I waited years to upgrade my 2011 MBP to a dedicated Mac tower. I loved the 5,1s but wanted too wait for the new iteration. Then when the 7,1 was launched in 2019 the price was insane, but for better or worse I decided I'd waited long enough and I had the money even if it was overkill.
I've had it now for 2+ years and greatly enjoyed being a 7,1 owner:
12-core Xeon, 64GB Ram, 1TB SSD, 2TB PCIE NVME, W5700X [various other PCIE cards]
As far as Intel Macs go this thing is a beast to me. I love having all those PCIE slots for GPUs, add on cards, heck even firewire for my old ACD's and iSight camera. I can boot up Windows to play games if I want. It's a true 5,1 successor. But all together the built is has now cost me upwards of €10,000. It's nice but I don't really need all that. I don't need Windows compatibility, I have a PS5 for games. I don't need 1.5TB RAM.
After watching the Mac Studio announcement I went and ordered one an hour later, with the 27" studio display. For audio production it just makes so much more sense for me. I'll have a computer that's smaller, faster, and more power efficient that costs a lot less. It'll fit in perfectly as the new heart of my studio. I'll also probably make money back in the end by selling the 7,1. I'll miss having that open tower but it just doesn't make financial sense for me. In a few years when 7,1 costs come down a lot I'll probably buy one again to tinker with.
I've had it now for 2+ years and greatly enjoyed being a 7,1 owner:
12-core Xeon, 64GB Ram, 1TB SSD, 2TB PCIE NVME, W5700X [various other PCIE cards]
As far as Intel Macs go this thing is a beast to me. I love having all those PCIE slots for GPUs, add on cards, heck even firewire for my old ACD's and iSight camera. I can boot up Windows to play games if I want. It's a true 5,1 successor. But all together the built is has now cost me upwards of €10,000. It's nice but I don't really need all that. I don't need Windows compatibility, I have a PS5 for games. I don't need 1.5TB RAM.
After watching the Mac Studio announcement I went and ordered one an hour later, with the 27" studio display. For audio production it just makes so much more sense for me. I'll have a computer that's smaller, faster, and more power efficient that costs a lot less. It'll fit in perfectly as the new heart of my studio. I'll also probably make money back in the end by selling the 7,1. I'll miss having that open tower but it just doesn't make financial sense for me. In a few years when 7,1 costs come down a lot I'll probably buy one again to tinker with.
