Flash Storage vs Fusion Drive

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Level 1

14 points

Flash Storage vs Fusion Drive

What exactly are the differences? Essentially the SSD/flash storage is a little faster with smaller space?

If I can afford the 768GB flash storage is that the obvious choice for me if 768GB is enough space? Is the speed difference significant?

The extra price for flash storage is expensive, but considering the HD can't be upgraded I don't want to cut corners if it's the best choice.

I am putting in my order in soon and this is my last thing I need to decide, any input would be appreciated! 😀 Thanks!

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Dec 10, 2012 8:33 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

BDAqua

Level 10

238,997 points

Dec 10, 2012 9:59 PM in response to Rizzice1

The fusion ndrive just makes th regular HDD faster, as it acts like a giant Cache, it doesn't relly add to your storage potential as a seperate drive would.

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Answer 2

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,541 points

Dec 10, 2012 10:08 PM in response to Rizzice1

The Fusion Drive combines two physical storage devices into a single volume. The size of that volume is the sum of the capacities of the devices. So for example, if the SSD has a capacity of 256 GB and the HDD has 1 TB, the FD will have a capacity of about 1.25 TB.

FD adaptively moves data between the devices so that the most often accessed files (actually blocks) are on the SSD.

How well it performs relative to an SSD will depend on you usage pattern. In my tests, I get about 90% of file accesses to the SSD.

One drawback of FD is that there are two points of failure instead of one. If either device fails, the whole volume is lost.

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