Heyo! Sirkorgo here.
Computers are awesome. They let do you basically anything. From reading and writing all the way to rocket science if you know how. I've personally loved computers. But in my history with them, It was hard to get a high performance computer due to my budget.
However, when I purchased the MacBook Air, it changed everything.
MacBook Air
Now, the macs from this time period were well known for getting really hot. That’s because the Intel i7 is a really beefy chip that needs a lot of cooling. But because the MacBook Air was so thin, it didn’t have enough room to properly ventilate. And who’s to blame? Jony Ive of course, he had the dumb idea to design this overheating laptop.
Don’t get me wrong. This laptop served me well.
It helped me get through the pandemic with online classes, it helped me learn to code in Roblox Studio, and most importantly, it helped me get started in filmmaking. Without that mac, my YouTube channel would not be here!
Somewhat Critical Failure
But the overheating problems would get worse every year. To the point where I had to place an ice pack on it whenever I wanted to even do simple web browsing! But I had to deal with it, since it was such an expensive computer! I can't just replace it.
When playing anything, even games that aren’t that graphics heavy like Roblox would barely run without having to basically turning off the graphics quality.
Finding A Replacement
I was thinking about getting a new laptop for a while when the overheating was getting out of hand, but I couldn’t figure out which computer I should get. I needed a laptop that was portable, yet powerful, because I was constantly going places.
I wanted to switch to a Windows laptop, but it was hard to give up the apple ecosystem, since I had an iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Apple TV syncing together.
If I'm going to be honest, I kept looking at the Microsoft Surface line of laptops, but I decided not to, as I would probably have a similar experience.
Getting the Mac Mini
I then consider desktop computers, and I finally landed on the Mac mini with an M2 Pro. It was a good deal, and its chip allegedly could run games really well. But I was hesitant, considering my previous mac's performance.
I could either A. get an amazing mac that runs awesome, or B. a waste of money that runs just as poorly as my Intel mac did.
After deep consideration, I placed the order.
First Thoughts
When I got the Mac mini, my first impression were the mass amounts of ports, this was a great upgrade from my intel mac with only 2 usb c ports.
At first boot, I was genuinely astonished at how fast it started up. I thought that the setup interface was in BIOS for it to turn on that fast. But alas, it wasn't.
After migrating my data and updating, I was devastated to find out that Apple Silicon mac's could only output display resolutions at the native resolution. What this means is that I couldn't change the scaling of my screen, so I could fit more on a smaller display. After some workarounds, i got the scaling back to what i preferred.
But those workarounds happened to TANK my performance. So, I just gave in and decided to stick to the native resolution. I've gotten used to it, but it's a real bummer.
Performance
In terms of Minecraft, OBS, and Portal this mac is AMAZING compared to what I had on the Intel mac.
Shaders run smoothly at high settings averaging 120 FPS whilst my intel mac barely ran 3 FPS with shaders, and 40 without.
I can finally have multiple apps open at a time now, since my intel mac would lag like crazy when I attempted to do so. Making streaming a lot easier.
And now I can record my 3DS and PSVita for videos!
My method for streaming on the 3DS is to have my 3DS stream game data using an app called Arctic Base, which then sends the data to an emulator on my computer, which is where the game runs. This is awesome, since I can run high quality 3DS streams without performance drops. And for my PS Vita, I can FINALLY record its audio.
To record my Vita, I have to use a USB cable that sends the screen data to my software. Audio is sent through a headphone cable, but the issue is that my Intel mac would detect the Vita as speakers, not audio input.
The M2 mac was able to detect the audio input, and I can finally make videos with my Vita.
But Overall, the 2020 MacBook Air is an amazing laptop. It helped me get so many things done in only 4 years, and I love that. Sure, it might’ve had its overheating problems and its lag spikes, but it still did a great job.
Now with the Mac mini, I can get EVEN more things done.
That's all from me! See ya.
-sirkorgo