Switching from Windows to Mac

[michaelm23]

Hi All

I currently have a super powerful and possibly overkill Windows Tower Desktop PC with this spec:

Processor (CPU)	AMD Ryzen 9 3950X 16 Core CPU (3.5GHz-4.7GHz/73MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard	ASUS® PRIME B550-PLUS (DDR4, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)	32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card	8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3070 - HDMI, DP
1st M.2 SSD Drive	1TB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 7000MB/R, 5000MB/W)
1st Storage Drive	1TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA 120 2.5" SSD, (up to 560MB/sR | 540MB/sW)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive	16x BLU-RAY WRITER DRIVE, 16x DVD ±R/±RW & SOFTWARE
Power Supply	CORSAIR 750W TXm SERIES™ SEMI-MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET

The Tower case has slots for a myriad other upgrades. The PC is 2 years old and cost me about £2,600 at the time. All is well and runs fine.

It does get very noisy however even when idle. The main thing i am using it for is Plex Media Server and 1-2 times a week for Handbrake 4K encodes (hardware not software as i am not terribly bothered on the quality, plus the AMD CPU runs hot - too hot!)

I used to run iMacs and Macbooks for many years but about 4 years ago we switched everything out as we needed to shift some of the gear and because i knew of the pending move to AS, i was reluctant to buy last gen Intel or first gen AS, so decided to wait a bit.

My needs are simply as above, no heavy workloads etc. Do you think i am crazy on even considering switching the above machine for AS? The MAc Mini or Mac Studio will run all day to allow for Server duties, maybe Home Assistant etc - though i can run the latter on my Synology DS920+ - what do you all think? Happy to wait till later in the year for perhaps an M3 version of AS.

Dont have a monitor just now (other than the current old (10+ years) Acer 1080p one) so i can either do a dual HDMI with my 4K BenQ work monitor or consider purchasing a dedicated monitor down the line.

Power consumption is a consideration as well as i suspect my current machine is robbing me of 100s kWhs every year.

Any specific experience on Plex, HandBrake and MakeMKV?

Thanks all

 

[leman]

If all you are looking for is a Plex server, I'm sure the cheapest M1 Mac Mini will perform just as well than your desktop at a fraction of energy consumption. If I remember correctly, Plex also supports hardware video transcoding on Apple Silicon.

But... why did you get a gaming desktop if all you needed was a media server?

 

[michaelm23]

If all you are looking for is a Plex server, I'm sure the cheapest M1 Mac Mini will perform just as well than your desktop at a fraction of energy consumption. If I remember correctly, Plex also supports hardware video transcoding on Apple Silicon.

But... why did you get a gaming desktop if all you needed was a media server?

Very good question @leman... lets just say at the time i wanted to be able to use the same computer to stream on the fly 2-3 4k encodes on plex at the same time.

The advice i received at the time was that you will need something with a beefy CPU and dedicated GPU to do this and AMD ryzen was a very good choice.

In retrospect, it is a complete and utter overkill for my needs. If i can sell it for say half of what i paid for then maybe i can stretch to the studio base version once the M2 comes along.

Or i could just do nothing and enjoy my current PC! It does do an encode of a 2hour 4K film in less than 40min with hardware encoding, 10bit H.265 4k settings so it is certainly impressive for that! And to date, nothing Plex has thrown at it has even raised a sweat...though it did reboot the other day due to overheating and not sure why...we were away and Microsoft did one of those forced updates that reboot your machine so i am guessing something did not stick!

 

[bobcomer]

Hi All

I currently have a super powerful and possibly overkill Windows Tower Desktop PC with this spec:

Processor (CPU)	AMD Ryzen 9 3950X 16 Core CPU (3.5GHz-4.7GHz/73MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard	ASUS® PRIME B550-PLUS (DDR4, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)	32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card	8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3070 - HDMI, DP
1st M.2 SSD Drive	1TB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 7000MB/R, 5000MB/W)
1st Storage Drive	1TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA 120 2.5" SSD, (up to 560MB/sR | 540MB/sW)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive	16x BLU-RAY WRITER DRIVE, 16x DVD ±R/±RW & SOFTWARE
Power Supply	CORSAIR 750W TXm SERIES™ SEMI-MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET

The Tower case has slots for a myriad other upgrades. The PC is 2 years old and cost me about £2,600 at the time. All is well and runs fine.

It does get very noisy however even when idle. The main thing i am using it for is Plex Media Server and 1-2 times a week for Handbrake 4K encodes (hardware not software as i am not terribly bothered on the quality, plus the AMD CPU runs hot - too hot!)

I used to run iMacs and Macbooks for many years but about 4 years ago we switched everything out as we needed to shift some of the gear and because i knew of the pending move to AS, i was reluctant to buy last gen Intel or first gen AS, so decided to wait a bit.

My needs are simply as above, no heavy workloads etc. Do you think i am crazy on even considering switching the above machine for AS? The MAc Mini or Mac Studio will run all day to allow for Server duties, maybe Home Assistant etc - though i can run the latter on my Synology DS920+ - what do you all think? Happy to wait till later in the year for perhaps an M3 version of AS.

Dont have a monitor just now (other than the current old (10+ years) Acer 1080p one) so i can either do a dual HDMI with my 4K BenQ work monitor or consider purchasing a dedicated monitor down the line.

Power consumption is a consideration as well as i suspect my current machine is robbing me of 100s kWhs every year.

Any specific experience on Plex, HandBrake and MakeMKV?

Thanks all

You'll be fine. It's true that only the M1 Ultra in a Mac Studio is a tiny bit faster, but it doesn't sound like you would be bothered by something like a Mac Mini Pro with a decent amount of RAM given your workload. It wont encode as fast though.

As for are you crazy, no. I wouldn't wait though, no telling when the M3 is going to come out. But that said, if your set on a Mac Studio, then I would wait. (for a better design)

 

[mrkapqa]

with the new cpu (ryzen 8000) on the horizon doubt you would get 1300 pound for the computer, even if the gpU is powerful as it is.
If i were you, would keep the PC, as it is versatile lpowerhouse, and certainly you can find ways to make it less noisy, am sure.
Still you can try one of those newer macs, even buy a "refurbished from apple" , and still you can decide to send it back if it doesnt suit your needs (think it is a 14 day time window)
there have been reports of the mac studio being somewhat noisy, but i think this is always an individual perception.

personally, the only new mac that would interest me, is the macmini, but the new PC processors are more powerful, albeit not tthat energy efficient as apple silicon. i really dislike the idea that the new Macs are practiflly not serviceable and hardly upgradable in terms of RAM or internal SSD, which led me to the decision to put off any "investement" into this technology atm.

like energy efficiency very much, but it has to be "sound" overall, and the new apple philosophy doesnt seem to me that way.

 

[michaelm23]

with the new cpu (ryzen 8000) on the horizon doubt you would get 1300 pound for the computer, even if the gpU is powerful as it is.
If i were you, would keep the PC, as it is versatile lpowerhouse, and certainly you can find ways to make it less noisy, am sure.
Still you can try one of those newer macs, even buy a "refurbished from apple" , and still you can decide to send it back if it doesnt suit your needs (think it is a 14 day time window)
there have been reports of the mac studio being somewhat noisy, but i think this is always an individual perception.

personally, the only new mac that would interest me, is the macmini, but the new PC processors are more powerful, albeit not tthat energy efficient as apple silicon. i really dislike the idea that the new Macs are practiflly not serviceable and hardly upgradable in terms of RAM or internal SSD, which led me to the decision to put off any "investement" into this technology atm.

like energy efficiency very much, but it has to be "sound" overall, and the new apple philosophy doesnt seem to me that way.

Hi and thanks for your reply - might stick the desktop PC on ebay with a reserve and see what happens. Even a £1,000 will be enough to sway me.

But as you say it is a very powerful machine. Its shame as i am working from home these days and i share my study with it and the 2 synology servers spinning all the time so it can get a bit noisy and hot in here!

I hear what you are saying about upgrade-ability but i lived with a PowerPC iMac for so long and then an i7 Intel iMac and even owning them for best part of 15 years, apart from RAM i changed nothing else!

Apple tax is high but you get many years out of them. Energy Efficiency and quietness/slim factor is very appealing just now for me.

I think i will probably 'wait' till the end of the year and see what the Apple factory has to offer. I am leaning towards a base studio machine as the PC i had before my current one, was good for 10 years!! Want to make sure it all stays refreshed as long as possible!

Thanks again

 

[michaelm23]

You'll be fine. It's true that only the M1 Ultra in a Mac Studio is a tiny bit faster, but it doesn't sound like you would be bothered by something like a Mac Mini Pro with a decent amount of RAM given your workload. It wont encode as fast though.

As for are you crazy, no. I wouldn't wait though, no telling when the M3 is going to come out. But that said, if your set on a Mac Studio, then I would wait. (for a better design)

Thanks @bobcomer

Just replied to the other comment - think i will wait for the M3 studio and see how well handbrake plays with that. Lets hope i can get some decent £££ for my current rig!

Thanks

 

[mcnallym]

Going to be waiting a while as the M3 not out yet and the Studio not even got to M2.

A Studio you will find is overkill I believe, however if you want the studio then go with it.

I have a base Max Studio and haven’t seen it hit above 16gb RAM usage. That when handbraking a TV Series. ripping more DVD with MakeMkv, and editing with FCP X, so importing, editing and export for handbraking.
handbrake and Plex will use the media engine so the less powerful GPU wouldn’t be an issue. You said use HW encoding in Handbrake so VideoToolBox on a Max.

Plex is on the Terramaster Nas .

I bought the Studio as there was no Pro Mini at the time and as use FCP X wanted the ProRes encoder in the Media Engine which not present in the M1 so ended with the Studio Max.

if was buying today then would be an M2 Pro Mini purchase with 16gb/512gb storage. I use WD NVME SSD externally in thunderbolt enclosure for all my data and video so don’t see the point in buying the Apple Storage prices.

noise wise I have a terramaster Nas running on the desk and so don’t her the Studio unless i really get up close it with ear against the case, and then I can’t work. Certainly in normal seat position at desk it isn’t noisy..

 

[dmccloud]

with the new cpu (ryzen 8000) on the horizon doubt you would get 1300 pound for the computer, even if the gpU is powerful as it is.

Given that the Ryzen 7000s just came out late 2022, I don't think we're even close to seeing an announcement of a next-generation AMD CPU. AMD still hasn't even filled out the 7000 series lineup yet, so I feel it's premature to start looking ahead to the next generation parts less than six months after the current generation hit the market.

 

[michaelm23]

Going to be waiting a while as the M3 not out yet and the Studio not even got to M2.

A Studio you will find is overkill I believe, however if you want the studio then go with it.

I have a base Max Studio and haven’t seen it hit above 16gb RAM usage. That when handbraking a TV Series. ripping more DVD with MakeMkv, and editing with FCP X, so importing, editing and export for handbraking.
handbrake and Plex will use the media engine so the less powerful GPU wouldn’t be an issue. You said use HW encoding in Handbrake so VideoToolBox on a Max.

Plex is on the Terramaster Nas .

I bought the Studio as there was no Pro Mini at the time and as use FCP X wanted the ProRes encoder in the Media Engine which not present in the M1 so ended with the Studio Max.

if was buying today then would be an M2 Pro Mini purchase with 16gb/512gb storage. I use WD NVME SSD externally in thunderbolt enclosure for all my data and video so don’t see the point in buying the Apple Storage prices.

noise wise I have a terramaster Nas running on the desk and so don’t her the Studio unless i really get up close it with ear against the case, and then I can’t work. Certainly in normal seat position at desk it isn’t noisy..

Thanks @mcnallym

This reply has been really useful. I am currently very tempted by what you said. Maybe i will try selling my current machine first and see what it can fetch. I am rather tempted by upgrading the M2pro to the better processor and memory but then, might as well go for the studio at that price or wait for the M2 Studio to come out.

Thanks again for the comparisons on Handbrake - VideoToolbox will be my preferred choice as well. I am aware of the quality hit but then again i could never tell the difference on my current encodes on my TV between a hardware and software encode. Other might but I cant!

 

[theorist9]

Some other considerations (which may or may not affect you):

(1) If your last MacOS was running High Sierra, you might find that your 4k BenQ doesn't look as good on the current version of Mac OS (High Sierra was the last OS with subpixel text rendering) and that, to get comparable sharpness, you'd need to upgrade to a Retina external (5k 27"), which is a lot more pricey. When I upgraded beyond High Sierra, I had to switch from a 4k 27" to a 5k 27" (i.e., Retina) for my main monitor. Windows, by contrast, still has subpixel text rendering. OTOH, if you were fine with your BenQ on Mojave, then this won't be an issue for you. Some are more sensitive to text sharpness than others.

(2) How much do you like using Windows vs. MacOS? That has to be a consideration, unless you like both equally. If either is fine with you, or if you actually prefer Windows, you might want to save the money and instead look into upgrading your case/case fans/power supply fans/GPU fans/heatsinks to more quiet versions. E.g., Noctua offers a quieter version of the 3070 (https://hexus.net/tech/reviews/graphics/148494-asus-geforce-rtx-3070-noctua-edition-oc/); not sure if it's possible to modify your 3070 by buying Noctua fans and making other changes. There may be local PC builders that specialize in these mods.

That won't help with the heat, though.

See also (no personal experience with these, so can't vouch for them, but their sites should give you some ideas):
https://www.quietpc.com/ (based in UK)

be quiet! - Silent PSUs, cases and PC cooling products. PSU calculator and cooler check for your PC

be quiet! is a premium brand manufacturer of power supplies, cases and cooling solutions for your desktop PC.

www.bequiet.com

 

[michaelm23]

If all is well then why change?

If you’re considering moving to Mac, I would recommend you get the following:

Mac Mini: M2 Pro 12 core CPU & 19 core GPU
33 GB Ram
1 TB SSD

Price $2,199

You might want to consider an OWC Raid 5 Thunderbay as a secondary.

At that configuration and that price over here in the UK it is actually more expensive than MacStudio basic spec.

And i do think that will be too much

I want to change as a slow but steady migration back to the Apple ecosystem, efficiency of the Mini in terms of power and general better reliability from previous experience

 

[michaelm23]

Some other considerations (which may or may not affect you):

(1) If your last MacOS was running High Sierra, you might find that your 4k BenQ doesn't look as good on the current version of Mac OS (High Sierra was the last OS with subpixel text rendering) and that, to get comparable sharpness, you'd need to upgrade to a Retina external (5k 27"), which is a lot more pricey. When I upgraded beyond High Sierra, I had to switch from a 4k 27" to a 5k 27" (i.e., Retina) for my main monitor. Windows, by contrast, still has subpixel text rendering. OTOH, if you were fine with your BenQ on Mojave, then this won't be an issue for you. Some are more sensitive to text sharpness than others.

(2) How much do you like using Windows vs. MacOS? That has to be a consideration, unless you like both equally. If either is fine with you, or if you actually prefer Windows, you might want to save the money and instead look into upgrading your case/case fans/power supply fans/GPU fans/heatsinks to more quiet versions. E.g., Noctua offers a quieter version of the 3070 (https://hexus.net/tech/reviews/graphics/148494-asus-geforce-rtx-3070-noctua-edition-oc/); not sure if it's possible to modify your 3070 by buying Noctua fans and making other changes. There may be local PC builders that specialize in these mods.

That won't help with the heat, though.

See also (no personal experience with these, so can't vouch for them, but their sites should give you some ideas):
https://www.quietpc.com/ (based in UK)

be quiet! - Silent PSUs, cases and PC cooling products. PSU calculator and cooler check for your PC

be quiet! is a premium brand manufacturer of power supplies, cases and cooling solutions for your desktop PC.

www.bequiet.com

Hi

The BenQ was never used with the Mac before so i have no clue if your first point will apply but thanks for the tip.

I am OS agnostic - happy on Windows/Mac and Linux so really not bothered but if we are moving the whole family to Apple eventually, then perhaps best to start with the Mac!

Dont fancy spending more money on the case as i think the case i have was one of the 'quiet' ones and certainly not technical enough to take everything apart and put it back together again!

I will be doing a simple move first....move my 2 synology servers in a cupboard away from my office where i can get an ehthernt cable and see if the noise subsides a bit....The simple things!!!

 

[michaelm23]

Just to revisit an older thread. I just added an energy monitoring plug to my PC above and to my horror, my PC was not used today and at idle....it consumed 2.4kWh in 24 hours almost. It is hovering at 90w and more at all times. That is ridiculous. On a year that thing is burnin almost 900kWh.

If you believe Apple's figures, the Mac mini pro M2...is idling at 7W and at max CPU it's at 100W...hmmm!!!

 

[mrkapqa]

yes, but think about how you can revive it if something goes "wrong";
ok, you can boot from an external drive, hopefully also if the internal ssd goes zap, but i would not be so sure of that with the newer apple-tech.
apple has announced a "right do self-repair d-i-y" or similar, has been heard, but for those prices, you can safely pay energy for quite some time.
there are ways to reduce power on the pc; and if you are idling, you can just suspend it, it saves you more.