MBP 13’ late 2016 with 8GB or 16GB RAM, 256GB or 512GB SSD?

[moldMADE]

At the moment I am running a 13-inch MBP late 2013 with 2.4GHz i5, 8GB RAM and 256GB SSD, which is now 37 months old. As the display turned black yesterday and now seems broken (resetting the SMC and NVRAM didn’t help, and no pixels are visible when lighting it up with a flashlight), I plan to buy a new MBP 13’ late 2016. I’m now wondering if I should get the version with 8GB or 16GB RAM.
Although my current use seems to work perfectly on 8GB RAM as I don’t use virtual machines, After Effects or other heavy programs like these and although the „RAM questionaire“ in this thread (https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/how-much-ram-do-i-need-in-my-macbook.1756865/) suggests that „8 GB of RAM will be enough for you“ (only 10 points) and I never experienced the system running slow, I sometimes get swaps of up to 600 MB, whichs seems quite high to me - maybe it occurs because of some random bug or maybe one of my apps had a circumstantial reason to request that much RAM?

Furthermore, I’m not quite sure if I should get 256GB or 512GB SSD. Currently there are 40GB of free space on my machine (and I could easily get rid of some ancient big files), but maybe 256GB won’t fit my needs in the future? Do you think, the doubling of space is worth the extra charge?

Thank you very much in advance for your answers!

 

[SJTrance]

I chose to go with the higher ram. I currently have a 2009 MBP 8G RAM with a 512ssd. I'm going to change the way I store information to use my external hard drive for pics and large files. I hope it won't get too annoying.

 

[Samuelsan2001]

It seems like you need more space than ram simple as that. To be honest unless you foresee your usage changing drastically 8gb should be fine for the next 5 years.

 

[Jefe's MacAir]

If you can afford it, I would go w/ 16 and 512. If money is a real issue then I’d go 8 and 256. If you can afford one but not two upgrades, I’d suggest the 512 as it seems you’d get more value out of that upgrade. Lastly, you could get the 16 and 256 and upgrade storage w/ a new portable SSD. Samsung has some very nice portable SSDs at a ‘reasonable’ price point that’s surely to come down once you really need the extra memory.

Or, just get the 16/512 and forget about how much is cost you in a year or two and have no regrets.

 

[moldMADE]

Thank you very much for your answers!

I chose to go with the higher ram. I currently have a 2009 MBP 8G RAM with a 512ssd. I'm going to change the way I store information to use my external hard drive for pics and large files. I hope it won't get too annoying.

Are you still happy with your 8GB RAM or do you need more?

 

[VodkaPear]

Having the same trouble as u. Previously ordered a 8/256, but later on regretted.

So went to re-order a 16/256 instead.

For space issue, you can just do a regular housekeeping of files or store it in external hdd/sdd.

However for RAM, once u decided on it, u cant do anything else if u feel that 8gb is not enough.

 

[xraydoc]

600MB swap is nothing. Essentially normal.