Costco Wholesale has for their
Members: New Mac Studio Desktop: Apple M1 Max Chip (MJMV3LL/A) on sale for
$1699.99.
Shipping is free.
Thanks to Community Member
Weejie for finding this deal.
Note: You need to be an active Costco Member and signed in to your account to purchase at sale price, otherwise non-members may purchase but are subject to a 5% surcharge.
Specs:
- Apple M1 Max Chip
- 10-core CPU with 8 performance cores and 2 efficiency cores
- 24-core GPU
- 16-core Neural Engine
- 400GB/s memory bandwidth
- 32GB RAM (Unified Memory)
- 512GB Solid State Drive
- Built-in speaker
- Bluetooth 5.0
- Wi-Fi (802.11ax Wi-Fi 6 wireless networking) (IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac compatible)
- macOS Monterey
- Ports:
- 3.5 mm headphone jack
- HDMI port (supports multichannel audio output)
- 4x Thunderbolt 4 (up to 40Gb/s)
- 2x USB-A
- 10Gb Ethernet
- 2x USB-C Ports (Front)
- SDXC Card Slot (UHS-II)
- 7.7-inch-square, 3.7-inch-tall design in silver
Leave a Comment
Top Comments
As mentioned the M2 Pro CPUs are faster than the M1 Max's. But also the Wi-Fi is better (6e on the Mini vs. 6 on the Studio) and so is the the Bluetooth (5.3 on the Mini vs. 5.0 on the Studio).
The only reason to get this deal is if you don't care about CPU performance as much as you care about GPU. The Mac Studio M1 Max's GPU performance is better in benchmarks (likely due to the M1 Max's 12 GPU cores vs. the M2 Pro's 10). The only other differences between the two machines is the Studio has 2 additional USB-C ports and an SD card reader on the front.
On the phone side, apple is unparalleled, on the computer side they are not a leader at all. 8 years used to be a lot but computers and even phones now days last much longer than before. If you upgrade more often than 8 years you'll probably be fine but I have quite a few friends and family using computers over 8 years old.
You can look here and see the Mac os compatibility with older macs: https://en.m.wikipedia.
You'll notice macos 13 doesn't officially support anything older than 2017. Which isn't that old. It's also not the same year for every Mac either, some are supported longer than others.
Apple only recently started releasing security updates for older os versions and even with that they only go two years back and they don't support it the same as their current version. You can read more about that here: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2...-of-macos/
If you want a really detailed article on Mac os updates and how long you'll get them you can read one here: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2...a-problem/
Tldr: don't expect more than 8 years of updates and that isn't class leading at all.
Second, you omitted that the Studio comes with a 10Gb Ethernet port, which again matters when you are moving enormous video files around a LAN (the better WifFi on the M2 Pro doesn't come close to those speeds!). That option is an additional $100 more, and added 2 weeks of additional lead time on a BTO the M2 Pro Mini. So your price comparison ("the price is the same") is actually off by $100 for this Studio, which is cheaper than a comparably equipped (32GB/512GB/10GbE) M2 Pro Mini.
Finally, Apple does tend to support its professional machines (like the Studio) longer than its consumer (ie M2 Mini) and "pro-sumer" lines (which is where I'd place the M2 Pro Mini). When you've got a customer base that can and will spend up to $56K for video editing machines (the old Intel Mac Pro), you support those companies. I'm curious to see how the next iterations of the Studio and Pro product lines roll out over the rest of the year.
While I'd agree that these machines are roughly comparable in many ways IMO, there's no question that if you are a professional video editor or film animator the Studio is the better machine. For the rest of us schlubs though... it's mostly a wash in terms of performance for the price. There are plusses and minuses.
So I don't agree that this is a "not a good deal", even though I'm slightly inclined to go with the M2 Pro mainly because it is a bit more power efficient, plus the form factor (other than no front ports), and the slightly newer processor. In my use case, the 32GB RAM and the better RAM bandwidth would probably matter mostly when running virtual machines. But as I want at least 1TB fast SSD storage (external TB4 enclosures with NVME4 SSDs capable of comparable speeds to the internal SSD actually cost even more than Apple's expensive pricing!), I'll probably end up with a BTO of one or the other at an even higher price point.
But at this price the Studio is worth a look and is a tempting alternative. Too bad Citibank & Costco stopped offering the 4-year extended warranty protection plan last week though, or that might have tipped the scales in favor of the Studio for me.
134 Comments
Sign up for a Slickdeals account to remove this ad.
Our community has rated this post as helpful. If you agree, why not thank chi
Our community has rated this post as helpful. If you agree, why not thank ptoro
As mentioned the M2 Pro CPUs are faster than the M1 Max's. But also the Wi-Fi is better (6e on the Mini vs. 6 on the Studio) and so is the the Bluetooth (5.3 on the Mini vs. 5.0 on the Studio).
The only reason to get this deal is if you don't care about CPU performance as much as you care about GPU. The Mac Studio M1 Max's GPU performance is better in benchmarks (likely due to the M1 Max's 12 GPU cores vs. the M2 Pro's 10). The only other differences between the two machines is the Studio has 2 additional USB-C ports and an SD card reader on the front.
As mentioned the M2 Pro CPUs are faster than the M1 Max's. But also the Wi-Fi is better (6e on the Mini vs. 6 on the Studio) and so is the the Bluetooth (5.3 on the Mini vs. 5.0 on the Studio).
The only reason to get this deal is if you don't care about CPU performance as much as you care about GPU. The Mac Studio M1 Max's GPU performance is better in benchmarks (likely due to the M1 Max's 12 GPU cores vs. the M2 Pro's 10). And the only other difference between the two machines is you have 2 additional USB-C front ports on the Studio.
Sign up for a Slickdeals account to remove this ad.
I just specced out that exact setup IN THE EDUCATION store and it's $200 more expensive. $300 outside the education store.
$1,919.00
Apple M2 Pro with 12‑core CPU, 19-core GPU, 16‑core Neural Engine
32GB unified memory
512GB SSD storage
10 Gigabit Ethernet
Four Thunderbolt 4 ports, HDMI port, two USB‑A ports, headphone jack
You can't spec the lower M2 processor with the Mac Studio and expect it be more expensive rofl
Apple is unparalleled in their support for older software.
Our community has rated this post as helpful. If you agree, why not thank munkle
Apple is unparalleled in their support for older software.
On the phone side, apple is unparalleled, on the computer side they are not a leader at all. 8 years used to be a lot but computers and even phones now days last much longer than before. If you upgrade more often than 8 years you'll probably be fine but I have quite a few friends and family using computers over 8 years old.
You can look here and see the Mac os compatibility with older macs: https://en.m.wikipedia.
You'll notice macos 13 doesn't officially support anything older than 2017. Which isn't that old. It's also not the same year for every Mac either, some are supported longer than others.
Apple only recently started releasing security updates for older os versions and even with that they only go two years back and they don't support it the same as their current version. You can read more about that here: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2...-of-macos/
If you want a really detailed article on Mac os updates and how long you'll get them you can read one here: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2...a-problem/
Tldr: don't expect more than 8 years of updates and that isn't class leading at all.
I ordered a M2 Mini 16gb/1 TB SSD, as I like the form factor better, but Studio is just $300 more.
Our community has rated this post as helpful. If you agree, why not thank spacemoth
As mentioned the M2 Pro CPUs are faster than the M1 Max's. But also the Wi-Fi is better (6e on the Mini vs. 6 on the Studio) and so is the the Bluetooth (5.3 on the Mini vs. 5.0 on the Studio).
The only reason to get this deal is if you don't care about CPU performance as much as you care about GPU. The Mac Studio M1 Max's GPU performance is better in benchmarks (likely due to the M1 Max's 12 GPU cores vs. the M2 Pro's 10). The only other differences between the two machines is the Studio has 2 additional USB-C ports and an SD card reader on the front.
The M2 Pro 512 SSD Mini speed is about 3,000 MB/s (2x256 SSD nand chips), while the M1 Max 512 SSD Studio speed is around 5,000 MB/s.
Not that it will necessarily be noticeable in day-to-day use, but it is an area where the Studio is better than the M2 Pro mini.
Sign up for a Slickdeals account to remove this ad.
Leave a Comment