When Apple introduced the Mac Studio about 3 years ago, I took a pass and replaced my 2018 Mac Mini (fully kitted out with RAM and SSD etc.) as my daily driver with a maxed-out MacBook Pro 14-inch with the M1Max and oodles of RAM and SSD capacity. I ran it as my main daily driver on the desktop paired with a Cal Digit TB4 dock and from 2 to 4 Asus 32-inch HD monitors depending on the whims of my day.
That MBP worked great, and I was able to snatch it for traveling as needed. I did try running a home-built Windows machine as the daily driver for a year as a promise to my Windows-loving kid but just couldn’t live without my beloved MacOS. I went back to the MBP for the daily driver and relegated the Windows machine to radio programming and control, a task for which it is ideally suited.
I eventually convinced the wife to let me upgrade to a new Mac Studio when the M4 was announced in March of this year. I ordered a new M4 Max Studio, fully kitted out with 64GB or RAM and a 4TB SSD. I figured I would over buy to make it last longer, the wife bought the idea and authorized the purchase. I did not trade in my MBP as it Is still a great machine, and I intend to travel more often, and I need a good travel companion.
When it arrived, I was able to get it up and operating quickly. I am currently using 2 27-inch monitors, one via HDMI and another with a USB-C to DP cable. I connected my 4K web cam and my studio mic via USB-C as well as my TimeMachine hard drive. I did not choose to restore from the MBP, instead I reinstalled my applications (Office, Parallels, FileMaker, AnyDesk and a few others and connected to my files via iCloud and OneDrive. All in all, it took less than an hour to install these programs and run the updates. That is a far cry from the multiple hours and a dozen or more restarts required for the Windows install on the PC.
So far, I have had exactly zero problems with the Studio. I have shut it down twice, once when we were out of town for a week and once when I moved the desk around. It runs 24/7 and I let the machine lock itself and the monitors to go dark when not in use.
The Bluetooth issues that plagued the Mac Mini’s I have had in the past and (to a lesser extent) on the MBP have not been an issue on the Studio. I use an MX Keys keyboard and MX Master mouse, and they paired easily via Bluetooth and never have faltered. I occasionally use AirPods or AirPods Max with it, and they too have worked fine.
As I use it mostly for content consumption, some light image work and a ton of writing I am certainly not taxing any of the resources. About the only time I do is when I am using Parallels and Windows to run some of my radio stuff. It is just more convenient to use the Mac sometimes instead of the Windows machine on the side desk.
I anticipate this to be a 7-to-10-year computer for me, that explains why I spent the extra money to get the RAM and SSD capacity that I did. I keep telling myself that I am going to start editing videos, but I haven’t gone down that rabbit hole yet.
I might upgrade the monitors at some point, I have been thinking of the MSI 49-in curved one as it is only $800 at Sam’s Club. I am waiting on responses to some inquiries to come in first though. I also thought about giving the Samsung Odyssey G9 another shot, the first one I bought a few years ago crapped out after a week or so. The Acer 27” monitors I have now serve my purpose so it is entirely possible I will just stick with them.
Overall, I think I did the right thing buying the Studio. I probably would have been just as happy with a maxed-out M4 Mac Mini but the price difference was only $700 and I get twice the GPU cores and more CPU cores, as well as additional I/O and better cooling. Yeah, for $700 I could have bought another Mac Mini on top of the maxed out version I considered, but I am playing the long game here and felt more comfortable with the Studio. If it lasts me 5 or 6 years I will be ahead of the game, anything beyond that is gravy.
That MBP worked great, and I was able to snatch it for traveling as needed. I did try running a home-built Windows machine as the daily driver for a year as a promise to my Windows-loving kid but just couldn’t live without my beloved MacOS. I went back to the MBP for the daily driver and relegated the Windows machine to radio programming and control, a task for which it is ideally suited.
I eventually convinced the wife to let me upgrade to a new Mac Studio when the M4 was announced in March of this year. I ordered a new M4 Max Studio, fully kitted out with 64GB or RAM and a 4TB SSD. I figured I would over buy to make it last longer, the wife bought the idea and authorized the purchase. I did not trade in my MBP as it Is still a great machine, and I intend to travel more often, and I need a good travel companion.
When it arrived, I was able to get it up and operating quickly. I am currently using 2 27-inch monitors, one via HDMI and another with a USB-C to DP cable. I connected my 4K web cam and my studio mic via USB-C as well as my TimeMachine hard drive. I did not choose to restore from the MBP, instead I reinstalled my applications (Office, Parallels, FileMaker, AnyDesk and a few others and connected to my files via iCloud and OneDrive. All in all, it took less than an hour to install these programs and run the updates. That is a far cry from the multiple hours and a dozen or more restarts required for the Windows install on the PC.
So far, I have had exactly zero problems with the Studio. I have shut it down twice, once when we were out of town for a week and once when I moved the desk around. It runs 24/7 and I let the machine lock itself and the monitors to go dark when not in use.
The Bluetooth issues that plagued the Mac Mini’s I have had in the past and (to a lesser extent) on the MBP have not been an issue on the Studio. I use an MX Keys keyboard and MX Master mouse, and they paired easily via Bluetooth and never have faltered. I occasionally use AirPods or AirPods Max with it, and they too have worked fine.
As I use it mostly for content consumption, some light image work and a ton of writing I am certainly not taxing any of the resources. About the only time I do is when I am using Parallels and Windows to run some of my radio stuff. It is just more convenient to use the Mac sometimes instead of the Windows machine on the side desk.
I anticipate this to be a 7-to-10-year computer for me, that explains why I spent the extra money to get the RAM and SSD capacity that I did. I keep telling myself that I am going to start editing videos, but I haven’t gone down that rabbit hole yet.
I might upgrade the monitors at some point, I have been thinking of the MSI 49-in curved one as it is only $800 at Sam’s Club. I am waiting on responses to some inquiries to come in first though. I also thought about giving the Samsung Odyssey G9 another shot, the first one I bought a few years ago crapped out after a week or so. The Acer 27” monitors I have now serve my purpose so it is entirely possible I will just stick with them.
Overall, I think I did the right thing buying the Studio. I probably would have been just as happy with a maxed-out M4 Mac Mini but the price difference was only $700 and I get twice the GPU cores and more CPU cores, as well as additional I/O and better cooling. Yeah, for $700 I could have bought another Mac Mini on top of the maxed out version I considered, but I am playing the long game here and felt more comfortable with the Studio. If it lasts me 5 or 6 years I will be ahead of the game, anything beyond that is gravy.
