How much will the fully-fledged M3 MBP 16" cost? + questions

[spnc]

By the way, I just built a Windows machine similarly spec'd to what you want right now. I got an off the shelf Dell XPS 15.6 1TB/32GB from Best Buy (14 core i9 12th gen, Nvidia 3050 Ti/4GB, 4K OLED touchscreen) and upgraded the RAM to 64GB and the storage to 12TB (4TB C drive, 8TB D drive) - you could also put 2 8TB in there too, for 16TB total).

Total cost, $4,000. If 16TB storage, $5,000. Apple has great laptops (I just upgraded to an M2 Pro Max, a modest 32GB/1TB), but the Apple luxury tax is high.

I feel you but I can't change OS anymore. First, I'm a slave to Mac (for good and bad reasons). Second, I'm a music producer and I have all my settings and VSTs tied to my OS and Ableton. Would be impossible for me to change.

Also I got accustomed to the way Apple is designed. I'd save 6'000 USD by going PC, but I prefer to pay more to keep my peace of mind (and nothing to tweak on my new MBP + TimeMachine = no time wasted).

 

[spnc]

A few guesses. Max memory will probably jump to 128GB. 8TB will probably be the same. No one has produced a single chip design over 8TB. The only reason the maxed out M2 jumped $1,000 over the M1 and Intel i9 was probably the extra 32GB RAM. Maybe about $500 to $1,000 extra for that.

But don't spec chase. Get what you actually need. If your current machine(s) are doing the job, then start there. You might want to bump up one thing or another, but don't automatically think you need to spend $10,000 to upgrade everything to the max.

Agree on the 128GB RAM, doesn't look something of a big jump for the next upgrade.

As to 8TB that's disappointing, I was thinking that since SanDisk announced the first 8TB SSD drive at CES in 2020 https://www.theverge.com/circuitbre...-ssd-biggest-1tb-flash-drive-storage-ces-2020 we would be closer to having, finally, larger SSD disks.

I need at least 10/12 unified SSD disk please Apple give us some air to breathe!

 

[*MacBook*]

As much as they can get. Econ 101

 

[spnc]