If you're considering purchasing a new Macbook that features SSD storage, you may be wondering if the standard 256GB space is going to cut it. It's an interesting question, and the answer, of course, depends on your personal use. I've crunched some numbers to help you determine if the 256GB drive is enough for you.
The 256GB SSD (solid-state drive) is standard on current model Macbook Pros with Retina Displays, as well as an option for the Macbook Air. An SSD offers big advantages in boot-up time and program start-up times compared to traditional hard disk drives — as well as offering reliability improvements due to a lack of moving mechanics. Those benefits, of course, come at a price. Which is why instead of just springing for a 512GB or 1TB drive without thinking about it, it's worthwhile to consider whether the minimum 256GB option on the Macbook Pro will be sufficient.
Programs and Applications
(30GB - Remaining Drive Space 226GB)
Right out of the box, about 20GB of your storage will be taken up by pre-installed applications and the Apple OS itself. Another four to eight gigs of space could easily be taken up by word processor and spreadsheet applications, as well as photo and video editors. We'll be conservative and assume all the applications you download are likely to take up an additional 10GB of space (on top of the 20GB of preloaded software).
An average user example:
- 21 GB for Apple OS and pre-installed applications
- 3 GB for Office Programs (iWork 1.2GB / Microsoft Office 2.5GB)
- 1 GB for Photo Editor (iPhoto)
- 1 GB for Video Editor (iMovie)
- = 26GB TOTAL
A professional user example:
- 21 GB for Apple OS and pre-installed applications
- 3 GB for Office Programs (iWork 1.2GB / Microsoft Office 2.5GB)
- 3 GB for Photo Editors (Aperture/Lightroom + Photoshop)
- 2GB for Video Editor (Final Cut Pro)
- = 29GB TOTAL
iOS Device Backups
(8GB - Remaining Drive Space 218GB)
The next significant chunk is taken up by our iOS device backups — considering that most people will choose to sync those devices on their shiny new toy. How many iPhones and iPads do you own? How full do you keep them? What models did you swing for? The answers to those questions will determine how much of this precious space will be divvied up for emergencies. I've seen a lot of people assume that a 16GB iPad is going to take up 16GB of your hard drive for backups. That's not exactly true, since most of your iPhone/iPad is filled with music, photos, and pictures that are already stored within your iTunes library — and iTunes is smart enough not to simply make a duplicate copy in your backup file. I've found in my own use that backups generally take up about 25% of the device capacity. So a 16GB iOS device will likely take up around 4GB of space in the backup file. This can of course vary based on your usage and how full you keep the device, but I think the 25% is a good conservative ballpark we can base this exercise on.
I'll assume most people considering a Macbook Pro have at least one iPad and iPhone in their household, and further assume those are the 16GB varieties. Using the 25% metric from above, that means we can guess 8GB of space will be taken up by backups (25% of 32GB [16GB iPhone + 16GB iPad ]).
You can use this equation to adjust for your own personal use accordingly.
Media (music, pictures, video)
Now it's time to answer the question we're all curious about. How much space is my media going to take up? This obviously depends on how many mp3s you have (or are you going to offload to iCloud?), and how often you are taking pictures/videos and storing them on your computer. Here are some numbers to chew on for data storage.
Music (500 songs)
- MP3 [192kbps Standard Compression]- 2GB (@4MB each)
- MP3 [320kbps High Quality] - 3.5GB (@7MB each)
Photos (500 Photos)
- iPhone Photos [PNG] - 1GB (@2MB each)
- Point & Shoot Camera Photos [HD JPG] - 1.5GB (@3MB each)
- DSLR Camera Photos [RAW] - 7-14GB (@14MB -> 28MB each)
Video / Movies (60 minutes)
- Movie File [MP4 file] - 1GB
- Point & Shoot Camera Video [640x480 - SD] - 5GB (@80 MB / minute)
- iPhone Video [1080p] - 10GB (@167MB / minute)
- DSLR Video [1080p - high frame rate] - 20GB (@334MB / minute)
Nobody knows how much media you create or download more than you. Using the table above should help you make some good guesses. I'm guessing the average Macbook user has 1000 mp3's at standard quality, takes 1000 JPG photos, stores 60 minutes of iPhone video, and downloads a few movie files annually. That all tallies up to about 20GB of data needs each year. If you are a more professional user and take 500 photos a month in RAW format those numbers can look a lot different (up to 168GB in photos alone each year!).
In the average case the 256GB drive should be more than sufficient, but a more professional user may find themselves scrounging around for more space rather quickly.
Don't forget to also subtract how much space your data currently takes up — all those old word docs, spreadsheets, and music folders that you plan on migrating to your new machine. Adding up those media numbers and subtracting from the 218GB left (after applications and backups) should give you a good idea of how roomy that 256GB will be for your personal use. You can use these numbers to figure out what drive to swing for with Macbook Airs as well — which are available in 64GB, 128GB, and 256GB configurations. Considering the high cost of upgrading to the next bigger size drive, however, I'd personally go with the smallest drive reasonable for you and be resourceful with offloading media to less expensive external drives.
What size SSD did you decide on? Have you found the drive space to be sufficient for you?
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Right now it's showing i'm using 103 GB.. I've never really needed a lot of space. I am always boggled by people who insist on having a 1TB hard drive nowadays..I just don't get it.
OR, depending on the price of an upgrade, get the minimum GB and use the savings for a 1 (or more) TB external hard drive.
people with 1TB usually have a lot of videos. a good quality video is at least 7 GBs...it adds up!
My old laptop was 80 gbs and I thought I would never hit that! well, 2 years later I found myself buying a new harddrive. then when I got a new laptop I sprung for 500 gbs. Your photos and videos really start to add up over time!
I actually just cleaned out the crap from my harddrive to see if I could do the same. I currently have a 500GB HD in my MBP and had 190GB of free space. After removing unnecessary programs using AppCleaner, consolidating my photo library and removing duplicates using Adobe Lightroom and moved my iOS device backups to iCloud, I have about 360GB of free space. There may have been a few more things that I removed, but most of the stuff I had filling up my hard drive were things that could be moved to an external drive. I used Disk Inventory X to see where my largest files were and worked down from there.
@Mshannahnv - If you back up your computer's data at all, and you should, that will take several GBs of space. Videos take up several GBs. Some people have a large music collection or a large collection of photos. High resolution photos can be several MBs each, and that adds up.
A 1 TB drive seems huge, but if you have things that gobble a lot of space, it's not so big.
Not to mention that if you use graphic design programs like Photoshop, those programs take a ton of space and the files you create through them can be very big.
I could just dust a 256g drive on music alone.
I know I'm a digital storage hoarder. I know that my 600GB laptop is not enough, and crave another 2+TB.
Besides having a vast music collection I do have about 90GB's there... and that's just about half of what I fully intend on loading. Do i listen to every song all the time? No. But I love shuffle coming up with a wonderful eclectic mix of things I may not have chosen on my own. Also makes driving with friends and long trips more enjoyable.
As a photographer, I like to keep my orginal unaltered photos just so I have that as an option to go back to when editing, or getting creative. Sometimes I'll do several filters or crops out of the same orginal image. I've been a lifelong shutter bug, and photos can take up a lot of space.
As a designer I also keep folders of inspiration, ideas, and reference photos. Its like the scrap books I kept in college before everything went digital. It saves physical space from being filled with stacks and stacks of magazines, but can also help fill memory.
And Movies.... since I don't have a Tv... My laptop has filled in nobly. Tv shows and Movies take up large space very fast.
And I consider myself an average to even below average user. I don't play games on my computer. (Id need more cooling units, a stronger processor AND a better video card.) So as much as I crave the functionality of a SSD.... I doubt i could make it very long on such a small storage.
i work in Photoshop and with some 3d modeling software, so a 1 TB is essential. even then I have to keep my files non-redundant to make sure i have enough space.
I have 5 Terabytes filled and am looking at getting a 6T external to consolidate and free up space. Nobody saves media?
Also, that rundown was ridiculous assuming everyone just buys the lowest available Gb devices...I have a 64gx3 devices. So the answer is: As a primary machine to backup all your devices? No. 256 is not enough. The Air is for on the go work. It's an Ipad with a keyboard and a faster processor.
I have upwards of 700GBs of Photos, and 800GBs of Movies/Music. Most of this is stored on external storage. I rely on iCloud, and other Internet based services for storage. This has worked out pretty well for me. I'm sure there are cases in which a much larger SSD is required, but I'm not sure the costs is truly justifiable for personal use. External USB3/ThunderBolt drives are fast, small (in form factor), and affordable (well the USB3 drives are anyway) and this is where I would probably store data that I had to have with me on the road.
I have a 500GB drive in my MacBook Pro, and I've already filled up 300GB. Two things stand out. First, my Adobe Creative Suite, which takes up a huge chunk of space. Second, hundreds of digital books and articles in PDF format. Obviously, this is not a "typical" user profile, but I don't think there is any such thing. Estimated averages are quite misleading when it comes to Mac storage, since the bulk of users fall at the extremes. Some store little media and pro software; others store massive amounts of both. Very few fall in between. I always advise buying the most storage you can afford; sooner or later, you'll need it.
My several year old MB Pro only has a 250gb drive to begin with, and I'm not buying new anytime soon. Day to day it works for me, but I have external drives for my photo archives. Sure it limits me from wandering all over creation when I'm editing, but I'm usually hooked up to a monitor then anyway, so it's no biggee. Still, I'm hoping by the time I am forced to upgrade the SSDs have gotten a bit larger. I like the pluses of those drives but it would be nice to again have some breathing room on my hard drive when I upgrade.
I just died when I read that hard drive stat. I have 3.5 terabytes of storage (on three drives) - with about 1 terabyte free between them. Mind, this is a desktop, but nevertheless... Speaking to the issue at hand, however, my boyfriend recently went iLife and he struggles with the storage space available. Until recently, he was part of my, shall we say, massive storage network and it's been an adjustment. For an on-the-go machine, like my netbook, sure, that's plenty of storage space, but as a desktop replacement, that's only enough space if you have a personal server laying around...
It's appropriate this is on apartment therapy; I apply the same principle to my computer as I do to my home: if I haven't used it in a certain amount of time, I get rid of it. The cost of storing stuff is equally high digitally as it is at home. This translates into a 128 GB drive, despite the fact that I do 2d and 3d design.
I for one think that 256GB is quite sufficient enough provided if you go along with having an external drive for more storage. I for one keep a lot of photos, then there is docs and pdf and then loads of videos and TV shows so if I started keeping them all in this SSD then I will be finishing the space in within a matter of months :)
Eh, you can never have too much space on your hard drives, especially if you have high-quality video saved.
I have a 128gb SSD on my Macbook Air, but 2tb external. I keep what I need on my machine for on the go, but have all the goodies and extras (A lot of extras) at home.
If you have to ask if 256GB is enough space- I don't think you need to drop $1,800 on a computer. There are plenty of $500-$1000 non-mac options that will more than cover an average user's needs. Reading the above comments, those who have and use more than say 500GB may well need a machine like that, though an average person would do fine with a much more modestly priced computer, with an option for external hard drives- as SSD memory costs a small fortune.
You're right, professionally if you need to save high quality pictures, videos, etc. I could see needing a large amount of space.
Personally, I always shuffle through my computer and remove things I no longer use. It's the same in my home, if I haven't listened/watched/used it in a year, get it outta here! :)
I use grooveshark for music, you can add numerous songs and save your own playlist for repeated use. It's 1000x better than pandora, for my needs.
I have certain TV Shows I like to watch, which can be streamed from HBO Go.
I'm just a minority here, I know! But for me, 500gb is just enough. :)
I've come searching posts on retina MBP's. This was very interesting to come across. Maybe it's the power user in me, but the space estimates are far too low. The rMBP will be my first Apple, I'm only buying it because I'm about to do a 1 year Graphic Design diploma and I need to learn OSX at some point.
I think 256gb is fine for my needs. However around my desk and my house I have countless external HDD. I've lived with laptops as my main computers for 6-8 years, so naturally I've collected a lot of HDD. I also collect movies and tv shows so they take up massive amounts (blu-ray size movies are 10-13 GB). I have a few NAS's with 2-4TB each and they either full or 1/2 full.
I think it's rather pathetic of Apple to remove the upgrade options of RAM & HDD other than at purchase. I may be biased as a PC user, but I see it as blatant grab for money by scaring people into buying the bigger drive and the most RAM possible. I've upgraded all my laptops with RAM or HDD/SSD, Apple can do it because people will still buy it. I'll be ordering mine with the 16GB and 256GB, I wont enjoy buying this laptop but I dont have a lot of choice.