Been keeping an eye on the Mac studio since it came out. Found a refurbished at apple with the exact specs I have been wanting for under $2500. M1 Max, 1 TB drive and 64 GB ram. After doing a wedding video on my M1 mini with 1TB SSD and 16GB ram, got that itch again. Used to do wedding videos when I had my 2008 Mac Pro. Would have to sell my mini though to help cover costs. Already have an external drive on the mini. If my mini had 32 GB ram, would probably not upgrade. Is it really worth it?
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Urge to buy a Mac Studio
- Thread starter bearcatrp
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Only you can answer that.
But I'll try and help.
Is it something new and shiny that you want? If so, buy it.
You can never have enough ram when video editing. Left apple after the 2008 mac pro I had due to high cost of replacement so built my own dual processor system in 2010. Worked great until it finally died a few years back. External storage would be enough for my needs if I jump. The mini did ok on my last video editing but was just HD. With 4K these days, never edited it before, am not sure how much umph you need to edit. Still have some research on that. Thanks for all the replies.
He's really not. Photography can quickly use 64GB of RAM. It's much easier to add storage via TB4 later.
If you've been looking for a specific configuration and have been going to apple's site including the refurbs - then you already made up your mind. You don't need our endorsement, seems as though you know what you want, so just buy it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I would think the refurb store would have a higher probability of stocking some of the squealy Mac Studios that have been returned.
Agree. I've posted Lloyd Chambers' comments at his Mac Performance Guide before:
"The most important advice I can give is this: do not skimp on memory. That Adobe Lightroom was a memory pig to the tune of 74GB just to process 600 files should give pause to anyone contemplating only 64GB (or less)."
2022 Mac Studio M1 Ultra: Recommended Models and Accessories
macperformanceguide.com
A Max with 64GB RAM should be good, but if you do any heavy lifting (like large focus stacks, or Lloyd's 600 file processing) an Ultra with 128GB is the better long-term bet.
On storage, Lloyd recommends not going less than 2TB, but as mentioned above, if the budget caps you out at 1TB you can add external storage down the road if necessary (unlike memory).
Good luck!
You snooze you lose. Finally decided to order it and most refurbs are gone except the units above $4000. I'll wait until the next batch make it to the refurb store. Thanks folks for all the replies.
I was at the edge of the mini and then I wanted to do more on it and I could just do things sequentially but I like the flexibility of doing things at the same time so I bought a Studio yesterday. It is also an issue of revenue generation. If your living depends on getting things done in a timely manner, and you can see the lost revenue opportunity, then it's an easy decision.
The 32GB model and 24 GPU looks temping but the one I wanted and lost out for not jumping was a 1TB drive, 64GB ram and 32 core GPU. Will have to keep checking back.
There are several reviews out there that show 64GB of ram is a waste of money for most photographers. Maybe you're not most photographers? Good luck.
I bought a refurb studio on Monday and they do not sit in the refurb store for very long. Maybe 15 minutes is about what I saw this week (twice).
I bought a refurb studio on Monday and they do not sit in the refurb store for very long. Maybe 15 minutes is about what I saw this week (twice).
What's interesting in the Refurb store is how fast the higher-end models go. I would have expected the base models to always be out stock and more high-end models for sale. I do think that Apple is selling Studios at a fast clip. My salesperson, though, said that it's the model that they sell the least of. That's fair but I think that they still sell an eye-popping number of them. I wish Apple broke out Mac sales by model.
Yep they go fast. I looked at the refurb store at 10 on Monday morning and nothing. Fifteen minutes later I tried to convince myself not to get sucked in, had a look anyways and there were many different models. I signed up for the Apple Card, made my order and ten or fifteen minutes after that nothing but the base model.
Mine is up and running and noise is not a problem. I can hear a quiet whoosh when my ear is 12 inches from the front of the Studio. I don't hear it at all at 18 inches and I was running at 50% CPU load (I couldn't get it higher). The Studio feels just like my MacBook Pro 16 in performance and behavior and, that is to say, great. It will take me some time to set it up in copying files and installing programs that are on the M1 mini. I will need to order at least one USB-C to DP or HDMI cable. That's assuming that I find the other one that should be in one of my parts boxes.
Honestly, I don't even need one, and now I feel like upgrading my Mac Mini M1...