How crazy to buy an iMac with the 256GB drive.

[ger19]

Buying an iMac with only 8GB of ram has been discussed ad nauseam, but what about going light on the SSD and getting only a 256GB drive?

I have a windows machine that’s 12 years old. It came with a 120GB SSD and I upgraded it to a 256GB SSD. It’s currently sitting about 60% full and I have a lot of stuff I could take off it like several years of Turbo Tax. I only use it for the system and programs. I have a 1TB drive that I store all my data. I’m going to replicate that on my iMac by using the cloud and an external drive. I’m really looking at the new computer as an opportunity to start over and streamline my system - only keeping the programs and data files I actually use.

Any thoughts on configuring my iMac with only the 256GB SSD? I’m getting 16GB of ram.

 

[chabig]

It's not crazy at all if it can contain your data.

 

[Juicy Box]

Get the storage that you need.

People on MR complain about the base storage on Macs being too small, but most of them just hate the upgrade prices (which are ridiculous), rather than saying that the base storage is too small for people.

My wife currently uses a Mid 2012 MBA with only 64GB of storage. I might get her a M3 MBA when they are released, and I will not be getting larger than base storage. Just a waste since she only uses about 40GB of the 64GB storage she currently has.

Larger storage options could have faster speeds, so that is something you should consider, but if you know you won't need anywhere close to the 256GB of the base storage, then no point in spending money on it.

 

[Andrey84]

It's only crazy when you make this decision based on price only (as @Juicy Box alluded to above), rather than making an effort to understand your own data storage requirements, and just hoping to be lucky.

For very light computer use with just 1 user, which is mainly browsing and document editing, 256GB might as well be enough for 10 years.

Sonoma officially occupies 20GB, and with patches and caches it's 30GB.
Browser cache easily grows to 5GB over 5 years.
Other applications, around 10GB in total.
So, the basics are roughly 45GB. You are left with ~210GB, which is plenty.

I would personally never go for 256GB myself, as I absolutely hate running out of space. I have an MBP with 512GB and with my wife's profile there I ran out of space. I've deleted her profile, fully erased the drive, and now I have 450GB free

 

[Apple_Robert]

Make sure to keep in mind that you should keep 20% of the drive space free for optimal performance and longevity of the drive.

 

[ger19]

I've deleted her profile, fully erased the drive, and now I have 450GB free

Does that mean you’re up and running on 62GB? If so, that seems like you could live with a 256GB just fine.

 

[circatee]

For me personally, since cloud storage is an option, the base device storage will suffice for me.
Now, memory is another thing. I feel 16GB should be the minimum now. Alas, this is a personal preference, based on my use case...

 

[Andrey84]

Does that mean you’re up and running on 62GB? If so, that seems like you could live with a 256GB just fine.

Nope. Sometimes I download movies and TV series, when I cannot anything good to watch on Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+ or Disney+. One movie is 35GB on average. Series can be 100GB. So you can see how quickly the space evaporates.

I've checked and now it's just 368GB free already, 1 month after fully wiping all the data.

 

[Andrey84]

For me personally, since cloud storage is an option, the base device storage will suffice for me.
Now, memory is another thing. I feel 16GB should be the minimum now. Alas, this is a personal preference, based on my use case...

This is a very good point. You can have 2TB iCloud and all your historic stuff can live there. More safe this way as well, as you won't lose your data if your Mac gets stolen or if the storage drive dies.

 

[Spaceboi Scaphandre]

It's not crazy. You can get away with low internal storage for the desktops since you can just permanently plug in a thunderbolt drive to it for storage expansion since it's a desktop, it's not going anywhere. Hell it's cheaper to just get an external SSD than Apple's storage upgrades

Now getting the iMac with less than 16 gb of RAM, now that's actually crazy. 8 does not cover it anymore, especially in a unified memory format where the CPU and GPU share the same pool. Hell even 16 is borderline not enough as I'm hitting swap like crazy on my Macbook Pro.

 

[bcortens]

It's only crazy when you make this decision based on price only (as @Juicy Box alluded to above), rather than making an effort to understand your own data storage requirements, and just hoping to be lucky.

For very light computer use with just 1 user, which is mainly browsing and document editing, 256GB might as well be enough for 10 years.

Sonoma officially occupies 20GB, and with patches and caches it's 30GB.
Browser cache easily grows to 5GB over 5 years.
Other applications, around 10GB in total.
So, the basics are roughly 45GB. You are left with ~210GB, which is plenty.

I would personally never go for 256GB myself, as I absolutely hate running out of space. I have an MBP with 512GB and with my wife's profile there I ran out of space. I've deleted her profile, fully erased the drive, and now I have 450GB free

Most people on here seem to assume no one stores much data anymore. Music alone on my Mac takes up 25GB, Photos are at 150 GB. I do actually subscribe to Apple's iCloud photo service but I want local copies and local backups.

Sure if you don't store any data 256GB is fine, but if you actually plan to store anything locally then 256GB is not a great 10 year Mac...

 

[ger19]

Most people on here seem to assume no one stores much data anymore. Music alone on my Mac takes up 25GB, Photos are at 150 GB. I do actually subscribe to Apple's iCloud photo service but I want local copies and local backups.

Sure if you don't store any data 256GB is fine, but if you actually plan to store anything locally then 256GB is not a great 10 year Mac...

My plan is to get an external 1TB SSD for all my data storage. I guess if the base drive got full, I could load some programs to the external disk as well.

As for esthetics, I found a hub that integrates with the base and has a connection for an M.2 SSD.

USB C Hub for iMac 24 inch 2021/2023, Minisopuru USB Hub Adapter Support M.2 NVMe SSD, iMac USB Hub for iMac M1/M3, iMac Accessories with USB C 10Gbps, USB A 3.2, SD/TF, M.2 SSD(Not Included), Silver.

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www.amazon.com

Looks pretty clean.

 

[bcortens]

My plan is to get an external 1TB SSD for all my data storage. I guess if the base drive got full, I could load some programs to the external disk as well.

As for esthetics, I found a hub that integrates with the base and has a connection for an M.2 SSD.

USB C Hub for iMac 24 inch 2021/2023, Minisopuru USB Hub Adapter Support M.2 NVMe SSD, iMac USB Hub for iMac M1/M3, iMac Accessories with USB C 10Gbps, USB A 3.2, SD/TF, M.2 SSD(Not Included), Silver.

iMac M3 imac 2023 imac usb hub iMac accessories imac 24 imac 24 inch 2021 imac 24 inch 2023 imac adapter imac 24 inch imac usb adapter imac hub imac 24 inch 2021 accessories USB hub imac usb c hub imac usb c hub multiport adapter usb c hub for iMac

www.amazon.com

Looks pretty clean.

That's not bad, I still prefer a good amount of internal storage, I generally buy laptops where 256 is less forgivable than it is in a stationary Mac.

Edit: I actually think if I owned an iMac that little dock would be something I would buy right away thanks to all of the other ports it includes in addition to the storage.

 

[velocityg4]

This is a very good point. You can have 2TB iCloud and all your historic stuff can live there. More safe this way as well, as you won't lose your data if your Mac gets stolen or if the storage drive dies.

Cloud services aren't a backup and data stored there isn't guaranteed. Your data can be lost. While using the cloud is fine. You should have at least one local backup of all that data.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

My plan is to get an external 1TB SSD for all my data storage. I guess if the base drive got full, I could load some programs to the external disk as well.

As for esthetics, I found a hub that integrates with the base and has a connection for an M.2 SSD.

USB C Hub for iMac 24 inch 2021/2023, Minisopuru USB Hub Adapter Support M.2 NVMe SSD, iMac USB Hub for iMac M1/M3, iMac Accessories with USB C 10Gbps, USB A 3.2, SD/TF, M.2 SSD(Not Included), Silver.

iMac M3 imac 2023 imac usb hub iMac accessories imac 24 imac 24 inch 2021 imac 24 inch 2023 imac adapter imac 24 inch imac usb adapter imac hub imac 24 inch 2021 accessories USB hub imac usb c hub imac usb c hub multiport adapter usb c hub for iMac

www.amazon.com

Looks pretty clean.

macOS doesn't "like" things expected to be stored on internal drive moved to external drives. Yes, you can certainly do it- I do myself- and it can work fine but things can happen. For example, photo libraries can get very large over time, so storing the Photos app library on an external seems like a great idea... until you open it one day and the hub is NOT connected. When library is not findable, Photos makes a new library on the internal drive. Yes, you can then manually merge the two once you realize what has happened and reassign the main library to the external drive again but you need to be sensitive to this scenario.

Same with music library. Those too can become quite large over time and seem natural to store externally... until you open music and the hub is disconnected. Then a new library is created on the internal drive and all of your music seems to be missing. It's not and you remedy it by re-associating main library with the one on the hub drive.

Point: unless you don't mind keeping up and catching such things when they happen- and they will- you need enough internal storage to hold the core (Apple App) media: both what you have today and what you will add over life of the device. Else, you can certainly move big media stuff to an external drive and then just police that scenario on the fly.

There's basic math done in post #4 but then it doesn't seem to consider if you perhaps have 500 CDs to scan... or a huge amount of accumulated photos... or a good amount of video, etc. It's this kind of stuff- especially video- that will demand big chunks of space... though not necessarily on the internal drive IF you are willing to manage it on an external(s) and catch it when external disconnects. You got a little taste of this by your wife sharing the Mac and eating up a LOT of storage. What was in her user section that was so big? Photos? Music? Video? Podcasts?

Now think not just for today but also into the future. Will your user section add much of any of that? Will your wife want a user section added to the new Mac for her (and her higher storage demands now)? With Silicon Macs, you can't grow initial internal specs later if you decide you want/need more. So you have to think of not just 2024 but also 2029+.

 

[Fishrrman]

Get the 512gb SSD.

Two years from now, you will look back and realize that it was a wise choice...

 

[circatee]

Cloud services aren't a backup and data stored there isn't guaranteed. Your data can be lost. While using the cloud is fine. You should have at least one local backup of all that data.

True, or at a minimum multiple cloud storage options

Note: The 1-2-3 backup rule does spring to mind, too...

 

[JinxVi]

Buying an iMac with only 8GB of ram has been discussed ad nauseam, but what about going light on the SSD and getting only a 256GB drive?

You’re likely making a huge mistake! Most people don’t need more than 8GB RAM at once and can live just fine with swapping memory for multitasking. But everybody needs a fast and reliable SSD all the time. The single 256GB NAND chip in the M3 iMac is at best half as fast as a 512GB SSD with two chips and at worst only one-sixth as fast when you copy very large folders.

 

[ignatius345]

As someone who underspec'ed the storage on my MacBook Air, I'd say this: it's a stone cold drag to run out of room on your SSD. When I'd originally bought the machine I didn't know I'd be using it for graphic design, so I went with the base model. As I filled up the drive, even with iCloud Drive running, I started finding that I was constantly having things I needed purged out of storage and having to re-download them. I had to resort to using a USB-C flash drive to keep a bunch of big work files on. Ended up buying a new (used) M1 Air off eBay just to make it more usable.

HOWEVER. On an iMac it's a lot easier to plug in more storage and just leave it plugged in. That will let you move big files off the internal if you need to make space.

I still think 256 is pretty small at this point, though.

 

[theluggage]

Buying an iMac with only 8GB of ram has been discussed ad nauseam, but what about going light on the SSD and getting only a 256GB drive?

I'd guess that if you were planning on doing audio production or serious video editing you wouldn't be asking the question.

It really depends on what you are doing with your computer. I'd say that 256GB is fine for "personal productivity" stuff, but could get tight if you're doing any sort of media creation, installing multiple "pro" apps or using virtual machines etc. Also, what other people have posted bears repeating: you don't want your main system drive getting anywhere close to 100% full or it will clobber performance.

For storing your own documents/data files, external, cloud or NAS is fine, and some apps do let you re-locate large media libraries etc. to external storage. Most of the advantages of Apple's super-fast SSDs come from having the system, swap, applications and temporary storage on the internal SSD.

Having a small-ish system+apps+work-in-progress drive and keeping your content on a large external drive is a perfectly viable idea, although MacOS could make it a bit easier to configure this and make it stick.

It is still really annoying that Apple forces this dilemma on buyers - true, 8GB/256GB will turn out to be adequate for many people but it shouldn't cost anything like $400 to buy yourself a bit of "headroom" and 16/512 is a far more sensible starting point unless you know you're only going to be doing "personal productivity".

 

[bcortens]

I'd guess that if you were planning on doing audio production or serious video editing you wouldn't be asking the question.

It really depends on what you are doing with your computer. I'd say that 256GB is fine for "personal productivity" stuff, but could get tight if you're doing any sort of media creation, installing multiple "pro" apps or using virtual machines etc. Also, what other people have posted bears repeating: you don't want your main system drive getting anywhere close to 100% full or it will clobber performance.

For storing your own documents/data files, external, cloud or NAS is fine, and some apps do let you re-locate large media libraries etc. to external storage. Most of the advantages of Apple's super-fast SSDs come from having the system, swap, applications and temporary storage on the internal SSD.

Having a small-ish system+apps+work-in-progress drive and keeping your content on a large external drive is a perfectly viable idea, although MacOS could make it a bit easier to configure this and make it stick.

It is still really annoying that Apple forces this dilemma on buyers - true, 8GB/256GB will turn out to be adequate for many people but it shouldn't cost anything like $400 to buy yourself a bit of "headroom" and 16/512 is a far more sensible starting point unless you know you're only going to be doing "personal productivity".

Mostly agree, but minor quibble, I don't think 8GB/256GB is adequate if you have photos or music you want to store. I know iCloud Drive exists but you shouldn't rely upon it for your photos and should have local copies and backups... Photo sizes get larger every year so photo space consumption is only going to increase over time.

 

[Suzzzabelle]

Give me a huge monitor, lots of storage, super fast processor and tons of RAM. I want more than I currently have on my ancient ailing iMac 2013. I have NEVER downgraded those features and I never will. I only upgrade. Plus, No crayon colors please.

End of story.

 

[Feek]

5 YEARS since a new iMac was launched. 😳

Huh?

 

[Suzzzabelle]

Huh?

Sorry. 5 years since a new MEANINGFUL iMac was launched

 

[johannnn]

I've been using Macs since the Mac Mini that released with OS X 10.4 Tiger. Since then I've had both Mac Minis, iMacs, MacBook, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, etc. While I'm not an influencer that records 4K video 24/7, I would still label me as somewhat of a power user. And let's find out how much storage I need:

• All my music is streamed from Apple Music or Spotify
• All my media is streamed from Apple TV+, Netflix, Disney Plus, Youtube, or Twitch
• All my photos and videos are stored in iCloud, which takes no space since "optimized storage" is turned on by default nowadays
• I don't need any games stored on my Mac since there are no good games on Mac lol. I play on my iPad though.
• I have plenty of apps. My application folder has ~100 items.

In all, I have around 150GB free. The total disk size is 256GB.