I just returned a 2023 MacBook Pro M2 to Costco. It had some strong points, but the little screen, lack of ports, battery, electro-shock when plugged in, etc., was not working out. Any ideas for a better set-up? Thanks for any suggestions (other than buy a PC). ;-)

 

Buy a Mac Mini and add a 4k screen and thunderbolt drives.

 

There's also iMac M1 24" with 4 ports, it got 2x Thunderbolt 4 and 2x USB 3, but if you got good screen already or don't really have the need for that exact one, as Havana said, M2 Mini is the best option, you can even look for M2 Pro models who got 10 core CPU, two additional Thunderbolt 4 ports, 16GB of RAM and 512GB storage. Worth pointing out, you don't get Apple peripherals with Mini, so yeah, if you don't really care for that, more reasons against the iMac.

All boils down to your needs, you can add external drives instead of paying more for internal, if you aren't Kontakt user, 8GB's of RAM is sufficient, so you can pretty much get a away with base 8/256 model there.

There's also USB-C Digital AV Multiport Adapter, I got second hand one for 30 bucks, have MIDI keyboard and HDMI display hooked up on it, so there's that option too to further expand on base model.

 

Last edited: Apr 24, 2023

with 1500, i'd get a very late Intel based Pro, like a 2019 cylinder (or earlier garbage can and keep the change). 1. it is intel. 2. you will find a ~7000$ originally priced machine for under 1500 already, because people update/replace their macs like they are an iphone. (still perfect). With something like a 10 core 3.0 ghz Xeon and 64gb or more ram. More ports, 6gb gpu. 2tb ssd internal. Reboot once a month.

i don't work with video at all; so to me, this one is easy.

 

The MacBook M2 was under $1300. Surely I can get an M1 of some sort for under $1500

 

Macbook pro late 2013-mid 2014 A1398, you can get one for 300 on ebay. work horse.

 

What sort do you need, laptop, desktop, how much RAM, storage, can you expand a little on it, M1 have two kinds of laptops, Mini and iMac, what do you want?

 

Why did you mention battery? Does it have bad battery life or what?

 

With that money you can get 2013 Mac Pro 6.1 Twelve Core, that's it, I wish it was like that, I'm daily on listings, folks aren't selling their 7000 bucks machines they got few years ago for that kind of money, second hand prices of Mac's are still ridiculous and than you got these entry level M1's that pretty much outperform entry level Mac Pro from 2019 and top of the line Mac Pro from 2013, at least in CPU power, only good thing is if one is heavy Kontakt user and can score 64GB Twelve Core trashcan, other than that, I don't see much point, single core is twice as slower, multi core is there, but that's 12 core Intel Mac Pro vs. M1 Air laptop.

Another reason people aren't selling their Mac Pro's like cupcakes is that there's actually no Apple Silicon replacement for it and by the looks of it never will be, in the sense of that you can upgrade RAM or anything, if they do anything they will leave you few PCIe slots for Avid cards and similar.

 

There was a rumor that Apple´s next Mac Pro is more like blade server for upgrades. So they might pretty upgradeable, but we´ll see..

 

Newer rumor from same source is saying otherwise, in best case scenario you could upgrade storage and have PCIe add on card, but I doubt they will have even storage upgrade options.

https://www.macworld.com/article/347010/new-mac-pro-2023.html

 

No more batteries . . . Tired of time running out and when plugged in the EMF level is dangerously high. If another laptop I would need to get a mouse and keyboard so I'm not glued to the box. I don't need crazy power . . . running Reaper with 16-tracks and minimalistic plugins . . . mostly audio. Not worried about upgrading. Need thunderpants ports, but hubs if I have to . . . rather not though.

But, I do want processing speed . . . don't want to go back to an old Intel i5.

 

Mini M2 definitely, Mini M2 Pro if you don't want to deal with hubs, if you already have display and peripherals, you are good to go for the price of the M2 Macbook Pro you returned. If you need to factor in display and peripherals in that price, than basic M2 Mini.

Worth pointing out, M2 Pro gives you x2 Thunderbolt 4 ports extra, I don't have single Thunderbolt device here, on both Mini's you got x2 USB-A, if you have plenty of non USB-C devices, you are going to use hubs anyways. Display will probably go on HDMI port, so dunno, if that extra x2 T4 slots are of any use for you. Also extra two cores you get with Pro, Reaper will use all your cores efficiently anyways and doubt you will exhaust that machine that easily, I can't mine M1 with Bitwig who is resource hog and running Diva, DSEQ's and others on HQ options, having full blown mastering chain with Ozone and IK Tape on stereo bus. Also all that monitored with Realphones at the end of the chain, all that stuff are known hogs and I run all that with 256 buffer.

 

Last edited: Apr 24, 2023

as an example on https://eshop.macsales.com:

Your selected Mac Pro Configuration. ($840).

• 3.7GHz Quad-Core Xeon E5-1620v2 processor
• 64GB memory
• 2.0TB OWC Aura Pro X2 Solid-State Drive
• AMD FirePro D300 x 2 with 2GB VRAM
• Supports macOS 10.9.1 Mavericks* (see Specifications) to macOS 12.x Monterey

You will not see a Mini driving many real studios. You might see an iMac, but it's usually not the only computer being used.
The M1+ Silicon processor is very fast, but them switching from Intel to Apple Silicon is also a bunch of hype. The processor is not that much faster. It is Apple forcing people to buy all new stuff, because people fall for it. (again). And the Mini for 700$ is a great lure for PC users who are looking to maybe switch platform (like this dude running Reaper on a mac. just lol)..... But benchmark cpu scores are not all that matters about a machine. A Pro will make a Mini basically disposable.

 

Clone,
Many thanks for the response, but I'm not sure what you are suggesting???

 

I'd get an Intel Mac Pro (tower) instead of an Apple Silicon. A mac mini with 8gb is 700$, but that is barely an acceptable amount of RAM. To go from 8-16gb RAM on a Mini basically doubles it's price. They are around 1300$ and still only 16gb. You will get approximately 25-50 audio tracks with an average amount of fx plugins on each channel with 16gb memory. A Pro will allow about 2-3 times this number of channels with 64gb in it. And still run stable with no random crashing. Everything about a Pro was/is made with top notch components, while a $700 Mini is made however they can to be able to sell it for $700. Fast but Cheap.

Because everyone "has to upgrade" to Apple Silicon, (for no real reason), prior generation machines can be found at a steal of a price. A Mini is non-upgradeable after you buy it. The tower machines are not junk if any one little component fails, like a Mini.

way more computer for similar money. With 1500$, even a Hackintosh begins to make sense; but you ruled that out.

 

Last edited: Apr 24, 2023

It's not hype, it's been 3 years already, I have one, it's freaking amazing machine, CPU is not just faster, app's are even better optimized to work with it, Apple still sells Intel Mac Pro's, if Mac Pro is what you need, don't get what you object here, laptop that have horsepower of an Mac Pro for fraction of the price. Do you realize that this Air I got pretty much leaves in dust their previous Intel Macbook Pro which cost's x2 and more, doesn't have cooler, make no noise, have battery that actually last's, all that because they made better chip that can do all this, not relying on Intel who was dragging their feet last decade and brought problems with some models due to overheating, than failing of nVidia GPU's in models spanning from 2011-15 and so on.

That specs you quoted there, that's the kind of machine I actually ditched after a decade of using it, I know very well what it is capable of, I can guarantee you that project I run on this Air will bring it to it's knees, that's why I got new machine, to have the luxury of actually working like this.

I don't care what drives Pro studios, I'm not one, I don't use Pro Tools either, I don't score movies or use Kontakt or need absurd amount of RAM and storage to get by, have no PCIe cards invested in, I have powerful, quiet and reliable machine I can take with me and never hit the limits of it, that's all there is to it.

This same story was around when Apple switched to Intel, tech progresses, Intel can't deliver this kind of performance for mobile devices and never did, Apple moved on and finally we have something worth upgrading. You are free to stick to 10 year old machines if that is what you find valuable, I don't anymore, that's it.

 

This is bunch of speculations on your part, prior machines are still overpriced, as they were when they were released, people upgrade because it makes sense to them, not everyone is in PC desktop mindset of opening machines and DIY-ing, there's actual videos comparing 8GB and 16GB on M1's with actual DAW and audio, they didn't come out yesterday and we are all just hyped about it without any reason. Apple moved on, now they don't have to charge crazy amount of money anymore, until recently people slammed them for that, you are using Intel and everything else like others and your machines cost more, now they don't and charge reasonable price for all of that and still there's people who have issue with that.

As I said already, if decade old Mac Pro tower makes most sense to you, more power to you, but half of the stuff you are saying doesn't really hold much truth, dunno what real issue you have with these entry level machines, Apple still makes, sells and supports Intel Mac Pro's, you can go whole DIY and hackintosh too, reason I got this machine is that I don't have to mess with it like I have bloody Windows again and for my money this was the best investment in long time. I waited 10 years to upgrade and finally there was something worth upgrading, it works, I'm happy, bunch of people are, Apple didn't knocked on my door forcing me to do this, I wasn't even using their devices anymore, when I saw value in building desktop PC, I did that, now I saw value in having amazing laptop based on my preferences and it works. Prior to buying this I built Ryzen desktop for a friend that cost same as Mac Mini and on paper it might be even better (have more RAM), actually it was configuration I wanted for myself which I spent 3 years investigating, but in reality it doesn't actually work better, tested it, worked on it, it's great machine and could recommend anyone that needs desktop PC, you can even make hackintosh out of it, still, we are comparing mobile and desktop device here, if someone needs mobile device, I'm yet to be convinced that entry level stuff from Apple isn't good value and if someone needs desktop device, 10 year old Mac Pro isn't one either.

 

Last edited: Apr 25, 2023

The OP already returned a laptop which is better than your Air to the store. If he is correct in saying it was a M2 Macbook Pro, which I am not sure is accurate pricing but it's what his post states. ( i checked, it is valid.) A Mini is not a mobile computer. The RAM upgrade on Mini is about $600, which is crazy. So, if OP was disappointed by a M2 MBP, what about an Air is going to change that? Nothing.


So process of elimination, what is left? He cannot afford a M1+ Pro certainly, and a Studio or iMac he'd need some more money also.

That project you think would not be possible on some other machine? In Logic , you would just stem it. It doesn't even need to be able to play. You stem each track as audio, and then you can disable the channels you have piled up with too many plugins to free up resources, if even necessary. Mastering chain plugins in your project? You'd bounce and re-import to bring up to final volume, and then you have the whole CPU free again. The Apple Silicon machine will do these renders faster, but you'd need a stopwatch to notice the difference.

 

Last edited: Apr 25, 2023

I would got M2 Air or Pro if it was that better, it's same stuff they were doing in Intel days, at least now Air isn't just fancy looking student machine, it's actually powerful laptop with backlit keyboard, something Macbook's Pro only got back in the day.

Mini is mobile device too, that's their whole selling point of it, little desktop like device you can put in your bag and use somewhere else, it got same stuff in it as their laptops, always has, it wasn't ever supposed to replace their Mac Pro, Apple is company that tries their best to market this things to target audience and put lot of effort to ensure if some of their Pro machine is what you need, you will get their Pro machine, no matter how you configure their entry level machine, if you are power user, by the end you are just better off buying that machine, we tried everything to replace top of the line iMac 5K my friend is using for his video work, it boils down to wait for actual Pro iMac.

This stuff became my side hobby, I'm daily on listings, hunting down deals, investigating, spent 3 years just for my own build, trying to get best value for my money and I'm usually a guy folks turn to when they need new machine or anything related to that, not saying I'm an expert or anything, quite far from that, but it was the only way for me to make my money worth, invest my own time into it. So I kinda know what I'm talking about, researched most of these scenarios, if someone is sucker for good deal, I'm that guy. Don't have lot of money to spend and everything I spend my money on is based on actual need and research, trying to make most out of every purchase I make, having to convince my wife in it too, it quickly falls apart when I can't even convince myself, let alone my wife that asks few most logical questions and tries to understand why she is giving up money from food or any other thing she planned for the house. Have no buyers remorse, for a long time, I don't own fancy things, but this stuff I own is huge bang for the buck.

 

Last edited: Apr 25, 2023