Fusion Drive speed

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Level 1

5 points

Fusion Drive speed

Hello. I'm going to buy a new 27-inch iMac to replace an old iMac in my house.

The nearby reseller only provides stock options (no BTO options). I'm targetting for 1TB Fusion Drive. I have something to ask everyone.

Is the SSD SATA or PCIe? Hope it should not slower (more significantly) than faster SSD on Mac notebooks.

And since this Drive only has 32GB of "fast" SSD, I'll soon use up the space. It's an iMac 27 inch so HDD is 7200-rpm type? I have been using 7200-rpm HDD so I hate lower rpm drive.

Most of the time I won't notice the difference between SSD part and HDD part. ( I only do some basic things like browsing, music, movies, editing some photos). Sometimes I need to install a Windows virtual machine.

Posted on Jul 17, 2017 12:06 AM

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Answer 1

Jul 17, 2017 1:37 AM in response to plumpss

I think you have misunderstood what the 32GB is for. if this is a HDD and SSD hybrid - the 32GB is not accessible for you to "store information" but rather a sort of cache; and what this 32GB offers is the ability for Mac OSX to store information that you regularly use, within that. Ensuring you have your most commonly used files and so on "ready to go" instead of waiting for your HDD to serve the files.

This cache will also allow OSX to boot up faster. Believe me, you will notice the difference between an SSD and 7200RPM HDD; there is a HUGE difference. On my work machine, I have less than 7200RPM but it's HDD is 2tb total storage; however, my personal laptop has a 7200RPM drive and an SSD for booting from. And the speed is hugely different.

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Answer 2

babowa

Level 9

78,580 points

Jul 17, 2017 8:35 AM in response to plumpss

27" iMacs generally have the 7200 rpm drive whereas laptops and 21" iMacs usually have a 5400 rpm drive. The SSD of a fusion drive is mainly to store/open the OS and the apps. Most all of the "other" work will be done on the regular drive because the tiny size of the SSD will not allow that much reading/writing. So, as long you're fine with the 7200 rpm, it should be fine. Note that the two drives are not considered separate entities - they are "bound" together via software - hence it is called fusion. The system will decide what goes on which drive.

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