Apple Macbook Suggestions Please

[ianforber]

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On 9/6/2023 at 7:21 PM, Orguy said:

Thanks everyone for all this valuable advice. Quite a great, useful forum this is!

You’ve convinced me: Macbook Pro with M2 chip. 16GB, maybe 32 RAM??

Now as to internal storage - do you think 4TB is overkill vs. 2TB? As I said, I plan on storing all my Q3 photos onboard (as well as backed up externally, of course). I kept my previous Macbook Pro for 10 years so I appreciate the concept of overkill initially, to avoid regrets later. I blew through 512GB pretty easily on my old Macbook.

Let me know how you get on - I am in a similar position. I currently have a 2017 MacBook Pro 15” with 8GB of RAM and a 250GB hard drive, which was all I could afford at the time. Even though I keep all my photos on external SSD drives and most of my documents are in the iCloud, the laptops is telling me that I only have about 30GB of storage left. I’m thinking of just biting the bullet and getting a new MacBook Air or Pro with an M1 or M2 chip and 1TB or 2TB of storage. 

Ive not had a problem with performance. I don’t multitask and run Capture One and maybe one plug-in at a time (usually a Topaz or Nik Effects programme). they can take 30 secs or so to process my Q2 and M11 files and return to Capture One, which I can live with.

i have had a problem recently though. I downloaded the latest versions of Nik Effects (6.3.0) and found that about half of them, including Silver FX, won’t open either as plug ins or standalone apps. I’ve raised a ticket with DXO but has anyone else had this problem?

[jaapv]

As a temporary solution you could use CleanMyMac and Gemini2 to free up memory space.

https://cleanmymac.com/

https://macpaw.com/gemini

have been using them for over ten years and they really work.

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[Orguy]

32 minutes ago, jaapv said:

As a temporary solution you could use CleanMyMac and Gemini2 to free up memory space.

https://cleanmymac.com/

https://macpaw.com/gemini

have been using them for over ten years and they really work.

Is cleanmymac really ok? It looks like malware or something like that to me, but I honestly dont know and I’m wary. They do keep trying to get me to upgrade with the trial.

1)Does it really do good, and not harm?

2)Did the free version suffice, or did you need to pay up for the paid one to get benefit?

3) Ditto for macpaw

[idusidusi]

1 minute ago, Orguy said:

Is cleanmymac really ok? It looks like malware or something like that to me, but I honestly dont know and I’m wary. They do keep trying to get me to upgrade with the trial.

1)Does it really do good, and not harm?

2)Did the free version suffice, or did you need to pay up for the paid one to get benefit?

3) Ditto for macpaw

Cleanmymac (Ukrainian) seems to be fine, I have used it for quite awhile. It does what it says on the tin, but I am no expert. Macpaw I know nought of.

[jaapv]

In fifteen years that I have used it there has been not one instance of malware-like behaviour. MacPaw the same. As far as I am concerned and aware both companies are above reproach. The couldn’t exist for so long otherwise. 
https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/cleanmymac

https://www.trustpilot.com/review/www.macpaw.com

[ianforber]

Good to know. I too have avoided these cleaning programmes for fear that it’ll junk the computer. I’ll wait until I get the Nik Effects sorted before doing a backup and launching cleanmymac 

[Orguy]

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I

Thank you everyone. Your valuable opinions and experiences made me decide not to go cheap with a Macbook Air. I use my computer as a laptop, and I dont travel with it so it lasts a LONG time. Not a place to be cheap, I decided. More below on how my old Macbook Pro died!

Warning: regarding running out of storage as I did with 512GB on my old Macbook Pro. I kept getting low memory warnings and I kept deleting stuff to stay under. Finally the Mac died, wouldnt start up. Three trips to Apple Genius Bar with 3 OS reloads taking many hours. Then, it died a fourth time and became unfixable they said. Kernel error? If it says 30GB left that’s what mine said. Hours later dealing with Genius Bar I had a dead Macbook.

Lesson learned.

I went to B&H (for the  Payboo no tax option) and asked what was in stock. I decided again that cheaper was false economy. So I got their limited what was in stock, “future proofed” 16 inch Macbook Pro M2 64 GB ram (gasp) with 4TB. I also bought an external I/O hub to deal with all my USB-A devices, and I’m glad I did. Not inexpensive for a computer these days, but for something I use for hours a day for years, how expensive is it really?

Oh my gosh. I thought my old Macbook Pro was very nice but this is amazingly better in many ways. What a beautiful product. Glad I spent the money (except I probably didn’t need to get 64GB?). Anyway, I wonder in the future if 4TB storage may not seem so excessive? I know insufficient storage  killed my previous Mac.

[Erato]

Import -- System bus, memory bandwidth and CPU bound.

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Export --System bus, memory bandwidth and GPU bound.

 

Editing / Rendering -- System bus, memory bandwidth., Memory / GPU bound.

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Edited September 18 by Erato