[Adam Cake]

I'm an electrical engineering student and I'm thinking of buying the MacBook pro 13 inch with touchbar(2017) and I would like to future proof it but I can afford upgrading either the RAM(to 16 GB) or SSD(to 512 GB) but I'm not sure which one is better? I don't plan on keeping a lot of pictures or videos on it? Any advice?

[Just_Me_D]

If you’re asking which to choose - more RAM or more storage, I’d go with more RAM because you can always upload your data to the cloud.

[Rob Phillips]

If your choice is between SSD or a standard magnetic drive always go with SSD. RAM is much cheaper to upgrade down the road if the need arises. If the drive is already SSD before the upgrade then stick with the 256 GB SSD and upgrade the RAM.

[Adam Cake]

I'm buying a new one so it's either buying one with 256 GB SSD and 16 GB RAM or 512 GB SSD and 8 GB RAM. I meant upgrading from the base model. Thanks for the advice guys

[Rob Phillips]

I'm buying a new one so it's either buying one with 256 GB SSD and 16 GB RAM or 512 GB SSD and 8 GB RAM. Thanks for the advice guys

256 GB SSD with 16 GB RAM all day.

[knotsure]

I wouldn’t need the ram and would decide for the added storage if I had to choose. What do you need?

Also, have you taken a look at Apple refurbished MacBooks? I just bought a non touch bar MacBook Pro refurb with both upgraded storage and ram. Was $300 less than brand new with same warranty. And you can buy AppleCare.

[Adam Cake]

In my country they don't have official Apple stores ,only resellers so buying a refurbished one is not an option unfortunately.

[Just_Me_D]

I wouldn’t need the ram and would decide for the added storage if I had to choose. What do you need?

Also, have you taken a look at Apple refurbished MacBooks? I just bought a non touch bar MacBook Pro refurb with both upgraded storage and ram. Was $300 less than brand new with same warranty. And you can buy AppleCare.

For future-proofing, more RAM is arguably the way to go....

[knotsure]

In my country they don't have official Apple stores ,only resellers so buying a refurbished one is not an option unfortunately.

You can’t order it online? On Apple.com or the Apple store? Well that makes it difficult.

As other posters have said I would agree and say go with more ram for future proofing.

[Adam Cake]

You can’t order it online? On Apple.com or the Apple store? Well that makes it difficult.

As other posters have said I would agree and say go with more ram for future proofing.

Unfortunately ordering online is not an option. Usually stores here have only basic models luckily I managed to find one which has the upgraded ones too. I wish I lived in the US , I would have got the beats headphones and a better laptop for far less ,here I will end up paying around 400 dollars more if not more 😭

[nickstaik]

Hello everybody!

I have a similar budget dilemma about the no-touch MBP, 128GB|16GB or 256|8GB? I am going to use it for radiological images, light coding and graphic design. My future plans to overcome disk shortage is a samsung t5.

What do you advice me?

Thanks a lot

[Just_Me_D]

Hello everybody!

I have a similar budget dilemma about the no-touch MBP, 128GB|16GB or 256|8GB? I am going to use it for radiological images, light coding and graphic design. My future plans to overcome disk shortage is a samsung t5.

What do you advice me?

Thanks a lot

I would always take more RAM....Having said that, 8 GB of RAM on a MacBook is plenty. I use a MacBook Air w/8 GB RAM at work and I have a gazillion (figure of speech) browser tabs open all day everyday along with other apps and the 8 Gigs handle them with ease. With that in mind, if you’ll be taking advantage of cloud services then go with the 16GB RAM, if not, you should be fine with the 8 Gig machine.

[robertk328]

In the past, the 128gb SSD did not perform anything like the 256gb. Not sure if that has changed but I’d be inclined to go with the 256/8gb. I do Lightroom and Photoshop on a 8gb machine and it’s fine. Not a lot of complex layers, etc but it’s handled it well.

[lfe78]

RAM, it'll be cheaper to add storage later if you need it

[Sherry_B]

8 GB of RAM on a MacBook is plenty.

Depends on what you're doing with it. My husband has 16GB on his Macbook (development machine).

[Lee_Bo]

My 2016 MBP has 16 gigs ram and my 2011 iMac has 8 gigs of ram and both run Photoshop and Lightroom really well. Occasionally I'll get the beach ball on the iMac but only under heavy processing.

That being said, I'd go with ram over hard drive space. You can always use iCloud storage or an external hard drive.

[robertk328]

My 2016 MBP has 16 gigs ram and my 2011 iMac has 8 gigs of ram and both run Photoshop and Lightroom really well. Occasionally I'll get the beach ball on the iMac but only under heavy processing.

That being said, I'd go with ram over hard drive space. You can always use iCloud storage or an external hard drive.

Good points but with a laptop you may not always have internet (iCloud) or want to carry extra storage. Previous models were using less optimal 128gb specs vs the 256gb which would negate any benefit of the extra RAM. I'd hope the gap is closed in more recent models but not having much luck finding those tests

[Sherry_B]

or want to carry extra storage.

Not disagreeing with you at all, but have you seen how tiny external hard drives are now? They're getting close to being smaller than a cell phone, and thin too!