Mac Studio

[teilo]

Has anyone actually ordered the Studio? I can't wait to see some benchmarks for audio. There's literally none right now.

It's a bit early for that. But you can expect approximately a 50% increase over the M1 Max.

[PAK]

Yeah, very little info about audio stuff around. Just the usual useless Geekbench synthetic stuff, and video export times - which, considering the chip has specific features to speed that up, are also bloody useless for concluding anything much outside of that.

Probably the biggest news is the storage isn't soldered into place, and there's two SSD slots. Whether the connectors are proprietary, or how much the T2 security gets in the way, remains to be seen. And, of course, 3rd party SSD likely = void warranty. But it does open the possibility of user upgrades for storage.

The connector ports (including power) are also attached via ribbon cables, meaning easy repairs for damaged ports. Makes me wonder if an HDMI upgrade, from 2.0, would also be possible as that was a poor decision by Apple (no 4k HDR + high refresh)

The M1 Ultra chip is also huge.

[teilo]

I cannot stand the Max Tech guy.

[sqigls]

he's the poor man's hot wings guy


that chip is fooking massive

[Scotty]

The performance numbers will be torn apart and scrutinized from every angle including price/performance vs. the existing Mac line and equivalent Intel or AMD based systems. People get a little hyped when a new generation processor is released. I am really interested to see the numbers. I’m happy for my Mac user friends who enjoy and depend on the Mac ecosystem and who have workload challenges that may benefit from a big generational boost like this. The M1 ultra may be overkill for many audio nerds but the combined graphics power for serious video editing work looks at first blush to be very compelling. Editing 8k raw video is a workflow requirement for some. Imagine doing that without any stuttering on the time line? Looking forward to the hard data and non synthetic benchmarks.

[ghettosynth]

Probably the biggest news is the storage isn't soldered into place, and there's two SSD slots. Whether the connectors are proprietary, or how much the T2 security gets in the way, remains to be seen. And, of course, 3rd party SSD likely = void warranty. But it does open the possibility of user upgrades for storage.

That's actually really good news. It still may be an expensive repair, but it's not as bad as the first M1 minis. My guess is that Apple did this for their own benefit, first and foremost. I don't think that they'd want to replace motherboards on AppleCare if only the SSD dies.

I suspect the connector is proprietary and I'd bet money that, if it's not, that you cannot put your own SSD in there.

[Synth Master Jedi]

Youtubers and their click-baity stupid titles.

[keyman_sam]

All these reviewers and not a single review for music production for a product that’s geared towards creative professionals are you kidding me???

[ghettosynth]

Linus from Linus Tech Tips points out another reason for the SSD modules. This dramatically reduces the number of SKUs they have to maintain.

He also speculates that the connectors might be dumb, in the sense that there is no controller. Perhaps the 8TB variant contains two 4TB modules configured as a single drive via the on-motherboard controller?

Also, I don't follow this closely enough it seems; apparently it's well known that Apple uses proprietary connectors. In my defense (of ignorance), the M1 is my first new mac since 2011. My old macs all use standard SATA drives.

Many people incorrectly assume the connectors are one of the M.2 variants found in many PCs, but to date, Apple has still never used a standard M.2 connector. And unlike M.2 pin arrangements, Apple’s connectors were never given distinguishing names, so from this point on I’ll just refer to the connectors by their pin arrangements as described in the image below.

https://beetstech.com/blog/apple-propri ... d-upgrades

[dayjob]

lols. quick "benchmark" from Andrew Huang for the lulz

https://twitter.com/andrewhuang/status/ ... a5vKEdV5Mg

[UltraJv]

Linus from Linus Tech Tips points out another reason for the SSD modules. This dramatically reduces the number of SKUs they have to maintain.

He also speculates that the connectors might be dumb, in the sense that there is no controller. Perhaps the 8TB variant contains two 4TB modules configured as a single drive via the on-motherboard controller?

Also, I don't follow this closely enough it seems; apparently it's well known that Apple uses proprietary connectors. In my defense (of ignorance), the M1 is my first new mac since 2011. My old macs all use standard SATA drives.

Many people incorrectly assume the connectors are one of the M.2 variants found in many PCs, but to date, Apple has still never used a standard M.2 connector. And unlike M.2 pin arrangements, Apple’s connectors were never given distinguishing names, so from this point on I’ll just refer to the connectors by their pin arrangements as described in the image below.

https://beetstech.com/blog/apple-propri ... d-upgrades

More on the slots here

[teilo]

"Dumb" or not, I'm betting that OWC will figure it out, and produce upgrade kits — provided that Apple doesn't have some sort of DMA preventing the same, or some special tool to register the RAM by serial.

[ghettosynth]

"Dumb" or not, I'm betting that OWC will figure it out, and produce upgrade kits — provided that Apple doesn't have some sort of DMA preventing the same.

Dumb just refers to the fact that the storage modules do not contain a controller. The controller is located on the motherboard.

If you watch the follow up video on the one above it's definitely currently not possible. What is possible is to replace any current defective module with a module of the same size. However, this requires a special apple utility that only works within the context of a repair order. In other words, you can't just replace the module with one of the same size, you need apple/authorized tech to link the new module to your particular hardware.

So, it is good that the SSD is at least repairable. Unlike the minis, your mac hopefully won't be bricked should your SSD wear out. This, of course, assumes that the parts will still be available. However, as these youtubers, who aren't Mac haters, point out, it's a particularly consumer unfriendly move to have an additional slot and to not allow upgrades through an official mechanism. We're not even talking about consumer replacement with standard drives here. Simply, at the moment, you can't take your mac into apple and allow them to upgrade your storage, even at apple prices.

If you could upgrade through apple, then one could reasonably order a smaller drive today and upgrade later when storage prices come down a bit more. If mac fans don't point out and push back on this kind of consumer unfriendly behavior, then they ought not be surprised when apple doubles down on them even further.

[teilo]

In other words, you can't just replace the module with one of the same size, you need apple/authorized tech to link the new module to your particular hardware.

This is why right-of-repair is so important.

It makes sense that in-warranty repairs require such registration as performed by an Apple tech. This is common on many modules (other than SSD) currently. My company is an Apple-certified self-service shop and we do this all the time because Apple provides us with the utilities to do the module pairing.

This will be their short-term "out". Replacing a module with a 3rd-party SSD would void the warranty. But after a warranty is expired? At minimum, Apple should provide the utility to end users, which registers SSD modules to the hardware, and if they are willing to void their own warranty, let them install 3rd party modules.

[Atlatnesiti]

I cannot stand the Max Tech guy.

+1, make it +100…
He must be the most obnoxious, so called tech guy on YouTube