Upgrade base 128GB w/128GB SD card?

This indeed may be a cost-effective strategy for added storage.

As for performance, I do quite believe the flash memory you get built-in from apple would be quite a bit faster as it utilizes PCI-Express which is quite speedy compared to the SD card. This is my assumption, however -- I'm not too sure on the speeds of the SD card slot.

SD Cards will be slow, slow, slow compared to the built-in SSD. My MacBook takes many minutes (10-15) to write 30GB of data to an SD Card, but only seconds to write to SSD.

chabig said:

SD Cards will be slow, slow, slow compared to the built-in SSD. My MacBook takes many minutes (10-15) to write 30GB of data to an SD Card, but only seconds to write to SSD.

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For some reason the Retina SD card reader is way, way faster than the Air or regular Pro. 80 and 40MB/s!

The SD card would be good for an iTunes library.

fabian43 said:

Considering the $200 price increase from 128 to 256, would it be wise to get the 128 and when I'm ready and prices for flash memory further reduce get a 128GB SDxc card and permanently leave it in the Air as added memory? Amazon has a Kingston 128gb card for $97. A year or two from now they'll be even cheaper. Sound strategy? Am I missing something here?

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Horrible Strategy.

For $100 on top of the $100 SD card, you'll get a device which is built-in to your laptop, which is Lightyears faster than what your SD card can handle. If i'm not mistaken, class 10 SD card is at about 70mb/s read speed? and Around 30mb write speed?

Your 128GB is at 700mb/s read speed... and about 350mb/s write speed.

Drop that extra $100, not only will you get a device that is 10 times faster, and built in (meaning it is secure, wont break and wont get lost/stolen)... If you get the 256 GB SSD - Your read and write speed are BOTH at around 700mb/s.

If you're going to get the 128GB and drop $100 on a 1TB 3.0 Passport drive... I'd say go for it.
But dropping $100 on a 128gb SD card... NO!
And no, I do not work for Apple, i work for the people!

fabian43 said:

I decided to buy base 128gb and bought WD my passport 1TB on sale for $70 at BBY

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Congratulations on your buy!

I think you made a great purchase. 128gb is surely enough for OS and apps essential/software... and even for your main music collection.

and 1TB is going to be heaven for all media - mkvs, mp4s... so on.

AXs said:

Congratulations on your buy!

I think you made a great purchase. 128gb is surely enough for OS and apps essential/software... and even for your main music collection...

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I hate to point out the obvious, but how big is this collection?