What computer now?

**oldnew_guy** · 03-03-2022, 12:51 PM

To piggyback off the cellphone thread, I need to figure out a good way to upgrade our home computers.

Currently in the fleet are iPhones, Ipads, a 27" monitor, a 2013ish Apple Air laptop and my 2013 Lenovo laptop. I need to update the laptops soon. All have been good machines that are just getting to the end of their life with software and operating system upgrades. The Air is actually doing just fine performance wise, so most of this will probably just be an upgrade of the Lenovo which is getting really slow.

We are pretty basic users. Tracking finances, watching movies, photo libraries (not pro, just the usual family pics), browsing. I'm moderately savvy, but by no means a tech expert. I've swapped harddrives and RAM in my laptop, but thats about it.

I've been eying the new M1 offerings from Apple as a good upgrade that will offer a 8-10 year ownership horizon like the last few have and compatibility with the rest of the tech in the house at this point. My wife likes Apple, which is good for me, because it means I'm not constantly configuring shit or acting as tech support and stuff sort of just works together. The huge issue is the onboard storage on the Apple machines for the base models is junk and they charge a fortune to upgrade. My wife has so much stuff she hangs on to it just fills the harddrive right up, with tons of photos, etc. Any sort of housecleaning on that is a non-starter. I also want to state up front that I'm not in the Google ecosystem and I'm not interested in a Chromebook.

Is there a good small form factor windows desktop with a similar size to a MacMini? The size of desktops I see tends to drive me away from a conventional tower.

Thoughts on ways to manage the storage issue with a mini-Mac/small form factor desktop/laptop, a desktop external harddrive and maybe a windows and Apple household?

**XXX-er** · 03-03-2022, 01:49 PM

I had a lenovo when the HD shot the bed after about 10 yrs I bought another one

**Falcon3** · 03-03-2022, 02:14 PM

I’d wait a couple months and see what the new MacBook Pro 13 and MacBook Air look like. Should be better in a lot of categories like the new 14 and 16 Pros are. This is my plan, I’m coming from a 2011 Pro 13

I’ll be very interested to see what Apple does with the new “right to repair” stuff. If you could drop a new SSD in with 4x the storage for like $99 on NewEgg it would really make it worthwhile.

**::: :::** · 03-03-2022, 02:17 PM

Get a Synology NAS for the storage stuff. Synology plays good w/ mac.
We use a 6TB RAID setup & it's gets backed up to a cloud backup at 2a ea night.
Look at the two bay desktop ones for household duty or home biz. https://www.synology.com/en-us/produ..._value%2Cds_xs

**EWG** · 03-03-2022, 02:35 PM

Originally Posted by ::: :::

Get a Synology NAS for the storage stuff. Synology plays good w/ mac.
We use a 6TB RAID setup & it's gets backed up to a cloud backup at 2a ea night.
Look at the two bay desktop ones for household duty or home biz. https://www.synology.com/en-us/produ..._value%2Cds_xs

How much stuff are you backing up? And how much do you pay for for storage? I do offsite redundant backup cause it's seems expensive to pay for cloud storage...

**Flounder** · 03-03-2022, 02:59 PM

Not ::: ::: but I back up 1.5TB to OneDrive. My files go to my OneDrive and my wife’s goes to hers. We each get a TB of cloud as part of O365. $100 a year for 5 people so cost isn’t bad. Each gets full office and 1 TB.

And OP, you could probably reimage the Lenovo and get some performance back. I redo windows machines every few years and it does speed them up again. Having the NAS for files makes it easy since only software is in the machine.

**ghosthop** · 03-03-2022, 02:59 PM

If you can confidently back up the files you need from the Lenovo, it would be simple to wipe the drive and do a clean Linux install. One of the Ubuntu forks will be easiest, I believe the Cinnamon flavor of Mint is the go-to for new users these days. They have great forum support and easy guides to walk you through the install and setup. It's an afternoon job and could theoretically extend the life of your laptop for years.

**oldnew_guy** · 03-03-2022, 02:59 PM

I was wondering about the NAS stuff as well, thanks for bringing that up.

I caved awhile back and signed the wife up for a bigger apple cloud storage plan for photos. Easier is better for sure.

You can just configure the Mac or windows machine to backup over a wifi connection via your local network?

Backup is one thing, managing the space on these 256 GB base model apples seems to be a challenge for us. Neither of us really want to deal with moving stuff around, but maybe it would be easier if configured correctly. Probably 90% of our data is photos of videos and kids I would guess.

Wife just has tons of stuff from school that she doesn’t want to part with, but at the same time never uses, same with photos. Digital photography is a bit of a pain that way, thousands of photos of kids, trips, etc

**oldnew_guy** · 03-03-2022, 03:01 PM

Originally Posted by ghosthop

If you can confidently back up the files you need from the Lenovo, it would be simple to wipe the drive and do a clean Linux install. One of the Ubuntu forks will be easiest, I believe the Cinnamon flavor of Mint is the go-to for new users these days. They have great forum support and easy guides to walk you through the install and setup. It's an afternoon job and could theoretically extend the life of your laptop for years.

Intriguing.

I run LibreOffice, I assume they have some version that runs on Linux?

**::: :::** · 03-03-2022, 03:23 PM

Originally Posted by EWG

How much stuff are you backing up? And how much do you pay for for storage? I do offsite redundant backup cause it's seems expensive to pay for cloud storage...

$60/yr via Synology C2
https://c2.synology.com/en-us/pricing/storage
it runs out of the NAS admin software as an app

there are more pricy options, but it seems to work for us for now
we are only backing up 220GB at the moment, almost entirely business stuff

we use icloud for our photos from the phones, ipads

i believe Synology offers services to back up cpu's and other systems as well, but you'd have to investigate those things with them...i'm not an expert in this stuff at all

**::: :::** · 03-03-2022, 03:29 PM

Originally Posted by oldnew_guy

I was wondering about the NAS stuff as well, thanks for bringing that up.

I caved awhile back and signed the wife up for a bigger apple cloud storage plan for photos. Easier is better for sure.

You can just configure the Mac or windows machine to backup over a wifi connection via your local network?

Backup is one thing, managing the space on these 256 GB base model apples seems to be a challenge for us. Neither of us really want to deal with moving stuff around, but maybe it would be easier if configured correctly. Probably 90% of our data is photos of videos and kids I would guess.

Wife just has tons of stuff from school that she doesn’t want to part with, but at the same time never uses, same with photos. Digital photography is a bit of a pain that way, thousands of photos of kids, trips, etc

The NAS acts as a file server.

We share files that we each can work on directly over wifi. So, everything is in one place.

We've partitioned a personal zone. And I can set the users to see only particular partitions (ie, have an intern in the office who doesn't need to see our personal or business mgt stuff)

**ghosthop** · 03-03-2022, 03:41 PM

Originally Posted by oldnew_guy

Intriguing.

I run LibreOffice, I assume they have some version that runs on Linux?

the installer should have an option to include recommended packages, the libre suite will be included. Otherwise, aptitude is super easy to use from the command line: sudo apt install libreoffice.

New users stumble the most with driver support. It's worth doing a scan of the forums for any issues with your specific laptop. Similarly, every external device that connects will need driver support. Expect to have to install the OS with the laptop hardwired into your modem, however, the modern installers have made it almost painless to automatically detect everything to get the laptop itself working. I'm typing this on a 13 y/o macbook pro that will have driver support until 2025 with the current long term linux kernel. Whenever I have to boot the Apple partition it's like kicking the machine in the nuts and then asking it to run a marathen.

**EWG** · 03-03-2022, 03:42 PM

Originally Posted by ::: :::

$60/yr via Synology C2
https://c2.synology.com/en-us/pricing/storage
it runs out of the NAS admin software as an app

there are more pricy options, but it seems to work for us for now
we are only backing up 220GB at the moment, almost entirely business stuff

we use icloud for our photos from the phones, ipads

i believe Synology offers services to back up cpu's and other systems as well, but you'd have to investigate those things with them...i'm not an expert in this stuff at all

Interesting. I'd need more like 3-4TB (lots of video stuff). That's more like $2-50/year. For a fraction of that I can buy external drives that last about 5-8 years each. Problem with that is that it's only backed up when I back it up, and I have to take the backup off-site after backing it up. But it's just personal stuff, so if I lose a month or two it isn't the end of the world. It's not work product.

Your solution is cool. Might be worth it for peace of mind.

**johnnyg82** · 03-03-2022, 05:05 PM

Originally Posted by oldnew_guy

To piggyback off the cellphone thread, I need to figure out a good way to upgrade our home computers.

Currently in the fleet are iPhones, Ipads, a 27" monitor, a 2013ish Apple Air laptop and my 2013 Lenovo laptop. I need to update the laptops soon. All have been good machines that are just getting to the end of their life with software and operating system upgrades. The Air is actually doing just fine performance wise, so most of this will probably just be an upgrade of the Lenovo which is getting really slow.

We are pretty basic users. Tracking finances, watching movies, photo libraries (not pro, just the usual family pics), browsing. I'm moderately savvy, but by no means a tech expert. I've swapped harddrives and RAM in my laptop, but thats about it.

I've been eying the new M1 offerings from Apple as a good upgrade that will offer a 8-10 year ownership horizon like the last few have and compatibility with the rest of the tech in the house at this point. My wife likes Apple, which is good for me, because it means I'm not constantly configuring shit or acting as tech support and stuff sort of just works together. The huge issue is the onboard storage on the Apple machines for the base models is junk and they charge a fortune to upgrade. My wife has so much stuff she hangs on to it just fills the harddrive right up, with tons of photos, etc. Any sort of housecleaning on that is a non-starter. I also want to state up front that I'm not in the Google ecosystem and I'm not interested in a Chromebook.

Is there a good small form factor windows desktop with a similar size to a MacMini? The size of desktops I see tends to drive me away from a conventional tower.

Thoughts on ways to manage the storage issue with a mini-Mac/small form factor desktop/laptop, a desktop external harddrive and maybe a windows and Apple household?

Do you have a family iCloud plan? I’ve got 2TB via that, and don’t need more hard drive than the 256GB that if it’s all in a cloud somewhere.

Ah, little late and missed the last response with the 3-4 TB reqs

**skaredshtles** · 03-03-2022, 05:17 PM

Get the red one.

**fool** · 03-03-2022, 06:03 PM

Are you looking for a laptop, desktop, or TBD? The M1 is getting great reviews and for what you're doing sounds like a good investment. If you don't the desktop towers, I was just in an Apple store today and their new iMac looks great and clean, without a tower: https://www.apple.com/imac-24/ . Else it seems hard to go wrong with an M1 laptop.

Re: storage, I'm surprised by the amount of TB stored locally by some of the mags. I assume that's for streaming videos, music, and (ski) porn? That being said, if you don't have a need for that, I would just put everything on the cloud and iCloud clearly makes it easy, especially if your whole family is on Apple already.

**JimmyCarter** · 03-03-2022, 06:06 PM

I have it on good authority that Bitcoin is the worlds safest computer now. PM stalefish for details

**dunfree** · 03-03-2022, 06:10 PM

Originally Posted by JimmyCarter

I have it on good authority that Bitcoin is the worlds safest computer now. PM stalefish for details

Only if you never use it

**::: :::** · 03-03-2022, 10:35 PM

Originally Posted by EWG

Interesting. I'd need more like 3-4TB (lots of video stuff). That's more like $2-50/year. For a fraction of that I can buy external drives that last about 5-8 years each. Problem with that is that it's only backed up when I back it up, and I have to take the backup off-site after backing it up. But it's just personal stuff, so if I lose a month or two it isn't the end of the world. It's not work product.

Your solution is cool. Might be worth it for peace of mind.

Between the RAID mirroring & the cloud, I feel pretty good about it. We are missing the third recommended backup, which is the physical drive off site, which you are doing.
I got lucky for a few years before signing up for cloud. I’ve had RAID drives go down (not on this Synology, but a LaCie unit I had previously). The mirror was usable & you can hot swap a fresh drive in. But I know I’m only a day behind at worst now.

**nickwm21** · 03-03-2022, 11:12 PM

Wtf…

OP wants to track finance and watch movies…

He doesn’t need a $1500 Mac and a NAS server…

Get a “somewhat high end” (acer or asus) $500 chromebook/chromebase/chromebox and keep $1000 in your pocket.

Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums

**oldnew_guy** · 03-03-2022, 11:24 PM

Originally Posted by nickwm21

Wtf…

OP wants to track finance and watch movies…

He doesn’t need a $1500 Mac and a NAS server…

Get a “somewhat high end” (acer or asus) $500 chromebook/chromebase/chromebox and keep $1000 in your pocket.

Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums

Voice of reason here, but I really don’t want a chrome book.

**caulfield** · 03-04-2022, 02:22 AM

pretty sure OP doesn't want to play the game of fiddlefucking around with custom hardware and linux

Originally Posted by oldnew_guy

...which is good for me, because it means I'm not constantly configuring shit or acting as tech support and stuff sort of just works together.

Originally Posted by oldnew_guy

Easier is better for sure.

you've got mostly apple devices already and it seems like you don't need to update or even frequently access most of your stored files so I say:

- M1 air (maybe wait for new ones)
- some external drives

Put the school stuff on one and the kid pics on another, then take them "offsite." Move pics to the external drive every year right before their birthdays, use icloud in between transfers.

You can complicate the hell out of it if you need a new hobby, but I don't see any reason to do that

**highangle** · 03-04-2022, 02:27 AM

Originally Posted by caulfield

the game of fiddlefucking around with custom hardware and linux

You're right. OP paid a lot of extra $$ for Apple so he would never have to configure a nic or set a desktop background. He'd probably be a lot happier to spend a few thou extra for someone else to screw a motherboard in a case and snap in 4 components into the only slots they fit. Or, as you suggest, loading his family pics on external drives and keeping those in a convenient kitchen drawer or glove compartment, like a poor man's tape backup.

.

**SoVT Joey** · 03-04-2022, 04:04 AM

Originally Posted by skaredshtles

Get the red one.

I thought colors didn’t matter with computers and you just go with a Mac cause it doesn’t get viruses from porn sites…

**RShea** · 03-04-2022, 08:42 AM

Originally Posted by oldnew_guy

To piggyback off the cellphone thread, I need to figure out a good way to upgrade our home computers.

Currently in the fleet are iPhones, Ipads, a 27" monitor, a 2013ish Apple Air laptop and my 2013 Lenovo laptop. I need to update the laptops soon. All have been good machines that are just getting to the end of their life with software and operating system upgrades. The Air is actually doing just fine performance wise, so most of this will probably just be an upgrade of the Lenovo which is getting really slow.

We are pretty basic users. Tracking finances, watching movies, photo libraries (not pro, just the usual family pics), browsing. I'm moderately savvy, but by no means a tech expert. I've swapped harddrives and RAM in my laptop, but thats about it.

I've been eying the new M1 offerings from Apple as a good upgrade that will offer a 8-10 year ownership horizon like the last few have and compatibility with the rest of the tech in the house at this point. My wife likes Apple, which is good for me, because it means I'm not constantly configuring shit or acting as tech support and stuff sort of just works together. The huge issue is the onboard storage on the Apple machines for the base models is junk and they charge a fortune to upgrade. My wife has so much stuff she hangs on to it just fills the harddrive right up, with tons of photos, etc. Any sort of housecleaning on that is a non-starter. I also want to state up front that I'm not in the Google ecosystem and I'm not interested in a Chromebook.

Is there a good small form factor windows desktop with a similar size to a MacMini? The size of desktops I see tends to drive me away from a conventional tower.

Thoughts on ways to manage the storage issue with a mini-Mac/small form factor desktop/laptop, a desktop external harddrive and maybe a windows and Apple household?

RE the small footprint Windows Desktops. All 3 major manufacturers (Lenovo, Dell and HP) have Small form factor desktops. Lenovo calls their line up "Tiny" ThinkCentre, Dell has similar models in their line- Ultra Small Optiplex line up or Micro Form factor, and HP has EliteDesk (600 and 800 Series) Mini Desktops. They are basically Book sized cases (no Optical drive built in- which is not usually an issue any more, if you need one, external USB drive)...

Refurbished are available on all the above also, 2 or 3 year old units that are returned from lease. I have an older Desktop tower and debating between the Small Desktop units (that do have one advantage of expansion slots if I would want to do a video card for additional monitors- most of the tiny units will handle 2 monitors and then you have to go to USB video adapters for more than 2 monitors.) The Small Desktops can handle a DVD drive, as well as slim half height expansion card(s) in a slot or 2 depending on the model and series.

Most all of these have Vesa Monitor mount options- brackets that allow you to basically strap or hold the unit to the back of a desktop monitor (and gets it up off the desk and more hidden)

Intel has their NUC line which also is similar type of case (smaller width and length, but thicker than the above mentioned units)...
Also AMD Ryzen has come a long way over their previous A series CPU's which were not all that great compared to the Intel CPU's of the same time...

If you want to keep the unit and not need to do an upgrade in a few years, go with the 5 or 7 series of either Intel iSeries Core CPU's or AMD Ryzen 5 or 7 (and maybe even their Pro CPU models)

If you want Apple there of course is the Apple Mac Mini in their desktop line.

If you are going small case and then external hard drive(s) for storage, unless it is only for backup purposes where you are rotating more than 1, you may just want to go and get a system with enough storage even if that means going up to the Small Desktop systems. Cloud storage also could be considered- plenty of backup options that allow for photos to be stored, music, etc. Google One (or just Google Drive), Microsoft OneDrive, or Amazon Photos and Music if you have Amazon Prime already... Other cloud backup companies like Carbonite, MSP360, iDrive, Acronis, or BackBlaze, etc.