[OS X TeX] Fusion drives and typeset speed

[pbjacob]

Hi !

> On Nov 26, 2014, at 12:27 AM, Richard Seguin <riseguin at earthlink.net> wrote:
> 
> You mean that a fusion drive is more likely to fail and/or if it fails it’s more likely to fail catastrophically?

Yes, I’ m afraid. When using fusion drive, your datas are stored in a very special way which is different from the traditional way. Your OS system is always detecting your operation, and always moving your datas between the two hard drives. They are not moving quite silently and slowly and you can not even notice the process. I read an article about the fusion drive, it said that the datas are cut into very small pieces when being moved. So once anything goes wrong, it’s almost impossible to repair.

> 
> I would feel better about a pure hard drive setup if it were operating at 7200 rpm. It’s possible that a local independent authorized repair place would be able to replace the hard drive with a faster one without negating the warrantee.
> 
> Richard
> 
> 
>> On Nov 24, 2014, at 11:18 PM, pbjacob <pbjacob86 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>> Howdy,
>> 
>> I’m using a Mac mini with a 128GB SSD and a 500GB HDD too, but not in fusion drive mode. The two hard drives are working separately.
>> The OS X system and most softwares are installed on the SSD, and some of my datas are stored on the HDD. I think this way is better than the fusion drive way.
>> 
>> Based on the instruction from Apple, the location of the apps and datas are decided by the OS X system according to the frequency of the usage. From the users’ point of view, everything is stored in a single hard drive, and the users never know exactly how the datas actually being stored and moved. 
>> 
>> What we can ensure is that if you use the TeX very frequently, the system will move your TeX system into the SSD, and you can obtain a very good performance due to the fast response of the SSD.
>> 
>> But I don’ really suggest fusion drive mode, because it’s not stable enough. Once there is something wrong with any one of your drive, you will lose all your datas.
>> 
>> pbjacob
>> 
>>> On Nov 25, 2014, at 12:34 PM, Richard Seguin <riseguin at earthlink.net> wrote:
>>> 
>>> I’m looking at the Mac minis* and I’m wondering if fusion drives make a significant difference in terms of TeX typesetting speed. Does anyone know? The non-fusion drive is 5400 rpm, and the hard drive part of the fusion drive is also 5400 rpm. I don’t know if all those TeX files wind up on the 128 GB SSD part of the fusion drives. I would probably load one up with 16GB of RAM which in itself makes a big difference with some applications, but I’m not sure about TeX. (The other important app is Aperture, but that’s a question for another group …)
>>> 
>>> *I’m also thinking of the new Dell U2415 monitors which very positive reviews.
>>> 
>>> Richard Séguin
>>> 
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>> 
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> 
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