New Retina 5K iMac 2015
Right, my trusty i7 iMac from 2009 is moving to my daughter's capable hands, as i have been eyeing up the 5K Retina iMac (mid range model).
A couple of questions i need answered from anyone (Biff?):
1) Can i partition a Fusion drive to have more than 2 partitions? Throughout the years, I have always partitioned drives into three: the OS and apps, work files and a scratch disk (with nothing on it) dedicated to Photoshop and Illustrator. This has helped performance especially with large files in PS and illustrator not interfering with the concurrent usage of the OS. I've found out that the new Fusion drives can only be partitioned into two. Is this true? Can i bypass this limit? I recently installed a 3TB drive into my current iMac, and the Yosemite installer turned the drive into Logical Volume Group (if i'm right), which stopped me from partitioning more than 3 volumes. I bypassed this by using some low-level terminal commands to disable this and managed to revert back to original methodology and then repartitioned the volumes as required. It was a pain. What i want know is, can I do this to the Fusion Drive, or should i alter the BTO to be just a standard HD?
2) Fusion drive. Worth it? Heavy image processing as above. I generally really push my mac to the limit, will the Fusion drive stand up to it?
3) Anything I should know about this 5K Retina that might persuade me otherwise? I love my i7 late 2009 iMac - i feel it hasn't diminished in capability as much as my previous macs. Maxed out RAM and one new hard drive has kept it going for 7 years now. I think i have only wiped it twice and reinstalled, and that was for performance refreshing. It's a real workhorse, wondering whether the newer model is next level generation workhorse that i can use successfully for at least the next 5 years.
Thanks for any advice/help in advance.
A couple of questions i need answered from anyone (Biff?):
1) Can i partition a Fusion drive to have more than 2 partitions? Throughout the years, I have always partitioned drives into three: the OS and apps, work files and a scratch disk (with nothing on it) dedicated to Photoshop and Illustrator. This has helped performance especially with large files in PS and illustrator not interfering with the concurrent usage of the OS. I've found out that the new Fusion drives can only be partitioned into two. Is this true? Can i bypass this limit? I recently installed a 3TB drive into my current iMac, and the Yosemite installer turned the drive into Logical Volume Group (if i'm right), which stopped me from partitioning more than 3 volumes. I bypassed this by using some low-level terminal commands to disable this and managed to revert back to original methodology and then repartitioned the volumes as required. It was a pain. What i want know is, can I do this to the Fusion Drive, or should i alter the BTO to be just a standard HD?
2) Fusion drive. Worth it? Heavy image processing as above. I generally really push my mac to the limit, will the Fusion drive stand up to it?
3) Anything I should know about this 5K Retina that might persuade me otherwise? I love my i7 late 2009 iMac - i feel it hasn't diminished in capability as much as my previous macs. Maxed out RAM and one new hard drive has kept it going for 7 years now. I think i have only wiped it twice and reinstalled, and that was for performance refreshing. It's a real workhorse, wondering whether the newer model is next level generation workhorse that i can use successfully for at least the next 5 years.
Thanks for any advice/help in advance.
Comments
3. not seen any benchmarks, but they are now i5 (yeah, quad core, sure, and newer).
are you sure you want to give away your 2009 i7?
Son then inherits old laptop.. etc etc
If you're still getting your PS on, go full-on SSD. The benefits of a fusion are lost on scratch drives. Other than the resolution on the 5K, the old Mac will probably indeed benefit greatly from a SSD. 1TB SSDs can be had for as low as $200 these days.
Re: disk utility: http://www.macnn.com/articles/15/11/04/the.only.people.affected.are.the.ones.who.use.it.131145/
With my assistant.
Nice cosy workstation