Macbookair M1, how much storage do I need?

[WilliamTyl]

Hi, I need to get a new Mac, my choice is always the lightest which is Macbookair still, but I am not sure if 512 GB of storage is enough. I need the highest RAM for photoshop/Animate and music editing, but I got used to store all files I am not working on outside of the laptop so I don t think I need a huge amount of storage, but maybe the new OS takes a lot of storage space compared to old ones? Normally I would just get a larger storage but in this case 1Tb would add three weeks more to the delivery, so I am contemplating if 512 gb can be enough. What is your experience? Thank you

 

[Dave_H]

I'd say 512 + an external SSD. Samsung's T5 or T7 series are pretty great.

But, will you get a MBA for such a heavy work? Wouldn't a MBP be a better fit? Just asking.

 

[Cheffy Dave]

The M1 MBA will easily handle anything you throw at it, back in the day, I always got 512 RAM, With photos stored on the cloud, I have plenty storage left, on this 12”IPP I have 512 as well. With music,photo’s, and two books I am writing,still have 460 left.As I see it,with external storage, you have to carry it with you,cus sure as heck, what you want,will be on it, not with you, if you left it home. You could always get a 1TB SSD in your MB Air , which is a lot of storage.

 

[WilliamTyl]

I'd say 512 + an external SSD. Samsung's T5 or T7 series are pretty great.

But, will you get a MBA for such a heavy work? Wouldn't a MBP be a better fit? Just asking.

Well, MBPro is heavier and I hate that new bar with a vengeance my ancient MBA from 2011 was doing everything and just got a bit slow, I aasumed the new MBA will be more powerful?

 

[Grey Area]

I work with big files or file collections - I do not necessarily store them for long, but I get them, work on them, and offload them again. Normally I would be fine with 512GB, maybe even 256GB if I was careful to dump things immediately when I no longer need them for the task at hand. But with these soldered SSDs I am a bit concerned. Writing kills SSDs in the long run, and my computers write a lot. A broken soldered SSD means a broken mainboard and difficult repairs. It might better to get an excessively large SSD to spread the wear and prolong the lifetime.

 

[Fishrrman]

Do your editing on the internal drive (512gb will be fine).

Once projects are done, "move them off of" the internal drive to external "archival storage".