Our laptop is a little past it (2013) so am going to upgrade it but not a brand new one.
As it is just my wife and I (and she rarely uses it) I was thinking it would be an opportunity to get one that doubles as a music tool (Garageband,Ableton live etc). I don’t need something that will cope with full on symphonies ad I only play guitar and dabble with the rest (keyboard, samples, loops etc)
Can anyone advise what sort of minimum spec I need and the best place to source one please?
It needs to be Apple though - I haven’t used anything else for near 25 years.
Thanks in anticipation.
Jim.
Comments
As a rough guide, whatever the basic model's RAM is, you would do well to increase that by at least 4GB and if you intend keeping it 10 years like you have your current one, up the HD or SSD to twice the size you thought you wanted.
Sorry but I cannot advise on the best place to source one as I always buy online direct from Apple, a place I recommend but cannot compare to elsewhere.
If you've already got an audio interface, you need to do some homework on whether drivers are needed/available. M1 MBA only has USB-C ports, so an Apple adapter is an annoying fact of life for older interfaces.
But I think the OP's audio needs are pretty modest and 8/256 is fine unless he's going for NI Komplete/similar.
Get as much RAM and storage as you can afford.
16GB, 1TB would be my suggestion, to get the maximum life out of the machine.
I struggle to recommend used Mac laptops because of a lack of warranty.
If the SSD (or anything else soldered on) dies then you have a doorstop.
My previous MBP (15" 2017) was essentially swapped out (except for the bottom case) under the AppleCare+ warranty.
It is worth its weight, imo.
Studio: https://www.voltperoctave.com
Music: https://www.euclideancircuits.com
Me: https://www.jamesrichmond.com
You're more likely to find a MBPro with 16/512.
If buying used, do check the battery. You can get an idea of battery life in two places within the System Info applet, ISTR. Annoyingly, of course, the more RAM and SSD a laptop has, the shorter its battery life and the faster the battery cycles mount up over time.
Are you saying the air isn’t as reliable as a result of a lack of fan?
You can get a third party warranty from some places but it is unlikely to be as good.
No, I am saying that it with throttle under CPU load.
That has nothing to do with reliability.
It is performance.
Without a fan it cannot exceed certain core temps, which means it cannot exceed certain speeds.
It depends on other factors though, the type of processing and even room temperature (to a degree).
A fan in a computer allows for cooling under load- the fan spins up when it gets hot to cool it, allowing for longer periods at full CPU usage. The fanless designs don't allow this- they can run slower under load.
They are all as reliable as each other- to a point.
There is an argument to be made that high usage at high temperature shortens component life but not massively.
I would still argue for buying new, with an extendible warranty.
Studio: https://www.voltperoctave.com
Music: https://www.euclideancircuits.com
Me: https://www.jamesrichmond.com
The ability to dissipate heat is very important for performance.
I would anticipate the performance of a Mac Mini for example will be considerably higher than that of a Macbook Air.
The last generation of intel macs had terrible real world performance I have an i9 Macbook and it constantly stutters and crawls because it overheats at the slightest hint of sustained load. It's theoretically high powered machine, but you see none of it.
Fanless machines if kept to sensible operating temperatures should be more reliable as they don't have mechanical components and don't get vents clogged up with fluff.
I couldn't have it on my lap for more than 2 mins, even with a case.
Apple totally did the right thing moving to SoC.
It is astonishing how much power the new machines have.
I don't understand how they will solve the Mac pro issue- what sort of PCIE bus it will have etc and for me I've finally made my peace with using expansion chassis, albeit with the computer in a machine room.
For a laptop, I think the sweet spot for performance and portability is the 14" MBP.
It is what I have (2021 version).
I have no immediate need to move to the 2023 but if I did then that is what I would buy.
The Air is great, but having the *possibility* of throttling is not for me.
I've still never heard the fan in the 14" though, even running some very complex Max patches, large audio sessions and doing moderately complex video work.
Studio: https://www.voltperoctave.com
Music: https://www.euclideancircuits.com
Me: https://www.jamesrichmond.com
My old machine was a 2013 MBP i7/16/128 and it's still working though I upgraded to an M1 a while ago. The M1 runs much cooler than the old Intel machines despite having no fan. As others have already mentioned, getting as much RAM as poss and a decent size hard drive will ensure that the machine has a long working life.
Studio: https://www.voltperoctave.com
Music: https://www.euclideancircuits.com
Me: https://www.jamesrichmond.com
Apple silicon runs extremely cool, I wouldn't worry about thermal throttling