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As much as I love SSD's, is 256GB actually enough for power users? Or are they assuming the OS will be on the SSD and you can hook up an external HD for more sp

As much as I love SSD's, is 256GB actually enough for power users? Or are they assuming the OS will be on the SSD and you can hook up an external HD for more space? Just curious.

QuantumRoar 12y ago
As a power user, I can live with a 256GB SSD. But I can't live with less than 384GB of RAM.
- iak8god 12y ago
  > But I can't live with less than 384GB of RAM. Heh, that's a bit more than I expect from this form factor, but I can't believe Dell's calling this an "Ultrabook" and reviewers are calling it a "premium notebook" if the RAM maxes out at 8GB.
  - masklinn 12y ago
    > I can't believe Dell's calling this an "Ultrabook" and reviewers are calling it a "premium notebook" if the RAM maxes out at 8GB. The Ars review included a similar remark: > The year is 2015. 8GB of RAM should be the baseline, with 16GB as an option. 4GB is barely enough to run Chrome. but noted that the CPU supports 16GB, so unless the RAM is soldered you can reach 16GB aftermarket.
    - iak8god 12y ago
      > unless the RAM is soldered Is is according to ifixit's teardown: "Buyer beware: Just like in the MacBooks Air and Retina, the RAM in the XPS 13 is soldered to the motherboard, and cannot be replaced. When you're picking out your new laptop, configure what you think it'll need...forever." - https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Dell+XPS+13+Teardown/36157#s81012 https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Dell+XPS+13+Teardown/36157#s... I'm not a fan of this trend.
      - QuantumRoar 12y ago
        I don't think you can really avoid it when trying to pack everything as densely as possible. A few years down the road, I believe, an SoC will probably contain not only the CPU, graphics, audio, etc., but also RAM. Probably stacked onto the CPU connected with through-silicon vias. All you'll see in an ifixit teardown is a single chip made entirely from nanoscale silicon structures. There'll be nothing a user can even see. The upside, however, is that such a level of integration gives you a power advantage, a price advantage and a size advantage. Just recently, when Broadwell was released, Intel boasted how small their chips have become. This is necessary to make the as-thin-as-possible design of Ultrabooks and it's a trend that's not going to go away because having an Ultrabook in your bag is so much better than any other kind of laptop. I don't really know how it would be possible to make an Ultrabook at that size still modular like a tower PC.
        masklinn 12y ago
        > I don't really know how it would be possible to make an Ultrabook at that size still modular like a tower PC. Nobody is asking for that, notebook CPU and GPU haven't been replaceable in years, and peripherals or the PSU are very much non-replaceable. Being able to replace the SSD (still possible so far through new-ish low-profile formats) and RAM (less and less possible these days) is not even remotely close to "modular like a tower PC", it's barely two steps above from "as unmodular as a cell phone".
        iak8god 12y ago
        I like the power and price advantage of paying only the retail price for storage and memory upgrades and installing them on my own. Size is a very distant third, and mostly a cosmetic issue at this point. You may be right about the long-term trend (but I hope not). In the short term my annoyance at this has me considering something other than a Macbook Pro as my next machine, which I never would have believed if you'd told me it a few years ago.
        QuantumRoar 12y ago
        Actually, the price (for the OEM) of buying completely integrated components is lower than buying separate ones. However, OEMs don't like to show that to customers. So each step in upgrading RAM or SSDs or whatever is worth $100 or more, which makes it way cheaper to just buy separate components... I'm envious of your attitude for not really caring about your laptop's size. That makes it a lot easier :)
bpodgursky 12y ago
I'm a "power user" and I'm doing fine with a 64GB partition. I use a ton of RAM and CPU but I don't have any need to store digital media with Netflix / Amazon / etc.
- JTon 12y ago
  I could probably get by with 64GB if it wasn't for games. Oh, and my FLAC music archive would have to go on a separate disk as well
therealdrag0 12y ago
These days my power-use doesn't take up much space. I don't store many binaries because I can always re-download them quickly. But this varies according to what realm of power-use one is doing. I don't do anything with image/video/audio.
zanny 12y ago
I got an 840 Pro two years ago, and its pretty close to full now (~20GB left). And I only put Arch and program binaries and data on it, ie, my documents, movies music, source code, my pacman database, etc are all on my mechanical drive. At that, like 125GB is steam games. I would definitely need a terabyte SSD to try to consolidate a system all on one disk. My notebook right now is a 256GB SSD + 1TB mechanical that works well.
wvenable 12y ago
I actually sit pretty comfortably with 128GB on my laptop. The power user stuff doesn't tend to be large (except maybe VM's and even they aren't that big). The biggest stuff on my desktop are games.
micv 12y ago
What are your usage patterns? I've found 256GB to be a bit of a sweet spot. I can't get everything I would ever want on the disc, but it's enough with maintenance and uninstalling things I'm no longer using to any great extent. And the performance advantage of an SDD is so ridiculously nice that I would never give it up for a bit of extra convenience. If you're doing things that are seriously space heavy like video editing, you'd probably need an external storage source to make up the difference. But for coding and general use, I find it to be more than enough. Saying that, I'm sure there are developers out there who couldn't live in 256GB. I'm not sure how common they are but I'm sure they exist.
- sliverstorm 12y ago
  If you're doing things that are seriously space heavy like video editing, you'd probably need an external storage source to make up the difference. You'd probably need external storage either way. I used to have some friends who were big into video editing, they could chew through 1TB with just a few projects.
  - micv 12y ago
    Fair enough, but if someone's producing terabytes of data I can't imagine that they'll be satisfied with any laptop's storage for too long.
- 72deluxe 12y ago
  Perhaps I am a niche but I can't live in something that tiny. I have a MacBook with a Windows VM for developing on, compiling C++ in OSX and then also Windows. I also use it for recording audio, so disk space gets eaten quickly. I really wish I could live in less space (I am constantly looking for stuff to delete) because then backups wouldn't be so painful.
JamesMcMinn 12y ago
They offered the 2014 version with a 512GB SSD, I'd imagine this years version will have that option too.

As much as I love SSD's, is 256GB actually enough for power users? Or are they assuming the OS will be on the SSD and you can hook up an external HD for more space? Just curious.

QuantumRoar 12y ago

As a power user, I can live with a 256GB SSD. But I can't live with less than 384GB of RAM.

iak8god 12y ago
> But I can't live with less than 384GB of RAM. Heh, that's a bit more than I expect from this form factor, but I can't believe Dell's calling this an "Ultrabook" and reviewers are calling it a "premium notebook" if the RAM maxes out at 8GB.
- masklinn 12y ago
  > I can't believe Dell's calling this an "Ultrabook" and reviewers are calling it a "premium notebook" if the RAM maxes out at 8GB. The Ars review included a similar remark: > The year is 2015. 8GB of RAM should be the baseline, with 16GB as an option. 4GB is barely enough to run Chrome. but noted that the CPU supports 16GB, so unless the RAM is soldered you can reach 16GB aftermarket.
  - iak8god 12y ago
    > unless the RAM is soldered Is is according to ifixit's teardown: "Buyer beware: Just like in the MacBooks Air and Retina, the RAM in the XPS 13 is soldered to the motherboard, and cannot be replaced. When you're picking out your new laptop, configure what you think it'll need...forever." - https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Dell+XPS+13+Teardown/36157#s81012 https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Dell+XPS+13+Teardown/36157#s... I'm not a fan of this trend.
    - QuantumRoar 12y ago
      I don't think you can really avoid it when trying to pack everything as densely as possible. A few years down the road, I believe, an SoC will probably contain not only the CPU, graphics, audio, etc., but also RAM. Probably stacked onto the CPU connected with through-silicon vias. All you'll see in an ifixit teardown is a single chip made entirely from nanoscale silicon structures. There'll be nothing a user can even see. The upside, however, is that such a level of integration gives you a power advantage, a price advantage and a size advantage. Just recently, when Broadwell was released, Intel boasted how small their chips have become. This is necessary to make the as-thin-as-possible design of Ultrabooks and it's a trend that's not going to go away because having an Ultrabook in your bag is so much better than any other kind of laptop. I don't really know how it would be possible to make an Ultrabook at that size still modular like a tower PC.
      - masklinn 12y ago
        > I don't really know how it would be possible to make an Ultrabook at that size still modular like a tower PC. Nobody is asking for that, notebook CPU and GPU haven't been replaceable in years, and peripherals or the PSU are very much non-replaceable. Being able to replace the SSD (still possible so far through new-ish low-profile formats) and RAM (less and less possible these days) is not even remotely close to "modular like a tower PC", it's barely two steps above from "as unmodular as a cell phone".
      - iak8god 12y ago
        I like the power and price advantage of paying only the retail price for storage and memory upgrades and installing them on my own. Size is a very distant third, and mostly a cosmetic issue at this point. You may be right about the long-term trend (but I hope not). In the short term my annoyance at this has me considering something other than a Macbook Pro as my next machine, which I never would have believed if you'd told me it a few years ago.
        QuantumRoar 12y ago
        Actually, the price (for the OEM) of buying completely integrated components is lower than buying separate ones. However, OEMs don't like to show that to customers. So each step in upgrading RAM or SSDs or whatever is worth $100 or more, which makes it way cheaper to just buy separate components... I'm envious of your attitude for not really caring about your laptop's size. That makes it a lot easier :)

bpodgursky 12y ago

I'm a "power user" and I'm doing fine with a 64GB partition. I use a ton of RAM and CPU but I don't have any need to store digital media with Netflix / Amazon / etc.

JTon 12y ago
I could probably get by with 64GB if it wasn't for games. Oh, and my FLAC music archive would have to go on a separate disk as well

therealdrag0 12y ago

These days my power-use doesn't take up much space. I don't store many binaries because I can always re-download them quickly. But this varies according to what realm of power-use one is doing. I don't do anything with image/video/audio.

zanny 12y ago

I got an 840 Pro two years ago, and its pretty close to full now (~20GB left). And I only put Arch and program binaries and data on it, ie, my documents, movies music, source code, my pacman database, etc are all on my mechanical drive. At that, like 125GB is steam games. I would definitely need a terabyte SSD to try to consolidate a system all on one disk. My notebook right now is a 256GB SSD + 1TB mechanical that works well.

wvenable 12y ago

I actually sit pretty comfortably with 128GB on my laptop. The power user stuff doesn't tend to be large (except maybe VM's and even they aren't that big). The biggest stuff on my desktop are games.

micv 12y ago

What are your usage patterns? I've found 256GB to be a bit of a sweet spot. I can't get everything I would ever want on the disc, but it's enough with maintenance and uninstalling things I'm no longer using to any great extent. And the performance advantage of an SDD is so ridiculously nice that I would never give it up for a bit of extra convenience. If you're doing things that are seriously space heavy like video editing, you'd probably need an external storage source to make up the difference. But for coding and general use, I find it to be more than enough. Saying that, I'm sure there are developers out there who couldn't live in 256GB. I'm not sure how common they are but I'm sure they exist.

sliverstorm 12y ago
If you're doing things that are seriously space heavy like video editing, you'd probably need an external storage source to make up the difference. You'd probably need external storage either way. I used to have some friends who were big into video editing, they could chew through 1TB with just a few projects.
- micv 12y ago
  Fair enough, but if someone's producing terabytes of data I can't imagine that they'll be satisfied with any laptop's storage for too long.
72deluxe 12y ago
Perhaps I am a niche but I can't live in something that tiny. I have a MacBook with a Windows VM for developing on, compiling C++ in OSX and then also Windows. I also use it for recording audio, so disk space gets eaten quickly. I really wish I could live in less space (I am constantly looking for stuff to delete) because then backups wouldn't be so painful.

JamesMcMinn 12y ago

They offered the 2014 version with a 512GB SSD, I'd imagine this years version will have that option too.