MacSparky's MacBook 16inch Order: I think he made a mistake .. Maybe

@MacSparky detailed in his blogpost what he bought:

He went with the M1 Pro chip as opposed to M1 Max. Since he buying this laptop, I thought, I an extra $200 would give him a M1 Max… Perhaps, I am missing something but never have a seen Apple give you 2 (or is it 4) times the performance (GPU) for only $200.

Obviously, paying as less as possible is preferred but I just feel the $200 (5% of the total cost of the MacBook ordered) is great value.

And I understand, I am no in place to suggest to anyway what they should buy or not buy.

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When I bought the M1 MacBook Pro last year, I thought the 13-inch was going to be too small. But I didn’t realize how much better it is to have a small and light laptop. Most of the time I have it hooked up to a 5K monitor, but I love being able to unplug it and carry it anywhere with me. I’ve had the 15-inch MacBooks in the past and it felt like carrying a load of bricks around. I think the 16-inch was the mistake, not so much the chip he ordered.

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IMO it is a great value if you can utilize the additional performance. If you can’t you’ve wasted $200.

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Not really.
You can get part or all of it back in resale value.

Unresolved questions – Are the M1 Pro and the M1 Max two separate chips or is the M1 Pro a “binned” version of the M1 Max with some failed sections that have been disabled? I lean towards “two separate chips” in their own right. If so, then David bought the top-of-the-line M1 Pro with all components functional. The next step up, an M1 Max with a 24-core GPU is a binned version of the M1 Max with some failed components of the GPU disabled. Disclaimer: this is all speculation on my part at this point. Not enough info available yet.

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Oh, no doubt the reality is more complicated than my poor speculation.

By separate I mean that Apple produces chip wafers composed entirely of M1 Pro CPUs and different chip wafers with M1 Max CPUs. Are you saying that M1 Pro chips are cut-down M1 Max chips?

Part, yes if you are lucky. All is unlikely especially if the device has any visible damage.

They’re pretty clearly producing one wafer for M1 Pro and another wafer for M1 Max. The versions of the Pro with less than 10 CPU cores and 16 GPU cores are almost certainly the result of binning. The version of the Max with 24 GPU cores rather than 32 is likely binning, but that’s less of a sure bet.

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Wait, is that a red herring?

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I think the more realistic case against making your money back when you sell it is that the resale/trade in value of high end BTO options tends not to scale with the purchase price, rather than fears about cosmetic issues.

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Thanks for pointing this out. I hadn’t picked up on that and was just about to pull the trigger on an M1Pro.

No red herring. The more money you ask for something the closer to perfection it needs to be.

David’s M1 mini “lost” about 33% of it’s value in one year. If it had, for example, a moderate scratch on the top of the case odds are he would have received even less for it.

The 14-inch MacBook Pros are brand new. Let’s say I buy the base model and bump the ram to 32GB. That’s $2400 and with tax, in my state, the total would be around $2630. In six months I decide I want to sell it. No one with any brains would give me $2400, they’d likely buy a new one. How much could I get when it is a year old and the new M1.5 Max II is available for the same $2400? $1700, $1800?

My point was, spending more than is needed for a depreciating item is never a good idea. - IMO

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If I am putting up this amount of cash, I am likely planning an RoI and depreciation over far longer times than six months. My previous 15 in modestly beefed up MBP served me well for about seven years. It gathered its fair share of dents and dings between a screw on the back case that would no longer close well and the visible “scratch/dent” marks on the screen from the keys. The computer became a gift to a sister-in-law. She is using it to do computer-related stuff while sitting comfortably in her living room instead of sitting in some remote corner of the house (on the desktop machine).

To put this another way … Your “state” under this proposal appears to be skewed rather toward making a case by hyperbole. Your final sentence is valid. But I believe the tendency with Apples is to plan to invest higher up front where possible because Apples last for longer times even with their dents and dings.


JJW

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I looked at the site and the M1 Max with the 4TB, including tax is actually $400 more than I paid. Still, that is not much in comparison to how much I spent and I see where you are coming from, but that’s $400 more than I really want to spend right now. I expect the version I bought is going to be way more Mac than I should legitimately own as it is.

But thanks for planting that seed in my brain. I’m sure it will make me crazy at a certain level. :wink:

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I think part of the issue for me is that I am not entirely sure whether I will make use of it or not. Even if I may occasionally benefit from it, is the percentage of time saved worth the extra cost?

I do a lot of work in photography/videography editing and multimedia production and have recently begun toying with coding - an interest I hope to pursue more extensively.

Since I am really unsure of the amount of processing power I may need, I ended up opting for an M1 Max…however not entirely for the processor. Since it was the only processor that had an optional 64 GB RAM, that further helped to prompt my choice.

Personally, I like to have all of the RAM I possibly can. Few things in a computer can provide for a smooth multitasking experience any more than RAM.

Did I buy more than I need? That’s quite possible for this point in time. However I am hoping to have this machine for the next 7 to 10 years so I am hoping it will be adequate for my needs both today and several years from now!

With regard to size I opted for a 16”. I kinda laugh when I hear other Mac users talk about how “heavy” a 16” is. I suppose weight is relative, however before migrating to the Mac platform a few years ago I had owned a 17” HP Pavilion PC laptop! Let me tell you, if you drag that beast around for a day you would never begin to think that any Mac laptop is heavy!

I can carry my 16” MBP and 12.9” iPad Pro, as well as a few accessories in my backpack now - and it still weighs less than the HP did by itself!

Think 200,- is where madness begins :slight_smile:
Why stop at the base M1 Max, when only for 200 more you can have the 32Gb?
And from there, why stop if you can have the 1TB?

I tend to budget these decisions, and tempting as it may be I try to stick to that budget.
Even 200 more is a lot of money.

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LOL! In @MacSparky’s case I think he buys a new computer twice a year. That MPU business must be doing quite well. :wink:

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It’s actually a $600 increase, because the Max has a minimum requirement of 32GB RAM, while from the screenshot, David has bought the Pro 16GB version.

If you select either of the Max options, you’ll see that the extra RAM (and $400) is added to your order automatically.

My apologies, the screenshot is not exact config that David bought. If you look at his blog post, he did get 32gb ram.

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Fair enough! My fault for not checking…