Disclaimer: the idea of waiting isn’t because any screen or design change. Actually, I don’t want an OLED MBA for reasons I don’t want to delve about now, but OLED screens aren’t coming to the MBA until at least the M7 generation.
So here’s my dilemma:
I think the M5 is significantly hotter than previous SoC, and the MBA is a fan less laptop. That’s why I have the fear that those temperature oscillation may end up damaging in the long term the laptop logic board. And that’s why I would prefer to wait for the first 2nm SoC, the M6, to purchase a maxed out MacBook Air.
However, this comes at the risk of having to pay a lot more. Why? We all know the situation with RAM, Apple still hasn’t raised it’s prices, but they will, eventually. At least the SSD and RAM upgrade prices. And my idea is to get a machine with at least 24GB of RAM and 1TB of storage. Ideally, a machine with even 32GB of RAM to have room in the future to play with local LLMs (Google just released a macOS app for their local models).
But this comes with a couple of risks:
a) if the M6 MBA comes out with similar prices, I won’t be able to sell the specced out M5 easily without losing a lot of money.
b) heat. This is my main fear. See, I want this machine to last me between 8 and 10 years. And the higher temperatures of the M5 may end up killing the machine. Not that an M3, M4 or M6 MBA would suffer much less heat stress, I still remember the M2 reaching 108°C, but supposedly a 2nm with a whole new transistor technology should generate less heat, and the laptop could last me more years.
c) if the MBA dies after a few years because of the high temperature oscillation, investing in 1TB/32GB is way more risky than on a 512GB/24GB machine…
So, what would you do?
Factors that will surely make Apple computers skyrocket:
1) very constrained RAM and NVMe supply.
2) Inflation and TSMC prices experiencing raises. The upcoming 2nm process will be significantly more expensive, but even the current 3nm process is getting price increases.
3) The war is already impacting the manufacturing and supply chains, and it could get worse in the coming months.
I don’t know guys, I’m the type of user that invests in a great machine and makes it last until it no longer receives security updates (sometimes even further). I’m not in the mood of selling a thousands of euros worth machine in the second hand market to get a newer machine. But I’m not sure if the M6 is worth the wait.
What would you do? Get an intermediate spec such as the 512GB/24GB MBA and that way, if I had to sell it, I’d lose less money? Or go outright for my desired specs, 1TB/32GB, before the prices of Apple storage and memory explode?
If you’re going to ask me about my uses, honestly, now, aside from the local LLM stuff, I don’t think I’ll need more than 24GB of RAM. As for storage, 1TB will always be good to have, but I guess I can keep storing media on external drives… but the 512GB may get filled relatively easy, and it’s usually recommended to have half of the storage empty.
I’m reading your thoughts.
So here’s my dilemma:
I think the M5 is significantly hotter than previous SoC, and the MBA is a fan less laptop. That’s why I have the fear that those temperature oscillation may end up damaging in the long term the laptop logic board. And that’s why I would prefer to wait for the first 2nm SoC, the M6, to purchase a maxed out MacBook Air.
However, this comes at the risk of having to pay a lot more. Why? We all know the situation with RAM, Apple still hasn’t raised it’s prices, but they will, eventually. At least the SSD and RAM upgrade prices. And my idea is to get a machine with at least 24GB of RAM and 1TB of storage. Ideally, a machine with even 32GB of RAM to have room in the future to play with local LLMs (Google just released a macOS app for their local models).
But this comes with a couple of risks:
a) if the M6 MBA comes out with similar prices, I won’t be able to sell the specced out M5 easily without losing a lot of money.
b) heat. This is my main fear. See, I want this machine to last me between 8 and 10 years. And the higher temperatures of the M5 may end up killing the machine. Not that an M3, M4 or M6 MBA would suffer much less heat stress, I still remember the M2 reaching 108°C, but supposedly a 2nm with a whole new transistor technology should generate less heat, and the laptop could last me more years.
c) if the MBA dies after a few years because of the high temperature oscillation, investing in 1TB/32GB is way more risky than on a 512GB/24GB machine…
So, what would you do?
Factors that will surely make Apple computers skyrocket:
1) very constrained RAM and NVMe supply.
2) Inflation and TSMC prices experiencing raises. The upcoming 2nm process will be significantly more expensive, but even the current 3nm process is getting price increases.
3) The war is already impacting the manufacturing and supply chains, and it could get worse in the coming months.
I don’t know guys, I’m the type of user that invests in a great machine and makes it last until it no longer receives security updates (sometimes even further). I’m not in the mood of selling a thousands of euros worth machine in the second hand market to get a newer machine. But I’m not sure if the M6 is worth the wait.
What would you do? Get an intermediate spec such as the 512GB/24GB MBA and that way, if I had to sell it, I’d lose less money? Or go outright for my desired specs, 1TB/32GB, before the prices of Apple storage and memory explode?
If you’re going to ask me about my uses, honestly, now, aside from the local LLM stuff, I don’t think I’ll need more than 24GB of RAM. As for storage, 1TB will always be good to have, but I guess I can keep storing media on external drives… but the 512GB may get filled relatively easy, and it’s usually recommended to have half of the storage empty.
I’m reading your thoughts.
