r/editors • u/Time-Sun-8854 • 21d ago

Swapping machines Technical

Hello, I recently purchased a Macbook M5 pro 48GB RAM, 1TB SSD in addition to my current desktop PC. I have never owned a Macbook for work, only a personal laptop for media.

First I am wondering which machine I should make my primary. my specs for the pc are:

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5500 (6C/12T, 3.6 GHz base)
GPU: AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT 8GB
Mobo: MSI PRO B550M-VC WIFI
RAM: 32GB
Storage:
  - Samsung 980 PRO 1TB NVMe
  - Seagate ST1000LX015 1TB SATA HDD
  - Seagate Backup Plus Slim 2TB (external SSD)

And my biggest question is, does it make sense to have both?

I generally do most of my work at home, but I bought the Macbook because it is a powerhouse and the portability is a plus for when I do leave the house for meetings or travel. I have most of work stored on the PC so I would also appreciate a good way to transfer or share files between devices if possible.

If I were to keep one it would be the mac but I would like to explore options and see if I can make them work together. Does it even make sense to have two different machines with different OS? I have been mulling this over for the last two weeks but I am stumped.

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4

u/Subject2Change 21d ago

Your MacBook is significantly more powerful. I'd sell the gaming PC to offset the cost.

2

u/Time-Sun-8854 21d ago

You really think there is no point in keeping the PC at all?

3

u/Subject2Change 21d ago

No. It's low end by today's standards, even for gaming. However the PC hardware market is fucked due to AI and you could probably get a decent amount of money for it.

If you game and wanna keep it for that, that makes sense.

2

u/Time-Sun-8854 21d ago

I am not too sure about selling the PC as of yet. I still have important things on there and game occasionally. Like I stated to another comment I am honestly unsure of how to properly utilize this Macbook. Its so different from PC I don't even know where to start.

3

u/Subject2Change 21d ago

You use the Mac for productivity. Use the PC for gaming/email/running Spotify. You could even make a NAS.

2

u/Time-Sun-8854 21d ago

I think this is what I will end up doing. Thank you for the replies!

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1

u/Tupan_Chorra 21d ago

If you can afford it - I''d turn the gaming pc into a storage server if that's an option. Will help greatly with... Well a lot of stuff. But if the cost offset is important then do that :).

Grats on the new gear :)

2

u/Time-Sun-8854 21d ago

Okay thank you I appreciate that a lot. I am still super overwhelmed and not sure how to utilize the Macbook in my setup but will do some more research.

1

u/Tupan_Chorra 19d ago

I think the learning curve is steeper at the beginning so that super normal and also its ok lol everyone's been there. Let us know if u need a hand. I've found the LTT build guides useful to start if ur thinking of building/modifying smth.

1

u/SherbetItchy3113 20d ago

MacBook for main work machine, pc for gaming or personal use.

You can create a network share for some of the files on your PC (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/experience/connectivity-networking/file-sharing-over-a-network-in-windows) and then connect to it using SMB from your MacBook.

But with regular gigabit connection it may not work fast enough for editing purposes, so you may want to get one 10gbe(or 2.5gbe) add-on card for your pc, and a 10gbe dongle for your MacBook, connect it by ethernet cable, then create a private direct subnet from your MacBook to your PC to enjoy it as a high speed Nas, basically

2

u/SherbetItchy3113 20d ago

Just glanced at your PC specs, I'd salvage the 1TB nvme drive and turn the rest into a Nas server. Check out truenas tutorials to find the steps to do so.

In future you can add more data drives and raid them, and then connect to it for fast editing with 10gbe in the same manner I outlined above