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New Apple Silicon Macs: MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and Mac Mini

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I've gotten exceptionally long service out of my macs - I don't have anything newer than 2014 and for (I think) $1000, no complaints. I use it a minimum of a couple of hours a day.

My first hack was perhaps $1000 and seven years of service, still runs everything. I would have had to spend double or more for comparable apple hardware. The thing is: if I accounted for time - not actually all that much - and what I should ahve been doing instead, it probably was not worth the difference in price. No complaints - I kind of enjoyed buildng it and I learned a lot.

Built a new hack this last month and didn't spend much - had some parts - but again, probably wasn't actually worth the savings given the time. (It's very nice but frankly the surprising thing is that seven years on and it's not THAT much faster than my Haswell-era hack - probably shouldn't have bothered knowing M1 coming out but partly for fun).

Looking forward to getting the no-compromise macbook air M1 with far, far better battery life. I'll be a bit less cheap this time and upgrade memory and drive. Everything will work (sidecar drm etc), which matters to me on a laptop, not so much on a desktop.

The hacks will run until they physically break or find some other use. If that's three years or five, more than enough.

Side note: desktop PCs are nice and upgradeable. PC laptops - not so much. Maybe a bit, but not if you compare comparable form factors (most ultrabooks are only a bit more upgradeable). Hacks fit a space where desktops are still used and you want macos - but frankly on the PC side the only people I know buying desktop computers are gamers.

Apple's premia for memory and disk upgrades are annoying. But man, the software is good (better anyway), and for the lifetimes of the laptops, the amount of use I get out of them, it's peanuts on an annual basis. Better bang for buck than most stuff I spend money on.

Before about 2014 I'd upgrade my laptop every couple of years, the old one would go to a family member, the one before that would get sold (at very decent price recovery). I may have to go back to that upgrade process - after 2014 I was disappointed with the Apple offerings and the butterfly keyboard really put me off.

(Just my personal view based on my situation, understand perfectly doesn't apply to everyone)
 
ArmourZtatzion (pending)
Z390 M |  i5 9600K |  HD 630
The M1 MBP will be my first Apple product purchase and by my own calculations, its the first one that's been worth the money. Better than PC laptop performance with intensive tasks and lower power usage than I can with a similarly priced PC laptop. Not sure if I could have said that with any MBP before. Whether they are worth buying into the Apple ecosystem for may be more questionable but by all the metrics PC enthusiasts used to condemn Macs with, they are a winner.

I'd put a £1 on Apple doubling their laptop sales within 2 years with these machines. (await EDIT)
 
Armoured said:
I've gotten exceptionally long service out of my macs - I don't have anything newer than 2014 and for (I think) $1000, no complaints. I use it a minimum of a couple of hours a day.

My first hack was perhaps $1000 and seven years of service, still runs everything. I would have had to spend double or more for comparable apple hardware. The thing is: if I accounted for time - not actually all that much - and what I should ahve been doing instead, it probably was not worth the difference in price. No complaints - I kind of enjoyed buildng it and I learned a lot.

Built a new hack this last month and didn't spend much - had some parts - but again, probably wasn't actually worth the savings given the time. (It's very nice but frankly the surprising thing is that seven years on and it's not THAT much faster than my Haswell-era hack - probably shouldn't have bothered knowing M1 coming out but partly for fun).

Looking forward to getting the no-compromise macbook air M1 with far, far better battery life. I'll be a bit less cheap this time and upgrade memory and drive. Everything will work (sidecar drm etc), which matters to me on a laptop, not so much on a desktop.

The hacks will run until they physically break or find some other use. If that's three years or five, more than enough.

Side note: desktop PCs are nice and upgradeable. PC laptops - not so much. Maybe a bit, but not if you compare comparable form factors (most ultrabooks are only a bit more upgradeable). Hacks fit a space where desktops are still used and you want macos - but frankly on the PC side the only people I know buying desktop computers are gamers.

Apple's premia for memory and disk upgrades are annoying. But man, the software is good (better anyway), and for the lifetimes of the laptops, the amount of use I get out of them, it's peanuts on an annual basis. Better bang for buck than most stuff I spend money on.

Before about 2014 I'd upgrade my laptop every couple of years, the old one would go to a family member, the one before that would get sold (at very decent price recovery). I may have to go back to that upgrade process - after 2014 I was disappointed with the Apple offerings and the butterfly keyboard really put me off.

(Just my personal view based on my situation, understand perfectly doesn't apply to everyone)
Click to expand...

Approx 5 years is about as long as I can go before new hardware envy gets me. It's not so much that I needed it, I just wanted it...

In the old days, I would sell my Power Macs and upgrade to the new model every year or two. This worked out very well because of how well those Power Macs retained their resale value. All of those came to a halt with the MacPro5,1 as I didn't want the MacPro6,1. I held on to the MacPro5,1 until I went hackintosh. Then I went back to fairly frequent hardware upgrades...

Although I've put in my fair share of time in to my hacks, I have zero regrets and really appreciate all that I've learned from the experience. I'd never be as familiar with macOS had I not travelled down the hackintosh route. To me, it has been a priceless learning experience.

A few months back, I picked up one last PC laptop to hackintosh before I return to the collective. I really appreciate the ability to go to 32GB RAM and have to ability to install an M.2 SSD plus a 2.5" SSD. For my basic laptop needs, this should last me quite a few years barring any physical issues that may arise.
 
pastrychef said:
Although I've put in my fair share of time in to my hacks, I have zero regrets and really appreciate all that I've learned from the experience. I'd never be as familiar with macOS had I not travelled down the hackintosh route. To me, it has been a priceless learning experience.

A few months back, I picked up one last PC laptop to hackintosh before I return to the collective. I really appreciate the ability to go to 32GB RAM and have to ability to install an M.2 SSD plus a 2.5" SSD. For my basic laptop needs, this should last me quite a few years barring any physical issues that may arise.
Click to expand...

Yes, I've actually really enjoyed and no complaints. I'm just saying that on a pure money/time basis for using the computer for productive tasks, it probably wasn't 'worth it' or really all that much savings. The hobby/noodling around aspect has its own value. (Of course it's just as artificial to exclude one set of benefits - but for those not into some of this stuff, the calculation would be different.

It is awfully nice to over-spec a desktop by just slapping in memory and drives.

Could you point me to the laptop you hacked? (Maybe I'll waste some more time...)
 
ArmourZtatzion (pending)
Z390 M |  i5 9600K |  HD 630
Armoured said:
Yes, I've actually really enjoyed and no complaints. I'm just saying that on a pure money/time basis for using the computer for productive tasks, it probably wasn't 'worth it' or really all that much savings. The hobby/noodling around aspect has its own value. (Of course it's just as artificial to exclude one set of benefits - but for those not into some of this stuff, the calculation would be different.

It is awfully nice to over-spec a desktop by just slapping in memory and drives.

Could you point me to the laptop you hacked? (Maybe I'll waste some more time...)
Click to expand...

Link to my Dell Vostro 3480 hack is below in my signature.
 
pastrychef said:
Why is being great at marketing a bad thing? Why do you prefer to own products form companies with crappy marketing?
Click to expand...
pastrychef said:
Approx 5 years is about as long as I can go before new hardware envy gets me. It's not so much that I needed it, I just wanted it...
Click to expand...
Isn't that the quintessence of great marketing? To make you want things you don't need?

I can't remember the times I bought junk I didn't need, just because they were on sale,
"50% off and it's only for today and there's limited supply, hurry!"​
​
or because I was procrastinating on doing something hard or unpleasant.
"I need one of those new Macs to compile code faster, surely I'll have to research my options and upgrade before diving deeper into this project. Oh, the productivity boost!"​
 
I get the wanting to buy only badly marketed goods - or at least I don't like buying things from companies that have great adverts, eg some Sony adverts are amazing and I think 'that's a big chunk of money they didn't spend on making the product any better'.

That said, I think Apple have generally delivered on their advertised promises over the years and the worst that can be said of them is they told us the price, and after agreeing they were taking the micky some of us still said yes please.
 

Would the M1 chip make up for the poor performance of the Windows ARM version ?
 
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