Is extra storage worth it?

[smirking]

"The pricing for each TB after 2TB is $150/TB"... no it isn't:

Upps, my bad. Thanks for the correction.

However one could also argue, that most users will use a great deal of their storage for content storage, rather than as a scratch drive for editing. So do they need the whole thing to work at 8GB/s speeds; no.

But Apple don't do a cheaper half and half storage machine: say 2TB superfast 8GB/s speeds + 6TB slower SATA or NVMe speeds. Clearly they can't separate the two functions of storage out...

External storage is the new hybrid drive isn't it? I was at the Apple Store once a couple of years ago and person after person came in with an external SSD velcroed to the back of their displays. It'd be less convenient, but I could live like that if necessary.

Plus, I like the idea of building up an arsenal of fast external storage drives that'll continue to be useful for many years to come. I have around half a dozen high capacity HDDs that are still living out productive retirement years as deep archives.

 

[Micka88]

The pure reality is that no storage is big enough in the end

 

[bluegt]

On some of the older Mac SSDs it was shown that larger sizes had higher performance than smaller sizes.

Has anyone done tests on recent Mac products like the M1 Airs or 13-inch Pros to see if this is still the case?

 

[Lammers]

The pure reality is than no storage is big enough in the end

That’s not true at all. It’s certainly possible to buy more storage than you would reasonably use in the lifetime of the device. Most people don’t have massive amounts of data.

 

[Fishrrman]

monkey shined with:
"So yes. You should consider seriously getting the drive 1 step up from what you think you need now. You won't REGRET it."

Here's a story from the real world.

I've got an older friend who uses Macs, but I help him with technical stuff and advice.
He bought an iMac in 2008, and used it for almost 10 years. I think that one came with either a 350gb or 500gb platter-based HDD inside.

Then in 2017, it was time for a replacement.

I had to push and push him to the point where he understood that the wise choice was to buy an SSD instead of a fusion drive.
But what size? 500gb? 1tb?

Well, we first had to check how much of his drive space had been used.
60gb.
That's all -- in almost 10 years of usage, he'd consumed about 60gb of 350 or so.
(and that includes all the system files, etc.)

So... I told him to get a 256gb SSD.
He's doing fine, and I doubt he'll ever get anywhere close to using that much drive space.

 

[CalMin]

The space vs price equation is made very difficult because you can never upgrade it. You always have to think about tomorrow and buy more than you need today. Plus Apple really overcharges for the stuff. Yes the performance is amazing but you can add thousands to the bottomlime if you’re not careful.

Worse - My last two Mac upgrades have been forced by running out of SSD space and getting tired of loading stuff on/off the device. The performance of the machine has been fine.

Having specced the machine up to $3500 already, the extra $600 for 4TB from 2TB was one step too far. I’ll probably regret it in 2-3 years time. Ugh.

 

[bluegt]

I just checked and realized I only used 170GB on my 512GB SSD Macbook.
iOS Device backups are all in iCloud
Photos & Videos are all backed up in Google Photos & iCloud
Documents are all in Google Drive

Apps + Code Repos + Local Video files + 5 years of accumulated junk make up the majority of the 170GB in use.

512GB should be more than enough for most people, unless you are working with heavy audio/video files.

 

[ducati1212]

I just went through the same exercise. I ended up going with 2 TB. I have 500 now and I filled it and had to migrate stuff off all the time. I do like to keep things off on backup drives or NAS drives just for redundancy so I probably did not need 4 TB and I already have the cost of buying those systems. I think what I really needed was 1TB so the extra TB was my overflow. I do think I will fill this over time but macbooks are 3 year purchase for me.

In 3 years we will have the M3 Max with 100 cores and 128 GB Ram and of course we will all upgrade so I can adjust disk space then if this ends up too small.

 

[sarakn]

You only buy once!
Don't try and manage your files. It'll annoy you constantly.
Sure you still need to keep your files sorted and organised, but having to worry about space is one of the worst things you can do with a computer. I just freed my wife from a 64GB phone with a 256GB XS Max and that's the thing she likes most about going from a 6S+ to the XS Max.
Internal storage should err on the side of B I G!

Dealing with multiple external drives and moving things around is very annoying. I'm currently on a 1TB and was contemplating either 4TB or 8TB - I ordered 8TB, but may cancel and get the 4TB instead. I'm also on an iPhone 6. If I go down to 4TB, I can say the 1K savings can be spent on a new iPhone. However, I can always wait until the next iPhone is released to get a new one. Working from home has made it easier to postpone a new iPhone purchase, but that also means I want a beefier laptop as my 2015 MBP model struggles with memory based on my usage.

 

[legato01]

Consider external storage BUT in a Network Attached Storage environment.

This may be a more future proof storage solution for you and disk space would be so much larger than "just" 8TB.

No plugging unplugging devices.

For example
- Synology DS1621+
- with 6 x 8TB-16TB disks
- 10Gbe network adapter (on the NAS and MacBook Pro)
- and a 10gbe switch

You wont have to rethink your storage every time a new apple device comes. Just get the usual 1 TB.

 

[jimthing]

Consider external storage BUT in a Network Attached Storage environment.

This may be a more future proof storage solution for you and disk space would be so much larger than "just" 8TB.

No plugging unplugging devices.

For example
- Synology DS1621+
- with 6 x 8TB-16TB disks
- 10Gbe network adapter (on the NAS and MacBook Pro)
- and a 10gbe switch

You wont have to rethink your storage every time a new apple device comes. Just get the usual 1 TB.

I thought about doing that, but I live in a small space, so I have to have the NAS or DAS in the same room as my bedroom, thus NOISE becomes the major consideration, with spinning HDDs making quite some noise, yet NAS/DAS are intended to be on either 24-7 or most of the time by design.

I have an always on Mac Mini 2018, so was actually considering getting this:
- Thunderbolt 3 SATA 4-drive DAS box (from OWC or similar).
- 4x 8TB Samsung 870 QVO 8 TB SATA 2.5 SSD's (thus 32TB raw space).
- box run in Raid 5 level (thus 1 drive lost to redundancy, giving slightly less than 24TB available).

This would hopefully achieve:
1. Silence or near silence.
2. Run cool/slightly warm – so no need for the fans to be on most of the time (thus point 1: silence!).
3. Decent 24TB's of storage (after losing one to R5 redundancy).
4. Decent storage amount usable for 5-8 years (for the high-ish cost outlay!).
5. 1 to 1.5 GByte/sec speed is decent for regularly loading data on, as storage box (i.e. not as a scratch drive!).

QVO's are literally the only feasible ones for this, as the EVO & PRO Samsung SSD's are much more expensive, and no other brands come close to 8TB at this price (~£$€600 each, most of the time, beyond 'supply constraint' times!).

BUT! Questions I'm really stuck on:
A: Can you use QVO SSD's like these in RAID modes like R5, or are they only designed for PC main drives?
B. Do these QVO Samsung SSD especially (or frankly any SSD's) hold-out over time, compared to NAS HDD? Of course HDDs will fail at some stage, but what life-rating do QVO SSDs have when used in such a RAID-box setup?

 

[adamk77]

Tempted to upgrade to 2TB as I do video editing. So far 1TB has been more than enough as I clear off source files after I’m done. However I will probably be getting into more 4K and maybe 8K editing and that will of course require more space.

If I get a thunderbolt 4 SSD, and edit directly off it, will I notice much difference in performance compared to editing directly off the internal SSD? I like this option as I can just buy it if I need it. And not buy it if I don’t run into the need.

Just don’t want regrets.

I ordered one with the 1TB, but I regret not choosing the 2TB. If the MBPs were readily in stock, I would exchange it, but alas, my 14 day return period would be over by the time the 2TB version would be available.

I've always bought the minimum storage, because I could always expand it with an external drive. I own the Samsung X5 Thunderbolt SSD which boasts an impressive 2.3GB/s, but the internal on the new MBPs far surpasses it. I spent around $500 on the 1TB Samsung X5 maybe a year or so ago.

Although I don't need more than 1TB, not having to worry about storage would be freeing. For example, I store the Photos library on the external Samsung because it's not something I need daily. But there are times I wish I had access to my Photos library while away from my desk.

 

[chikorita157]

I did not get the extra storage since most of what I store is on my Mac mini 2014, which serves as a file server, soon be replaced with a new server and the cloud. Even on my 2018 MacBook Pro, I never use more than less than half the storage and I offload the photos and videos to my server. To me, I would rather use the money on getting the extra ram than SSD storage I will probably not use.

I did get an external thunderbolt 3 SSD enclosure (OWC Envoy Express) and installed a Samsung 970 Evo Plus 2 TB SSD for around $328. While it's a slight inconvenience, but it's better than paying $200 or more per 512 GB for SSD upgrade Apple charges.

 

[allnight]

To upgrade from 1tb to 2tb is $400. The onboard SSD is advertised at 7,400mb/sec!! The fastest external SSD's available are 2,800mb/sec, cost $400, and are known to heat up. I opted for the 2tb. Plenty enough to run a number of music projects without external drives hooked up. In fact, the only thing externals would be needed for is backup/archiving. My money is on the internal SSD.

I imagine if you went the route of getting your own nvme and enclosure you could get it cheaper, theoretically. If you did want to match that price with an external the only option would be to get a pcie nvme 4.0 drive and put it in an enclosure. I imagine you could get an enclosure and a WD BLACK SN850 with up to 7,000mbps for 200 CAD. Still leaving you with money to spare. In comparison upgrading from 512gb to 1tb, a 500gb increase costs 250 through Apple if you want it internally, you could get double the amount in a cheaper price if you were comfortable with getting an external. I haven't tested this myself, but its an option if someone else wants to try it. I personally think that if you know you need storage, you need it. I don't store anything on my laptop, once im done with my work i transfer it off to an external for backup. But if you have really large projects than an internal upgrade is a no brainer.

 

[slowloris615]

1tb forcing me to keep my external drives organized, but I probably wish I got 2tb to be honest

 

[Nightfury326]

I was running out of room on my Late 2013 256GB, so I went with the 1TB.

I'd rather have more than enough storage, and not fill it up- than have it where I'm constantly bumping into "Your Disk is Full" messages.

 

[rezwits]

Honestly "Gauge" your SSD based on total install size and how long before you get a new one, but I hate to say this if you are doing video get a Beefy USB-4/TB-3 external. Here is the reason:

On my SSDs I usually "used" to use the HALF mentality. If I am only going to use a max of 200-250GB then get 500GB. But there is a new factor. Due to wear leveling, the thing is SSDs don't DIE BUT, they get sloooowwer... by that 2nd to 3rd year. Especially in your case if you want to "dump and scrub".

So I don't even do video on board, but now I am at a new threshold. If I am gonna use 200-250, I get 4x the size, so the SPEED will go further, and if you're gonna try and pawn off or sell your device in the future on the eBay market (not the Apple trade-in tho, they don't seem to care about storage I hear) guys WILL pay you for the 1TB or 2TB.

So in other words:

If you are gonna install Logic and FCP with FULL audio samples etc (but not use your device for video storage or MAIN video storage) that's:

500 GB in installs x 4 you need 2 TB to go 3-4 years at full speed.

If you are NOT gonna install Logic and FCP like tools you'll end up around:

250 GB x4 then you need 1 TB to go 3-4 years at full speed.

If you want to only go 2-3 years and pawn off, then cut that in half.

This is all strictly due to how TRIM i.e. Wear Leveling works with SSDs.

I am glad Apple got them up to 7GB/s because that's gonna mean in 3-4 years (at this speculation) we'll be at around 4-5GB/s.

You're like what? They won't stay at 7GB/s!! NO and HELL NO.

Laters...

 

[legato01]

I thought about doing that, but I live in a small space, so I have to have the NAS or DAS in the same room as my bedroom, thus NOISE becomes the major consideration, with spinning HDDs making quite some noise, yet NAS/DAS are intended to be on either 24-7 or most of the time by design.

I have an always on Mac Mini 2018, so was actually considering getting this:
- Thunderbolt 3 SATA 4-drive DAS box (from OWC or similar).
- 4x 8TB Samsung 870 QVO 8 TB SATA 2.5 SSD's (thus 32TB raw space).
- box run in Raid 5 level (thus 1 drive lost to redundancy, giving slightly less than 24TB available).

This would hopefully achieve:
1. Silence or near silence.
2. Run cool/slightly warm – so no need for the fans to be on most of the time (thus point 1: silence!).
3. Decent 24TB's of storage (after losing one to R5 redundancy).
4. Decent storage amount usable for 5-8 years (for the high-ish cost outlay!).
5. 1 to 1.5 GByte/sec speed is decent for regularly loading data on, as storage box (i.e. not as a scratch drive!).

QVO's are literally the only feasible ones for this, as the EVO & PRO Samsung SSD's are much more expensive, and no other brands come close to 8TB at this price (~£$€600 each, most of the time, beyond 'supply constraint' times!).

BUT! Questions I'm really stuck on:
A: Can you use QVO SSD's like these in RAID modes like R5, or are they only designed for PC main drives?
B. Do these QVO Samsung SSD especially (or frankly any SSD's) hold-out over time, compared to NAS HDD? Of course HDDs will fail at some stage, but what life-rating do QVO SSDs have when used in such a RAID-box setup?

Have not tried SSDs on NAS, or used QVOs so cant really comment except..

What you are planning is RAED not RAID. Redundant Array of Expensive Disks
Almost goes against the very concept of the technology but can be a viable use case.

It will be quiet for sure and will check all your boxes.

Do check the black blaze report on this also

Are SSDs Really More Reliable Than Hard Drives?

SSDs are one of the biggest components of data storage in the modern era. However, are they really more reliable than HDDs? Find out with this blog post.

www.backblaze.com

To add:
1. You can choose HDD and place it in your closet cant you?

 

[jimthing]

Have not tried SSDs on NAS, or used QVOs so cant really comment except..

What you are planning is RAED not RAID. Redundant Array of Expensive Disks
Almost goes against the very concept of the technology but can be a viable use case.

It will be quiet for sure and will check all your boxes.

Do check the black blaze report on this also

Are SSDs Really More Reliable Than Hard Drives?

SSDs are one of the biggest components of data storage in the modern era. However, are they really more reliable than HDDs? Find out with this blog post.

www.backblaze.com

To add:
1. You can choose HDD and place it in your closet cant you?

Yeah, you're right, it's a bit of an expensive solution (RAED - lol!), hence another reason I'm still considering my options.

I'll have to give that Backblaze report a read, but really it's not that the SSDs have to be ultra-reliable/better than HDDs, it's more the rated lifespan of such SSDs especially inside a 4-to-6 slot RAID setup – are QVOs (or any other non-specialist consumer/prosumer SSDs) rated high enough for moderate use for a number of years?
I've found getting info on SSD in RAID usage difficult to find.

As for closet/cupboard... one idea is to buy a Thunderbolt 3 optical cable from Corning, then run it to somewhere outside bedroom. But they're again expensive (~£400! for 10m or 25m one), so it's likely the same overall cost.
(not to mention TB4 is now out, so while the speeds are the same, having the extra modes TB4 cables offer would be good to have given these optical ones are so expensive.) :-/

I'm surprised no consumer/prosumer off-the-shelf quiet storage box exists TBH – most people don't live in palace-sized homes where loud storage boxes can simply be put away from user. Companies like LaCie/Seagate, WD, Promise Pegasus, et al. – ALL of their DAS's are loud HDD RAID boxes. OWC do some options, but their non-US distribution and after-sales network is frankly awful. Annoying.