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Retina 256GB owners...wish you bought 512GB?

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peterb69

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 14, 2008
46
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Bought a Retina 256GB base model at Best Buy last night, but I have not opened it up yet. Still on the fence if I should take it back and get the 512GB.

I will be using it for photography (Photoshop CS6, Lightroom 4, Nik, & HDR applications). I will also install MS Office on it for Word/Excel/Power point.

So in theory, if I store all my photos on external hard drives (which I should do anyways), I should have a big enough SSD.

But how many of you 256GB owners now wish you went for the 512GB instead?

Thanks
 
I don't own one and never will but I would opt for the largest HD available.
 
peterb69 said:
Bought a Retina 256GB base model at Best Buy last night, but I have not opened it up yet. Still on the fence if I should take it back and get the 512GB.

I will be using it for photography (Photoshop CS6, Lightroom 4, Nik, & HDR applications). I will also install MS Office on it for Word/Excel/Power point.

So in theory, if I store all my photos on external hard drives (which I should do anyways), I should have a big enough SSD.

But how many of you 256GB owners now wish you went for the 512GB instead?

Thanks
Click to expand...
I am a similar user with the addition of FCP X (DSLR video) and I am happy with my 16gb, 256 model. I do not foresee myself looking for more space as I am fairly used to relying on external drives.
 
peterb69 said:
Bought a Retina 256GB base model at Best Buy last night, but I have not opened it up yet. Still on the fence if I should take it back and get the 512GB.

I will be using it for photography (Photoshop CS6, Lightroom 4, Nik, & HDR applications). I will also install MS Office on it for Word/Excel/Power point.

So in theory, if I store all my photos on external hard drives (which I should do anyways), I should have a big enough SSD.

But how many of you 256GB owners now wish you went for the 512GB instead?

Thanks
Click to expand...

I don't have a retina but have a 256 SSD in my MBP and find it to be a good amount of storage for someone that isn't huge into saving every file they have ever come across. I don't really like keeping too many things on my computer so I clear some things about once a month plus use clean my Mac and that helps keep usage low. FWIW clean my Mac has cleared up around 12 gigs of space over the four months I've been using it. If I were you I'd keep it but nobody knows but you
 
It's not going ot be enough space for you. You should just send it to me. I can handle only having 256gb and then I won't have to wait for my BTo to arrive lol.

But honestly it sounds like 256 should be fine for your needs. External drives are not as much trouble as people make them out to be.
 
In my opinion, it depends on how portable you will be and how you go about getting your MBP from one place to another.

If it's going to be on your desk 99% of the time, 256MB will be fine.

If you're going to be carrying the MBP around a lot, on foot, you'll have to take into consideration the external disks and whether the extra weight will give you back strain, unless you just copy across what you just need. Otherwise if you're going to be in a car most of the time and don't have to worry about your back, you will be ok.
 
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Being a heavy computer user for the past 15 years, I can tell you from experience 256GB difference is not going to matter. I've upgraded HDs endlessly. Everytime I run out of space and decide to upgrade, half a year later, I'm in the same situation again. Not because of the technology requires it, but because it's just filled up with junk. You can have 10TBs and you'll still eventually run out. Having smaller drives just forces to you organize/backup more often.

I'm going to be using the rMBP the same way as you, and 256gb should be enough to keep the recent raw files on the SSD to work on, and have the rest stored on SEVERAL TBs of externals that you can buy with the money for the additional 256 SSD. Remember we're going to be transfering with USB 3.0/Thunderbolt now also, so accessing files aren't going to be a pain.
 
I have a 256 GB rMBP and am not regretting it at all. After loading my computer with the music I want, the apps I use, and the personal files I use, I still have about 110 GB left. Before the rMBP, I was living on a 80 GB drive on a mid-2007 MacBook. So for me, the extra space is a god-send.
 
256 is fine for me as I only keep things I need for daily use on my hard drive. Anything else, like music, movies, old files, multiple vm's, etc. go on one of my external drives.
 
It's one of those things. Do I wish I HAD 512GB? Yes. Do I feel like I'm screwed that I didn't? No. Do I feel like it was worth the extra money? Maybe.. but it doesn't matter, cause the extra money was more than I could budget. I wish I could have budgeted it, for sure.

What does it mean? It means I gave up comfortably installing a bootcamp partition for window internally. And the sad part is that at some point in the future, I will likely buy an external thunderbolt ssd and do it there. If I were to do that now, It'd end up costing me more than the upgrade to 512 would have.

So, I regret not having the budget for 512... but I do not regret getting what I got with the budget allotted.
 
I switched from a 128GB Air so 256 still seems huge to me. Besides my 1TB Seagate Backup plus drive has never given me back strain.
 
I have a 250GB HDD MBP, and I think I still have over 200GB unused. For me, 256GB seems huge.

But of course, it's really up to individual usage, so YMMV.
 
256GB is enough for me but since I have Windows 7 installed, I would say having 512 will not hurt you. But I am sure I will survive.
 
fiveainone said:
I'm going to be using the rMBP the same way as you, and 256gb should be enough to keep the recent raw files on the SSD to work on, and have the rest stored on SEVERAL TBs of externals that you can buy with the money for the additional 256 SSD. Remember we're going to be transfering with USB 3.0/Thunderbolt now also, so accessing files aren't going to be a pain.
Click to expand...


Thanks everybody so far for the quick replys. The above quote makes me feel much better in keeping the 256GB. 512GB would be nice, but the price difference right now is huge.
 
I came from a 256 SSD in my old MacBook Pro and decided on the 512, I'm tired of having to carry around my media on an external and moving stuff off to keep room. Additionally the huge premium OWC charges for Macbook Air drives makes it pretty clear that when and if they have rMBP upgrade SSD's available, it probably won't save any money as opposed to getting it direct from apple now.
 
My will be for the same use, but when I do photo work it's sports and I can usually get by with jpg. I dabble in video and.because I'm used to windows I use Vegas pro instead on FCP.. So my HD needs are even greater then photog alone. I think I will be fine with 256 and a fast external.
 
golf1410 said:
I bought a synology NAS 6 TB. Worries free.
Click to expand...

this ^^^^

seriously. since i bought the synology I could probably get away with a 128 drive.. I moved 3tb of storage off my computer and im footloose and fancy free. love it.
 
Since you already spend 2000 plus on a computer. Why not shell out another 1000 for bigger and faster processor. You only buy Mac once every 4 years or so why dont get the one that you like. Im not a fan of external drive plus you have a dongle for ethernet port and if you need a superdrive that is another external to your computer. And i dont have a wide computer table to accomodate all of those external equipment. And the same if I am using it on my lap.
 
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