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128 SSD enough?
- Thread starter vim147
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The only reason that 128GB isn't enough for me is that I have ~50GB dedicated to a Windows VM.
Photoshop and Lightroom could take up a good chunk of space, but that is really about your photos and your willingness to move them on and off the local drive while you are working on them. Same thing for HandBrake - video files are large, but you will probably only keep them locally while you are processing them, then move them to some sort of attached storage for viewing.
128GB is plenty for OS & Apps. It is your media/photo/other content that will determine your specific needs. with 128GB you should expect to use the Cloud, a NAS or Direct attached drives for most file storage, only keeping the files you are currently working on the local drive.
Photoshop and Lightroom could take up a good chunk of space, but that is really about your photos and your willingness to move them on and off the local drive while you are working on them. Same thing for HandBrake - video files are large, but you will probably only keep them locally while you are processing them, then move them to some sort of attached storage for viewing.
128GB is plenty for OS & Apps. It is your media/photo/other content that will determine your specific needs. with 128GB you should expect to use the Cloud, a NAS or Direct attached drives for most file storage, only keeping the files you are currently working on the local drive.
I have a mac mini which is my main computer and a nas drive as an external
MBA will only be used when out and about. Wont be keeping much media/personal files on it. i have an old 500GB 2.5" for external.
Many threads with the question. Here's one:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1789803/
And, No, I would get a bigger SSD.
Lou
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1789803/
And, No, I would get a bigger SSD.
Lou
How does that make sense? All his stuff takes 500GB, so if he gets either 128 or 256, he will still have to sort out his storage situation by offloading those files to somewhere else. So why not pare down to < 128GB.
Especially when being out you may want to have some files with you to actually work with them (plus some free storage to store your results). The storage used on your mini may be misleading as you have most data on the NAS anyway - and may find you miss those while on the road.
Can be mitigated to some extent by keeping strict discipline to move files between NAS and MBA or having the mentioned 2.5 incher with you, but that'll probably become inconvenient pretty quickly.
Thus I agree with flowrider - get a bigger one.
You guys are insane. You see one screen shot which shows he has 340GB of audio, and without even knowing what that audio is, you automatically assume he's going to want to have a significant portion of that with him while traveling. And on top of that, he's already said he doesn't intend to keep much media on the laptop anyway.
Get the 128GB. The people suggesting that you go bigger are ill informed.
That screenshot only shows what's currently on the computer, not what's additionally on the NAS.
The OP already stated that he considers using an existing 500GB 2.5" HD for mobile use. And experience shows that people tend to change their opinions (and with it the resource demands) over time, especially when they intend to actually work on a mobile device (otherwise a MBA could be considered overkill and an iPad sufficient).
And you are better informed, because...?
People have different opinions based on different experiences - that's why a forum like this exists, so people like the OP can get a variety of points of view.
Calling people "insane" and "ill-informed", because they have a different opinion than yours, is quite rude.
Sure. And why are you assuming that he wants to have all that data on his laptop which he said specifically that he doesn't?
That's a great justification for everybody always buying every single possible upgrade. Needs change, might use it later, etc. But of course we don't recommend to people they get every single upgrade. So when does that stop being the justification?
A couple years ago, the base model 11" came with a 64GB SSD which sounds like it would still probably be big enough for the OP. But you would have probably recommended that he go with the 128GB upgrade with the same justification. But now that it comes with 128GB standard (basically it's pre-upgraded vs. a couple years ago), you're recommending 256GB... basically you're recommending an upgrade just because it's an upgrade.
It's a well known business/marketing/product-planning "tactic" to offer 3 levels of something, and many people will choose the middle level because they don't want to feel cheap and they also don't want to feel like they're over-spending. But this rationale isn't made according to needs and it's typically better for the consumer to choose the base model of something, otherwise you're falling into the marketing ploy of offering upgrades for a premium. FYI.
I did not assume that he "wants to have all that data on his laptop". I just mentioned that the screenshot alone may not be sufficient to judge the actual needs. You should read what other's write instead of reading something into other's texts that fits your point of view.
Time moves on and technology continues to evolve - which leads to increased resource requirements. Apple did not upgrade the stock SSD size just because they wanted to be generous to people.
You may be fine with a couple of year old machine with minimal resources. But you're not necessarily the measure for everyone else.
Others may have a different approach to choosing resources and quite well this might also be driven by comfort issues, such as having data storage integrated instead of having to carry around an external drive (which kind of defeats the original idea of a notebook imo) or not having to keep strict discipline on which data to carry along and which not.
FYI: It's another "well known business/marketing/product-planning 'tactic'" to design a product as (internal) baseline/standard and then cutting corners to offer an impaired entry-level product for the cheapskate customers who afterwards sugarcoat their purchase by telling themselves (and others) that every option above the absolute basic offer is falling for a marketing ploy...
I can read very well. I read the OP's posts and have a good understanding of his needs. He wants to run 4 large-ish software packages (2-3GB each at most), the MBA will be his secondary computer to use when "out and about" and he won't be storing [much] media on it.
Based on that description, once everything is all installed and set up, I'd expect him to be at around 30GB used. Leaving ~100GB for files. That's a tremendous amount of space for files for a machine that's only going to be used when "out and about."
Apple upgraded the SSDs because technology evolves. That doesn't necessarily mean that people need more space. As a counterpoint, many/most people are now streaming video and music from the web so it doesn't need to be stored locally, so they potentially need much *less* storage space on their laptops. And Mavericks runs better on computers with *less* RAM than other versions of OS X before it, because it has memory compression.
True, computer needs and habits vary widely between individuals. So it's basically pointless to give other people advice according to your own needs unless your usage matches theirs very closely. So I don't know why you would be making assumptions about my own needs or presumably bringing your own needs into question when the only thing relevant in this thread is what the OP said about his own usage/needs.
Disagree and I challenge you to name one entry-level product that isn't fit for purpose. It is business suicide to offer products that will result in many dissatisfied customers.
If you rely on external drives and to your Mini as your main computer, 128 GB will be more than enough for those apps, and for a decent amount of media for casual files.
If you plan to keep it for a long time however, it is advisable to upgrade it now. Your needs may change, and it's better to invest a little more now than regretting your purchase then.
If you plan to keep it for a long time however, it is advisable to upgrade it now. Your needs may change, and it's better to invest a little more now than regretting your purchase then.
I know I just wrote a big post about how one shouldn't give advice based on their own needs but I can describe my needs/usage a bit to give some perspective.
I'm an app developer and what many people would consider a "power user." Here are my storage requirements:
- XCode: 5GB for the app, 11GB for other junk it downloads
- Photoshop: a "heavy" app -- still less than 2GB
- Many other, miscellaneous apps: like LibreOffice, VLC, etc: ~9GB
- All my own projects (apps) plus their backups and associated files: 2GB
- All the pictures/videos I've taken in the last year: ~1000 files, 2GB
- Music and video content streamed via web services
All in all, my 128GB SSD is half empty. I have a tremendous amount of free space. I've been using my MBA as my only computer for more than a month now since I'm traveling. I have an external drive with me that has ALL of my files but I haven't needed any of them so far. I've only plugged in the external drive in a few times, to back up the laptop.
So I'm way more than comfortable with 128GB. I admit that 64GB would have been a little tight. Until recently I had a 2010 MBA with a 64GB drive and I had to occasionally do some "housekeeping" to free up space--workable but not super convenient. But with 128GB this need has disappeared.
If you had given me the money to get a 256GB drive, I might as well have taken the money into the backyard and set fire to it. I would never have used the extra space and I'd never get the money back in resale value. This is, in effect, what a lot of you are suggesting that the OP do though.
Everyone here can give their own personal perspective. You just did it, and many others disagree with you.
I stand by what I wrote. You can't predict easily what storage you may need one day, and on that depends what the best choice is. As always, it's better to invest a little more to get what best gives you peace of mind if you can afford it.
I can't do much without my 1 TB internal HDD, not counting the external drives of course.
I think its enough, should give you about 100GB after a few apps installed and even office. Every thing these days can be streamed off a service or cloud so its not as crucial as it used to be to have so much disk space.
Unless you need the space for photos or videos but then again you can carry an external hdd for that. Even though 128GB is plenty for me, I'd still like to get 256GB as I think its the right amount to be in the comfort zone as well as for the future.
Unless you need the space for photos or videos but then again you can carry an external hdd for that. Even though 128GB is plenty for me, I'd still like to get 256GB as I think its the right amount to be in the comfort zone as well as for the future.
Just to clarify my original post. I only want to install those apps. Won't be storing any media files (music or movies) I have the option to use a 500gb external if need be.
Think I'll go with the 128gb unless I can get a 256gb for the same price.
Think I'll go with the 128gb unless I can get a 256gb for the same price.
Peace of mind: imagine you bought your laptop just 2 years ago and paid for the 128GB upgrade.
I don't know why you need an internal 1TB hard drive so bad but of course there are some people who do. I knew a guy who had to transfer several hours of high-bitrate 1080p footage from one TV studio to another on a daily basis. Of course that was hundreds of gigabytes. Personally all of my data only takes up 300GB, including every digital photo/video I've ever taken, my entire CD collection, a bunch of my DVDs, entire backups of various computers I've owned, and of course all my programming projects and "office" documents which amount to a rounding error compared to the media files.
He posted that he won't be storing any of those media files on the MacBook Air, thus making it a non issue.