Used Mac Studio M1 Max 10/32 64MB/1TB $1850 or New Mac Studio M2 Max 12/30 64MB/1TB $2339 ??

[Jmccain2024]

Hello,

I'm a retired,photography enthusiast that is looking to replace my Windows Intel i5 laptop with my first Apple computer other than an IPad Pro M1, a Mac Studio in order to run Lightroom and Photoshop for light to moderate edits. I take mainly landscape, travel, and portrait photos, about 200-300 photos a month. I have researched and viewed videos showing that either configuration would meet performance times just about equally. I would Like to get about 5 years out of the one I purchase and don't plan on upgrading until m4 Or m5 chip versions come out.

With little difference in performance for my usecase, is the m2, WiFi 6e, and Bluetooth 5.3, 1 year warranty with opportunity for annual warranty renewals worth the extra $489.

TIA

 

[Fishrrman]

I'd say it depends on -where- you're buying the "used" one from.
Have you considered Apple refurbished?

 

[Jmccain2024]

I'd say it depends on -where- you're buying the "used" one from.
Have you considered Apple refurbished?

From a private party that has original receipt and box and he ran the Apple diagnostics and sent me the screen shot that shows no reportable codes other than the one that shows everything is fine.

 

[SpecFoto]

My situation is very similar, I too am retired and main use is for my photography. Just bought last month the M2 Studio Max 12/30 with 1TB SSD and 64GB of ram refurbished from Apple for $2,209, or $390 off list price with a full 1 year warranty. Could have gotten a M1 Mac Studio from them for a bit less, but besides the 6E WiFi upgrade, which doubled my Wifi speed, and approx. 11-12% overall speed increase over the M1 chip, I want to keep this for at least 5 years and the M2 will still be a supported Mac 5 years from now, the M1 may not be? So I paid the extra.

Overall just love the new M2 Studio Max, it is dead quiet, never gets hot (I keep my external 4TB MVMe Acasis startup enclosure on top of it) and LR/PS and everything else runs so much faster than my 2019 iMac I had. Really great computer and highly recommended.

 

[Shazaam!]

You'll be happy with the M1, so save the $489 for the down payment on a M5.

 

[Feek]

I'd go with the new one. You can add Applecare cheaply and you'll also get an extra year support on the OS (if you keep it that long).

 

[Geoff777]

I'd go with the new one too, if it's comfortable financially. I don't know what information the health-check can reveal but I'd be concerned about how many read / writes the SSD has had, has it ever been dropped, how dusty was the environment it was used in etc. Plus you get the one year warranty with the new one, which will give some peace-of-mind. Good luck with whatever you decide.

EDIT - just to add, there's something very satisfying about opening the box of a new Apple computer! 😊

 

[Andrey84]

Another vote for the new one. You'll probably end up keeping it for 10 years, as many of us do. The M2 Studio will have 1 more year of latest Mac OS support. $500 is not that much of a difference.