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Ordering a MBP - help choosing options. Thanks!

81Tiger04

81Tiger04

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Aug 11, 2009
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I'm sitting here with my wife trying to configure her new MBP and we're having some debate over what to get. She is a virtual teacher so her computer is very important to her. It needs to operate smoothly and always be up to the task, no matter what it may be. On a daily basis, she is doing some combination of the following tasks:
  • Zoom
  • Several browser windows simultaneously (most of which have "interactive games")
  • Excel
  • Word
Since she uses it so much, screen size is important so the 16" is a given. So that eliminates the MBA. It's the options after that where we cannot decide on. The Pro chip seems more than ample I think. But is 16GB enough? And would you recommend 512GB or 1TB of SSD? At first, we thought of "future proofing" this for 5 years or so. But after reading several posts, it seems like 3 years or so is maybe a smarter idea.

Thank you for your help!
 
16 GB will be plenty, especially with unified memory. 512 GB of storage or 1 TB is totally up to her for convenience. If it’s in budget, go for 1 TB for ease of use in the case you fill up 512. Otherwise you could always get an external drive but that can be a pain in the butt if traveling a lot, etc.

My girlfriend is a teacher and she stores everything in google drive so she is using a 2015 MacBook with a 128GB SSD and has no issues with storage. However I don’t use google drive and have filled up my 512 over the past 5 years.

TLDR:

16GB of memory will be plenty but ssd space is totally personal preference!
 
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Base 16 is more than plenty. I went with the 1tb and I knew beforehand that it option is overkill for my needs.

Also remember that you can use iCloud Drive if you need extra storage and don’t mind using cloud storage. It’s cheap, but there are cheaper and arguably better alternatives for cloud use like google drive.
 
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Maygoo23 said:
16 GB will be plenty, especially with unified memory. 512 GB of storage or 1 TB is totally up to her for convenience. If it’s in budget, go for 1 TB for ease of use in the case you fill up 512. Otherwise you could always get an external drive but that can be a pain in the butt if traveling a lot, etc.

My girlfriend is a teacher and she stores everything in google drive so she is using a 2015 MacBook with a 128GB SSD and has no issues with storage. However I don’t use google drive and have filled up my 512 over the past 5 years.

TLDR:

16GB of memory will be plenty but ssd space is totally personal preference!
Click to expand...
Thanks. RAM is the toughest thing for us to predict. We feel 16GB is enough and 32GB is more than we'll ever need. As for SSD, I forgot to mention that we have Apple One so we have 2TB of iCloud. I think she may also receive some space on Google Cloud through work.
 
81Tiger04 said:
I'm sitting here with my wife trying to configure her new MBP and we're having some debate over what to get. She is a virtual teacher so her computer is very important to her. It needs to operate smoothly and always be up to the task, no matter what it may be. On a daily basis, she is doing some combination of the following tasks:
  • Zoom
  • Several browser windows simultaneously (most of which have "interactive games")
  • Excel
  • Word
Since she uses it so much, screen size is important so the 16" is a given. So that eliminates the MBA. It's the options after that where we cannot decide on. The Pro chip seems more than ample I think. But is 16GB enough? And would you recommend 512GB or 1TB of SSD? At first, we thought of "future proofing" this for 5 years or so. But after reading several posts, it seems like 3 years or so is maybe a smarter idea.

Thank you for your help!
Click to expand...
She doesn't need a new Pro. Any of the M1 line of laptops will do what she needs, even the base model 8gb MBA.
 
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