Laptop + desktop?

[AttticRat]

I have had MacBook pros for years, nearly always plugging them into a desk with an extra monitor or two. I travel a bit for work, and will work around house occasionally as well.

I’ve considered getting a Mac Mini or Studio to leave in my home office (I work from home one day per week, and spend 3-4 hours per night working there after work).

It seems a bit silly, but it would be nice to occasionally leave my laptop at the office or in my bag.

My question: are there any other benefits to having a desktop of some sort beyond my laptop? Anyone else have a similar setup?

 

[circatee]

I use this setup. Mac mini at home and MBP on the go. Sometimes I even leave it at the office.
Since I log in with the same Apple ID across all my Apple devices, it makes all the data available on all devices, seamlessly...

 

[AttticRat]

I use this setup. Mac mini at home and MBP on the go. Sometimes I even leave it at the office.
Since I log in with the same Apple ID across all my Apple devices, it makes all the data available on all devices, seamlessly...

Anything else that stands out as a benefit? I have a side hustle, so it seems like it might be nice to have a bit of separation of worlds

 

[circatee]

Anything else that stands out as a benefit? I have a side hustle, so it seems like it might be nice to have a bit of separation of worlds

...hmm, might be wise to use a 'different' profile, for your side hustle. Thus, not sending messages, emails, and such, from the wrong account

 

[JamesMay82]

I always had both and just bought both again but find I hardly use the desktop now as the new laptops are so good.

if I could do it again I would just go with studio display and laptop. plus you don't have to worry about keeping both in sync and can technically not need to use the cloud.

 

[Fishrrman]

Nothing beats having a nice desktop "for desktop things",
AND...
...having a nice laptop "for laptop things".

You'll just have to trust me on this one.

 

[theluggage]

Anything else that stands out as a benefit? I have a side hustle, so it seems like it might be nice to have a bit of separation of worlds

Are you looking for a technical argument? In the past, desktops have offered significantly more processing power, better GPUs, internal expansion, internal storage etc. That's far less true of the modern Mac range - if we ignore the top end Mx Ultra Studio and Mac Pro, everything else is offering the same range of processors, with the same RAM and storage options, and no internal expansion. Desktops may have a slight performance advantage over laptops because of better cooling (although Apple sound determined to make the Mini smaller) but that's not "night and day".

The main remaining desktop advantage seems to be slightly better connectivity c.f. corresponding laptops - which comes down to whether ethernet ports and USB-A are useful to you, and gets a bit swings+roundabouts if you factor in needing to connect at least one display to a desktop. I'd say only the Studio (with 4xTB, 2xUSB-A, 2xUSB-C/3.2, 10G Ethernet and SD card) has an unmitigated advantage there. Still, you can get close with an appropriate hub/dock for your laptop, and although adds an extra I/O bottleneck, its questionable whether most people would notice.

I think the question of whether you should have a second machine are all about your personal preferences:

• Having a separate computer to keep personal use and "side hustle" insulated from the day jpb may be a good idea (depends on what your work culture is like).
• You've said you want to leave your 'work' laptop at work occasionally - on those occasions, does that mean you want to leave your work at work?
• Does syncing two computers via. cloud (or working in the cloud) every day work for you? Depends on what you are doing (I used to have a bunch of local web servers set up for web development and syncing took a bit more effort c.f. keeping a few Office docs in the cloud - keeping video projects in sync might also be inconvenient - but some of my habits were formed when fast internet wasn't so ubiquitous).

The question then, is whether your home machine should be a desktop or a laptop. Does your "side hustle" or personal use ever involve travel? I'd only consider a Mac desktop if I were fairly sure I had no use for a personal laptop.

Over the years I've vacillated between having a
work-supplied desktop + work-supplied laptop + home desktop (back when laptops were less powerful),
work-supplied laptop + home desktop,
work-supplied laptop + personal laptop (...after knackering myself re-locating a classic Mac Pro four times a year)
own laptop for work and home (...easier than getting my old work laptop upgraded!)
own laptop for work + personal desktop (...not sure how that happened!)
personal desktop + phone (...here'es to semi-retirement!)

...and they're all perfectlt cromulent solutions.

 

[drrich2]

It seems a bit silly, but it would be nice to occasionally leave my laptop at the office or in my bag.

Not to me. Week after week, month after month, the convenience of not having to pack a laptop back and forth 4 days/week (or whatever) adds up. It impacts quality of life.

My question: are there any other benefits to having a desktop of some sort beyond my laptop?

In addition to the reason I stated above, with a desktop you sit down in front of it, use your hand to bump the mouse, it wakes up and you go.

With a laptop, you need to connect it, whether to a dock, hub or monitor with hub functionality, and disconnect it when you head out. Every...time. Hundreds of times per year.

Getting a 2nd system for what seem like minor benefits sounds very costly, but these minor advantages add up, day in and day out.

Here's a possible tie breaker; at home, are you content doing all your computing at one desk the large majority of the time, or do you value the option to compute at the dining room table, kitchen bar, in bed, etc...?

Also, is your work sufficiently undemanding that your desktop could be a lower end one, rather than 'spec'd up?' (and really expensive)? If you need a large SSD at Apple's prices, that can throw the value proposition of a 2nd Mac into a tailspin fast.

 

[Knightimer]

I have both. They serve the individual differently. It's up to you if you need two setups.

 

[edubfromktown]

I've had both a desktop Mac and MBP for a number years.

I do not store highly sensitive financial info or apps on the MBP or access those sorts of sites from that system.

Definitely none of that data is stored in anyone's cloud either.

On a positive note, I haven't ended up on any of the breach sites... latest being:

NPD Breach Check - Pentester.com

npd.pentester.com

 

[washablemarkers]

Interesting topic. I'm likely going to replace my 2019 Intel MacBook Air with an M4 Mac Mini, whenever they happen to announce it. I like having a laptop to use remotely, but I picked up a very cheap Asus a few years ago and it gets the job done, plus it's just nicer to use than the MacBook, even though it's technically not as powerful. For me, a traditional Mac desktop, (which is basically what the Air is now), plus Windows Laptop, plus iPad (essentially just a media device), seems to make sense.