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What size SSD did you get in your 2012 MBA?
- Thread starter Mjmar
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I got a 128gb 13" with 8gb of RAM. I felt like it was the best price/performance/longevity option. An additional 128gb of storage just wasn't worth $300 to me. Even if I decide I need more space down the road, I can always go to OWC, upgrade to 240gb, and then sell off the 128gb for an overall cheaper value than $300.
Ordered a 13" i7 w/ 8GB RAM and 256Gig SSD
I thought I could get by with the 128GB....but I am planning on this being valid as a machine for 3 years. I wanted to not have any buyers remorse, and not be tempted to get a new machine in a couple years.....the difference in 128 to 256 when divided by years of expected use is not bad at all. W/ Apple Care I spent a couple hundred more than my ideal price point, but still below my MAX number. I was actually planning on a Retina Pro, but I was pleased to see the 8GB RAM option on the Air.
I thought I could get by with the 128GB....but I am planning on this being valid as a machine for 3 years. I wanted to not have any buyers remorse, and not be tempted to get a new machine in a couple years.....the difference in 128 to 256 when divided by years of expected use is not bad at all. W/ Apple Care I spent a couple hundred more than my ideal price point, but still below my MAX number. I was actually planning on a Retina Pro, but I was pleased to see the 8GB RAM option on the Air.
Exactly what I ordered. Was shocked to see the 8GB RAM option for only $90 more and jumped at that (even though I think it's overkill, I'm likely to make that back when I eventually sell this).
Agreed.
I've looked at my needs for a month or so and decided on 128 gb. I figured that if I REALLY need a bit of extra space, running my music-only iTunes library and videos-on-the-go on a 64 gb SDXC card will save me $250 compared to upgrading my SSD. I have a 2 TB external so I have permanent storage. I don't need all of it on the go so why spend the money?
I'll be going with 8 gb too. Future proof since I can't update that. Will be nice to run OS X/virtual Windows at once.
Because 512GB will mean no need for external storage for music/photos, and pretty good future-proofing on my primary machine, 512GB on the 11".
I don't have nearly as much music as many other people do. If I had 750GB of music alone, and fitting it all on the machine would never be reasonable anyway, then I wouldn't go so big with the hard drive. But if I can eliminate the need for external storage, then it's worth it to me.
I don't have nearly as much music as many other people do. If I had 750GB of music alone, and fitting it all on the machine would never be reasonable anyway, then I wouldn't go so big with the hard drive. But if I can eliminate the need for external storage, then it's worth it to me.
Just ordered a 256GB. My current old MB only has 160 but I figured since I can't upgrade the new HD, I better get enough that I can make sure it will last for a while.
No one knows what they are using yet. Assuming they are both Sata III 6G interfaces then I'd say any differences would be unnoticeable.
Got a 128GB with 8GB RAM 13". Couldn't justify the pricing for the 256, though it would have been nice 
Can't wait...
Can't wait...
The price of SD cards and memory sticks keep coming down. Getting an 128gig model because of that.
64gig card + 64 gig memory stick = plenty of space for music and movies.
And if that isn't enough, a portable external hard drive can satisfy most of my data needs. Plus its cheaper than the 128gb gained if I went for the 256gig model.
Really do think the 13"/128gb/8gig RAM is the best value Macbook you can get right now.
64gig card + 64 gig memory stick = plenty of space for music and movies.
And if that isn't enough, a portable external hard drive can satisfy most of my data needs. Plus its cheaper than the 128gb gained if I went for the 256gig model.
Really do think the 13"/128gb/8gig RAM is the best value Macbook you can get right now.
I will go 128. I still have 187 GB free out of 320gb on my MBP and I've had it for over a year and have a lot more media than I'll store on the MBA (movies, etc.), so I think 128 will suffice on the MBA. I don't think I can justify the extra $$ for more space.
Can anyone give an approximate estimate on the amount of space OSX and standard applications takes up? I'd like to save a bit of money and go for the 128GB, but it would be a waste of money if I have hardly any space after installing the basic stuff...
It's very easy. You simply need to buy the correct replacement SSD, either one of the OEM SSDs or you can pick a faster [albeit more expensive] replacement from OWC. Then it's just matter of removing the cover underneath, and replacing the existing SSD like a stick of RAM.
The problem is that we're at a transition to a new OS upgrade so who knows if ML will be smaller or bigger.
Anyway, when I had a 128GB SSD 11" Air then it was actually 112GB true capacity (bit conversion and recovery space took a lot) but I still had a good 80GB for personal storage. For me it required a lot of managing which was annoying so Id prefer a 256GB but the pricing of $300 for another 128GB is tough to accept. But I may still do it because I think I might run Win8 on here also.
Hope that helps.
I'm pretty sure it's a user-replaceable part as long as you use an Apple-authorized reseller like OWC.
I am on the verge of buying a 2012 MBA Ultimate to replace my loaded 2010 MBA. The 2010 MBA's 256MB of flash memory was adequate, albeit a little tight. Thus, I think the upgrade to 512GB on a 2012 model would be well worth its price. I am also going to go to 8MB of memory. Because I run Windows in a VMware Fusion virtual machine, the 4MB of RAM in the 2010 MBA really wasn't quite enough.
That's my issue. I wasn't willing to spend an extra $300 on it. If you can get a class 10 card (eBay, $45-$50) you can expect a minimum of 10 MB/s write speed. The new SSD is around 500 MB/s (crazy, I know) but if you're just storing video/music/photos you shouldn't notice any performance loss.
If we wanna get mathematical (which isn't entirely accurate/representative of the situation, but a good first approximation) lets pretend you're streaming a 3 GB HD movie (arbitrary number). That's say 3000 MB (not exact, but close) so theoretically the whole movie could be transferred in 300 seconds at 10 MB/s, or 5 minutes. So it should not skip at all while streaming and, worst case, you can transfer it in 5 minutes and stream it off your computer with no issues. All my videos are lower-quality AVI/MP4 so it's a non-issue for me on a class 4 SD card that I've done a test run on on my PC. It's not AS convenient as upgrading the SSD but you're not really forfeiting anything IMO and you're saving something to the tune of $250 + tax. I have a 2 TB external HDD so anything I don't see myself needing immediately can stay there and can be transferred to my card if I'll wanna watch it soon.
It's insane how quickly they're dropping tbh. I don't know what in-store prices are but I think I saw a 64 gb SDXC going for $80 at Best Buy in Canada. It's less than $50 online. If you're willing to put up with carrying it around (leaving it in the slot, tossing it in a bag, etc.) which isn't a big compromise at all, it makes the dent in the wallet much smaller when buying an MBA. And like I said above I have an external HDD (not portable) so big volume storage is currently taken care of.
Well...on my current PC, my USB 2.0 7200 rpm Seagate external drive goes around 20 MB/s for large sustained transfers (multiple GBs) and is in the realm of 30-40 MB/s for smaller transfers (single movies/a few TV shows etc). USB 3.0 should go around 70-80 MB/s. A class 10 SDXC is guaranteed sustained write speed of 10 MB/s. Obviously the performance isn't as great but personally I have an external HDD (non-portable) that will be my large-volume file holder that stays at home. The card is for on-the-go movies/music/photos. For those sorts of things like I calculate above, the transfer rate isn't really a limiting issue. Hard drives will be faster no doubt but I'm complementing my non-portable HDD with an SDXC card. A portable HDD could no doubt replace (and be faster) it but it's bigger to carry around. I just wanna throw in the SD card and have that extra storage on the go without lugging anything extra around.