Can't decide between 256gb or 512gb SSD

[Miat]

OK, I accept to be odd one. I never understood what's the fuss about flac and other lossless formats, high quality mp3/aac sound just fine to me, and I do not hear any difference.

You and the rest of the human race.

The only benefit of lossless formats (including RAW) is for processing & mixing, when 24 bit @ 96kHz (or higher) is definitely an advantage, a necessity even.

But for the final product high quality 16 bit mp3/aac is fine.

 

[getrealbro]

After reading a lot of posts recommending various internal 2018 Mac Mini SSD capacities: 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, etc. I’m almost convinced that it is worth $200 to go with the 256GB because I'd get a pretty good speed bump. But I still haven’t read a compelling reason to use the internal SSD on a 2018 Mac Mini as the “system” boot drive. It seems to be accepted by default, without further discussion.

From what I’ve read, even the relatively inexpensive external Samsung T5’s work well as “system” boot drives. Not to mention the higher performance X5’s and NVMe SSDs. External SSDs will almost certainly get bigger/better as the hardwired 2018 Mac Mini SSD performance remains the same.

I keep Macs well beyond their sell-by-date. So I’m still thinking that a 256GB internal SSD is plenty big enough, because I will probably relegate it to being a unmounted but bootable emergency system clone/backup well before I stop using the Mini.

GetRealBro

 

[pl1984]

After reading a lot of posts recommending various internal 2018 Mac Mini SSD capacities: 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, etc. I’m almost convinced that it is worth $200 to go with the 256GB because I'd get a pretty good speed bump. But I still haven’t read a compelling reason to use the internal SSD on a 2018 Mac Mini as the “system” boot drive. It seems to be accepted by default, without further discussion.

From what I’ve read, even the relatively inexpensive external Samsung T5’s work well as “system” boot drives. Not to mention the higher performance X5’s and NVMe SSDs. External SSDs will almost certainly get bigger/better as the hardwired 2018 Mac Mini SSD performance remains the same.

I keep Macs well beyond their sell-by-date. So I’m still thinking that a 256GB internal SSD is plenty big enough, because I will probably relegate it to being a unmounted but bootable emergency system clone/backup well before I stop using the Mini.

It's disappointing that Apple makes the buyer have to make such a decision for a desktop computer. Not having a replaceable SSD is understandable in a form factor such as the MacBook or MacBook Air, but not a general purpose desktop.

 

[getrealbro]

It's disappointing that Apple makes the buyer have to make such a decision for a desktop computer. Not having a replaceable SSD is understandable in a form factor such as the MacBook or MacBook Air, but not a general purpose desktop.

I agree. But at least the 2018 Mini has the SSD hardwired rather than the RAM, like my current late 2014 Mini

BTW that hardwired RAM in my late 2014 Mini is why I’m planning to buy a 2018 Mini. You don’t think Apple planned it that way do you?

GetRealBro

 

[Jellyenzo]

Not sure if you made your decision yet.

If you’re making the post, you might as well get the 512gb. Reason being that price not a limiter as well as the peace of mind if you decide to bootcamp.

Ultimately, I came across the same arguing points but my mbp with 256gb was almost full and I wanted my desktop to be more beefy. You can always get the 1tb nvme/m2 drives to connect as usb-c. Cost $100~ And now I have 500gb ~ 1.5tb at a given time (in a sense)

 

[Fishrrman]

Getreal wrote:
"But I still haven’t read a compelling reason to use the internal SSD on a 2018 Mac Mini as the “system” boot drive. It seems to be accepted by default, without further discussion."

The "compelling reason" is that the internal SSD will boot and run faster than just about ANY external SSD you can hook up to it.

The exception would be a thunderbolt3 external SSD, but these are yet too expensive to justify the cost for the ordinary user, unless someone -really- needs that speed for their particular use case.

I have previously been an advocate for booting and running Minis and iMacs from external USB3 SSDs, rather than opening them up to install an SSD inside.

That was then, this is now.

Apple's internal SSDs are now a far better solution now for the OS, apps, and basic accounts.
Just keep "large libraries" of movies, music, photos and data on an external USB3 drive...

 

[boomspot]

I went with i7/256GB, added 32GB RAM. I have a Samsung 1TB T5, and 4 external SATA SSD's in an external Sabrent enclosure connected to a USBC port. I also have a 4TB USB3 HDD for backup along with an Unraid NAS. So far so good!