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Hrothgar

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 11, 2009
519
19
New York
I'm sure there are threads on this, or perhaps even a article somewhere. But I can't find one. so...

I'm looking for a new laptop. Mostly Internet/word processing/powerpoint/excel spreadsheets. Possibly minor photo editing. No gaming or video/movies.

I kind of think the 11" Air is all I need. But the Pro is just a few hundred more, and it seems to be a lot more powerful.

What is the collective wisdom?

Also -- why do the new Pros have so little storage? I understand that they are moving to SSD, but even with the cloud/external drives, can anyone get away with just 128 or 256 GB?
 

PDFierro

macrumors 68040
Sep 8, 2009
3,932
111
128GB or 256 is completely fine. But I'd personally go with 256, as 128 is too little. Not to mention that the drive speeds on the 256 are much faster. SSDs are expensive, and that's why storage is so low.

Do you have an Apple store near you? The $1,499 configuration for the 13" MBP that consists of 8GB RAM/256GB SSD is the best value you will get.

11 inches is too small for a lot of us, not to mention we go Pro for a reason. Is this going to be your primary computer? In any case I'd recommend that $1,499 config.
 

sixrom

macrumors 6502a
Nov 13, 2013
709
1
Think of your actual needs, then choose. I have both because of my workflow and quarterly flights to our office in the UK.
 

Hrothgar

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 11, 2009
519
19
New York
Is an Air really easier to take on a plane than a Pro? This computer will mainly be used while traveling.

My current laptop has a 750 gb drive. I'm using almost 600 GB.* I wouldn't know what to do with only 256 gb of storage.

*I have no idea how I'm using 600 GB. I've got about 350 gb in music/movies/photos. Somehow I've got almost 250 gb in "Backups" and "Other".
 

PDFierro

macrumors 68040
Sep 8, 2009
3,932
111
Is an Air really easier to take on a plane than a Pro? This computer will mainly be used while traveling.

My current laptop has a 750 gb drive. I'm using almost 600 GB.* I wouldn't know what to do with only 256 gb of storage.

*I have no idea how I'm using 600 GB. I've got about 350 gb in music/movies/photos. Somehow I've got almost 250 gb in "Backups" and "Other".

I would go through your hard drive and see if you 100% need all of these things to be stored locally. If purchased from iTunes, you can stream movies/download on-demand. Even the most hardcore of users won't need 600 gigs stored locally all the time.

Apple only uses SSDs now. But 256 is going to be enough for most people. Chances are that your hard drive is filled with stuff you could put in the cloud.

The 11-inch Air is obviously the most portable of Apple's offerings, but the 13" Pro is perfect for airplane usage as well.
 

Hrothgar

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 11, 2009
519
19
New York
Interesting, but that raises other questions.

I guess I can get a 2Tb external drive attached to my network and store my music, movies and photos there. But I've read that this doesn't work well with iTunes -- it's slow and jittery. But maybe that's old information.

As for streaming music from the Cloud - there's something I don't understand. I've signd up for iTunes Match -- but a lot of my music isn't from iTunes -- I'm either ripping CDs or purchasing hi-res downlods. I don't think I can get that quality if I stream from Match. On my mobile devices (iPhone/iPad), I don't have enough data to stream music -- I don't know how anyone does, unless I'm misunderstanding something.

For the rest of the stuff -- I honestly have no idea what it is. I've searched my hard drive to try to find something that could be using that much space, and I don't know what it could be.
 

PDFierro

macrumors 68040
Sep 8, 2009
3,932
111
Interesting, but that raises other questions.

I guess I can get a 2Tb external drive attached to my network and store my music, movies and photos there. But I've read that this doesn't work well with iTunes -- it's slow and jittery. But maybe that's old information.

As for streaming music from the Cloud - there's something I don't understand. I've signd up for iTunes Match -- but a lot of my music isn't from iTunes -- I'm either ripping CDs or purchasing hi-res downlods. I don't think I can get that quality if I stream from Match. On my mobile devices (iPhone/iPad), I don't have enough data to stream music -- I don't know how anyone does, unless I'm misunderstanding something.

For the rest of the stuff -- I honestly have no idea what it is. I've searched my hard drive to try to find something that could be using that much space, and I don't know what it could be.

I would really try to find out what is using that space. Most likely it is things you don't need. Maybe you could buy a 256GB MBP and start fresh? That would let you know what you really need stored locally.

People who use their Pros for work purposes often have hundreds of gigs in video files that they need to be stored locally. You won't benefit from having 600 gigs of music/videos on the SSD, other than having it readily available.

Your alternative is to buy a 1TB SSD, but that'd put the purchase price above 2 grand. Or you could just go the 256GB + external drive route.

Might be a good idea to take a look at the things you actually use on a daily basis. That's what I'd do.
 

Hrothgar

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 11, 2009
519
19
New York
What you're say makes sense, but I think there's still something I'm misunderstanding.

1) If large internal hard drives are not a good thing, how come every computer mfr was offering larger and larger drives until the SSDs started showing up?

2) Wont the operating system and basic applications take up most of the 256 gb drive?

3) Isn't there a benefit to having, say, all of my iTunes data on my Notebook? If I shift my 250 gb of music onto a separate external drive, will I be able stream music easily? When I connect my iPod/iPad, will it sync?

4) I guess I can move a lot of old documents to the external drive, but I doubt that will save a lot of space. I have no idea what is in the 100gb of "other." I've done some google searches, and it seems that Macs have large amount of mysterious "other" data on their drives that no one can identify.
 

PDFierro

macrumors 68040
Sep 8, 2009
3,932
111
What you're say makes sense, but I think there's still something I'm misunderstanding.

1) If large internal hard drives are not a good thing, how come every computer mfr was offering larger and larger drives until the SSDs started showing up?

2) Wont the operating system and basic applications take up most of the 256 gb drive?

3) Isn't there a benefit to having, say, all of my iTunes data on my Notebook? If I shift my 250 gb of music onto a separate external drive, will I be able stream music easily? When I connect my iPod/iPad, will it sync?

4) I guess I can move a lot of old documents to the external drive, but I doubt that will save a lot of space. I have no idea what is in the 100gb of "other." I've done some google searches, and it seems that Macs have large amount of mysterious "other" data on their drives that no one can identify.

SSDs have always been more expensive. Thus why they had to start with lower storage sizes. But even getting a 512GB or 1TB SSD these days is going to be expensive. But prices have come down a lot over the past 4-5 years. Hard disk drives are cheap, you can get a 1TB external for like a hundred bucks.

I doubt you'd have less than 200GB available after the OS and apps on a 256GB drive.
 
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