Do You Own a 16" MBP and a 27" iMac?

[16bitplus]

I currently own a 16" MBP hooked up to a 27" 4k LG monitor as my main machine and I am considering adding the new 5k iMac to replace my desktop setup and bring my 16" when I am out of the house at work. Do you think this is overkill? I can afford the $220/month payments for the 27" I want and having the monitor lose connection to my MBP or to have it not wake up after disconnecting from the monitor can get pretty annoying.

Any 16" MBP/27" 5k iMac owners around here? How does it affect your workflow?

 

[MacRS4]

Overkill really depends on what you actually do doesn't it? I mean I have an iMac Pro 8 Core with 64GB RAM at home, and an i9 16" with 32GB RAM for out and about. My main job can involve a ton of virtualisation so havng that power on the go is hellauseful.

I also use the 16" when I'm personally travelling as it means I can do my video/photos on the go rather than having to wait to when I get home. Could I use a less powerful machine...? Probably. The 13" 10th gen did not like the 120MB RAW files from my A7R Mk4 however! My 16 chews them up as if they're nothing.

So it's really down to what your actual workloads are to determine if it's usable. Could I get awau with just my 16" plugged in to a couple of 5K screens at home? Yeah, I probably could, especiailly with the 64GB RAM version of the 16".

 

[Kronen]

I think you might have answered your own question, 16bitplus, when you said...

I can afford the $220/month payments for the 27" I want...

If you can afford a new iMac and you want a new iMac to add to your 16" MBP setup, then buy that new iMac, my friend!

Consider my grandmother, for example: She buys a new car every 18-24 months. Her previous car runs fine, looks great, and has low milage. But someone always hauls out that old cliché, "Yeah, but don't you know that your car loses X% of its value as soon as you drive it off the lot?" "Sure," grandma will say. "But so what!?" Grandma loves driving new cars. She loves the experience of owning a new car, the updated features, the performance, the looks, the new car smell. It's what she loves and she can afford it, so why not? 🚙

In other words, weighing tech-specs and workflows is obviously important. But if you love new Macs--and if you are posting in this forum, I suspect you do--it's also a matter of indulging your passion of using new and powerful Macs.

So I say go for it, 16bitplus! And tell them Phyllis (Kronen's grandmother) sent ya!

 

[sco]

So it's really down to what your actual workloads are to determine if it's usable. Could I get awau with just my 16" plugged in to a couple of 5K screens at home? Yeah, I probably could, especiailly with the 64GB RAM version of the 16".

I'm in a similar position to MacRS4... rely heavily on virtual machines for my work. Was primarily using a iMac 2017 but hitting CPU limits so went to a Macbook Pro 16. However I missed the 5K display. Tried to get a 5K display recently and utterly disappointed with the quality with red bleed. Apple can't get me a replacement for months and looking at other's reports, QC is an issue. So gave up on that path. I'll keep the MBPro 16 for portable needs but will primarily work on an iMac. Going to try the 2020 with i9 and if it's not up to scratch then will consider an iMac Pro.

As for workflow... a few things..

1. I use SoftRaid on external SSDs for my VMs. I use Raid 1 to backup the VMs across multiple disks. Softraid has a nice feature where you can disconnect a mirror disk and then reconnect it later and it will only resync updated data. This allows me to keep rolling backups of VMs without eating TBW on the SSDs (that would happen if I regularly updated the VMs via a full file copy).

2. I keep copies of some important VMs on the MBPro. That way I can quickly head out of the office with anything I need handy. If needed I can use target disk mode to access the disk on the MBPro16 from the iMac.

3. I use "Barrier" (an offspin of Synergy) to use my MBPro16 from the iMac - gives me access to the MBPro as an extra screen and also can get it to run some VM workloads if necessary without switching keyboard/mouse.

HTH

 

[jukkhop]

My workflow used to be 16" MBP for commuting to work, and 27" iMac for home office. Right now the 16" MBP is just gathering dust, because I don't really commute anymore. Been thinking about getting rid of it.

I prefer working on the iMac because it is cool and silent, and has a good display.

That said, the ideal setup would probably be Mac Mini + standalone display, because monitors have a much longer lifecycle compared to computers. And I don't like the large footprint of a tower chassis.

When I need to commute again, I could have another display at work and just commute with the Mac Mini. Or, just have a MacBook for that case.

But either way the iMac is an awesome computer, I can't even think about going back to a 4K display. Neither do I want a hot MacBook sounding like a jet engine on my table when I open one Chrome tab too many.

 

[lowkey]

I’ve got both a 16”MBP and an iMac i7 model. Started out with the iMac at work, then needed to be in 2 different offices so got the 16”MBP. I hook it up to an LG 27” monitor.

Now when I go back to the first office I just take the MBP and live with the 16” monitor for a bit rather than fire up the iMac.

Basically since I got the MBP I don’t use the iMac anymore.