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Worth going up to 1TB on 15''?

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macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 2, 2015
185
51
Tampa, FL
I broke down and pre-orded the 15'' Pro with 2.9ghz and Radeon 460, but I didn't upgrade the storage. In the past, it always seemed pointless when you could buy a bundle of externals for that same price as the larger SSD drive option. Right now I have 512 and have 200gb to spare. But, I'm having second thoughts because of the lack of ports and the need for dongle everything, I'm wondering if it would be better off storing more on the hard drive and icloud from now on rather than relying on connecting HDD's whenever I need. I'm a grad student in fine art, so any given time I am bouncing between safari, photoshop, light room, word and keynote. I'm going this route from an iMac at present because I'm really getting tired of being tied to my desk 8-10 hours a day, and in light of the new P3 color space and LG5k option, this seemed like it might be a better route. But being mobile also means I won't be sitting in front of a stack of hard drives all the time. The cost to go up to 1tb is $360 for students, is it worth it for another 512gb? Opinions?
 
I ordered 512 gb on the first day but cancelled and changed to 1 tb. Now my order is coming Dec 9-15th lol. I think its worth it though. It'll feel good not worrying about running out of space
 
Look at the $360 in terms of the convenience spread across the potential lifespan of the device. Let's say for argument's sake that it'll be used for just three years. That's 1095 days.

Would you pay 32 cents per day to avoid having to drag around an external hard drive? Naturally, that daily cost shrinks the longer you plan to keep the MBP.
 
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I love the breakdown and the logic to it...

Meicyn said:
Look at the $360 in terms of the convenience spread across the potential lifespan of the device. Let's say for argument's sake that it'll be used for just three years. That's 1095 days.

Would you pay 32 cents per day to avoid having to drag around an external hard drive? Naturally, that daily cost shrinks the longer you plan to keep the MBP.
Click to expand...
 
Have you cleaned the current SSD and is it your true use that take up 300GB? Sometimes there can be a ton of stuffs. Like I just found out Garage Band somehow take up 2-3 GB. I never even knew that until now. And I mean support files, the app was removed long ago.

As far as large storage, if I overuse my 512, I'm planning on velcroing the Samsung T3 to the back of the case lid and run a usbc wire in when needed for additional storage. you can also try high capacity usb pen drive, they're up to 512GB now, enough to move project files and much smaller than HDD. If you have a ton ton of files, check the T3, its fast and a real external SSD.
 
1TB is worth it. There's something about opening your computer and having everything be there and accessible to you.
 
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It wasn't an easy decision but I went for the 1tb. I have 256 on my 2012 MBP and i was constantly having issues with storage. Whilst I had countless SD drives and external HDs it was not the same has having breathing room on the actual system.
 
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Are you using all the data you have stored on your current machine?

I bought the 512gb simply because no SSD will ever hold all my data. I have a large collection of videos, raw photos, and movies (entertainment) so I have two 2tb drives at home. What's important is that, when I go mobile, I only keep the files I need on my computer. But I personally don't use my computer for storage of anything, just processing and consumption. If you think you can get away with 1tb and no external drives then definitely go 1tb. But if you'll be managing external drives anyway just get a big, fast external and practice good storage trimming.
 
My problem is I'm already using 700GB, and I ordered the 1TB. I really wanted the 2TB, but could not stomach the extra $1k for a drive I may not even need. I'd rather just sell the computer in two years when I run out of space, and hopefully the 2TB drives will be cheaper then. Although the risk is that Apple has at that point stopped making the MBP entirely, and is focusing their effort on glittery watch bands.
 
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The only new MBP i would buy is the top end 15 inch with 1TB. It's almost 3K - but I keep my machines for a while. I try to get about 6 years out of them. I'm tempted to buy a new pro - but I have a feeling the prices will drop with the next release. Plus my classic 2012 w/ SSD is still running fine - it does bog down completely with a 4K video file however.
 
Steveuk82 said:
It wasn't an easy decision but I went for the 1tb. I have 256 on my 2012 MBP and i was constantly having issues with storage. Whilst I had countless SD drives and external HDs it was not the same has having breathing room on the actual system.
Click to expand...
I didn't want to push my order back further. I decided instead to see if I can't just trade the device in for a higher storage model in store if I still have reservations about storage.
 
Changes in cloud storage may give you another option to stay with a smaller HD. For example, we store all of our data files in Dropbox. With this, we store only the files we need frequently on the HD and use selective sync to store the others in the cloud. They are still available from Dropbox using Safari if I need them at any time. For backups, we have a Synology NAS device with enough space to store everything. That's more for comfort than anything because we haven't lost anything on Dropbox.

A side benefit of this is that if all your data is stored this way, it is accessible by all your devices or bootcamp using the same folder structure. As a result, I have a 512 GB SSD that is equally partitioned between the Mac and Windows boot camp partition, and I typically have 40-70 GB extra on both partitions.

It is a trade off at that point because cloud storage has a cost (up to $99/yr depending on which service you use) and so does a larger hard drive ($360 for the 1 TB). For us, we would have needed the accessibility from multiple devices anyway, so it worked out. If you don't need that, it's likely better to upgrade the HD. If you keep your computer more than about four years, that will work out to less cost in the long run.
 
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You have to be nutty in the head to order a mbp with the juiced GHZ and the pimpin radeon 460 without at least 1 TB.

I would have ordered the 2 TB, but thats just showing off.

The reasons are:
Day to day convenience of all your files in your laptop.
Resale value (by the time you want to upgrade, your teenie-tiny SSD will make this thing worth not much more than a doorstop)
 
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Side question, based on the response above (and this is an honest question not meant to imply anything if you do this). When you buy a computer, do you make purchasing decisions based on impact on resell cost?

I only ask because I typically hold computers for long enough that they have little resell value. We have a '08 fully loaded iMac and it's probably only worth a couple hundred dollars. My customized '11 MBP with what was a very expensive 512 GB aftermarket SSD (the largest available at the time) and 16 GB RAM may not be worth significantly more. If purchasing a computer with plans to resell, how long do you typically own the computers before reselling to recoup the most value?
 
If you can get by with a external drive look at the Samsung T3. It is a small external SSD with up to 2 TB AND a USB-C connector. The 1TB version cost around $300 USD. Transfer rate on my 2015 rMBP is a little over 500 MB/sec. About the size of 2 USB sticks, you can easily stick it in your pocket.
 
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I was going to get the 1 TB drive, but couldn't deal with the cost. I'm finding the 512 GB is actually ok now that cloud services are so good. I keep everything on Dropbox, and don't sync the really old stuff to my computer. Works out ok.
 
Baldrake said:
I was going to get the 1 TB drive, but couldn't deal with the cost. I'm finding the 512 GB is actually ok now that cloud services are so good. I keep everything on Dropbox, and don't sync the really old stuff to my computer. Works out ok.
Click to expand...

Does Dropbox work ok on a mac?
 
Floridaggie said:
Side question, based on the response above (and this is an honest question not meant to imply anything if you do this). When you buy a computer, do you make purchasing decisions based on impact on resell cost?

I only ask because I typically hold computers for long enough that they have little resell value. We have a '08 fully loaded iMac and it's probably only worth a couple hundred dollars. My customized '11 MBP with what was a very expensive 512 GB aftermarket SSD (the largest available at the time) and 16 GB RAM may not be worth significantly more. If purchasing a computer with plans to resell, how long do you typically own the computers before reselling to recoup the most value?
Click to expand...
[doublepost=1478187524][/doublepost]Yes I do.
Keep them 1-2 years.
Reading this thread because trying to decide 512 or 1TB based on which would be most popular and best proportional resale value.
I have about 200gb data do the 512 is enough.
 
LxHunter said:
[doublepost=1478187524][/doublepost]Yes I do.
Keep them 1-2 years.
Reading this thread because trying to decide 512 or 1TB based on which would be most popular and best proportional resale value.
I have about 200gb data do the 512 is enough.
Click to expand...


I am very similar. These are business computers to me. We turn them over year couple of years. We almost always buy standard configuration since they are easiest/quickest to get, and easiest to get repaired or replaced.
 
I returned a top rMBP last year because I just could not take only 1TB.
 
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