Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Using a MacBook as a desktop

rjalex

rjalex

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Mar 27, 2011
275
63
Rome, Italy
Dear friends,
I am a developer spending many hours each day on my Mac Mini connected to:
*) LG 32" 5K
*) 1 WD Black SN850X 2TB NVMe SSD
*) 3 other USB SSDs
*) other slower USB devices (webcam, microphone, DAC etc)
*) Gbit cabled ethernet

I am now interested in buying an M4 Pro with 128GB for my AI/LLM work (Mini cannot expand RAM so much).

How cumbersome would it be to use the Macbook with all these peripherals?

This machine would be working as a desktop 90% of the time save for the rare times in which I have to travel to meet a customer.

Thanks for any insight.
 
rjalex said:
How cumbersome would it be to use the Macbook with all these peripherals?
Click to expand...
Considering you listed at least 8 peripheral devices (4x SSDs, 3x audio devices, 1x Ethernet), the MacBook simply doesn't have enough ports. You need a good Thunderbolt dock, in which case it's not cumbersome since you only need to use one Thunderbolt cable for all of them.

As someone who uses their MacBook as a desktop most of the time, but without a dock, it's cumbersome to plug in and unplug all the accessories when taking it on the go and certainly biases me toward leaving it at my desk unless I must take it elsewhere.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Basic75 and rjalex
rjalex said:
Dear friends,
I am a developer spending many hours each day on my Mac Mini connected to:
*) LG 32" 5K
*) 1 WD Black SN850X 2TB NVMe SSD
*) 3 other USB SSDs
*) other slower USB devices (webcam, microphone, DAC etc)
*) Gbit cabled ethernet

I am now interested in buying an M4 Pro with 128GB for my AI/LLM work (Mini cannot expand RAM so much).

How cumbersome would it be to use the Macbook with all these peripherals?

This machine would be working as a desktop 90% of the time save for the rare times in which I have to travel to meet a customer.

Thanks for any insight.
Click to expand...

I use the CalDigit TS4 dock with my MBP, and I have one external monitor, two external SSDs and two external HDDs attached to it. The dock allows me to connect just the one Thunderbolt 4 cable and have all the peripherals plus charging of the device.
 
  • Like
Reactions: navaira and rjalex
The TS4 looks awesome albeit it's very expensive.

Please check if I got the connections/speeds right:
  • Monitor would be attached to the Displayport.
  • My NVMe SSD to one of the two back TB4 ports,
  • my other 3 SSDs to any of the back USB 3.2 10Gb/s ports
  • Other 3 slower audio/video on the remaining USB ports
  • Gigabit ethernet to the 2.5Gb port
  • Macbook would be connected to the host TB4 port with charging included with a single cable.

    Did I get this this right? Similar but less expensive alternatives? If I get an M4 with TB5 this would not be used at full speed, right? Thank you
 
If you run your laptop hooked up to the charger all the time I'd recommend using an application like AlDente to limit the charge level to at most 80% to prevent stressing your battery by keeping it at 100% most of the time.
 
  • Like
Reactions: rjalex and Benito
dmccloud said:
I use the CalDigit TS4 dock with my MBP, and I have one external monitor, two external SSDs and two external HDDs attached to it. The dock allows me to connect just the one Thunderbolt 4 cable and have all the peripherals plus charging of the device.
Click to expand...
Yup Caldigit TS4 dock is superb.
 
bsmr said:
All you need is a Mac Mini! A notebook is a notebook and not a desktop machine.
Click to expand...
I am inclined to agree and if the Mini would allow 92 or 128GB RAM I would not hesitate. For my workloads RAM > 64GB is vital.
 
With a good dock I'd say it wouldn't be cumbersome at all. I use my macbook Pro m4 Pro previously M3 Pro as my daily driver. I don't use it for work though. Just personal entertainment. Audiophile music listening and streaming/general internet use. I have 2 external drives connected to a Dell dock, external TV to Home Theatre AVR. I've been using that setup for over a year. Before I switched over to a laptop I too was using a mac mini as my daily driver hooked to the same setup. My main motivator was missing the dual monitor. So having my TV as the main and laptop screen as secondary suits that need. I also have a desk setup with my Macbook Air and Windows PC because that's my gaming setup. I use the Macbook Air for headphone audiophile listening. I moved the mac Mini to the bedroom. With my old hand myself down 39" TV, lol.
 
  • Like
Reactions: rjalex
MacDaddyPanda said:
With a good dock I'd say it wouldn't be cumbersome at all. I use my macbook Pro m4 Pro previously M3 Pro as my daily driver. I don't use it for work though. Just personal entertainment. Audiophile music listening and streaming/general internet use. I have 2 external drives connected to a Dell dock, external TV to Home Theatre AVR. I've been using that setup for over a year. Before I switched over to a laptop I too was using a mac mini as my daily driver hooked to the same setup. My main motivator was missing the dual monitor. So having my TV as the main and laptop screen as secondary suits that need. I also have a desk setup with my Macbook Air and Windows PC because that's my gaming setup. I use the Macbook Air for headphone audiophile listening. I moved the mac Mini to the bedroom. With my old hand myself down 39" TV, lol.
Click to expand...
Awesome setup. You embody the transition from Hono Sapiens to Homo Digitalis :) How do you manage the "always on charge bad for your battery" problem?
 
  • Like
Reactions: MacDaddyPanda
As mentioned by @Basic75 above - Al Dente is the way to go - I use it with my MBP M3Max and I have 6 cycles and a battery capacity of 101%. Please note that this is for the paid version of Al Dente.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Basic75 and rjalex
njvm said:
As mentioned by @Basic75 above - Al Dente is the way to go - I use it with my MBP M3Max and I have 6 cycles and a battery capacity of 101%. Please note that this is for the paid version of Al Dente.
Click to expand...
Thanks. As an Italian "Al Dente" is a very important concept for me :) :)
 
rjalex said:
Awesome setup. You embody the transition from Hono Sapiens to Homo Digitalis :) How do you manage the "always on charge bad for your battery" problem?
Click to expand...
I had that concern too, but macOS does a pretty good job of maintaining that. It will hold charges to 80% only and then occasionally go to full 100% to work the battery some. When I had the mbp m3 pro it only dropped capacity 1% in just over a yrs time. Same with my air.
 
  • Like
Reactions: rjalex
If you want a portable for traveling, CalDigit TS4 is your best solution. Yeah, it's not TB5 but neither is much of anything else.... maybe you can find a deal on TS4 over Black Friday.

Mac Studio is the alternative, which of course would do an EXCELLENT job for you but wouldn't address portability at all. And of course it's not M4, but you could do a M2 Ultra.

Only you can decide which is the better option but either would work fine.
 
  • Like
Reactions: rjalex
Yeah wise words. At the end there were several choices each with + and -
At the end I compromised on several aspects and ordered a new Mini m4 pro with 64GB and saved some €€€ for Together API use :) Thank you all.
 
  • Like
Reactions: FreakinEurekan and MacDaddyPanda
Is there another docks that would support one 5k monitor and one 1080p monitor and does it have to be ts4?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back