Upgrade M1 base to M1 upgrade?

[Itza]

Hi, I have one of the base M1 airs. Love it, used it to pieces.

But, 8 GB is nowhere near enough (system memory issues) and the 256 storage filled. I am always erasing things.

So, I went on eBay and I bought a M1 with 16 GB and one terabyte of storage for 500 BIN. The seller says it’s an excellent shape.

Kind of exciting, though now I’m second-guessing.

Mostly, I just write, use AI sometimes, so task wise I should be fine without the ram and storage issues that I am running into.

I will sell my old ones so I guess I’m going to be out of about $100, I don’t have the money to buy one of the new M4 ones.

Was the above all a solid move? Too late, I just saw a good deal and grabbed it, though I am second guessing now. Economy is pretty scary now, so 100 is better than 500.

 

[MBAir2010]

Izta
Did you consider keeping and improving of what you already have?
I have the same model and over 100gb free
My game game plan since 2010 is that
I keep mostly things um data files i need and store the rest on 7 ssd drives externally.
Since purchasing the M1 air i have never encountered a memory lapse as the system is more than 8gbs
I can go into some detail over that if nesc.

Just to purchase a used M1 is iffy concidering your M1 should handle what you do.

 

[Itza]

I think I am pushing the 8 GB too much, I do a lot of writing and research and I use AI for editing, and it goes unresponsive and it says the memory is full, I delete applications as I can, but it would be nice not have to. I have a terabyte on my iCloud, and I’m always deleting things on my MacBook, but it’s almost filled up to 256.

 

[Itza]

Should add, I’m a teacher too, so many files

 

[Bigwaff]

You did fine. Your 8GB was slowing down due to memory pressure. Having full / near full storage also aggravate memory pressure; limited swap available. The 16GB/1TB M1 should run smoothly.

 

[Itza]

Thank you, yes, I think that’s it. The memory swapping is what’s getting me, and if it crashes while I’m writing, it’s quite painful. I’m writing a book, and I lost one file because it crashed while I was writing it, and it was really annoying

 

[Itza]

I would’ve loved a M4 but bumping up to the next storage tier was just too much.

 

[MBAir2010]

I would’ve loved a M4 but bumping up to the next storage tier was just too much.

yep, the CEOs need their billions.....

I write a lot....mostly novels which tlkes hardly any RAM which I never exceeded a maximum on the m1s
but videos and anything on software like "Photos" "Music""TV" eat up storage space.
I do own and use a Mac mini m1 that takes up more videos than the MBA
perhaps using or gettin gone of those might relieve some memory and performance issues than buying a new MBA.

just a suggestion.....

 

[Howard2k]

Thank you, yes, I think that’s it. The memory swapping is what’s getting me, and if it crashes while I’m writing, it’s quite painful. I’m writing a book, and I lost one file because it crashed while I was writing it, and it was really annoying

You should have a backup strategy too. Time Machine to an external HDD or similar.

 

[ctjack]

I bought 8/512 M1 Air in 2020 and thankfully 512gb what saved me. I don't have RAM issues at all (due to sticking to base Big Sur OS).

Sensible choice to go with more RAM and SSD. I guess your issues started from filling up the ssd - can't blame you, my barebones laptop is filled with 240gb of items on 512GB storage; 256 would be full to the brim.

My previous 128GB literally was freezing because it had only 5 kb of ssd to swap my ram.

 

[Itza]

Yes, same with my previous 128gb which had the same issue. Literally froze. I thought 256gb would be enough. Now I think 1T is more than I need for quite a while. I’m loving it, just set it up. Snappy.