Comparing Apples to Apples?

[james090]

I am using an iMac 2011with no problems, and have been given the opportunity to get/use a Macbook Pro 13'' late 2013, and wondered if its worth upgrading over to a portable solution?

Heres the specs ;

Currently using :
iMac (21.5-inch, Mid 2011)
2.5 GHz Intel Core i5
16 GB 1067 MHz DDR3
Mac OS High Sierra 10.13.6
128Gb SSD

Move to :
Macbook Pro 13' (late 2013)
2.8Ghz Dual Core i7
8GB 1600 Mhz DDR3
Mac OS Catalina 10.15.7
500Gb SSD

Just wanted peoples thoughts on whether to move up slightly to the portable MBP?
I know its not much of an upgrade, but just waiting a year or so before I go fully M1/M2

So would I gain much coming from 2.5 GHz Intel Core i5 16 GB 1067 MHz DDR3 to
2.8Ghz Dual Core i7 8GB 1600 Mhz DDR3
(so 16Gb vs 8Gb but a faster MHz) ?

The OS is also a slight upgrade too

I mainly use Ableton Live 10 and a few VSTs just to give some perspective.

Also how much would a 2TB upgrade to the MBP SSD, and what sort do i need to look for, so that i could factor into the cost?

Thank you for any help

[Nazard]

The first thing that springs to mind is Catalina is 64 bit only, which may, or not be, an issue.

[Nazard]

I have been doing some investigating.

If it is a late 2013 Macbook Pro Retina, the RAM is soldered and not upgradeable. 16Gb RAM and i5 is more useful than a swap to an i7 with only 8GB RAM.

The SSD in the 2013 MBP uses a proprietary connector, so you can't simply install an M2 SSD without an adapter.

Unless the MBP is free to use as a secondary machine to your iMac, I would stick with your trouble free iMac and do the M2 upgrade in a year or two.

[james090]

I have been doing some investigating.

If it is a late 2013 Macbook Pro Retina, the RAM is soldered and not upgradeable. 16Gb RAM and i5 is more useful than a swap to an i7 with only 8GB RAM.

OK thanks, this is useful to know I guess, although I never really max out my 16Gb but somehting to think about

The SSD in the 2013 MBP uses a proprietary connector, so you can't simply install an M2 SSD without an adapter.

Yes i think your right as I had a look too, it seems these drives arent actually SSD's but Flash storage which is slightly different, so may leave the 500Gb Flash storage as is.

Unless the MBP is free to use as a secondary machine to your iMac, I would stick with your trouble free iMac and do the M2 upgrade in a year or two.

Yes it will be free! I just didn't want 2 machines to upkeep and swap between the two, so it was one or the other really

[Nazard]

I'd go for it then, as an additional tool.

I have a 2015 model, bought July 2016, MBP, which is an i5 with 16GB RAM, and I have done so much work on this, MS Office, Teams!!, Reason, PS, LR, SPSS, etc.. Having a backup machine is always a great idea. And keeping Macs up to date, and synced, is easy.

I use CCC https://bombich.com/ which is the best.

I'm on Mojave, and will give Catalina a miss and go for Big Sur, eventually, perhaps.

For example, if you're lucky to get away somewhere, but need to keep in touch, a laptop is ideal.

The SamsungT5 2TB is good, I use one with my MBP. And you can then partition it, if you want, and use it between the iMac and MBP. Better than updating your iMac or MBP with a 2TB SSD.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-Portab ... B074MCNDSK

[ConcertinaChap]

I'd +1 having both. We've got 4 Macs dotted around the house for various purposes and it's not much hassle. One of them's a MB Air which has proved very useful over the years as a complement to the desktop machines. We're big Dropbox users when it comes to sharing files between machines automatically.

CC