With all the trouble MacBooks have, anyone else considering desktop alternatives?

[Mr. Dee]

This is my 2015 MacBook Pro with the staingate issue, which I haven't gotten the chance to fix yet. I took it to the Apple Store where I bought it earlier this year and they said it would take about 5 to 10 days. I only had 5 days remaining during my visit. So, I had to skip the repair. Hopefully I can get it fixed next year when I return to the US.

Every generation of MacBook Pro probably since 2006 has come with some issues: logic board failure, nVidia GPU issues, lamination issues and battery issues on first gen retina models, lamination issues on 2015 model, keyboard on 2016, thermal, bridge OS, crackling audio. This seems to be a reality going forward. Sometimes you are lucky though.

 

[Fishrrman]

I use my desktop (late 2012 Mini i7 2.6ghz) for desktop things, and my MacBook Pro (2015, 13") for laptop things.

Works for me.

 

[baypharm]

Well, I agree with you there, more people in general are complaining about the newer Pro's then pre-2016.

Well maybe. There for awhile, or whenever I would talk about my 17” MBP the haters would come out of the woodwork and say how big and bulky and heavy they are and no suitable for travel. There I go, they will probably read this and start on me again. Ha ha.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Well maybe. There for awhile, or whenever I would talk about my 17” MBP the haters would come out of the woodwork and say how big and bulky and heavy they are and no suitable for travel. There I go, they will probably read this and start on me again. Ha ha.

Not me - I wish they had kept making 17" models. If they'd ever made a Retina one in the last decade, I'd probably be using it right now honestly.

 

[jerryk]

I use a desktop 70% of the time. I like have a 27 and 24 inch monitor display things at the same time. The desktop machine is a windows 10 system with 32 GB of memory, NVME SSDs, and Nvidia GTX 1070s. So plenty of horsepower to accomplish more tasks. I also run Linux VMs on this system.

For portable use, like speaking or light devlopment on the road, I have a 2018 MBP 15". It is fine for these tasks, but is no match for a deskside system.

 

[SDColorado]

Well maybe. There for awhile, or whenever I would talk about my 17” MBP the haters would come out of the woodwork and say how big and bulky and heavy they are and no suitable for travel. There I go, they will probably read this and start on me again. Ha ha.

I am finally parting with my 2011 17”, the last of a few 17’s I had. I travelled everywhere with those things, often times with a bunch of camera gear and other stuff that weighed as much if not more than the 17”’s 8lbs.

I would buy another today as well if they had a retina model. The only thing it was a bit of a pain for was traveling by motorcycle. I did it with the 17”, but it was a bit on the bulky/cumbersome side for that.

 

[Newtons Apple]

My 2018 MBP 15" has been flawless and I am glad I bought it. I have had Dell, Lenovo and others and they all can have problems.

 

[Macshroomer]

The problem is that Apple's desktops are ***** value for money. The Mini and Mac Pro are beyond bad jokes, and the iMac comes with a screen, keyboard, mouse, want them or not, and are dead ends.

If you go that route, go for a Mac Pro 5,1 or a 2012 Mac Mini quad-core (assuming your graphics demands are limited, as the HD4000 is the limiting factor on the 2012 Mini).

Since I make between $200-$400 an hour in my line of work, I find my new MacBook Pro and iMac Pro to be great values for the money, super fast and stable and easy to just get the work done and get on with life.

I guess it depends on your income bracket then, this stuff just works for me and I no longer want to chase around hacks to make a dated machine like my old and sold 5,1 a viable workflow when there are solutions that are ready to go and actuality quite easy to part out all at once when it comes time to upgrade.

 

[Naimfan]

Since I make between $200-$400 an hour in my line of work, I find my new MacBook Pro and iMac Pro to be great values for the money, super fast and stable and easy to just get the work done and get on with life.

I guess it depends on your income bracket then, this stuff just works for me and I no longer want to chase around hacks to make a dated machine like my old and sold 5,1 a viable workflow when there are solutions that are ready to go and actuality quite easy to part out all at once when it comes time to upgrade.

How wonderful for you.

You must have missed, in your haste to boast of your low billing rates, that I specified Apple's desktops, and more specifically, the Mac Mini and Mac Pro.

But carry on missing or willfully ignoring material information . . .

 

[turbineseaplane]

I guess it depends on your income bracket then

Yes - very much so

 

[Painter2002]

I would have to do my job at home instead of taking it to a coffee shop, but that might be a good thing in terms of productivity. I always have my iPad to take with me.

Ironically for me, I am the opposite. I work from home 90 percent of the time, and go to the coffee shop once a week or so to work from there. I actually tend to get more distracted working at home than the coffee shop. Personally I like having the option to go out when I need to, so I am sticking with my 2017 MBP.

Also, if you do get a desktop, get the iMac, not the Mini. The Mac mini is a good little machine but has outdated hardware, and will age faster than the iMac will because of this. You will get more bang for your buck using the iMac.