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Advice needed: M1 MacbookPro 8GB vs Corei7 16GB

Hi there,

I have the chance to get a MacBook from my company.

I´m working mainly with MS Office products, cloud-based services from Google (GMail, Google Sheets, etc.), Google Chrome as primary browser (I know...), video conferencing (Zoom) and office tools like Slack, etc.

So, no video encoding, photoshop, gaming, etc.


I need a good battery performance (to work on travel) and a silent fan.


What´s the better choice?

MacBook A2338 with M1 and 8GB RAM or

MacBook A2251 with Corei7 and 16GB RAM?


Thanks for your help, really appreciate it.


Best,

Cpt.

Posted on Sep 21, 2021 8:47 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Sep 21, 2021 9:47 AM

It may come down to external display support. The current M1 only supports one external monitor. The Intel version supports up to two 4K monitors.


The are some new features in macOS Monterrey that will require an Apple Silicon processor. Check the foonotes here:


macOS Monterey Preview - Apple


....Chrome as primary browser


16GB RAM with either model then. 🤮


...and a silent fan.


Most video-conf apps will light up the fan(s) regardless of the computer model or the app. I use temp monitors on my iMac5K and older MacBook Pro. FaceTime , Zoom and WebEx all run the CPU temps to the range of many hi-res video games.


From Day 1 13-inch iMacs have but one fan; those with larger screens have two. Chill pads that worked so effectively on the first MacBook Pros offer little assistance to newer models than no longer use the case bottom as part of the heat-sink system.


And a general recommendation: go for the 512GB storage option. I see too many "not enough space" cries here from people who opted for the 256GB SSDs.

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4 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Sep 21, 2021 9:47 AM in response to Captain_Marvelous

It may come down to external display support. The current M1 only supports one external monitor. The Intel version supports up to two 4K monitors.


The are some new features in macOS Monterrey that will require an Apple Silicon processor. Check the foonotes here:


macOS Monterey Preview - Apple


....Chrome as primary browser


16GB RAM with either model then. 🤮


...and a silent fan.


Most video-conf apps will light up the fan(s) regardless of the computer model or the app. I use temp monitors on my iMac5K and older MacBook Pro. FaceTime , Zoom and WebEx all run the CPU temps to the range of many hi-res video games.


From Day 1 13-inch iMacs have but one fan; those with larger screens have two. Chill pads that worked so effectively on the first MacBook Pros offer little assistance to newer models than no longer use the case bottom as part of the heat-sink system.


And a general recommendation: go for the 512GB storage option. I see too many "not enough space" cries here from people who opted for the 256GB SSDs.

Sep 22, 2021 1:54 AM in response to Allan Jones

Thanks Allen - I checked the "benefits" of M1 in Monterrey and found none very important to my use cases.

Same with the display, I´m running only one external, that should be fine as well.

So I´ll use the "old" one with more memory instead - Chrome is really a beast but I don´t get along without it.


Thanks for your explanations!

Sep 22, 2021 8:31 AM in response to Captain_Marvelous

from what I've read so far is the difference between 8GB and 16GB is only advantageous if you're doing video editing, otherwise 8GB on an Intel Mac is not 8GB on a M1 Mac. Finding one with 16GB when I had to get one was impossible, otherwise I would have for peace of mind.

I'm using mine for recording live music, I haven't pushed it to the point where it's sluggish. it has an entirely different feel to intel to me.

Advice needed: M1 MacbookPro 8GB vs Corei7 16GB

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