Is 1TB enough in 2024?

[AdmiralKirk]

I’ve purchased a MacBook Pro 14 M4 Pro 48gb 1TB and I think I’ve made a mistake?

I’m a heavy user of Microsoft Office, so I guess that should be ok for that?

BUT, I am also looking to learn how to code and I have the full adobe creative suite on a very cheap subscription for the next 12 months. I’m looking into developing a website and creating video and image content, and I am a heavy AI user.

Ideally I want this MacBook to last me until Apple stop supporting it in around 5/6 years.

Have I made a mistake with 1TB? I am switching back to Mac from 10 years of forced PC use for work and changing my work drastically with my new machine, so it’s very hard for me to work out how much space I’ll need?

Grateful for any help 🙏🏻

 

[PotentPeas]

I thought you'd be fine until you mentioned video content ... depending on the quantity and quality of the video assets that you'd be dealing with, that can eat up a fair amount of space.

But 1 TB is a lot of space and won't fill up quickly.

You could just get an external SSD for supplemental storage and use it to store bulky or archival stuff that you don't need ready access to at any given moment.

 

[raythompsontn]

I’m a heavy user of Microsoft Office, so I guess that should be ok for that?

You should be fine. Word documents do not take up that much space.

creating video and image content

Since that type of data does not really need quick access those files can be stored on a USB-C external SSD. Such drives actually being quite fast. A 2TB external drive can be had for about $150.00 from Amazon.

Have I made a mistake with 1TB?

I would say no. 1TB is really quite a lot of space.

 

[LogicalApex]

No you didn't make a mistake. 1TB is fine. Especially given the absolute rip off Apple storage upgrades are.

If you need more storage invest that same money in external storage. It could be a NAS that you access from multiple devices or just TB storage you plug directly into your MacBook. Either will work fine depending on your specific needs.

 

[Adora]

I thought it is when I bought my M3 iMac in early 2024, but it wasn't. I will soon try to use an external faster Thunderbolt drive with 2 or 4TB as my main drive.

I told the story several times, but those four drives I purchased (2x2TB and 2x4TB) that are FASTER than my internal one were all together (without TB4 enclosures for each) cheaper than the upgrade from 256 to 1TB by Apple.

USB drives are not recommended to boot from on Apple Silicon Macs.

I have a real big Proton Drive (several TB) and that is in the Library. I can't really use it for everything I want to store on- and offline at the same time. Mostly video content.

 

[Alpha Centauri]

Would a NAS (eg. Synology, et al) work for you for storage? I unfortunately couldn't go that route as it was simply not feasible to place the NAS in a remote location to my living room. If you go w/less with this, I guess much may depend on your required access speed but I'll let someone more knowledgeable chime in on this part.

I bought my M2 with 2 TB internal, knowing my projected use hasn't changed since well over a decade. I also keep the hardware for a long time.

 

[Neil J. Squillante]

I’ve purchased a MacBook Pro 14 M4 Pro 48gb 1TB and I think I’ve made a mistake?

For me, 2 TB is the current minimum. How you get there depends on your budget. If you partition your SSD to separate applications from data, it’s nice to give macOS and your apps 500 GB and your data 1.5 TB.

 

[GooseInTheCaboose]

Nope. BUT 1) Apple storage is exorbitantly expensive and 2) if you are a serious/enthusiast photographer, shooting lots of RAW or 4k+ video, you will easily surpass 2TB of content.

Meaning: beyond 1TB or so you should really start looking into external SSDs for your libraries, because they will grow fast.

I used to keep all my files on my mac but the rude awakening for me was that this practice is completely impractical and unaffordable once I got serious about photography (and had serious storage demands..)

 

[tonywalker23]

Consider the upgrade cost, then divide it by how many years you plan to keep it, and then see if it is a little easier to stomach. My M1 Pro has 1tb and is about half full with all files downloaded and all photos in full resolution. the only thing ’in the cloud’ is the Apple Music songs. if it was just that I would be fine.
but, part of my job is making a small local tv station broadcast of our church sermons. im often using multiple church service recordings to stitch together one broadcast, and then factor in the exported file, etc. it would be so nice to do that all on internal storage. but currently I use the mbp in my office hooked up to a 12 tb raid. the card from our sound booth, I download the services from that card to the raid. so when im working on my mobile device, I still have to be tied to the raid box in my office. I don’t need the 12 tb right then, but I do need more than my current 500gb free.
so if there is anyway possible whenever I upgrade to whatever in the future, im hoping I can bite the bullet and get a 2tb just to make life easier.

short version: if you can afford it and you plan to keep it for many years, you won’t regret making your life easier when you get perhaps into computer uses you right now might not be using.

edit: re read your post about using it 5 years. roughly $8 a month to have double the internal storage, that’s one way to look at it.

 

[UnifiedMelody]

1TB is more than fine. I use a 4TB external SSD from Samsung (T9) and it's only 500AUD. With 2000/2000 R/W speeds it's amazing in comparison to other SSD's with 1/2-1/4th the RW speed at only a few dollars less.

 

[fessura]

Only you can decide. Over the months and years you might find new uses -- music, video, film, ebooks, photography, etc. --, and find you'll need more. Anyone that says it is or is not enough means it is for them. I got 1 TB last time and now it's not enough.

 

[psingh01]

Photo library and iTunes library are what takes up a lot of the space on my machine. This stuff can go on cheap external drives but it’s annoying if you have a laptop. 1Tb would be fine for me if not for that.

If you will run VMs as part of your coding projects, then they may take up a lot of space too. I have a 5yr old MBP with 4TB. Having everything on internal storage is great. The price was not!

 

[LogicalApex]

Photo library and iTunes library are what takes up a lot of the space on my machine. This stuff can go on cheap external drives but it’s annoying if you have a laptop. 1Tb would be fine for me if not for that.

If you will run VMs as part of your coding projects, then they may take up a lot of space too. I have a 5yr old MBP with 4TB. Having everything on internal storage is great. The price was not!

Paying Apple storage upgrade prices to store Photos and iTunes files seems crazy to me. Cheaper to pay for iCloud storage and put them there if you absolutely can’t store it on a NAS or external storage of some kind.

 

[aurora72]

1TB storage space is by no means enough in 2024.

 

[psingh01]

Paying Apple storage upgrade prices to store Photos and iTunes files seems crazy to me. Cheaper to pay for iCloud storage and put them there.

Well it wasn’t just for that, they are just the biggest offenders on my ssd now. The prices are crazy, but I do not want my personal data on the cloud for both privacy and performance. As much as I can avoid it. I think iTunes stuff goes there automatically. At this point, I would have paid more in iCloud data subscriptions than I did for the ssd upgrade anyway.

 

[raythompsontn]

1TB storage space is by no means enough in 2024.

That largely depends on the machines application. For most people 1TB is more than enough. Those that need more know who they are. I have a couple hundred thousand photographs that are kept on external SSD drives. Granted they are 2TB drives. So maybe your statement is true in that aspect. But for storage in a machine, not so much. A couple 1TB external drives are cheaper than Apple's storage upgrade. And with external SSD the data can be easily transported to another machine. Truth be told 512GB is enough for most people in my opinion.

 

[Onshore]

Just get iCloud, you will never have to worry about that stuff, and it all syncs with your devices

 

[Madhatter32]

For a heavy Microsoft Office user, 1TB is more than enough. Anything more just get cheap external storage.

 

[DaveEcc]

Just to add one more voice to the "get external storage" option. If you're shooting a lot of video and raw photos you'll quickly fill up 2TB too. Upgrading from 1TB to 4TB is USD$1000! You can get an OWC Express 1M2 enclosure for $100, or the OWC 4M2 for $250. A 4TB Samsung 990 PRO NVMe drive is $300. (Note, first prices I see on US Amazon, no idea if they're typical).

So, you could get 1M2 and 4TB for $400.

Or you could get 4M2 and 2x 4TB for $850, with 2 slots left for future expansion, or to add extra drives as backup.

You really should get something as a backup anyway so the enclosures aren't even really additional cost, they're something you already need. If this is long-term storage, and you don't need NVME M.2 speeds, you can likely find drives of larger capacities with the same budget, and use a Terramaster D5 or D8 which hold both SATA drives and NVME drives.

Now, here's the important bit... when you move to your next new system, simply eject the drives, unplug the cable, and move it over to the new system. Done. You don't need to give Apple ANOTHER $1000, you can just keep using your drives with zero down time.

4TB = $400 once for external, or $1000 every ~5 years to Apple.
8TB = $850 once for external, or $2200 every ~5 years to Apple.

 

[FreakinEurekan]

Like others said... 1TB is fine, as long as you're willing to plug in an external for video use. You said you want the Mac to last 5/6 years and buying enough pure-internal for ALL that time is going to be MASSIVELY more expensive than buying a 2TB external for now, and a 4TB/8TB later if you need it. NVMe Thunderbolt externals are very slim, very fast, easy to velcro to the lid so "Fairly" convenient, and VERY cost-effective.

 

[skaertus]

I’ve purchased a MacBook Pro 14 M4 Pro 48gb 1TB and I think I’ve made a mistake?

I’m a heavy user of Microsoft Office, so I guess that should be ok for that?

BUT, I am also looking to learn how to code and I have the full adobe creative suite on a very cheap subscription for the next 12 months. I’m looking into developing a website and creating video and image content, and I am a heavy AI user.

Ideally I want this MacBook to last me until Apple stop supporting it in around 5/6 years.

Have I made a mistake with 1TB? I am switching back to Mac from 10 years of forced PC use for work and changing my work drastically with my new machine, so it’s very hard for me to work out how much space I’ll need?

Grateful for any help 🙏🏻

It is fine. I mean, storage is never too much.

But Apple charges a lot for its internal storage and paying $400 to get just an additional 1 TB might still not be enough for you. You might pay a whopping $2,200 to get 8 TB storage.

Or you may buy an external 8 TB SSD for $600 (https://www.bestbuy.com/site/sandis...op-external-ssd-black/6568090.p?skuId=6568090).

Or an external 24 TB HDD for $550 (https://www.bestbuy.com/site/wd-eas...-3-0-hard-drive-black/6585399.p?skuId=6585399).

Of course, these solutions are not as fast as having internal storage, but you will not need the full speed for all your data.

 

[AdmiralKirk]

Thanks everyone! I returned this in the end. I looked into external storage but the only one that seemed reliable was a NAS, which was a minimum of £500 for a decent one, and just a lot of effort I didn’t need at the moment.

Every single USB C or Thunderbolt external drive I found had at least a handful of reviews saying that their data was corrupted and lost, even if the other 90% of reviews were positive.

So it’s just easier for me to have an extra TB on the Mac itself that’s linked to iCloud, so I can keep everything I want to on the Mac itself, while it’s also backed up in iCloud if my Mac fails for any reason.

It just seemed like a greater risk to buy a cheaper external storage and have a greater chance of it failing and lost data.

I think in a few years when even 2tb is too little, it’s at that time I’ll invest in a NAS instead that has built in protection against one of the drives inside failing.

 

[Tagbert]

No you didn't make a mistake. 1TB is fine. Especially given the absolute rip off Apple storage upgrades are.

If you need more storage invest that same money in external storage. It could be a NAS that you access from multiple devices or just TB storage you plug directly into your MacBook. Either will work fine depending on your specific needs.

I agree with this.

The apps themselves don't take up much space. Documents like Office are unlikely to contribute much to storage needs. Even images you work on with Adobe are probably fine as would be Xcode and most programming. For video, you'll probably want external storage anyway. A NAS might be good or just get a good external SSD like a Samsung T5 and keep those files there. An SSD had the advantage that you can take it with you if you work on those files in other locations, since you have a laptop.

and of course, back it up.

 

[Alpha Centauri]

Thanks everyone! I returned this in the end. I looked into external storage but the only one that seemed reliable was a NAS, which was a minimum of £500 for a decent one, and just a lot of effort I didn’t need at the moment.

Every single USB C or Thunderbolt external drive I found had at least a handful of reviews saying that their data was corrupted and lost, even if the other 90% of reviews were positive.

So it’s just easier for me to have an extra TB on the Mac itself that’s linked to iCloud, so I can keep everything I want to on the Mac itself, while it’s also backed up in iCloud if my Mac fails for any reason.

It just seemed like a greater risk to buy a cheaper external storage and have a greater chance of it failing and lost data.

I think in a few years when even 2tb is too little, it’s at that time I’ll invest in a NAS instead that has built in protection against one of the drives inside failing.

Do perhaps consider at least getting a DAS backup with either TM or Cloning software prior to the planned NAS. I have both and of course there's no need (as I have done) to use fast NMVe SSDs and TB4 enclosures. TM especially is designed not to hog resources so no need for speed on that front. I personally wouldn't depend on iCloud as a backup.

 

[LogicalApex]

Well it wasn’t just for that, they are just the biggest offenders on my ssd now. The prices are crazy, but I do not want my personal data on the cloud for both privacy and performance. As much as I can avoid it. I think iTunes stuff goes there automatically. At this point, I would have paid more in iCloud data subscriptions than I did for the ssd upgrade anyway.

I definitely get you there.

I have a massive private cloud that I store my data on. Well over 100TB of space available to me via my local network and via VPN anywhere I have internet access. I fully understand the focus on privacy for your data, but the prices Apple charges spending massive amounts of money to store your photos seems like a massive waste of money.

For a professional photographer making money, sure! But for just storing my family photos from 10 and 20 years ago. A NAS is a MUCH better investment for that.

I only suggested iCloud Photos for those who are really in love with the Photos app and want "all" of their photos there all the time on all their devices. That's only possible via iCloud Photos or spending insane money across the Apple ecosystem.

Just my $.02.