Are people seriously complaining about the weight? Come on, I have medical textbooks that weigh more than 8 pounds.
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M1 Ultra Mac Studio is 2 Pounds Heavier Than M1 Max Version Due to Thermal Differences
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Well, yes, except no.
Most of the extra weight is likely due to a beefier PSU and a Laptop wouldn't really have that problem.
But when you get more power by simply doubling the CPU you get roughly twice as much heat and twice as much power consumption, which the laptop surely couldn't handle properly.
While I'm doubtful Apple would do it (for other reasons mentioned below), I think it technically would be possible for the current Mac Mini enclosure to properly cool an M1 Pro chip (let's say at a similar level of performance as the 14" MBP) because if you look at teardowns of the M1 Mac Mini, it's almost half empty inside because the enclosure was originally designed to handle the much more power hungry/hot Intel chips.
The current M1 Mac Mini has a max power draw of ~40w, with the previous Intel system in the same enclosure drawing ~125w. It can be argued that the latter (Intel) wasn't cooled particularly well/effectively, so ok, let's be conservative and say that enclosure is capable of "effectively" cooling ~80w, which should be enough for an M1 Pro.
That said, while I think it could be done from a technical perspective, I think more likely move is when M2 comes around, Apple will redesign the Mac Mini to make it smaller than it is now in an enclosure that is designed to handle the ~40w or so that the M2 system will use.
The iMac became “professional” with the Core2Extreme chip version. I had one and it was very useful for FCP, DVDSP, etc.
It seems that Apple was very careful to differentiate between the words "thermal module" and "heatsink." Can someone with computer-innards knowledge tell me the difference between a heatsink and a thermal module?
They could fit a printer in there if they made the body thinker. /s
And they haven't fit an i9 in the new design of the the iMac.
I would presume that the "thermal module" refers to both the copper heatsink and the dual active cooling fans.
A "thermal module" can generally be interpreted as "the cooling solution, minus the fan(s)."
So a thermal module might include things like a heat sink, heat pipe(s), and the cold plate/contact plate(s) that mounts/touches the die (CPU, GPU) and other components it's meant to cool (e.g. power delivery components like MOSFETs, RAM, etc.).
Generally, the cold plate takes the heat from the components it contacts and uses heat pipes to transfer the heat to a heat sink, which is then cooled with a fan.
(for the super geeks out there, I am generalizing, particularly based on how Apple has typically done things in the past - I know vapor chambers are a thing)
So Apple's wording might imply that the cold plate and heatpipes on the Mac Studio with M1 Max are still copper, but the heatsink is aluminum.
Does software need to be somewhat optimized to take advantage of the Ultra dual-chip architecture? I know it's supposed to operate as a single chip, and Apple went on at length about it, using a lot of tech jargon, but in practice will Adobe Photoshop really run twice as fast on the Ultra as on the Max?
If Apple's claims are to be taken at face value, then no specific software optimization should have to be made due to its dual-chiplet design.
HOWEVER, that is not to say that no software optimizations need be made in order to take advantage of >10 cores, regardless of whether those cores are spread over 2 "chiplets" or are all on a single one.
Many tasks simply cannot be parallelized beyond a certain amount of threads (e.g. when the next process cannot start because it relies on using the completed calculation of a prior process).
In other words, many apps will likely need to be optimized in order to take advantage of 20 CPU cores in general, but this doesn't have anything to do with the fact that those 20 cores are spread over 2 chiplets.
It could end up on my Dell G15, it's already one inch thick!
EDIT: my Dell G15 can be called a notebook but not a laptop, I'm not crazy to use it on my lap, it's too hot!
To be fair, it's not that the M1 Ultra uses a lot of power / runs hot compared to the Intel chips that were used in the 27" iMac.
It's more that the previous Intel chips were cooled so inadequately that they were only able to achieve peak performance for short bursts of time, before having to dial back how much power it consumed/heat it produced, all while having fans be loud when it's crunch time.
It seems like now Apple is just more willing to make things larger/thicker in order to actually adequately cool them and have sustained peak performance, while keeping fan noise low.
The only down side to wall mounting it is in order for the back ports and cables to hang below it, the Apple logo will be upside down.
When I first saw the leaked images, I said to myself, "oh! this must be the Apple's form factor for the future with tons of room to grow!" only to find out it's packed to the brim with heatsinks. I seriously thought there were expansion slots inside
Sure but have you seen how thick the fans needed to cool that beast are? Based on everyone’s inability to even lift the 16” MBP, Apple already predicted its customers would be crushed under the sheer weight of the Ultra MBPs which is a lot of lost sales.
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At least $500
Seriously, I'd assume it means an assembly comprising heatsink (i.e. lump of metal) plus fan(s), plus maybe heat-pipes.
Generally, bigger fans = quieter (they can shift air at the same rate as a smaller fan while rotating more slowly) and bigger heatsinks = more effective (larger surface area, less need for fast airflow). You could probably cool the chip quite adequately with smaller fans and heatsinks - it would just be noisier because the fans would have to run faster.
Apple’s actually thought about that. If you ever need to move it, just launch Chrome and turn it on it’s side. It’ll generate enough force to easily allow you to move it from place to place!