They mentioned they had BTO options selected.
I had four iMac 5Ks and they were around USD3000 new with the top-end Intel CPU and AMD GPU option plus 1TB SSD and 16GB of RAM.
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Mac Mini vs. Mac Studio Buyer's Guide: 20+ Differences Compared
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They mentioned they had BTO options selected.
I had four iMac 5Ks and they were around USD3000 new with the top-end Intel CPU and AMD GPU option plus 1TB SSD and 16GB of RAM.
The Mac Studio and the M1 Ultra were the highlights of the event.
U.S. yes
The iMacs I owned between 1999 and 2010 with tax included, were BTO: with maxed out memory and storage. All went north of $2500 flirting towards $3k.
My last two iMacs did not because they were stock models and I could update the memory myself & also used external storage.
Thanks @CWallace for the assist.
The Mac Studio would have been the Mac I'd bought two years ago. Now a MacPro shines on my desk. Not bad either, but without M-CPU, how long will it be supported? Apple MUST release a M-Upgrade for Intel-MacPro users in the near future.
If you don’t know whether you need it or not, you don’t need it. Just get M1 Mac Mini.
I think you’re confused as a lower end consumer. $3,500 is actually very respectable price and considered lower middle ground for professionals, which these studios were created for. if you make a living using the studio, even the $4,000 higher spec'd studio is a bargain. No one is buying the studio to tinker around with some video editing and advanced browser surfing. If you do, stick with the cheaper $699 mac mini which is more than powerful.
I’m just struggling with ports on the Mac mini. I have no illusions that I need the M1 Max, but I don‘t think the port selection on the current Mac mini is enough. as a home user, I just know we are going to plug several things into it, and I don’t like the idea that we buy a brand new device and IMMEDIATELY connect a usb hub to it. I feel like a few years down the line it would be fine, but if I know I am going to be using up all of the ports immediately that’s a problem. BUT It is like an extra $1000 to go from the Mac mini (16gb ram, 1TB HD ) to the base Studio with 1TB HD. I’d get the higher end Mac mini if it wasn’t intel.
Decisions, Decisions.
Decisions, Decisions.
Until I can actually get in front of one of these machines and put it through it's paces I can't judge which one will fit my needs.
I don't lean towards the lower end consumer products but not I'm not professional either so I fall in between.
This, right here. I might or might not need the Max or Ultra chip, but I DEFINITELY need more than the 2 USB 3.0 and 2 Thunderbolt ports I currently have on the back of my M1 Mini. Yes, I have hubs for the USB 3.0's, but I need a 3rd Thunderbolt for my 2nd Monitor, my desktop external hard drive array and my hub that gives me a front facing USB-C port for my portable drives. I am also sure I can find a good use for that 4th back Thunderbolt port and would love to ditch my current daisy chain of hubs that include 1 USB-C post on each.
A new Mac Mini may emerger with the Max or Ultra chip in a few months, but there is no indication I am going to get more ports like the Studio has, so it might be work and extra $1K (the difference between a Studio and the likely price point of a new M1 Max Mini) for the ports.
Lower end is relative here. Even the base model is an extremely high end chip. Far far from low end.
Edit** i just realised you are likely referring to Mac mini verses mac studio?
At this juncture there are still limitations with the mini that I'm unwilling to compromise on. The 16GB memory barrier is a sticking point as well as the minuscule amount of USB ports.
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That's certainly true, but the VTB codecs are just hand-offs into Apple's libraries, so at least that portion of the work is out of their hands.
I am on Version 1.5.1 (2022011000) and leveraging the T2 on my 2020 iMac 5K and M1 Pro on my 14" MacBook Pro via VideoToolbox is significantly faster than depending on the iMac's 8-core i7 CPU.
I suspect they are giving folks who still need Intel (boot camp or in-house software that hasn't been ported and can't be used for whatever reason under Rosetta) a little more time.
The difference in port on the Mini vs the Studio is the topic too few are discussion. The M1 chip in my mini seems more powerful enough for my day to day work (though I might like the speed bump the Max or the Ultra provides) but the 2 Thunderbolts (both on the back) is too few for my setup. Furthermore, the M1 Chip doesn't seem capable of fully powering additional thunderbolt ports via hubs, so I have had to be very efficient and make some choices (to use USB 3.0) between my 2 monitors (1 HDMI, 1 Thunderbolt), 4 Disc Hard Drive enclosure, Portable Hard Disc, and external BD Drive.
A Mini with 16GB of RAM and 512MB SSD costs $1099 vs entry level Studio at $1999 means I pay $900 for an extra 16GB of RAM ($400 in Apple world), 2 more Thunderbolts and 2 front facing USB-Cs and a SD Card Slot (likely a $250 docking station cost, if the M1 chip could even handle them) plus 2 more CPU and 16 more GPU cores and 10Gb Ethernet. That all seems pretty worth it to me.
And I'm leaning that direction at this juncture. But I also have to factor in another $500 for a second monitor.
I have both a 2011 and a 2013 MacBook Pro laptop that I think still work, although I haven't started either in a while. When I traveled for work I had to take a work laptop and lots of specialized interface equipment with me so I never really used the Apple laptops as portables, and I preferred the larger screen of the iMac 27 inch to cobbling something together as far as a home laptop/keyboard/large screen just so I could use a laptop as a main home computer. I still feel that way. I have a pretty good-for-its-time 5k screen in my 2016 iMac and its large enough for the photo retouching and scanning that is my primary non-entertainment use of my computer. Since that process requires both a scanner and a connection to my NAS system the fact that it's not mobile isn't a problem. I think I spent $2200 on that system in February of 2016. Now to get an equivalent system I would need to buy a Studio type computer for around $1900, spend I think its $200 to get a 2 TB upgrade for the hard drive, and $1600 for a tilt only adjustment version of the Studio Display. With the iMac I COULD upgrade the hard drive after the fact, although it isn't cheap, and I could install up to a maximum of 32 GB I could add more memory myself. Now, to get me a system that I am locked into as far as memory and display and probably Hard Drive size I need to spend $3700. Jumping up from $2200 6 years ago I could justify IF the system was upgradable. But its not. I get that the performance of the system comes from the integration of memory and CPU/GPU across a common bus that shares the same memory instead of everything needing its own buffers to input and output data. But what this seems to mean is that you pay for a system that is really expensive just so you have the ports and memory even if you don't need the processing power of a M1_Max or you buy a cheaper computer that will not be efficient in just a few years if you use it as a part time serious computer.
It might be that a standard Mac Mini is all I need. I use Affinity Photo, LightRoom and I subscribe to PhotoShop if I get a number of photos where I need that program, otherwise Affinity usually will work ok. But my computer has been slowing down quite a bit over the last 2-3 years in how long it takes to process whatever repairs or changes I am doing to old photos, and it took a long time for me to edit/splice HD movies and sound that I took with my Nikon Camera so I could use a real telephoto lens for filming. I have a Nikon Z6 and i've done a few weddings for friends and family, video only, I was not the official wedding photographer, I was filming the occasion. So I'm NOT a professional but I do require more than an entry level (I think) to keep doing what I have been doing with my iMac.
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Yep I totally get it.
I occasionally work with Affinity and Capture One, and Final Cut Pro with both photo and video as well as Digital Audio Workstation processing multi-track recordings.
The base Studio seems a bit overkill but the mini sounds underpowered especially with the limitation of 16GB of Ram. These non-upgradable systems leave you with little choice but to make a decision upfront of what you need for memory and storage, there is no changing your mind later.
I just got a great LG GP750 27 inch for $230 on Amazon. 2nd monitors doesn't have to be as nice as the main one for me.
Also, since I moved from iMac to the Mini (and soon likes the Studio) monitors, keyboard and mouse are more like overhead for me. I invest in them longer (meaning the spend if amortized over a longer period), because they outlast computers themselves.
Exactly. I know that the iMac that I have, with 32 GB memory, a 4 Ghz quad core I7 with an AMD Radeon R9 M395X with 4GB video board is getting slow when I am trying to edit a batch of pictures or movies. I also don't want to take someones word for it that a current M1 Mac Mini is enough. I am not someone that uses the iMac for business but I do side work for friends and family and right now I am working on a suitcase full (literally) of family photos dating back over 100 years, some needing a lot of work to fix creases or fading. Assurances that a cheap computer (well, cheap for Apple) is good enough to handle what i use mine for when I've watched my current iMac slow down over the years doesn't reassure me. Especially since I will STILL need to buy a monitor of some kind, and I don't want a crappy or inconsistent monitor if I am trying to fix photographs.I also do videos for friends and families for weddings. I don't charge for it, but I keep getting asked if I would do it so I must not be terrible. I realize that free is an incentive especially as wedding costs shoot up but I don't do it except for friends and family.
Hands on is the big key, isn't it? Each line of Macs (and I assume PCs) have their own quirks (like the Mini is known for years to potentially have bluetooth issues and some iMacs had overheating that turned into screen burn issues). I would also hate to go in for $2k for the first Studio then find out it doesn't accept the letter "e" on its keyboard punches or some other unforeseen issue.
I would that a $3500 Mac Studio is the high ground in most houses. I can't imagine anyone with a normal income spending $10,000+ just for personal use. You either need a really high income, or you need to earn a living with the Mac Pro to make it worth your while. I did buy a MacBook Pro 14" for 2750 euro (the $2499 model) for personal use. I find this very expensive for a personal device, but worth it. None of my friends would ever dream of spending this much money on a computer for personal use. I know there are others out there that do, but as far as I can tell they are a minority.