Is buying an Intel màc still worth it?

[geekmonster.jt]

I'm thinking of buying a MacBook pro 16inch, i7 (9th gen), 32GB RAM, 1tb ssd, touch bar, for $1800. Is this worth it or should I wait to by the M1 version (which is way more expensive)?

Also I'm an IoT developer is working with arduino, raspberry pi, aws and other things gonna be a problem with the M1?

 

[Raz0rEdge]

That Intel-based machine will definitely be fine for what you need to do. But the M1 Pro/Max based MBP will be a better performer across the board. Additionally, do NOT think about the initial price of the machine but rather divide it by how you intend to keep it.

If you're going to be upgrading your machine in a couple of years, it makes no sense to spend $3500 for a machine now, go with the $1800 machine and try to sell it in a couple of years for $800 or something and recoup some of the costs. If you're going to keep the machine for say a decade or so, that's $350 per year.

Additionally, if you DO decide to sell the machine in a couple of years, you'll get way more for the newer M1 based machine than the i7 based machine since most people will want to upgrade from their failing intel based Macs to the ARM based ones only.

Rasberry use ARM-based processors, so technically you're in greater alignment there. Arduino uses a RISC based processor, but that doesn't really matter between using an Intel or M1 based Mac.

 

[Rod]

If money is tight I'd go with the Intel Mac. Yes, it will loose resale value quickly but that's only valid if you need to sell it. It should do all you need it to do now and into the immediate future and the price difference is a big one. In the long term the M1 looks like a better investment but having said that don't forget that the M1X processor is about to be released so that could change.

The other factor is that with Apples commitment to move from Intel to ARM chips that in 5 years or less Intel devices may be no longer supported, I read a few articles on that topic back in 2020.

So, to sum up you can have great now with a short life span at a cheap price or great now and future proof for double the price. I would be inclined to wait for the next generation M1X processor though, which should be released this year.
On the other hand if you think you will be able to afford to upgrade or buy a new device in say three years go with the Intel. If its next to worthless then it will make a great standby device, I'm running a 2010 white unibody Mac Book on High Sierra for just that reason and its a great backup.

 

[lclev]

^^ What Ashwin said. I do a lot of video and photoshop work along with illustrator and some after effects. I bought a 13" 2020 i7 32GB 1TB to work with at home during Covid. While it was fine for short 5 minute HD videos it would really strain for anything of any size. Most of my videos are over an hour long. One of my co-workers has a 16" 2019 i7 16GB that he also does a lot of video work but his rendering times are long. Intel is over for Apple, ARM processors are the future. And the new ARM processors are blazing fast!

I just ordered a 14" M1 max - 10 core, 32 core GPU, 64GB. I will be putting it through it's paces and if it performs the way I hope, it will it will have a new home for at least 5 years. For me it is an investment that will allow me to work from home.

Lisa

 

[chscag]

I just ordered a 14" M1 max - 10 core, 32 core GPU, 64GB. I will be putting it through it's paces and if it performs the way I hope, it will it will have a new home for at least 5 years. For me it is an investment that will allow me to work from home.

I heard that delivery dates are backed up into early December. Any idea when you will be getting yours?

I was tempted into ordering a 16" M1X Max to replace my aging iMac but decided I'd rather wait until next year to see what Apple does with a newer larger screen iMac.

 

[Raz0rEdge]

I'm still holding out hope for a updated Mac Mini which will be awesome to upgrade my current 6-core Mac Mini.

 

[lclev]

My delivery date is Nov. 5th -10th. They are usually good at getting them delivered early. We shall see.

BTW: I had to visit the apple store this past Friday. Did you know an iPhone will not survive a drop of 15 feet onto a concrete floor? Creates a lot of spider cracks in the the back glass - but the camera still worked! And yes, it was in a case. The glass screen cover was cracked but the screen was fine. I bought him a tougher case and slapped on a new screen protector - they come 6 to a pack for a reason!

Anyway while waiting on them to repair it, I played with a pink iMac with an M1 / 8GB. I was impressed. I opened lots of webpages a whole bunch of apps - just played at stressing it. The thing is blazing fast - like really fast and it was a base minimum system. They did not have a single M1 laptop system or mac mini available to look at though.

Lisa

 

[Rod]

Bummer Lisa, I was hoping for a "hands on" report on keyboard action and stuff. I'm sure you would have too.

 

[lclev]

Yeah, the apple stores are supposed to have the new M1 pro and max laptops in on the 26th. It is an hour drive for me so unless there is a reason to visit the genius bar I won't make the trip just to try one out.

 

[ryck]

Old Intel MBP are worth it for everyday work especially the 2011-2012 ones for which you can upgrade the memory to 16Gb and replace the mechanical drive with an SSD such as a 1Tb or 2Tb.

 

[chevyboy60013]

Old Intel MBP are worth it for everyday work especially the 2011-2012 ones for which you can upgrade the memory to 16Gb and replace the mechanical drive with an SSD such as a 1Tb or 2Tb.

I have a late 2011 13 inch MacBook Pro that I did the patch to run Catalina on, and it runs Catalina awesomely, considering doing the Big Sur patch... but that looks a little more complicated to do, so I may leave well enough alone. It does everything I want and need it to do and runs circles around my much newer dell windows laptop.

 

[lclev]

I had a 2011 15" Macbook Pro - i7/16GB/512 SSD. I gave it to a friend who is still using it.

Lisa

 

[ryck]

I have a late 2011 13 inch MacBook Pro that I did the patch to run Catalina on, and it runs Catalina awesomely, considering doing the Big Sur patch... but that looks a little more complicated to do, so I may leave well enough alone. It does everything I want and need it to do and runs circles around my much newer dell windows laptop.

Would welcome a link or instructions on how to do that upgrade to Catalina for my old Early 2011 MBP 13".

 

[Rod]

Hi ryck, I don't think anyone on this forum would be comfortable with providing that information. I think I can speak for all when I say we do not condone or encourage users to risk "bricking" their devices by using non -official patches or jail breaking techniques.
Of course it's your device and you can do anything you want with it but given how happy you are with it running Catalina why take the risk?

 

[gaundy_22]

My delivery date is Nov. 5th -10th. They are usually good at getting them delivered early. We shall see.

BTW: I had to visit the apple store this past Friday. Did you know an iPhone will not survive a drop of 15 feet onto a concrete floor? Creates a lot of spider cracks in the the back glass - but the camera still worked! And yes, it was in a case. The glass screen cover was cracked but the screen was fine. I bought him a tougher case and slapped on a new screen protector - they come 6 to a pack for a reason!

Anyway while waiting on them to repair it, I played with a pink iMac with an M1 / 8GB. I was impressed. I opened lots of webpages a whole bunch of apps - just played at stressing it. The thing is blazing fast - like really fast and it was a base minimum system. They did not have a single M1 laptop system or mac mini available to look at though.

Lisa

I am so happy with my 24 inch M1 that I got in July. It destroys my intel MacBook and the screen is so nice I jus got the base model since I don’t do any heavy work but. For the price I could not be happier.

 

[ryck]

Hi ryck, I don't think anyone on this forum would be comfortable with providing that information. I think I can speak for all when I say we do not condone or encourage users to risk "bricking" their devices by using non -official patches or jail breaking techniques.
Of course it's your device and you can do anything you want with it but given how happy you are with it running Catalina why take the risk?

My old 2011 MBP is not running Catalina. It now runs like a dog despite having 16GB memory and an SSD. It desperately needs to be upgraded to Catalina so that whatever is killing its performance is rectified. So at the moment it is a brick. So upgrading is the best option. We all know that the hardware supports Catalina but Apple has hobbled the upgrades so that older machines cannot be upgraded except by running a workaround i.e. a non-official patch as you refer to it. If in the process I brick the laptop so be it. It's already too slow to work with.

 

[Raz0rEdge]

Upgrading to Catalina isn't going to help a slow machine. If you want to make it perform well again, you should re-install the OS from scratch after erasing everything. That machine officially supports High Sierra, so do that installation and see how it goes.

 

[ryck]

Upgrading to Catalina isn't going to help a slow machine. If you want to make it perform well again, you should re-install the OS from scratch after erasing everything. That machine officially supports High Sierra, so do that installation and see how it goes.

And kill all the software programs that are installed on it.. causing days of work to reinstall.. No way. And some applications one cannot reinstall as the providers only offer downloads for latest OS releases. Safer is to clone the SSD to another SSD, try the Catalina non-official upgrade . If it fails no worry I can switch in the cloned SSD.

 

[Raz0rEdge]

Sounds like you already have a plan, so go ahead and do that.

 

[ryck]

Sounds like you already have a plan, so go ahead and do that.

I have the plan but not the tools to execute it. That's why I asked if chevyboy60013 could share how to access the Catalina non-official update routine(s).