[curiousninja]

I don't have a customisation option for Macs where I live. So the base retina iMacs have a fusion drive. I wanted to know if this is efficient enough to give me good or gr8 performance when running some iOS or OS X app projects in Xcode. Static and runtime linking rely heavily on the disk. I don't want to touch the slow spinning HD when working with disk intensive tasks. Even booting up OS X is a disk intensive task. I have heard that OS X itself (along with the core system apps) resides in the flash part. So at what point should I expect the spilling effect meaning things getting moved to the slow HD? Is it true that first time installed software resides in the flash part?
My second query is about the GPU that has to drive the huge retina display. Is the standard configuration GPU with 2GB VRAM anaemic in this regard? Are normal things like smooth scrolling or generic OS X animations free from stutters?

[Just_Me_D]

Feel free to order a customized Mac from the Apple Store online.

https://forums.imore.com/e?link=http...token=ktffxCFj

[curiousninja]

I'm not a US resident. So i don't think i can avail the apple online customization service

[warcraftWidow]

These are the countries available for the Apple online store:
Attachment 79122
I don't know whether all products or all customizations are available in all online country stores, but if you are in one of those countries, you should be able to find out.

Otherwise, I'd say that the base retina iMac will be fine for development. Even a 13" rMBP with 8GB RAM should do fine for development.

[curiousninja]

I already have been using a 13" macbook pro for running Xcode projects and general purpose use .. Laptops in my opinion are OK for development work but not gr8 as compared to desktops. The screen real estate just isn't there to keep all your windows side by side for general purpose usage or any specific work e.g. Xcode work.. I have to switch between the iOS simulator and the Xcode window like gazillion number of times.. And I'm also unable to find an SSD replacement for the slow spinning HD.. I don't have OWC based products where i live. There are others like samsung but they are not OWC quality.
I don't mind 8 GB of RAM as much as the fusion drive. Would 128 GB be sufficient to handle swap files as well as loading apps? Right now the total number of apps on my notebook's HD consume around 100 GB. This, I believe so, includes all the faceless binaries as well as user-hidden system apps like the Finder, Archive Utility, Installer etc.. My understanding of the fusion drive is that apart from the OS itself whatever apps are installed, get installed on the 128 GB flash part or atleast are attempted to be as default behavior until there is no more room left there. If I'm wrong on this, i would like know how else it works. So based on this belief, if i were to install all the same apps (as on my notebook) onto the desktop machine, the 100-110 GB of the flash part would be consumed very easily. So would the remaining 18-20 GB be enough for frequently used project files and swap files and disk caches.
Im also concerned about the base config GPU whether it can handle those many pixels on the screen. I do not want to experience lagginess (for instance when scrolling up or down a window content) or animation stutters.

[warcraftWidow]

I don't have any personal experience with Fusion drives. Or the retina iMac. If I were you though, I think I would stick with my MacBook (find a way to upgrade to an SSD though) or get a new rMBP and an external display. That way I'd have the portability of a laptop when I needed it, but the screen space of a large monitor as well.

[curiousninja]

I really am confused.. Some people also say that the GPU in the retina 5K iMac are laptop grade.. I do want to use this as a dev machine but that doesn't mean i wouldn't use it for gaming and entertainment or other general purpose computing. Is it wise to wait for the Broadwell CPU refresh? Maybe they would put in a better quality AMD GPU than what currently is available.. I'm guessing these would also come in USB type C along with thunderbolt 2.
I'm tired of using a slow spinning drive. Plus its quite cumbersome to work with iOS simulator of varying device sizes with the laptop screen real estate. My local online shopping portal doesn't even sell OWC SSDs (atleast not the mercury extreme 6G Pro series.. All this is putting me in a real tough spot.
Out of curiosity, is the apple online customization option along with general online store only available in countries with the flagship retail stores?
At one point in time i was even thinking of importing a customized machine from the US.. But that would cost a fortune more, wouldn't it? Plus, there would be a risk of damage during transit.. If these weren't the issues, i would have my machine imported today.. Oh, the stupid restrictions and risks cannot keep themselves out of the way..