“We have answers to the question, ‘What drive should I order for my ‘late 2012’ iMac 27-inch?'” Rob Morgan reports for Bare Feats. “Since the 27-inch uses 3.5-inch HDDs, the drive choices and drive performance will be different from the 21.5-inch iMac which uses 2.5-inch HDDs.”
“With the help of remote mad scientists, we were able to get test results on four of the five permutations available to 27-inch iMac buyers,” Morgan reports. “The SSD is the fastest choice, obviously, if you are willing to cough up $1300. Also, it won’t slow down in certain situations that affect the Fusion Drive’s performance.”
Morgan reports, “The $250 for the 1TB Fusion Drive is much easier to swallow. And for most users, it will provide plenty of speed — especially in comparison to the HDD options.”
Much more – including all of the benchmark results, of course – in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: As we wrote last April:
On the rare occasion that we use a non-SSD Mac, the experience is jarring, as we’ve become used to the speed of the SSDs in our MacBook Airs and iMacs. It’s a huge difference. Once you go SSD, you won’t go back.
Related articles:
Apple’s new iMac’s Fusion Drive a turning point for hybrid drives – December 13, 2012
Please stop the madness: Apple Mac’s Fusion Drive is not about caching – November 29, 2012
Apple’s new Fusion Drive technology also works on older Macs – October 31, 2012
Apple’s new patented Fusion Drive is more advanced than you might think – October 24, 2012
Don’t buy a new Mac without an SSD or you’ll regret it – April 9, 2012
Elgato’s external Thunderbolt SSD drives are lightning-fast – March 26, 2012
Benchmark porn star: OWC’s scorchingly fast Mercury Aura Pro Express 6G 480GB SSD – March 26, 2012
SSD Shootout: OWC Mercury Extreme Pro 6G SSD vs. the rest – April 13, 2011