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Totally base MBA 7c GPU & 256GB SSD - longer term thoughts?

turbineseaplane

turbineseaplane

Contributor
Original poster
Mar 19, 2008
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I'm starting to think about this route just to have my foot in the ASi door with as little on the table as possible to run alongside my desktop Hack.

I'm curious if anyone went full base model and regrets it?

(to be clear, this would be a complementary machine for me)

My only real hesitation is the slower speeds on the small SSD...
Curious if others have concerns I perhaps have overlooked?

thx
 
For your intentions - foot in the door, complementary machine - the base model looks absolutely plausible!

(Also the base Mac mini could work, but I guess you want a laptop as you already have a desktop.)

If it weren't for the lack of native support of two monitors, the base MBA could be interesting for a four year stint in my office... all necessary functions with that one crucial exception are there.

Privately, I got the 16GB/1TB M1 Mac mini - but as my main machine. As a complementary device, I would go for the base model.
 
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The base model is phenomenal value for money. The 7 core GPU makes no difference in day to day usage. The SSD speed would only be noticeable if you are dealing with very large files on a day to day basis and even then the difference would be minimal.
 
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nylon said:
The base model is phenomenal value for money. The 7 core GPU makes no difference in day to day usage. The SSD speed would only be noticeable if you are dealing with very large files on a day to day basis and even then the difference would be minimal.
Click to expand...

Curious - do you have one?

My main reservation on the 7c GPU is if I wanted to occasionally plug it into a 4k/5k Ultrafine

I really would not want that experience to suffer from the GPU being 7c vs 8c
 
Depends on what you do with it. Majority of my acquaintances will actually be well served by a base M1 MBA as their main machine for years to come.

Of course, most of them use their computers for years. The base M1 MBA is a huge, huge leap over a P4 running XP or a Core 2 Duo with Vista/7.
 
turbineseaplane said:
Curious - do you have one?

My main reservation on the 7c GPU is if I wanted to occasionally plug it into a 4k/5k Ultrafine

I really would not want that experience to suffer from the GPU being 7c vs 8c
Click to expand...

No it would cause no issues with the Ultrafine. There are some issues with external displays due to software but they will be sorted out with updates. This is same M1 processor as in all the other models with a GPU core turned off because of CPU 'binning' and superficial product segmentation. You don't have to take my word for it. There are multiple reviews of the base model MBA M1 out there.
 
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I have the base MBA (7c GPU & 256GB SSD) and have zero complaints for my use.......which to be fair is a glorified surfing machine. Sold my 2015 MBP for £400 and a spare iPhone 8 for £150 to fund this new machine.
As for your worries about the smaller 256GB SSD, here is my speed test done seconds before writing this reply:

Screenshot 2020-12-29 at 20.41.06.png
 
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malcky77 said:
I have the base MBA (7c GPU & 256GB SSD) and have zero complaints for my use.......which to be fair is a glorified surfing machine. Sold my 2015 MBP for £400 and a spare iPhone 8 for £150 to fund this new machine.
As for your worries about the smaller 256GB SSD, here is my speed test done seconds before writing this reply:

View attachment 1703185
Click to expand...

How much free space on your disk?
 
I purchased a M1 Mac Mini and found it’s performance really good compared to my 2018 Intel Mac Mini. However, I have two issues with it, which are still unsolved.

1) Lack of RGB mode on external monitors
2) Some USB 3.1 Gen 2 Enclosure connecting at 5Gb/s instead of 10Gb/s

I have been working with Apple support and their engineering team but no resolution yet. So the Mini is going back before Jan 8.

While these issues were going on, I also purchased a base 8/256 M1 Macbook Air for my wife to upgrade from a 2012 MBP(SATA SSD and 16Gb RAM). So far, M1 Air has been simply excellent. 8GB is plenty for browsing, excel/word and light photo editing in Adobe. Bought a 1TB Sandisk Extreme Portable V2 SSD to supplement internal storage for travel needs.

We don’t use it to connect with external monitors or external SSDs often, so the 2 issues that we faced with the Mini don’t impact the Air much.

Biggest improvements - Battery life (shockingly good), performance, weight reduction and screen quality.

I believe the base M1 Air offers tremendous value at 999$. While the 2012 MBP is built like a tank and one of their last fully upgradeable Macbooks, the time has come to finally sell it now :)
 
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I have the base MBA, and love it! I installed Parallels and Win10 ARM runs without issue.

I don’t connect to an external monitor or do any video editing or real photo work. Mostly just browse the web, watch YouTube, some minor Excel work.
 
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turbineseaplane said:
Is that coming do we think?
Seems "not good" to me at present (external monitor situation)
Click to expand...
The external monitor compatibility issues will be resolved as they are software related. And I'm pretty sure Ultrafine customers will be prioritized but I have not heard of any issues with the Ultrafine yet. Maybe check the forums.
 
turbineseaplane said:
Curious - do you have one?

My main reservation on the 7c GPU is if I wanted to occasionally plug it into a 4k/5k Ultrafine

I really would not want that experience to suffer from the GPU being 7c vs 8c
Click to expand...
It runs perfectly smooth on a 5K ultrafine in clamshell without heating up or any slowdown hours after hours.

And yes, that's my setup so above is from personal experience.
 
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