Air Question

Looking to buy my wife a air or macbook for xmas, she currently has an iPad and is wanting to go back to more a "laptop" for surfing and storing pics and having access to programs like Pages etc.

I would like to get an Air but the ss drive capacities worry me? are they enough for basic storing of pictures and having some apps on the computer and storing email messages etc..?

Cheers,

128GB is probably enough for most users. It's certainly enough for some apps and email messages but the pictures may (or may not) take up a lot of space. If she's just a casual picture taker, it should be fine. If she's taking pictures all the time and doing so with high end cameras, the internal storage may feel a bit cramped.

What does she use for a computer now?
The answer would be in how long has she been using it and how much storage space is used on it.
And how well she might handle managing her used space vs keeping some stuff on an external.

If she's not going to manage her own free space:
and that answer is several years with perhaps 60 GB or less used, then the 128 GB SSD should be plenty and at 80 up to 120 GB used (maybe150), would think the 256 should be big enough for a few years unless she goes on a picture taking extravaganza.

Currently using a iPad with an account on my iMac for doc files and pics (has minimal pics on iPad) she doesn't want to have to sit at my computer to access docs etc..

I think a 256gb air would work as long as apps don't take a lot of space (which is my initial concern) it would use a drive connected to home network for backups.

I can give you a sense of what makes up an /Applications directory - mine is 15GB and that includes some heavyweights (XCode at 4.74GB, Flash Builder at 4.8GB and iPhoto at 1.7GB). Unless you're installing big applications, your applications probably won't take up much space (relatively speaking).

vansmith said:

I can give you a sense of what makes up an /Applications directory - mine is 15GB and that includes some heavyweights (XCode at 4.74GB, Flash Builder at 4.8GB and iPhoto at 1.7GB). Unless you're installing big applications, your applications probably won't take up much space (relatively speaking).

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Yeah...we know what the rest of your HD is full of!!!

















etc...etc...etc...etc...

- Nick

vansmith said:

I can give you a sense of what makes up an /Applications directory - mine is 15GB and that includes some heavyweights (XCode at 4.74GB, Flash Builder at 4.8GB and iPhoto at 1.7GB). Unless you're installing big applications, your applications probably won't take up much space (relatively speaking).

Click to expand...

Thanks that helps.

Applications for the most part do not take that much space unless she's installing a bunch of games.

I have well over 150 applications installed using less than 40 GB of space.

Now Steam games on the other hand - a few of those can fill up a drive real quick.
Steam stores it's game files in Application Support - currently have 2 games installed taking up another 25 GB of space.

decoman said:

Currently using a iPad with an account on my iMac for doc files and pics (has minimal pics on iPad) she doesn't want to have to sit at my computer to access docs etc..

I think a 256gb air would work as long as apps don't take a lot of space (which is my initial concern) it would use a drive connected to home network for backups.

Click to expand...

Hi Decoman - a 256 GB SSD should be plenty for your wife, especially if she is not planning on loading a LOT of movies, large image files, and a LOT of music - I bough a rMBPro in March w/ a 256 GB SSD - I have most of the apps desired - pic below is the 'Storage' from System Info; as you can see, there is nearly 190 GB still free w/ most of my storage in Audio/Apps/Other - there is some discrepancy in reporting these numbers when I use other programs such as Disk Inspector & WhatSize - believe that I have closer to 22 GB in audio MP3 (about 90 hrs worth of music); Photos take up less that 1 GB (there are hundreds but nearly all have been re-sized from my camera's 16 MP output).

Now the 'Other' category is always a mystery and includes so many items - see quote below from HERE - SO, bottom line your wife should be fine w/ the size drive you are contemplating.

For our expert members - I'm curious about that 'Other' category - is the list correct? Also the 'Backups' showing on my storage bar - assume these are from Time Machine which I attached about once a week - should these be deleted automatically once TM is completed in updating the computer? Thanks - Dave

Other is everything else: all kinds of stuff. Here's a partial list:
System Stuff:
•The disk directory, catalogs, etc. that keep track of everything on the disk
•The File System Event Store, a log of changes to the files & folders
•OSX itself (the operating system)
•System work files (swap files, laptop sleepimage file, temporary files)
•System caches and logs
•Spotlight index
•The Versions database (previous versions of various files & documents)
•Files supporting various Apple apps

In each User home folder:
•Preferences and settings
•Downloads
•User caches and logs
•Word processing documents, spreadsheets, etc
•Email and Contacts
•Calendars
•Browser history, bookmarks, cookies, web site icons
•Keychains
•Widgets
•Data for any apps that doesn't fall into one of the categories above
•Files supporting various apps

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pigoo3 said:

Yeah...we know what the rest of your HD is full of!!!

Click to expand...

Have you been hacking my Mac again?

bobtomay said:

Now Steam games on the other hand - a few of those can fill up a drive real quick.
Steam stores it's game files in Application Support - currently have 2 games installed taking up another 25 GB of space.

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Good point. Steam and any associated games can suck back the space pretty quickly.