256 vs 512

If you have the money then go for 512! If you're on a budget then decide what you're going to be using it for and whether 256 will be enough or not and maybe invest in some external storage.

 

I also did 16MB... but went with 256gb.. why.. well motives man.. like when the 2nd gen comes out with better tech... this one gets handed down. So basically I didn't want to go full bore on the first one knowing it will be enough for whom will get it after me

 

How much stuff do you usually keep on your laptops? Do you need to keep all that stuff on there? Do you use BootCamp, how much?

 

Good luck with that!

 

768

 

For the price of the 768GB SSD upgrade (up from 512GB in upgraded MBPR config), you can buy yourself a USB3 enclosure with a Crucial M4 512GB installed inside.

with money left over for beer.

 

Go for 512.

 

dude I remember those days

 

It depends on how much you plan on storing locally on the MBP. I've personally got 16 gig & a 512 gig ssd as I run a number of virtual machines simultaneously for demo purposes.

And it rocks.

 

if you only have 150gb of data... you don't need a 512gb drive.

If your thinking about gettign 512 just as "future proofing" you may not need to worry about that. You *may* be able to upgrade that SSD drive a few years from now if you want. 3rd parties already made upgrade drives for the Macbook Airs that are similar drives, its very likely they'll make upgraded drives for the Retina MBP too.... the ram is soldered on so 16GB isn't a bad idea, but if you want the 512gb flash, you also have to get the faster CPU, so it costs a lot more.

 

$600 for the extra processor power and twice the amount of SSD memory isn't a bad deal, but might be unnecessary for your needs. If you can deal with the limited amount of memory in the meantime, go with the 256GB option. You can go with a USB 3.0 external drive if you're in need of simple storage soon, and even Thunderbolt drives should come down in price in a few years time for equal performance.

Hope this helps.

 

How many GB are left on the rMBP with 256GB when you get a new one?
(Without iLife Apps). Does anyone know that?

 

I have a 256 SSD in my MBA now. Even with the ripped movies removed, I have about 170GB used. Although that is decent breathing room, I think I would prefer to have a larger movie catalog at my fingertips. I looked at SDXC cards to hold them as well as external USB 3 devices. But that requires carrying more stuff around, and also adds to the total cost of the computer itself.
As much as I want the 512, that's a $600 increase for me just for that luxury. So, it'll probably be the 256 for me.

 

Stick with 256GB. With the money you save you can easily buy a super fast thunderbolt external HDD if you need speedy storage. Or one of the many high speed USB 3.0 drives.

 

approximately 220-230 GB. right now I have 159 free. the big ticket items are about 30 GB (boot camp partition), ~23 GB (parallels windows VM), music library (10 GB) and of course some apps which aren't huge (so I think). so in total these would add up to around 220+ GB

 

I went the 16GB/256GB route.

With USB drives so cheap, and with reasonable transfer rates, this seems a good approach.

My only regret is that I need to more actively manage my files/locations. I have MANY huge client datafiles that I need easy access to, but don;t really need to be on the SSD every day - so, there will be some back and forth to the external drives.

Similarly, my photo stuff (RAWS) will also likely become an issue, archiving libraries to external storage is fine, but I really would prefer more local storage.

I expect the 512 and 256 would have driven a similar file-frugal workflow, thus I went for the cheaper option. If I had the $$, I would have gone for the 768.

A secondary thought was that the SSD may eventually be an upgrade option, hopefully from a 3rd party supplier... We'll see...

 

You'll be hoping for a VERY long time. Even whilst very good/fast SATA 3 256 SSD's like the Crucial M4 are now going for <$200, OWC still wants you to pay $340 for an inferior sandforce 240gb hard drive.

 

get the 256gb and invest in an external hard drive that will have 1tb of space. there nothing to worry about