My 2017 i7 iMac with a fusion drive has been fairly poky with a large 90k photos, 800 GB photo library. It lags when deleting photos, moving them into albums, and editing as well. The fans regularly spin up and get loud.

I thought the bottle neck might be the fusion drive, so I got a Samsung X5 Thunderbolt SSD and decided to start fresh with a clean install of Big Sur on the SSD. After moving the photos library onto the SSD, it is.... eh.. a bit faster.

So, last night I connected the X5 to my M1 MBA (base 8GB model) and woah, Photos is like butter! Super smooth. Guess I shouldn't be so surprised, but seriously - wow!

Now, I'm tempted to sell the iMac and run dual 27" 4k displays with the MBA.. not as photo accurate as the 5k, but...

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bhaveshp
My 2017 i7 iMac with a fusion drive has been fairly poky with a large 90k photos, 800 GB photo library. It lags when deleting photos, moving them into albums, and editing as well. The fans regularly spin up and get loud.

I thought the bottle neck might be the fusion drive, so I got a Samsung X5 Thunderbolt SSD and decided to start fresh with a clean install of Big Sur on the SSD. After moving the photos library onto the SSD, it is.... eh.. a bit faster.

So, last night I connected the X5 to my M1 MBA (base 8GB model) and woah, Photos is like butter! Super smooth. Guess I shouldn't be so surprised, but seriously - wow!

Now, I'm tempted to sell the iMac and run dual 27" 4k displays with the MBA.. not as photo accurate as the 5k, but...

Yes, using my wife's new MBA - it's painful to go back to an older Intel Mac...

If you go dual displays, you will need a DualLink adapter/hub.

Was bummed... When I was at Costco last week they had MacBooks on display that said M1 but all the one's that were up and running were i5's and i7's.

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sekker
If you go dual displays, you will need a DualLink adapter/hub.

Ah right.. IIRC, you have a hub with Displaylink? Any issues or working well?

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bhaveshp
Now, I'm tempted to sell the iMac and run dual 27" 4k displays with the MBA.. not as photo accurate as the 5k, but...

Id go with a mini and 32" + 27" 4K.

Im so close to this exact setup with a 16/1 TB model to replace my 2014 iMac. (But $1250, =(

Adobe CC numbers arent that great, but imagine they are better than or equal to my 2014.

Im actually tempted to just go with the $640 8/256 and use my current NVMe 1 TB external as boot (yeah, not as fast, but need the space) and then pass it down to the wife in 6+ months -- when what I really want comes out.

Really hoping all this positive press apple is getting makes them rethink their timeline and put out new macs sooner.

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Edited 999 time(s). Last edit at 12:08PM by jdc.

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bhaveshp

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sekker
If you go dual displays, you will need a DualLink adapter/hub.

Ah right.. IIRC, you have a hub with Displaylink? Any issues or working well?

I'm using this with a MBA: [smile.amazon.com]

The only issue is the ethernet port is not giving gigabit speeds; this is a known issue that I have not seen resolved. Has a lot of other great ports, and I just use a USB to ethernet adapter daisy-chained on a USB hub for 500Mbps speeds (as fast as my fiber line offers).

This one is also interesting technology claiming two external monitors from a USB C dock on MacOS (does not specify whether it works on M1 Macs, however): [www.amazon.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/30/2020 01:41PM by sekker.

Just a bit of FOMO beginning to set in here, especially with Cyber Monday deals out there. Our 13" MBP-2012 shared home computer has been "good enough" for the last several years, not really worth replacing but not really a joy to use either. At the same time, we don't really use it anymore since we all have work or school laptops now. Still...

The M1 (in any form factor) is clearly a beast for everyday tasks, but it seems like going for a 16GB model is worth the price for being an early adopter to help ensure long term usefulness. Doubt I could beat the speed of the internal storage, but at least adding total capacity externally is trivial whereas RAM is immutable. M1 16/256 looks solid.

I would want larger than 13" screen, so leaning towards a MacMini with a 24-27" monitor, but there is a ton of value with the battery efficiency of the portables. Maybe an Air with an external 2nd screen? Could go either way I guess.

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sekker

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bhaveshp

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sekker
If you go dual displays, you will need a DualLink adapter/hub.

Ah right.. IIRC, you have a hub with Displaylink? Any issues or working well?

I'm using this with a MBA: [smile.amazon.com]

The only issue is the ethernet port is not giving gigabit speeds; this is a known issue that I have not seen resolved. Has a lot of other great ports, and I just use a USB to ethernet adapter daisy-chained on a USB hub for 500Mbps speeds (as fast as my fiber line offers).

One review indicates that the USB 3 ports are really USB 2 and that they aren't a true hub but daisy chained off of each other.

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macphanatic

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sekker

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bhaveshp

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sekker
If you go dual displays, you will need a DualLink adapter/hub.

Ah right.. IIRC, you have a hub with Displaylink? Any issues or working well?

I'm using this with a MBA: [smile.amazon.com]

The only issue is the ethernet port is not giving gigabit speeds; this is a known issue that I have not seen resolved. Has a lot of other great ports, and I just use a USB to ethernet adapter daisy-chained on a USB hub for 500Mbps speeds (as fast as my fiber line offers).

One review indicates that the USB 3 ports are really USB 2 and that they aren't a true hub but daisy chained off of each other.

That could be, I did not test (and I hook anything needing bandwidth upstream to a separate USBC hub built into this monitor). I know there are other similar usb-c docks to consider. Looking for DisplayLink compatibility is key.

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macphanatic

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sekker

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bhaveshp

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sekker
If you go dual displays, you will need a DualLink adapter/hub.

Ah right.. IIRC, you have a hub with Displaylink? Any issues or working well?

I'm using this with a MBA: [smile.amazon.com]

The only issue is the ethernet port is not giving gigabit speeds; this is a known issue that I have not seen resolved. Has a lot of other great ports, and I just use a USB to ethernet adapter daisy-chained on a USB hub for 500Mbps speeds (as fast as my fiber line offers).

One review indicates that the USB 3 ports are really USB 2 and that they aren't a true hub but daisy chained off of each other.

Link?

---

It is what it is.

This is a related product from the same vendor worth considering and sorts out USB speeds.

[www.amazon.com]

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mikebw
The M1 (in any form factor) is clearly a beast for everyday tasks, but it seems like going for a 16GB model is worth the price for being an early adopter to help ensure long term usefulness.

I agree... but not 100%. Im watching too many tests with 8 vs 16 GB M1s and the tasks performed at the same speeds. Shows the 16 GB having more ram headroom while app are running... but not sure how many peeps are expecting to do 8K video and 800 GB photos library would even consider a base model anything.

I suppose it might be 8 = 16 and 16 = 32 on these new chips.

Similar comparisons are made with iPhones 4 GB ram vs everyone else's 12 GB. iPhone is at the top or near it in every processor test.

My kids 2012 13" MBPs have 12 GB, thought it would be nice to bump them to 16 at some point... but now they are getting 8 GB... and will be more than fine =)

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Edited 999 time(s). Last edit at 12:08PM by jdc.

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N-OS X-tasy!

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macphanatic

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sekker

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bhaveshp

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sekker
If you go dual displays, you will need a DualLink adapter/hub.

Ah right.. IIRC, you have a hub with Displaylink? Any issues or working well?

I'm using this with a MBA: [smile.amazon.com]

The only issue is the ethernet port is not giving gigabit speeds; this is a known issue that I have not seen resolved. Has a lot of other great ports, and I just use a USB to ethernet adapter daisy-chained on a USB hub for 500Mbps speeds (as fast as my fiber line offers).

One review indicates that the USB 3 ports are really USB 2 and that they aren't a true hub but daisy chained off of each other.

Link?

It's one of the Amazon reviews. Guy posted some photos as well.

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sekker
This is a related product from the same vendor worth considering and sorts out USB speeds.

[www.amazon.com]

I'm *really* tempted to get this dock @ $109 to test it out with the two 4k displays already in the house. (I'd borrow my son's display as he's at his own apt for the next 3 weeks).

The one aspect giving me pause is that both HDMI ports from the dock appear to be DisplayLink ports. It would be perfect if one port were pass-through native, as I've read DisplayLink doesn't work with HDCP ie for watching Netflix. Not that I really ever watch Netflix on this... but generally to avoid a limitation.

It would also leave the 2nd TB port free for the external SSD drive.

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jdc

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mikebw
The M1 (in any form factor) is clearly a beast for everyday tasks, but it seems like going for a 16GB model is worth the price for being an early adopter to help ensure long term usefulness.

I agree... but not 100%. Im watching too many tests with 8 vs 16 GB M1s and the tasks performed at the same speeds. Shows the 16 GB having more ram headroom while app are running... but not sure how many peeps are expecting to do 8K video and 800 GB photos library would even consider a base model anything.

I suppose it might be 8 = 16 and 16 = 32 on these new chips.

Similar comparisons are made with iPhones 4 GB ram vs everyone else's 12 GB. iPhone is at the top or near it in every processor test.

My kids 2012 13" MBPs have 12 GB, thought it would be nice to bump them to 16 at some point... but now they are getting 8 GB... and will be more than fine =)

I agree with you. 16GB is way overkill, for now. If the M1 is so much more powerful than the i5 I would replace it with, then I envision it lasting many years longer, especially if I got a mini with an external (replaceable) screen. Who is to say if 8GB will be enough 5, 8 years down the road? I'd feel safer getting 16GB just to be sure.

A $640 8/256 mini will be worth $600 6 months from now =)

The need to keep these 5-6 years seems OK -- but OK if not.

Its always been about how long we could keep our intel macs running with SSDs and more ram... but these are already there.

My 2014 iMac is.... fine. Sure, the 2015 was slightly better, and the 2017 too, and the 2020... but overall... meh.

But M1 power...

The thought of dropping $1000 on a mini, then selling it for $800 and getting new is something we kinda all have to learn.

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Edited 999 time(s). Last edit at 12:08PM by jdc.

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jdc
A $640 8/256 mini will be worth $600 6 months from now =)

The need to keep these 5-6 years seems OK -- but OK if not.

Its always been about how long we could keep our intel macs running with SSDs and more ram... but these are already there.

My 2014 iMac is.... fine. Sure, the 2015 was slightly better, and the 2017 too, and the 2020... but overall... meh.

But M1 power...

The thought of dropping $1000 on a mini, then selling it for $800 and getting new is something we kinda all have to learn.

I'm already thinking in that mode. Researching how much I can get for my 2015 iMac -- certainly enough to pay for a new M1 mini and maybe even a new monitor. Then, 6 to 12 months from now when Apple releases the next wave of awesome sauce, sell the mini and move up. It's been hard to keep from pulling the trigger.

BTW, idc, you may be able to use your 2014 iMac as a display for an M1 Mac via Target Display Mode. That's a no-go on my 2015, but I believe your 2014 just slipped under the wire WRT TDM support.

EDIT: Took my own advice -- just dropped the hammer on an 8GB/1TB M1 mini. Estimated delivery in two weeks. Just in time to play with over the Christmas break!

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It is what it is.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/30/2020 10:42PM by N-OS X-tasy!.