256 or 512?

[fate0311]

i know it’s very subjective to the users workflow.

Still, I’m looking for some perspective from other users on here on what they go with and what their workflow is.

My though process was, if you go 256 and need more, there is always external SSD’s. However I know the standard these days may to just start with at least 512.

Cheers.

 

[Eithanius]

512GB...

135GB goes toward iTunes library and growing, readily available without the need of an external drive. External SSD drives are expensive where I’m from.

100GB separate partition for beta testing of future MacOS releases.

My next MBP I’ll probably need to ponder between 512GB and 1TB...

 

[mikethebigo]

I'm pretty stingy on what I keep on my Mac, most of it is on an external drive or the cloud, but even I wouldn't get less than 512 nowadays.

 

[throAU]

512 for sure.

You want to maintain some level of free space for local time machine backups (lets say, 30+ GB)
You might want an iphone backup (upwards of 16-32 GB)
You'll want probably 30-40 GB plus of applications


That's about 100 GB or more before you even start... and that's not including any of your data.

 

[New_Mac_Smell]

Look at what you're using today and try double it if you can. That's the most economic way of working it out. Everyone's use varies, personally I like to have enough storage space on the computer for working files. Everything else is backed up to external drives for a variety of reasons. These are also very expensive high grade SSD's, and whilst they can, it is really a waste of money to long term store entertainment media on them.

I use about 170GB of Apps and core files, about 50-100GB of document swap space (Documents I need but aren't currently working on), the rest of it is for when I'm working on something. As I don't want to faff around with external drives and locating things. Part of all this is just efficient filing processes, which are useful to make a habit of.

So for my work, 512GB is fine. I would get a 1TB but it wouldn't provide much value to me, and would probably cause me to just store more junk on the computer - running the risk of data loss.

 

[jksu]

512

 

[maflynn]

f you go 256 and need more, there is always external SSD’s.

If your usage is such that you cannot fit all. of your data on a 256GB SSD but you can (with room to spare) on the 512GB, then definitely get the 512GB.

I'm in an odd spot where I really needed a 1TB, but I just could not justify the price increase. I could fit all of my data on the 512GB, but I'd have little free space left, and I know SSDs work best with more free space. Since I split my time between my iMac and MBP, an ideal situation for me, is to put my 400GB LR library onto an external drive and use that between the two machines. That's just my use case though.

 

[happyhippo1337]

I bought the 256 version, because I absolutely don't need the bigger CPU and GPU in the higher tier model.
Mac OS + Office + Adobe / Affinity stuff is on my internal drive, a windows partition on a 512GB external SSD and most of my files (except photos, videos and downloads) are on a 1TB external SSD.

This setup works very well for me, but I also do have a very beefy windows desktop with 10TB of file storage.

 

[Fishrrman]

Some people "carefully manage" what they put onto their hard drives.
Others don't care, they "fill them up" without concern.

Which of these two user-types most closely resembles yourself?

I have a friend who bought an iMac in 2008.
By the time he replaced it a few months ago, he had only used up 80gb in 10 years (320gb internal HDD).
I advised him to get one with a 256gb SSD inside -- he'll never "run out of space"..!

 

[ofarlig]

If I were to fit all my data on my device I would need much more than 4 TB so I keep things for storage on my NAS. For me it makes no sense to get more than 256 GB even with the 48 GB Windows partition I keep. I don't really need to load my games faster than the external SSD I have can do it (normal 2.5" SSD speeds). Also downloading a game from Steam or whereever you bought it takes like 5-10 minutes anyway so I don't have to keep games I haven't played for a year.