How Slow is 5400 RPM?

Maybe not, depends on the purchaser's attitude, and bank account. As ever there is no generally correct answer.

I had a fusion drive for about 10 days when I got the first iMac last January. The iMac was deemed DOA by the Genius Bar and a replacement was ordered. During the waiting period, I attempted to partition the fusion drive (I regularly run at least 2 different OS versions, sometimes three), repartition it, and finally, needed to erase it to return the iMac. My main and overriding reaction was: I will never have another fusion drive; it can't be controlled easily, the special version of DU is helpless and it doesn't allow for more than 2 partitions total. After much experimenting and wasted time, the only thing that saved me was the factory fresh clone I had made right after I first set it up. I booted into it, wiped the drive, and cloned things back.

So, fusion drives have been added to the list of things I do not want ever again. I don't care about lightning fast bootups - I do care about reasonably and consistently fast read/write as well as being able to control my hardware (drive). I can't do a 1 TB SSD which is the size I need, so for now, I'll stick with a 7200 rpm (I do have an SSD in my MBP, but I don't do any video work there).

if you are old enough to having used vinyl then I can use that as comparison

rpm is hw many revolutions the disc inside the hard disk makes pr minute

higher rpm really mean more for seek time (finding the correct data) then for sustained data transfer

say the disc always spin if the data cell you had to read had just passed the reader (pickup) then

the disc have to rotate a full revolution before the cell can be read from

rpm would have no impact on the move from centre to outer part of the disc

with a ssd there is no physical movement requirements when seeking out data so their seek time are much lower

the feeling of speed is subjective and depending on what work one does seek time can have more or less impact

thing with ssd is they have a high sustained data transfer for both read and write but cost more

I could see myself buying a computer with a smaller ssd disc and then having an external bigger hd for some data like video and photos

So, fusion drives have been added to the list of things I do not want ever again.

Given the experience you describe, I don't blame you.

On the other hand hard disk drives are things I don't ever want again (with the exception of TM backup drives, which ought to be considered disposable, and for which transfer speed is not important). I had been waiting for OWC to come out with a five year warranty 1 TB SSD, which they have now, and FWIW it's "only" $400. I have never experienced a single failure, but only use their Mercury Extreme Pro series with the five year warranty.

The 1 TB Electra model is $50 cheaper but I don't have any of them.

My admittedly cynical outlook is that spinning hard disk drives are going away, as is Apple's support for them. Whatever it is you want to do, if iOS doesn't do it, neither will OS X.

Whatever it is you want to do, if iOS doesn't do it, neither will OS X.

I've been afraid of that for some time.

Speaking of OWC, I have their Mercury Elite Pro external drives (not SSD though - 7200 rpm models) and am in a somewhat unpleasant back and forth with them at the moment - I will detail that at a later date once the problem has been taken care of.

But what did shock and surprise me is how sluggish everything felt about the iMac. With just Mail, Safari, and Word running switching between applications gave me the beachball, at least momentarily. And this is a 16GB computer! In every way an older computer with less memory, a slower processor, and less powerful GPU beat the iMac. And yes, this was a clean machine untouched by any hands but mine with no malware or “cleaning” software

Apart from the fact that my iMac has only 8 gigs, I too switch between the two machines, both 8 gigs, iMac has a 5400 drive, MBP has an SSD. At the moment, for my work I have the following open:

Safari

Chromium

Ulysses

Bookends

Quiver

DevonThinkPro Office

iBooks

Clearview

Preview

PDFexpert

Pathfinder

Mail

This is a typical array of material that I have running on either machine as part of my working day.

I almost never see the spinning beachball on either of them. If I do, it's usually on waking for 10-15 seconds.

Like yours, a clean machine, no junk or crapulous software.

My admittedly cynical outlook is that spinning hard disk drives are going away, as is Apple's support for them. Whatever it is you want to do, if iOS doesn't do it, neither will OS X.

Even though that makes no sense and even people like Phil Schiller have explicitly denied it. Even though for every app that has an OS X and iOS version the Mac version is more powerful.

You really shouldn't spread FUD.

For typical school work the 5400 drive will be sufficient. If you're like many users you will boot up the iMac and then sleep it rather than shutting it down.

To go from a 5400 RPM drive to a 7200 RPM drive you will have to buy the 27" iMac rather than the 21.5" iMac. That's a $700 increase in cost just for the bottom of the line models.

It only costs $100 to upgrade to the fusion drive (a combination of a 24 GB SSD drive and 5400 RPM 1 TB standard hard drive which appears as a single drive: About Fusion Drive - Apple Support). This will provide you with quicker boot times and application launches.

All models come with 8 GB of RAM which is more than enough.

All the talk to this point has been about speed of 5400 vs. 7200 vs. SSD.

Personally, if you can afford it, get an SSD for one reason, no moving parts!!!!

No moving parts = better reliability in my book. Tearing apart an iMac to replace a

drive is by no means simple to replace a hard drive.

Then the lower cost option will be fine. Sure you can do better, but as I often say on here, you see a lot of people arguing over which is best: a Porsche or a Ferrari for the school run.

dialabrain wrote:

dwb wrote:

Do not buy an iMac or mini with a conventional spinning hard drive. Get the SSD upgrade, you won’t be disappointed.

You do realize there is a large cost difference for the same capacity and that certainly would be a factor for a student. Should they not buy a computer at all if they can't afford an SSD with sufficient storage?

You do realize that your post is quite condescending, right?

The Fusion drive costs $100 more for 1TB. Not at all onerous though not the choice I’d make for the base model iMac. The 256GB SSD upgrade costs $200 more and yes, it is a quarter of the size of the base 5400 RPM drive. But today’s Macs are basically buy and forget machines; the average person isn’t going to be upgrading them internally. $200 to future proof the computer isn’t that much.

You go totally over the top with the “should they not buy a computer at all.” Don’t be absurd. But you have heard of Apple refurbished computers right? Selection changes constantly but the OP could find a nice refurb iMac with an SSD that would cost the same as the new one with a spinny drive.

dwb wrote:

dialabrain wrote:

dwb wrote:

Do not buy an iMac or mini with a conventional spinning hard drive. Get the SSD upgrade, you won’t be disappointed.

You do realize there is a large cost difference for the same capacity and that certainly would be a factor for a student. Should they not buy a computer at all if they can't afford an SSD with sufficient storage?

You do realize that your post is quite condescending, right?

The Fusion drive costs $100 more for 1TB. Not at all onerous though not the choice I’d make for the base model iMac. The 256GB SSD upgrade costs $200 more and yes, it is a quarter of the size of the base 5400 RPM drive. But today’s Macs are basically buy and forget machines; the average person isn’t going to be upgrading them internally. $200 to future proof the computer isn’t that much.

You go totally over the top with the “should they not buy a computer at all.” Don’t be absurd. But you have heard of Apple refurbished computers right? Selection changes constantly but the OP could find a nice refurb iMac with an SSD that would cost the same as the new one with a spinny drive.

1. First of all I had no intention of being condescending which is more than I can say for your reply.

2. I did say for the same capacity, not can you get a smaller SSD for only a $100 more.

3. You were the one that said "Do not buy an iMac or mini with a conventional spinning hard drive.". Not me.

You'll still want the 16 GBs of RAM because of the shared RAM nature of the 21 inch screen iMac's integrated and NOT independent GPU.