Pick your specification
Knowing what you need is vital
The tech world has a concept called ‘feature creep’, where a product gains features until it becomes bloated and complicated. The same thing can happen when you buy a Mac. Better add more memory. And a more powerful processor. Oh, and don’t forget to get a larger display, because you’ll need the extra screen space. Before you know it, you’ve blown your budget on an absurdly powerful Mac that’s overkill. Knowledge is power The key to avoiding this situation is ensuring you know exactly what you need before you start looking at Macs and get carried away. If you know what you need – and are strict about sticking to that specification – there’s no need to spend more than necessary.
For example, do you really need an Intel Core i7 processor? Many people insist on having one because it has become something of a byword for quality. It’s a powerful processor, but unless you regularly engage in heavyduty video or photo editing work, you can go without and save some money.
For processor clock speed and cores, if you mostly work with audio then fewer cores and a higher clock speed can be beneficial when it comes to latency. However, video export and compiling apps benefit from extra cores working in tandem, despite the typically lower clock speeds in this scenario.
Apple offers a variety of storage options, from normal hard drives to faster Fusion Drives to super-speedy SSDs. Work out how much space (and
Don’t blow your budget on an absurdly powerful Mac that you don’t need
speed) you need, but remember that you can expand it with an external drive down the line.
Similarly, make sure you know how much memory you really need. For many ordinary tasks, 8GB is plenty. If you expect to use your Mac for more intensive tasks, or like having lots of apps or Safari tabs open at the same time, you might need 16GB of memory.
If you intend to use an external 4K or 5K display with your Mac, you’ll need to make sure the Mac is powerful enough to run it. The support section on Apple’s website has a page outlining the requirements for these displays (bitly.com/4K5Kreqs).
Bear in mind that most Macs’ components can’t be changed – or not easily – after purchase, so you need to consider future uses for your Mac at that time. Thunderbolt 3 raises the possibility of external graphics cards, but Apple hasn’t yet finalised how that will work, and we can’t say for certain which models it’s relevant to just yet.