Apple Silicon M1 Chip in MacBook Air, MacBook Pro Mac mini

[irvinehomeowner]

I thought you only bought used technology Momo.

[Bullsback]

Funny timing Momo - our macbook air died last week (10 years old) and have to finally replace it.  Only non-work computer/laptop we actually have in the house and was eyeing the M1. Have read awesome stuff about it until like 2 days ago - when I read the same issue on the useage and made me debate whether maybe I should just save a couple hundred bucks and get the less efficient but damn reliable intel version. 

Can't wait another 9 months - need it for when my kids have to be remote - cause Ipad doesn't cut it. 

Yours and mine going out - makes me wonder if apple has some exploding ram issue (mine I think went out due to a ram issue - which made my laptop a paperweight - since its impossible to replace).

That said - as a heavy PC user who has owned 1 mac computer (this one) - I was blown away at how this thing hummed along for 10 years while we went through like 3 different PC laptops during the same lifespan (which really is just used by our kids for basic things at this point). 

[akkord]

That said - as a heavy PC user who has owned 1 mac computer (this one) - I was blown away at how this thing hummed along for 10 years while we went through like 3 different PC laptops during the same lifespan (which really is just used by our kids for basic things at this point).

I have an old PC desktop that I built 10yrs ago and still going strong.  I recently built another PC desktop before pricing got out of hand on the GPUs, but the new AMD CPUs seem to be instock at MSRP a lot these day. 

My Dell XPS laptop is still running well 4 years later, but my 7 year old Dell needs to stay plugged in for it to work, not worth buying a new battery on that one.  I'm primarily a PC user as well, but use iPhones and iPads for everything else.   

[momopi]

I thought you only bought used technology Momo.

Buying an intel Mac (new or used) today is like buying a PowerPC Mac in 2006-2007.  By 2009 Snow Leopard had dropped support for PPC.

I do however still have my old white MacBook running Mojave for 32 bit app compatibility.

Funny timing Momo - our macbook air died last week (10 years old) and have to finally replace it.  Only non-work computer/laptop we actually have in the house and was eyeing the M1. Have read awesome stuff about it until like 2 days ago - when I read the same issue on the usage and made me debate whether maybe I should just save a couple hundred bucks and get the less efficient but damn reliable intel version. 

Can't wait another 9 months - need it for when my kids have to be remote - cause Ipad doesn't cut it. 

Yours and mine going out - makes me wonder if apple has some exploding ram issue (mine I think went out due to a ram issue - which made my laptop a paperweight - since its impossible to replace).

That said - as a heavy PC user who has owned 1 mac computer (this one) - I was blown away at how this thing hummed along for 10 years while we went through like 3 different PC laptops during the same lifespan (which really is just used by our kids for basic things at this point). 

The issue with my iMac was bad GPU.  I know this because it can boot to safe mode and run fine.  On iMac (and some other models) they have 2 graphics chipsets, the high performance card with ATI or NVidia chipset, and the low performance one built on the main board.  If the high performance GPU died you can boot into safe mode which disables the GPU.  It's also possible to run MacOS or Linux with the GPU disabled.

On the 2009 27" iMac the GPU going bad is a known issue with various homebrew fixes on YouTube, including one where you bake the card in your oven.    Alternatively you can connect your MacBook to the iMac and use it as an external monitor via target display mode.

If you absolutely have to buy a replacement MacBook today, I would not recommend paying for a new intel Mac.  I would suggest either a cheaper used/refurnished intel Mac or M1 MacBook with 16GB/500GB configuration.  Used 2015+ MacBook Pro in decent condition can be had for $500-$600+ with warranty, will run Big Sur.  If I'm not mistaken the RAM cannot be upgraded but the SSD is user upgradable on 2015 MacBook Pro models.  Apple will likely release newer models of M1/M1X Mac this year and hopefully they will have the various issues resolved.

[zovall]

I haven't read the latest regarding the M1 issues and it has only been a few months but our M1 MacBook Air has been great so far. I do hope it lasts for as long as our prior Mac products.

[momopi]

Apple sells the M1 Mac Mini with baseline 8GB RAM/250 GB SSD config -- you can buy this for $650 on Amazon or $670 at Costco.  Note that although Costco cost $20 more, you get Costco's 2 year warranty from date of purchase.  In comparison, AppleCare's 3 year extended warranty from date of purchase cost $99.  So $20 for the Costco warranty isn't bad.

However, I didn't buy from Costco because they only sold the base 8 GB RAM model.  The reason is because on the M1 Mac running Big Sur, it can easily consume ~10 GB RAM running just a single application.  I've observed running Safari + Sys Info + Activity Monitor that it ran up to 9.5 GB used.  On the M1 Mac the SSD performance is very good, so writing 2 GB swap file to the SSD doesn't cause noticeable performance impact to most users.  The issue is that NAND flash memory chips on SSD have limited lifespan in write cycles.  So if your Mac is constantly writing GB's and GB's to the swap file, this will eventually impact the SSD lifespan.  The impact is larger on smaller SSD's vs larger SSD's by % of the disk being used.

There are many user reports of premature/excessive SSD wear on the M1 Mac's, you can google the articles and blog posts.  At this time we're still not 100% certain if the issue is real excessive wear or incorrect reporting, but considering the M1 Mac SSD is not user replaceable, it is a risk.  You can mitigate the risk by purchasing the 16 GB RAM model, which is what I did.  With enough RAM it doesn't need to write to swap file.

For casual users, the baseline model should be OK.  But if you are planning to do a lot of photo and video editing, IMO you should either wait for v2 (or at least wait and see how apple resolves these issues), or buy 16 GB model with at least 500 GB SSD.  Alternatively, used Intel Mac at 1/3 to 1/2 of the price vs new for immediate use, but knowing that it'd be rendered obsolete within few years with future OS X releases.

[momopi]

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