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rMBP owners: Regret not getting more FLASH storage?

D

danthespaceman

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 15, 2009
30
0
I will be upgrading this Summer, but I thought it might be helpful to hear from some current rMBP owners regarding the amount flash storage they chose and why they did. I currently am working on an iMac with a 1TB HDD, that's about 75% full. Consequently I'm gonna have to change the way I manage my files. The obvious choice is just to buy a USB powered external along with my new rMBP, but does anyone regret not shelling out the extra cash for more flash storage, despite the price?

Some context: Most of my work will be Photoshop and light editing in Final Cut (1 simple 5 minute clip each week). About 40 GB of iTunes Music. 80GB iPhoto. I like to have access to all my archived design files incase I need to recycle some assets... but I don't see foresee a reason why these files couldn't sit on an external hard drive as opposed to the flash storage.
 
danthespaceman said:
I will be upgrading this Summer, but I thought it might be helpful to hear from some current rMBP owners regarding the amount flash storage they chose and why they did. I currently am working on an iMac with a 1TB HDD, that's about 75% full. Consequently I'm gonna have to change the way I manage my files. The obvious choice is just to buy a USB powered external along with my new rMBP, but does anyone regret not shelling out the extra cash for more flash storage, despite the price?

Some context: Most of my work will be Photoshop and light editing in Final Cut (1 simple 5 minute clip each week). About 40 GB of iTunes Music. 80GB iPhoto. I like to have access to all my archived design files incase I need to recycle some assets... but I don't see foresee a reason why these files couldn't sit on an external hard drive as opposed to the flash storage.
Click to expand...

i picked up one with 250GB and its enough for me. The reason is I have a few external hard drives that I store movies & pictures on. Even on my iMac with a 1TB hard drive I used the external drives for storage and backups.
 
danthespaceman said:
I will be upgrading this Summer, but I thought it might be helpful to hear from some current rMBP owners regarding the amount flash storage they chose and why they did. I currently am working on an iMac with a 1TB HDD, that's about 75% full. Consequently I'm gonna have to change the way I manage my files. The obvious choice is just to buy a USB powered external along with my new rMBP, but does anyone regret not shelling out the extra cash for more flash storage, despite the price?

Some context: Most of my work will be Photoshop and light editing in Final Cut (1 simple 5 minute clip each week). About 40 GB of iTunes Music. 80GB iPhoto. I like to have access to all my archived design files incase I need to recycle some assets... but I don't see foresee a reason why these files couldn't sit on an external hard drive as opposed to the flash storage.
Click to expand...

I too am getting the new retina when it comes out. I currently have a 2009 15" MBP with 256 HD. I am using 180 of this. There is no way I am spending the money I am spending for a computer and settling with the same amount of storage space. I'll just have to she'll out the extra $300 and get the 512. In your case, it's like $700 for a 750. How they can not offer a 512 on the base model of such a expensive machine is beyond me
 
I don't think that you should compare with what you have atm. If I have a 1TB HDD, I'll use almost all of it's space but, if I have a 2TB HDD, I'll still use almost all of it's space. You just use all that because you can, not because you need it. Of corse that, in certain cases, you have apps that use huge libraries or you work with video and would like to have it all on a SSD but, other than that, I don't see the difference between having all your music, pictures and videos on an internal drive or on an external drive that you can carry around.

Do you think it's worth the amount of money and you don't care about how much you spend? Go for it.. Myself, I was used to have a 750GB HDD on my iMac that was 80% full. Now the 256GB SSD on my rMBP are more than enough. I chose buying an external 1TB HDD (USB 3.0) for €80 to store what I don't need to have in the internal drive.

TLDR: You use 80% of the space available because you can, not because you need to. 256GB should be enough for most cases.
 
This was a concern for me too, then I noticed the 2012 tier 2 refurb model was better than the 2013 entry level model and cheaper so I went with that and have 512GB which I am very happy with.

The only draw back is not being about to upgrade the RAM (no 16GB option was within my budget). For the kind of work you are describing 16GB RAM is probably more important than a larger internal HD. You can always add an external drive as you say.
 
My first rMBP was the 2.3/16/256 and quickly filled the drive so bought a Samsung OEM 512gb to replace the 256, which ended in an external case. When prices drop and was able to sell mine, bought an almost new 2.6/16/768 model since didnt wanted to go over having to upgrade it later. The 2.6 had an LG SJA1 screen (no ghosting yet) and sold it to get a Samsung display unit, ended up getting a max out (2.7/16/768) and do not regret going for the biggest internal drive out there.
 
We bought a pair of rMBPs. My wife, the 500gb model. Me, I splurged for the 768gb. I'm happy I did. It's been over six months, so the cash has been since forgotten. However, my wife has a lot of data as well...and she's been successfully using an external SSD via thunderbolt for her media storage. Keeping over 400 gb of her on board storage free. With USB 3 and thunderbolt, internal storage, other than for portability, isn't as essential. High speed I/O on the new models eliminate that necessity.

J
 
Nope.

Not yet at-least.

My iMac has a 500gb hard drive.

I'm using 86Gb.

And 20GB of that are for virtual machines.... I doubt I will ever use all 256gb of my SSD on my rMBP
 
It's all about those externals.

No need to carry 300GB of movies with you all the time.
 
danthespaceman said:
I will be upgrading this Summer, but I thought it might be helpful to hear from some current rMBP owners regarding the amount flash storage they chose and why they did. I currently am working on an iMac with a 1TB HDD, that's about 75% full. Consequently I'm gonna have to change the way I manage my files. The obvious choice is just to buy a USB powered external along with my new rMBP, but does anyone regret not shelling out the extra cash for more flash storage, despite the price?

Some context: Most of my work will be Photoshop and light editing in Final Cut (1 simple 5 minute clip each week). About 40 GB of iTunes Music. 80GB iPhoto. I like to have access to all my archived design files incase I need to recycle some assets... but I don't see foresee a reason why these files couldn't sit on an external hard drive as opposed to the flash storage.
Click to expand...

For me I always know I will regret it in the future so I maxed mine out at 768 GB. I am already using nearly 350 GB of it and I just got it a couple weeks ago. Considering the price of the internal HDDs I am happy I spent the money for full storage. I still offload some less used stuff to my Mac Pro and to an external. But I know if I hand;t shelled out for the max storage I would have regretted it
 
johnnnw said:
It's all about those externals.

No need to carry 300GB of movies with you all the time.
Click to expand...
My point exactly. I wonder how many of the people that say they need 256+ really use the storage for something they always need on the go.

Plus, a 2.5" external HDD is small, light, quick enough and cheap. And, you get more space for less.

If you ask me if I'd like to have a 768GB SSD on my rMBP.. Obviously I would but, do I NEED it? Not really..
 
dastinger said:
My point exactly. I wonder how many of the people that say they need 256+ really use the storage for something they always need on the go.

Plus, a 2.5" external HDD is small, light, quick enough and cheap. And, you get more space for less.

If you ask me if I'd like to have a 768GB SSD on my rMBP.. Obviously I would but, do I NEED it? Not really..
Click to expand...

If something came out that was some magic drive that was insanely fast but only 64GB I'd do it. I don't need a lot of storage with me. Programs, files I'm working on that month in school, maybe 300 songs. Pretty much it :)

Then I have a 3.0 1.5TB drive.

Setup works fine for me. I currently have 256GB SSD, definitely won't ever fill it.
 
I think like everyone else has already chimed in. My 2012 iMac and mbp have both the 512ssd. I keep my media library etc on my g raid 4tb drive.
 
As others have discussed, I am very happy with my media (movies, music, photos) on external drives. Everything else fits very comfortably on my rMBP's 256 GB SSD. I have a compact 2TB WD MyPassport media drive and an older 3.5" 2TB drive as a media backup drive. One more drive for time machine and SuperDuper backups and I'm all set.

It did take me a while to realize that I really didn't need all my music and photos on my internal drive. Once I got past that, it was a snap to stay within the 256 GB internal drive limit. I still have plenty of room for my working photos and a bunch of movies to watch on a plane. My 32GB iPhone provides plenty of space for my music on the go.
 
I'm pretty sure most are aware that you can upgrade to 480GB SSD on the rMBP from OWC: http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/SSDAP12K480/

Provided you start off with 256GB SSD on the rMBP, for $600 you're essentially adding a total of 756GB of storage (or 1248GB for those already @ 768GB). Still a lot of money but diminishes some regret you might have had from choosing a smaller drive in the first place.
 
I couldn't fit everything on an internal or external if I wanted to. I'm planning on getting the haswell upgrade (see what they do to the macbook line and hoping for a price reduction) I'm probably going to go for the 512 version like my hackintosh since 500gb is plenty for me. I also don't have to worry about running out of space if I decide to use bootcamp
 
i have an macbook air 13" with 128 GB SSD. I was having 42GB free when i start installing windows. When i was on step to drag how much space i need for win, i was not able to have more than 24GB, 18 GB free need for MACOS. I will buy a haswell 15" macbook pro with 256GB, the rest i put in my 1T Fusion drive imac.

So keep it mind for those who need bootcamp...128GB is just to ...so i guess 256 it is fine for every needs.
 
I've been rocking a 128GB MBA and a 1TB iMac (with 4TB external).

The trick is to simply keep what's necessary on your laptop. All my college files/documents/etc. aren't more than 10GB, so I have all that synced via DropBox. Additionally, you can selectively sync with Dropbox, meaning you could still access important files via a web browser if need be without having the actual file taking up space at all times (until you download it, of course).

I only have ~20GB of Music, but honestly, all I ever use is Spotify these days.

As for movies/TV shows, that's where my iMac comes into play. It's my media powerhouse, so I just stream from my collection that way, or stream online via Hulu/Netflix/etc.

I occasionally push the space limit due to big apps like MATLAB or virtual machines, but nothing deleting a few unnecessary files hasn't fixed.

But when I upgrade this year, I think I'll go 256GB. That way I definitely won't have to worry about space.
 
akdj said:
We bought a pair of rMBPs. My wife, the 500gb model. Me, I splurged for the 768gb. I'm happy I did. It's been over six months, so the cash has been since forgotten. However, my wife has a lot of data as well...and she's been successfully using an external SSD via thunderbolt for her media storage. Keeping over 400 gb of her on board storage free. With USB 3 and thunderbolt, internal storage, other than for portability, isn't as essential. High speed I/O on the new models eliminate that necessity.

J
Click to expand...

Are there already Thunderbolt hard drive enclosures?
 
Yes, they are already available, but expensive, so the best bang for the buck are USB 3.0 enclosures.
 
It doesn't matter if its a flash based SSD or a HDD, the important aspect of any computer purchase is to avoid being an impulse buyer.

My personal practice is to think through my needs & buy the appropriate configuration.

Just because flash storage is more expensive has nothing to do with what one needs. It has to do with what one can afford. If you sacrifice the size of your drive based on what you can afford the "problem" lies with you. Not the type of storage medium.
 
256'er here and initially I had no issues. Then I bootcamped to play Bioshock and Borderlands and it's gettting tight.

Not necessarily a regret but it requires some deft media management.
 
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