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FloridaMac

macrumors regular
Original poster
Dec 15, 2008
243
1
Destin, Fl
The majority of the use will simply be web browsing, but I will also use it for iTunes and iPhoto. I currently have about 1000 songs and 500 photos. I don't do any gaming or video or photo editing. If I do travel which is very little, I would like to be able to watch movies, but that's not a deal breaker. So basically, this will be for surfing the web, iTunes, and iPhoto...and won't leave the house much at all. And screen resolution is a big thing for me.

I'm deciding between a 13" MBP or 13" MBA. I'm kinda leaning towards the Air but my main concern is storage space. With what I have in photos and music, would the 128 MB be enough keeping in mind I don't store anything else on it?

Thanks for the help.
 
Nov 28, 2010
22,670
30
located
128GB is more than enough for 1000 songs and 500 photos.
1000 songs at 10MB per song will only take up 10GB, but most songs are not that big (normally). 500 photos at 10MB (again, photos are seldom that big) will only take 5GB away.
15GB out of 128GB is not much, and there is still plenty of room to grow, you could quadruple your songs to 4000 and your photos to 2000 and you would still have only used 60GB at the most.

Those 10MB per song/photo estimates are rough, as highly compressed songs only take up 1MB per minute of song, thus songs are only 3 to 5 MB in size.
Photos are often highly compressed too, thus a 10MP photo may only need 5MB to store itself.

What I wanted to show you, that with your "small" numbers of photos and songs, the MBA's storage capacity will be more than enough and it would certainly fit your needs. Even an MBA from last year can do that (or any Intel Mac for that matter).
 

FloridaMac

macrumors regular
Original poster
Dec 15, 2008
243
1
Destin, Fl
128GB is more than enough for 1000 songs and 500 photos.
1000 songs at 10MB per song will only take up 10GB, but most songs are not that big (normally). 500 photos at 10MB (again, photos are seldom that big) will only take 5GB away.
15GB out of 128GB is not much, and there is still plenty of room to grow, you could quadruple your songs to 4000 and your photos to 2000 and you would still have only used 60GB at the most.

Those 10MB per song/photo estimates are rough, as highly compressed songs only take up 1MB per minute of song, thus songs are only 3 to 5 MB in size.
Photos are often highly compressed too, thus a 10MP photo may only need 5MB to store itself.

What I wanted to show you, that with your "small" numbers of photos and songs, the MBA's storage capacity will be more than enough and it would certainly fit your needs. Even an MBA from last year can do that (or any Intel Mac for that matter).

Great info! That's very helpful. It sounds like for what I'm doing the Air is the better choice.
 

OneMike

macrumors 603
Oct 19, 2005
5,813
1,795
Id say go for the air. As indicated above you're well within limits.

Also I'd look into an external backup and storage solution if you don't have one already.
 

IngerMan

macrumors 68020
Feb 21, 2011
2,005
902
Michigan
I have over 2,000 photos and 700 songs. I am using 4 GB in iTunes and 10 GB in iPhoto. I have Microsoft office and 15+ extra apps. I also store my work files on my machine, but word and excel do not take up much space. I have 83 GB free space out of my 120 GB storage. Plenty room for me to grow :D
 

FloridaMac

macrumors regular
Original poster
Dec 15, 2008
243
1
Destin, Fl
Let me ask this: Why would I not save the $100 and get the base model 13" MBP? Is the SSD the only real difference for what I'm doing?
 

pezasied182

macrumors 6502
Jun 3, 2011
293
8
I owned both the 2011 13 inch MBP and MBA. I sold the MBP to get the Air, and I definitely like the Air a LOT more. I use it for pretty much the exact same reasons as you do, just browsing and listening to music. Things are a lot zippier on the Air, and iTunes opens in literally a second. It also has the power to play Fifa 12 and Portal 2, so I can still play games on it if I want to. The only real advantage that the Pro has over the Air in my opinion is the HD camera, but it's not that big of a deal. Also like the resolution on the Air much more.
 
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