Costco Members: Apple Mac Studio Desktop: M1 Max Chip, 32GB RAM, 512GB SSD (2022) Expired

I basically agree, but with the following adds / exceptions --

We ordered one of these on this deal -- thanks OP! It should arrive tomorrow.

We have had an M1 Max Studio for about 8 months now. Our M1 Mini's with 16GB RAM just seem too slow now that we're spoiled by the Max Studio which we got for about 1700 bucks on an open box deal.

We may have shot ourselves in the foot because rumor has it that a 'space gray' pro Studio version with an M2 max or ultra or something CPU chip will be out at WWDC in June. We've played this game before and waited 6, 9, 12 months before something close to the rumored machine showed up. Plus, for our uses, we really don't need the M1 Ultra or M2 Ultra type horsepower.

On the other hand, a ~500 dollar or ~25% drop is something that doesn't usually happen with Mac pricing. It could be that Microsoft and Apple -- both of whom reported Windows OEM and Mac sales down about 20% year/year - ( in their quarters ended March 31, reported last week) are seeing a glut in desk/lap top supply and are not too eager to throw more resources into developing the category when they see more potential in AI for Microsoft and VR and phones for Apple.

Also, the M2 Mini stepped up version with similar cores and RAM and storage is about the same price as the Studio basic Max. If you accept the view that heat is the primary enemy of any electronic device, then for the same money go for the machine that should have better cooling - the Studio over the Mini.

Re M1 / M2 / M3, etc. The M2 seems to be about 20% avg. faster than the M1 for most tasks. Who is to say that the M3 will have nothing but the same rate of change, i.e., another +20% over the M2. The old rule dating back decades is that CPU performance has to approximately double before from one clock speed / core count to the next before performance increases are perceptible 'touch and feel' types of human, not software based, measurements.

Apple 'cuts you a new one' with storage upgrade pricing. We have our Studio and Mini M1' decked out with Thunderbolt drive NVME drives. They are very fast,and reliable. Plus we can swap them between machines, or take them off and let them sit on the shelf for archival backup. Unless we get into making feature length movies or something, our 512 drives serve us okay. Old stuff can be moved to one of the Thunderbolt dongle drives quickly and easily.


We could be wrong, but the above factors shaped our decision.






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Lol you edited your post, I have your original on my first reply to you.

You can use a $30 USB-C to HDMI 2.1 Cable Matters adapter to get 4K120 from any M1 Mac.