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

[stuaz]

I have a 256 and did think I would fill it up quickly, but rather than do a straight import from my MacbookPro 13", I chose things I needed or used on a regular bases - short story is I still have 100GB free.

Most of my data (i.e media) I store on my mac mini which i treat as a media server

 

[Pagga]

I use a wireless HD, but 512GB would be nice for movies and pictures. I just moved from 160GB sstate, so 256GB somehow seems a lot.
I find too much space makes me kind of sloppy with what I store, whereas a limit amount makes the whole usage more tidy.

 

[albert1028]

I feel it depends on the work one does with the computer. I hazard a guess that most people are fine with 256GB. I read an article recently that talked about how the fact that storage is so affordable these days that we tend to toward hoarding tendencies rather than keeping what we really need on our hard drives.

For me, I use it to do photography editing and all around office apps and browsing and 256gb has been fine for me. I think that being conscious of space helps a person keep their data slimmed down enough so that if they lose it or if the storage device crashes they are not likely to lose things that were not backed up.

If anything, having limited space means that a person will hopefully be conscious of their data and in turn be backing up more often. (That's my hope, at least).

 

[sshewa1]

i have the 256gb retina. I'm a graduate student and I still have 125 gb free after having all my photos, programs i need and music on the rmpb (all also backed up on external hd). All my videos are on an external hd. If i ever run low i'll just move my iTunes library(28 gb thanks to all the iPad backups and apps) to an sd card n just leave it in the sd slot forever. problem partly solved. I can't upgrade, being a student... and not having a real job.

Also don't know if you saw this, but only the higher level rmbp has the 512gb/768bg option. The current 256gb model can't be upgraded to 512gb.

 

[kdoug]

Won't be a problem for me. Mine will be used mostly in an office. I ordered a Samsung 830 128gb SSD when it was on sale for $90 on newegg with a 3.0 enclosure. I'll keep VM's, iTunes and pics on that drive. Tons of room for everything else.

 

[Sir Al]

Question: Am I happy with 256GB?

Answer: Yes, because of the following reasons.

• to upgrade to 512GB it'd be almost $700
• saved that money to get a portable 1.5TB USB3.0 drive for $130
• I can fit all the applications I need on 256GB
• 30GB Bootcamp partition is enough for me
• any large apps/games can go on the external drive
• if I need extra portability, I move app/game/movie/show onto internal drive
• copying between SSD and USB3.0 drive is so fast, no hassle to move stuff back and forth
• I keep my music on my iPod, music library is on file server at home
• I stream shows/movies from file server at home
• I copy anything I want to watch to the internal/portable drive when on the road
• I keep my drive clean, delete unused stuff
• breakdown: 20GB system, 80GB apps, 30GB Bootcamp, 20GB games = 150GB
• I still have over 100GB left over for documents and files
• I find media files take up the most space, and I try not to keep any around on my laptop

 

[Meever]

Sitting on 80 gb of free space on the SSD.
Sitting on 800 gb of free space on the external.

This is after installing iWork, FCX, Aperture, Photoshop, bootcamp with 80gb. Yeah, I think I'll manage.

 

[brand]

I put all my music in the cloud. Eliminated any storage issues.

How well does that work for you when you don't have an Internet connection?

 

[NewbieCanada]

Mine replaced a MBA with 128 GB, so I knew I'd be fine with 256.

Mind you, I have terabytes of storage at home, and a light 750 GB portable drive that's no thicker than the rMBP. I take that with me when I'm travelling.

I store my iTunes library on it, have a Windows VM, Aperture, Office, the Sims3 and over half my space still available.

 

[cmChimera]

How well does that work for you when you don't have an Internet connection?

Pretty well. I have an iPhone with music on it for when I can't get internet. It's pretty rare that I don't have internet while using my laptop though.

 

[brand]

Pretty well. I have an iPhone with music on it for when I can't get internet. It's pretty rare that I don't have internet while using my laptop though.

Thats good. The "Cloud" is great until you are not able to access it when you need it. I guess that goes more for documents and data than it does media files.

 

[bwhli]

I'm planning on upgrading storage when prices are lower. 256 GB is fine for now.

 

[brand]

I'm planning on upgrading storage when prices are lower. 256 GB is fine for now.

Given someone is making it. OWC said they will but Im sure it will be cost prohibitive just like the SSD for the MacBook Air.

 

[Queen6]

No 256Gb is enough for my work, I only run OS X with all app`s on-board the system is still has plenty of space. Like many I have several Tb of external data so regardless of what size SSD I opt for I will always require external drives, NAS, Cloud etc

My Early 2008 15" MBP still has it`s original 200Gb HDD installed and have lived with that for over four years today it still has 47Gb free, although the additional space of the Late 2011 15" was nice. Last but not least one Haswell is released it`s highly likely I will upgrade and the base 2.3 will be easier to move on than a highly specified BTO with a lower % of loss.

On a side note if you do have a lot of storage, I find that you tend to keep stuff just for the sake of it, which I am actively trying to purge from my externals, preferring to reduce and consolidate.

 

[cmChimera]

Thats good. The "Cloud" is great until you are not able to access it when you need it. I guess that goes more for documents and data than it does media files.

Yeah, considering my school documents total out at probably a little over 2 gigs maybe.

 

[Nautilus007]

Between cloud storage and a 2tb western digital passport, I'm good

 

[freeskier989]

Just got my usb 3.0 enclosure holding a new 256GB Samsung 830 SSD. Plenty of storage left on board and on the drive. Getting 250 MB/s read/write speeds.

I think between the two ill have more than enough. Like others say, too much space makes you hoard and makes for a messy drive. Coming from my 2007 MBP with a 160GB drive, this is an upgrade, and i made that drive last 5 years!

 

[fiveainone]

Here's a desktop external, but for $125(when I ordered) and 3TB, I'm happy

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00834SJU8/ref=oh_details_o02_s00_i00

 

[maclab]

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.

I have a synology DS1812+ getting read and write speeds 110 mb/sec, but I still find it to laggy for things like iPhoto and iTunes so I like to keep them on the SD, so I opted for the 512

 

[frozi]

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.

What external you use to edit off of?

 

[ZipZap]

I don't own one and never will but I would opt for the largest HD available.

Foolish comment.

You dont have one, and wont buy one. But if you did you'd spend $1000 more for the 768?

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I wish I could have bought the 512GB. But Apple's pricing is just outrageous.

With their buying power they should have been able to offer bigger drives at much lower cost. Greedy bastards.

 

[Teo Morabito]

I went for the 750Gb SSD model, installed all my files yesterday, and I'm having 500Gb free space (and thats without pictures)
250 is enough but it's the very minimum for today's usage of a laptop, 500 in the other hand, is a great amount...

 

[nickbarbs]

I wish I could have bought the 512GB. But Apple's pricing is just outrageous.

With their buying power they should have been able to offer bigger drives at much lower cost. Greedy bastards.

This. Would have loved to get 512, have the money, but don't like lighting my hard earned savings up on fire.

The 2.6/512 is an abysmal failure of an upgrade in terms of pricing. My ordering process went like this

First order on the 12 of June 8/2.6/512
Cancelled on the 15, rebooked with 16/2.6/512
Cancelled on the 19, rebooked with 16/2.3/256

The 500£ difference in pricing was just not explainable for essentially a 256 gb upgrade. Especiallyn on a first gen product as ssd prices are dropping through the floor . Kudos to those who took the dive hopefully you're paying with company cash but base model is the way to go IMHO unless you have serious amounts of cash to burn. The margin on the 512 Is not justifiable and performance between 2.3 and 2.7 does not justify its cost either.

Tldr; have the money, went for base model with 16gb because margins are far too greedy on apples side 500£ is not worth 256gb. Gets you the same pc and later on I will grab a 512 gb ssd in a USB 3 enclosure? To put it in perspective you can buy a new galaxy s 3 for that 500£. I saved the money and put 200 towards a nexus 7

 

[luigi.lauro]

I currently have a C2D 2009 MBP 17'' with a stock apple 256 GB SSD (toshiba).

With this hard drive, I feel SEVERELY limited, I have to store a lot of my dataon an external USB2 drive of 1TB, which I also use for time machine backups, and I had to buy a 48GB ExpressCard SSD for my VMs (FileMate SolidGO ExpressCard 34 Ultra).

To give you an idea, it's about 1 year I've been hovering with less than 10GB free on my drive, many times less than 5, and each time I want to download/install something I have to delete something else. And this situation was with full optimization of the drive space like using utilities to cut out languages/architectures or remove printer drivers, etc...

I pondered if going for the 512GB or upgrading to 768GB, in the end I felt so tight on the 256GB on my current MBP for so long, that I didn't want to incur into the same limitations soon again on the rMBP, so I went for the 2.7/16/768 ultimate.

Heck, If they gave me a 1TB upgrade for another 500$ on top of the 768GB price, I would probably have taken it. I think the Samsung 830 768GB is definitely worth that money.

These 768GB I hope will allow me to be able to store everything I need (iPhoto, VMs, etc..) on my notebook, and maybe even be able to cut a 100GB bootcamp partition for native window gaming, and not be forced to plug in the external drive every time I use the computer, which is something I loathe. I will have to plug it in only a couple of times a week for time machine backups.

Overall given the fact that I've been severely limited by the 256GB for years, and I have on top of that another 50-100GB of VMs, plus I plan to install several 10-20GB games on OSX side (WoW, Diablo 3, Deus Ex, The Witcher, etc..), and I plan to have a 100GB bootcamp partition (100GB is enough for no more than 5-6 games installed)... in the end I think the 768GB will be just 'enough', and 1 TB would be needed not to feel any 'limitation' at all.

This is my situation.

 

[Fed]

No, why would I? Though it hasn't arrived yet, I've been living on 160GB and 250GB disks for years. Considering this will be my first SSD, I can't wait for it to arrive. I have plenty of storage solutions at home so have no reason to carry around boat loads of data.

To be honest, on principle alone I wouldn't upgrade. You seen that premium? No, thanks.