Pandemic-proof: MBP for video conferencing and VM

[StickyNote]

Hi there,
I've readed a lot around but could not find much regarding the next MBP to buy that could cope with the new behaviour driven by pandemic and work at home.

I currently own an early 2015 8gb and it's having hard times when it comes to use VM's (Win 10) and the increased amount of videoconferencing (Zoom and Teams) the pandemic now requires.

I often find myself doing a Teams call while having a virtual Win 10 machine on, and the Office suite opened both in the host and the VM; this is the moment when I think my MBP starts to fly, according to the noise at least. And when it does not fly, some app crash.

The VM's are the reason I had to give up in waiting the ARM's, althought I'd liked a lot the idea of a thinner and lighther notebook.
I've readed much about which config buy for gaming, or for video editing, some even for VM's, but not much for videoconferencing: since I guess they won't leave our daily habits for a long time I'm asking for some help.

- I need to stick with a 13"
- 2,6k USD is the price where i live for a 10th gen i5 with 16GB: sounds too much for my wallet
- Storage, I don't care
- Videoconference and VM's daily/weekly for business
- DAW (Audio) sometimes just for fun
- no video/photo editing

That's why I was thinking to get a base i5 (1,8k USD) and do one upgrade. But which one, RAM (+230 USD) or CPU (+440 USD)?
I tried to get a clue by monitoring my activities usage, but that did not helped much; Teams seems to use more RAM while Zoom eats CPU. VM's seems to love both.
For what I've readed so far, jumping from 1,4 to 1,7Ghz on i5 is not a big deal; but what about RAM then? Which one would benefit the most giving the above?

Any help will do, thanks a lot.

 

[chrfr]

Hi there,
I've readed a lot around but could not find much regarding the next MBP to buy that could cope with the new behaviour driven by pandemic and work at home.

I currently own an early 2015 8gb and it's having hard times when it comes to use VM's (Win 10) and the increased amount of videoconferencing (Zoom and Teams) the pandemic now requires.

I often find myself doing a Teams call while having a virtual Win 10 machine on, and the Office suite opened both in the host and the VM; this is the moment when I think my MBP starts to fly, according to the noise at least. And when it does not fly, some app crash.

The VM's are the reason I had to give up in waiting the ARM's, althought I'd liked a lot the idea of a thinner and lighther notebook.
I've readed much about which config buy for gaming, or for video editing, some even for VM's, but not much for videoconferencing: since I guess they won't leave our daily habits for a long time I'm asking for some help.

- I need to stick with a 13"
- 2,6k USD is the price where i live for a 10th gen i5 with 16GB: sounds too much for my wallet
- Storage, I don't care
- Videoconference and VM's daily/weekly for business
- DAW (Audio) sometimes just for fun
- no video/photo editing

That's why I was thinking to get a base i5 (1,8k USD) and do one upgrade. But which one, RAM (+230 USD) or CPU (+440 USD)?
I tried to get a clue by monitoring my activities usage, but that did not helped much; Teams seems to use more RAM while Zoom eats CPU. VM's seems to love both.
For what I've readed so far, jumping from 1,4 to 1,7Ghz on i5 is not a big deal; but what about RAM then? Which one would benefit the most giving the above?

Any help will do, thanks a lot.

What version of macOS are you using? There have been various crashing problems with using conferencing apps on these computers and also kernel panics related to using virtualization apps. As such, make sure that you're fully up to date with whichever major version of macOS you're using.
Teams and Zoom will cause the fans on any Mac to speed up, so you're going to hear those on any Mac laptop while using those apps. If you want a quiet conferencing solution, do your Teams and Zoom calls on an iPad and keep running your virtual machine on the Mac. You'll get a better camera too in many cases.
Any modern Mac can run Teams and Zoom without a problem, and you won't see better performance in either app with any computer.

 

[nicho]

Ram over processor, 100%. Otherwise, you've got no improvement on the RAM front and you'll probably face the same issues - you might as well save yourself $2000 at that point and keep your current device.

@chrfr 's suggestion of offloading teams/zoom calls to an ipad is a good one if you don't need to screen share etc.

 

[StickyNote]

Thanks both.
@chrfr i've just finished to update the OS to maybe things stop crash. But it still slow and as @nicho pointed out, no screen share. And Zoom meetings controls are quite a pain on the smaller screens. So I am looking to improve my MBP 2015 with a i5-5th gen. I guess that a i5-8th gen is overall quite an improvement itself, do you think 16 Gb RAM would be an even more greater upgrade for the described usage?

 

[nicho]

Thanks both.
@chrfr i've just finished to update the OS to maybe things stop crash. But it still slow and as @nicho pointed out, no screen share. And Zoom meetings controls are quite a pain on the smaller screens. So I am looking to improve my MBP 2015 with a i5-5th gen. I guess that a i5-8th gen is overall quite an improvement itself, do you think 16 Gb RAM would be an even more greater upgrade for the described usage?

I think it's not just a great one but a necessary one, for your use case.

Have you considered a MacBook Air with 16GB of RAM instead (at the same price)?

 

[StickyNote]

I did @nicho , but even in this forum there are multiple statement that says any MBP with base version is > that MBA due to the CPU, the relative heating and cooling, and so on. Even if I pimp a MBA up to the top with every upgrade seems not matching the base MBP in terms of sustained performances. Am I wrong?

 

[nicho]

I did @nicho , but even in this forum there are multiple statement that says any MBP with base version is > that MBA due to the CPU, the relative heating and cooling, and so on. Even if I pimp a MBA up to the top with every upgrade seems not matching the base MBP in terms of sustained performances. Am I wrong?

I brought it up because it gives you 512GB SSD instead of 256GB - but I just noticed you mentioned not being bothered about storage size.

How are BTO times in your neck of the woods? Where I am, you're looking at 1 week for the MBA but nearly a month for the base MBP.

 

[StickyNote]

@nicho i am not in rush. 1 month would be ok. Yep, storage size ain't a prob as i have no games, no pictures, etc. Thanks.