Another "What Computer?" Thread

[doc james]

Sorry, another “what computer” thread – a long one at that - but, having done all the research, I’d value the opinion of others.

My wife has agreed that we should replace our computer(s?) this year. She does not have a particular interest in IT and her expectation is that it will last 8-10 years. This is how she lived before we got married. I’m really conscious that whatever I buy has to work really well for both of us. Budget for the computer(s) £3000 tops.

Our current equipment:

2013 Mac Pro 12 core with 64Gb memory, 1TB SSD. Large HD hanging off it. Cost me a fortune back in 2013 when I was young free and single. Average 4K monitor

2015 Macbook Air 8gb 1TB (I think – I did some OWC upgrade on it).

Synology NAS which is currently unused because the wifi infrastructure in our new house is flakey.

My wife’s requirements:

• Usual MS office stuff, quite a lot of Canva (which I think is web based) and likes to use Chrome a lot
• “It just works”. I sympathise. The Macbook Air is always flat despite a battery replacement. I think the OWC SSD stops it going to sleep or it’s got bigger problems. The Mac Pro also has sleep issues – randomly waking up (Time Machine I think), being slow to wake up when you want it to (?Logitech keyboard/mouse issues) and a monitor that doesn’t always go to sleep etc. so I sometimes switch it off at the switch but she doesn’t know that when she’s hammering enter. You can see the paper cuts.
• She’s not voiced it but we have a 2yr old and I think she rarely uses the Mac Pro because she needs to close supervise and can’t do that from the office.
• Her future needs are that she’ll likely go back to work in an admin role.

My requirements:

• Work for me doesn’t have particularly high requirements – although lots of typing.
• I want to be able to enjoy the photos my wife takes of our son on her phone. Sounds easy but we don’t currently have an OS that supports shared albums and I have only an iPhone SE. I know firmware can be hacked but I can’t take any dip in reliability.
• I use a DSLR and enjoy editing in Lightroom
• I do some volunteer video editing at church which involves getting 1h footage from camera to YouTube in a short space of time. Mac Pro is “OK” for the edit but really churns the export – usually taking 8-10h.
• In the future, I’d like to do more video work.

Questions I guess are:

Can I make use of a single computer pain free? One computer would likely need to be a laptop. I would prefer a larger monitor, directly attached storage etc. which could all be done with a dock but, having never done it, I’m not sure if that’s free of aggro in 2024? I read of OWC docks not waking up etc. Should I push for a Studio Display and a magic keyboard/touchpad?

If not a single computer: I’m thinking Macbook Pro and an M1 Mac Mini. Or, other way round, it’s an Mac Studio and a Chromebook…. But I want my wife to enjoy the spend.

My understanding is that my video workflow would likely be limited by the video encoders. M2 would be better than M1, Max would be better than base or Pro. Correct? I also understand 16” Macbook would be faster than 14” but don’t think weight would be very acceptable to my wife’s couch based work

How do we think obsolescence will occur? All the M series are currently quite similar (yeah, I know). I’m thinking an M2 chip would last a good while but they’re already a year old, then I get drawn to offers of M1 computers with big Ram and large drives for the same price. But they’re now a 3 year old computer. Will they really last another 10 years? Will an OS cut off be “raytracing”? Then I need an M3…I guess if no computer is going to last 10 years, I need one which is much closer to 2k than 3k because I’ll be reopening discussion in 5yrs and my wife will not think we’ve had VFM.

Sorry, long post!!

 

[Fishrrman]

Get a Mac Studio for the desktop.

Get a MacBook Pro (either 14" or 16") for the laptop.

 

[MBAir2010]

. But they’re now a 3 year old computer. Will they really last another 10 years? Will an OS cut off be “raytracing”? Then I need an M3…I guess if no computer is going to last 10 years, I need one which is much closer to 2k than 3k because I’ll be reopening discussion in 5yrs and my wife will not think we’ve had VFM.

Sorry, long post!!

I have a good feeling the Mac Mini and MacBook Air M1 from 2020
will last more years longer that my Mac Mini, MacBook Pro from 2012,
since has designed this processor instead of Intel or someone else.

I had the option to purchase a new min m2 or a refurb mini m1 and selected the M1
due to Monterey was the initial OS.

Both M1s I use are base models and I have 4 ssd drives attached for entertainment and files
from music, movies TV show I can watch within seconds via TV or that program.

hoped this helped.

 

[kitenski]

assuming your wife has an iPhone won't shared libraries fix the photo shared issue?

How to use iCloud Shared Photo Library - Apple Support

M1 Macbook Air would be absolutely fine and a huge upgrade performance wise from the existing setups, can plug into a dock to access external storage, large screen etc. That's what I do. Or wait for M3 MBA and pick up a discounted M2.

 

[doc james]

assuming your wife has an iPhone won't shared libraries fix the photo shared issue?

How to use iCloud Shared Photo Library - Apple Support

M1 Macbook Air would be absolutely fine and a huge upgrade performance wise from the existing setups, can plug into a dock to access external storage, large screen etc. That's what I do. Or wait for M3 MBA and pick up a discounted M2.

Yes, shared photo library is what I want to achieve. On Mac, it's only supported on Ventura and above, which none of our current hardware supports. So she can take beautiful candid photos with her iPhone 13 and I can't see them on anything bigger than my iPhone SE. It's a little thing I know but it's one of my biggest frustrations at the moment!

Thanks for the reassurance that I perhaps don't need to push the envelope too far with hardware. I didn't do PowerPC->Intel so I don't have a reference for seismic shifts with new architecture.

 

[MacDevil7334]

A few thoughts on your original post (in no particular order):

• You definitely could get by with a single computer and a monitor. Whether you want to is probably between you and your wife (and how/when you want to use the computer and if there is conflict there). If you do one machine, I would look at a MacBook Pro and a studio display or other external monitor.
• If you get a MacBook Pro, consider getting a M1 Pro/Max chip. B&H and other resellers still have stock and are offering some steep discounts on configurations with lots of RAM and storage to clear them out. The M1 Pro/Max have the video encoders for your video work.
• For Lightroom, you really need 16 GB RAM minimum and 32 GB seems to be the sweet spot for performance. Won’t be an issue if you go with a Pro chip or higher.
• The extra thermal headroom of the 16” over the 14” is a total non-issue, especially for your uses. Get the size you want to use. I bet you will hardly ever hear the fans.
• I would get a M1 Pro/Max machine over a vanilla M2 machine all things being equal.
• A Mac mini will be fine as a second computer but consider specing up to the Pro chip.
• Anything you buy will be a massive upgrade from what you have now. You are in for a treat!

 

[raythompsontn]

For Lightroom, you really need 16 GB RAM minimum and 32 GB seems to be the sweet spot for performance

Really? I have run Lightroom on 8 GB of RAM without any issues or performance problems. Batch processing 2K+ images to include color balancing, exposure compensation and cropping. In fact the file processing aspects were much faster than my PC with 64 GB of memory.

I currently run Lightroom concurrent with Photoshop, an image manager program, mail, messaging, Excel and Safari at the same time without any performance issues. All done on 16 GB of RAM without issue. No spinning pinwheels, it just works.

 

[doc james]

A few thoughts on your original post (in no particular order):

• You definitely could get by with a single computer and a monitor. Whether you want to is probably between you and your wife (and how/when you want to use the computer and if there is conflict there). If you do one machine, I would look at a MacBook Pro and a studio display or other external monitor.
• If you get a MacBook Pro, consider getting a M1 Pro/Max chip. B&H and other resellers still have stock and are offering some steep discounts on configurations with lots of RAM and storage to clear them out. The M1 Pro/Max have the video encoders for your video work.
• For Lightroom, you really need 16 GB RAM minimum and 32 GB seems to be the sweet spot for performance. Won’t be an issue if you go with a Pro chip or higher.
• The extra thermal headroom of the 16” over the 14” is a total non-issue, especially for your uses. Get the size you want to use. I bet you will hardly ever hear the fans.
• I would get a M1 Pro/Max machine over a vanilla M2 machine all things being equal.
• A Mac mini will be fine as a second computer but consider specing up to the Pro chip.
• Anything you buy will be a massive upgrade from what you have now. You are in for a treat!

These are super helpful points. I think there may be times we both need the computer at once but just trying to think through the permutations!