Mac opinion/help

[Gillymaru]

This performance benefit of the new silicon sounds interesting for people considering swiching from PCs.
Other than that, your assessment does not make a lot of sense.
Intel and Apple were never competitors for chips. Intel was supplying chips for Apple, and Apple were using them for their computers.
They probably figured that they can increase their margins further and customize the silicon for their own needs if they control chip production. That way, they can also lock out people from using their own hardware (Hackintosh) in the future, as well as potentially lock in customers who can no longer boot Windows or Linux on their hardware because the new Apple chips might not be compatible.
If anything, AMD destroyed Intel, but I think it's really Intel that destroyed Intel by mismanagement and resting on their laurels far too long.
Intel and Apple were not competitors and they won't be competitors in the future, as the only thing Apple's chips will ever power are Apple devices.

They are already running windows on m1 Macs and getting faster geekbench scores than Microsoft surface devices

 

[Gillymaru]

This performance benefit of the new silicon sounds interesting for people considering swiching from PCs.
Other than that, your assessment does not make a lot of sense.
Intel and Apple were never competitors for chips. Intel was supplying chips for Apple, and Apple were using them for their computers. No longer.*
If anything, AMD destroyed Intel, but I think it's really Intel that destroyed Intel by mismanagement and resting on their laurels far too long.
Intel and Apple were not competitors and they won't be competitors in the future, as the only thing Apple's chips will ever power are Apple devices.

*They probably figured that they can increase their margins further and customize the silicon for their own needs if they control chip production. That way, they can also lock out people from using their own hardware (Hackintosh) in the future, as well as potentially lock in customers who can no longer boot Windows or Linux on their hardware because the new Apple chips might not be compatible.

What I really meant was apple have designed a chip that far exceeds intels for power efficiency and speed. Intel probably will miss the lost revenue from sales to apple and when it comes time for joe average to want a new laptop it certainly gives apple a fighting chance of taking that business away from intel as well.

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

*They probably figured that they can increase their margins further and customize the silicon for their own needs if they control chip production. That way, they can also lock out people from using their own hardware (Hackintosh) in the future, as well as potentially lock in customers who can no longer boot Windows or Linux on their hardware because the new Apple chips might not be compatible.

Apple has already suggested that the ARM version of Windows could run on the M1 Macs, but currently MS doesn't sell ARM Windows as a standalone product. And yesterday, a prominent Linux developer is looking at getting Linux going on these new Macs, but it will take some time to support the various custom Apple components. Sure, Apple could lock down the new Macs, but they could have probably easily done that with Intel as well--instead, they offered the customer Bootcamp. I don't think Apple ever really worried about Hackintoshes, so long as you didn't start a company selling them in direct competition against Apple.

 

[hoggdoc]

For that money you can buy one of the new Macbooks with the new M1 processor that will blow the I7 to the woods and back.

The I7 runs hot and heat kills electronics, besides based on your limited use you would be buying far more computer than you need. With the new Macbook you can have up to three years full warranty if you buy Applecare. Check eBay instead of buying from Apple can save big bucks on Applecare.

Another consideration is the five year old soon 6 years old Macbook may have limited Operating system upgrades in its future. For instances my late 2013 iMac can no longer get OS upgrades.

I moved to Apple 15 years ago so have had plenty of time to watch the companies development path, these new Apple Developed CPUs are going to change the PC world and you can only have them on Apple products. For my money and if I were in your position I would buy a new M1 Macbook.

 

[hoggdoc]

TBH this iMac is nice, but a bit of an overkill for your needs.
Just last week I replaced a 1TB HDD of my late 2015 Mac mini (i5, 8GB RAM) with a 1 TB SSD and it runs the latest LR and other photo editing progs like a new comp.

Best update possible I just did the same to my Late 2013 iMac runs like a new computer.