{"id":3311,"date":"2022-03-09T12:03:46","date_gmt":"2022-03-09T00:03:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.deltics.co.nz\/blog\/?p=3311"},"modified":"2022-03-09T12:04:38","modified_gmt":"2022-03-09T00:04:38","slug":"st-st-st-studio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.deltics.co.nz\/blog\/posts\/3311\/","title":{"rendered":"St-St-St-Studio&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">[Estimated Reading Time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\">3<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes]<\/span><\/span>\n<p>Back in December <a href=\"https:\/\/www.deltics.co.nz\/blog\/posts\/3066\/\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.deltics.co.nz\/blog\/posts\/3066\/\">I pulled the trigger on upgrading my Intel 27&#8243; iMac and pondered whether I&#8217;d made the right decision<\/a>&#8230; With the recent reveal of the Apple Studio product line and the attendant withdrawal of the Intel iMacs, I am hugely relieved that I did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>Technical <em>capability<\/em> aside, an &#8220;Apples for Apples&#8221; [sic] comparison of the <em>specs<\/em> provides the single biggest reason to be relieved.  In fact, many, many <strong>thousands<\/strong> of reasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To recap, my 27&#8243; Intel iMac was configured as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>3.6Ghz 10-core Intel i9<\/li><li><em>8GB DDR4 RAM<\/em><\/li><li>2TB SSD<\/li><li>27&#8243; 5K Retina Display (standard glass)<\/li><li>16GB Radeon Pro 5700XT<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The 8GB RAM configuration was the minimum available from Apple, with an OWC upgrade kit purchased separately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Taking that into account, the total cost of the machine, including the OWC RAM upgrade kit (and shipping etc) came to $7,500.  That&#8217;s NZ $&#8217;s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Not cheap by any stretch of the imagination, but a beast of a machine (and &#8211; IMHO &#8211; a good looking one to boot! ymmv).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is no longer available, having been replaced by a Mac Studio and Studio Display combination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So let&#8217;s configure equivalent specs&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The base configuration of the Mac Studio comes equipped with a 10\/24\/16 M1 Max.  That&#8217;s 10 CPU cores, 24 GPU cores and 16-core Neural Engine.  With only 32GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD, this base configuration still clocks in at $3600, already close to half the total cost of my iMac system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Adding a 27&#8243; Mac Studio display with basic, tilt-only stand, is another whopping $3,000.  A height-adjustable stand is also an option, for a further $700, but the iMac isn&#8217;t height adjustable (though I gained all the height adjustment I needed by adding a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.twelvesouth.com\/products\/hirise-pro\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.twelvesouth.com\/products\/hirise-pro\">TwelveSouth HiRise Pro<\/a> at half the cost of a Studio height-adjustable stand, with additional storage features and nice desk presence).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Increasing the SSD capacity from 512GB to 2TB is the simplest next step, bringing the cost to $7,649.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And already this configuration has reached the total cost of my iMac and we have not yet addressed the difference in RAM.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To do so, things are a little more complicated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>First of all, unlike the Intel Macs, customers don&#8217;t have the option of fitting their own RAM in M1 hardware.  You <strong>have<\/strong> to configure the RAM from the factory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Secondly, you cannot simply choose to upgrade from the base 32GB to 128GB.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>M1 Max<\/strong> processor options top out with a maximum of 64GB.  If you need &#8211; or just want &#8211; 128GB of RAM, then you are forced to first upgrade the processor to an M1 Ultra.  It must be mentioned that the lowest configurable <strong>M1 Ultra<\/strong> option (20\/48\/32) comes with 64GB of RAM to start with, so the 2,450 additional dollars account for more than <em>just<\/em> the CPU.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you&#8217;re keeping track, that brings the cart up to $10,800<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To finally achieve spec parity with the 128GB RAM requires shelling out a further $1,400 for the extra 64GB.  As a reminder, that&#8217;s DOUBLE what I paid in total for the 128GB kit for my iMac.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bringing the final system cost to an eye-watering&#8230; $12,200 New Zealand dollars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Out of the gate, that&#8217;s 4,700 Reasons To Be Happy with my iMac purchase.  And whilst the $3,000 display wouldn&#8217;t need to be replaced if\/when the Mac Studio itself is ever upgraded, that still leaves a Mac Studio alone costing almost $2,000 <em>more<\/em> than the iMac with its integrated 27&#8243; 5K Retina display.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Then there&#8217;s the question of form-factor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Whilst there are pros and cons when it comes to all-in-ones, the overriding pro (for me) is that &#8220;all-in-one&#8221; nature, making managing an increasingly cluttered desktop that bit easier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The severability advantage of not having to replace the screen when replacing the machine is somewhat undermined by the extraordinary price inflation on that machine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">&#8220;But It&#8217;s Not Just About The Specs&#8230;&#8221;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Much has been made of the advantages of the M1 architecture over Intel, but in more recent times the hyperbole has given way to a somewhat more muted appreciation.  The power-per-watt advantage is most compelling in mobile form factors which don&#8217;t apply in my desktop use case, and when multi-thread work-loads have been more meaningfully measured overall performance advantage over comparable Intel chips has been shown to be less dramatic than initial impressions suggested.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In particular, you might point at the 10-core i9 and think that the 20-core M1 Ultra is self-evidently in a different league.  And if you were running single-core tests you would come away feeling correct.  But those 10 i9 cores are built on a foundation that relies on hyper-threading to provide 20 <em>virtual<\/em> cores, which <a href=\"https:\/\/wccftech.com\/why-apple-m1-single-core-comparisons-are-fundamentally-flawed-with-benchmarks\/\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/wccftech.com\/why-apple-m1-single-core-comparisons-are-fundamentally-flawed-with-benchmarks\/\">single-core tests do not properly reflect<\/a>.  More importantly, I cannot think of any real-world scenario in modern computing where I am concerned with using each core in splendid isolation.  Real software just doesn&#8217;t work like that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Unless your day-to-day work consists solely of running single-core benchmark suites, of course.  \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In my initial post about my purchase, I mentioned not being too concerned with content and media production work, where the M1 is said to have the greatest advantage.  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.deltics.co.nz\/blog\/posts\/3306\/\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.deltics.co.nz\/blog\/posts\/3306\/\">Whilst that absence of concern has recently changed<\/a>, I cannot say that my i9 equipped machine is struggling.  Quite the opposite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Perhaps an M1 Ultra would provide some superior performance in some areas but until I feel I need that, I&#8217;m very happy to have that $4,500 to spend on other things.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">[Estimated Reading Time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\">3<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes]<\/span><\/span> Back in December I pulled the trigger on upgrading my Intel 27&#8243; iMac and pondered whether I&#8217;d made the right decision&#8230; With the recent reveal of the Apple Studio product line and the attendant withdrawal of the Intel iMacs, I am hugely relieved that I did.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3313,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"Mac Studio Line... Nice gear, perhaps, but the price makes me glad I already upgraded to the last\/latest Intel iMac.","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[18,4,1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.deltics.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/MacStudio.jpeg?fit=895%2C186&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1TKYv-Rp","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3066,"url":"https:\/\/www.deltics.co.nz\/blog\/posts\/3066\/","url_meta":{"origin":3311,"position":0},"title":"It&#8217;s Nearly 2022 and I Bought An Intel iMac.  Am I Mad?","date":"09 Dec 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"With all the attention that the new M1 based Mac's are getting these days, and with the stated intention of phasing out Intel in the Apple hardware, someone would have to be mad to buy an Intel Mac at the moment. Wouldn't they?Well I did, and here's why... What am\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Blogging&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.deltics.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/m1-vs-intel.png?fit=1200%2C391&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3320,"url":"https:\/\/www.deltics.co.nz\/blog\/posts\/3320\/","url_meta":{"origin":3311,"position":1},"title":"Mac Studio Power Savings in $&#8217;s","date":"24 Mar 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"In commenting on my previous post about the extravagant cost of the new Mac Studio (as compared to the 27\" iMac SKU it has seemingly replaced), Thomas Speck quite reasonably pointed out that the reduced power consumption of the M1 silicon would result in savings over the lifetime of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Delphi&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.deltics.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/ultra.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1525,"url":"https:\/\/www.deltics.co.nz\/blog\/posts\/1525\/","url_meta":{"origin":3311,"position":2},"title":"RAD Studio in Auckland \/ Android in a VM \/ Touchy Feely","date":"30 Aug 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Well, not really RAD Studio as such, more like Mobile Studio (whether as part of RAD Studio Ent+ or the Mobile Add-On) since everything shown was oriented around the Android support and emphasising the fact that an application written for iOS can simply be recompiled and will run on Android.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Delphi&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"Androidx86","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.deltics.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Androidx86-1024x608.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2231,"url":"https:\/\/www.deltics.co.nz\/blog\/posts\/2231\/","url_meta":{"origin":3311,"position":3},"title":"Did you get the Memo ?","date":"01 Aug 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"People looking for a cheap Android tablet have a new option from a respected player: The Asus Pad 7 Although not exactly falling over themselves in excitement (it is an entry level, budget device after all), reviewers are finding a lot to like in this device. But Delphi developers hoping\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Android&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1233,"url":"https:\/\/www.deltics.co.nz\/blog\/posts\/1233\/","url_meta":{"origin":3311,"position":4},"title":"ReverseBytes()","date":"20 Sep 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"In some comments on StackOverflow, Jeroen asked me to post my code for reversing bytes. Rather than posting code into that question\/answer that wasn't directly relevant to the question\/answer, I decided to quickly throw the code up on here. The intent with ReverseBytes() is - as the name says -\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Delphi&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2449,"url":"https:\/\/www.deltics.co.nz\/blog\/posts\/2449\/","url_meta":{"origin":3311,"position":5},"title":"Windows 10 OneDrive Bug &#8211; (It Will Delete Your Files)","date":"05 Jul 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Not really a \"Pascal\" issue, but an important one never-the-less and one that for some curious reason is not receiving any significant coverage: Windows 10 deletes your OneDrive files (in the cloud). The Backstory This first happened to me over Christmas when I lost over 250GB of files, mostly media\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Delphi&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deltics.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3311"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deltics.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deltics.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltics.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltics.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3311"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltics.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3311\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3314,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltics.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3311\/revisions\/3314"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltics.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deltics.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltics.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltics.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}