M1 Apple Macs

ZombieCake

Well-known member
Has anyone used one of the new M1 Macs?  From various reviews etc. they look pretty awesome compared to Intel based stuff and seem to wipe the floor with them.
I'm typing this post on a mid 2012 i5 MacBookPro (yes it is that old and still works fine) that I've shovelled 16GB RAM into and will be upgrading the HDD again for a 1TB Crucial SSD (as opposed to current 1TB spinning rust I upgraded a while back) courtesy of the recent deals on Amazon.  Soooo,  I was wondering whether to take the plunge for more shiny aluminium or wait a bit?  Main heavy processor needs are to run DaVinci Resolve.  The new Mac Mini looks like the current bargain of the century, but as ever thoughts and comments welcome.
 

JoshW

Well-known member
battery life looks unreal, processor power looks great. Rumours are of a facelift model next year so the 13" model becomes 14" in same size chassis, if that takes your interest.

Obviously 'home' upgrades to RAM are no longer an option, so worth future proofing your purchase by maxing it out.

The mac mini's look ace, and if I wasn't so seriously close to unemployment, I'd be looking at one myself.
 

Subpopulus Hibernia

Active member
I'd wait a bit in case there's any issues that might take a generation or two to resolve.

I'd be interested in one myself but for the fact that my eight-year old MacBook Pro is still going strong, and I'd expect it to do so for at least another two to four years. There's some serious longevity in those machines. My sister's still using her 2008 white plastic Macbook. Takes a while to boot up, but otherwise working fine. 
 

JoshW

Well-known member
my late 2013 MBP is still doing the business, but mostly use my iPad for stuff outside of work. Big Sur will be the last OS upgrade it's eligible for, so might consider a MacBook upgrade next year. Or possibly will in the meantime succumb to the draw of a new iPad pro/air.

the two M1 portable macs both very much look like entry level type machines. Would imagine alongside re-designed chassis an M1X ramped up processor next year, which may take out any little niggles discovered in gen 1 (as SH has stated above).

As time goes on more and more software will run natively on apple chips, and so efficiencies will get better and better.
 

Mark Wright

Active member
I've just had an email confirmation that my new MacBook Air arrives tomorrow so I'll let you know what I think. The new one will replace my 7 year old one, which still has plenty of life left in it, though looking a bit the worse for wear due to very heavy use. It will be demoted for use in my garden workshop.

Mark


 

tony from suffolk

Well-known member
I've a Macbook Pro & iMac, both 2013, neither of which will take Big Sur. Macs being what they are, they'll both keep going for years yet, and there's nothing I can see in Big Sur that'll be an advantage over Catalina.

Nevertheless...just awaiting my new Mac Mini, due in a week or so. Not hugely sensible I suppose, I just - wanted one!
 

pwhole

Well-known member
I went to Catalina on a day trip once (lovely), and I once bought a SE30 BIOS chip to make a crack-Mac on an Amiga (like trying to buy an old master oil painting, even in 1994 - most wouldn't sell me one, so evil and ruthless were their rulers), but apart from using QuickTime occasionally I'm afraid that's my entire life exposure to Apple products right there. They are durable though, I'll give them that  ;)
 

Fjell

Well-known member
I got my school to buy some Apple II?s in about 1980, which was an improvement on the Powertran we had soldered from components. 64 chips for 4k of memory. It took a while. It ran BURP (BASIC Using Reverse Polish). It was easier to programme in machine code to be honest. What larx.

I think we have at least 25 bits of Apple kit. It never breaks unless you drop it in the toilet.
 

JoshW

Well-known member
tony from suffolk said:
I've a Macbook Pro & iMac, both 2013, neither of which will take Big Sur. Macs being what they are, they'll both keep going for years yet, and there's nothing I can see in Big Sur that'll be an advantage over Catalina.

Nevertheless...just awaiting my new Mac Mini, due in a week or so. Not hugely sensible I suppose, I just - wanted one!

I don't think there's anything particularly groundbreaking in big sur, but the changes to safari are nice, and the new control centre and notification centre are much cleaner and nicer to use.
 

ZombieCake

Well-known member
I've just installed a new SSD into my Mid 2012 MacBook Pro. Seems a lot more nippy than the previous spinning rust HDD, so more life left in the laptop yet.  SSD installed is a Crucial 1TB MX500 as it was on discount on Amazon (also have installed Crucial RAM in the past).  Fairly painless re-installing everything from a Time Machine back up, although it takes a while transferring the data back. 
 

tony from suffolk

Well-known member
My new Mac Mini's arrived, and files transferred over from my iMac using direct Thunderbolt 2 to Thunderbolt 3/usb-something adaptor on the Mini. Took about an hour for 800GB or so. It's certainly a nippy little devil! My only issue now is with the relative paucity of connections and the fact that we've now got Thunderbolt ports that are the same as the latest USB type; it's all very confusing!

Spend a jolly couple of hours trying to get sound to come out of the speakers on the new LG monitor I had to buy. The headphone socket worked, but not...Ah, I eventually realised I'd inadvertently bought the model without inbuilt speakers. How I laughed! So now, I've had to buy computer speakers. Oh, and a webcam.

SWMBO has commandeered my iMac, so after a few difficulties, I managed to transfer her system across from her Macbook Air. Was she happy? Nope - because she was using an old version of Microsoft Office that now won't run on Catalina. 'Puters are so much fun, aren't they?
 

Roger W

Well-known member
It's all a cunning and evil plot to get you to spend more money, Tony.

You should have spent your cash on caving gear!
 

JoshW

Well-known member
tony from suffolk said:
SWMBO has commandeered my iMac, so after a few difficulties, I managed to transfer her system across from her Macbook Air. Was she happy? Nope - because she was using an old version of Microsoft Office that now won't run on Catalina. 'Puters are so much fun, aren't they?

Upgraded my mums MacBook air a while back, and had the unfortunate effect of her losing access to the old microsoft office system she'd been using, which had the domino effect of me needing to teach her the basics of Numbers/Pages/Keynote.
 

tony from suffolk

Well-known member
JoshW said:
Upgraded my mums MacBook air a while back, and had the unfortunate effect of her losing access to the old microsoft office system she'd been using, which had the domino effect of me needing to teach her the basics of Numbers/Pages/Keynote.
Yes, that's where I'm at with my dearly beloved. I might have lied exaggerated a bit when I told her the Mac Apps were pretty well identical to the Microsoft ones, and she'll have no trouble getting used to them...
 

ZombieCake

Well-known member
My only issue now is with the relative paucity of connections
You can get add on hubs that have extra USB and SD card reader ports as well as space for an extra 2.5" drive such as:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Satechi-Type-C-Aluminum-Stand-Hub-Grey/dp/B07YSWZNNW/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?dchild=1&keywords=mac+mini+hub&qid=1608119075&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUE4M1JaT1dYOE9WNEEmZW5jcnlwdGVkSWQ9QTA5NjI3MDRHMlVERVQ0M1VaS1YmZW5jcnlwdGVkQWRJZD1BMDY5NjYxMzFBNVBVUU9LUUY4REgmd2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGYmYWN0aW9uPWNsaWNrUmVkaXJlY3QmZG9Ob3RMb2dDbGljaz10cnVl

There's a few reviews on youtube

OpenOffice is a good alternative to Microsoft's offerings and it's free. 
 

JoshW

Well-known member
tony from suffolk said:
JoshW said:
Upgraded my mums MacBook air a while back, and had the unfortunate effect of her losing access to the old microsoft office system she'd been using, which had the domino effect of me needing to teach her the basics of Numbers/Pages/Keynote.
Yes, that's where I'm at with my dearly beloved. I might have lied exaggerated a bit when I told her the Mac Apps were pretty well identical to the Microsoft ones, and she'll have no trouble getting used to them...

yeah, did the exact same thing once I'd realised that office wasn't available any more.. I struggle enough with Numbers myself (as a certifiable excel nerd), so not sure how I'm going to convince her it's a solid replacement ha!
 

JoshW

Well-known member
ZombieCake said:
My only issue now is with the relative paucity of connections
You can get add on hubs that have extra USB and SD card reader ports as well as space for an extra 2.5" drive such as:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Satechi-Type-C-Aluminum-Stand-Hub-Grey/dp/B07YSWZNNW/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?dchild=1&keywords=mac+mini+hub&qid=1608119075&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUE4M1JaT1dYOE9WNEEmZW5jcnlwdGVkSWQ9QTA5NjI3MDRHMlVERVQ0M1VaS1YmZW5jcnlwdGVkQWRJZD1BMDY5NjYxMzFBNVBVUU9LUUY4REgmd2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGYmYWN0aW9uPWNsaWNrUmVkaXJlY3QmZG9Ob3RMb2dDbGljaz10cnVl

Satechi kit is superb, got a couple of adapters and their 3 in 1 wireless charger, and can't sing their praises enough :)
 

ChrisJC

Well-known member
ZombieCake said:
OpenOffice is a good alternative to Microsoft's offerings and it's free.

I give that a +1.

Not only is it free, it is completely unencumbered by all of the cloudy / collaboration bullshittery that just bogs down all current Microsoft offerings.
It lets you write documents and manipulate spreadsheets. It lets you export as PDF or print them out. The End.

Chris.
 

tony from suffolk

Well-known member
ZombieCake said:
My only issue now is with the relative paucity of connections
You can get add on hubs that have extra USB and SD card reader ports as well as space for an extra 2.5" drive such as:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Satechi-Type-C-Aluminum-Stand-Hub-Grey/dp/B07YSWZNNW/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?dchild=1&keywords=mac+mini+hub&qid=1608119075&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUE4M1JaT1dYOE9WNEEmZW5jcnlwdGVkSWQ9QTA5NjI3MDRHMlVERVQ0M1VaS1YmZW5jcnlwdGVkQWRJZD1BMDY5NjYxMzFBNVBVUU9LUUY4REgmd2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGYmYWN0aW9uPWNsaWNrUmVkaXJlY3QmZG9Ob3RMb2dDbGljaz10cnVl

There's a few reviews on youtube

OpenOffice is a good alternative to Microsoft's offerings and it's free.
Thanks for that Mr Zombiecake, that's very neat. I did look at something similar that had provision for a 2.5 drive in the base. I've got my original seven-port usb3 hub, which I can use with usb C adaptors where necessary.
 

ZombieCake

Well-known member
Well I just got me a new shiny Space Grey Mac Mini.  I bought the Intel one instead of the new M1.  Before the forum Leech Meisters finally section me, I shall explain why.
For those that don't know, when it comes to raw power, the Apple M1 pisses over everything consumer.
So, I have a very nice (expensive at the time) A3+ photo printer that isn't the most up to date when it comes to drivers and so played safe with the Intel version, same with a laser printer.  As I'll be using it just for printing etc. don't need the M1 power, nice though it is, and that's pretty much why I bought the Intel over M1.  Also Currys were selling it at ?200 less than the official Apple site (i5 6 core, 8GB RAM, 512GB SSD), and my local Currys are very helpful people.  You can add extra RAM to the 2020 (and 2018) Intel Mac Mini yourself at about 25% of the Apple cost upto 64 GB- you do need to be brave and have Torx 5, 6, and 10 bits though, which I do, and have taken Macs apart in the past, so not too much of an issue.
Wonder if there'll be an M2 Chip.... I could do with an new MacBook Pro...

 
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