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I Just Found $200, Should I Upgrade to 16GB RAM or 512GB SSD?

B

bballers29

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 10, 2014
76
93
Hi,

I am getting close to placing my order for the new MacBook Air. I am just waiting to see the Air in person today at my local Apple store and determine which color to select-- I am leaning towards Space Gray but might be tempted by the new Midnight color.

If the average consumer has 4 Chrome tabs open, primarily uses the machine to stream Netflix/Spotify and create Word/Excel files, and dabbles with light photo/movie editing, then my usage is even more simple than that. Yes, I will stream movies and music and use those Microsoft programs, but I rarely have more than one Safari tab open at once, barely ever use iMovie, and never photo edit. I generally just use my computer to browse the internet and manage my iCloud Drive. Speaking of iCloud Drive, I barely keep any files stored locally on the SSD, everything is in iCloud. I also don't have a large photo library or have the expectation it will grow exponentially any time soon-- I do have an 80GB photo library on an external drive which I am content with keeping there.

So, I am leaning towards getting the 8 CPU/8 GPU, 16 GB RAM, and 256GB HD. However, if someone thinks it would be a better investment to keep the 8GB Ram and upgrade to a 512GB SSD, then I might go for that instead. I am not as tech savvy as many in this community; I am not too knowledgeable on the 256GB SSD controversy or memory swapping. I just want to have the best performance possible within my budget. I also would like to keep this machine for no less than 3-4 years.

I would greatly appreciate some help! Hey! A cool thought just came to mind. Maybe I would be fine with just a base model?! Save the $200.

Thanks again!
 
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8gb can handle more than 4 chrome tabs I assure you.

Would be a toss up but with base SSD concessions, 8/512 personally.

For one its not a custom config and wouldn't take longer to get, for another Apple Silicon relies on SSD a lot more than Intel did and 8gb isnt as anemic as people say it is (imo, like all things subjective).

For another, would probably be an easier resell down the road Than a 16/256 imo.

16/512 would be ideal, but then you're in 14MBP pricing territory.
 
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I'd take 16/256 over 8/512. If you get to the point where you don't have enough RAM. There's nothing you can do. While you can manage data with external drives, flash drives, NAS and Cloud storage.

Sure there's times when you may absolutely need more storage. Only you know what your requirements are for data you always need at hand.
 
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Getting 16GB of RAM is always the easiest “future proof” thing you can do, as it will be painful to use a machine with only 8GB and deal with high swap usage and constant page reload. Although it is still up to you, I’d consider the longevity of 16GB of Ram over low amount of local storage. Nowadays programming optimisation becomes more and more of an afterthought unless the running The program to produce result would take days, weeks or months if poorly optimised. Even Apple just throw powerful hardware to make up for poorly written code instead of “optimising it to the teeth”.
 
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Get more storage. You can always close more Chrome tabs. This idea of “future-proofing” is an outdated concept born on tech forums. The idea that the M2 will slow to a crawl on the 8 gig is laughable, if not depressing, coming from people that only uses an Air for consumption. Do you.
 
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I'd get the RAM.

You can always add more fast storage later via an external SSD (and at prices well below what Apple wants) whereas you cannot add RAM later should your needs change to the point that you begin to find 8GB constraining.
 
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Based on your intended use description, neither is probably going to be necessary.
But if you would like to pay $200 more and make your purchase a bit more future proof, the RAM should be more useful. While 256 Gb is not that much it is not too bad and you can always have an external SSD. Future versions of the OS may make 8Gb feel a bit more tight. So I would go for RAM over storage.
 
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bballers29 said:
Hi,

I am getting close to placing my order for the new MacBook Air. I am just waiting to see the Air in person today at my local Apple store and determine which color to select-- I am leaning towards Space Gray but might be tempted by the new Midnight color.

If the average consumer has 4 Chrome tabs open, primarily uses the machine to stream Netflix/Spotify and create Word/Excel files, and dabbles with light photo/movie editing, then my usage is even more simple than that. Yes, I will stream movies and music and use those Microsoft programs, but I rarely have more than one Safari tab open at once, barely ever use iMovie, and never photo edit. I generally just use my computer to browse the internet and manage my iCloud Drive. Speaking of iCloud Drive, I barely keep any files stored locally on the SSD, everything is in iCloud. I also don't have a large photo library or have the expectation it will grow exponentially any time soon-- I do have an 80GB photo library on an external drive which I am content with keeping there.

So, I am leaning towards getting the 8 CPU/8 GPU, 16 GB RAM, and 256GB HD. However, if someone thinks it would be a better investment to keep the 8GB Ram and upgrade to a 512GB SSD, then I might go for that instead. I am not as tech savvy as many in this community; I am not too knowledgeable on the 256GB SSD controversy or memory swapping. I just want to have the best performance possible within my budget. I also would like to keep this machine for no less than 3-4 years.

I would greatly appreciate some help! Hey! A cool thought just came to mind. Maybe I would be fine with just a base model?! Save the $200.

Thanks again!
Click to expand...
If your budget is that tight consider the M1 Air with 16 GB of RAM.

Second choice would be go with the M2 with 16 GB RAM. For your light usage I don't see the slower SSD making a noticeable difference. I'm waiting for a reputable YouTube channel to compare the two on everyday tasks.
 
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bballers29 said:
Hi,

I am getting close to placing my order for the new MacBook Air. I am just waiting to see the Air in person today at my local Apple store and determine which color to select-- I am leaning towards Space Gray but might be tempted by the new Midnight color.

If the average consumer has 4 Chrome tabs open, primarily uses the machine to stream Netflix/Spotify and create Word/Excel files, and dabbles with light photo/movie editing, then my usage is even more simple than that. Yes, I will stream movies and music and use those Microsoft programs, but I rarely have more than one Safari tab open at once, barely ever use iMovie, and never photo edit. I generally just use my computer to browse the internet and manage my iCloud Drive. Speaking of iCloud Drive, I barely keep any files stored locally on the SSD, everything is in iCloud. I also don't have a large photo library or have the expectation it will grow exponentially any time soon-- I do have an 80GB photo library on an external drive which I am content with keeping there.

So, I am leaning towards getting the 8 CPU/8 GPU, 16 GB RAM, and 256GB HD. However, if someone thinks it would be a better investment to keep the 8GB Ram and upgrade to a 512GB SSD, then I might go for that instead. I am not as tech savvy as many in this community; I am not too knowledgeable on the 256GB SSD controversy or memory swapping. I just want to have the best performance possible within my budget. I also would like to keep this machine for no less than 3-4 years.

I would greatly appreciate some help! Hey! A cool thought just came to mind. Maybe I would be fine with just a base model?! Save the $200.

Thanks again!
Click to expand...
If you qualify for the educational discount, you might be able to swing both?
 
Thanks for the information. Can anyone share how much space MacOS is taking up on the new Air?
 
I think you’d be totally fine with the base model honestly, but yeah if you want to spend the money more RAM is better in case you change your usage habits over the next couple of years.
 
Thank you all for your responses! I am upgrading from my 2017 13" MacBook Pro which also had a 256GB SSD. I already sold the computer; would anyone know if the new Air's 256GB SSD is worse than my old Pro's 256GB SSD? Thanks!
 
bballers29 said:
Thank you all for your responses! I am upgrading from my 2017 13" MacBook Pro which also had a 256GB SSD. I already sold the computer; would anyone know if the new Air's 256GB SSD is worse than my old Pro's 256GB SSD? Thanks!
Click to expand...
Let me check! brb :) ...

Edit:
Read: 2.000 MB/s (some 600 MB/s faster)
Write: 1.220 MB/s (approx. 200 MB/s slower)
 
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mr_jomo said:
Let me check! brb :) ...

Edit:
Read: 2.000 MB/s (some 600 MB/s faster)
Write: 1.220 MB/s (approx. 200 MB/s slower)
Click to expand...
I really appreciate your help! So, in your opinion is the 2017 Macbook Pro's 256GB SSD significantly better than the Air's 256GB SSD? Thanks again!
 
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