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Guess I need 2 TB

U

UBS28

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Oct 2, 2012
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Thinking that these MBP don’t support Bootcamp anymore, I thought 1 TB would be enough.

However I still have more plugins to install and load sample libaries to this new machine and I will probably hit the limit.

So I guess I have to move the most useless applications to the external SSD in the meantime.

Does it make sense to return this machine for a 2 TB version or just live the external SSD life?

The thing I am worried about returning it, is that this machine is 100% flawless and my experience with Apple products is that this doesn’t usually happen. So I might end up with a worse unit.
 
UBS28 said:
Thinking that these MBP don’t support Bootcamp anymore, I thought 1 TB would be enough.

However I still have more plugins to install and load sample libaries to this new machine and I will probably hit the limit.

So I guess I have to move the most useless applications to the external SSD in the meantime.

Does it make sense to return this machine for a 2 TB version or just live the external SSD life?

The thing I am worried about returning it, is that this machine is 100% flawless and my experience with Apple products is that this doesn’t usually happen. So I might end up with a worse unit.
Click to expand...
Considering that there are ssds that are not much bigger than USB sticks I would stick with the machine as is.

www.amazon.com

SABRENT Rocket Nano 1TB USB 3.2 10Gb/s External Aluminum SSD (Silver) (SB-1TB-NANO)

SABRENT Rocket Nano 1TB USB 3.2 10Gb/s External Aluminum SSD (Silver) (SB-1TB-NANO)
www.amazon.com
 
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
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I'd return and buy one with a bigger internal drive. Every time I had a computer who's drive was on the smaller side, I eventually regretted it.
 
I ordered a 2TB MBP as I know my minimum would be 1TB given the current desktop Macs I use.

I use a lot of external drives for my resources (like your sample libraries) with my current iMac which is fine for a desktop but for a laptop I know would want capacity to have more things onboard without external SSDs.

As has been said, if you are mostly working at one place then a NAS with wifi access to it could be an option. Or if working away from home and office a Mac Mini and remote desktoping to it to gain access to your sample libraries.

My Music library for my desktops is approaching 1TB by itself, and all my resources are several terrabytes more.

It kind of depends on how you intend to work and what you work on - e.g. if the laptop will never leave your desk then use externals plugged into a dock.

Oh, and I’ve never had a flawed Apple product (maybe except for software) - and I’ve had Macs for around 25 years.
 
You would be happy with your new machine for a lot longer if it is not compromised to start with - getting what you need now will save you in the long term.
 
As compromise, if it is a 14"/16", you could perhaps buy a sd-card and move the sample-libraries onto it.
 
All of my data is about 289GB according to Mac OS. I have a 4TB external drive (that functions as my time machine) with about 500GB on it (mostly parallels backups). And that’s with an 88GB Windows 11 Parallels volume.

I have a 1TB SSD for when I want to do some Parallels testing but not use internal storage for - play around with something sizable without affecting my internal storage/time machine.

Things I’d ask?

1. How has your data usage increased over the last few years?
2. How long are you planning on keeping this Macbook?
3. How much of your data is static data vs data changing constantly?

Based on these answers, you can decide to add some cheap external storage if needed ($10 enclosure, $84 Sata 3 1TB) if you want, use what you got, or return for a bigger internal storage. Keep in mind internal storage is going to be a LOT faster than external unless you’re shelling for an external nvme drive.
 
I bought the 1TB and picked up a 2TB external SSD for editing and other projects. Right now you can pick them up fairly cheap for Black Friday. They’re not as fast as the internal drive, but even for editing in final cut it’s more than enough. $220 for 2TB from SanDisk with ~1GB/sec reads and writes and a 5 year warranty. Apple wanted $360 (with my education discount) for an additional 1TB. My old MacBook Pro had about 1.6-1.8GB/sec reads and writes and was more than enough.
 
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UBS28 said:
Thinking that these MBP don’t support Bootcamp anymore, I thought 1 TB would be enough.

However I still have more plugins to install and load sample libaries to this new machine and I will probably hit the limit.

So I guess I have to move the most useless applications to the external SSD in the meantime.

Does it make sense to return this machine for a 2 TB version or just live the external SSD life?

The thing I am worried about returning it, is that this machine is 100% flawless and my experience with Apple products is that this doesn’t usually happen. So I might end up with a worse unit.
Click to expand...
Absolutely exchange it. Can't believe you would consider not doing so, and kicking yourself every day for the next 5 years.
Moving useless apps? Apps generally take little storage, will make no difference. All my apps take total 40GB, and I have a few chunky ones.
There is little chance the next one won't be flawless. The only time I think it doesn't make sense to return something, is because of some tiny cosmetic defect. You could get another tiny cosmetic defect. In a year's time it will have cosmetic defects all over it anyway.
 
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