This is a budget configuration targeting $2k with taxes. MacBook Air M3 now supports two external monitors with lid closed (5K and 6K monitors but my two displays are budget 27" and 24" monitors so I'm set there). MagSafe 3 power port and that would be full which means I can't connect to USB hub on monitors.

Upshot means I'd need a dock. OWC 14-Port Thunderbolt Dock looks good and is often on sale for $100. Theoretically I can connect to the dock and it connects to both monitors and has USB ports for my external HD dock. 10% tax and free shipping makes it $110.

Looking at the MacBook Air 13" Price Guide from AppleInsider M3, 16 GB, 1 TB SSD is ($1700) is often at $150 off (and maybe on special sale $200 off). With 10% tax and free shipping that'd be $1705.

For both that comes to $1815.

1 TB SSD is not much space especially if I dual-boot to Windows so I'd depend on external storage (not cloud). 16 GB should be fine for most uses and it's not like I play high-end games.

On Geekbench my MBP 16" Intel is 1376 single, 6464 multi-core. Tom's Guide has benchmarks for the MacBook Air 2024 and it is 3082 single, 12087 multi-core. So would be nice improvement but not extreme but also not really expensive.

Additional as I was researching this: OWC Drive Dock, 2 bays, each supports SATA + NVMe U.2 (which is a standard for SSD in a 3.5" HD case form factor), $150. Quite a bit more expensive than the cheap Orico docks I bought but they look nice and support USB-C 3.2 which pairs well with the 14-port doc.


2024-08-17: Geekbench comparison above is best of 2019 vs low end 2024.

MacBook Air 2019 $1500 (16 GB RAM, 256 GB SSD) 1199 single, 3148 multi-core
MBP 13" 2019 $1700 (16 GB RAM, 256 GB SSD) 1342 single, 4141 multi-core