Sure, but that contributes to price, so you have time, check from time to time, you have enough till September to really get hold onto something amazing.

Consider that brand new Macbook Pro M4 Pro 12C 24/1TB costed 2200 configured, so for 1600 you should be really looking at something that is pretty much having few cycles of battery and it's in mint condition. Also M5 Pro 15C starts with 24/1TB for 2200 (Costco seems to have it for 2050 bucks right now), but this one have no E cores and performance uplift is substantial in DAW's like Logic/Bitwig over typical P/E cores, again, probably they will start popping out soon too, even for 1800-1900 they are great deal for few months old stuff

 

Last edited: Apr 11, 2026 at 9:42 PM

Yeah, while you want to pay attention to the power of the individual cores the way it works, and they have progressed over the years as things go... I wouldn't worry much about Voltage Modular creating issues, hell even on a 2 year old system like mine with 14 cores (10 performance and 4 efficiency, 30 gpu).. and those cores aren't m5, at all... especially if your coming from an intel chipped Mac. Apple Silicon will eat that stuff for breakfast.

Just get the best you can afford at the time, don't buy "second hand" (and that doesn't mean apple refurbished as that is first hand for all intents and purposes), and since you have a few months, just study up on what the transition from intel to m chipped is gonna be, and what you are going to either lose or have to upgrade and all of that. It can be a little much at first, but once you get settled, it's blue skies.

I can do more on my laptop right now than I could with four upgraded 5,1 cheesegraters with crap tons of ram for the most part (sure, lost pcie slots and some software as it was deprecated), and I kept my old systems on ice should I have to revisit things,... but it is so so much better. and portable. and saves so much money in a rapidly increasing world of power costs. and no damn fan noise.

 

I’m already aware of the transition from Intel but yes I can study up on any performance enhancements, plus I can prepare my hard drive so I can easily grab my installers to get set up quickly with a new Mac, plus I have to keep my eye out on any other raiders so I can replace the money I spent and save up ahead of time, and there should be plenty of time to put in some more into savings by then

 

yeah, there is gonna be some growing pains with the intel/mchip shift, so I wouldn't plan on "migrating" your system or using those offered tools, or rather, I certainly wouldn't recommend it.

I just wiped the slate clean and rebuilt with what I actually used, and found substitutes for things that wouldn't make the chip migration...

Sure, took longer. But you don't want to be dragging over a lot of detritus from your old setup other than what you specifically target and want. (i.e. you can bring your presets and audio assets and what you may need but don't use apple migration assistant or anything like that, as it will cause more headaches than ease). I had a pretty involved system(s) going on, so it didn't happen real quick, but taking the time and doing it right certainly was the right play looking back.

 

Buy what you can afford with the features you need now & maybe into the future, and call it a day (imho).

 

I have my plugin installers backed up so I can use those setting up the new Mac, it’d be a fresh installation other than some things I copy like my sample folder and presets/settings for some plugins

 

If you need low latency in ableton then absolutely M5 pro. To be honest I´ve a M4 pro with 48gb and motu ultra lite mk5, the latency in ableton is not good. as soon as you have some cpu hungry plugins, the latency goes up really quickly. that´s why it´s important to buy always the best possible computer / technology of the moment, and if you can´t afford it , rather wait a bit but make a smart long term investment.

 

then you ideally want 16" MBP with M5 Pro cpu (18-core)
but it's very worth considering going refurbished M4 Max cpu (16-core) gives 12P + 4E cores

 

Macbook Pro M4 Pro is solid, found one 14C 24/1TB refurbished for 1800.

 

Last edited: Apr 12, 2026 at 3:42 PM

I told apple fanboys since day one that NO, 8GB is not enough for serious music making.
But they still think Apple magically "compress" RAM usage, like compressing Kontakt preload or things like that.

It is always funny to see ppl thinking Apple do magic things ... like storing RAM in the ether / thin air.

 

Hans Zimmer had a custom-made 128 GB motherboard from a motherboard manufacturer!

 

Last edited: Apr 12, 2026 at 3:12 PM

yeah, I agree that 8gb is not enough without question.

and as while it is context dependent, apple's approach in design leads to more efficiency in a lot of scenarios that absolutely allow for better performance than the numbers belie... but ymmv. Get as much ram as is reasonable that you can afford (tough with apple tax on that), but I'm doing fine with 36gb with heavy kontakt library use and other things that would need them for the most part, and better then I was with 96 or 128gb on my 5,1's, but that is apples and oranges for the most part...

 

Yeah, while it's always a pita to carry around multiple ssd's and hubs and whatnot, I would be anyways with interface/midi controllers and the rest of it... I'm not dropping egregious money on getting a 4tb internal for a MacBook Pro ffs.... It's never going to be enough anyways for me where I'm going dongle free. Keep essential assets onboard, enough to do whatever, but for the price they are asking, might as well get another machine as a sidecar.

 

Opposed to what, buying 32GB of DDR5 RAM for 500 bucks for DIY PC?

 

Yeah ArticStorm, that's essentially how I consider it when "going commando" without my external ssd's and dongle nonsense required for when I am pulling up my sleeves...

256gb would be a little small for me, in not only wanting headroom, but iirc (and it's been awhile since I had to research it), either the higher 1tb configuration or something along those lines do make a difference in terms of bus/soc speed on MacBooks. I am sadly either too Kontakt dependent, or with the bloat of everything else I use, whether it be AD2 or SD3/EZ3 or other hard drive gobblers, that it is what it is, and preferring (obviously) ssd speed, I have a few 4tb ssd's and 2tb's and smaller, (and sure, I can and should prune them from what I don't ever care to use or have) (and will, given the pricing of getting new ones these days, as I got lucky buying them when I did when it was reasonable before the ai/datacenter/FANG's buying up everything in regards to hdd's and ssd's, so I'm pat for awhile).

So as you said, at the end of the day, I can go dongleless and perhaps just a midi controller or what have you and get most of it done as I can live without having EVERYTHING all the time, as I'm good with aforementioned stock plugs in Logic or Ableton, and some 3rd party stuff that is there. When I sit down at a desk and jack in to the rest of it, great.

I'm a loooong ways away from needing another Mac purchase (they tend to last me forever), but if I was in the market, I'd probably go with a Mac mini and use my mbp as either a sidecar or internet device (as I'm always offline while working)... (so now I use my older intel machines for that, although the sound of the fans even on browsers is like a damn hair dryer to me).

 

Let's then talk about that in some other thread.

 

mac & cheese