13" 128GB vs 256GB

[knarzie]

I don't dare discussing my upcoming MBA purchase with anyone IRL anymore, for fear of being strangled or beaten to death with my Macbook 🙁

So, here it goes. My wife has will get my unibody Macbook. I have decided on 13" (11 is too close to my iPad) and i5 rather than an extra £100 for the i7.

I will also buy a new mini and can add gazillion TB externals for my itunes/iphoto and other large files. So what reason could I possibly have to get the 256 rather than the 128GB. Difference in price is a bit over £200 in the Higher Education store, that could by me 3-6TB external storage for the mini. Also the 128 is £927 with the RAM upgrade, so below the magic £1000 mark. So why can't I decide?

 

[cedwhatev]

128. Save your money.

 

[jemesouviens]

OP, perhaps the reason you're finding it hard to decide is because it would be inconvenient to constrain your storage use to 128GB? If so, what price would you place on the convenience of having extra onboard storage?

You could also consider oft-discussed solutions like the nifty drive or the sandisk cruzer fit ...

 

[Scepticalscribe]

OP, perhaps the reason you're finding it hard to decide is because it would be inconvenient to constrain your storage use to 128GB? If so, what price would you place on the convenience of having extra onboard storage?

You could also consider oft-discussed solutions like the nifty drive or the sandisk cruzer fit ...

Yes, I'd agree with this.

Whether you think you need it or not, the day is rapidly approaching where 128GB will no longer be the industry standard. And these days, 128GB fills rather rapidly. For what it is worth, I love the speed and responsiveness of the SSD, and never see myself reverting to the old days of HDD, despite the very generous capacity of the HDD. Actually, my old MBP suffered a HDD failure; as it was still under Applecare it was replaced without a problem.

SSD is faster, more reliable and more stable; as prices drop and capacity increases, what is considered the standard norm will also increase. My current MBA (bought in 2010, the old 'Rev C' - a lovely machine) - is 128GB. My next will be at least 256, and, if I can persuade myself with gritted teeth to part with the cash, will preferably be 512GB.

 

[jetlagged]

like most posts, the 13" i5/ 128 gb/ 4 or 8 gb ram is the best value for the money.

$300 more just to get 256 gb of ram, but in reality its around 220 gb instead of 256.

now i went ahead and bought the 256 gb one 13 " i5 8 gb of ram because i wanted the extra space for traveling purposes, granted i will consider buying a small portable external hard drive as well.

 

[wolfpuppies3]

if you find the portability and ease of carry of multiple external storage sources convenient, go for it. You will surely regret restricting yourself somewhere down the line.

 

[knarzie]

good points everyone, keep 'em coming. That,s the thing. I look at the 13" retina and laugh at 128GB. It's 2012 ffs.

 

[Borjan]

If you want to put bootcamp on and have any space for your windows partition to breathe.. its gotta be the bigger storage option.

 

[ftaok]

good points everyone, keep 'em coming. That,s the thing. I look at the 13" retina and laugh at 128GB. It's 2012 ffs.

Yeah, but the 13" retina's space for the SSD looks to be big enough to fit a traditional 2.5" SSD. I think all that's needed is the special cable.

 

[53x12]

OP, depend how much data you have and how much you need with you all the time.

I went with the 128 GB. I don't need all my music, all my movies, all my photos with me. I have cloud (Dropbox, google, Skydrive..etc.). There are external USB 3 drives. There are SDXC options. Plus you can always upgrade the drive in the future when the prices drop. I say the i5/8GB/128 SSD offers the best value.