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I am finally (three years later!) ready to upgrade my now dying 2010 iMac i3. I was ready to purchase back in 2014 when I had a personal event happen that shut that that down for a couple of years--- Anyhow, I was able to refer to my old post about the purchase and transfer for guidance but I wanted to make sure I am not missing anything new before I move forward.

I am now looking at a 2017 iMac with either a 512 or 1TB SSD. I am not sure whether to pay the extra $400 for the internal SSD or put it towards more external? I am planning to purchase the iMac with 8gig of RAM installed and purchasing 2X16 gig RAM from Crucial to add for 40 Gigs total. Is this a good idea and if so is there anything I should watch out for when purchasing the RAM? (They are out of stock now on the Mac RAM, I may have to look elsewhere) If 40 GIG total is not enough I will replace the two 4 gigs with two more 16gigs to bring it to 64. Does this make sense?

Mikehalloran recommended this before as far as an external drive: (they are less $ now:-)

mikehalloran wrote:You can get a 1T SSD SandForce external around $500 plus shipping.

$40 for one of these:
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/NewerTec ... Drive_Dock

$460 for one of these:
http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Electroni ... ds=ssd+1tb

I now have two external USB 3 7200 RPM drives, (both 2TB) but did not splurge for a SSD back then because of finances (and no new computer) at the time.
I will plan to get one of the above SSD's if my current USB 3's don't perform well enough for what I do, and depending on what I end up with internal in the computer.

This is what I am currently attempting to use on my dying iMac i3 with 10.11.5 :

DP8.07 (will probably upgrade to DP9)
Ableton Live Standard
Play EW libraries (iLOK 2nd Gen.)
Kush UBK 1 (iLOK 2nd Gen.)
Addictive Drums
Omnisphere
Stylus RMX
9V Audio - Stylus/Kontact add-ons
Eereckon Earebound
Izotope: Alloy, Nectar, Ozone 5, Stutter Edit, Vocal Synth
DSP Quattro

I am planning a clean install because this current configuration was copied from someone elses computer originally and I just want to start fresh. (I will also need a CDR to load the software that is on CD's. - fun times ahead) I plan to deactivate everything first as suggested before.

Any thoughts, info, and opinions are greatly appreciated. Thanks!

The max you can install on a 2015-on 27" iMac is 64G — this is new. 40G? Highly recommended. Crucial, OWC, Kinsgton, MemoryX... doesn't matter as long as you get a lifetime guaranty.

Get the largest internal SSD you can afford. It is possible to upgrade them but it is very expensive and time consuming. Step 1: use a heat gun to unglue the screen from the computer... Yes, really. The newer ones do not have an internal SATA bus anymore.

Thunderbolt and USB3 are both slower than the internal buss. Compared to what you have now, they're much faster, of course.

Avoid Fusion drives.

I'm looking to upgrade my 2010 iMac i7. Currently, I have a pair of 2T SSDs via SATA II (the 2010 and 2011 27" have 3 SATA busses).

I'm discouraged by the 2017 only having a 2T SSD available. The iMac Pro will have a 4T SSD an an option.

Hah, funny timing, to see this thread right after writing my own 2010-to-2017 thread.

I am about to write another topic about what I discovered regarding hard drives during my stressful weekend-long sojourn towards a new Mac. Stay tuned.

mikehalloran wrote:
Avoid Fusion drives.

Really? Most are very happy with them and they are fine - there will always be a few horror stories. But to make this statement you at least need to explain why you should avoid something that seems to be quite successful.

P.S.Don't forget an external drive for use with Time Machine as all hard drives and SSD's can fail.

Guitar Gaz wrote:

mikehalloran wrote:
Avoid Fusion drives.

Really? Most are very happy with them and they are fine - there will always be a few horror stories. But to make this statement you at least need to explain why you should avoid something that seems to be quite successful.

P.S.Don't forget an external drive for use with Time Machine as all hard drives and SSD's can fail.

I and many others dislike Fusion drives for the following reasons: heat, speed, reliability, some apps don't work with them although that may change with High Sierra...or it won't—no one yet knows but that's not been solved. Heat is my biggest objection.


Agreed on Time Machine. WD Red are the only ones I use nowadays. Not the fastest but they are built to run 24/7 which requires cooler operation and heavier bearings. Reasonably priced. Interestingly, it was a friend who worked for Seagate who turned me onto them.

Mike, thanks so much for the Time Machine drive recommendation -- I hadn't really thought about those special concerns before, but you are right that they should be handled more like server decisions.

i just buy big, cheap Seagate externals and use two for redundant TM backups.

HC, I hadn't thought of that either. What do you mean by redundant? Can you have two separate drives designated as Time Machine at all times, for parallel backups, or do you copy your main Time Machine drive regularly?

HCMarkus wrote:i just buy big, cheap Seagate externals and use two for redundant TM backups.

They certainly appear to have gotten their act together again. Apple is again using Seagate along with WD for OEM.

Amazon has the Red NAS drives priced from 3T for $109 to $399 for 10T with 6T/8T for $239/$279. That's inexpensive enough for me.
https://www.amazon.com/Red-3TB-Hard-Dis ... B008JJLW4M

I can't imagine that any of us need NAS but if a drive engineered to handle the demand is priced only a few dollars more than a consumer grade drive, I'm there.

mikehalloran wrote:

Guitar Gaz wrote:

mikehalloran wrote:
Avoid Fusion drives.

I and many others dislike Fusion drives for the following reasons: heat, speed, reliability, some apps don't work with them although that may change with High Sierra...or it won't—no one yet knows but that's not been solved. Heat is my biggest objection.

Thanks for the explanation - although I have had no problem with heat, speed, reliability (fingers crossed up till now), and all apps work fine - so I am puzzled. I have the 3TB Fusion drive that I requested when I bought the new iMac last year and all is working well at the moment - so my experience has been different. I have Apple Care and warranty cover and always backup to Time Machine after any significant changes in my music, so that should help. I went for Fusion because it was recommended as SSD's were expensive and relatively new and untested (and if they fail there is no way of rescuing data) - so a combo of SSD and hard drive seemed a good bet.

Anyway whatever you choose - always backup.

mikehalloran wrote:The max you can install on a 2015-on 27" iMac is 64G — this is new. 40G? Highly recommended. Crucial, OWC, Kinsgton, MemoryX... doesn't matter as long as you get a lifetime guaranty.

Get the largest internal SSD you can afford. It is possible to upgrade them but it is very expensive and time consuming. Step 1: use a heat gun to unglue the screen from the computer... Yes, really. The newer ones do not have an internal SATA bus anymore.

Thunderbolt and USB3 are both slower than the internal buss. Compared to what you have now, they're much faster, of course.

Avoid Fusion drives.

Thanks! Hmmm, maybe I will even look at the 2TB SSD then, it seems worth it from what you say. Up until now I had my Omnishpere on one drive, East West on another, and my DP files running from a third drive. Just to make sure I am on track, this new internal SSD will alleviate the need to do that anymore as long as I have the disk space?

mhschmieder wrote:Hah, funny timing, to see this thread right after writing my own 2010-to-2017 thread.

I am about to write another topic about what I discovered regarding hard drives during my stressful weekend-long sojourn towards a new Mac. Stay tuned.

I'll keep an eye out!

mhschmieder wrote:HC, I hadn't thought of that either. What do you mean by redundant? Can you have two separate drives designated as Time Machine at all times, for parallel backups

Yes, as automatically alternating backups.

I pick up a pair at Costco when I need 'em. No shipping issues and easy return if wonky.

TM is in addition to redundant internal spinners (currently Toshiba 3TB 7200RPM) for end of session backup chores.

Just to make sure I am on track, this new internal SSD will alleviate the need to do that anymore as long as I have the disk space?

Yes. There is no advantage to using separate drives.

Yes, as automatically alternating backups... TM is in addition to redundant internal spinners

Absolutely!

One of my TM backups is a 6T Red in an Apple Time Capsule sitting in a hidden location and accessed via WiFi.

If someone were to break in and make off with all my hardware, I could restore all of the Macs here to their replacements. Depending on where my younger daughter is living at the time, that could be up to 6 plus as many iOS devices.

I was given the option to alternate TM drives for backup last night, but chose not to (for now) as I haven't yet fully sussed out my overall setup with the new iMac.

Once I've made final decisions on whether to buy more SATA and PCIe SSD hosts to externally use my former internal drives, I'll have a better notion on this, but as my SATA drive collection is mostly old, 1 TB, and 3 GB/s, I'm not too inclined to put much investment in external housing beyond the one dock I already bought and possibly OWC's PCIe host.