Can 5400rpm HDD play 4k without problems?

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Can 5400rpm HDD play 4k without problems?

Hi guys,

I am in the market for a 27" iMac, as I'm sure you are all aware, the base model and fusion drive alternatives have a 5400pm HDD. I am a relative novice to the notion of 4k video so I'm wondering if I wanted to play(only read) a 4k movie/video file from the 5400rpm hard drive partition would it stutter or is the playback guaranteed to be smooth?

I am seeing the 5400rpm partition is around 80-95mb/s read speed, I assume this would be more than enough?

Noobie questions and I'm sure Apple wouldn't sell with the hard drive if the screen optimised content didn't work smoothly with it but I just want to be sure. I intend on buying the 2tb fusion drive, if anyone can see any other practical problems with not going solely SSD please add(other than being generally slower). I'm not into large scale video or photo editing.

Thanks a lot

iMac with Retina 5K display, OS X El Capitan (10.11.1)

Posted on Oct 28, 2015 12:56 PM

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Answer 1

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rkaufmann87

Level 10

140,532 points

Oct 28, 2015 1:09 PM in response to eliotbanks

All 27" iMacs that use HD's have 7200RPM hard drives. Please re-look at the tech specs and you will see this.

http://www.apple.com/imac/specs/

However to answer your question the RPM rate would have nothing to do with watching 5K video.

Even 21.5" iMacs that do use 5400 RPM drives work just fne.

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Answer 2

MichelPM

Level 10

80,968 points

Oct 28, 2015 1:09 PM in response to eliotbanks

I just checked the Apple website and, also, as far as I am aware All 27 inch screen iMac models use desktop grade 7200 RPM hard drives and Fusion Drives.

Only the 21 inch screen iMac models ALL come with laptop grade 5400 RPM drives and NO future upgradeability.

With the 21 inch screen models, you must order what you think you will need for now and the future at the time you order one.

The 27 inch screen model iMacs still have user installable RAM access. So you can get a 27 inch screen iMac with base RAM and install cheaper, third party RAM, later.

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Answer 3

eliotbanks Author

Level 1

4 points

Oct 28, 2015 1:14 PM in response to MichelPM

Thanks to both. That's where the confusion has come, I've been hearing/reading too many 21inch 4k reviews. Thanks for the added info, I'm disappointed with the meagre 24gb ssd on the 1tb fusion drive and the lack of upgradability I must say. I am yet to decide between the m380 and m390, information and comparisons on both seems to be limited, I guess due to my limited video editing and gaming(I take notions), the m380 would be more than adequate.

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Answer 4

Nov 16, 2015 6:32 AM in response to eliotbanks

I was looking forward to upgrading my 2007 21.5 inch iMac to the new iMac Retina. But now I am very disappointed that it has a slower (5400 rpm) drive than I have ever had in a Mac, the fusion drive has only 24GB of SSD, and the processor is the old Broadwell instead of the latest Skylake like the 27 inch has. I am going to wait until the 21.5 is upgraded to at least what the 27-incher has.

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Answer 5

Csound1

Level 9

59,973 points

Nov 16, 2015 6:35 AM in response to Allan Atherton1

I'm afraid I didn't see your question in your post, perhaps you can clarify?

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Answer 6

rkaufmann87

Level 10

140,532 points

Nov 16, 2015 6:40 AM in response to Allan Atherton1

Do you have a question? This forum is for Q&A not for comments, opinions or whining. Please read the Terms of Use you agreed to.

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Answer 7

eliotbanks Author

Level 1

4 points

Nov 16, 2015 6:47 AM in response to Allan Atherton1

Hi, I went for the 256gb ssd, I suggest you do the same. You could be waiting a while for a larger sad segment on fusion drives, besides external conventional hard drives are cheap and you will have more fast and quiet internal storage.

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Answer 8

Nov 16, 2015 10:03 AM in response to eliotbanks

Thank you so much for the only friendly and helpful reply. I will indeed get a new iMac with 256 GB SSD and add an external drive if/when needed.

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