Parallels Desktop requires heavy disk usage, and it was a slug alongside other apps, even with so much memory available. I chose the cheapest path again, which was upgrading to 64 GB of memory and selling my previous 32 GB to a friend. A shift to Catalina would require additional resources to run a virtual machine effectively so I could keep Mojave available for those two apps (see “ Moving to Catalina: Keep Your 32-Bit Mac Apps Running with Parallels,” 18 September 2019). It was only once I upgraded to 10.14 Mojave that I found myself waiting seemingly forever for apps to launch and disk-intensive tasks to finish.Īs I grew increasingly frustrated, 10.15 Catalina appeared in late 2019, and I had two critical 32-bit apps I wanted to keep using indefinitely. The Fusion Drive initially suited me well with macOS 10.12 Sierra and seemed to sail through 10.13 High Sierra without causing me grief. I didn’t notice the performance tradeoff most of the time. (See “ iMac 1 TB Fusion Drives Have Smaller SSDs,” 7 August 2017.)

However, Apple had just shifted to including substantially smaller SSDs in Fusion Drives, which I believe ultimately became a huge liability. At the time, spending $300 for a 512 GB SSD didn’t make sense because I needed more storage, and $700 for the 1 TB SSD upgrade was too dear for my budget. While I had configured it with 32 GB of memory, I opted for a 1 TB Fusion Drive, Apple’s combination of a fast, low-capacity SSD with a slow 5400 rpm, high-capacity hard drive. When I bought the iMac, I unfortunately cheaped out in one important regard. But it took me until two weeks ago to truly unleash its power. When I purchased a quad-core 21.5-inch iMac with Retina display in 2017 and added a secondary 4K display, I felt that I had spent the right amount of money relative to my needs. With a few delightful exceptions that involve printing history and letterpress, I spend most of my day looking at a screen, tapping away on a keyboard, and manipulating a mouse. #1643: New Mac mini and MacBook Pro models, new second-gen HomePod, security-focused OS updates, industry layoffsĪn External SSD Gave My iMac a New Lease on Life.#1644: Explaining Mastodon and the Fediverse, HomePod Software 16.3 and tvOS 16.3, GoTo breach.#1645: AirPlay iPhone to Mac for remote video, Siri learns to restart iPhones, Apple's Q1 2023 financials.

1646: Security-focused OS updates, Photos Workbench review, Mastodon client wishlist, Apple-related conferences.1647: Focus-caused notification issues, site-specific browser examples, virtualizing Windows on M-series Macs.

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