Description says M1 Max but they list the product code for the M1 Pro.
I'd want clarification before placing an order.
That said even for an M1 Max, I think this deal is just lukewarm due to these not being real Apple refurbs. Sure you might get lucky and get something that looks brand new and still has some warranty, but you could also end up with a scuffed up machine with 81% battery capacity, and a 90 day Woot warranty that won't do squat.
Good price, though probably not being able to add Apple Care would scare me a bit. I'd personally wait for a even not quite as good deal on a new or Apple refurb. Some of the Microcenter deals have been in this ballpark (a couple hundred more) I think.
Description says M1 Max but they list the product code for the M1 Pro.
I'd want clarification before placing an order.
That said even for an M1 Max, I think this deal is just lukewarm due to these not being real Apple refurbs. Sure you might get lucky and get something that looks brand new and still has some warranty, but you could also end up with a scuffed up machine with 81% battery capacity, and a 90 day Woot warranty that won't do squat.
Not to mention that these third-party refurbishers might be using nonstandard Apple parts, which would make it, so the Apple would not even work on. It should a problem arises in the future.
And that's if you purchased extended Apple warranty… Assuming you even could.
I do think this is a good price especially if it's really a max processor… However, 14 inch laptops are known to throttle considerably under heavy loads due to lack of cooling… So you're really not getting such a powerful machine… I mean it will cut through almost anything pretty fast, but if you really try to do something significant with it like AI or LLM you're going to end up with a very sluggish machine…. There are plenty of YouTube videos about this problem… And this is especially true of the M1 variant.
Good price, though probably not being able to add Apple Care would scare me a bit. I'd personally wait for a even not quite as good deal on a new or Apple refurb. Some of the Microcenter deals have been in this ballpark (a couple hundred more) I think.
The closest I've seen to this price for a 14 inch with the specs at Micro Center was $2199… But I can't remember if that was new or certified refurbished. So this is a good price, but you're definitely taking a risk.
Not to mention that these third-party refurbishers might be using nonstandard Apple parts, which would make it, so the Apple would not even work on. It should a problem arises in the future.
And that's if you purchased extended Apple warranty… Assuming you even could.
I do think this is a good price especially if it's really a max processor… However, 14 inch laptops are known to throttle considerably under heavy loads due to lack of cooling… So you're really not getting such a powerful machine… I mean it will cut through almost anything pretty fast, but if you really try to do something significant with it like AI or LLM you're going to end up with a very sluggish machine…. There are plenty of YouTube videos about this problem… And this is especially true of the M1 variant.
I agree that the longer I look at this "deal" the worse it gets.
BUT you're way off base regarding throttling. The cooling solution is fairly robust (albeit less capable than the 16") and thus throttling on the 14" M1 Max MBP is pretty minor (I know, I own one.) Even in the worst case scenario the difference in GPU performance between 14" and 16" is typically only around ~10% (CPU performance is the same.) I think the difference is slightly more pronounced with the M3 Max just due to the thermal ceiling being a bit higher, but even there it isn't a huge difference.
If anything the much more important difference between 14" and 16" MBPs is the battery life. The 14" M1 Max in particular has somewhat middling battery life relative to other Apple Silicon laptops (although you can still get >10 hours out of it for light use, and a fair number of hours for heavier.)
One last thing, if you really want to do LLMs on these, I'd recommend waiting for a deal on one with 64GB+ of RAM. While you can certainly do some fun stuff with 32GB of Unified memory, given that you have to leave some for system ram (or else the system will crash), bigger, more capable models like Miqu just won't fit even heavily quantized.
any reason to hold out for a discounted M2? or M3 Pro? I think the M3 Pro has wifi6e or something, right? is that worth holding out for if I plan on using this computer for the next 5 years or so?
I received this the other day, it is an M1 Max indeed. Battery health was 95% with 81 cycles. I will be returning it though since the refurb hasn't been done well. The keycaps have small paint bubbles and the body around trackpad feels matte / rubbery. I think they sprayed the keyboard with something to get rid of the glossy keycaps (from usage), but it also got on the body & trackpad.
The closest I've seen to this price for a 14 inch with the specs at Micro Center was $2199… But I can't remember if that was new or certified refurbished. So this is a good price, but you're definitely taking a risk.
The microcenter one was certified refurbished with full one year Apple warranty. Also had 64gb ram and I think 2TB
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I'd want clarification before placing an order.
That said even for an M1 Max, I think this deal is just lukewarm due to these not being real Apple refurbs. Sure you might get lucky and get something that looks brand new and still has some warranty, but you could also end up with a scuffed up machine with 81% battery capacity, and a 90 day Woot warranty that won't do squat.
I'd want clarification before placing an order.
That said even for an M1 Max, I think this deal is just lukewarm due to these not being real Apple refurbs. Sure you might get lucky and get something that looks brand new and still has some warranty, but you could also end up with a scuffed up machine with 81% battery capacity, and a 90 day Woot warranty that won't do squat.
And that's if you purchased extended Apple warranty… Assuming you even could.
I do think this is a good price especially if it's really a max processor… However, 14 inch laptops are known to throttle considerably under heavy loads due to lack of cooling… So you're really not getting such a powerful machine… I mean it will cut through almost anything pretty fast, but if you really try to do something significant with it like AI or LLM you're going to end up with a very sluggish machine…. There are plenty of YouTube videos about this problem… And this is especially true of the M1 variant.
And that's if you purchased extended Apple warranty… Assuming you even could.
I do think this is a good price especially if it's really a max processor… However, 14 inch laptops are known to throttle considerably under heavy loads due to lack of cooling… So you're really not getting such a powerful machine… I mean it will cut through almost anything pretty fast, but if you really try to do something significant with it like AI or LLM you're going to end up with a very sluggish machine…. There are plenty of YouTube videos about this problem… And this is especially true of the M1 variant.
BUT you're way off base regarding throttling. The cooling solution is fairly robust (albeit less capable than the 16") and thus throttling on the 14" M1 Max MBP is pretty minor (I know, I own one.) Even in the worst case scenario the difference in GPU performance between 14" and 16" is typically only around ~10% (CPU performance is the same.) I think the difference is slightly more pronounced with the M3 Max just due to the thermal ceiling being a bit higher, but even there it isn't a huge difference.
If anything the much more important difference between 14" and 16" MBPs is the battery life. The 14" M1 Max in particular has somewhat middling battery life relative to other Apple Silicon laptops (although you can still get >10 hours out of it for light use, and a fair number of hours for heavier.)
One last thing, if you really want to do LLMs on these, I'd recommend waiting for a deal on one with 64GB+ of RAM. While you can certainly do some fun stuff with 32GB of Unified memory, given that you have to leave some for system ram (or else the system will crash), bigger, more capable models like Miqu just won't fit even heavily quantized.
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The microcenter one was certified refurbished with full one year Apple warranty. Also had 64gb ram and I think 2TB