Do You Really Need a Fast Internal SSD for Your MacBook Pro?

I used to use separate partitions on Windows machines 20 years ago, but no longer. There are limited good reasons to have a separate volume, such as for another MacOS version or a Windows OS. Why make it more complicated than it needs to be. I suspect that only a few usage scenarios would actually benefit from the extra speed of Apple's internal SSDs on the M1 Max.

I recommend using a single partition (APFS container) and the two standard volumes that MacOS creates, and let MacOS manage it accordingly. So, do you need the speed or not? Only your usage can answer this question, but I thought I should mention it since your original post asked the question about the speed differential between an internal 1TB and internal 2TB SSDs.

It's worth noting that Apple's internal SSD achieves roughly 6GB/s R/W speeds, while my external TB3 2TB SSD costs $870 on Amazon. For $400, you're purchasing an extremely fast internal SSD that is not equivalent to a slow external SSD.

So, do you need a fast internal 2TB SSD or can you get by with a fast internal 1TB and a slow external 2TB SSD? The answer lies in your usage scenario. Maybe I'm wrong on this, as I haven't done any research recently on this issue, so please correct me if I'm wrong.

That being said, for $400, you can purchase a slow external 2TB SSD (roughly 1GB/s), but it would be hard to find a fast (roughly 7GB/s) external 2TB SSD for that price. You also mentioned that the $400 charge for going from internal 1TB to internal 2TB seems large, and you can just purchase an external 2TB USB3 drive for the extra $400.

In actual practice, these speed differences are minimal for most usage scenarios. Of course, the size required for the internal SSD totally depends upon the individual's usage scenario, as many have already pointed out.

Internal ssd for macbook pro