Advice on change from 2013 Mbp + iMac to M1 Mbp

[Dublove]

Hey all,

Looking a bit of advice & recommendation about my setup shift. Quite a bit actually
So have now an M1max mbp 16" 64gb with 1tb ssd. This is going to be the single machine basis of the new setup.
Coming from a 2013 iMac and a mbp, which I do really love, but it's time for them to go as getting old.

External screen.
Tempted by the Apple Studio display, with a vesa arm.
Or the LG 5k2k screens which seem to be in rather short supply. The 34" seems good, but is old and has the image retention issues.. The new 40" It's a rather stretched '5k' being so wide, compared the the 27" studio. Anyone got any comment on the horizontal pixel density between the two?

Docking etc.
I need a docking solution, an external high speed ssd, and large storage. I don't actually have a Nas, but do need one for streaming, storage & backup.
Wondering if I can achieve a do all using one of the QNAP Thunderbolt Das Nas's. A new one coming out very soon with Thunderbolt4 connections. 4 bays with 2x m2 slots. Old tb3 model is the TS-453BT3. New model is the TS-464T4. If they have got the tb4 speeds sorted then it seems like a no brainer to me! Anyone used the existing model?

Cable & stand solutions.
Maybe the laptop will go on a stand, or maybe it will go in one of the vertical Brydge dock things. If the later then thats fine, the cables are neat and the tb connections are sorted. Problem is they've not made a 16" m1 version yet
So for the time being the Mbp will have to sit on the desk or on a stand. However am really not a fan of cables sticking out the edge of the laptop. What i'd love to see is some sort of right angled (i.e cable out the rear) magnetic Thunderbolt/usb-c plug or adapter. Can't find anything though apart from the usb-c magnetic things used on phones, which i've no doubt will not work.

Feels just so un-apple to me to have cables sticking out everywhere. Why on earth is Apple not making a magsafe type dock solution connector cable!

thanks all

 

[ChrisD.]

Docking etc.
I need a docking solution, an external high speed ssd, and large storage. I don't actually have a Nas, but do need one for streaming, storage & backup.
Wondering if I can achieve a do all using one of the QNAP Thunderbolt Das Nas's. A new one coming out very soon with Thunderbolt4 connections. 4 bays with 2x m2 slots. Old tb3 model is the TS-453BT3. New model is the TS-464T4. If they have got the tb4 speeds sorted then it seems like a no brainer to me! Anyone used the existing model?

Don't forget that you're going to be limited by drive speed, unless you chuck in NVMe's into the NAS you're not going to reach TB3 speeds let alone TB4. Caching is not going to help much.

 

[LiE]

Personally it seems a waste to not make use of the 16” screen as an extra screen in a desk setup. I’d opt for the Studio Display as I cannot do less than retina pixel density.

 

[Dublove]

Don't forget that you're going to be limited by drive speed, unless you chuck in NVMe's into the NAS you're not going to reach TB3 speeds let alone TB4. Caching is not going to help much.

Aye yus, been reading the reviews of the older Qnap, which seems limited by the chip they used to around 600mb/sec no matter what. (bit silly of them really....)
Says the nvme's can be used as cache or storage pool. So one would hope that they realised the error of their ways with the new tb4 version, if it got close to say an Owc envoy speed then that would be a blumming fantastic solution.

 

[HACO]

External screen.
Tempted by the Apple Studio display, with a vesa arm.
Or the LG 5k2k screens which seem to be in rather short supply. The 34" seems good, but is old and has the image retention issues.. The new 40" It's a rather stretched '5k' being so wide, compared the the 27" studio. Anyone got any comment on the horizontal pixel density between the two?

34" 5K2K has similar pixel density to 27" 4K, which is about 164ppi. Compared to the Studio Display (218ppi), some people do notice it quite well, and some swear it's not noticeable.

Docking etc.
I need a docking solution, an external high speed ssd, and large storage. I don't actually have a Nas, but do need one for streaming, storage & backup.
Wondering if I can achieve a do all using one of the QNAP Thunderbolt Das Nas's. A new one coming out very soon with Thunderbolt4 connections. 4 bays with 2x m2 slots. Old tb3 model is the TS-453BT3. New model is the TS-464T4. If they have got the tb4 speeds sorted then it seems like a no brainer to me! Anyone used the existing model?

You're not going to get the TB4 speeds with just 4 drives. And it requires you to place it next to your computer which may or may not be desired (lots of people prefer to keep their NAS away to avoid the noise from all those HDDs). Just get a typical 2.5GBE NAS.

Cable & stand solutions.
Maybe the laptop will go on a stand, or maybe it will go in one of the vertical Brydge dock things. If the later then thats fine, the cables are neat and the tb connections are sorted. Problem is they've not made a 16" m1 version yet
So for the time being the Mbp will have to sit on the desk or on a stand. However am really not a fan of cables sticking out the edge of the laptop. What i'd love to see is some sort of right angled (i.e cable out the rear) magnetic Thunderbolt/usb-c plug or adapter. Can't find anything though apart from the usb-c magnetic things used on phones, which i've no doubt will not work.

Feels just so un-apple to me to have cables sticking out everywhere. Why on earth is Apple not making a magsafe type dock solution connector cable!

thanks all

Yeah it's one of those things that I believe Apple should make. Third party options solutions are all heavily compromised.