Buying a 10 core m1 pro 1tb ssd vs a 10 core m2 pro 512gb ssd

[maxmuffy]

both are around the same price for new, so which is the better value?

does the 10 core m2 pro have any major advantages over the 10 core m1 pro?

and if it does does the double storage make the m1 pro a better deal?

 

[Basic75]

Anything M2 is slightly faster in single-threaded applications than anything M1. How important that is for you, and whether you actually need more than 512GB, are not questions that we can answer.

 

[ThrowerGB]

Anything M2 is slightly faster in single-threaded applications than anything M1. How important that is for you, and whether you actually need more than 512GB, are not questions that we can answer.

This is good advice from Basic75. People have different needs that result in different choices. Specifying a new computer is often frustrating.
Having said that, if 512GB turns out to be not enough, it's a much bigger problem than having an M1 rather than an M2
How much storage (not the disc size, but what you actually use) do you currently use on your current machine? To future proof yourself, double that and then divide by 0.65 (as a rule of thumb) to get enough storage so that you have enough free space on the disc to avoid it having to work too hard arranging the data on the disk and to have enough space for temporary and hidden things like cache and virtual storage, etc.
For example: Lets say you have a 125 GB disk currently but you only use about 97GB. (97GB x 2) / 0.65 = 298 GB. That means you need a bigger disk than the 125 GB you have now, but the 512GB will be reasonably enough. But if you currently use more than about 166.4 GB, then (166.4 x 2) / 0.65 = 512 GB. If this were me, I'd go with the 1 TB disk. People have different meanings for mega, giga and terra, and often the sizes they quote aren't precise. Also, in due course, some parts of the disk, whether a rotating disk or SSD, will have areas that age and are no longer useable. In these cases, the disk software usually locks out those areas and tries to move anything stored there to a useable location. That ends up with less disk space as the disk ages over time.
But what type of machine are you looking at? Laptop or desktop. If it's a desktop with enough high speed ports, and it's always going to sit in the one place, you can always buy external disk drives to plug into your machine. If it's a laptop you always carry with you, having to also carry external drives and cables and perhaps power supplies is a hassle.
One more comment about external disks. If you have a file or directory that's larger than the available disk space. Trying to split it between two or more physical drives is a much bigger problem than carrying around external disks for a portable machine. i.e., don't skimp on disk space.
Hope this helps.