Help w/ MacBook Pro Purchase

[steven7270]

Hey guys, I am looking for some advice on speccing out my new 14" MacBook Pro, so in 2008 I got the MacBook Pro and specced it fully out and it lasted a solid 8-10 years, then I purchased the 2015 12" MacBook, didn't add any upgrades at all and now its incredibly slow. From what I hear with these new M1 chips you really don't need to add any extra options and it should be great? I am unsure if this is true, and what you guys think in terms of if there is anything that is NESSECARY to upgrade for it to last the longest time? Thanks for everybody's help.

 

[dallegre]

What sort of applications/workload are you running? It seems odd that a 2015 would be incredibly slow.

Have you checked Activity Monitor for CPU and memory use? Any specific applications hogging resources?

 

[steven7270]

What sort of applications/workload are you running? It seems odd that a 2015 would be incredibly slow.

Have you checked Activity Monitor for CPU and memory use? Any specific applications hogging resources?

It does only have the 1.1ghz intel chip with i believe 4gb of ram. But mostly just opening applications, and loading webpages is slow, but I know its not my internet as on my PC and iMac is loads very fast

 

[dallegre]

It does only have the 1.1ghz intel chip with i believe 4gb of ram. But mostly just opening applications, and loading webpages is slow, but I know its not my internet as on my PC and iMac is loads very fast

Got it. Honestly, even an M1 Macbook Air (or the very similar M1 13" MBP) would be a big step up and would probably last you for quite some time. You may not need the GPU power of the Pro/Max chips. That said, the ports on the new 14" Pro can be nice to have. If you're just browsing/using office apps the base model 14" will be more than enough to last you for a number of years. I would get the base 8/14 16GB and add as much SSD as you think you might need.

 

[zackkmac]

As a light user I also feel super comfortable with the longevity of the base model 14" - though I did upgrade to 1TB storage and the 96w adapter. If anything else I might have added the 10-core CPU option but I didn't feel that was necessary.