Imac 27 retina

[vin7]

hi guys,
friend of mine is buying a new imac 27 i7 retina and is asking to know what external drives to get?
one for audio
one for samples.

also is it best to get the imac with a fusion internal drive or with flash storage internal drive?

all advise is welcome

thanks

[Southsidemusic]

Hi

This is only my opinion and what we did:

Never ever take a chance on a fusion drive. The forum is full of members with crippling issues regarding fusion drives.

I would absolutely get the following:

OS Drive SSD No doubt!
Recording drive preferably an SSD - Example of what we use are Samsung 840 Pro and 840 EVO.

For samples we have both SSD Samsung 840 Pro and a few storage spinners WDC Black 64 MB cache 9ms seek time and atleast 1GB

These are all proven to be reliable and super fast.

Whatever you do NEVER get a fusion drive Never get a "Green or Blue" power saving drive and any drive with power saving mgmt as it causes drop-outs and connection problems aswell as drive too slow errors.

And make sure you only get USB3 and or Thunderbolt external cases and no USB2 or FW as the speed is exceptionally better with USB3 and T/bolt

Best Regards
Christopher

[Mitchel]

+ 1 on that. I have iMac 5k with 256 SSD & run to 10,000rpm Ext Thunderbolt drive for samples etc.
HD TBolt Native & Yosemite. Flawless. So far

[Craig F]

for External drives I'd look at a TB chassis like this and load as needed running JBOD http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/Thund...C/ThunderBay-4
one for samples
one or two for audio
SSD and/or Spinners as money allows

[vin7]

great thanks for the help guys, am I right in thinking that flash storage is the same as a SSD? sorry if this is a silly question.

[vin7]

I ask this because on the new imac retina there is no option for a ssd?

[Southsidemusic]

Originally Posted by vin7

I ask this because on the new imac retina there is no option for a ssd?

It is referred to as Both SSD/Flash storage so yes, it's the same thing

Make SURE it is NOT a fusion drive as they are horribly problematic for Pro Tools.

Best Regards
Christopher

[vin7]

great thanks a lot. so no fussion drive got it😊

so flash/ssd for programs and os.

could you please give me a link to some single external thunderbolt ssd drives.

thank you very much.

[Southsidemusic]

We have these for OS and for recording and for samples.

http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Electr.../dp/B009NB8WRU

And then we have these aswell. Better price but basically no difference in speed. Very good performance for the money.

http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-250GB-.../dp/B00E3W1726

Of course there are other SSD's that works great but as we only invested in Samsung thats the only ones I can Vouch for.

These enclosures will do the job very well and less than $15 too

http://www.amazon.com/Anker-Drive-Ex.../dp/B00H98AXOE

And these are Thunderbolt and more expensive (we have them in our big studio but the USB3 cases are very good for PT use)

http://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-E...M3C5WQSF1Z9TJ9



This is way better priced for single thunderbolt external ssd case:

http://www.amazon.com/Delock-Externa...M3C5WQSF1Z9TJ9

There are lots of enclosure cases that works great but these are the exact ones we have now and have used before so thats why I posted the links to them.

Here is a all-in-one that we have friends who use everyday and have super good build quality. A little more expensive than getting an SSD and a external case but it is an option for you:

http://www.amazon.com/LaCie-Rugged-T...A2WW9DSYAK9QFP
Best
Christopher

[vin7]

http://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-E...M3C5WQSF1Z9TJ9

Does this take up one or two thunderbolt connections on the iMac?

I like the idea of the LaCie rugged for the audio drive. Very nice indeed.