Replacing old desktop with M3 pro

[Penguinforce]

Hi, apple experts. I am looking at purchasing mbp M3 pro. I'm pretty new to Apple products and MacOS in general so would be great to get advice and suggestions here

This purchase is to replace my now 12 years old Windows desktop with something more portable. I've been wanting to make the jump into MacOs for some time now. At first I was looking at M2 air but really felt the extra power and ports options offered by mbp might be more ideal if I want to keep this for at least 6 years.

This device is mainly for personal use.

• Web browsing + YouTube + listening to music. I generally have 30+ tabs open.
• Side coding projects using IDEs such as Intellij and/or VSCode. I also have interest in learning iOS app development as well.
• I'm interested in running parallels for messing around with Windows 11.

Currently I'm looking at the base 14inch MBP M3 pro 18GB/1TB. Which comes to €2829. I'm tempted to get the 36GB option as I always felt more RAM never hurts. However it is an extra €460 which is a steep price to pay for extra 18GB 😅

Also is AppleCare+ worth it? It is an extra €300 for 3 years.

 

[gpat]

It looks like you've identified a good choice for your needs.
18/1TB is a sweet spot, for sure.
AppleCare is a good purchase but I've opted to pay for it year by year (automatic renewal).

 

[Apple_Robert]

AC+ support is excellent although you could self-insure. For what you described, the 18GB model can fulfill your needs. Should your workflow drastically change a few years down the line, the scenario might have a different outcome.

 

[Spanky Deluxe]

Hi, apple experts. I am looking at purchasing mbp M3 pro. I'm pretty new to Apple products and MacOS in general so would be great to get advice and suggestions here

This purchase is to replace my now 12 years old Windows desktop with something more portable. I've been wanting to make the jump into MacOs for some time now. At first I was looking at M2 air but really felt the extra power and ports options offered by mbp might be more ideal if I want to keep this for at least 6 years.

This device is mainly for personal use.

• Web browsing + YouTube + listening to music. I generally have 30+ tabs open.
• Side coding projects using IDEs such as Intellij and/or VSCode. I also have interest in learning iOS app development as well.
• I'm interested in running parallels for messing around with Windows 11.

Currently I'm looking at the base 14inch MBP M3 pro 18GB/1TB. Which comes to €2829. I'm tempted to get the 36GB option as I always felt more RAM never hurts. However it is an extra €460 which is a steep price to pay for extra 18GB 😅

Also is AppleCare+ worth it? It is an extra €300 for 3 years.

If you're already looking to spend the extra to upgrade to a 1TB SSD then you may as well spend a little extra to get the next level up stock 14". For the extra money, you get an extra CPU core, a ~30% better GPU, 1TB of storage and the uprated 96W power adapter. If you've been living fine with 12 year old Windows computer then I doubt you're someone that needs loads of RAM. Generally speaking I feel that AppleCare is worth it for peace of mind. If anything *does* go wrong outside of warranty, it will cost a lot more than €300 to fix. But you can get AppleCare at any point within the first year, if you wanted to save the money for now.

 

[Penguinforce]

Thank you for the comments. I guess at checkout on Apple website it only let me select 3 year option but if I can purchase it after I get the mbp and buy 1 year AppleCare+ that would be good.

 

[Penguinforce]

If you're already looking to spend the extra to upgrade to a 1TB SSD then you may as well spend a little extra to get the next level up stock 14". For the extra money, you get an extra CPU core, a ~30% better GPU, 1TB of storage and the uprated 96W power adapter. If you've been living fine with 12 year old Windows computer then I doubt you're someone that needs loads of RAM. Generally speaking I feel that AppleCare is worth it for peace of mind. If anything *does* go wrong outside of warranty, it will cost a lot more than €300 to fix. But you can get AppleCare at any point within the first year, if you wanted to save the money for now.

Thak you.

Would the 30% be a noticeable in terms of my work flow described in my post?

I guess the 96W adapter is nice to have?

 

[Spanky Deluxe]

I'll be honest; anything you buy is going to feel light years ahead of your old machine. I doubt you'd notice any real difference between the entry level one or the model up. Both will feel insanely faster than your old computer. So if you want to save the money, save the money.

The 12 core machine will be a little faster in heavy multithreaded workloads - it has 6 performance cores versus the 11 core machine's 5 performance cores. The 30% GPU is a little more vague. It *could* come in more handy in some places in the future but you likely don't know what area it might be handy in. Anything 3D related could benefit from up to 30% more fps. The 96W adapter likely charges a little faster but it's mainly just nice to have. Spending more isn't necessarily a bad thing but it's easy for your choices to creep up to stretching for higher and higher models! "Maybe the entry level Max would be better..." that kind of thing!

One thing I'd say though is that the next model up is a standard configuration. Those are generally much easier and faster to get hold of. E.g. where I live in the UK, Apple can ship me the step up model for delivery on Friday right now. One of the biggest 3rd party resellers (John Lewis) can get me one delivered tomorrow and with 2 years of their own warranty too. A CTO order of the entry level model upgraded with a 1TB SSD from Apple wouldn't be delivered until the start of December because it needs to be custom manufactured and then shipped out from China. For that reason alone, I'd usually tend to standard configuration models.

 

[ChrisA]

Hi, apple experts. I am looking at purchasing mbp M3 pro. I'm pretty new to Apple products and MacOS in general so would be great to get advice and suggestions here

This purchase is to replace my now 12 years old Windows desktop with something more portable. I've been wanting to make the jump into MacOs for some time now. At first I was looking at M2 air but really felt the extra power and ports options offered by mbp might be more ideal if I want to keep this for at least 6 years.

This device is mainly for personal use.

• Web browsing + YouTube + listening to music. I generally have 30+ tabs open.
• Side coding projects using IDEs such as Intellij and/or VSCode. I also have interest in learning iOS app development as well.
• I'm interested in running parallels for messing around with Windows 11.

Currently I'm looking at the base 14inch MBP M3 pro 18GB/1TB. Which comes to €2829. I'm tempted to get the 36GB option as I always felt more RAM never hurts. However it is an extra €460 which is a steep price to pay for extra 18GB 😅

Also is AppleCare+ worth it? It is an extra €300 for 3 years.

Running Windows in a Virtual Machine is the one use case where I would suggest doubling the amount of RAM you think you need. You need enough RAM to run macOS which in you case is 8 or 16 GB. I'd say "16" because you will be running X-code and an ISO emulator. Then, ON TOP OF THAT, you need enough RAM to run a complete Windows OS and all the apps you plan to run in Windows, Maybe another 16 GB. You will be running BOTH OSse at the same time. You need enough RAM to run each of them.

Also remeber that you will be running the ARM version of Windows and ARM Windows Apps.

My opinion of late is that the best way to run Windows on a Mac is to buy an Intel-based desktop system and set up your own "Windows Server" with the display shared to your Mac. Or if you do not want to set this up, get an Azure subscription from Microsoft and run Windows on their cloud service. The cost of the extra RAM needed to run a VM on your Mac would pay for either kind of remote Windows server. As you say, €460 is a lot, just go with Azure.

The 18 GB option is more than enough for VScode and x-code IDE.

 

[ChrisA]

Thak you.

Would the 30% be a noticeable in terms of my work flow described in my post?

A 30% fster CPU will likey not give you a 30% perceived speed up. Here is how to predict...

Open up Apple's "Activity Meter" app and leave it open as you do normal work on you current Mac. Keep yu eye on the CPU utilization. Let's say it seems to stay at arouund 50%. So multily that 30% higher benchmark score by 50% to see your real-world speed up.

But if your use of the Mac frequently keeps the CPU at 100% then you will see 100% of that 30%. Likewise it you only push the CPU to 5% then yu will see only 5% of that 30%.

What a car-analogy. Getting a car with a more powerful engine will not make it go faster when it is parked. Speed remains zero. The bigger motor ONLY makes the car go faster during those time when the gas pedal is pushed to the floor. If you never drive with "foot on the floor" a bigger engine is pointless.

That CPU Utilization number is in effect the percentage of time your gas pedal is all the way down. (CPUs running at only two speeds, "on" and "off". The meter shows the percent of "on time"

So,.... VERY few casual users do things that push the CPU to even 50% and if they do it is only briefly. Music production, 8K video editing, 3D rendering and scientific computer or work in AI development do push the CPU to 100% but most people don't do this.

 

[wonderings]

I would take a look at the refurbished store, you will save money, it might be an M2 Pro instead of an M3 Pro, but might have better specs all around in terms of RAM and GPU cores. It is worth a look as you might something just as good for your needs, for less that would offset the price of Apple Care as well.

 

[ChrisA]

I would take a look at the refurbished store, you will save money, it might be an M2 Pro instead of an M3 Pro, but might have better specs all around in terms of RAM and GPU cores. It is worth a look as you might something just as good for your needs, for less that would offset the price of Apple Care as well.

Yes. The M3-Pro is not much of a step up from the M2-Pro. Apple made the CPU cores faster but the M3-Pro has two fewer perforamce cores than the M2-Pro. So the reduced core count partially offsets the benefit of the faster cores. The net effect is a smaller than hoped for speedup. No doubt the M3-pro is better but if you can get an M2-Pro at a good discount you might go for it.

That said, in defense of the M3-Pro, a lot of software can not make use of multiple CPU cores so single-core performance matters more than you might think. But still, while the base M3 and M3-Max were big jumps, the M3-Pro is not so much ahead of the M2-Pro.

 

[wonderings]

Yes. The M3-Pro is not much of a step up from the M2-Pro. Apple made the CPU cores faster but the M3-Pro has two fewer perforamce cores than the M2-Pro. So the reduced core count partially offsets the benefit of the faster cores. The net effect is a smaller than hoped for speedup. No doubt the M3-pro is better but if you can get an M2-Pro at a good discount you might go for it.

That said, in defense of the M3-Pro, a lot of software can not make use of multiple CPU cores so single-core performance matters more than you might think. But still, while the base M3 and M3-Max were big jumps, the M3-Pro is not so much ahead of the M2-Pro.

OP is coming from a 12 year old Windows computer, any M chip is going to feel like a rocket ship in comparison. An M1 Pro or Max is more then plenty for the needs listed. I would still go newer then any M1 chip now, but an M1 is no slouch, my main machine is an M1 Max and is fantastic and I spend all day in Adobe CC with it, so more power use then what was described. You really can't go wrong with any top spec M1, M2 or M3 chip.

 

[ChrisA]

OP is coming from a 12 year old Windows computer, any M chip is going to feel like a rocket ship in comparison. An M1 Pro or Max is more then plenty for the needs listed. I would still go newer then any M1 chip now, but an M1 is no slouch, my main machine is an M1 Max and is fantastic and I spend all day in Adobe CC with it, so more power use then what was described. You really can't go wrong with any top spec M1, M2 or M3 chip.

OK, tha base M1 will run the Aobe suit. It will do a lot.

But the OP says he wants to run Windows in a VM on the Mac. This dramatically increases the hardware requirements. The VM setup screen will ask you how much RAM and how many CPU cores you wish to hand over for use by the VM. Windows will have to run on whatever you decide to give it. So if you say "two cores and 4 GB RAM" then Windows will run slowly. If you say "6-cores and 32 GB of RAM" then Windows will have no problem with any workload you give it. But whatever you give to the VM, it is not available for use by apps running on macOS.

So, to run a Windows VM on a Mac, you need enough cores and RAM such that after giving some of this to Windows, you still have enough to run what you want on macOS.

 

[picpicmac]

I guess at checkout on Apple website it only let me select 3 year option but if I can purchase it after I get the mbp and buy 1 year AppleCare+ that would be good.

In your country AC may work differently than in the US.

Still, for a laptop I would definitely get AC, no doubt about it.

More RAM is always good if you are going to do imaging work.