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PCIe-based Flash Storage or Fusion Drive
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Flash storage is much faster. What's "better" is not a simple answer. If you're on a budget and need a lot of storage, Fusion Drive is better. If you need the fastest storage and are not budget constrained, then Flash storage is better.
In best case, Fusion Drive can be almost as fast as SSD. In the worst case, it's a spinning hard disk. More problematic than that is the reliability and longevity of Fusion Drive. If one of the drives dies, you can lose all data. While that is true of HDD or SSD as well, Fusion Drive is much more complicated, meaning more things can go wrong.
Digressing a bit...
Apple charges $250 for upgrading 500 GB HDD to 1 TB Fusion Drive. Meanwhile, 1 TB Samsung 860 EVO retails for $270.
Given the choice, I would much rather pay $250-300 more for slower 1 TB SSD than Fusion Drive. Apple isn't exactly a charitable company, but this is 2019 and Apple should be embarrassed at still offering spinning HDD in its product line up.
Digressing a bit...
Apple charges $250 for upgrading 500 GB HDD to 1 TB Fusion Drive. Meanwhile, 1 TB Samsung 860 EVO retails for $270.
Given the choice, I would much rather pay $250-300 more for slower 1 TB SSD than Fusion Drive. Apple isn't exactly a charitable company, but this is 2019 and Apple should be embarrassed at still offering spinning HDD in its product line up.
Only you can answer that. We have no idea how you use your computer or how much data needs to be stored on it. Some people are perfectly happy with a 128gb MacBook Air for example. Others will feel very crowded on a 1 terabyte SSD.
Bigger is better.
Although there are workarounds, generally speaking, only the files and folders in Users directory can be on external disks.Only you can answer that. We have no idea how you use your computer or how much data needs to be stored on it. Some people are perfectly happy with a 128gb MacBook Air for example. Others will feel very crowded on a 1 terabyte SSD.
Bigger is better.
For most people, media files (e.g., iTunes) and photo/video files (e.g., Photos) are the biggest offenders. And perhaps VM images if you use Parallels or Fusion to run Windows, etc.
These can be moved to external disk.
I think:
- 128 GB is for those that use their Mac for browsing, streaming, and other lightweight activities.
- 256 GB is the safest bare minimum if you can tolerate external disk or the cloud.
- 512 GB will cover most people's needs.
- 1 TB and larger for those that wants to store almost every data on fastest storage.