[Closed] M1 Mac users - how's it going?

Look stop it now. I'm trying desperately to avoid upgrading my tired 2012 MBP.

I’ve been thinking about upgrading our 2014 iMac which has hybrid drive thing to a Mac mini. As were both working from home I fancy being able to plug either my laptop (dell with dell usb c dock) or a Mac mini into the dock and use either home pc or work computer at the same desk. The iMac is sitting permanently behind the wife’s laptop on the desk and it would be good to have some more flexibility.

Just a bit worried about screens though as the iMac is retina and the screen is lovely.

Also - does it make sense to have the family photo store on a stand alone ssd instead of piling it on the Mac mini and getting a massive hard drive? They are already backed up on iCloud and a time machine connected hard drive.

I presume the Mac mini will run my 2 x dell 24” screens ok, they’re not 4 k or anything. I’d then get a decent 28” screen for the upstairs desk that I can run the wife’s work laptop through or the Mac mini. Any ideas for a reasonable screen?

Nearly there with the 'buy it now' on the 24" IMac rather than the Mac mini.

Just a bit of help with an External HDD please

I currently run a windows machine (6-7 years old) and its struggling, hence looking for something else.

I also run a NAS drive (Netgear Stora) as a back up and I'm/we are not using it as a NAS at all.

Its only there as a back up. So I was going to take the LAN cable to the NAS and use it for the Apple TV and Zwift in the garage to make that stable as possible

So I still want to back up, so I was thinking external Hard drive permanently connected to the Imac.

Question is HDD or SSD? and does anybody have any recommendations for external back up drives, it would be nice if it was silver to match the IMac BTW 😉

I use a 1TB Samsung T7 SSD drive for a Time Machine backup and a 2TB crucial SSD as additional storage (in fact I have 2 of these) This works really well and the performance is pretty good.

I could probably use a spinning disk for the backup but to be honest I like the fact there are no moving parts and its quiet for when I am recording.

So I still want to back up, so I was thinking external Hard drive permanently connected to the Imac.

Question is HDD or SSD? and does anybody have any recommendations for external back up drives, it would be nice if it was silver to match the IMac BTW 😉

What about a cloud backup like iDrive instead?
There's an offer here for $20 for the first year.
https://www.idrive.com/idrive/deals/pdn/bestbackups/?data1=cloudtimemachine_p.1.summary.bottomcta_l.en_pid.8934

Looks like I may have managed to wangle a 14" MacBook Pro through work. Does anyone have a view on whether 16GB of RAM is good for general use, or with multiple documents, powerpoints, large files etc I should get 32GB? It's not cheap so I won't do it if it's really only needed for people working with large video files etc...

If you have budget, it would be churlish not to get the 32gb version.
Unless you need to write a justification of course.

Thanks @oldtennisshoes. I do need to write a justification, will see what they say 🙂

I think unless you are currently doing, or planning to do any high end graphics or modelling work, then it will be hard to write a justification.
I have a 2020 spec Macbook Air with 8 gb that happily handles all office tasks - even more so with the move to Office 365 on the web and g suite.

I have the 14″ MacBook Pro 16gb / 500 base model. Was loving it until last weekend when it had a hardware failure and wouldn't start up. Just got a brand new replacement, so will see how it goes.

My missus just got an M1 MacBook Air to replace a still perfectly functional 2012 MacBook Pro.

It's the base model, 8gb, but with 512gb SD. It's insanely capable. Like editing 4K video in iMovie whilst live streaming it over TEAMs with no hold ups, whilst also having multiple tabs open in safari and many ppt files. Goodness knows what magic even the basic M1 chip has. It's nuts!

My daily driver is a 2019 souped up MacBook Pro with 16bg, and it the Air is so much faster. Crazy.

To your question - I don't think you'd need 32 gb, 16gb M1 won't be even slightly stretched by what you intended to use it for.

Thanks all. I'm paranoid about it because I'm totally fed up with loudly spinning fans just with a second monitor plugged in, and their screaming objections once I get onto a Teams or Zoom call, but it sounds as if I'l be fine with the new machine.

I did press the button on one imac

8gb of ram and a 512 SDD.

Its my first mac machine (apart form a phone) and its taking some time to get used to, but the screen and sound are fantastic and its fast. Really glad I took the plunge TBH.

New iMac convert here 🙂

Anyone see the presentation last night? Wasn't going to bother, but then watched avidly after the last-minute rumours re. Studio (which is something I've been waiting for a couple of years now, since the first rumblings about M1!)
Perfect to replace my ageing iMac (although, to be fair, it's still absolutely fine as my daily workhorse but can no longer update to the latest OS)
Just uhmming and ahhhing over spec before I hit "buy". Defo Max rather than Ultra though! Won't bother with the Studio Monitor (at least initially) although it looks cool, but just a bit too spendy plus I wouldn't use the video-conferencing features. Maybe get a couple of big LG 4K monitors instead - possibly at least one ultra-wide?

I didn't see that so thanks for sharing. The Studio looks very well specced, just a shame the design is so abysmal. For a company that has built a large part of its fortune on cutting edge industrial design, this is disappointing.

The thing about monitors is that excellence (or perhaps more correctly ‘accuracy') is still not cheap; if you absolutely need to have the most accurate colour rendition possible you’re going to pay considerably more for that than one which is a little wayward or has fewer display options. I use a 32" BenQ SW320, which was around £1200 when I got it five years ago, but it’s required for photography work and rendering colour consistently. It’s colour reproduction that tends to drive price rather than resolution.

If you don’t need that colour accuracy though, then there’s loads of better value choice than the Apple.

M1 iMac replaced 2014 27.5 iMac (Retina). It's a faster machine for sure. I notice especially editing vid. Screen is very very good.

M1 MacBook Air replaced 2011 MacBook Air.  Night and Day!

I had been keeping an eye out for an updated Mac Mini, and the Studio looks great, but at £2K+ it's a bit out of my league! Might go with the standard M1 version after all...

Our IT department has been looking at the next iteration of the workstations for heavy users, and the new Mac Studio appears to be very competitively priced. There's AMD based hardware which is comparable in spec and price, and latest generation Intel kit is basically unobtainable. They're very excited to get one and compare for our workloads.

If you don't need a full-on workstation like the Studio, the standard M1 Mini is still an excellent deal.

Is there a new MacBook Air due?

Been chewing for a few months over getting my wife an Air M1 (the standard model). I notice Currys are selling them a bit cheaper and when i check the Apple website they show pre-orders starting at 1pm today.
Couldn’t see anything online in the recent announcement relating to MacBook Air ?

when i check the Apple website they show pre-orders starting at 1pm today.

The Studio looks very well specced, just a shame the design is so abysmal.

I’m sure they said something about users wanting more modularity… then introduce a new desktop that isn’t modular. I think people would’ve been happy with an M1 Mac Mini with a standard SSD slot under a removable base.

We’ve a very early M1 MBP which is fine, and not noticeably better or worse than the intel Mac Mini that’s the other computer. I liked the Touch Bar but I appreciate I am in a small minority. As with @Alex above it was night and day better than the 2011 MBP it replaced.

you’re right, there was no mention of MacBook (Air) in the presentation though. Guess we’ll find out at 1?

Well I’m non the wiser whether anything has changed 😆

From a month ago (I'm really on top of things me)

To your question – I don’t think you’d need 32 gb, 16gb M1 won’t be even slightly stretched by what you intended to use it for.

Maybe not immediately but it could be the difference between running it in 10 years and having to replace because the lack of RAM is causing excessive swapping (or whatever is the tech at that point).

Just setting up a new M1 mac mini... oh my god, trying to get ionic and capacitor to run smoothly was a pain... could not instal ruby, eventually found an forum post which helped out.

Its only used to build apps in xcode.... so quite a simple process, i just need a mac with a bigger hard drive as my last one ran out of space 🙁

Seems quick - but i've not managed to actually build any old projects yet! so time will tell.

Liking the idea of the new M1 ipad air.