# Mac Fusion Drive & PCI-e SSD



## fraz (Jul 8, 2018)

Hi,

Looking at the Mac configurator, there was an option to stick with the Fusion drive, which presumably is a 2.5" hybrid 5400 rpm mechanical HDD.

or it was possible to opt for a PCI-e SSD ranging from 250 GB > 1 TB (mine was open box-pre-configured).

Does anyone here know what changes Apple make to the hardware (if any) to switch between the fusion drive & the pci-e ssd?

Reason why I ask is in case it's quite easy to change between the two, that is if I could get the appropriate HDD.

Now I've got this Mac Pro I need to future proof it as much as possible, eg obtaining more M.2 SSD's so the Mac can run even in many years time if one SSD stopped working!.

And if it isn't too difficult swap back to a fusion drive if the need arose. Now this may not be possible but it's worth asking. - Thanks


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## Nick Batzdorf (Jul 8, 2018)

I can't help you with M.2, but:

Fusion drives were very small SSDs attached to standard spinning drives, with some smarts to move stuff you use often onto the SSD portion. To me they're silly. They sort of made sense when SSDs were prohibitive, but not now.

I have SSDs for a system drive and for libraries I use, but to save money I have a spinning drive for libraries I don't want to delete but don't use very often.


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## fraz (Jul 8, 2018)

Hi,

A machine I built, PC, has a hybrid 2 TB SSHD, and it does perform quite well though I've not tried it for libraries.

It may be a bad idea but was asking about it. There may be a change in the factory on the PCB where the fusion or SSD bolts onto and depending on which option people choose Apple may use a different attachment on the "modular" motherboard ????

Hybrid / fusion drive is good for a large capacity where outright performance is not needed so if I bought a Mac Mini in the future for general use i'd go for fusion.

On a PC now it's got hybrid SSD and plays movies etc.......really well....but for VEP or something, SSD via SATA.

PCI-e is even quicker-rapid in fact


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## Nick Batzdorf (Jul 9, 2018)

No question, fraz, hybrid drives are going to be a step up from spinning drives.

But in my opinion they're pound foolish. 512GB SSDs are now in the $100 range.


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## fraz (Jul 9, 2018)

Nick Batzdorf said:


> No question, fraz, hybrid drives are going to be a step up from
> spinning drives.
> 
> Yes I agree, because they also have a SSD component but they still have a mechanical element too!
> ...



I did just get a WD Black PCI-e SSD M.2 for £118 GBP reduced from £174 - I've not seen any in the 100 range though, more like 150 ! -


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## Nick Batzdorf (Jul 9, 2018)

Those are US prices. For example:

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIADF16R03239


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## fraz (Jul 10, 2018)

Ah but it's a sale ands it's over in 5 days but it's a great price!


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## Nick Batzdorf (Jul 10, 2018)

I just did a quick search and that was the first one to come up.

That particular one can go off sale at Newegg, but in the US it's now representative of the price for SSDs of that capacity. SSDs were considerably more for a good 18 months, but they've dropped by about a third.

That is, until we get a tariff put on them when someone's brain misfires the next time.


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## fraz (Jul 10, 2018)

OK (say no to tariffs!)-

Do you think the prices will continue to drop over the next year or so?


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## Nick Batzdorf (Jul 10, 2018)

Sans idée, as they say in France.

My understanding is that there was a shortage of flash RAM that caused the prices to rise, but I don't know why that happened. What I do understand vaguely is that as with any huge-volume commodity, tooling up factories for the right kind of memory chips is a calculated risk that it's going to be in demand for a while. That often results in gluts and shortages.

It's very expensive to tool up, and there are buzzwords like "yield" to consider.


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## fraz (Jul 10, 2018)

Mobile phones etc....


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