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iMac buyers can now opt for a solid-state drive

For some extra money, consumers can swap out a conventional disk drive for some fast flash storage.

Lance Whitney Contributing Writer
Lance Whitney is a freelance technology writer and trainer and a former IT professional. He's written for Time, CNET, PCMag, and several other publications. He's the author of two tech books--one on Windows and another on LinkedIn.
Lance Whitney
Screenshot by Lance Whitney/CNET

Apple buyers eyeing an iMac now have a choice between a conventional hard drive and a solid-state drive.

Speedier than their mechanical counterparts, solid-state drives are available as options on both the 21.5-inch and the 27-inch iMacs. The 21.5-inch iMac offers a 256GB SSD for an extra $300 and a 512GB SSD for an extra $600. The 27-inch model presents the same options and throws in a 768GB SSD for an additional $900.

If those figures seem too pricey, buyers can stick with a regular serial ATA hard drive. Apple includes a 1TB hard drive in the overall price of both model iMacs and offers a 3TB drive option on the larger-screen model for an extra $150.

Customers who can't decide between conventional hard drives and SSDs can taste both worlds through Apple's Fusion drives. A Fusion drive combines 128GB of flash storage with a mechanical disk drive of either 1TB or 3TB in size. A 1TB Fusion drive costs an extra $250, while the 3TB option for the 27-inch iMac brings the price up another $400.

Correction 9:36 a.m. PT: An earlier version of this story had the incorrect price for the 1TB Fusion drive. It costs an extra $250.

Correction 11:49 a.m. PT: An earlier version of this story misstated the size of the regular serial ATA hard drive on the iMacs. The hard drive is 1TB.