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MacBook for a church

T

TenthDoctor

macrumors member
Original poster
May 23, 2020
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Hi. The Church Council at my church has authorized me to purchase a Mac computer for use in the contemporary worship service. The room it will be used in is not air conditioned.

I personally own a 2020 MacBook Air (non Arm) that I have been bringing with me in order to run the PowerPoint for the service (due to the 2013 HP laptop that is insufficient for running videos within PowerPoint after being upgraded to Windows 10).

My MacBook Air is still running great after over a year of use. The only issue I have had with it was a couple days ago it was running warm, causing the speakers and music to stutter. I shut down the computer, and left it off for the rest of the day. It was really warm and humid that day.

The church is allowing me to spend $1,000 on the computer, but is willing to go a little higher.

I have no experience with the ARM Macs. Are they much different from the earlier Macs?

I have concerns regarding the Air’s cooling system. Would it be sufficient for using in an unairconditioned room on a Mac physically connected to a projector running PowerPoint with an occasional video?

Or should I opt for the 13 “inch pro?
 
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TenthDoctor said:
Hi. The Church Council at my church has authorized me to purchase a Mac computer for use in the contemporary worship service. The room it will be used in is not air conditioned.

I personally own a 2020 MacBook Air (non Arm) that I have been bringing with me in order to run the PowerPoint for the service (due to the 2013 HP laptop that is insufficient for running videos within PowerPoint after being upgraded to Windows 10).

My MacBook Air is still running great after over a year of use. The only issue I have had with it was a couple days ago it was running warm, causing the speakers and music to stutter. I shut down the computer, and left it off for the rest of the day. It was really warm and humid that day.

The church is allowing me to spend $1,000 on the computer, but is willing to go a little higher.

I have no experience with the ARM Macs. Are they much different from the earlier Macs?

I have concerns regarding the Air’s cooling system. Would it be sufficient for using in an unairconditioned room on a Mac physically connected to a projector running PowerPoint with an occasional video?

Or should I opt for the 13 “inch pro?
Click to expand...
The M1 MacBook Air is fanless for a reason. It doesn't need one. If all you are running is PowerPoint, it will be faster than your 2020 and run cooler. I'd opt for a refurb if you can find one. That, plus your tax exemption would keep you well under $1000.
 
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The operating temps for most Macs are up to an ambient air temp of 95F. Somehow I doubt you’d be holding services if it was higher than that. Sounds you’d do very well with the base M1 MacBook Air.

On the projector what type of connection does it have? You may need
to buy an adapter to connect to the new Mac usbc port.
 
KPOM said:
The M1 MacBook Air is fanless for a reason. It doesn't need one. If all you are running is PowerPoint, it will be faster than your 2020 and run cooler. I'd opt for a refurb if you can find one. That, plus your tax exemption would keep you well under $1000.
Click to expand...
Thanks :)

That sounds sensible to me.
 
WildSky said:
The operating temps for most Macs are up to an ambient air temp of 95F. Somehow I doubt you’d be holding services if it was higher than that. Sounds you’d do very well with the base M1 MacBook Air.

On the projector what type of connection does it have? You may need
to buy an adapter to connect to the new Mac usbc port.
Click to expand...
The projector is an old one, but still works very well. It has a VGA connection, and yes, I kn it needs an adapter. I made a list of accessories I would need as well.

We have never cancelled services due to heat, but if it is super hot we might move the service to an air conditioned space for just that day. Our service is at 8:30 in the morning, so it isn’t likely to be 95 then. However, there might be events in the building that are held later. Temperature here doesn’t normally go much above 95, although sometimes it does. It doesn’t use stay that warm for many days, though. Today it reached around 92 for a high, but in a couple days it will be like 10 degrees cooler.
 
WildSky said:
You can get an Apple Refurb MacBook Air 8/256 for $849.

www.apple.com

Refurbished 13.3-inch MacBook Air Apple M1 Chip with 8âCore CPU and 7âCore GPU - Gold

Originally released November 2020|13.3-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit display with IPS technology; 2560-by-1600 native resolution at 227 pixels per inch|8GB unified memory|256GB SSD1|Touch ID sensor|720p FaceTime HD Camera
www.apple.com
Click to expand...
Thanks. I have never bought refurbished before. Looks like it is $50 less than what Best Buy is selling a new one for. I could bring it up to Council.
 
TenthDoctor said:
Thanks. I have never bought refurbished before. Looks like it is $50 less than what Best Buy is selling a new one for. I could bring it up to Council.
Click to expand...
Apple refurbs are excellent and come with the same one year warranty as new products. You can also buy Applecare+ for the refurb. The Best Buy sale is good too!
 
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WildSky said:
Apple refurbs are excellent and come with the same one year warranty as new products. You can also buy Applecare+ for the refurb. The Best Buy sale is good too!
Click to expand...
Thanks. I sent the link onto the head of Trustees. Even though there was a vote taken last night at Council, some members of Council apparently felt it should have gone through Trustees first. They made the pastor call me to tell me. They are leaving me completely out of the conversation at the moment.

One thing that I don't understand is why if people had an issue with the motion (which I did not make by the way. All I did was say that we needed a new laptop for the service. Other members of Council made the motion, and suggested it be a Mac, and that I would be allowed to spend $1,000) why did they unanimously vote for it?

Anyway, apparently this conversation is going on....so I am letting the Trustees make the decision of which one they will allow me to get (or if they will even allow me to get one).
 
TenthDoctor said:
Thanks. I sent the link onto the head of Trustees. Even though there was a vote taken last night at Council, some members of Council apparently felt it should have gone through Trustees first. They made the pastor call me to tell me. They are leaving me completely out of the conversation at the moment.

One thing that I don't understand is why if people had an issue with the motion (which I did not make by the way. All I did was say that we needed a new laptop for the service. Other members of Council made the motion, and suggested it be a Mac, and that I would be allowed to spend $1,000) why did they unanimously vote for it?

Anyway, apparently this conversation is going on....so I am letting the Trustees make the decision of which one they will allow me to get (or if they will even allow me to get one).
Click to expand...
I hope this works out well once the organizational bits are resolved, and they heartily approve your recommendation. Maybe it’s a blessing to be outside of the procedural stuff. Your intentions are good and I imagine the right people there know that.
 
The Air is great. I would have no concern with heat. My M1 Air runs cooler than any Intel Mac I ever had... even with fans you could cook an egg on them.
 
Sounds like a use case where the M1 Macs definitely could shine, as they run so much cooler than its Intel counterparts while performing better, specially in the gpu / video department. A refurbished MBA + apple care might come out under $1,000 and offer peace of mind at the same time.
 
TenthDoctor said:
Hi. The Church Council at my church has authorized me to purchase a Mac computer for use in the contemporary worship service. The room it will be used in is not air conditioned.

I personally own a 2020 MacBook Air (non Arm) that I have been bringing with me in order to run the PowerPoint for the service (due to the 2013 HP laptop that is insufficient for running videos within PowerPoint after being upgraded to Windows 10).

My MacBook Air is still running great after over a year of use. The only issue I have had with it was a couple days ago it was running warm, causing the speakers and music to stutter. I shut down the computer, and left it off for the rest of the day. It was really warm and humid that day.

The church is allowing me to spend $1,000 on the computer, but is willing to go a little higher.

I have no experience with the ARM Macs. Are they much different from the earlier Macs?

I have concerns regarding the Air’s cooling system. Would it be sufficient for using in an unairconditioned room on a Mac physically connected to a projector running PowerPoint with an occasional video?

Or should I opt for the 13 “inch pro?
Click to expand...
Go dear , even i'm not christian

1. My room no aircondition and the macbook run cool as it and i live in hot weather area .
2. If just pure word/excel /powerpoint for your church ceromony /event it wouldn't be problem

The problem is
1. 3 days no used , battery stick to high more. e.g i left the battery 80% and next 3 days maybe 75 maybe 77% even with connected to home wifi.
2. Don't left it in bag until you shutdown. left in desk should be good enough.
 
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WildSky said:
I hope this works out well once the organizational bits are resolved, and they heartily approve your recommendation. Maybe it’s a blessing to be outside of the procedural stuff. Your intentions are good and I imagine the right people there know that.
Click to expand...
Thanks. Now we are trying to decide whether to go with the base model, or upgrade the ram. They would like the computer to last 5 years, and then replace it on a 5 year cycle.

I personally think the base model would be fine, but if they want to try to future proof it with 16gb ram, then that is their decision.

I am also awaiting their decision regarding Apple Care +. Again, this is a trustees issue, and not up to me.

I have decided to get an external Blu-Ray player so that we could watch Blu-ray movies if we wanted to for church events. I have read that Macs do not come with software to play Blu-Ray discs. I will start a separate thread asking about Blu-ray software.
 
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TenthDoctor said:
The projector is an old one, but still works very well. It has a VGA connection, and yes, I kn it needs an adapter. I made a list of accessories I would need as well.

We have never cancelled services due to heat, but if it is super hot we might move the service to an air conditioned space for just that day. Our service is at 8:30 in the morning, so it isn’t likely to be 95 then. However, there might be events in the building that are held later. Temperature here doesn’t normally go much above 95, although sometimes it does. It doesn’t use stay that warm for many days, though. Today it reached around 92 for a high, but in a couple days it will be like 10 degrees cooler.
Click to expand...
By a 95 degrees limit, Apple means 95C (205 F). if it gets that hot at your service well ...
 
TenthDoctor said:
Thanks. Now we are trying to decide whether to go with the base model, or upgrade the ram. They would like the computer to last 5 years, and then replace it on a 5 year cycle.

I personally think the base model would be fine, but if they want to try to future proof it with 16gb ram, then that is their decision.

I am also awaiting their decision regarding Apple Care +. Again, this is a trustees issue, and not up to me.

I have decided to get an external Blu-Ray player so that we could watch Blu-ray movies if we wanted to for church events. I have read that Macs do not come with software to play Blu-Ray discs. I will start a separate thread asking about Blu-ray software.
Click to expand...
For the church's simple needs, paying extra for 16GB of RAM is throwing away good money, in my opinion. You need to tell them the base model is more than capable of doing what they need and buying more than you need to try and future proof is nothing more than logical fallacy.
 
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Apple_Robert said:
For the church's simple needs, paying extra for 16GB of RAM is throwing away good money, in my opinion. You need to tell them the base model is more than capable of doing what they need and buying more than you need to try and future proof is nothing more than logical fallacy.
Click to expand...
Excellent. Thank you!
 
Non-air-conditioned room?

I'd SKIP the fanless MacBook Air and get the MacBook Pro.
I'd WANT a fan under those conditions.

I don't care if Apple says the Air "doesn't need a fan".
I'd want one anyway.
 
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jerryk said:
Sorry. You are correct. I was thinking CPU temps, not operating temps.

It is interesting that the MacBook 13 M1 with a fan has the same operating range.
Click to expand...

They both work at those temps, except the Air will throttle whereas the Pro won’t.
 
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