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Pulled the trigger today on a Mac Studio

philipma1957

philipma1957

macrumors 603
Original poster
Apr 13, 2010
6,424
305
Howell, New Jersey
So with the tariff war against china still in effect I decided to buy the studio today. I am USA based I am a veteran and get discounts.
I have a 1999 balance at apple account as I have been buying gift cards with my credit card points. I do a lot of crypto work and need an internal tb for the full blockchain. Thus a 2tb works. It should be good for 3 to 4 years before the blockchain goes over 2tb. with veteran price at 1799 + 540 for 2tb I am a bit over the 1999 credit. I am at 2493 with New Jersey tax .

I would be getting the base cpu with 36gb ram and 2tb. Pretty sure it is the way to go. If I move to the next m4 they add $450 to the price as they go to 48gb ram and the better cpu which puts me near 2950 or about 950 out of pocket.
 
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I just ordered Monday in anticipation of the tariffs. I had been trying to customize and order for in store pickup but was getting my order blocked on the website, seemingly due to my use of a high $ amount of gift cards. After many hours of calls and chats no one at Apple seems to understand why that's not possible, only delivery to my home is. I finally capitulated and put the order in, in case it would spare the tariff based on order date. I would bet Apple ends up getting an exemption if this becomes a long term battle...anyways...

Mine is estimating delivery by May 2. We'll see where the rollercoaster is at that point but I'll have a good laugh and politely decline if Apple asks me for another $5,000 to get my machine.

I also went for 2TB storage. My RAM usage seems to be going up quicker than in the past plus I am planning on some LLM work so I maxed that out. Curious to see how your order goes.
 
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Yeah they claim April 17-21 date.

I wanted the bigger max4 with a 4tb and 48gb ram but

1799 + 450 + 1080 = 3329 + 233 tax = 3552 my 2000 credit would mean 1500 out of pocket

so

smaller max 2tb and 36gb ram

1799 + 540 = 2339 + 163 tax = 2492 my 2000 credit means only 492 out of pocket.

I do not need the bigger model so some common sense prevailed.
 
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Ordered mine yesterday and initial delivery was April 19. Just got an email and it should arrive early next week.
 
I ordered a new Studio last week and it is arriving on Monday. I ordered the Max with the CPU/GPU upgrade and 1 TB storage. With the education discount and tax it came out to $2429. I went back and forth about upgrading the internal storage, but even 2 TB is not enough for my data. I have several TB of photos and videos on a 2TB and 4TB external Thunderbolt 4 drives. My current M1 Max Studio has a 1 TB internal SSD and I use about 400GB on the it so 1TB is more than enough for the foreseeable future, but the base storage was cutting that too close. I will upgrade the ThunderBolt enclosures to TB5.
 
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richpjr said:
I ordered a new Studio last week and it is arriving on Monday. I ordered the Max with the CPU/GPU upgrade and 1 TB storage. With the education discount and tax it came out to $2429. I went back and forth about upgrading the internal storage, but even 2 TB is not enough for my data. I have several TB of photos and videos on a 2TB and 4TB external Thunderbolt 4 drives. My current M1 Max Studio has a 1 TB internal SSD and I use about 400GB on the it so 1TB is more than enough for the foreseeable future, but the base storage was cutting that too close. I will upgrade the ThunderBolt enclosures to TB5.
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Are you trading your old studio to apple?

good luck with the new TB5 enclosures! acacis seems to be the only company making one right now. I'm hoping owc finally makes one. I've never used one before and prefer a known brand with tried and true reliability.
 
shinseiromeo said:
Are you trading your old studio to apple?

good luck with the new TB5 enclosures! acacis seems to be the only company making one right now. I'm hoping owc finally makes one. I've never used one before and prefer a known brand with tried and true reliability.
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I will be getting the Acasis - have had good look with their enclosures in the past.

Ironically, I know that OWC has a good reputation, but I had horrible luck with one of their TB3 docks with my MBP - constant disconnects and their tech support was worthless, fight an RMA every step of the way. I finally ditched it, got a CalDigit and it worked flawlessly.
 
richpjr said:
I will be getting the Acasis - have had good look with their enclosures in the past.

Ironically, I know that OWC has a good reputation, but I had horrible luck with one of their TB3 docks with my MBP - constant disconnects and their tech support was worthless, fight an RMA every step of the way. I finally ditched it, got a CalDigit and it worked flawlessly.
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Would you recommend acacis then? I don't know of the brand and never used them before.

It seems all of these external enclosures want non heatsink NVMEs which drives me mad and I don't understand why. I own several drives, and have a spare 4tb 990 pro. with heatsink!

richpjr said:
I was going to, but decided that for the $745 they would give me that I'd pass it on to my kids as it is still a very good computer.
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I'm surprised it's that much, and only saying that because a m2 max studio was trading in for $910 recently. I expected the m1 studio to be a lot lower.
 
Nice one OP! I’m sure it will be a wonderful machine for you.

I also upgraded to a studio after my last two workstations were MacBook Pro 16” models. I found I was rarely undocking them from my studio display and more recently with the lid closed.

So I figured just get a fixed desktop again. My last desktop was an iMac i9.

Granted, my previous machine was an M3 Max 16/40/64GB/4TB and the one before that an M2 Max 12/38/64GB/2TB, so the jumps in performance for me are always only generational and not overly obvious, but welcome nonetheless.

I decided to go M4 max 16/40/128GB/4TB.

I am going to try stick with this bad boy for a few years and just update my display if Apple comes out with one that has a higher refresh rate - as I feel that the smoother refresh contributes to the sensation of faster and smoother performance.
 
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I love reading how different use-cases determine the specs and that the Studio is available in those specs for different people.

For my use-case, I had my mind set on 128GB due to starting to explore LLMs. Fortunately (due to budget) I’m okay with internal 1TB because my LLMs are (mostly) stored on an external drive. I couldn’t have pushed my budget much further, but I got the Studio I wanted.
 
shinseiromeo said:
Would you recommend acacis then? I don't know of the brand and never used them before.

It seems all of these external enclosures want non heatsink NVMEs which drives me mad and I don't understand why. I own several drives, and have a spare 4tb 990 pro. with heatsink!
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My Acasis TBU405's are just sitting there cool-cucumber, doing what they do best: keeping external m.2's available when I need 'em.
 
I ordered a Mac Studio too. M4 Max 64gb 16 core CPU 40 core GPU 1 tb hd

I thought they were made and shipped from CHINA. they are not

they are made and shipped from Malaysia in 2022 mark Gurman verified this.

So unless this has recently changed? I dont think so. 9to5 Mac left the Mac Studio off their list of Macs that would receive the tariff.

it also says made in Malaysia on the bottom of the Mac Studio.
 
Darren.h said:
I ordered a Mac Studio too. M4 Max 64gb 16 core CPU 40 core GPU 1 tb hd

I thought they were made and shipped from CHINA. they are not

they are made and shipped from Malaysia in 2022 mark Gurman verified this.

So unless this has recently changed? I dont think so. 9to5 Mac left the Mac Studio off their list of Macs that would receive the tariff.

it also says made in Malaysia on the bottom of the Mac Studio.
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No idea where you’re getting this from. Unless you’re not in the US? My m4 max studio just shipped from shengzen china.

What made you do the cpu upgrade?
 
to get 64gb you need to get the better m4.

A guess as to why he upgraded.

For me the 2018 i5 with 1 tb and 32 gb was finally getting too slow.

All due to cpu. The ram almost never got past 20 of the 32 gb. The 1tb ssd became too full I am at 1.1 tb and use an external Samsung to run it. So it past is time.

I got just under 7 years of good use from it.
 
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Darren.h said:
I ordered a Mac Studio too. M4 Max 64gb 16 core CPU 40 core GPU 1 tb hd

I thought they were made and shipped from CHINA. they are not

they are made and shipped from Malaysia in 2022 mark Gurman verified this.

So unless this has recently changed? I dont think so. 9to5 Mac left the Mac Studio off their list of Macs that would receive the tariff.

it also says made in Malaysia on the bottom of the Mac Studio.
Click to expand...

New model devices are almost always shipped from China because the sites there pioneer the tech and processes. Then, other assembly sites copy the process. This is especially true for BTO models.
 
JPack said:
New model devices are almost always shipped from China because the sites there pioneer the tech and processes.
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Not really. Apple uses factories in the PRC because its major contractors, such as Foxconn, operate large factories there.

For Apple, it's all about logistics.

Most of the engineering in your Apple products is done in the US. At the component level, companies like TSMC and Samsung do individual components, often not off-the-shelf but made for Apple.
 
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