DO M2 MAX STUDIO USERS UPGRADE FROM 512GB TO 1TB OR MORE SSD?

[hajime]

HI, WITH THE POWER OF THE M2 MAX STUDIO, I CANNOT IMAGINE ANYBODY WOULD OPT FOR THE SLOWER STOCK 512GB SSD. HOW MANY OF YOU UPGRADE THE SSD TO 1TB OR MORE?

P.S. Sorry for the capital letters. Not sure why I suddenly could not type in small letters on my iPad when I created this thread.

 

[CreepyAF]

HI, WITH THE POWER OF THE M2 MAX STUDIO, I CANNOT IMAGINE ANYBODY WOULD OPT FOR THE SLOWER STOCK 512GB SSD. HOW MANY OF YOU UPGRADE THE SSD TO 1TB OR MORE?

THATS THE ONLY UPGRADE I MADE. I BOUGHT A SAMSUNG T7 SHIELD 4GB AND IT’S PRETTY QUICK.

 

[emmab2006]

I kept my 512GB and upgraded the GPU, you can always add high speed External SSD anyway. That’s what i did.

 

[wdhpgx]

I bought an m1, and opted for the 1gb rather than the 512gb, just for space.

 

[pshufd]

I have a base M1 Max Studio and a 2 TB External SSD and a 500 GB External SSD. I plan to replace these with a 4 TB NVMe external SSD. I just do not need the additional performance of the internal drives for what I do. I do have 1 TB on my M1 Pro MacBook Pro in case I want to store a lot of files while avoiding dongles and external SSDs.

 

[Feek]

In real world usage, the majority of people won't even notice the difference in speed.

 

[kirkster501]

I upgraded mine to 1TB for the supposed speed improvements. But as mentioned, in the real world it makes zero difference unless you are a power user (which 99.9% of people aren't). Also remember that an external M2 SSD in a Thunderbolt enclosure is rocket ship speed and is very cost effective compared to Apple rip-off prices.

My spec is M2 Max stock chip, 64G and 1TB. I have never touched the sides of the 64G of RAM with my relatively modest requirements and wonder if it was a waste of money.

 

[Nismo73]

I had gotten a refurb mini M2 Pro 16gb/2tb, but then thought about it seeing that the M2 Studios were basically silent to the M1s and that I really could benefit with 32gb RAM, the front SD slot, front USBs, sent mini back and got base m2 max with edu discount.
So:
base M2 Max $1799+tax
added T7 2TB $115+tax

For my needs, the price/performance is there and longevity of use.

 

[pshufd]

I had gotten a refurb mini M2 Pro 16gb/2tb, but then thought about it seeing that the M2 Studios were basically silent to the M1s and that I really could benefit with 32gb RAM, the front SD slot, front USBs, sent mini back and got base m2 max with edu discount.
So:
base M2 Max $1799+tax
added T7 2TB $115+tax

For my needs, the price/performance is there and longevity of use.

The Studios are great for the reasons you specify.

There is a known noise issue that shows up in about 20% of units in MacRumors Studio polls. My Studio is fine but there have been others here with problems.

 

[hajime]

The Studios are great for the reasons you specify.

There is a known noise issue that shows up in about 20% of units in MacRumors Studio polls. My Studio is fine but there have been others here with problems.

Thanks for your info.

The Mini M2/M2 Pro is good for the price but all five units I got had bluetooth and/or wifi issues. Not sure if I should give it one more chance or just forget about it and opt for another product line.

 

[pshufd]

Thanks for your info.

The Mini M2/M2 Pro is good for the price but all five units I got had bluetooth and/or wifi issues. Not sure if I should give it one more chance or just forgot about it and opt for another product line.

I had problems with my M1 mini. I just used wired Ethernet and a Logitech dongle mouse to work around them.

 

[UnifiedMelody]

HI, WITH THE POWER OF THE M2 MAX STUDIO, I CANNOT IMAGINE ANYBODY WOULD OPT FOR THE SLOWER STOCK 512GB SSD. HOW MANY OF YOU UPGRADE THE SSD TO 1TB OR MORE?

P.S. Sorry for the capital letters. Not sure why I suddenly could not type in small letters on my iPad when I created this thread.

i went with 2TB for peace of mind... most people should be fine with 1TB, you just have to manage external drives and clear/fill often.

context: photo editing and some 4k-8k video in ProRes Raw//N-RAW.

 

[kirkster501]

I have had a couple of apps that will not run on external SSD. The usual suspects of Adobe Suite, FCP, DVR etc all work fine though.

 

[ErneX]

I kept my 512GB and upgraded the GPU, you can always add high speed External SSD anyway. That’s what i did.

Even with a good NVME enclosure you still won’t get the speeds you get from the >=1TB models.

That is of course unless you RAID multiple enclosures, but it’s a bit overkill and takes at least 2 ports.

@hajime I’d get at least 1TB if you care about those speeds, but even the 512GB model with most use cases you won’t notice the difference in speed.

 

[emmab2006]

Speeds are not important to me , i get 900 from both enclosures i have , and streams my ortho photos to X Plane perfectly.

 

[Mr_Brightside_@]

HI, WITH THE POWER OF THE M2 MAX STUDIO, I CANNOT IMAGINE ANYBODY WOULD OPT FOR THE SLOWER STOCK 512GB SSD. HOW MANY OF YOU UPGRADE THE SSD TO 1TB OR MORE?

P.S. Sorry for the capital letters. Not sure why I suddenly could not type in small letters on my iPad when I created this thread.

99% of users have no idea about the “slower” SSD, and wouldn’t ever notice slowness

 

[pshufd]

99% of users have no idea about the “slower” SSD, and wouldn’t ever notice slowness

Some of the folks with Studios may need it but I think that the vast majority of Studio owners wouldn't notice it outside of large file copies. I run my office stuff on a 2015 iMac using an external USB3 SSD and it runs great. Having 32 GB of RAM helps a lot as it doesn't swap at all. Max Tech does benchmarks with some heavy workloads and these can show the performance differences but most people don't run these workloads enough so that it matters financially.

I buy what gets the job done but I can imagine that it's difficult to figure out without testing it yourself. I suppose you could buy a couple of Studios with different configurations and test to see whether or not it matters but most don't care to go trhough all of the trouble to do that.

 

[haralds]

I got an Ultra with 64GB and a 4TB drive. I expect to use this for at least 4-5 years.
I added a 4TB and 2TB NVME T4 plus 2TB USB-C for my Music collection.
My 14-year-old cMPRO is still my backup system. It has dual 3Ghz Xeons and 48GB RAM. Macs tend to last.

 

[kirkster501]

I got an Ultra with 64GB and a 4TB drive. I expect to use this for at least 4-5 years.
I added a 4TB and 2TB NVME T4 plus 2TB USB-C for my Music collection.

Very nice. I bet you swallowed hard when you pressed the buy button for that system. Enjoy. However, most users will not need the power of a M2 Max, let alone an Ultra. As I said before, Apple are masters at getting people to think they "need" something and needlessly up-speccing. Not saying you did that, but they tempt many, myself included.

 

[pshufd]

Very nice. I bet you swallowed hard when you pressed the buy button for that system. Enjoy. However, most users will not need the power of a M2 Max, let alone an Ultra. As I said before, Apple are masters at getting people to think they "need" something and needlessly up-speccing. Not saying you did that, but they tempt many, myself included.

The delta between the mini and the Studio can get blurred because of discounts. Costco was selling the M1 Max for $1,500 in May. They still are from what I've heard, if your local store still has any of them left. The Studio Max was the right choice for me because I run 4 monitors on my desk and I need the RAM.

 

[throAU]

HI, WITH THE POWER OF THE M2 MAX STUDIO, I CANNOT IMAGINE ANYBODY WOULD OPT FOR THE SLOWER STOCK 512GB SSD. HOW MANY OF YOU UPGRADE THE SSD TO 1TB OR MORE?

P.S. Sorry for the capital letters. Not sure why I suddenly could not type in small letters on my iPad when I created this thread.

IT DEPENDS ON THE USE CASE

 

[hajime]

I don’t need the power of M2 Max nor 32GB RAM. The main reason I consider the Studio is to avoid bluetooth and wifi issues I had when I got the minis M2 and M2 Pro.

 

[Morgonaut]

1TB storage will give you double the disk performance, so if you need local storage (which I don't recommend) and if you don't plan to get enough memory then 1TB is better choice over the 512 one.

 

[CreepyAF]

I just got the Samsung t7 shield 4GB for $200 on prime day in case anyone was looking.

 

[pshufd]

I just got the Samsung t7 shield 4GB for $200 on prime day in case anyone was looking.

I'm thinking about a Crucial 4TB for $160 by signing up for Prime and then canceling it in a few days. Does that work? It does say that I can cancel anytime.