Looking at macbook Air for my wife and I. M4 refurb or M5?

[Steve Adams]

I am looking at buying new Macbook airs for my wife and I. We will be coming from Windows. I am wondering if I should get M4 refurbed or a new M5 for us? I will buy an upgraded model for me as I do creative work etc. She can get by with 16/512.

thanks for the info.

 

[FreakinEurekan]

Refurbs (purchased from Apple) are the best bang for the buck. Downside is the specific configuration you want may not be available right away. I use https://refurb-tracker.com/ if I’m not in a hurry, to get the best value.

The only time I don’t go this route is if there’s a significant difference between the current product and prior (e.g. when the M4 Mac mini came out). But for the MBA, M4 vs M5 isn’t going to be a huge difference, and you can save quite a bit of money!

 

[Steve Adams]

The M5 read/write speeds are signifcantly faster than the M4 air I do believe. I will be moving some large files around with our vlog/podcast work and other video production work. Would that make a significant difference?

 

[barrybeebenson]

Refurbs (purchased from Apple) are the best bang for the buck. Downside is the specific configuration you want may not be available right away. I use https://refurb-tracker.com/ if I’m not in a hurry, to get the best value.

Wooah, awesome tool! Thanks for sharing!

The M5 read/write speeds are signifcantly faster than the M4 air I do believe. I will be moving some large files around with our vlog/podcast work and other video production work. Would that make a significant difference?

How do you expect to be transferring files? Or are you referring to transcoding files?

Realistically, the medium (network/cable) is more likely to be a bottleneck than the SSD write speeds, and my understanding is the difference in transcoding between M4 and M5 is pretty negligible. At least to the point that paying less for used/refurbished is a better value

 

[torana355]

I just recently had to make the same choice and went with a M4 512/16 that was discounted. That being said im not doing anything heavy on it so had no need for the M5. In regards to your question about the SSD speed, it would depend where and how you would be transferring the files.

 

[dmr727]

The M5 read/write speeds are signifcantly faster than the M4 air I do believe. I will be moving some large files around with our vlog/podcast work and other video production work. Would that make a significant difference?

How big are the files and how often are you moving things around? My M4 Air (1TB) does about 3GB/sec, which is pretty fast for what I do, but I'm rarely moving more than 10GB around at any given time.

 

[Steve Adams]

If I get my new Fujifilm GFX they will be approx 212mb per file. If I shoot 100 shots in a session, that's a fair bit of data.

 

[barrybeebenson]

If I get my new Fujifilm GFX they will be approx 212mb per file. If I shoot 100 shots in a session, that's a fair bit of data.

Ah, in that case you're not working at a scale where the difference is going to matter to you. Where it starts to matter is when you're shooting Prores Raw where files are 1 GB per minute

Even your example there is ~21 GB, which will transfer in a minute or so over thunderbolt (and that's a high estimate). Getting that down to 30 seconds is not gonna affect your workflow realistically

That means you can save the money and go for the used refurbished options

 

[Steve Adams]

Ah, in that case you're not working at a scale where the difference is going to matter to you. Where it starts to matter is when you're shooting Prores Raw where files are 1 GB per minute

Even your example there is ~21 GB, which will transfer in a minute or so over thunderbolt (and that's a high estimate). Getting that down to 30 seconds is not gonna affect your workflow realistically

That means you can save the money and go for the used refurbished options

That might come later when I get my iPhone 17 pro max. ha ha. I am working on a bunch of things that I hope to get up and running by June.

 

[barrybeebenson]

That might come later when I get my iPhone 17 pro max. ha ha. I am working on a bunch of things that I hope to get up and running by June.

As a creator myself, my personal recommendation: outside of very specific use cases, ProRes Raw isn't worth it. A good lens and good lighting shot in s-log with a good color grade is more than enough, and it won't cost you thousands in storage

In my experience, you can save a ton of money by a) making it good in production rather than post and b) making sure your workflow makes sense for you. Do you need to be transferring media between machines? Maybe you do, but does it need to be all media? Would a NAS be a better use of money?

Don't get caught up in fancy shiny gear unless it's actually serving you and genuinely helping you make what you want to make. And buy used! Less e-waste!

 

[Steve Adams]

A new thing now. I want SD reader so pro it is Ha ha. Now to go shopping on apples refurb site

 

[Steve Adams]

As a creator myself, my personal recommendation: outside of very specific use cases, ProRes Raw isn't worth it. A good lens and good lighting shot in s-log with a good color grade is more than enough, and it won't cost you thousands in storage

In my experience, you can save a ton of money by a) making it good in production rather than post and b) making sure your workflow makes sense for you. Do you need to be transferring media between machines? Maybe you do, but does it need to be all media? Would a NAS be a better use of money?

Don't get caught up in fancy shiny gear unless it's actually serving you and genuinely helping you make what you want to make. And buy used! Less e-waste!

Yes, I agree with all of this. I have been looking on amazon renewed. Realistically how much longer would an M1 based macbook pro 14 be supported? The 14 is the goldilocks machine for me to replace my current dell system because I have all the ports I need in this machine now. 2 USB-C, HDMI, SD card reader. I will learn to deal with not having touchscreen.

The wife would be fine with an M1 air for sure.

 

[Steve Adams]

Oh, Another question. Seeing as the Neo is actually doing creative workflows no problem with 8gb of ram I am correct in saying for what I need, 16gb will be enough. I am mosting doing video/photo editing some website creation and podcast/vlogcast production. The way Apple handles ram is much different than Windows with ram compression and it will do fine I am assuming.

 

[barrybeebenson]

Realistically how much longer would an M1 based macbook pro 14 be supported?

Really not sure. Apple Silicon is still new enough that there's no precedent for how long they support any given chip. That said, my understanding is they significantly changed the architecture in M3, so M1 and M2 are both ageing a bit, and M3 and beyond will likely have better shelf life

Oh, Another question. Seeing as the Neo is actually doing creative workflows no problem with 8gb of ram I am correct in saying for what I need, 16gb will be enough. I am mosting doing video/photo editing some website creation and podcast/vlogcast production. The way Apple handles ram is much different than Windows with ram compression and it will do fine I am assuming.

Personally I'm only just running into the limits of my 16 GB M1 Mac Mini and that's with a 50-minute Resolve timeline of 4k h.264 with pretty heavy editing. Podcasts are generally edited much lighter, and video is gonna be the most RAM-demanding tasks of the ones you listed. Imo, 16 GB will be very comfortable day-to-day and still gives you some room to stretch beyond your normal work.

 

[Steve Adams]

Awesome. I am using a intel 1165g7 so any M series will be a decent upgrade. I went to the local Jump + store and just felt the Pro and its the device for me. No matter what chip is in it I will feel a speed increase for my work. I think I am going to grab one of the M1 pro pros and an M1 air for the wife.