I've been waiting years for a 2013 mac pro replacement and this is what they give me. The internals seem good but the external design is.. not so good.
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Anyone else disappointed by the Mac Studio?
- Thread starter mectojic
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Only 20 cpu cores. Others have 32 cpu cores. Integer is very slow.
Only 8 TB SSD instead 16 TB. But thanks for 128 GB RAM.
Only 60 Hz. Others have 120 Hz and HDMI 2.1, not the old one.
SD card slot has only UHS-II xDDD that’s stone age.
Only the old WLAN 6.
Only the old Bluetooth 5.0
No Hyperthreading
No AVX-512 (vnni)
There is no MacBook Pro 16- or 18-inch with M1 Ultra or M2 Ultra chip.
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I ordered the M1 Max, so I'm not disappointed. I can't say I will or won't be be until I actually use it for awhile.
The design is fine, personally I would of wanted it to have upgradable ram and storage.
This machine could only have existed without Jony Ive. He wouldn't of allowed something this big, with this many ports to happen. I'm glad he is gone, I feel the Industrial Designers are now building machines with function over extreme form.
Jony Ive's rules of design were:
The design is fine, personally I would of wanted it to have upgradable ram and storage.
This machine could only have existed without Jony Ive. He wouldn't of allowed something this big, with this many ports to happen. I'm glad he is gone, I feel the Industrial Designers are now building machines with function over extreme form.
Jony Ive's rules of design were:
- make it as minimal as possible, then ask yourself what you can remove from the product, then remove 5-7 things
- the product must look beautiful for photography first above anything else
- products must become thinner and weight less over time
I actually like this design a lot... After all the color and white bezel crap of the last year... I appreciate clean, short, simplicity.
To those who say you can mount it under your desk – don’t underestimate how tall this Mac Studio really is. It’s going to get in the way, whether it’s next to the Studio Display (very low clearance, who knows if it will even fit if you lower the display with the height-adjusted stand), under your desk or literally anywhere.
The Mac Mini on the other hand was sleek. It was Steve Jobs approved. For those complaining about Steve Jobs, it is painfully obvious that the Jobs-era still enabled user repairs and upgrades. Without Jobs, Jony Ive was able to eliminate every aspect of user replaceable part. Now we praise the Mac Studio, acutely aware that the SSDs will fail, and the Ram will not be upgradeable. And yet we’re all excited because Apple brought back your precious ports? Who honestly needs ports anymore for a desktop computer, when TB 4 and USB 4 hubs exist, which are FAR more convenient?
The Mac Mini on the other hand was sleek. It was Steve Jobs approved. For those complaining about Steve Jobs, it is painfully obvious that the Jobs-era still enabled user repairs and upgrades. Without Jobs, Jony Ive was able to eliminate every aspect of user replaceable part. Now we praise the Mac Studio, acutely aware that the SSDs will fail, and the Ram will not be upgradeable. And yet we’re all excited because Apple brought back your precious ports? Who honestly needs ports anymore for a desktop computer, when TB 4 and USB 4 hubs exist, which are FAR more convenient?
I just hate hubs/docks…always seem to be the weak-point, hot brick, short-life span frustration, one more thing that doesn’t work after an update, etc. So, I like the ports…but, agreeing with you, that I don’t have much love for the non-expandable nature we live in now. Alas…I prefer 70s music too 😀
I intend to look at the screen, which will be going super fast.
I find the performance/cost differential vs. the M1 mini to be uncompelling.
I'm sure there are work flows where it is compelling, but for general development it seems like a lackluster upgrade.
GPU cores aren't going to help me much, and 16->32GB is only useful if you're going nuts with VMs and containers.
Where can I buy those -- that would actually worth the price.
It's all about your use case. I got an M1 mini shortly after they came out. It is a great fit for my home theater other than the case color and LED. (need to get a good wrap)
An M1 mini won't work for my main desktop as I have dual TB3 5K monitors. I ordered a base Studio to see how it will work. Since it is not Intel I will not be moving over my Windows VMs which means reduced need for more cores, RAM, and storage. (I have a separate Windows machine that will take up the slack.) Yes, a mini M1 Pro would be a better fit as most of the M1 Max will be wasted on me.
The worst part of this is that any future upgrade means swapping out the entire machine. We get a bigger case but nothing is user replaceable.
An M1 mini won't work for my main desktop as I have dual TB3 5K monitors. I ordered a base Studio to see how it will work. Since it is not Intel I will not be moving over my Windows VMs which means reduced need for more cores, RAM, and storage. (I have a separate Windows machine that will take up the slack.) Yes, a mini M1 Pro would be a better fit as most of the M1 Max will be wasted on me.
The worst part of this is that any future upgrade means swapping out the entire machine. We get a bigger case but nothing is user replaceable.
Since you’re so keen on external expansion, can I suggest booting from an external drive?
I highly doubt it has anything to do with playing it safe. Simply there is less R&D needed for this design which is basically a height stretched mini as you stated. At the end of the day desktop computers are not where Apple makes their $$$ from so they probably wanted to come up with a relatively easy solution with hardware engineers designing during a pandemic that satisfies needs.
Apples issue for years post was that they would refuse to release any products that didn't ultimately satisfied your design esthetics. Apple was huge on using desktops as halo products to show off during events even if 99% of the audience wasn't actually in the market for one. Apple just got free press when releasing something like the 2013 Mac Pro with Phil shouting out "cAnT iNnOvAte aNymOre???" So instead of Apple just releasing products without too much thought into design they would ultimately hold back and not release anything at all which is clearly a strategy they have changed for a bit now even with iPhones which are about cramming multiple cameras and having lots of sizes ...etc.
I would say be careful for what you wish for. Can't always have your cake and eat it too.
the design of the box is about the bottom of the list of my priorities. i stare at the display, not the little box. it's all about performance!
Well, having run two MacPro 2013's for heavy photo editing, there was no upgrade to processor or internal SSD or graphics (I did add some memory) but one of them was in use for 8 years until a Mini replaced it last year and the other will be nine years, replaced by a Studio MM. There was no need to upgrade before then. I'm not expecting to need to upgrade the Studio for a long time.
If it matters that much to you, disassemble it and take the keys to a local shop and have the anodized or powder-coated in any color you like.
Is is what it is - the usual overpriced box from Apple & with no upgarde options etc. But this does not claim to be a pro machine & obviously is not. The revised Silicion mac pro will come later & this should have upgradeability AND PCIE expansion slots, though likley far less of them becuase 3rd party GPUs will not be necessary. 3-4 slots should do it.
Where to put the Studio on my desk with very limited space is my biggest problem right now. I am looking all over and around my desk for possible options. I came across this under desk mount which looks almost perfect for the Studio. I might be the guinea pig and go for it.
NewerTech NuShelf Dual Mount for Mac mini (2005 -... at MacSales.com
A great way to protect your Apple Mac mini (2005 - Current), Mac Studio, OWC miniStack, or Apple Time Capsule and save valuable desktop space at the same time.
Curious to hear anyone else's thoughts... maybe someone that owns this and understands if the circle on the underside is cut out etc.
Oh god yes. It's the blandest looking thing Apple has produced in years. There's zero sex to this thing. It looks like an external hard-drive, not something with any personality you'd want to look at every day.
I hated the Mac Pro when I first saw it, but Ives knew what he was doing: The more I've seen it. the more I think it's gorgeous. It's bold, interesting and sexy.
The Mac Studio is BLAND. It's no better than anything HP or anyone else could come up with. Incredibly disappointing because the machine itself looks incredible.
I hope that this is a switch to more function over form while still maintaining a pleasing look. I think it looks fine, personally.
Completely agree. I'll probably end up with a Studio in a 6 or so months after any kinks get ironed out. I love the design, myself. I typically have my computer tucked under my desk, but with the actual front ports on this and the clean, strong design I might just make desktop space available for it
My single gripe is that I would have loved the ability to add a stick or two of m.2 user-configurable storage. But that is not even close to apple's MO so I wasn't expecting it.