Treated Myself to a New Laptop

Biro

Biro

Hall of Famer
Moderator
Supporter
Location
Jersey Shore
Name
Steve
I have been thinking about picking up a base 14-inch MacBook Pro for several months. But then Costco had a sale on what I call the "base upgrade" model on Apple's website. That is to say, the version with the 10-core CPU and 16-core GPU (two steps up from the stock base model), 16GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD. And Costco's price was about $200 above Apple's price for the base model. Plus, it was in stock.

Never mind the arguments over 16GB vs. 32GB of RAM. I've seen enough evidence that 16 is enough for me. Besides, I don't use Adobe's RAM-hogging software - at least not at home. So I pulled the trigger. Delivery is due this week.

This may become my primary computer - at least for a while - depending on how it does compared to my 2019 27-inch i5 9600K iMac. Perhaps by Christmas a Mac Studio will become my desktop computer. But I want to see what Apple does in terms of high-end Mac Minis first.
 
www.welivesecurity.com

When

ESET research discovers vulnerabilities in Lenovo consumer laptop models that allow attackers with admin rights to expose users to firmware-level malware.
www.welivesecurity.com

Maybe you can convince your company to dump Lenova. They have a history of placing back doors in their computers.
 
www.makeuseof.com

Why You Should Avoid Lenovo PCs: 7 Security Risks to Consider

Think your Lenovo laptop is safe and secure? Think again! Various security risks and vulnerabilities have plagued Lenovo PCs.
www.makeuseof.com www.makeuseof.com

I cannot imagine a company outside of China buying a Lenova computer. And if they are being paid to take them, that should sound an alarm.

Too funny- I used to tell people that the worst thing that could happen to their computer when running my software is that it could burst into flames. Only happened once in 40 years, power supplies over-heated trying to keep up with highly optimized code. Halon extinguished the fire.
I have considerably upped my game since then.
 
Last edited:
Congrats! I’m very jealous; I picked up a 16 inch a year before the M1 release, so now I feel like I need to ride that one for at least a few more years. The 14 inch seems right up my alley in M1 land. Though honestly, for my needs, if they updated the air with a few more ports I’d probably just use that. Should still be more than enough for Capture One
 
Brian said:
www.welivesecurity.com

When

ESET research discovers vulnerabilities in Lenovo consumer laptop models that allow attackers with admin rights to expose users to firmware-level malware.
www.welivesecurity.com

Maybe you can convince your company to dump Lenova. They have a history of placing back doors in their computers.
Click to expand...
Unfortunately I have zero influence on what tech is providing for hardware. Most of the time I use the Mac as a BYOD. Fo me, Much easier to organize and control.
 
Congrats! This resonates with me as I just ordered a refurbed Acer on Friday.

Acer 15.6" (1080p) Aspire 5 Laptop AMD Ryzen 3 3350U 2.1GHz 4GB RAM 128 GB SSD W10H that I also ordered a 16 gb RAM & 500 gb MMvE M2 upgrade for. I plan to run FreeBSD 13 as the primary OS (I'm an old Unix dog) with Windows 10 or 11 in VirtualBox for what I need to run on it (Steam, Capture One) and DosBox to run things like Wordstar 7.

Once I get Medley Lisp (www.interlisp.org) built, it'll definitely be my primary lisp hacking machine.

Not quite as fast as my Ryzen 5 desktop but fast enough for a portable machine.
 
11GTCS said:
Congrats! I’m very jealous; I picked up a 16 inch a year before the M1 release, so now I feel like I need to ride that one for at least a few more years. The 14 inch seems right up my alley in M1 land. Though honestly, for my needs, if they updated the air with a few more ports I’d probably just use that. Should still be more than enough for Capture One
Click to expand...
I've read some rumors that we might see a larger-screened version of the MBA soon. Something around 15". If that were true, I'd have a hard time passing on it. I'd love a bigger screen than the current MBA, but the price is too high on those 16s. Even the M1 is fast enough for me, especially since DXO started using the Neural Engine, which makes even the lowest grade of M1 perform very well, since all the M1 line has the same NE.
 
Darmok N Jalad said:
I've read some rumors that we might see a larger-screened version of the MBA soon. Something around 15". If that were true, I'd have a hard time passing on it. I'd love a bigger screen than the current MBA, but the price is too high on those 16s. Even the M1 is fast enough for me, especially since DXO started using the Neural Engine, which makes even the lowest grade of M1 perform very well, since all the M1 line has the same NE.
Click to expand...
Yup. While I'm very happy about the CPU/GPU and other upgrades that I got, the Mac and general computer forums are full of people who think anything below the fastest option is simply unacceptable - or will be horribly outdated in two years. The same thing with RAM. 32 or even 64GB is the absolute minimum in their minds. Most people I know with M1 MacBook Airs are quite happy with them - even with 8GB of RAM. And these are people who process photos and even video. And all this freaking out about about memory pressure and swapping just proves that old beliefs die hard. We're now in a new era. I'm sure the M2s will be just fine.
 
Darmok N Jalad said:
I've read some rumors that we might see a larger-screened version of the MBA soon. Something around 15". If that were true, I'd have a hard time passing on it. I'd love a bigger screen than the current MBA, but the price is too high on those 16s. Even the M1 is fast enough for me, especially since DXO started using the Neural Engine, which makes even the lowest grade of M1 perform very well, since all the M1 line has the same NE.
Click to expand...
I could even live with 13.3 honestly. I think I could see myself getting the base model anyway, since I’d rather pay for my processing horsepower in a desktop, and with the mac studio out now…. Well that’s just a the complete setup paired with an iPad Pro or MacBook Air for travel use.
 
11GTCS said:
Congrats! I’m very jealous; I picked up a 16 inch a year before the M1 release, so now I feel like I need to ride that one for at least a few more years. The 14 inch seems right up my alley in M1 land. Though honestly, for my needs, if they updated the air with a few more ports I’d probably just use that. Should still be more than enough for Capture One
Click to expand...
I recently had my work laptop upgraded from a previous-gen 16" MBP (the one with only USB-C/Thunderbolt ports and the silly Touch Bar I never really used) to a 14" M1 MBP (16GB model). I haven't really missed the extra screen real estate, especially given that higher dot pitch of the 14" screen. It's more than enough machine for my needs.

- K
 
DeeJayK said:
I recently had my work laptop upgraded from a previous-gen 16" MBP (the one with only USB-C/Thunderbolt ports and the silly Touch Bar I never really used) to a 14" M1 MBP (16GB model). I haven't really missed the extra screen real estate, especially given that higher dot pitch of the 14" screen. It's more than enough machine for my needs.

- K
Click to expand...
It’s honestly shocking how slow the last generation of Intel MBP 16 was. It’s not slow in the day to day, but it really chugs on Topaz software and if I ask it to do bulk edits in Capture One. Hopefully they’ll be better optimized in the apple silicon ecosystem.
 
DeeJayK said:
I recently had my work laptop upgraded from a previous-gen 16" MBP (the one with only USB-C/Thunderbolt ports and the silly Touch Bar I never really used) to a 14" M1 MBP (16GB model). I haven't really missed the extra screen real estate, especially given that higher dot pitch of the 14" screen. It's more than enough machine for my needs.

- K
Click to expand...
Yeah, I hate the Touch Bar. I had tried the 13.3" M1 MBP, and sent it back because of that thing. Limited ports is kinda okay on the MBA, but Ive really just made things too thin. These new MBPs are exactly what Mac customers have been demanding for years.
11GTCS said:
It’s honestly shocking how slow the last generation of Intel MBP 16 was. It’s not slow in the day to day, but it really chugs on Topaz software and if I ask it to do bulk edits in Capture One. Hopefully they’ll be better optimized in the apple silicon ecosystem.
Click to expand...
Yeah, this goes back to the "too thin" design with not enough room for substantial cooling. The later generations of Intel chips didn't help matters one bit, as they were simply not efficient enough for sustained workloads. It was certainly a bad combination and just made the M1 line look all that much better in comparison. Even the Adler Lake chips really suck down the juice if you let them. It's what Intel has resorted to in order to be the performance leader again. They are talking 300-400W TDPs on the desktop in the next generation, which only drives up complexity and cost. It really feels like backwards land in the PC space with these high-performance parts consuming incredible amounts of energy compared to previous generations.
 
Darmok N Jalad said:
Yeah, this goes back to the "too thin" design with not enough room for substantial cooling. The later generations of Intel chips didn't help matters one bit, as they were simply not efficient enough for sustained workloads. It was certainly a bad combination and just made the M1 line look all that much better in comparison. Even the Adler Lake chips really suck down the juice if you let them. It's what Intel has resorted to in order to be the performance leader again. They are talking 300-400W TDPs on the desktop in the next generation, which only drives up complexity and cost. It really feels like backwards land in the PC space with these high-performance parts consuming incredible amounts of energy compared to previous generations.
Click to expand...

Definitely. It’s frustrating because it’ll be happily just cruising on efficiency mode at a low clock speed and then need to do a complex task and ramp the speed up and all of the sudden it’s like driving a muscle car; I can all but watch my battery drop. There isn’t much point in having a powerful processor if the battery can’t handle it and the power supply can either. If it weren’t for how much I had already spent on the intel one I’d have absolutely already gotten a new 14inch. I do kind of want to hold out for a new air though and see if it gets any port love. Though I am not holding out hope.
 
11GTCS said:
Definitely. It’s frustrating because it’ll be happily just cruising on efficiency mode at a low clock speed and then need to do a complex task and ramp the speed up and all of the sudden it’s like driving a muscle car; I can all but watch my battery drop. There isn’t much point in having a powerful processor if the battery can’t handle it and the power supply can either. If it weren’t for how much I had already spent on the intel one I’d have absolutely already gotten a new 14inch. I do kind of want to hold out for a new air though and see if it gets any port love. Though I am not holding out hope.
Click to expand...
I’d be good with just adding an SD-card slot, which should totally be possible. I don’t see USB-A coming back, even though I think we might be using that port forever.
 
Biro said:
Except CFexpress cards are now rapidly becoming the norm.
Click to expand...
Sort of true, but I think we are probably a decade away from that being genuinely common in anything other than pro bodies, and Sony is wisely using CFExpress A cards that have an almost identical form factor to SD cards. That’s about the only type I could see being put in a computer.
 

Similar threads

John King
Advice Wanted Refurbished laptops - Thoughts?
2
Replies
29
Views
360
John King
John King
john m flores
    • Cool
    • Vulcan Salute
    • Informative
I bought a Framework Laptop. AMA
Replies
5
Views
653
john m flores
john m flores
A
Apple New iPad
Replies
4
Views
544
Apollo T.
A
Back
Top