Should I buy the 512 gb or 16 gb of ram for the new M2 MacBook Air? I can only afford one

[chiragd]

I’m a computer science major who will have big coding assignments but nothing crazy. I don’t do a lot of high end editing on a regular basis. My only professional use would be these coding projects, other than that, maybe a light gaming(not a big gamer at all), Netflix and everyday things on the laptop. I can only afford one of the above, my only thing is I could get an external hard drive later on but I can’t upgrade Internal Memory and I hope to use this laptop Atleast 4-5 years. I need y’alls help to decide what upgrade will be worth the most of my money.

 

[Macalway]

Get the 16GB. You can't expand that after the fact, but the SSD is easily expandable, especially with cloud.

A no-brainer. Not only that, but these machines are pretty much gimped with just 8gb, yet 256GB is perfectly adequate.

 

[estabya]

If you're only able to get one, I'd go for the upgraded memory. I did the same with my M1 MacBook Air and have zero regrets after a little over a year.

I'm a former network engineer/systems integrator, now back in school for philosophy and history. So my use case is primarily research and school stuff, but then I also do a fair bit of 3D modeling for 3D printing, VHS to digital conversions and video editing tasks for family stuff, and some light programming when the desire or need arises. IMO the 16GB of memory has been invaluable, coming from a machine with 8GB, since it gives me the ability to perform one of these tasks in the background while I work on something else. I keep all the media on various external SSDs and HDDs, which is no problem.

 

[jdb8167]

Normally I would recommend more RAM but for your specific needs, a faster SSD than what is likely to be a single chip 256GB SSD is probably a better bet.

Much of software development is very disk intensive. Compiling and linking software hits the disk hard with both reads and writes. RAM on the other hand in this case is a pretty transient need. You use a lot during builds but then it is freed up when the build completes (unlike something like leaving a Chrome tab open.) You might have to be cognizant of how much RAM you are using when developing and close tabs and applications more often than you want but you can manage that without a lot of trouble. But you can't make the disk faster unless you want to buy an expensive external Thunderbolt SSD. If you are planning on buying a fast external SSD then perhaps RAM is the correct answer.

 

[Macalway]

Normally I would recommend more RAM but for your specific needs, a faster SSD than what is likely to be a single chip 256GB SSD is probably a better bet.

Much of software development is very disk intensive. Compiling and linking software hits the disk hard with both reads and writes. RAM on the other hand in this case is a pretty transient need. You use a lot during builds but then it is freed up when the build completes (unlike something like leaving a Chrome tab open.) You might have to be cognizant of how much RAM you are using when developing and close tabs and applications more often than you want but you can manage that without a lot of trouble. But you can't make the disk faster unless you want to buy an expensive external Thunderbolt SSD. If you are planning on buying a fast external SSD then perhaps RAM is the correct answer.

My solution was to buy a TB 4 enclosure and a

SAMSUNG 980 SSD 1TB PCle 3.0x4, NVMe M.2 2280​

total $150

Speed is very good, virtually native when on TB4.

It's tricky though. You have to really research the specs. The variants of TB is bewildering, as the M.2 standard. Very easy to get stuck with lower performance if it's not matched correctly. And it's not clear from reviews. Amazon reviews ARE very helpful though, if you read carefully. And heat throttling with a bad enclosure is an issue. But at $150 1tb? for these speeds?

But this is mainly for a Intel gen11 (or 12?) Samsung Windows machine with TB4) Never really checked it with the new MBP 14" I have. So be careful.

 

[camotwen]

Normally I would recommend more RAM but for your specific needs, a faster SSD than what is likely to be a single chip 256GB SSD is probably a better bet.

Much of software development is very disk intensive. Compiling and linking software hits the disk hard with both reads and writes. RAM on the other hand in this case is a pretty transient need. You use a lot during builds but then it is freed up when the build completes (unlike something like leaving a Chrome tab open.) You might have to be cognizant of how much RAM you are using when developing and close tabs and applications more often than you want but you can manage that without a lot of trouble. But you can't make the disk faster unless you want to buy an expensive external Thunderbolt SSD. If you are planning on buying a fast external SSD then perhaps RAM is the correct answer.

Yeah, same, I consider 16gb ram important in general, but in this case I would have gone for the faster SSD (I never had to choose between double RAM and double SSD speed before I guess). And not to mention that, most probably, in OP's case a few tabs open while developing would be served fine by swap memory with the faster SSD.

Or even better, go for an M1 16/256 and who cares about that supposed 20% CPU increase.

 

[jav6454]

My go-to advise is always go for the most memory your budget allows first before storage.

 

[camotwen]

My go-to advise is always go for the most memory your budget allows first before storage.

Yes, but usually this relates to the amount of memory vs the amount of storage, not the amount of memory vs the read/write speed of storage (and two times that, no less), and this is something that external storage will not fix. I think it is a very tricky question, depending a lot on the tasks one has to do. For a lot of uses I would go with the two times faster storage, especially more casual uses will see it a lot more, like that simple test transferring files that was in youtube is quite relevant for a lot of people. People say that most casual users would not care about the SSD issue, but it is exactly what they would notice easily if they were able to compare rather than the more ram.

 

[TechRunner]

my only thing is I could get an external hard drive later on but I can’t upgrade Internal Memory and I hope to use this laptop Atleast 4-5 years.

Seems like you answered your own question here. 16 GB RAM it is.

 

[boak]

Both, while going for the M1 MBA

 

[VaruLV]

Either both or neither and get M1 or even base MBP 14 if its close in price and on sale/refurb, depending on country youre residing in.

 

[MajorFubar]

Sorry to buck the trend but I clicked 512GB SSD.
It's a well-documented fact that the SSD speed was crippled on the 256GB 13" M2 MBP on account of it having a single 256GB NAND chip instead of the M1's 2x128GB. As far as I know, no one has proved the Air isn't just as crippled, yet.
If it isn't, then yeah, RAM.

 

[jdb8167]

Sorry to buck the trend but I clicked 512GB SSD.
It's a well-documented fact that the SSD speed was crippled on the 256GB 13" M2 MBP on account of it having a single 256GB NAND chip instead of the M1's 2x128GB. As far as I know, no one has proved the Air isn't just as crippled, yet.
If it isn't, then yeah, RAM.

Crippled is a bit hyperbolic. Sure it is slower than the 256 GB of the previous generation and I think that is pretty bad on Apple's part but crippled when talking about 1500 MB/s is a bit much.

 

[ucfgrad93]

My go-to advise is always go for the most memory your budget allows first before storage.

Agreed, you can always add external storage while you can’t add RAM.

 

[JCCL]

Another vote for RAM! That will cripple your machine in the long run

 

[mr_jomo]

16/512 but the M1 Air instead - best of both worlds IMHO.

 

[neo_cs193p]

If you are willing to spend $1500 on the upper base model with 10GPU/8GB RAM/512GB SSD, I strongly advise you to consider spending $1600 on 8GPU/16GB RAM/512GB SSD.

 

[Asiatic Black Hebrew]

Crippled is a bit hyperbolic. Sure it is slower than the 256 GB of the previous generation and I think that is pretty bad on Apple's part but crippled when talking about 1500 MB/s is a bit much.

I'm glad someone else pointed this out before me. "Crippled" in this context, is both hilariously inaccurate & woefully off-target. I'd be willing to bet that the majority of users would have never even felt a difference, had they not heard/read about it first.

 

[StellarVixen]

Storage is expandable, memory is not. If I was in your position I would get 16GB.

 

[StellarVixen]

Crippled is a bit hyperbolic. Sure it is slower than the 256 GB of the previous generation and I think that is pretty bad on Apple's part but crippled when talking about 1500 MB/s is a bit much.

It is not. It is 2022. You are paying for premium tech so you should be getting what premium tech has to offer.

 

[Asiatic Black Hebrew]

It is not. It is 2022. You are paying for premium tech so you should be getting what premium tech has to offer.

I'm not entirely sure what you mean by "premium tech." The word "premium" in any context, isn't tangible, & is largely subjective. I would argue that a 13" M2 MBP would be considered a premium product by many users, yet you seem to disagree, which is the paradox.

 

[StellarVixen]

I'm not entirely sure what you mean by "premium tech." The word "premium" in any context, isn't tangible, & is largely subjective. I would argue that a 13" M2 MBP would be considered a premium product by many users, yet you seem to disagree, which is the paradox.

It means you are paying the hefty price for something and you are expecting the hardware to be the best that money can buy or at least close to it, while in fact it is not.

Either argue in good faith or do not argue at all.

 

[Asiatic Black Hebrew]

It means you are paying the hefty price for something and you are expecting the hardware to be the best that money can buy or at least close to it, while in fact it is not.

Either argue in good faith or do not argue at all.

Asking for clarification is hardly arguing. However, if you're suggesting that the base model is obsolete because of the single SSD configuration, then we can just agree to disagree.

And for the record, I do think OP should opt for the disk upgrade over the RAM, but definitely not because the laptop would be obsolete without it.

 

[Love-hate 🍏 relationship]

get the m1 with 16gb tbh

 

[jav6454]

Agreed, you can also add external storage while you can’t add RAM.

Sad truth ever since Apple removed that ability. Now we are forced to make more expensive outright purchases.