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Ask HN: How would you, a software engineer, spec out a new MacBook Pro?

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Ask HN: How would you, a software engineer, spec out a new MacBook Pro?

#1

Post by Eugeleo »

I've read through the MacBook threads and seen one question repeated again and again: which specs to go for in the new MacBooks. I figured it might be worth it to make a dedicated post to discuss this.

To start this off, consider the following scenario:

- 50% of my work is web or mobile app development

- another 50% is training ML and deep learning models (currently on a cluster, but I'd prefer do it on my notebook of course)

- I also do raw photo editing work, as a hobby

In this case, what specs would you choose for your Mac? Specifically:

- M1 Pro with [14, 16] GPU cores, [8, 10] CPU cores, and [16, 32] GB of unified memory

- M1 Max with [24, 32] GPU cores, 10 CPU cores, and [32, 64] GB of unified memory

Re: Ask HN: How would you, a software engineer, spec out a new MacBook Pro?

#5

Post by Eugeleo »

avl999 wrote: post #4

The answer is do not buy a MacBook pro with their ridiculous premiums on memory and disk. Buy a Dell or Thinkpad, install Linux on it, will support all your usecases and you won't be trapped by Apple, will also save some $$$s in the process.

Thanks for the viewpoint l. I've been wholly satisfied with my old MacBook, though, and thus don't think the overhead of switching systems is worth it for me.

Just out of curiosity, which Dell laptop would you recommend? Ideally a 14", light, and with good battery life. (I'll leave the more technical specs up to you)

Re: Ask HN: How would you, a software engineer, spec out a new MacBook Pro?

#6

Post by Jtsummers »

avl999 wrote: post #4

The answer is do not buy a MacBook pro with their ridiculous premiums on memory and disk. Buy a Dell or Thinkpad, install Linux on it, will support all your usecases and you won't be trapped by Apple, will also save some $$$s in the process.

Under business laptops, didn't check consumer, here's what Dell offers with 64GB of RAM and a 14" display:

https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/dell-laptops-and-notebo...

It comes with 2TB of storage (NVME). There's some kind of discount on their site that brings the price down to $3739, but list before that is $5346. A 14" MBP with the maxed out processor and RAM (also 64GB) and 2TB of storage is $4099. So about $300 more than the discounted Dell. Searching all their laptops and only limiting it by RAM (64GB) they show me five options, the above and 4 more. The above is the only one cheaper than the 14" MBP, and all of them are listed with a discount. Ignoring the discount they're showing me right now (how long is this good for? EDIT: Through 15 November, so a month remaining at these prices) they all (including the above) cost more than a 14" MBP with 64GB of RAM and 2TB of storage.

Are there other configurations which demonstrate that Dell is actually a spec-for-spec better price?

Re: Ask HN: How would you, a software engineer, spec out a new MacBook Pro?

#7

Post by avl999 »

Eugeleo wrote: post #5
avl999 wrote: post #4

The answer is do not buy a MacBook pro with their ridiculous premiums on memory and disk. Buy a Dell or Thinkpad, install Linux on it, will support all your usecases and you won't be trapped by Apple, will also save some $$$s in the process.

Thanks for the viewpoint l. I've been wholly satisfied with my old MacBook, though, and thus don't think the overhead of switching systems is worth it for me. Just out of curiosity, which Dell laptop would you recommend? Ideally a 14", light, and with good battery life. (I'll leave the more technical specs up to you)

I don't own a Dell right now but in the past I've had good success with the Inspiron series.

Re: Ask HN: How would you, a software engineer, spec out a new MacBook Pro?

#8

Post by dougbarrett »

I've got the M1 Macbook Pro, 16 GB RAM and 2 TB hard drive, and do 95% software development and 5% photoshop, related to web development, so I'm not dealing with massive files with a ton of layers.

I'd say that this is more than enough power to hold me off from upgrading for the next few years, so fortunately for you I'd say if you can, the RAM upgrade may be more important than the actual CPU upgrade.

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