Other Just a little rant about things in general

[Orizence]

I have a 2013 Mac Pro, and this thing rocks! Hooked up to a RX5700XT, this thing is a photo editing monster on both DxO Photolab or Apple Aperture. But something I hear (or read) often is "Why not get a M1 Mac Mini?".

All I can ask is why? Why would I give up 64gb of ram, just to resort to using swap on a non-replacable SSD? Why would I want to upgrade to new software when what im using now works fine? Why would I upgrade to a new macOS when Monterey doesnt have any features missing that I would want?

I get the whole idea of upgrading a machine when you need to, but what happened to keeping a computer and just using it until it no longer does what you need? This thing just rips through any tasks I throw at it, sure its not as fast at exporting certain things (compared to my Ryzen 7900x in the living room), but when doing actual work, this computer is just a pleasure to use.

Something that always stuck with me was hanging out in the PPC Mac forums back in the day, and youd always see people buy these budget machines for around $100 to use as workstations with old Adobe software. People used older machines to get "work" done on a budget, just because of how nice creative things are to do on a Mac, even if it was a bit slower. But now it seems the attitude is "Why spend $100 when you can spend $500 on a new apple silicon mac?".

I think the thing that bugs me is the need to replace software and hardware that works perfectly fine, just because its old, ignoring the fact that the same old thing, works just as fine as it did when it was "new". My Canon EOS5d mk II is in the same boat, yeah its old as hell, but the pictures are just fantastic

 

[eyoungren]

I have a 2013 Mac Pro, and this thing rocks! Hooked up to a RX5700XT, this thing is a photo editing monster on both DxO Photolab or Apple Aperture. But something I hear (or read) often is "Why not get a M1 Mac Mini?".

All I can ask is why? Why would I give up 64gb of ram, just to resort to using swap on a non-replacable SSD? Why would I want to upgrade to new software when what im using now works fine? Why would I upgrade to a new macOS when Monterey doesnt have any features missing that I would want?

I get the whole idea of upgrading a machine when you need to, but what happened to keeping a computer and just using it until it no longer does what you need? This thing just rips through any tasks I throw at it, sure its not as fast at exporting certain things (compared to my Ryzen 7900x in the living room), but when doing actual work, this computer is just a pleasure to use.

Something that always stuck with me was hanging out in the PPC Mac forums back in the day, and youd always see people buy these budget machines for around $100 to use as workstations with old Adobe software. People used older machines to get "work" done on a budget, just because of how nice creative things are to do on a Mac, even if it was a bit slower. But now it seems the attitude is "Why spend $100 when you can spend $500 on a new apple silicon mac?".

I think the thing that bugs me is the need to replace software and hardware that works perfectly fine, just because its old, ignoring the fact that the same old thing, works just as fine as it did when it was "new". My Canon EOS5d mk II is in the same boat, yeah its old as hell, but the pictures are just fantastic

Same old story man. With PowerPC it, was "Get a new (Intel) Mac!". Now, it's "Get a new (M1/M2/M3/M4) Mac!"

Here's my thing…these very same people often don't dig very deep. I'd hear a lot of "That Mac can't do this, can't do that." Then you'd show those same people 'that Mac' doing exactly what they said it couldn't.

Adobe CS4 on a PowerPC Mac? Yep, it works. They said it wouldn't.

Adobe Photoshop CC25 on an Intel Mac? Yep, it works. Adobe says "Not compatible!" But it works.

I use what's in my budget to do the very same things these people tell me I cannot do without 'X' Mac model. Because I dig a bit deeper. These people just buy Apple's line or whatever the software devs say without even trying it for themselves. I love shutting these people up.

Just use what works for you. You aren't them. And they are a big reason why I do not generally venture in to the main Mac subforums. I'm too busy doing with my Macs, what they say I can't actually do with them.

PS. I use an M2 MBP for work every day. At this moment in time, I will never purchase an M-series Mac. I have way too many problems with this machine that my Intel MacPro does not have.

 

[MBAir2010]

Orizence: Why not get a M1 Mac Mini?".​

I use only M1 now as for the last several months I was using an early intel MBA for a project,
and an Asus zenbook that was an incredible laptop that did everything even with win10.

the m1 processor or what every that core is referred to now is great
but has a storage flaw or misunderstanding to to system data that inflates every week by a GB or four.
this is not great when using 265GB as this is another task i need to mend or be concerned about
which is why we use computers now, for simplicity to get things done with concerns.....

You are not missing anything or regressing, Orizence
perhaps using the Mpro 2013 might be better for you!

take care & have fun!

 

[Project Alice]

I can relate to this. My most powerful computer is, a 2009 Mac Pro. That I have transformed to a 5,1 “2010/2012” Mac Pro. It’s in my signature. If you’re on mobile and can’t see that essentially it’s x2 xeon x5680s, 96GB of RAM, and a Radeon RX 590. Dual boots macOS Sequoia and Windows 11.
Aside from AVX requirements, the thing plays any and every game I’ve thrown at it.
I live in North Idaho, and have cheap power. I have no reason to upgrade. Sometimes I think I want an M4 Mac Mini, but then I think about what I want in a computer, and, how I absolutely have to tinker with and upgrade my stuff beyond what their intent was. That means, I would have to about max out an M4 Pro Max Mini.

No thanks. I’ve spent less money cars.
And for those of you who recognize me on here, I frequent the PPC forum too. I regularly use PPC Macs. Lately, I’ve found writing using my PowerBook 1400cs as a good way to decompress and pass time.

I went to police academy in 2018 and brought my PowerBook G4 with me. I used it the whole time, for note taking, typing, etc. The classes came with a rather large PDF file (it was hundreds of pages and I think it was around ~50MB). It was no problem for the PBG4, and in fact I had some other students come up to me and say “your laptop is faster than mine”. I told them no, I guarantee it isn’t. I chock that up to lack of knowledge/maintenance, and poor software optimization (most had PC laptops but a few had some MacBooks).

I’ve come to discover that, the way I use computers has not changed, but for other people it has. Most of what I use them for, is for burning discs, downloading images/software for other machines (usually vintage computers). My “old” Mac Pro is actually an advantage there because it has an optical drive! (Which happens to be a BD-R/HD-DVD drive, lol).

I don’t edit video, or photos, so I don’t need to change with the times. I go through phases of playing video games. With the exception of StarField (AVX hard coded 🙄) my Mac Pro works fine. And the way PC gaming has been going, I’d be content with buying an Xbox or PS5 (I already have a switch and a PS4) for my seldom modern gaming itch.

For everything else, I use my 11” M1 iPad Pro. Which, even 4-5 years later is overkill for an iPad. I also use my iPhone 13 mini (which I’m typing this on).

For me personally, the only thing that makes me think about upgrading, to a new and power efficient “modern” machine.. isn’t for basic computing. It’s for a server. My server is yet another Mac Pro 4,1>5,1. She handles the job just fine, but, having it on 24/7 could probably cost less. Though I don’t actually know how much it uses. And, it occasionally struggles when Plex needs to transcode 4K. It’s running TrueNAS core. For the 6 HDDs I have crammed into it, and the CPU power it has, I still can’t really justify spending the money to upgrade to something else. I need to keep TrusNAS Core/FreeBSD as the OS (scale dropped AFP, I primarily use AFP). So really, as powerful and efficient as Apple Silicon is, it would be more work and quite a bit costly for me to get all my ZFS drives connected to one, as well as making sure it would still work as a NAS for old computers. And building a modern PC wouldn’t really give me any advantage, except performance per watt. Which, is really only needed if plex transcodes. That usually only happens if I’m streaming remotely. ECC RAM is also an absolute deal-breaker requirement for me in a NAS like this. Which (if someone else knows otherwise please correct me) is something that Apple silicon does not have.

 

[MBAir2010]

No thanks. I’ve spent less money cars.

I hear you, just last week i dropped $2,600 on a road bicycle with e-shifters!
while typing this on a $999 macbook m1

 

[Project Alice]

I hear you, just last week i dropped $2,600 on a road bicycle with e-shifters!
while typing this on a $999 macbook m1

Funny story, a few years ago. I bought a 1990 Mazda MX6 for $100. Drove it straight home. Replaced the clutch master cylinder, and later the starter. Drove it around everywhere for like a year.
I was probably into that car like $300 afterwords.

I don’t like spending money on things I know I can accomplish the same task for less lol

 

[BotchQue]

I only upgrade my Macs when security updates are no longer being written.
And I won't be upgrading my iPhone/iPad until they stop working altogether, as I don't use them for banking/purchasing.

 

[Certificate of Excellence]

"Why spend $100 when you can spend $500 on a new apple silicon mac?".

I don’t disagree with you at all, however if the budget comfortably allows, there is some logic to the above statement. Current hardware, supported software, limited warranty etc. Some users value this more than an officially unsupported but repairable older machine that still works well with era apps. For those people, where money is available and their time limited or current standards for whatever reason are required, the above argument makes some sense IMO.

For the rest of us who like to push our older obsolete ppc and Intel machines, leveraging community support vs Apple support, it doesn’t really.

With that being said, I grown to enjoy my M2 Mac.

 

[HoreaG]

But something I hear (or read) often is "Why not get a M1 Mac Mini?".

I fully support this behaviour. The sooner they buy new hardware, the sooner and cheaper I can buy their old Macs secondhand.