iMac, Fusion Drive, Flash Storage

[JustGotPaid]

Ah...I already did that before I came here, Darryl.

[PMF Media]

Theoretically, you CAN instal a HDD as well as the Flash Storage (as that is exactly what a Fusion Drive is), speaking from my own recent experience with a new iMac with an FD installed, the Flash component resides on the mother board and - in the case of my FD - was only 22gb, fairly useless on it's own , the question you need to ask is: will the 1tb Flash Memory be installed/soldered to the mother board or installed as seperate drive in place of the HDD component of the FD... if it IS soldered to the mother board, then there's no reason to physically remove the HDD component, you could happily utilise this as your session/record drive or for sample storage.

The thing to remember is that a Fusion Drive is actually 2 seperate drives - a small Flash Memory component and a large HDD - "fused" together by the MacOS to appear as one drive (they can be split in 2 via a UNIX command in Terminal).

Hope this isn't too techie for you, best to check with Apple and ask the above question and see what can be done, remember, Apple offer a 14 day money back, no questions asked returns policy so if the machine you buy isn't right, return it. Simple.

[JFreak]

Fairly useless? Whoa, 15 years ago it was the size of a HDD in a pro laptop. Why not indeed separate the fusion drive and install OS on the flash storage?

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by JustGotPaid

Ah...I already did that before I came here, Darryl.

Did you go to this page: https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-mac/i.../A&step=config
Go about half way down and on the right side there is a section called 'Capacity' with the question: 'How much storage is right for you'? and you'll see selections for two different Fusion drives and three different sizes of Flash storage. That's where you select what you want and you can't have both in the same machine, at least not from Apple.

Here's a screen grab of what I'm talking about:

[Southsidemusic]

Originally Posted by JFreak

Fairly useless? Whoa, 15 years ago it was the size of a HDD in a pro laptop.

Right but the software was MUUUUUCH smaller and the datapackages were in kb not GB

[JFreak]

Originally Posted by Southsidemusic

Right but the software was MUUUUUCH smaller and the datapackages were in kb not GB

MB's but who counts As far as I remember, PT6 was something like 35MB and updates under 10MB...

[JustGotPaid]

Thanks everyone. From the replies and info here I got the answer. Fusion, no. Flash Storage, YES. Can't have both. Get Flash Storage.
Thanks!
DS

[cmbourget]

Originally Posted by JustGotPaid

Maybe I'm overlooking it, but I can't find a way to configure a new iMac on the Apple site without getting some kind of Fusion Drive. The best I can do is get the 1 TB Fusion Drive and add the 1 TB of Flash Storage. I can't find a way to totally eliminate the Fusion Drive.

Is a new machine only configurable with the Fusion Drive?

Thanks again.
DS

You have to take only the SSD, not Fusion Drive. The option exists.

[cmbourget]

Originally Posted by cmbourget

You have to take only the SSD, not Fusion Drive. The option exists.

I just checked. Apple has withdrawn the option ... They shoot themselves in the feet, definitely. Find something else!

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by JustGotPaid

Ah...I already did that before I came here, Darryl.

Then I have no idea what you are exactly doing. It should not be hard to use Apple's web site to configure an iMac, maybe you are looking at some particular low-end model that has no SSD upgrade options. Folks here cannot guess exactly what you are doing, but SSD options are all over the Apple website if you look carefully. But like I already suggested if you cannot work out the web site just call your closest Apple store on the phone and configure/buy one there. You may also get a slightly lower price if you do that and ask what discounts are available.