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Changing my recommendation re fusion drives vs SSD’s
Ok, so I was a big advocate of Fusion Drives. They’re still great mind you, but after experiencing the performance of the Apple PCI SSD’s in the rMBP and Mac Pro, if you can afford it, get the SSD’s. Jeremy G will back me up on this, they’re phenomenal.
If you’re not going to have something big like a Pegasus in tandem for bulky files, then yeah, get the Fusion. Otherwise, these SSD’s are the cat’s meow.
John Davidson | President / Creative Director | Magic Feather Inc.
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26 Replies
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You are aware, though, that SSDs are not recommended for constant and repeated read-write? They should not be used for media drives, as they will not last as long as spinning disks and will also degrade in performance over time. SSDs should mainly be used for boot drives and applications. Fusion drives are of little benefit, because the stuff offloaded to the cache is content which is frequently accessed, like the OS and apps that are constantly used.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
But, you know, this…on a laptop.
When asked whether to get fusion or SSD, I now suggest SSD. I don’t think anyone should seriously edit off of it – that’s why we have big RAIDs, but it’s pretty kick-butt when you’re on the road and need to slap something together.
John Davidson | President / Creative Director | Magic Feather Inc.
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The PCIe SSD is tremendous. Get some AppleCare, get to work, and don’t worry about it.
I’m pretty sure the drive will last the life of the computer.
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Hope you are right as I just bought a maxed out MacBook Pro Retina with 1 TB PCIe flash and will get a maxed out iMac around June I think with the same 1 TB flash. These are both for my girls and need to last a long time!
Rick Lang
iMac 27” 2.8GHz i7 16GB
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[Jeremy Garchow] “I’m pretty sure the drive will last the life of the computer.”
It’s like the cheaper E-series P2 card media that had people worried about the lifespan. It was only rated for 5-years…if you filled it up and erased it every single day for those 5 years.
I got the 1TB SSD in my nMBPr, and I use it as a media drive. I also have AppleCare.
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[Rick Lang] “These are both for my girls and need to last a long time!”
I think we will be just fine.
They are remarkable machines. It is fun to use the laptop unplugged from anything and be able to throw a second screen up on an AppleTV and actually edit, preview effects, etc, for a few hours.
Can’t wait to see how the MacPro performs. If it’s anything like the rMBP, we will have a good time.
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And to add on to Oliver’s great info, note that disaster recovery from SSD drives is extremely difficult to impossible. Not that I have first hand experience in this, but is what I heard from reputable drive recovery services. As with all drives, some sort of automated backup system should be in place.
Michael
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Jeremy:
“It is fun to use the laptop unplugged from anything and be able to throw a second screen up on an AppleTV and actually edit, preview effects, etc…”At some point I’ll be able to use it to display on a UHD monitor at 30 fps (and it supports 4K at 24 fps).
Can’t support a 4K workflow natively of course but still for my purposes editing using lower resolutions would be all right as long as I can generate 2K or UHD deliverables. Maybe I’ll get to play with the MBPr (and the next version of the iMac) for a day. No purchases for my personal use until BMD delivers their production BMPC4K which I’m no longer expecting until after NAB2014.
Rick Lang
iMac 27” 2.8GHz i7 16GB
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Intel160gig is rated at 5 years if you write 20gigs a day and that’s supposed to be pretty good. Smaller drives could survive less gigs and larger more gigs. Bit in any case with video editing the majority is reading which doesn’t pose a problem. I rarely own a drive 5 years, and they should easily go 10. 5 or 6 years ago I was excited by my 250gig drive. In the 90s, we advertised we had 50gigs at our facility. I don’t see these drives wearing out before we toss them out.
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[Bret Williams] ” I rarely own a drive 5 years,”
Really? I have plenty of drives that are older. When I buy new raw drives, I specifically look for WD Caviar Black (now just called WD Performance) because they have a 5 year warranty. Most drives are only 1-3 years warranty.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com
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