Apple "Scary Fast" Event on 10/30/2023 at 8 PM ET

[Foxbat]

First post with the M3. The magnets on the MagSafe adapter are set to 11, to the point where it's difficult to disconnect. The keyboard feels nice, and after the 2016 MBP with the Butterfly keyboard, it almost feels full travel. 😉

This is the 11-Core variant with 14 GPU Cores. The 11 CPU cores are split 5/6 between power and efficiency. I am trying to think if there is anything I have loaded that I can throw at it to try to tax it. Maybe after Thanksgiving...

 

[harshness]

I am trying to think if there is anything I have loaded that I can throw at it to try to tax it.

Apparently, only Intel hardware is supported by the Folding at Home client.

 

[Foxbat]

Apparently, only Intel hardware is supported by the Folding at Home client.

I shut down my Folding Farm and re-purposed the graphics cards, so I won’t be using them again. As far as the no native Apple Silicon support, I guess the new hosts for Folding have other priorities.

Besides, Folding on a laptop isn’t a good fit; I tried it long ago and it was basically a good way to suck dust into the heatsinks and fans.

I’ll stick with video rendering for the acid test.

 

[Foxbat]

I’m still not a fan of the look of that iMac, but I guess it would work for our household Mac (currently a Mac Mini and 24” HP monitor). I would have to make some changes to move from my 5K iMac to the Mini, but maybe I could trade it in on a M2 mini or Studio. Hmmm…

Welp, I’m hooked on the new “Micro” Mac Mini with M4. I have my order in to replace my ten year old 2014 iMac Retina 5K with 4 GHz Core i7 & 24 GB of RAM with a 2024 Mac Mini with M4 Pro, 24 GB RAM, and 1 TB SSD (matching the Fusion Drive on the old 2014 iMac). Since I am spoiled by the 27” 5K Retina display on the old iMac, I picked up a 5K Studio Display from Apple’s Certified Refurbished Store for $200 off list.

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The price of the new Mac Mini and the refurbished 27” Studio Display is roughly $1,000 less than the new 2014 iMac price was ten years ago. Some progress was made in that regard. As nice as the all-in-one iMac packaging is, it is silly to replace your screen when you update your computer. At least I got ten years from the big iMac. Maybe I can load Windows 10 on it?

 

[klang]

I will likely go the same route whenever my 2020 vintage 27" iMac stops supporting OS upgrades. I may go with a pair of smaller monitors though.

 

[harshness]

Maybe I can load Windows 10 on it?

Windows 10 is only good for another 11 months. You would be better off loading a Linux distro on it. I've heard that Mint should work.

 

[b4pjoe]

Maybe I can load Windows 10 on it?

You can run Sequoia on it though you won't have the benefit, or detriment, of having the Apple Intelligence part of it. That is what my 2013 27" 5K iMac is running...by using OpenCore Legacy Patcher. Rumor has it though that Sequoia will be the last mac OS that will be able to be installed on Intel CPU Macs.

 

[Bruce]

Welp, I’m hooked on the new “Micro” Mac Mini with M4.

I purchased one for my son for the Holidays.

I have the M4 chip in my Pro, I have noticed it is extremely faster then the last model, believe it had the M2.

 

[Foxbat]

You can run Sequoia on it though you won't have the benefit, or detriment, of having the Apple Intelligence part of it. That is what my 2013 27" 5K iMac is running...by using OpenCore Legacy Patcher. Rumor has it though that Sequoia will be the last mac OS that will be able to be installed on Intel CPU Macs.

That looks like something that I can give a try, at least to lengthen the life of the hardware. Thanks!

 

[Foxbat]

I have the M4 chip in my Pro, I have noticed it is extremely faster then the last model, believe it had the M2.

I was leaning towards a Mac Studio, but I wanted more than an M2. By all accounts, the M4 Pro in the Mac Mini has obsoleted the M2 Studio, unless you need an SD reader. I have a Thunderbolt 3 Dock which has the USB type A connectors for my current peripherals and also the SD & microSD card reader missing on the new Mini.

 

[Foxbat]

The Mac Mini arrived earlier than Apple said. Of course, there are now all these videos saying that you should save your money and not pay for the internal storage expansion, but spend it on an external Thunderbolt 5 SSD and use that for your Application, Data, and Users.

Sabrent published a speed test using their new Thunderbolt 5 drive and three variants of the new M4 Macs: the base M4 Mac Mini, the M4 Pro Mac Mini, and the M4 Max MacBook Pro. The M4 Thunderbolt performance was ~2.8 GB/s (yes, just under three gigabytes per second), the M4 Pro was ~5 GB/s, and the M4 Max was closer to 6 GB/s. These speeds matched or were just barely slower than the internal Flash SSD storage.

On the MacBook Pro with the M4 Max processor, the Write speed was over 7 GB/sec on the internal storage.

I’m not seeing anything near that migrating from the 2014 5K Retina iMac with its 1 TB Fusion Drive.

Five hours of transferring to go at ~80 MB/sec using the Thunderbolt 2 cable and Target Disk Mode on the old iMac. It will be interesting to see how Apple handles the change from macOS 11.7 to 15.1, and Intel executables to Apple Silicon.

 

[Foxbat]

It will be interesting to see how Apple handles the change from macOS 11.7 to 15.1, and Intel executables to Apple Silicon.

Basically, everything came over and the Intel-only apps were replaced with Apple Silicon and/or "bilingual" versions. I was surprised to see that my Teams was migrated (I thought I specified to skip Teams) and it wanted to use my old Corporate logon. Not wanting to raise alarm bells at Corporate IT Cybersecurity, I signed out. I then found there was a new "Look-and-Feel" to Teams, so I loaded that version. I have the Microsoft 365 Family subscription, as Mrs. Foxbat and I both use Word and Excel on our Macs for different things, and I see that this allows us to create 30 hour Teams meetings! There is also 1 TB of OneDrive storage with that, but I haven't taken advantage of that yet.

Here's my new setup with Apple Studio Monitor and my collection of aerospace models:

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I see someone has made a new 2024 edition of an under-MacMini USB dock with SD/microSD card reader and USB 3.1 Type-A ports for any old peripherals (like my extended Apple keyboard) and that would clean up the USB Type C to Type A adapter plugged into the from of the Mac Mini. Since it's behind the monitor, I'm not too bothered by it.

Mrs. Foxbat appreciates my cleaning efforts. The models had not been dusted for a few years... 😉