New MB PRO Purchase Help

[JLH81]

Hello,

I am going to purchase a new MB PRO with the M1 chip. I am debating between getting the 256 and 512 SSD. What would you all recommend? I don't do a lot of video, but do have quite a few pictures. Additionally, I work remotely from home, and use the computer for web browsing, Word documents, etc. I am not a "heavy" user, but I'm not sure if I will regret getting the smaller HD down the road.

Any thoughts/suggestions?

Thanks!

 

[erthquake]

If you have quite a few photos, then not even the 512 SSD will be enough in the long run, so you should plan on storing them on an external SSD. Get the 256 SSD and buy a 1TB Samsung T5 on Amazon for $130. You more than double your available storage and still come out $70 ahead.

 

[jerryk]

If the price delta is low enough why not go for 512?

 

[sfwalter]

I would go for the 512GB at a minimum. I get as much storage/memory allows. Especially since these machines cannot be upgraded.

 

[StumpyBloke]

Hello,

I am going to purchase a new MB PRO with the M1 chip. I am debating between getting the 256 and 512 SSD. What would you all recommend? I don't do a lot of video, but do have quite a few pictures. Additionally, I work remotely from home, and use the computer for web browsing, Word documents, etc. I am not a "heavy" user, but I'm not sure if I will regret getting the smaller HD down the road.

Any thoughts/suggestions?

Thanks!

How many is quite a few pictures? How much storage do they currently take up?

 

[erthquake]

How many is quite a few pictures? How much storage do they currently take up?

What are you shooting with? iPhone? DSLR? Raw or jpeg? RAW image files from DSLRs can be 25-50MB each. iPhone photos are on the order of 3MB each. If you're importing them into Photos.app, then add another 10% or so for thumbnail/database overhead. And you want to aim for always keeping 10%-20% of your hard drive's space available for performance reasons.

 

[Fishrrman]

How large is the hard drive in the Mac you have now?
How much is currently stored on it?
How much free space is left?

 

[deeddawg]

I am debating between getting the 256 and 512 SSD. What would you all recommend?

You don't mention how much storage you currently use. That's kind of a really important detail to leave out.

Generally though - buy whatever size is at least 1.5-2x your current usage.

 

[jmgregory1]

Hello,

I am going to purchase a new MB PRO with the M1 chip. I am debating between getting the 256 and 512 SSD. What would you all recommend? I don't do a lot of video, but do have quite a few pictures. Additionally, I work remotely from home, and use the computer for web browsing, Word documents, etc. I am not a "heavy" user, but I'm not sure if I will regret getting the smaller HD down the road.

Any thoughts/suggestions?

Thanks!

Buy the 512gb model with 16gb, if you want to give yourself some piece of mind both in regards to storage and performance for a couple of years down the road, if you can afford the cost today. That being said, it’s easy enough to get inexpensive external drives, or use iCloud for storage, as an alternative to buying an upspec’d model.

 

[ght56]

Based on what you've said and not knowing your current storage usage, I would think that even 512 GB would be pretty anemic and you would ultimately find yourself tethered to an external in no time. I would go for 1 TB. The difference between 256 GB and 1 TB hard drive is $400 in the US. And indeed that is twice the cost of a 1 TB Samsung T7 external SSD. However, this is something you cannot upgrade, it is way faster than USB externals, and it would mean a lot more convenience. If you plan to keep this system for a while, I think it is worth the expense if you can swing it.

 

[StumpyBloke]

All this is pretty much a waste of time now without the OP coming back and answering our questions.

Calling @JLH81