I'm in the middle, I think it's kind of ugly, but not repulsive or elegant. But I don't really care, it's a computer and that's all it is to me.
If they'd have built the case to be user accessible, then it would be something better than it is.
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Anyone else disappointed by the Mac Studio?
- Thread starter mectojic
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If they'd have built the case to be user accessible, then it would be something better than it is.
maybe they'll sell at $99, a "self-service repair kit" and allow you to rent tool$ from them to make this happen.
Yup, not only should we be able to add SSD storage, but not being able to clean out the fans (or at least having cleanable dust filters) is going to become an issue down the line.
I’ll reiterate that I find the design not only fine, but outright good and a positive value. It aligns with my tastes. Everyone is going to have their own opinion, but at the end of the day people are going to buy a system such as this on other merits.
And the ones who are here to piss on the Studio designers have been totally quiet on how it should have been designed instead. They should put their ideas in this thread so that those of us who like the Studio can express our scorn and disdain.
I'm just happy that the functionality isn't compromised. Normally, we're on these forums bleating about silly decisions with I/O, performance, thermal capacity/fans etc. But Mac Studio is the first Mac I've owned where I've had zero issues with the performance and features of the device.
Aesthetics are all subjective; whilst it's easy to say "XXX Mac was elegant", compromises were always made to achieve that particular design. In many cases, people value the aesthetics of a Mac more than the functionality, which I'm guessing is a mixture of rose tinted glasses and ignorance.
But in my eyes, one of Mac Studio's strongest assets is that it's not trying to be pretentious or eye-grabbing - it just discreetly sits on the desk like a utility.
Very happy with my M1 Ultra 64GB/4TB. No muss, not fuss, it delivers effortless performance. An app compile after clean that took 2 min is 9 sec. Parallels does a nice job with Windows 11, which supports VS2019 and 2022 with no trouble. It is also happy with Steam and Gog doing a passable job with many games.
And I love the lack of power drain in comparison to my old cMPro. Since this is running 24/7 it will pay for itself in a few years.
And I love the lack of power drain in comparison to my old cMPro. Since this is running 24/7 it will pay for itself in a few years.
No eGPU, no PCIe, not for me.
Zero effort went into the aesthetics of this box. Agree 100%.
Disagree here. Apple's kneecapping (no official eGPU, no CPU, GPU, or Thunderbolt upgrades) made the 2013 Mac Pro severely limited.
That’s why they produce the 7,1 2019 Mac Pro.
I don't mind the design, it isn't pretty, but is so small that I don't care. Speed wise I find it amazing and price wise fine. My only 'but' is that I think the GPU is too weak, and I think a 1TB SSD should be the base size. But you can't have everything I guess...
I'm likely in for an M2 ultra, or at least an M3, depending on when I have they money. 8)
I'm likely in for an M2 ultra, or at least an M3, depending on when I have they money. 8)
You are clearly not comprehending the issue. There was no technical reason to artificially limit the capabilities of the 6,1. Apple induced the disappointment. It's playing out again here. That's all I have to say.
For once, it’s something designed with function over form, rather than the other way round. I prefer it.
I’m still not seeing the disappointment. The 6,1 was an awesome computer and I got 8 years of use out of it. The Studio is a great successor so far. I do wish Apple had kept the design of the 6,1 for the Studio but I think the haters made it impossible for Apple to really do anything other than the safest possible choice of just scaling up the Mini.
They offer high performance computers that either do or do not offer PCiE/modularity. I’m not sure what your problem is, but I think Apple has covered plenty of bases here.
Yes, I agree!
It certainly took "courage" for Apple to release the 2013 Mac Pro at the time. Although things did not work out optimally for that particular model, I applaud Apple for doing so. Actually, the 6.1 is still my mission-critical workhorse. Believe it or not, it's been the most reliable Mac that I have ever owned....even more reliable than my newer Macbook Pro 13".
richmlow
Honestly I think it looks nice, personally.. It's not high art or anything but I will be putting mine on my desk, rather than on the shelf below with my back up drive. I'm used to my imac's ugly chin, so I'm just thrilled to switch to the studio and display. I never would've purchased one anyway but a design I actually hate is the pro.
I have to disagree. While the Studio is a very capable system it is not intended to be a replacement for the Mac Pro. Such was not the case with the 2013 Mac Pro. IMO the issue with the 2013 Mac Pro had nothing to do with the system itself but rather where it fit in Apple's product line. If a 2006 - 2012, 2019 form factor was also available it's my opinion few people would have any issues with the 2013 Mac Pro.
I think the Studio looks great ❤️💛🧡
Honestly, it's clean and elegant.
The problem I have with it is that he/she is moaning so hard.
Missing his/her partner the Studio Display, that haven't arrived yet 😂
Honestly, it's clean and elegant.
The problem I have with it is that he/she is moaning so hard.
Missing his/her partner the Studio Display, that haven't arrived yet 😂
That's why I purchased the Ultra at retail VS a custom Max. Buy it tomorrow vs a 3 month wait, which is a good way to pump up profits. Considering the existing manufacturing pipeline is highly dependent on China, who has been having lockdown issues for 2+ years. the only one you should be complaining about is Tim Cook. As COO, Tim was noted for being 'addicted' to china for manufacturing and as CEO, it's only advanced.
Yeah - completely agree that the Trashcan would have been better received if they'd kept the Mac Pro tower up to date & available instead of forcing the trashcan on people. The Studio's longer-term reception could depend on what happens with the Apple Silicon Mac Pro - and I'm still not sure how that's going to work since so many of the M1 series' performance advantages stem from on-chip GPUs and on-package RAM - which are hard to reconcile with the Mac Pro's extreme RAM expandability and capacity for multiple high-end PCIe GPUs. I think Apple could almost get away with, basically, a 1U rack-mount Studio Ultra with a matching Thunderbolt PCIe cage - esp. if they keep the Intel Mac Pro going for a few years.
As for the Studio....
Design-wise, yeah, it's not beautiful, but at least it is minimalist. I was surprised by how big it seemed in real life, and I just realised why: it's a good inch larger in width and depth that my old G4 Mini - I've never had an Intel/M1 Mini and didn't realise that they made it bigger...
Main gripe is that the power button is really fiddly to find - why couldn't it have been on the front? C'mon Apple - you've mellowed enough to put USB-C and SD slots on the front... Personally I'd have had the USB-A sockets on the front but... even as a die-hard USB-C hater, I have to say that, heck, it's 2022, and I could have coped with 2 more USB-C/3.1s in place of the two USB A. Carrying dongles around with a laptop is a pain, but this is a desktop, so if I have to have USB-C-to-A adapters semi-permanently in the back (and there's room - unlike on a MacBook) it doesn't matter much. I'm going to max out the ports on this (albeit mainly with slow USB stuff) which (currently) helps keep me in a mixed USB-C/USB-A economy.
My main issue after getting the Studio is nothing to do with the Studio itself but "deferred buyer's remorse" from buying a 5k iMac in 2017. Usually, I've retained my previous computer as a fall-back, for running a few bits of legacy code or suchlike (the aforementioned G4 Mini was my home server for years after I got a new desktop), but I'm now lumbered with a redundant iMac with a (beautiful) display that can't be repurposed and a (perfectly capable) CPU/GPU that can't be used without the massive space-consuming display taking up desktop space. Otherwise, I'd be able to use the display with my new machine and fire up the old CPU when I needed to run some legacy software or use Windows. I pretty much predicted this when I bought the iMac in 2017 - but at the time it was the only credible desktop option for what I wanted (I considered the trashcan, but by then they were already 4-year-old tech).
I think people who've been "forced" into getting a Studio rather than an iMac/iMac Pro will come to be grateful a few years down the line when there's either a better computer or better display on offer.
The pity is that Apple couldn't have made the Studio Display a few hundred bucks cheaper - or at least not cheaped-out on things like the captive power cable or the $400 "extra" for a properly adjustable stand. Personally, though, I'm really happy with the Mateview I'm using - it doesn't quite have the quality of the Apple 5k panel, but the aspect ratio and resolution Work For Me (...and I'm seriously considering adding a second one) - and, of course, it saves a shedload of money.
I like the design personally. My issue is the performance - fresh out of the box and it will not run Davinci Resolve (with or without Rosetta), it keeps freezing in the system preferences panel, it fails to detect my cabled keyboard occasionally and generally it's as clunky as my Thunderbolt 2 Mac Mini that it's supposed to replace.
Apple used to have great launches, now the trend is one of performance issues and buggy releases.
Apple has lost the quality that used to define them.
Apple used to have great launches, now the trend is one of performance issues and buggy releases.
Apple has lost the quality that used to define them.
You're the only person that I've come across who's complaining about the performance of DaVinci Resolve on the M1 Max chip. DaVinci Resolve runs natively (screen capture below, note the upper box with the red border). There's no reason to use Rosetta unless you'e using plugins that require it (lower box). What version of DR are you running, 17 or 18 public beta?
The Mac Studio in my signature is a major improvement over my 2018 Mac mini and external Vega 56 GPU. I've had no problems with with my cabled keyboard.
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Well that's great!! Hey I was surprised honestly but yeah Davinci 18 will not run, Davinci 17 takes literally 5 minutes just to open and strangely my Editor Keyboard wouldn't type on the login page yesterday until I had unplugged and replugged a couple times. I'm still unable to open 'Sharing' in preferences and I can only hard shutdown because the Apple menu won't logout, restart or shutdown the system.
Strange, annoying and increasingly common problems keep cropping up since Catalina (That update bricked my company's protools workstation for 6 months).
I'm sure packing it up and sending it to Apple is a solution but after spending 6k on a device I expect it to be plug and play. . . guess not . . . at least it had a really cool, custom designed box. . .
I want to love Apple products, I really do but their prices keep rising and their quality assurance keeps plummeting.
