M1 Max but as a PC.

[neomorpheus]

Hello,

Interested in replacing my PC for a Mac, but i’m not a creator, artist or nothing like that.

I will be doing Linux and windows VM, then regular usage like testing harddrives (normally get them used, so need to test and wipe to resell), office, pdfs, web surfing and playing with AI like LM Studio.

I have a budget of around 1500 dollars and found some good M1 Max Studios with 64gb of ram and 1tb storage.

How performant would this be compared to a similarly priced M4 Mac Mini?

Thanks for the suggestions.

 

[Bigwaff]

General performance comparison between systems...

Mac Benchmarks - Geekbench

Note Linux and Windows VM's will need to be ARM versions of operating systems as x86 VM's will not run on Apple Silicon (unless under emulation which is practically useless from a performance perspective).

 

[neomorpheus]

General performance comparison between systems...

Mac Benchmarks - Geekbench

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Note Linux and Windows VM's will need to be ARM versions of operating systems as x86 VM's will not run on Apple Silicon (unless under emulation which is practically useless from a performance perspective).

Thank, im familiar with that site and compared the M1 Max to the M4 and a Ryzen 9700x and according to them, the M1 is 120% slower.

But itself doesnt tell me much besides that.

Also, Arm versions of Linux and windows in this case, would be a plus

 

[Basic75]

the M1 is 120% slower

What does that mean? How can something be 120% slower? Does that mean it's negatively fast?

Anyhow, I'm not sure an Apple Silicon Mac is the best choice to be running mostly Linux and Windows, you can't even boot natively into either of them (there is Asahi Linux, but from what I gather it's not daily driver ready and doesn't support all the hardware).

 

[neomorpheus]

Meaning that compared to new M4s, M1 are simply that slow. Just go to geekbench scores and compare.

No, i wont be running VMs all day, thats just one of the many possible task that I might run.

To be honest,im interested in AI tasks and tools, like ollama and lm studio

 

[m1maverick]

Based on your VM requirement, I would question whether a Mac is the right choice. As noted Intel versions of Linux and Windows are a no go right from the start. Can you expand upon what you do with these VMs and how often you'll be using them? I'm also curious about how you perform HD testing as you would need some sort of adapter to do them on a Studio.

My thought is to buy the M4 Mini to supplement your PC (use it for VMs and HD testing) and use the Mini for everything else or just update your PC as it can meet all your requirements.

EDIT: If you have a Microcenter close by and can stretch your budge a couple hundred more dollars you can get a new M4 Max Studio for $1,700.

 

[Smoke Bar]

I moved from a PC to a MAC recently. Having used a PC since the 90's It was a leap of faith but I am very happy with my Studio. I would not go back to a noisy hot PC. My main use case now is 8K raw video editing and LLM's.

I run Windows 11 Arm64 in VMWare Fusion, it is slow but for the couple of small Windows only programs I use it is usable. If I need to test HD's I would use an old PC laptop I would not use a VM.

 

[neomorpheus]

Can you expand upon what you do with these VMs and how often you'll be using them?

To be hones, would be basic usage, like quick install to see whats new in a Linux distro or Windows.
See what runs in Windows for Arm, for example.

I'm also curious about how you perform HD testing as you would need some sort of adapter to do them on a Studio.

Yes, using an external USB caddy.
I have a bunch of used drives that I need to clean and test so I can sell them.
After that, I might not need to do this again, but its a good learning experience.

If you have a Microcenter close by and can stretch your budge a couple hundred more dollars you can get a new M4 Max Studio for $1,700.

The problem is, those M4 comes with 32 GB yet the one I saw (M1 Max) comes with 64GB and 1 TB storage for around US$1199.

The closest option at MC is 48 GB/ 1 TB for around US$2300, which at the moment, I cant afford.

And my understanding is that is more useful for LLM's that the new M4.

I run Windows 11 Arm64 in VMWare Fusion

I'm planning in running them in UTM.

 

[m1maverick]

To be hones, would be basic usage, like quick install to see whats new in a Linux distro or Windows.
See what runs in Windows for Arm, for example.

Yes, using an external USB caddy.
I have a bunch of used drives that I need to clean and test so I can sell them.
After that, I might not need to do this again, but its a good learning experience.

The problem is, those M4 comes with 32 GB yet the one I saw (M1 Max) comes with 64GB and 1 TB storage for around US$1199.

The closest option at MC is 48 GB/ 1 TB for around US$2300, which at the moment, I cant afford.

And my understanding is that is more useful for LLM's that the new M4.

Sounds like the M1 Studio would be the appropriate choice.