Is 256gb enough onboard storage (SSD) on a laptop?

dscross

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I've just bought a refurbished Macbook pro from apple, 15", after the back light for the screen finally went in my 11-year-old macbook.

It's a brilliant computer in every respect - except the onboard storage. I haven't bought a new computer for about 10 years. Now the time has finally come, I'm half regretting my decision and want to get a 512gb one. I could go and get another one within 14 days, but it's like 200 quid more because the processor on the next one up is slightly faster, you are paying for SSD instead of HDD, and apple charges more.

I mean, I could live with it with everything on my external HDD I suppose, but I can't be bothered taking that with me everywhere. That's the point of a laptop isn't it? Plus, I'll probably have this for the next 10 years sooo.....when programs start getting bigger, what do I do then? What do you all think?

I don't want anyone going on about getting PCs over apple etc - this is just a question about storage.

Cheers
 

dscross

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Samtemdo8 said:
Well it all depends. How much do you intend to store in that 256gb hard drive?
Work, videos, music, editing software, a load of different programs, a few games maybe - that kind of stuff. It's possible that I keep them all externally, as I said but it seems like a pain in a laptop that's meant to be mobile.
 

sanquin

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256gb sounds awfully small for all the things you've listed you want to put on there. I'd need 500+ for something like that.
 

JohnnyDelRay

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Yeah you're definitely going to be hit by the apple premium, but that can't be avoided. It all depends on usage. I have a 11" Air with 128gb, but it's mainly for work and travel so I don't game that much on it. Having said that, on occasions where I've had to do video editing or install games, it's held up alright because I don't leave much on it. But I always carry my work HDD so there's never been any urgency (plus my home machine has about 4 TB).

However I'd say for all you're using it for, it's worth it to just grab the extra 256 on top.
 

Phoenixmgs_v1legacy

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The bigger issue is buying a Mac (they are purposefully designed to be a ***** to work on if anything breaks) vs the storage space. If you're video editing, you'll definitely need more space.
 

Tanis

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Do you have any other portable drives?

Because, my current 1TB laptop gets filled pretty quick whenever I start doing any kind of non-tv-to-vhs quality editing.

Then again, I also use it to play several games and watch shows and etc.
 

dscross

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Tanis said:
Do you have any other portable drives?

Because, my current 1TB laptop gets filled pretty quick whenever I start doing any kind of non-tv-to-vhs quality editing.

Then again, I also use it to play several games and watch shows and etc.
I have an external portable 1tb hdd. It?s an option to put stuff on there, just seems a bit daft to take it everywhere with you.
 

Imperioratorex Caprae

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dscross said:
I've just bought a refurbished Macbook pro from apple, 15", after the back light for the screen finally went in my 11-year-old macbook.

It's a brilliant computer in every respect - except the onboard storage. I haven't bought a new computer for about 10 years. Now the time has finally come, I'm half regretting my decision and want to get a 512gb one. I could go and get another one with 14 days, but it's like 200 quid more because the processor on the next one up is slightly faster, you are paying for SSD instead of HDD, and apple charges more.

I mean, I could live with it with everything on my external HDD I suppose, but I can't be bother taking that with me everywhere. That's the point of a laptop isn't it? Plus, I'll probably have this for the next 10 years sooo.....when programs start getting bigger, what do I do then? What do you all think?

I don't want anyone going on about getting PCs over apple etc - this is just a question about storage.

Cheers
From your replies I'm gonna say that having external storage is probably gonna be necessary. I don't know what kind of games you play nor the overall capabilities of Macs for gaming, but storage-wise newer games are usually upwards of 50gb a pop, with many being higher than that, unless we're talking indie-level games or older titles which are significantly lower. Still videos and music pile up storage-wise as well (I've already a 1TB drive filled with just videos on my desktop out of 6TB of total space between 4 drives, and I'm constantly adding to that collection, not to mention games and music). And depending on what kind of work you do, you may need even more space, especially if its anything related to video or music. So personally just invest in external drives since a 512gb SSD isn't really significant enough a jump in storage. It might seem annoying to carry around a couple 1 or 2TB external drives but really its not so bad as they're small and with a decent laptop case generally has a decent amount of room to carry multiple external drives. Plus its never a bad idea to have work related stuff saved on an external source just in case something happens to the laptop itself.
TL;DR - go with external storage options, the extra money you'd pay isn't going to be enough of a jump in storage and you'd still end up needing more.
 

Hatachi

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I would say that would get REALLY tight. Keep in mind a single 2 hour 1080p movie can be something like 3-4.5 GB alone.
 

Fijiman

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You can have whatever sized storage device you want so long as you have a big enough external hard drive to split the difference.
 

Queen Michael

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I have that kind of computer space specifically because I don't have the kind of needs that you say you have. Wouldn't recommend it.
 

Baffle

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If you mean video editing software, I'd accept that you're going to need an external drive. I was clearing out some uncompressed 3D animation stuff I had and about 30 seconds of video was in the GB territory (it was 360 video though). Once compressed, much smaller, but I don't think you can get away with that in the production stage.
 

mysecondlife

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Do you have the resource to buy an SSD drive? I bought my macbook pro with the impression that you can install a new SSD.

EDIT: Sorry, this probably wasn't the best answer to your question. But I hope this option is viable if you can get a larger SSD for cheap.
 

jademunky

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I don't do video editing myself but 256 sounds tiny for a laptop. I would say get an external drive.