Hello, I coming off a mid 2010 21.5' iMac with a 1TB HD. Its currently filled 720gb. Of Which 447gb is music that I mostly stream. Am I better off getting a 2TB Fusion os 512GB SSD. I don't necessarily have a problem with placing my music on a separate drive. TIA.
iMac, OS X Yosemite (10.10.2)
It's a classic speed vs storage issue. IMHO, I'd get the SSD and then store your music on an external HD. Then you would have a great solution.
I'd suggest moving your music to an external USB 3 drive. That should handle your music library and streaming needs adequately. That leaves a choice between the SSD or Fusion drives. For the SSD your potential storage usage is around 273 GB (720 - 447), leaving adequate free space and enough room for a bit of growth. The 2 TB Fusion however will give you more than enough room for growth and very acceptable performance.
if you have the need for speed, get the SSD, if growth potential is more important, the 2 TB Fusion.
And don't forget another external for backup!
Tom
Just another thought. Since i need to move my current music file(~500gb) to a new HD, I'm going to need on that supports FW & USB3. i see OWC sells a 2TB for $194. A new 2TB USB 3.0 /eSATA ( for backing up new iMac 512SSD) is another $178. So the the external HD will cost $373 vs an additional $450 for a 1TB SSD. Is that a better option? Or will i be to close to capacity given that my current 1TB has 630gb? Thanks
Don't forget you still need a backup drive no matter what you choose for the new iMacs internal configuration. So if your numbers ar correct the 1 TB SSD would cost you $450 for the SSD option and $178 for the USB 3 backup drive.
However, you numbers seem a bit high for me. First off, I really like OWC products, I'm using one of their USB 3/ FW 800 external enclosures for one of my backups. However, you should consider looking into just buying an empty USB 3 enclosure, and purchasing a drive for it separately. USB 3 enclosures can be had dirt cheap, and 1 TB drives are also dirt cheap. This is one way you can save some money by building it yourself. It is really easy to do.
Tom
Thanks. I just realized the OWC HD I'm currently using for TM is a 1TB USB 3 and FireWire. So guess I jest need 1 more 3.0 USB drive in either case.
New iMac 27' retina. 2TB Fusion or 512GB SSD?
