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Disk space used on new Mac Studio?

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ClintonMoon

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 16, 2022
6
1
I’ll be buying a Studio Max and trying to determine how large a drive I should get. Especially important as internal SSD cannot be upgraded (as I understand it) and will have to last a number of years. The internal drive will have system and apps; data, Time Machine, videos etc will be on separate drives in an external dock.

Out of the box, with system and Apple installed apps, how much disk space is used?

thanks
 
ClintonMoon said:
Out of the box, with system and Apple installed apps, how much disk space is used?
Click to expand...
Not much, but even a more precise answer won't help you. You will want to install additional apps (otherwise you would have got a Mac Mini). These will all consume space on the internal SSD and many will run better with at least some data on the internal disk.

If I had the workflow to justify a Studio Max, I would be looking at least a 1TB internal (extra 10% on base price). But, no doubt, you could manage with a 512GB internal and some external SSDs.

What is your intended usage and workflow? And is this personal/casual or professional?
 
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Personal use with a number of older version apps such as MS Office suite, LibreOffice, Photoshop Elements & Premiere, a number of utilities. Nothing too heavy duty. Plan on upgrading or buying new apps.

Currently have 2012 Mac Pro stuck with Mojave. System drive has about 700GB used, but can clean out a lot and get down to about 500GB.

Could get away with a mini, but want something that will do me for long time.
 
ClintonMoon said:
I’ll be buying a Studio Max and trying to determine how large a drive I should get. Especially important as internal SSD cannot be upgraded (as I understand it) and will have to last a number of years. The internal drive will have system and apps; data, Time Machine, videos etc will be on separate drives in an external dock.

Out of the box, with system and Apple installed apps, how much disk space is used?

thanks
Click to expand...
I purchased a 2 TB Version, but that is not why I am replying. I also added a hub that I can and did put in a Samsung SSD 970 EVO Plus drive into it. It's pretty fast and capable of handling video. Granted it's was kind of expensive though doing it yourself can save a little bit, but you can upgrade in the future if you need too.
 
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Strider64 said:
I purchased a 2 TB Version, but that is not why I am replying. I also added a hub that I can and did put in a Samsung SSD 970 EVO Plus drive into it. It's pretty fast and capable of handling video. Granted it's was kind of expensive though doing it yourself can save a little bit, but you can upgrade in the future if you need too.
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Strider64 - I'm waffling between the 1 & 2 TB drive. Think 1 TB would do, but would have to need more in future.

I've been looking at the OWC Thunderbay 4 as for external storage. Would house my data, video and TimeMachine drives. They are currently spinners, but would gradually swap out as they get older for SSDs.

What are you using? Happy with it? I think I seem them on the photo on your site, but can't make out what they are.

ps - great shot of the woodpecker!
 
1tb upgrade (from base model studio) is $200 (reasonable).
Not sure about 2tb.

I sense that many users keep lots of "unnecessary stuff" on their internal drives (such as copies of movies they watch once and not again). Such things would be better off "archived onto" an external drive.

The idea is to keep the internal drive relatively "lean and clean".
 
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Recently I added a minimal volume of Monterey just with Xcode to run the older version.
It quickly was at 180GB without a large Photos library or mail.
 
haralds said:
Recently I added a minimal volume of Monterey just with Xcode to run the older version.
It quickly was at 180GB without a large Photos library or mail.
Click to expand...
Thanks Haralds, that give me a sense of how large basic install is. Not sure how Ventura will compare to that 180GB.
 
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I usually try to configure my desktops with enough internal fast memory for my most current working video library(s). That's been about 4TB in my case.

But a 4TB studio is a bit of money for me, so I decided on the 1TB configuration with working libraries on NVMe bus memory (TB enclosure).

But then, at the time, 1TB was a two month wait and 2TB was available off the shelf and with a small discount. That has turned out well as I can pretty much use app defaults, include a couple small libraries, and don't have to think about routine housekeeping. I think 2TB is a reasonable compromise, but I could make 1TB work with a bit of housekeeping. I wouldn't recommend less that 1TB for a home user that needs a Studio.

My internal drive at the moment has about 1.5TB of data, temporary downloads, documents, including a 500MB FCP and 200GB photos library. So I could have made 1TB work, it turns out to be more convenient with 2TB I think.
 
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I'm going to GUESS that the factory-installed OS and software on an m-series Mac running Monterey takes up from 15-20gb.

The only way to KNOW would be to take one out-of-the-box, and set it up with a basic account (no migration), and then check. But because most folks DO "a migration" during the setup process, they won't be in a position to check this afterwards...
 
I'd recommend 1 TB. I got the base and wish I had gotten 1 TB but I didn't want to wait for it. I have a 2 TB External and a 500 GB External and those provide a lot of space for now but I plan to get a 4 TB External drive for files. The thing is a lot of files are just more convenient on the internal drive unless you move your account to an external drive. I may wind up doing that if things get tight.
 
I thought I read that user accounts must be on the internal M1 drive along with the system, although you can store the data files elsewhere.
 
ColdCase said:
I thought I read that user accounts must be on the internal M1 drive along with the system, although you can store the data files elsewhere.
Click to expand...

I just created a new account and put the home directory on an external drive with no problems. I am running my workload now so I can't try the account but you can certainly create an account on Apple Silicon with the home directory on an external SSD.
 
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pshufd said:
I just created a new account and put the home directory on an external drive with no problems.
Click to expand...
That sounds right. But in case of login problems if external is disconnected, I prefer to keep the home directories (including ~/Library, ~/Desktop and ~/Documents) on internal but with aliases or symlinks to folders on the external.
 
gilby101 said:
That sounds right. But in case of login problems if external is disconnected, I prefer to keep the home directories (including ~/Library, ~/Desktop and ~/Documents) on internal but with aliases or symlinks to folders on the external.
Click to expand...

One approach would be to create an admin account that is only unused if the external isn't attached.

I don't plan to move my Studio so the external drives will always be connected. The Studio is also used as a NAS and disconnecting the large external would also mean that the NAS isn't available to everyone else.
 
ClintonMoon said:
Personal use with a number of older version apps such as MS Office suite, LibreOffice, Photoshop Elements & Premiere, a number of utilities. Nothing too heavy duty. Plan on upgrading or buying new apps.

Currently have 2012 Mac Pro stuck with Mojave. System drive has about 700GB used, but can clean out a lot and get down to about 500GB.

Could get away with a mini, but want something that will do me for long time.
Click to expand...
Your Mac Pro can run anything up to Monterey quite happily via Opencore if you don't mind tinkering. Appreciate you may just rather get a Studio though. :)
 
spacedcadet said:
Your Mac Pro can run anything up to Monterey quite happily via Opencore if you don't mind tinkering. Appreciate you may just rather get a Studio though. :)
Click to expand...
With technical assistance from my brother-in-law, have upgraded the processor and added a GPU to keep the 2012 Pro cranking along. Although Opencore is Interesting option, at this point trying to KISS and have a Mac that “simply works”
 
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