I see people ordering specs 1T...I honestly want to understand what your needs are. I personally have EVERYTHING in the cloud, all backed up and synced at all times. Not challenging your choices, truly trying to understand use cases....
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1T Why?
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Ive got 512GB in my current MBP and it’s not enough. I’ve got a lot of pictures and video I store locally. I plan on going with the 1TB drive so I don’t have to deal with it.
That is what I am trying to understand, why store pictures locally instead of the cloud and load them on demand as needed....
what happens if your get robbed and your laptop and backup storage at home are gone?
Keeping files in the cloud doesn't preclude also keeping copies locally.
My work laptop has about 600GB of virtual machines on its 2TB drive at any time. Those are not useful if they're not stored locally.
Cloud storage is almost never end-to-end encrypted (see BBC: "FBI 'persuaded Apple to halt iCloud encryption'") so I just store most things on my computer, and keep offline Time Machine backups.
Also, if you program for a living you tend to need a lot of storage. Just for iOS development alone, I need maybe 100gb for multiple versions of Xcode and Xcode-related application data.
Also, if you program for a living you tend to need a lot of storage. Just for iOS development alone, I need maybe 100gb for multiple versions of Xcode and Xcode-related application data.
#1 - I don't trust cloud to be the primary storage for important stuff like photos. Great for an offsite secondary backup (covering the fire/flood/robbery scenario), but not as primary.
#2 - I spend lots of time at a place with 25/2 Internet service which is already over $75/mo. Not worth paying the extra $$$ for higher tier data speeds that we don't otherwise need.
My old iMac had 768GB of storage. Recently I pruned the down to well under 512GB by deleting or archiving old/unused files. When the Apple Silicon Macs were announced, I decided to replace the iMac with the 512GB Air. But the Apple store only had 256BG or 1TB in stock, so I bit the bullet and bought 1TB. All of my files are on a NAS and backed up in the cloud, so it's not strictly necessary for me to have them on local storage too, but I like to have as many copies as possible for safety.
I didn’t order a 1TB, but my other laptop is. I’m a game dev. Multiple Unity installs, Adobe, other content creation software. Multiple various projects (each backed up in the cloud). I’ve had to archive a good number of them, but thankfully I haven’t needed them. I wanna say I’m at 600-700GB usage.
Thankfully with this studio we don’t really do high fidelity work. I’ve done that before and it’s not hard for a single project to be many terabytes. Some complicated Photoshop files can end up 500MB, sometimes you end up with a few handfuls of those.
Thankfully with this studio we don’t really do high fidelity work. I’ve done that before and it’s not hard for a single project to be many terabytes. Some complicated Photoshop files can end up 500MB, sometimes you end up with a few handfuls of those.
This is an absolutely ridiculous example and it's not a common occurrence of people's daily lives. But since you mentioned it, ever thought that maybe people keep redundant backups? I have 3 backups of all my files and pics.
I got a 512GB M1 MBP, but have like 350GB of Photos in iCloud. I'd feel better to keep originals on my local Mac as a backup of sorts -- but it's super tight if I do so. If I had to do it again, I'd get the 1TB model so I could.
arn
OP you have to keep in mind that cloud storage isn't guaranteed to be 100% safe from deletion. Years back Apple had an issue migrating from iTools to MobileME (now called iCloud 😁) and MobileME messed up a lot of things including losing many customer's contacts that were never recovered. So don't put all your trust in the cloud. Local storage is still the most secure and protected.
1. I have an offsite backup in my bank's vault I rotate once a week (2 x 12TB drives). I had data on codespaces back in the day. Luckily had most of it backed up. Yeah. Fine for a copy but not putting everything in that basket. I worked for 2 years at a cloud provider.
2. I would love 25/5 (well I have a limited amount of that via LTE) I have 7/1 in rural Texas. Did the offsite backup took 5 days of 7.
And yes I have 1TB SSD MBA m1. I also have a 2TB MBA i5. Although I am probably going to get rid of the i5. I also have NAS and ZFS linux server for archiving.
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Yep - I've worked in IT for over three decades. Unless there's a specific SLA _with_teeth_ addressing data loss, never trust cloud as the primary. Even just three months ago Adobe accidentally deleted people's photos.
And yes - my 25/2 is way better than the folks a few miles away whose only option is satellite or cell phone hotspot. Though when we were buying our weekend place I was very specific in checking internet capabilities of every prospective property since I planned on working remote from there 1-2 days a week. Then covid happened and we've spent a lot of our time there. County population 23k >> county population 750k.
I’m often doing media production work on multiple projects at once, and I prefer to use onboard storage and not to be reliant on external storage when I’m on the road.
For example I created music and sound design for an animated series recently, and the project and media files, reference videos, and exported deliverables all added up to well over 200GB. Cloud storage is not even remotely feasible for this stuff.
My OS/applications and some sample libraries take up around 300+GB, so I need the 1TB spec to have enough headroom to keep everything on board.
For example I created music and sound design for an animated series recently, and the project and media files, reference videos, and exported deliverables all added up to well over 200GB. Cloud storage is not even remotely feasible for this stuff.
My OS/applications and some sample libraries take up around 300+GB, so I need the 1TB spec to have enough headroom to keep everything on board.
One use case - Large image datasets that cannot be uploaded onto third party servers due to legal reasons.
When I bought my M1 MacBook Air 16/512 last week I figured 512GB was more than enough. I have a network server with tens of TB of storage after all. My previous laptops had 512 and it was never a problem. So my MacBook arrived last week. My internal dialog:
Wow, this thing is FAST! I kind of want to install all my iPad apps on here. Wow even 3D graphics are fast! Maybe I should try installing Steam. Oh my gosh, the Steam games I play on my desktop PC with an 8GB RX 580 are actually working pretty well; I’ll maybe go back and play some of these games (~50GB each). Oh hey, I should try virtualizing Ubuntu for ARM. WOW this is faster than my Linux workstation by multiples!! I should create a few more VMs with different distros and experiment. I should download some of those videos my wife shot on her iPhone X in 4K 60 but bring my editing software to its knees. Holy cow editing 4K is now effortless! I should do a montage of all my daughter‘s basketball games.
10 days after it arrived. 470GB used. Dang, really wish I had spent that extra $200 on 1TB. I mean I plan on keeping this 7 years.
Part of why you use more storage is the dang thing is just way more useful than you think. You kind of don’t want to use any other computers. External drives are fine but you get spoiled by the insane speed of M1 internal storage.
Granted I’m learning to deal with the limitations by just uninstalling things I’m not currently using, but I can see how I’m going to be tight on space in years to come.
Wow, this thing is FAST! I kind of want to install all my iPad apps on here. Wow even 3D graphics are fast! Maybe I should try installing Steam. Oh my gosh, the Steam games I play on my desktop PC with an 8GB RX 580 are actually working pretty well; I’ll maybe go back and play some of these games (~50GB each). Oh hey, I should try virtualizing Ubuntu for ARM. WOW this is faster than my Linux workstation by multiples!! I should create a few more VMs with different distros and experiment. I should download some of those videos my wife shot on her iPhone X in 4K 60 but bring my editing software to its knees. Holy cow editing 4K is now effortless! I should do a montage of all my daughter‘s basketball games.
10 days after it arrived. 470GB used. Dang, really wish I had spent that extra $200 on 1TB. I mean I plan on keeping this 7 years.
Part of why you use more storage is the dang thing is just way more useful than you think. You kind of don’t want to use any other computers. External drives are fine but you get spoiled by the insane speed of M1 internal storage.
Granted I’m learning to deal with the limitations by just uninstalling things I’m not currently using, but I can see how I’m going to be tight on space in years to come.
And you took the time to reply to it? Wow, your life must be really empty 😳
Remember also that SSDs start to slow down when they approach full, and you also want to keep breathing room for swaps, caches etc. My last iMac noticeably slowed down when I had about 900GB of the 1TB used, and sped up again after I deleted/transferred half the files to other storage media.
If you have 512GB SSD you really want to plan on using not more than about 400GB. Likewise for a 1TB SSD, plan on using not more than about 900GB.
www.howtogeek.com
If you have 512GB SSD you really want to plan on using not more than about 400GB. Likewise for a 1TB SSD, plan on using not more than about 900GB.
Why Solid-State Drives Slow Down As You Fill Them Up
The benchmarks are clear: Solid-state drives slow down as you fill them up.
www.howtogeek.com
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I like local because it’s faster. I also keep backups.
I always buy minimum storage. I’m not cheap. But I’m an anti pack rat. I know people that keep every picture, every email, every file. I don’t.
I take maybe 2000 pictures a year, I keep a few hundred. I don’t keep any email at all once the subject of the email has been resolved.
But when I do store, I keep in the cloud and two backups in different locations.
Thus, the current device has work in progress, any long term but useful is accessible in the cloud. And all backed up to external storage.
All music and commercial videos I stream.
My 64gb phone has 42 FB free.
I take maybe 2000 pictures a year, I keep a few hundred. I don’t keep any email at all once the subject of the email has been resolved.
But when I do store, I keep in the cloud and two backups in different locations.
Thus, the current device has work in progress, any long term but useful is accessible in the cloud. And all backed up to external storage.
All music and commercial videos I stream.
My 64gb phone has 42 FB free.
I have a 2TB SSD in the 2012 MBP and a 1TB in the 2012 MBA. A "Base" install of macOS for me is about 750GB. I have about 550GB in Music, 150GB in Photos and about 50GB in apps and docs. On the i7 Mac mini Max Hack I have a 1TB rocket Q boot drive and a 2TB SSD split in half for Time Machine and Storage. I still upload everything to iCloud. I just like having a local copy. I have a 2020 MBA that's 512 that only has around 50GB used.
I don't know either. I ordered 2TB because I don't store my images or videos only in the cloud (but as a backup yes)