MacBook Processor Choice

[Mablung]

For the tech people out there. Due to an unfortunate incident involving the collision of my laptop keyboard with neatsfoot oil, I have to replace my 2020 M1 MacBook Air. Trying to figure out if it makes sense for longevity to get an M3 Air over an M2. I don’t need to be able to lift heavy processing loads, as I don’t do video or photo editing or similarly processor-hungry tasks. Thoughts?

[kukras]

On 5/31/2024 at 8:54 AM, Mablung said:

For the tech people out there. Due to an unfortunate incident involving the collision of my laptop keyboard with neatsfoot oil, I have to replace my 2020 M1 MacBook Air. Trying to figure out if it makes sense for longevity to get an M3 Air over an M2. I don’t need to be able to lift heavy processing loads, as I don’t do video or photo editing or similarly processor-hungry tasks. Thoughts?
 

Oof, tough break with the neatsfoot oil! If longevity’s a priority, the M3 Air is a better choice—it’s more efficient and future-proof with its newer 3nm chip. But if the M2 is significantly cheaper, it’ll still handle your needs just fine.

Edited November 28, 2024 by Northmount
Removed dead white space from the quote

[$$hobby]

welcome

fwiw.

i have an older late 2013 imac 27 inch that i love.  Its been great and more or less trouble free since then.  I do love the all in one and less desktop clutter and i do have bootcamp and running windows to run my old inventor cad program.  I was doing alot of game - both windows and mac back then, but stopped.  So on a daily basis, im only web browsing for my travel reserarch/planning, buying off amazon or stuff and every so often using my inventor.   My games would really tax the processor, but now that im not usign games, its all easy.

So, the os isnt being updated anymore and i have upgraded to a mac min pro.  I love the 27 inch real estate and dont want to downgrade to a 24 that is currently made/offered.  I havent set it up yet and even though i dont do anything that may really tax its process, i maxed out the RAM and opted for a 2 TB HD.  I could have gone bigger on my HD, but im trying not to gather too much stuff for HD and i can use my external HDs that i have now.

im not sure how long you expect to use your laptop, but if all you need to do is some MS office apps and so forth, you can get by with the minimal or cheapest you can get.  

what it comes down to is how do you see you using it for future things, if you can see that far.

Ive noticed in my life many old sayings are applicable,....for me...."its better to have and not need, then to need and not have"......"some people dont have the time or money to do it right the first time, but have the time & money to do it wrong many times over".....and others.

in any case, if you find out the hard way in the future, you made the wrong decision, you will just have to open up  your wallet again....and maybe again...or just do with what you have.

also, spills and keyboards are nothing new.  You may want to look at things like keyboards/laptop covers.  I have one for my keyboard, but dont know about any laptop.  Laptops are great for what they do, but i HATE using them.  Small KB and small screen.