[osxholunman5]

it will look like 5.25" floppy today, I still have a few very neat program written in basic and saved on those floppy disk, now I don't think I will ever see it again.

[quayzar]

I think solid state would be better utilised in conjunction with a traditional HD for now. For example we could have a SSD dedicated to the Logic Board for the OS and some Apps and HDD for video files. This would kind of work like the RAM disk in Classic but wouldn't require the computer to be on. This could at least be used as a stop gap between HDD and SSD on the Pro Models as I filled up my current MacBook Pro and that's making me have to store extra content on a home server instead of being able to bring everything with me.

[Wizardling]

SmartyGuy said:

"And, while SSDs will be lagging behind the 500GB to 1TB capacities of hard disk drives for some time to come, McGregor argues that users don't need that much storage anyway."

He lost me there. What planet does he live on?

Somewhere far, far away for sure...

On my main Mac the internal HD is 500GB, I've an external 500GB HD for TV I download off BitTorrent (no TV on iTunes or elsewhere here in NZ, yet :-( ), another 500GB HD for my iTunes and iPhoto libraries (which I'll need to upgrade to 1TB within six months), and a 1TB HD for Time Machine which could do to be a bit bigger. What I really need is a drobo, but I can't afford one right now.

I'm frankly baffled how anyone gets by with only 256GB for example. Do they still only rent DVDs? Download no podcasts? Have no photo collection? Have no music collection to speak of? How on Earth do you get by with so little space?

[heyjp]

How many articles have I read since 1990 that projected the cost of RAM and SSD crossing under the price of disk storage "within 3 years". The hard disk dudes still have more tricks up their sleeves. While SSD's will continue to drop in price and the "acceptable priced SSD size" will continue to grow, the thirst for storage will outstrip that pace for several more years.
Jim

[bwanderson]

natmusak said:

How many of your friends have 500GB to 1TB drives? How many who don't say they really need that much storage?

Who cares? If I want a 500gb drive, why shouldn't I have one? Because you say I shouldn't? Why do you care how much storage space I WANT my computer to pack?

[bsfa]

I'm with Quayzar. Sure, there are plenty of people needing more, and it is clear that they let themselves heard here, but that doesn't negate the fact that they can combine HD and SSD to get the bet from both. Plus, the guy in the article was right in the sense that not everybody needs it. For my business, the Intel SSD (at merely 80 GB) looks very interesting, because it is quick. It can be replaced by a larger one later (or another one can be added). The database is not that big, but needs to be quick. The market is there, already. And it is chipping away from the HD market.

It would be very exciting if Apple struck a deal with an SSD manufacturer to break away from the SATA interface and increase raw power in that area (great news for the company's database).

Bert

[pistogrih]

This article was less to me about space, but more about speed. Despite working with some fantastically fast machines, with great processors and loads of RAM, I still spend way too long looking at a progress bar whilst I copy or move a couple of gigs of data here and there.

The news about fibre channel cards and PCI cards with multiple lanes is all good, except for me where my primary workstation is a MacBook Pro. Is this another way for the industry to consumerise certain features to force people who do some actual work to buy more expensive kit?

Like others here I also have an issue with people telling me how much storage I should need. I love storage, the more the better. Additionally, I always want to be able to access my data whenever I want, so could people please stop going on about The Cloud. Yes I know it's a popular buzzword, but until my in-laws/work/the train/arse end-of-nowhere has lightning speed internet access, I don't want to wait for 2 hours of HD footage to render down my airport connection thanks.

[melgross]

Where are we going to get all of those extra lanes? There are only so many, and 16, at least, will be used for the graphics card alone.
Anyone remember the "Hardcard" of many years ago? That also resided on a card plugged into the buss. A full 20 MB at first.

[WarrenS]

I just hope without all the whirrling and clicking that the drives last as long as the computer.

[frogfish]

Hard drives are like money, more is better. I am not a computer pro, but I shoot lots of pics both in highest quality jpeg and RAW. It uses up a lot of space, I filled 80 gigs on my powerbook G4 in like 22 months after I bought and had to move stuff to external drives. The new macbook is already going to get an upgrade to 320 from the 160 standard..
Light weight, small storage devices without moving parts would be fantastic, but they gotta be big of enough for modern use

[reflexologist]

I'm a photographer and have just hit 25TB (25,000GB) in total storage (much of that is paranoid backup). Then again my MacBook Pro stores all my admin including 20 years of diary, accounts, letters etc; 6000 iTunes tracks; 10 years of email etc; 5000 scans of snail mail. The drive is 250GB. Capacious enough indeed. A tiny 320GB WD Passport serves as backup.

[Jarmo]

Way back, when a MacPaint drawing or a WingZ spreadsheet used to take about 10K a piece, I thought HD floppies to be needlessly, extragavantly large. A bit later, my LC:s 20 MB HD seemed larger than I could ever fill up, it was, you know, like over a dozen of floppies!

Then I started doing drawings in Photoshop and suddenly floppies were too small an I even filled up the 20 MB:s..
After that, a 1,2 GB drive seemed like more than everything in the world, but that too filled up.

Right now, my 500GB drive seems spacious enough. The previous 20 GB drive seemed as well, until I realized I couldn't fit my CD collection in there. The 500GB drive will suddenly start getting very, very small when it starts to be the norm to store every movie you have in there. Never mind moving to HD and to a 50GB/film storage requirements.

What about five years into the future, like the subject? Will we be purchasing and storing HD quality 3D TV-episodes and movies? How much space do you need when you need 100GB's for a movie?

In five years you'll have a choice between a $100 250 GB SSD drive, or $100 25 TB HD. Whatever you pick, will depend on your usage needs.

My guess, 100GB or so, on the portable and 50 TB on the home main storage HD, to which you'll be always connected to.

[mjtomlin]

I bought my first hard drive in 1988. It was a Jasmine Direct Drive 45 and it cost me $800. Moving from a dual floppy system, I remember thinking, I would NEVER be able to use up all 45MB. Of course that was when the entire Mac OS fit on an 800K floppy disk.

[lee_sf]

Wizardling said:

I'm frankly baffled how anyone gets by with only 256GB for example. Do they still only rent DVDs? Download no podcasts? Have no photo collection? Have no music collection to speak of? How on Earth do you get by with so little space?

Man. Y'all sound like gamers who need 4Ghz overclocked systems and supercomputer video cards, and sneer at (or are baffled by) anyone that gets by with less.

Much of the world is different than you. A lot of people use their computer for browsing, email (often through a browser), maybe some document work, maybe have a few hundred photos of family stuff. My girlfriend does Java programming on her home machine, runs a website, does a couple sets of taxes, has pictures of her son. Last I saw, there was 40-50Gb used on her 120Gb drive.

Me: 13,000 tracks in iTunes (70Gb) which is huge relative to other people I know, a 63Gb home directory including 10 years of pictures and music projects, 56Gb for apps and system stuff. I don't have much interest in video, so no movies. About 195Gb total.

If you use a couple Tbs, fine. Just keep some perspective that you might not be in the middle of the bell curve.

(It reminds me of a guy in Silicon Valley a few years back who said something like "I don't know how ANYONE can get by with less than $250K/year of income around here.")