Yeah, agree, machine shouldn't impose much restrictions, sure, there's no single machine that can handle some of the sessions people been having, but one shouldn't think about machine up until late in the process.

Yeah, totally, that's how the things are and there's no way around it, Neo with 8GB of RAM is ticking time bomb for future macOS, as they already bumped whole entry level line up to 16GB. 8GB was kinda let down in 2020 and it's even bigger in 2026, at least for moderate audio guy that do actually use some bigger sample libraries, need to stay on current macOS at all time and all that fun stuff.

In different thread someone got M1 Pro and it still isn't enough as he actually already hit the wall on PC side... M1 is older tech, it rivals AM4 AMD and mostly entry level stuff, but that's about it, I don't recommend this to most people, especially if one have moderate need for resources and to be on up to date macOS, wouldn't look past M4 and even today, M5 seems to be solid option, enough speed bump, 16/512 as entry level, that I could recommend to moderate user, everything else is just compromises one way or another.

 

Last edited: Mar 26, 2026

Thanks for your comments. As a PC user, the price and brand itself attracted me to the laptop. But wouldn't it be more convenient to stick with the same platform and buy a Windows laptop for the same price, using the same VST plugins?

 

It would, only you can answer this for yourself, based on your needs, preferences and all that.

My own setup is 100% Windows and macOS compatible, probably 90% of Linux with some workarounds (been years since I had Linux on dual boot), but I can open my Bitwig 1 projects and continue working anywhere. So I personally don't care that much, but I get the issue and over the years I kinda gravitated to this, even without actual need, but I wanted to be free from any OS dependency, lame ass companies, developers and all that funk.

 

Last edited: Mar 27, 2026 at 7:59 PM

What would be more useful to you would be a Mac Mini with a super fast processor and an ethernet port, and a CAT-5 cable between it and your existing PC. Then you have both all the Mac plugins you can get, Logic if you want, and all the pc releases you already have. One machine will function as the DAW, and the other as a plugin server, and will work in either direction. With a setup like this, you won't need a laptop to take anywhere.

Unless you really need a laptop, like travel a lot for work, something like that, they are always not the best bang for your buck.
I would recommend a Mac to anyone doing music, even if music production is all you use it for. But I would also recommend leaving your DAW work at home/studio even more. That is like taking being chained to your phone to another level.

 

Maybe this can help somehow, there's results for Neo and you can test your own machine too. I managed to pull 100 tracks that could play without issue while looping, someone reported 69 with Neo.

https://music-prod.com/ableton-live-benchmarks

 

Last edited: Mar 28, 2026 at 1:44 AM

Base M4 Mini + dock (can be had for ~€30-€40 is a solid option to fix the ridiculously tiny amount of storage.

 

Yes, thats the one that came up in that video. Way better value!

 

Oh, you're a PC guy? Have you ever worked on a mac for a longer period?
Depending how you use your computer there is a good chance that you might hate the mac.
Sure there is a tool for everything, but you start at zero.
Like the acceleration of the mouse wheel drives me crazy when I have to work on mac.
There is a tool (linear mouse) to fix that, and as long as its not a studio from someone else you can install that.
But thats the thing, it will take ages until you have all the tools again to feel comfortable in your new environment.
So there really needs to be a good reason for the change.
I have PC at home, and a lot of facilities I work at have macs. I was thinking about switching. But I didn't do it. I bought a very cheap first gen m1 mac mini just to be compatible and create my keyboard shortcuts on mac (it's not always possible to just use the pc settings).. things like that. I decided I will never switch. Not because Mac is bad, just because it is different enough to drive me crazy.

//EDIT// I love Samtime
Can a Windows Laptop Ever Beat Apple - YouTube

 

Last edited: Mar 28, 2026 at 3:08 PM

To really learn MacOS quickly, you have to stop treating your Mac as some additional toy. It's the same with a DAW. If you can easily just waive the white flag and go back the thing you know, you won't learn it quickly, if at all. You also have AI available now, so instead of traipsing the internet via google and reading 3 web pages to figure out something simple will make it way faster to learn. And I'm not even talking about Terminal commands.

I love the mouse for a number of reasons, but if you are using both a PC and a Mac and don't like it, get a nice Logitech wireless mouse with FLOW features. You get the mouse and 1 usb bluetooth micro dongle when you buy one. As long as the mouse is paired to both computers using that dongle or Bluetooth, and Logitech Options/Options+ is installed on both, FLOW will work between them. It handles all the "cross-computer" magic.

So you get a PC mouse with all the macros you want to make for it on both computers, and whatever other features you like from a "pc mouse". Be that thumb scroll wheel, a trackball, whatever. When you use your mouse with the two computers, it works like using 1 computer with 2 monitors. You move the pointer off of screen's side, and it switches to controlling the second computer. I would get the PC model, because they definitely work this way; I haven't tried using a so-called Mac one.

 

It's out

 

You can make most things work on any computer even ones that seem to not have enough RAM as many videos show. There are degrees of 'working' too like barely, just working, acceptably, well and great. This is advertised by MAC as a budget notebook designed for common usage.
As great as Reaper has a small footprint, the real test for me would be a more MAC native DAW, being someone using Logic Pro on it.
The MAC mini is also deemed entry level but the primary difference is you can massively upgrade it, the NEO you cannot. The NEO is dirt cheap for a MAC though.

 

and basically confirms everything I said before

 

I am not being a stick in the mud but I have to say that only you can truly answer that question based on what YOU really want. If you have your heart set on MAC, purchase further up the food chain if you want a serious DAW. Do not let anyone tell you one is better than the other. Both platforms are great if setup properly.

 

You said that P cores on Neo are faster, but that have not that much influence here in the bigger picture, I posted real world Logic test, I did Ableton benchmark, it's not like the case with M3P having even performance with 2 less P cores then M1 Pro. Neo in every real world DAW scenario loses over M1 Air, it have less cores overall, it have less P cores, wherever you go M1 will outperform it, A18 isn't M5 super core, it's not even M5 performance core, it's somewhere between M2/M3. In DAW's that use only P cores (like Ableton OP uses) there's 43% more juice from M1 Air inside of Live and that reflects exactly what guy did in Logic, exactly the same percentage, which just shows that Live and Logic are neck to neck there.

 

The James Zhan youtube vid linked above shows you everything you need to know. I wouldn't hesitate to use a Neo for music production. For a new machine, you couldn't touch it for the price. If you found a good used ARM Macbook with more memory for cheap, I'd also consider that.

 

I actually watched this yesterday about it.
(

)

 

Last edited: Apr 1, 2026 at 6:38 PM

See if there is a way to compare the cpu usage of Ableton 12 vs Logic 11 for a large identical project. I never get to the "large project" part to compare with Logic, because Ableton is much slower on my DAW computer. Like unbearable. Even Bitwig seems more efficient.

 

When I got this laptop I did testing between Reaper, Logic and Bitwig, that was time when Reaper wasn't using all the cores and I got pretty much same results.

Bitwig runs like a champ under heavy load, when I was doing this Live benchmark whole thing was beach ball fest and it crashed first time because it didn't handle duplicating few tracks, so I needed to do one, wait for it to unfreeze, then another... Logic probably runs like a champ under heavy load and with same project it's pretty much usable until it gives you notice that it can't handle anymore, Live I seriously doubt.

But one thing is sure, Logic will feel better under same project then both Bitwig/Live, it will use less RAM, pre-buffering, less CPU spikes and overall whole thing will feel the same having it on 90% or 10%, plugin introduced latency will not slow it down as much and etc.

Guess now I need to find out.

 

Last edited: Apr 1, 2026 at 8:26 PM