Fusion drive vs ssd 256gb which is better

hoi gang, im in the market for a new mac mini. and i need some help with choosing the right options when buying it.
" i do music " and i need a mini that fast and runs at the highest possible speed when making music. and of course using it for some fotos, emails and yes internet.
so ....
specs im choosing
2.6 ghz
16GB 1600MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x8GB
Now here is my problem which one do i choose?
1TB Fusion Drive [Add $250.00]
or
256GB Solid State Drive [Add $300.00]
Remember i need the mac that is the best at everything and speed is important!!!

Choose the 256 GB SSD disk if you need more speed. Fusion Drive is a small flash drive and a hard disk that work together, so OS X automatically puts your most used apps and documents on the flash storage.
If you need storage, you can choose the Fusion Drive or the SSD and an external disk

Similar Messages

Is anything written permanently to the Fusion Drive's SSD?

Is anything written permanently to the Fusion Drive's SSD or is it just a very large cache for the HD component?
I'm wondering, because I'd like to know, mostly out of curiosity, if the mechanical portion of the Fusion Drive were to fail, might the computer still boot from information on the SSD?

(I back it up with Carbon Copy Cloner AND Time Machine.)
So, if either part fails, the machine is quite dead until the internal drive is replaced? I ask because these two drives are detected separately in utilities such as TechTools Pro, where their S.M.A.R.T. data can be retrieved and tested independently.
If a failure of either portion of the drive totally disables the whole drive, would this sort of double the chance of a Fusion drive's failure?

Fusion Drive 4TB + SSD m4 512 Go DEAD can't reformat

Hello,
I have an iMac 27 late 2010 i5 3.6 with 16 Go of RAM running 10.8.3
For Christmas, I received a M4 SSD 512 Go and decided to replace the 2TB in my iMac with a 4TB and create a Fusion Drive.
The operation worked beautifully and my iMac became incredibly fast, which was the goal.
Yesterday, the iMac did not start and I got the white screen with the spinning wheel. After reading about zapping the pram and Vram, nothing worked.
I booted from an external hard drive with Mac os X 10.8.2 and ran Disk Util to check the drive. I got a lot of red lines in the report and got the error Disk Utility can't repair this disk. back , reformat and restore.
I was able to copy some of the files on the drive and decided to reformat the drive.
Everytime I try to reformat the drive (4.4tB Fusion Drive) the mac shuts down and restarts.
I tried to un fuse the fusion drive and I get the same result. the screen goes black, the computer restarts and displays that the mac encountered a problem and had to restart.
when I type the commande in terminal diskutil cs file, I see the logical volume group.
When I do a diskutil cs Delete Volume xxxxxx xxxx xxx x x x x x x x
started CoreStorage operation on disk 2 iMac
Unmounting disk2
Removing Logical Volume from Logical Volume Group
then the mac shuts down and restarts.
it took me 2 hours to crack the beast open to perform the disk implant last christmas and it was scary. I thought I would never manage to close it properly.
I understand that this operation voided the warranty (i have the Apple Care for 3 years).
Any help greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Phil

Thanks for your answers.
I still don't know if it was the SSD or the HD that was faulty but I found a solution via this post
https://discussions.apple.com/message/21492423#21492423
Jerome Tremblay
This solved my questionRe: Unable to reformat/repartition Fusion Drive
Mar 12, 2013 11:05 AM (in response to Topher Kessler)
@Topher : It did not work, and it failed with POSIX errors similar to the zeroDisk message I posted above.
However, While I was unable to "cleanly" solve my problem, I managed to reset everything by booting in single-user mode from an external hard drive (with cmd-S) and overwriting the disk directly with
cat /dev/random > /dev/disk0 cat /dev/random > /dev/disk1
Then I rebooted and I could reformat the drives (actually, I created another fusion drive using these directives).
I was able to reformat the drives as a Fusion Drive. My time Machine backup was only a week old but it worked perfectly. I was able to add the rest via my Backblaze subscription.
Don't know how long the Fusion drive will last but I am prepared with my backups in case it happens.
Phil

HT3476 Fusion drive versus ssd drive issues

HHow can I compare the fusion drive to the ssd drive in the MAC mini

Lanny wrote:
A fusion drive will be a little faster than a HDD and a SSD will be a lot faster than both, especially if it's connected via PCExpress 2.
I agree with the second half of your statement but my experience with the fusion drive VS a standard 5400 RPM HHD is that it is significantly faster, not a little. Apple has managed to find a good balance between permanently storing often used items on the SSD and using it for buffering.

Fusion Drive on a 2010 iMac with 2tb HDD & 256gb SSD

Hi,
well basicailly the title says it all!
I have a 2010 iMac with the 256gb SSD and 2TB HDD which to me seems like it would be great option for the Fusion Drive...
Does anyone have any ideas on how I could make the drives work like the new Fusion Drive?
I've seen the Macworld Tutorial on a DIY Fusion Drive but i'm still not sure if doing that will work in the same way as the preinstalled 2012 iMac Fusion Drive... I know that Mac OSX will treat the combined drives as one, but in terms of moving files depending upon their usage is another matter.
If the Macworld step by step is followed will Mountain Lion handle frequently used files / apps like the apple presentation states or will it just use the drives as one and not increase the performance of my machine?
Any help on this would be much appreciated, especially if anyone has followed the Macworld steps etc!
Thanks
Darren

Thanks fir the reply, I thought with the fusion drive the SSD and HDD were two seperate storage devices seen by OSX as one volume, and the software determins where the files most used will be placed and accessed from.
I've read a bit about this here;
http://macs.about.com/od/diyguidesprojects/ss/Setting-Up-A-Fusion-Drive-On-Your- Current-Mac.htm
but would be great to hear first hand experience!!
With this DIY approach it appears that the same functionality of the 2012 iMacs is achieved but simply not using the older Disk Utility, but a newer version only included on the newer models...

Fusion drive ssd gone missing after boot

Hi all,
I have a DIY fusion drive on my iMac which was working fine since I installed it over a year ago. This morning I booted my Mac and it got stuck while loading the Finder. Another reboot did not help so I booted the recovery partition and ran "diskutil list" and "diskutil cs list". The output looks fine: two physical disks forming a logical disk. But several minutes after booting the same commands don't show the ssd physical disk anymore and the logical disk goes offline.
Does anyone know what the problem with my ssd could be? After reboot the ssd is always detected and it always disappears after several minutes.
All suggestions are very welcome!

Sounds like the SSD has failed.

Fusion Drive like a 128GB SSD if I don't go over?

Hi everyone!
I have a few questions regarding the Fusion Drive. I bought a refurbished late-2013 iMac for a good price but the Fusion drive is bothering me. I'm planning to do video editing and all my applications that I need fit on the SSD. So my questions are:
1. If I don't go over 128GB (Fusion Drive's SSD portion) am I essentially using a 128GB Flash storage? (I'm planning to edit on external drives)
2. And is there a way to check how much files my SSD portion of the Fusion drive is holding?
3. If I bootcamp my 3TB fusion with 1TB for Windows 7, does the SSD portion get affected when booting up Mac? I'm only using my Windows 7 for gaming.
4. I've heard that Disk Drives get slower as it fills up, is this true? If so, could you elaborate on it please. I may leave the other 2TB remainder alone if that's the case.
5. Lastly, I'm planning to upgrade the 8GB Ram with an extra 16GB Ram from amazon. I just wanted confirmation that these rams do indeed work on my iMac Late-2013 system. http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B008LTBJFW/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&s mid=A3DWYIK6Y9EEQB
Thanks!

You are over-complicating using your computer, simply use the Fusion drive as you would any internal HD. There is nothing special you need to do!
As for Boot Camp, simply follow the on-screen instructions in Boot Camp Assistant (Applications - Utilities - Boot Camp Assistant) for installing. In addition you may find the manual for Boot Camp helpful, click http://manuals.info.apple.com/MANUALS/1000/MA1583/en_US/boot_camp_install-setup_ 10.7.pdf to view the manual.
As for RAM I would STRONGLY recommend buying RAM from OWC (www.macsales.com) if you are in the USA, if you are outside the US then buy it directly from Crucial, they have an on-screen utility to help you choose the correct RAM for your iMac. The correct RAM from OWC would be found at
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/iMac/2012_27/DDR3L

Fusion drive sound issue

I just bought a new iMac to record music and do graphic design. I was told to buy the fusion drive as it's faster and better etc, so I did. To my surprise, there's a terrible crackling noise after 10 minutes or so when I'm playing music through my quartet usb interface. Now, these are quality bits of technology and I need this fixed. I've seen a few problems about this online but I can't seem to get rid of the issue with updates. I didn't just blow €3000 for a big tv. Any help out there? Much appreciated.

The warranty entitles you to complimentary phone support for the first 90 days of ownership.
If you bought the product in the U.S. directly from Apple (not from a reseller), you have 14 days from the date of delivery in which to exchange or return it for a refund. In other countries, the return policy may be different. If you bought from a reseller, its return policy applies.

How to clean-install Mavericks to a fusion drive?

Because I cannot find a complete answer here or anywhere else, I seek information about reinstalling Mavericks on a 1TB fusion drive on my late 2013 iMac. I see discussions about reinstalling, backing up data, Boot Camp issues, rebuilding a fusion drive, making a fusion drive from scratch, and the like; but I do not find the level of detail I am seeking about starting over with a fusion drive. I upgraded to Mavericks from Mtn Lion and now see hints that I needed to do something special to take advantage of the properties of this drive.
That said, here are my questions:
(1) When I "Command-R" reboot to Recovery and get to the Disk Utility, I see a separate 1TB HD as an extended partition as well as a 125GB drive that is root (/), which I presume is the SSD. To accomplish the clean installation, do I format BOTH? Or will formatting only the 1TB HD suffice? Does formatting only the 1TB HD also take care of formatting the SSD? Maybe it's not advisable to format the SSD ...?
(2) Does the downloaded Mavericks installer loaded onto a USB stick using DiskMakerX have the capability to do this clean install properly? or is it necessary, in order to take advantage of the fusion drive properties (SSD+HD), to download Mavericks Installer after wiping the HD so that support for the fusion drive is maintained?
(3) Because I am curious, where does OS X (I mean the OS, not data) reside after the installation is done? on the SSD? on the HD? I ask this because I have read that "the OS remains on the SSD," but, seemingly in conflict, that the SSD is for quick access to frequently used programs and data. Both could be correct.
Sorry for the length of this. And thanks.

The screenshot of DU within the booted Mavericks, not Recovery.
/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *121.3 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:          Apple_CoreStorage                         121.0 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Boot OS X               134.2 MB   disk0s3
/dev/disk1
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *1.0 TB     disk1
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk1s1
   2:          Apple_CoreStorage                         999.3 GB   disk1s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk1s3
/dev/disk2
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD           *1.1 TB     disk2
/dev/disk3
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *500.1 GB   disk3
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk3s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS LaCie                   499.1 GB   disk3s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             784.2 MB   disk3s3
And you know what this is, per your request. It shows the OS on the SSD portion, the Recovery partition on the HD, etc. It's a little confusing because the disk reference numbers do not agree with those in the screenshot below, but that probably is because the shot below results from booting from a USB stick.
Now to your comments/answers/thoughts:
(1) Issue of number of drives. This is a fuzzy iPhone screenshot of DU after booting from a USB Mavericks installation stick:
Looks like I cannot format the SSD directly, if that is what disk5 really is. Below I mention another possibility for getting it formatted (third paragraph from the end).
(2) Which source for new installation of Mavericks
I agree that it's probably best not to use the USB stick I have but to use the Recovery method to download a fresh copy. I'm not sure about the reliability of the USB vs downloading, either, but there is some evidence out there (somewhere -- I've seen it but I don't recall where) suggesting it.
(3) Where OS X is installed -- fusion drive portion or HD portion of the Macintosh HD:
From the information given with "disk5" in the screen shot just above, it does appear that after a USB boot, DU sees items separately, including the main storage (Macintosh HD), the Recovery partition (disk4-used also for creating the USB stick installer), and OS (disk5). Some of this layout may hold true with a "Command-R" boot from the Recovery partition, and I know I've looked at it but for the moment cannot recall the information.
Further, it appears the OS is on the SSD. It also appears it cannot be formatted UNLESS such formatting occurs when the target for the formatting process is "Macintosh HD." I am inclined to believe now that when I make this clean reinstallation, the new copy of OS X will be put on the SSD portion, as you state. I am aware that the moving of data back and forth from SSD to HD is outside user control.
Lowluster, thank you for answering my questions in such an organized fashion (that I can follow!). I feel confident now about proceeding even though not all questions are answered definitively.
Allan, I'm glad to know about fusing separately an SSD with an HD. It will be useful should I run into another user's desire to create a fusion drive. Thank you again.
David

Fusion drive vs. sdd and external

HI everyone,
In the market for a new iMac to replace my 2007 model. I'm stuck between getting a fusion drive or a 256GB SSD and an external drive. I have a huge photo library, iTunes library and do some video editing with iMovie.
I guess I'm wondering if a 7200 RPM external USB 3.0 or Thunderbolt drive combined with the 256 GB SDD would be as fast as a fusion drive.
Thanks

I currently have a 27" iMac with 16GB RAM and that is plenty for the work I do. I edit short films (any where between 5 and 45 minutes, music videos, and documentaries (~5-60 minutes). Most of the media is 1080p.
You will be fine for the work you are doing. Just make sure you have at least a 7200 RPM external drive to store your media then some where to back up your media/project. (do not edit with out backups!!)

Do I really need to put my library on an external hard drive? Or is still good to leave it on my fusion drive on new iMac?

Previous conventional wisdom seemed to say that it was best to locate your FCP media on an external thunderbolt drive while keeping FCP app on your internal system drive.
I have a new top end iMac with 3tb fusion drive, is it okay to keep the new FCP 10.1 media library on internal drive? If not, why not?
Thank you

Ever since I created my DIY Fusion Drive in my Mac Pro, I have moved my libraries on to it because it is still less then half full.
In the past I had them all spread arcoss internal drives in my Mac Pro in an effort to improve performance.
To me it appear the DIY Fusion Drive is able to do a better job then using three internal drive could do.
Allan

Are the main differences between the 768 GB Flash storage and the 3 TB Fusion Drive?

Are the main differences between the 768 GB Flash storage and the 3 TB Fusion Drive?

About Fusion Drive
Fusion Drive combines 128GB of super fast flash storage with a traditional hard drive. It automatically and dynamically moves frequently used files to flash for quicker access. With Fusion Drive in your iMac, booting is up to 1.7 times faster, and copying files and importing photos are up to 3.5 times faster.* Over time, as the system learns how you work, Fusion Drive makes your Mac experience even better. All while letting you store your digital life on a traditional, roomy hard drive.
About Flash Storage
For maximum performance, you can configure your iMac with 768GB of flash storage instead of a traditional hard drive. Flash storage delivers up to four times the performance of a traditional drive — speed you’ll notice when you start up your iMac, launch an app, or browse your photo library.
In addition the prue flash option is $900 more the then 3TB fusion drive.

Which is the better upgrade: RAM or a fusion drive?

I am on the verge of ordering one of the new iMac models but I find myself in right ole quandary regarding the Fusion Drive. On the one hand it looks like interesting technology and I'm sufficiently geekly to be motivated by that. On the other hand, I am very reluctant to spend £350 for a speed bump of a second or two here and there. (Yes, it is £350: £200 for the drive, plus £150 extra for the upper end 21.5"). A RAM upgrade seemed a much more sensible option, espeically since this cannot be upgraded later (boo hiss to that!). But then I started thinking: all-flash systems like the MacBook Air have no distinct RAM as such: it's 128 or 256Gb of flash and that's it. So what function does RAM have on a fusion drive system?? Would I not get the same benefits from a fusion drive as I would from a RAM upgrade??
Informed input much appreciated: I am very confused!

Cameron Paterson wrote:
I see what you mean Martin. They do seem distinct but there is some overlap, isn't there? There is no RAM in a MacBook Air is there? Just a quantity of flash memory....
<omitted>
Most computers today do not have RAM which is just Random Access Memory, they have Dynamic Random Access Memory or DRAM, but the 'idea' is the same. DRAM is memory used by the OS and applications for storing objects they are working on in the computers 'memory'.
SSD or flash is flash memory configured to handle 'hard drive' functions. Compared to hardware disk drives with their inertia latency issues SSD is lightning quick. The hard drive function is usually referred to as 'storage' and not as 'memory'.
For example, my mid-2011 MacBook Air has 256GB of SSD which is flash memory used as the main disk drive. It is very fast. It also has 8GB of DRAM, which is enough for most applications to have room to run without paging to the SSD. Since paging to SSD is very quick apps that have to page to the SSD run very quickly too.
A fusion drive is one that has a SSD drive 'married' to a hardware drive via software. Apple's implementation has a 128GB SSD and a 1TB or 3TB hard drive. The software is designed to keep the most often accessed items stored on the SSD. So while it is really two drives, a fusion drive for all practical purposes appears as a single drive. One would have to get to the system level to see it as two drives and Apple has made that very difficult. Accessing the drives separately is a quick and sure way to hose your system.

256gb SSD or Fusion Drive

I have a PC with a 1 TB hard drive. I'm currently using 187gb of space. I want to move to the "Mac World", so would it be better to get a Mac Mini with a 256 SSD or a Fusion Drive. My concern is that if I put much more on the a 256 SSD, it may "push" it too much and slow up. Also, I've heard that continually writing to the SSD can wear it out faster than just reading from it. Any thoughts on any of this?

Thanks to various techniques that are handled by the OS and onboard drivers, an SSD should outlast a conventional hard drive. The two questions you should consider are: 1) will a 256GB drive be sufficient and 2) if it isn't will I be happier with a fusion drive or just using an external drive?
You say you currently use 187GB but don't say if that's data only or data, apps, and OS. If it is data only, then you can add about 20GB more for the Mac OS and built in applications and then more for your new Mac applications. If that number is everything then you'll probably wind up using roughly the same amount of space on the Mac. If you are into digital photography, like music or collect movies, you'll quickly go thru 256GB and if you go the iPhone or iPad route, the applications you buy for an iOS device get backed up to your computer. I have about 15GB of iPad apps stored on my computer!
So maybe 256GB isn't enough. Fusion or external? I have an iMac with a fusion drive, I'm happy I made that decision, and I'd do it again. The one disadvantage of using an external drive for overflow is that it can add a bit of complexity to the system. Having everything on one internal drive and using an external for backing up just makes life a little easier.

I am buying a new IMac. which is better, the 1TB Flash Drive or the 3TB fusion drive

I am looking to purchase a new IMac. Trying to figure out the best solution for storage. Considering the 1TB falsh drive plus using an external hard drive for additional storage. Alternatively I can get the fusion drive with 3tb hard drive and 128mg flash. Anyone have an opinion which is better

Go with the flash and use usb3 or thunderbolt for storage. Google flash vs fusion and you'll get plenty of articles to help with your decision.

Fusion drive vs ssd 256gb which is better

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