128GB enough for university?

128GB enough for university?

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You might need some tuition and housing money, too!

A 128 GB drive with an external drive will be fine.

You'll be doing CAD drawings out your...other end. You might want something with a larger internal drive. Once you add an external you're carrying around a lot of stuff.

Shrink said:

You might need some tuition and housing money, too!

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Don't forget condoms, ramen, and crippling debt.

Danando1993 said:

A basic question but is the base 13 inch retina MacBook Pro's 128GB enough? How do other people with this model find managing memory?

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The (sad?) truth is, all those years of sweat and toil will fit on a smallish USB flash drive. I'd even say a DVD, but the RMBP doesn't have one.

Danando1993 said:

A basic question but is the base 13 inch retina MacBook Pro's 128GB enough? How do other people with this model find managing memory?

The laptop will solely be used for university work. I'm studying architecture and plan on using it for lectures - notes/essay writing, for use when I'm in studio - photoshop/ autocad etc.

I've got a 27 inch iMac that I use for all of my media and iphone syncing so I'm thinking that without putting music or movies on the laptop 128GB could be fine?

I do plan on using external hard drives to store work on also.

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My cousin has around 10-20GB left. I would not recommend it.

Especially since he isn't a hardcore user. Like he uses his laptop very lightly.

Unless you plan to bootcamp Windows, 128 will be fine along with an external HDD.

I'm considering the same question... especially with the recent bump in CPU and Ram specs on the base model.

I checked my current Windows 7 machine, and I've used up 58 Gig. Of that 58 gig, I think about 57 gig is Winows updates .

Anyhow, I have full office suite, and a quite of bit of other software... Comodo Firewall, AVAST Anti-Virus, Web editing software, Photo Editing software... etc. However, I store all my documents, spreadsheet, photos, etc. on flash drives. So, they take up any space and are not that big anyway. I do it more for security and as a backup by keeping at least two duplicate flash drives.

In your case, the CAD stuff may take up a lot of space. If you don't already have the external drives you will have to buy them. Consider that in your equation. Spending the extra $200 for the 256 gig drive may be a better choice, and certainly more convenient than external drives.

I think you'll find 128GB to be too small rather quickly. Just my $.02 but in this day and age 128 just won't cut it.

Out of personal experience: 120GB could be enough but you'll have to be careful on what you put on the internal storage. Each semester I put all my files on an external drive to clear up space for the next.
Basically: If you actively manage your storage you'll be fine with 120GB.

I bought my daughter a 128GB Macbook Air 2 years ago. She is a student. She manages fine. As others have suggested get a external hard disk and you will be fine.

How about a mini SD card and adapter - fits flush in Macbook SD slot? Thats what I use with 64GB Sandisk. And Sandisk just released a 128GB.

Adapter is $5 on ebay.

Danando1993 said:

I'm studying architecture and plan on using it for lectures - notes/essay writing, for use when I'm in studio - photoshop/ autocad etc.

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I don't know where you're studying, but most architecture programs in the US are fairly computer-centric these days for studios. Most common apps are Rhino, SketchUp and Revit. These are heavy-duty 3D modeling apps and they want more than a MBP 13".

If you're going to stick with a MBP, you want the 15" w/ the discrete graphics (nvidia 750m GPU), 256GB SSD (you'll eventually want a Windows boot camp partition), and obviously 8GB RAM, though 16GB is preferable if you'll be using a VM, which is a major convenience at times.

ixxx69 said:

I don't know where you're studying, but most architecture programs in the US are fairly computer-centric these days for studios. Most common apps are Rhino, SketchUp and Revit. These are heavy-duty 3D modeling apps and they want more than a MBP 13".

If you're going to stick with a MBP, you want the 15" w/ the discrete graphics (nvidia 750m GPU), 256GB SSD (you'll eventually want a Windows boot camp partition), and obviously 8GB RAM, though 16GB is preferable if you'll be using a VM, which is a major convenience at times.

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Was about to say this but this person beat me to it.

ixxx69 said:

I don't know where you're studying, but most architecture programs in the US are fairly computer-centric these days for studios. Most common apps are Rhino, SketchUp and Revit. These are heavy-duty 3D modeling apps and they want more than a MBP 13".

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I, too, was thinking the same way, but the OP also has a 27" iMac and I expect he will really want to run Autocad and Photoshop (he mentions) on that system to get the advantage of the large display.

talmy said:

I, too, was thinking the same way, but the OP also has a 27" iMac and I expect he will really want to run Autocad and Photoshop (he mentions) on that system to get the advantage of the large display.

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That's a great point. If he can have the iMac in studio, that would work. But they generally encourage students to do their work in studio, and a laptop is generally more convenient for that. Sometimes students have an external display in their studio and/or at home.

Along those lines, OP might be best off selling the iMac and using the funds to get a high-end MBP? Just a thought.

Danando1993 said:

Selling the iMac isn't really an option either its my main machine and home hub for all my other devices iPad, iPhone etc.

Grateful for your replies.

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That is what I used to have setup at home.
I sold my iMac - 3 1/2 years old for 40% of cost.
And got MBA 13.
Now I am buying MBP 15 need bigger screen.