In early May, I pulled the trigger on a custom-configured M5 Pro MacBook Pro.
Its specifications are as follows:
- 14″ Silver
- 48GB RAM
- 1TB internal storage
- 15-core CPU
- 16-core GPU
It arrived this past Thursday. It’s Sunday as I write this, and much to both my wife and daughter’s surprise, I haven’t opened the box yet.
I rarely purchase new computers, so I want to savor the experience of settling in with my new laptop. The plan is to open it tomorrow.
My last MacBook Pro was purchased in late 2021, shortly before starting my current teaching post. At the time, I really needed a new portable machine. My 2014 MacBook Pro, with its measly 8GB RAM and 256GB SSD, was too anemic for regular use.
I took possession of the late 2021 MacBook Pro a few weeks before the academic term started. It was put to full use as a curriculum-development machine before I could really set it up properly.
Five years on, my M1 Pro MacBook Pro still runs well, but it does have a few minor hiccups here and there. It is also well overdue for a fresh install of macOS. I’m positive this approach will excise some of the detritus and cruft that still lingers within the machine. A clean install is something I have scheduled for this summer.
For now, the M1 Pro will continue to handle my academic tasks. The new M5 Pro will be used as my daily driver for design-focused work. At some point in the near future, I’ll pass the M1 Pro laptop over to my wife and employ the M5 Pro as my main academic and design workhorse.
But that’s only after I get everything set up properly from scratch.
And if you’re following this blog, I’ll be documenting the entire configuration process along the way.
With this new machine, my goal is to keep the quantity of third-party applications and add-ons to the absolute minimum. I will also be prioritizing free, open-source, and low-cost software options whenever I can. Along the way, I’ll share what I install, what I skip, what I replace with free or low-cost tools, and what is actually worth paying for.
I’m dubbing this approach FrugalMac.
FrugalMac doesn’t mean buying the cheapest Mac. It means buying the right Mac once, setting it up thoughtfully, and avoiding unnecessary bloat wherever possible.
In my next post, I’ll explain the rationale for the specs I chose — and hopefully, by then, I’ll have the new machine out of the box.
—Krishna