Mac Studio 2 vs. Mac Mini pricing

[bobcomer]

I'm still trying to get a handle on the internal SSD for the Mac Studio. with 512gb, do you get more read/write hits vs with a 1TB, therefore more wear and tear?

It's the same amounts of hits, writes/reads are the same. I don't think you'll have to worry about the problem with the lower end machines having only 1 ssd chip and being slower, I've never seen anyone complain about the Studio for that kind of problem. That said, 512G is pretty small, I went with 1TB just because I need that much.

What if I stay with 512GB, and go external with 1 or 2TB SSD. Looking at specs and YouTubers with that configuration, speed is just as good. specifically:
SSD and SSD enclosure

So, apple charges $200 upgrade for 1TB, and external about the same. Plus already have the enclosure, so interchange additional SSDs if needed.

What the speed of the external SSD, could offload things like Parallels, etc.

External has never been just as fast as internal for me. External's pretty slow due to it being over a Thunderbolt or USB connection.

 

[neilw]

I was debating on what to replace my 2018 Mac mini with.

A base studio is 1800 at with discount.

And it is better than I need in every way except internal storage.

I could bump to 1tb and be at 1979.

The 1tb internal ssd would be big enough for a few years.

Or I could go Mac mini 2

with 16gb ram

and 2tb ssd

for 1439

Maybe I wait for some studio refurbs

and get a studio with 2tb

The base M2 CPU is very capable. If that's enough for you, then the Mini would be great.

If you bump up to the base M2 Pro on the Mini you can get a little more performance headroom. Really depends on what your performance needs are.

 

[Mac4EverDrummer]

I was planning on picking up my BTO mac mini 12 core M2 Pro, 32G Ram, 1T storage, and 10G networking this past Monday (the day they announced the M2 Studio models).

I cancelled that an ordered the new Studio with M2 Max with only the 1T storage upgrade.
It is basically the same machine, with a few more GPUs, more ports and better cooling, and was actually a little cheaper. I went with the 1T storage partly to protect against the possibility of the single chip slow down and partly because my current mac is already using over 400G on the internal drive.

So yes I agree the pricing of a BTO Mac Mini is strange at this point in time.

aaah great thankx putting my order in today. Are you cyclist? Raced for many years road and cyclo-cross. Now just ride and enjoy my long rides

 

[fromgophonetoiphone]

so stay internal SSD and if nned be add external later if needed?

Knowing me I probably would just drop the $$$ on 2TB, but I know it's not feasible. I think 1 TB min should be the standard. it's really YMMV depending how much offline versus cloud content you use. If you have a fast connection like gigabit fiber and not crappy 35mbps uploads from Xfinity, then you can afford more cloud syncing.

 

[Mac4EverDrummer]

Knowing me I probably would just drop the $$$ on 2TB, but I know it's not feasible. I think 1 TB min should be the standard. it's really YMMV depending how much offline versus cloud content you use. If you have a fast connection like gigabit fiber and not crappy 35mbps uploads from Xfinity, then you can afford more cloud syncing.

Good point. I’ll stay with 1TB, use cloud if needed and go external SSD if needed
Thankx for posting

 

[fromgophonetoiphone]

The only reason I consider 2TB is because my work machine has 1TB and has about 60-70% of storage full already. Obviously we deal with a lot of offline files including massive email archives, but that's thankfully something I don't have to deal with in my personal life.

 

[npn]

aaah great thankx putting my order in today. Are you cyclist? Raced for many years road and cyclo-cross. Now just ride and enjoy my long rides

Yes, but no racing for me. Mainly road and gravel. I sometimes ride a mountain bike, but I am not a mountain biker. My gravatar is from a screenshot in Zwift.

 

[Mac4EverDrummer]

Yes, but no racing for me. Mainly road and gravel. I sometimes ride a mountain bike, but I am not a mountain biker. My gravatar is from a screenshot in Zwift.

Sweet.. i use zwift in the winters months when too cold. sometimes in my many loops i find when hill climbing i get onto gravel roads … really great 👍

 

[Pezimak]

Mac Studio 2 with M2 Max (12 CPU core/30 GPU core), 32 GB RAM, 2 TB SSD: $2599
Mac Mini with M2 Pro (12 CPU core / 19 GPU core), 32 GB RAM, 2 TB SSD: $2599

What am I missing?

To be fair, the Mini offers a good price advantage if you're OK with a lower end configurations (which the Studio can't match), but I'm really surprised that they come out exactly the same when the Studio has the M2 Max vs. the M2 Pro.

Not missing anything, it just highlights how the Studio for an Apple computer is a bargain. If you already have a monitor and mouse of course, still get the Apple keyboard for Touch ID personally.

 

[pransu]

It appears Costco will only carry the base Studio Max 512GB. I was hoping they'd carry 1TB, then I'd get Studio instead of Mini.

 

[N9JIG]

With the price being equal the Studio is an easy choice. I just wish it had a couple internal SSD slots.

Are we sure that the 1(+) TB options in the Studio uses multiple SSD's to avoid that bottleneck of the single SSD?

 

[Pressure]

With the price being equal the Studio is an easy choice. I just wish it had a couple internal SSD slots.

Are we sure that the 1(+) TB options in the Studio uses multiple SSD's to avoid that bottleneck of the single SSD?

2TB, 4TB and 8TB uses two NAND blades. The NAND controller is in the SoC.

Either way it doesn't matter as all transfers off the internal NAND is going to be limited by the 32Gbps bandwidth allowed by Thunderbolt 4 for data.

Random read and writes (which account for pretty much all normal workloads) doesn't scale with storage size either.

 

[JtheLemur]

Dammit, I picked up an M2 Mac Mini recently with upgraded M2 Pro, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD. $2199.

For that same $2199, I can get an M2 Studio with more memory bandwidth, ports, faster Ethernet, beefier GPU.

This feels super terrible. And I'm outside my return window of course. T___T

 

[npn]

Dammit, I picked up an M2 Mac Mini recently with upgraded M2 Pro, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD. $2199.

For that same $2199, I can get an M2 Studio with more memory bandwidth, ports, faster Ethernet, beefier GPU.

This feels super terrible. And I'm outside my return window of course. T___T

You shouldn't feel terrible, I know it's easy to say, I was scheduled to pick up the same config, plus with the 10G ethernet, this past Monday, and I would have been disappointed as well.
In reality you might have saved at best $200 and got some features that probably would have made zero difference in your day to day life.
To put it in perspective, you probably made or lost more money in your 401K this week then the difference in getting the mac mini you purchased vs the newly announced mac studio.
I am an engineer, so I am so guilty over analyzing / thinking every choice I make. My advice would be to just let it go and enjoy your new machine. BTW that's my rationalization for buying a machine today using 5nm FinFET transistors, when I could have waited a year or so an bought a machine using 3 or 2 nm nano-sheet transistors

 

[m1maverick]

Dammit, I picked up an M2 Mac Mini recently with upgraded M2 Pro, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD. $2199.

For that same $2199, I can get an M2 Studio with more memory bandwidth, ports, faster Ethernet, beefier GPU.

This feels super terrible. And I'm outside my return window of course. T___T

Call them and see if they'll allow you to return it. Explain to them the situation. It won't hurt to try.