M2 256/512?

[nburwell]

So I’m on the fence about which storage to get. I do photo editing in LR and PS — nothing too intensive, but I use several plug-in’s in PS. I’m not heavily editing my images as I’m only a hobbyist photographer. I have a 500GB external HDD that I use to store my RAW files, processed images and important documents. I am almost out of storage for it, but I am looking to purchase a 1TB external HDD soon.

Along with photo editing, I would use the machine for messaging, light web browsing, email and some MS Word/Excel.

 

[bobnugget]

If you are getting an M2, I think the 512 GB has double the storage speed of the 256 GB (https://www.theverge.com/23220299/apple-macbook-air-m2-slow-ssd-read-write-speeds-testing-benchmark). However, you definitely don't want the 8 GB RAM model if you are doing much in Lightroom/PS - I think you'll notice 8 GB RAM instead of 16 GB before you notice the fast enough 256 GB disk being slower than the properly fast 512 GB!

If you do go for an external HDD, I would also recommend getting an SSD rather than HDD - prices have come down a lot and you'll notice the speed of using that more than the 256/512 GB storage speed upgrade.

The 8 GB / 256 GB model will be absolutely fine for messaging, web browsing, email and Word Excel. It will also probably be perfectly serviceable for light editing in Photoshop and LightRoom, but Adobe recommend 16 GB RAM, so you may find you need to upgrade prematurely if you go for 8 GB.