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Ask HN: Should one buy Intel-based Macs now?

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Ask HN: Should one buy Intel-based Macs now?

#1

Post by adur1990 »

Apple today updated the iMac (Pro). Among other changes they also now come with 10th Gen Intel CPUs. The question now becomes if it is a good idea to buy one (or other Macs).

Obviusly, this depends on the situation and use-case. Thus, I will give describe my situation. The company I work for gave me a 13" MBP that has deceng juice to get my work done (mainly writing docx and LaTeX, using SSH for remote access to Linux servers and workstations). And I am also alowed to use it for private purposes, so I also use it for my side-projects (Python and Xcode projects mainly). Now comes the catch. I'm also musician using Logic. And here the MBP struggles having only 4 Cores. So, my plan was to buy an decent iMac and use it for the next 6+ years. I wanted to buy the i9 CPU and 512GB SSD and upgrade the RAM myself. And after all the years, the iMac would be upgradable (to some degree). But these options are now gone, I think. macOS will certainly not be supported for 6+ years (assuming a similar timeline as during the last transition). So if I buy one now, in the near future I will have a really expensive Linux worstation.

And there is also the question if (i)Macs with Apple Silicon will be upgradeable. CPUs surely not, but I am afraid RAM and storage won't be upgradable neither.

So, what is you take on this problem? Would you buy or not? If, why?

Re: Ask HN: Should one buy Intel-based Macs now?

#2

Post by SomeHacker44 »

My personal solution is to stop buying Apple altogether. Unless you need a Mac (i.e., you do Apple specific development), you have a much broader set of choices. If you can wean yourself off Logic (try Live, perhaps) then you can get better hardware at lower prices. Just my opinion.

Re: Ask HN: Should one buy Intel-based Macs now?

#3

Post by mark_l_watson »

I ordered the recently updated MacBook Air for my wife yesterday. Her old one is over five years old and she uses it a lot, so it seemed like a no-brainer refresh.

If it was for me, I would wait for the Apple Silicon. I use a three year old MacBook, love it, and I was happy to hear that Apple may start selling that form factor again with Apple Silicon.

I do most of my development on a remote VPS that is much more powerful than my MacBook but I still do sometimes use IDEs so an iPad Pro or ChromeBook won't do it for me. I also have a System76 Linux laptop that is great.

Re: Ask HN: Should one buy Intel-based Macs now?

#4

Post by anw »

I would get one.

First, I generally would wait to see how the Apple Silicon laptops do in the real world. I'm sure they will eventually be very great, but I wouldn't buy the first generation just the same as I would not immediately upgrade to a new version of OSX/macOS.

Let the bugs get worked out, let other vendors pick up their own support for it, then take a look at if it's worth investing in.

Second, even if Apple drops all support tomorrow for their Intel line, you still have a working setup that can take you through at least 3+ years of use before needing an upgrade, including software (Brew, MacPorts). Your DAW won't immediately stop working. SSH won't stop working. There are still companies that let you download older versions of their software (Cubase, for instance). If another big Heartbleed-like issue is found, get the update from HomeBrew and set your PATH to use those binaries instead of the default ones.

Lastly, your Intel Mac is still a computer. You can install Linux or Windows and get extra use out of it.

Re: Ask HN: Should one buy Intel-based Macs now?

#5

Post by tmoaad »

I wouldn't hesitate to buy a intel-based mac (hell, I bought a new MBP 16" not but 3 months ago knowing about the ARM changes). My suggestion would be to hold off on any ARM based mac-purchases (with a carve out for those that only use their mac as a glorified chrome machine).

Apple gets many things right the first time around e.g many people ragged on Apple's FaceID but I think it's pretty successful in the /mobile facial recognition space/. We in the tech community are often reminded not to buy the first-generation of anything due to the inherit bugs/issues/stability so it's been very perplexing to me as to why people want to jump on being the first movers for ARM based macs. I understand that Apple has moved from PPC to Intel (and in under their two year goal) but that was a different Apple, different organization, and different leadership.

Re: Ask HN: Should one buy Intel-based Macs now?

#6

Post by geuis »

It’s a really straightforward decision.

- Do you want/need a Mac? - Can you afford the one you want?

People agonize over this way too much.

I did a few months ago. My trusty 2013 MBP finally was wearing out. I needed a new MBP and the new 16in has rolled back some of the previously objectionable changes (keyboard, restored escape key). I could afford it (but whew I’ll admit that was a big number).

I only work on MacOS. I have a Windows desktop for games but despite the hardware being high quality, I can’t ever be productive on a Windows environment.

You just have to decide if you need it and buy it.

Re: Ask HN: Should one buy Intel-based Macs now?

#8

Post by oblib »

I think I'd wait for Apple to transition to their new CPU.

My first Mac was a Mac Plus. It was old when I bought it. My first new Mac was PowerPC 6100. Then a G4 Mac. Both of those were pretty much obsoleted by Apple so fast I had no choice but to purchase a new one, and then all the software I used that wouldn't run on them, and some of it was never updated for use on the new hardware.

I've been using a Mac Mini I bought new for $500 for the past 10 years. I was kinda hoping Apple would release another in that price range but the last update on those didn't have an option in that range. Perhaps the new ones will, but considering their current plans I don't want to be put in the same position I was when I bought that 6100 or the G4.

So I purchased a new Raspberry Pi 4 with 8GB of ram a couple weeks ago just in case my old Mini bites the dust. Performance wise it's pretty close the Mini I have now. The hardest part of moving to it is not being able to run BBEdit. I've been using that for around 20 years and it's almost worth buying a new Mac just for that. But the idea that a new Mac will likely be obsoleted in just a couple years and I'll have purchase another new Mac again to keep using it is a deal breaker for me right now.

Re: Ask HN: Should one buy Intel-based Macs now?

#9

Post by wsinks »

SomeHacker44 wrote: post #2

My personal solution is to stop buying Apple altogether. Unless you need a Mac (i.e., you do Apple specific development), you have a much broader set of choices. If you can wean yourself off Logic (try Live, perhaps) then you can get better hardware at lower prices. Just my opinion.

Out of curiosity, what are you buying? I want to have a better home computer that can run Ableton & software, but I do love the paradigm of OSX + terminal Bash.
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