Why-o-why are we still stuck on 256GB SSD's

250gb is more than enough for most people and businesses. If you need more, buy more.

I was an IT Equipment Coordinator for a large corporation up until early last year. Purchased thousands of computers and rebuilt thousands of used ones with 250gb SSDs.

Had maybe 1 or 2 SSDs fail in that time too. No reliability issues.
 
256GB SSD's is sufficient base storage for a typical (non-gaming) computer.

Reminds me when I spent a pretty penny on an Intel X25-M 160GB 12 years ago. Didn't want "just an OS drive" with a 32GB OCZ SSD.
Went ballz-2-tha-wall with a Samsung 980PRO 2TB costing half what the Intel cost back then.
 
For the average user in the Mac ecosystem, 256GB is likely fine not so much in the Windows ecosystem.

Apple has done so good of a job with their iCloud integration that most of their users probably don’t realize that a most of their files reside in the iCloud. The most commonly used or recently used files have local copies on disk for performance but longer term storage needs are handled up in the cloud. The user does not need to tell the OS what to put into the cloud as majority of directories that an average user will use are automatically synced.

I’m forced to use Windows for work and Onedrive integration is a joke compared to iCloud on Mac.
 
IveBeenRued said:
For the average user in the Mac ecosystem, 256GB is likely fine not so much in the Windows ecosystem.

Apple has done so good of a job with their iCloud integration that most of their users probably don’t realize that a most of their files reside in the iCloud. The most commonly used or recently used files have local copies on disk for performance but longer term storage needs are handled up in the cloud. The user does not need to tell the OS what to put into the cloud as majority of directories that an average user will use are automatically synced.

I’m forced to use Windows for work and Onedrive integration is a joke compared to iCloud on Mac.
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256GB is fine for windows. I'm a coder and I only use about 128GB, and for people who are loading up with games and videos, or doing media editing they probably should have a separate drive for their workload anyways.
 
My I5 Mac mini is now going on three years old I think, My wife's M1 Mac mini is not even a year old, my M1 MacBook Air is going on 2 years old all are 256 Gb of memory. (also 2 iPhone 13s, yeah, a lot of photos)

Both have plenty of storage for my our use. I knew when I was buying it I could buy more but choose not too. I pretty much always bought base model storage, including on phones, I never ran out. For my use, I figure if I ever do then I have way too much stuff saved for no reason at all.

Retarded amount of photos saved all the time, who is ever going to want them all when we pass on to non existence?
BUt if those photos are important I would upload them to a storage device.

256 is a base priced model, everyone has a choice to buy a model with more, like any computer.
Sure its a big profit margin for Apple but what isnt on any high end product of any device? Always options.

I suspect moving forward the day will come that they move up to 512 I do agree, its starting to look a little cheap for a high end product and I prefer that they do increase it still knowing I will most likely never use it because I have too much stuff saved that no one will ever want anyway and look to eliminate 85% of it after computing for 20 years.
 
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y_p_w said:
Probably not a netbook, where the era ended around 2014. But possibly a Chromebook. I got one recently as a backup for $99 plus tax at Target. The limited things it does perform remarkable well considering the price. It boots fast and the video quality is fine. I was using it to stream 1080p video to a TV. It's only got 32 GB, but that's plenty for the operating system and web pages.
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I had a Dell Mini9 back in '09, it was awesome. Precursor to the tablet!
 
y_p_w said:
I still like having an optical drive around, even after I got an LG external DVD writer. I've seen the procedure to change it and I really don't think it would suit my needs or be something I'd be comfortable doing myself.
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I've been told that back when most Apple portables had optical drives, that was the number one most often replaced part at the Genius bar, or at least it was after they went full-scale to slot loading drives(all G4 portables and anything after that). If you never carry your laptop or always keep it in a clean sleeve, they tend to fare well, but the slot loading drives are just junk magnets if they're tossed in a backpack or other place like a lot of people carry their laptop. When I put the Optibay in my 9,1, I used aluminum duct tape to seal off the slot from the back to not give dust another entry point into the case.

Somewhere or another, I have a box full of slot loading drives pulled from all manner of Macs from Powerbooks to iMacs to to iBooks and everything else. The only ones I don't lump in with everything else are the ones I've pulled from dead iMac G3s because they're the same(oddball) drive that the G4 Cube uses. In any case, a surprising number of the ones pulled from portables you'll find with a coin stuck in the bottom of the drive below the spindle. I've never actually seen it hurt the function of the drive, but they get in there from-surprise-coins falling through the slot.

I have a few of the Apple branded external SuperDrives kicking around that I use when I need one. They still work fine even with my M1 MBP. I keep one plugged into each of the docks at home and work, and have one or two others around. You have to do a bit of terminal work to get computers like my MBP 9,1 that are supposed to have an internal drive to work properly with the Apple external, but once there they work just as well as the internals but I have better control over their conditions.
 
bunnspecial said:
I've been told that back when most Apple portables had optical drives, that was the number one most often replaced part at the Genius bar, or at least it was after they went full-scale to slot loading drives(all G4 portables and anything after that). If you never carry your laptop or always keep it in a clean sleeve, they tend to fare well, but the slot loading drives are just junk magnets if they're tossed in a backpack or other place like a lot of people carry their laptop. When I put the Optibay in my 9,1, I used aluminum duct tape to seal off the slot from the back to not give dust another entry point into the case.

Somewhere or another, I have a box full of slot loading drives pulled from all manner of Macs from Powerbooks to iMacs to to iBooks and everything else. The only ones I don't lump in with everything else are the ones I've pulled from dead iMac G3s because they're the same(oddball) drive that the G4 Cube uses. In any case, a surprising number of the ones pulled from portables you'll find with a coin stuck in the bottom of the drive below the spindle. I've never actually seen it hurt the function of the drive, but they get in there from-surprise-coins falling through the slot.

I have a few of the Apple branded external SuperDrives kicking around that I use when I need one. They still work fine even with my M1 MBP. I keep one plugged into each of the docks at home and work, and have one or two others around. You have to do a bit of terminal work to get computers like my MBP 9,1 that are supposed to have an internal drive to work properly with the Apple external, but once there they work just as well as the internals but I have better control over their conditions.
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Those are software locked from working with any Mac where there was a built-in optical drive. Not sure why, but that's the way Apple does it. However, I can use that LG drive with my mid-2012 Unibody, although I'm not sure what happens if I try to burn a CD or DVD.

I personally like trays since I still have a few 3" CDs, and they don't even recommend using adapters with slot loading drives. That and some of those oddball "business card" sized CDs with info.

I understood that the optical drive bay only supposes 3.0 Gbit/sec on some models. It says a link speed of 6.0 but a negotiated speed (for the drive) of 1.5.

optical.webp
 
y_p_w said:
Those are software locked from working with any Mac where there was a built-in optical drive. Not sure why, but that's the way Apple does it. However, I can use that LG drive with my mid-2012 Unibody, although I'm not sure what happens if I try to burn a CD or DVD.

I personally like trays since I still have a few 3" CDs, and they don't even recommend using adapters with slot loading drives. That and some of those oddball "business card" sized CDs with info.

I understood that the optical drive bay only supposes 3.0 Gbit/sec on some models. It says a link speed of 6.0 but a negotiated speed (for the drive) of 1.5.

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Terminal commands make the Apple drives work. sudo nvram boot-args="mbasd=1"

I have Black Magic test results from before and after moving the SSD to the optical bay and there is no difference in speed. There's not a chance I would have put a ~$300(at the time) SSD in it if it wasn't. I'm away from that computer but can't show them. The bus speed is the same on 2012s, although optical drives can't make use of speeds anywhere close to that.
 
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