Well, I almost had a moment were I thought about trading in my 2017 for cash. The M2 Air makes it look that bad. But then I realised a bit of an arrangement. I actually wanted the Air as my replacement travel laptop - turns out it’s so much more - so much so it makes my MacBook Pro look irrelevant. But I realise the MBP is still nice - a great 15” screen to look at - and a couple extra ports if I need them. Heck, I can effectively use it as a dock, and Airdrop elsewhere if I need.
So now the Air is in my life I’ve found a place for it - docked at my desk - effectively as if it were a Mac Mini - while the MBP becomes my ‘Air’ - the laptop about the house. And, well, if the MBP ever shits me due to heat or noise or battery life, I can just grab the Air. And likewise when it comes to travel, I just take the Air. But otherwise it’s mostly docked - it handles the pressure of my 5k display and all the apps that go with it so much calmer than my MBP does.
Anyway, bit of an aside, but was a nice realisation about how to play all this.
You are right. Personally, I have the luxury of a nicely specced primary computer that can do videos. But these devices are expensive, and I feel there should be some balance versus the seeming default advice that you must spend hundreds more in upgrades which may not be necessary.
I wanted to share the datapoint that if you are after an appliance for moderate DAW work, the base model M2 seems fine.
Thing is that we cannot predict the future entirely. If you can use the machine 4 years longer because you invested in 8 more GB, I think that is, both financially and environmentally, a better choice.
With the higher speeds analog modeling will become more and more a standard and will require more and more power. I think in 4 years our now ultra fast computers will be just…fast.
I agree though that It’s definitely good to also give another view point in stead of the default and to at least have a discussion about it
I agree, at the moment silicon is relatively new and software providers were busy providing with support to current software, they already realizing how capable these chips are and probably will up their game in the upcoming years, software will become more demanding and there’s no escaping progress, at the moment everything is fluid but future proofing your environment as much as possible is indeed a good thing.
I think the thing is, for whatever reason, no matter how much you spec your machine out, they’re only probably good for about 5 years. By then you’re just using it but in no way are you hitting peak performance, no amount of specc’ing up is going to save you from that. The best way to go is through the middle - just look at the Mac Studio being outdone by the Mac Mini - even the $15,000 Mac Pro from 5 years ago is now a hunk of junk. It just never pays to shell out that much cash on something unless u see financial returns by order of magnitude - ie a business
I agree that going through middle is the best to do financially. But saying a max pro from 5 years ago is a hunk of junk, is beyond exaggerating. Those machines still slam and will do so for the forceable future. This always has been the case with the Mac pros (that you can upgrade over time). Just because there are newer machines that can touch that kind of speed doesn’t render it obsolete. I know many people in music that have used Mac book pros and Mac pros for over 8 years without an issue. At 8 years it became a bit more necessary to upgrade though. Also depends on if you want to be up to date on everything all the of course…
8gb simply will be a pretty quick bottleneck that you will hit sooner rather than later. And the problem really is that you cannot upgrade except by buying an entirely new machine for 1200 plus euro. Even if it lengthens the use of your laptop for a year or two it’s money well spend.
Yeah, I agree with you also, in that the Mac Pro is still a formidable machine. But it depends on perspective. If you’re talking about buying a machine today, the Mac Pro is simply not a good deal. And in the 5 years since that machine came out, how well is investment paid off? The Mac Pro is a bit of a weird use case now though - the power we have today in standard Macs is a quantum leap on what we used to have. It’s reframed everything. There hasn’t been a jump like this for a long time, maybe ever. But still, that’s what 5 years does to you.
The returning question here would be: can the person yielding the Mac Pro from 5 years ago still do his/her job? Most certainly yes. And it’s possible to add more ram, graphics power and what not.
Definitely agree though that a Mac pro is not a very good investment but some high end video editors really need that kind of power. I’d probably choose windows in that case
I’ve just read online folks talking about the above relationship - but maybe it’s more of an adjustment than an issue. But I dunno, I come from the school of thought that a larger buffer size is ‘better’, but all the cool kids these days seem to be into 64 samples, maybe it’s no big deal?
I have a base model Mac mini I’ve had for about a year & it’s great, if it does have a slower ssd it’s still insanely fast. But last week I bought a 2017 15” 2.8 for programming whilst away next month, and I’m pretty blown away by it tbh. It doesn’t have the CPU power of the mini, but after installing windows on an external SSD it’s a surprisingly capable gaming machine. I’ve limited the CPU in the power plan to stop the fan kicking in, & once that’s done it’s nice & quiet. The onboard Radeon is impressive.
I run parallels ARM Windows on the M1 to compile for windows & whilst it’s amazing being able to compile from the same folder in the same session for MAC & PC, windows is slow. Having the Intel gives me the option to work in full speed windows. I was planning on getting a M1 air but this is actually a better solution for me, they both offer different things & getting another M processor at this point wouldn’t add much beyond portability.
The one I’ve bought does have the stage light thing going on so I guess at some point the screen will die, but I got it cheap because of that.
Yeah, it’s still plenty powerful. And it’s a better portable canvas at 15”. Generally this MBP needs to live in Low Power / Turbo Boost Off mode, as anything from Adobe to Ableton does make it pretty toasty. I’m getting replace battery warnings (read: come give us your money) - but am genuinely wondering if a replacement would see it run a bit better.
Still, it’s the best of both worlds - Air for portability and lightness, and a crazy amount of power. Now at my desk while docked its completely silent, whereas the MBP in that mode pretty much rolls its fan the whole time. And the MBP for a powerful portable canvas when I need it.
I did some After Effects render tests - the MBP did it in about 20 minutes the Air in about 10. After a few renders the Air does get crazy hot and the only way to cool it down is to leave it alone. Whereas the MBP can manage itself quite easily.
This new rumoured 15" I think will be the replacement for me, but it’s funny, even though it will have crazy performance something tells me it will be more crippled than the one I have now - ie less thunderbolt ports, less display outputs. So yeah this 15" does have its use. If my Air is plugged up on both thunderbolt ports I just grab the MBP with an SD card dongle, use Air drop etc. It’s a nice mix for now.
But yes very interested to see what that new 15" offers. If it’s got MagSafe, two thunderbolts, and an SD card reader, that would be very handy. M2 Pro inside with dedicated thunderbolt controllers? That would do the job I reckon.
I’ve just switched over to a mini, 16gb ram, 512gb drive. I’m just wondering if anyone has any good recommendations for external drives and connectivity expansion (usb hubs or what have you)? I’m in the UK.
Also, anyone got any good tips for a small (10-12" or so) secondary screen with camera for zoom calls etc? I currently have a Facebook portal that I use for this, but it would be better to do it all on one machine. I know I can extend my desktop to an iPad with sidecar, but that doesn’t give me access to the camera.
Just thought I’d mention the battery on my 2015 MBP at 650 cycles was getting the yellow triangle warning, for about 6 month’s. I re-calibrated which fixed it one time. Finally, the battery expanded like a pillow one night and bent the chassis…now it won’t turn on. ifixit kit on the way, hoping it works. Watch out!
