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1 tb or 2tb

M

macsarecool123

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 13, 2019
13
3
Hello
A store near me has a high spec macbook pro 16 inch with 2tb of storage. The one I ordered online has 1tb. My iMac right now that has 1 tb in it has 500gb left of space. Should I just go get the 2tb? Would the resell value be much better?
Thanks
 
If you have no use for the 2TB, I would not buy it. The resale value won't make up for the extra price you pay.

2TB is usable only for people who need to store a lot of media files on internal storage.
 
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1TB should be fine for you if you're only using half of a TB already. Resale value won't be "much better" since you won't be getting dollar-for-dollar back on the 2TB upgrade anyway if you sell in a couple years. You would only get a partial return on the $400 USD upgrade.
 
Zwhaler said:
1TB should be fine for you if you're only using half of a TB already. Resale value won't be "much better" since you won't be getting dollar-for-dollar back on the 2TB upgrade anyway if you sell in a couple years. You would only get a partial return on the $400 USD upgrade.
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Do you think I could get at least $200 back in resale from the upgrade? I do have a mavic pro so I want to be sure I have enough storage as I want to start recording video on it more.
 
Personally I feel like the BTO Apple carries in store is a tease and they should have spec’d it with 64GB RAM. Already paying thousands as it is.
 
In my 2014 MBP, I had 500GB for Mac OS and 500 GB for Windows. Both almost used up. If I am to buy a new MBP 16", I guess I will need to get the 2TB SSD so each OS gets 1TB.
 
My experience on the 2015 MBPs is that going from 512 to 1 TB adds $25 to $50 to the price. That's probably a fraction of the original cost differential. If you're going to sell this five years down the road, SSD storage will come down in price and newer models will have twice the storage at the same price point.

If you don't need the space, don't get it if you're looking for higher resale value.

One option I'm looking at: it looks like I will have to get some kind of a hub. It may be that there are hubs that have one or more SD slots and that I could just leave the SD cards in the Hub all the time for extra storage.
 
I went for the 2TB because I intend to boot camp and install several large (80GB+) games on it.

Considered going for the 1TB and getting an external drive, but the cost of a 1TB Thunderbolt NVME SSD (one that will at least approximate the transfer rate of the internal drive) would run around $400 by itself -- a wash with the cost of 2TB internally.

I have a few USB 3.1 SSD drives, and they're plenty fast, but a 1TB is still around $150. Figured I'd rather have the extra storage internally so I don't need to have a hdd hanging off the side, and so I can have the fastest performance possible by keeping it internal.
 
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nbuubu said:
I went for the 2TB because I intend to boot camp and install several large (80GB+) games on it.

Considered going for the 1TB and getting an external drive, but the cost of a 1TB Thunderbolt NVME SSD (one that will at least approximate the transfer rate of the internal drive) would run around $400 by itself -- a wash with the cost of 2TB internally.

I have a few USB 3.1 SSD drives, and they're plenty fast, but a 1TB is still around $150. Figured I'd rather have the extra storage internally so I don't need to have a hdd hanging off the side, and so I can have the fastest performance possible by keeping it internal.
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Have you successfully installed Windows 10 via boot camp?
 
I don’t intend to criticize OP but it’s always remarkable to me that people don’t have a solid idea of how much storage they use and whether a certain amount is likely to be adequate during the life of the machine.
 
CM_1986 said:
no he has not it's not supported yet.
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I am a bit confused. What is missing? I found the bootcamp icon on launchpad. I cannot try it because I did not buy a usb-c to usb adapter. I bought a copy of Windows in usb format.
 
hajime said:
I am a bit confused. What is missing? I found the bootcamp icon on launchpad. I cannot try it because I did not buy a usb-c to usb adapter. I bought a copy of Windows in usb format.
Click to expand...

Don't feel bad you're not missing out. During installation it prompts the user that support drivers are not available.

Frustrating yes.
 
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macsarecool123 said:
Do you think I could get at least $200 back in resale from the upgrade? I do have a mavic pro so I want to be sure I have enough storage as I want to start recording video on it more.
Click to expand...

Maybe, maybe not. It's a bad thing to base purchases on, because it isn't reliable. The sensible way to examine this is to check Apple's refurbished stores and some of the used Mac retailers. This will give you an idea of how much more they are able to collect based on a larger drive. Your results as a private seller are unlikely to exceed theirs. If they collect $200 more, you can probably get $100-200 more.

All of this is of course impacted by the age when it's sold, since specs change over time. I feel like drive space is a little over-valued here, because Apple has maintained 128GB at the low end of their lineup for a very long time.
 
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CM_1986 said:
Don't feel bad you're not missing out. During installation it prompts the user that support drivers are not available.

Frustrating yes.
Click to expand...

Thanks. Based on experience of the past few years, when will the drivers be available?
 
macsarecool123 said:
Do you think I could get at least $200 back in resale from the upgrade? I do have a mavic pro so I want to be sure I have enough storage as I want to start recording video on it more.
Click to expand...

Depends on the timeframe you're looking at, but anything over a year or two and I'd say almost certainly not. Just like cars, additional upgrades on computers only add a fraction to the price in the second-hand market.

E.g. here are two MacBook Pro 13" models from 2016 which have recently sold on eBay. Both have the same 3.3GHz i7, 16GB RAM, and are in very good condition. One has AppleCare for another 6 months but then the other has ~300 fewer battery cycles so I think they are about as comparable as can be for 3 years old. Only difference is one is 256GB, one is 1TB (a £400 upgrade now, and I think it was the same in 2016).

256GB went for £1,140: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Apple-Ma...822709?hash=item28836fa075:g:AAgAAOSwE6VcsaBf

1TB went for £1,149: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Apple-Ma...h=item36560978b1:g:UR4AAOSwgfpdg3xU#cvip_desc

Buy what you need and/or can afford.
 
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macsarecool123 said:
Do you think I could get at least $200 back in resale from the upgrade? I do have a mavic pro so I want to be sure I have enough storage as I want to start recording video on it more.
Click to expand...

If you really are going to do a lot of video editing, you are going want to have some sort of archival system like a NAS and likely cloud. Your original source videos should never be altered. And you want your work backed up someplace safe so that if your laptop is stolen or destroyed, the important stuff, the data is a safe. So I question the value of that much space for editing.

Regarding resell value, upgrades loss value faster than the base. So you might get $200 extra if you sold the system soon. But in 2-3 years you will be under 50% of the additional cost. Especially since the price of MacBook Pro SSDs upgrades is getting cheaper and cheaper.
 
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jerryk said:
If you really are going to do a lot of video editing, you are going want to have some sort of archival system like a NAS and likely cloud. Your original source videos should never be altered. And you want your work backed up someplace safe so that if your laptop is stolen or destroyed, the important stuff, the data is a safe. So I question the value of that much space for editing.

Regarding resell value, upgrades loss value faster than the base. So you might get $200 extra if you sold the system soon. But in 2-3 years you will be under 50% of the additional cost. Especially since the price of MacBook Pro SSDs upgrades is getting cheaper and cheaper.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the analysis. Does this also apply to memory? 32GB vs. 64GB.
 
macsarecool123 said:
Do you think I could get at least $200 back in resale from the upgrade? I do have a mavic pro so I want to be sure I have enough storage as I want to start recording video on it more.
Click to expand...
Depends when you sell. I think you could get $200 back in the first 1-2 years. After that, not sure.
 
BTO MacBooks almost always have lower resell value, even fully loaded. Personally I would get 2TB because I already have 368GB of music and 800+GB of games, and I only use cloud storage as a back up for my most important files.
 
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