{"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=\"span-reading-time 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 class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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 class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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 class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To recap, my 27&#8243; Intel iMac was configured as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><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 class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The 8GB RAM configuration was the minimum available from Apple, with an OWC upgrade kit purchased separately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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 class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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 class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This is no longer available, having been replaced by a Mac Studio and Studio Display combination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So let&#8217;s configure equivalent specs&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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 class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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 class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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 class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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 class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To do so, things are a little more complicated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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 class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Secondly, you cannot simply choose to upgrade from the base 32GB to 128GB.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><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 class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you&#8217;re keeping track, that brings the cart up to $10,800<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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 class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Bringing the final system cost to an eye-watering&#8230; $12,200 New Zealand dollars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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 class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Then there&#8217;s the question of form-factor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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 class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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 class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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 class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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 class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Unless your day-to-day work consists solely of running single-core benchmark suites, of course.  \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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 class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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=\"span-reading-time 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_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","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_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[18,4,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blogging","category-delphi","category-general"],"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":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deltics.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"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}]}}