Advice picking which Mac Studio based on SSD

[Chris L]

hi am purchasing a new Mac Studio and have 3 configurations that I am interested in, all of them have the M1 Max, 64GB Ram, 32 core GPU, and 16 core Neural engine. But which SSD?  the 1TB, 2TB, or 4TB SSD?  I am photographer / 4k Videographer using Capture One, Photoshop, Bridge, FCPx, Davinci resolve. I do not use Raid. I back my stuff up manually on Lacie 4TB Ultra HDs. Should I plan on buying the 1TB version to keep all of my applications, documents, etc on and then purchase a separate SSD to load 'Active Jobs' on and only keep them here while I work on the project? Or should I buy the 4TB version and load Active Jobs directly onto my computer while I work on them? What makes most sense for my workflow?

[kers]

if the connection speed is as it should with thunderbolt 3or4- i would choose the 1TB for the system only and buy a connected fast storage of 4TB or more

something like this
https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/express-4m2
the nvme's are about 100$ -1TB at the moment. (I work with a raid0 of four internally )
Maybe not all the nvme-types are suited for the mac- you have to find out ...
If money is not a point or you want to travel, or you are not that technical , than the  the 4TB mac is the option.

PS I made my Raid0 with mac disk-utility; for more complex raids you need Softraid.

[mcbroomf]

I agree, and my preference (with a MBP, not Studio) was to go with a 2TB drive and use a portable Thunderbolt.

I tested a range of devices using files in Lightroom Classic to generate panos and HDR dngs.  I shared this on FM and one of the other posters used my files to test a further series of Studios and other devices.  From my testing I could see very little difference between having the images files and catalog on the MBP drive, a Thunderbolt drive or a USB 3.2 drive.  In fact I changed my MBP order from one with the 8TB drive to a 2TB drive.

The tests I ran are in the top dark bordered section.  Device config in the left 5 columns, results in the right 4 with the number of files used before the description.  The times are in mins/seconds and show the time for the preview window to show up, then the time for the overall process to finish (eg for the 6 file HDR test my PC desktop took 35 secs for the preview window to show and it finished the process in 1 min 5 secs, overall time, not added)

Sorry, no experience with video.
 
Just a note that reviews of the 4M2 are not very good.
https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/TB3EX4M2/#customer-reviews

[Jonathan Cross]

Not absolutely similar, but I bought an M1 iMac with 1TB internal storage and use Sandisk SSDs. I am happy. I use them also for Time Machine.

Jonathan

[Peter McLennan]

I returned my Studio Max.  It was slower at nearly everything I tested than my W10, Ryzen 9, RTX 3060 system.
 Blender, Resolve, Photoshop.

[Chris L]

if the connection speed is as it should with thunderbolt 3or4- i would choose the 1TB for the system only and buy a connected fast storage of 4TB or more

something like this
https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/express-4m2
the nvme's are about 100$ -1TB at the moment. (I work with a raid0 of four internally )
Maybe not all the nvme-types are suited for the mac- you have to find out ...
If money is not a point or you want to travel, or you are not that technical , than the  the 4TB mac is the option.

PS I made my Raid0 with mac disk-utility; for more complex raids you need Softraid.

Thanks. I guess I will go with the 4TB option; money is an issue but it will be worth it in the long run for me to travel lighter inbetween jobs. I guess it is worth the extra $600 which looks to be about the difference between the 2 options. As long as it won't slow me down too much to have my OS and Applications and Active Jobs all on the same 'disk' ? Is that a thing?

[bobfriedman]

so I have 1TB SSD with my Mac Studio M1 Ultra 48 core GPU 64GB RAM and Promise RAID arrays for data archiving. For me the 1TB is plenty for scratch, then I move to the RAIDS.. I have 90TB of RAID right now and they are fast enough to use directly if I wish.

However, I am not doing video processing... that might change the equation.

[Peter McLennan]

That machine should rip through video processing like a hot knife ...etc.

[kers]

I returned my Studio Max.  It was slower at nearly everything I tested than my W10, Ryzen 9, RTX 3060 system.
 Blender, Resolve, Photoshop.

can imagine you already have a recent and fast system...
Problem with Apple silicon is that software has to match...
Diglloyd just saw a 25% boost with a little upgrade in photoshop.
Especially photoshop makes bad use of many cores.
If i would do a lot in finalcut pro i would buy one...

[Peter McLennan]

can imagine you already have a recent and fast system...
Problem with Apple silicon is that software has to match...
Diglloyd just saw a 25% boost with a little upgrade in photoshop.
Especially photoshop makes bad use of many cores.
If i would do a lot in finalcut pro i would buy one...

Agreed.  Software needs to adapt to the new hardware.  I bought too soon.