The answer is maybe. Sometimes, for the mid-year release, they offer a DVD update option. But that's generally for those going from 2012 to 2012.5 (or in the past, 2011 to 2011.5) and it just includes the files that changed. Since you'll be upgrading from 2010.5 to 2012.5, you'll need to get the whole shebang, which means they'll send you the external drive (but I believe will provide download links as well).

What I would do, however, is to call them whenever it comes out and see what they can work out for you. Maybe you can just get download links and not have to pay for the drive. However, you're still going to need close to double the total amount of storage initially, because the download links will be zip files and will need to be uncompressed. Also, you'll want somewhere to archive those zip files, so if you ever have to re-install, you can. Having only one copy of the software is never a good idea, because one crash is all it takes to wipe out everything.

John

Laptop-HP Omen I7 Win11Pro 32GB 2x2TB, 1x4TB SSD
Desktop-ASUS-I7 Win10Pro 32GB 2x1.5TB, 2x2TB, 1x4TB SATA

BB2024/UMC404HD/Casios/Cakewalk/Reaper/Studio One/MixBus/Notion/Finale/Dorico/Noteworthy/NI/Halion/IK

http://www.sus4chord.com