD drives a lot cheaper than that, an alternative even cheaper method is to buy

the SSD disk and then an external enclosure with USB 3.0 that you fit the disk in yourself.

Whatever you decide to do, stay away from a Fusion drive, far too slow and unreliable compared to

a straight forward SSD.

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Answer 5

Barb333 Author

Level 1

8 points

Dec 2, 2021 10:17 AM in response to Eau Rouge

Thanks, I'll keep this in mind. I didn't know fusion drives are unreliable and thought they can be faster than a SATA SSD since a NVMe SSD in the Fusion Drive faster...

Now I'm getting confused with all the SSD options... G-Drive, SATA, NVMe... and I wonder if I can also get an external NVMe SSD with enclosure? When I check prices of 1TB NVMe's they go anywhere from 150 - 700 eur and some expensive ones have lower speeds than cheaper ones so it's confusing, I don't know what the difference is and what are the requirements for it to work with the late 2015 iMac.

Would it make sense to get a 1TB NVMe SSD in (or outside as external) the iMac?

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Answer 6

ku4hx

Level 7

23,586 points

Dec 2, 2021 10:41 AM in response to Barb333

My wife had that very machine. Her Fusion drive ran at about 200 or so MBps IIRC. An external SSD will run at least twice that fast. Mine on the 2015 21.5" iMac I had ran in the 450 MBps range.

The external SSD cost me about $100US and setup was easier than I ever imagined. You might want to consider an external SSD.

Yes you can get an enclosure for an NVMe but a portable SSD will be smaller. I stuck mine to the back of my 2015's stand with thermal transfer tape to keep it out of harms way so to say. I have several Samsung T7s that have given us stellar service. Others will have their favorites. I also like Crucial.

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iMac 27", Late 2015 Fusion Drive Upgrade

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