#40 on the list runs on Amazon EC2. I wonder how long it will be until cloud based clusters replace most hardware based machines.
Spinning up a supercomputer as needed would be a fraction of the cost of building and maintaining a traditional one.
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Glad you did. In my excitement of the moment, I looked at the price differential at the beginning of the build, not at the end.
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After that many years will Apple’s then OS work on this computer?
Monterey supports back to the 2015 MBPs and iMacs, 2014 Mac Mini and 2013 Mac Pro so…maybe?
Personally, I wouldn’t buy any computer expecting a 7-10 year useful lifespan but 
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Way off topic, but interestingly (to me at least), I just had this conversation with the chair of the High Performance Computing Group at my workplace. I made the same assertion as you, but he countered that if you have enough work for the system to keep it constantly in use, then AWS is not currently cost effective. They and other cloud providers are cost effective if you have nightly variable compute loads because they can oversubscribe their total capacity.
I’m not sure that I agree with him, but I haven’t run the numbers either.
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Maybe this isn’t the question you’re asking, but every single super computer in the Top 500 list runs Linux! That’s amazing to me that a free open source operating system is the OS of choice for institutions that are willing to spend large sums of money on a computer. Not a single one of them bought a commercial OS to run their super computer.
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All of you nerds have got in my head. At this point I’m torn between:
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Sticking with my order of a loaded 16” and calling that “end game”. That actually probably makes the most sense for my need and having my bad-ass production machine be mobile would be a big plus for me.
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Cancelling and sticking with the M1 until the rest of the pennies drop.
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Cancelling and instead buying a more entry level 14” and waiting for the rest of the pennies to drop.
Since my existing order doesn’t ship until December, I’ve got plenty of time to consider. When the reviews start releasing on Monday, I’ll have a better idea.
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@macsparky: You do enough video work to justify the M1 Max. With your current office situation and you need a rig elsewhere to record audio for podcasts and screencasts. Throw in the fact that you’ve already got the Pro Display XDR and I think there would be a strong case for the loaded 16" even if an M1 Max powered iMac were available right now. You have a very particular set of needs and I think you came to the right choice for your needs with your current order.
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This:
Makes sense. Despite having a footprint on the desktop 
, you don’t have to strip much off Linux to get down to an operating system suitable for a server. Windows and macOS, just to name two popular operating systems, have lots of “useless” overhead for a pedal-to-the-metal system aimed at computer scientists and university students.
And people say I flip-flop on tech decisions! 
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@MacSparky You know as well as the rest of us that there is no such thing as an “end game.” No matter how loaded your current system is (or will be with this order), there’s just going to be a new temptation in a few months.
You are very close to costing me money as well. When the new MBPs were announced, I had already firmly made up my mind that I was passing on them, since my M1 MBA (16GB, 1TB) is more than enough for everything I am doing, and combined with my M1 Mini (16GB, 2TB) I too thought I was at “end game” for at least a number of years.
Now I am thinking about how convenient a new M1Max 14” would be with 32MB and 4TB, with just one computer for all of my work, and docking to my two external monitors which the M1 Air won’t support (well, not without DisplayLink, anyway) but the M1Max will. I have already been on Apple’s web site to find out the trade in value for the Air, Mini, and an older MBAir I have sitting around that has been looking for a good home.
This would be way easier if my wife would say “you have to be crazy to think you can order another computer so soon” instead of “did you order your new MacBookPro yet?”
I am so glad Katie Floyd still posts here under her pseudonym…
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I don’t think Katie Floyd would want to claim my posts. 
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I think you have made a terrific set of decisions, David! You’ll get the best bang for your buck because you are considering both your needs and your wants.
If I had the $, I’d get a similar model although I like having a smaller screen. I have a new 13.3 inch MacBook Air with a mere 8 gb of ram (I sort of wish I had gotten more but it is just fine). And I am happy with half a terabyte but I am not burnt out on external drives at all.
In fact, I am adding a laptop computer to my iDevices. I haven’t had a computer in years and I had no idea just how much I was missing mine!
I just read your punchline: you upgraded! LOL!
There is a lot in life that is NOT just a matter of right and wrong decisions. You have made lots of awesome informed decisions. And, do you know what? So did I!!!
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You haven’t even begun to explore buying a low-end 14" for when you’re out and about, while really loading up that 16" for around the house use 
Any thoughts on the GPU core 24 v 32? Its frightening how much all these little increments are adding up to…
32 is the real deal. 24 likely offered only because some of the GPU cores didn’t test out on that SOC.
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So what machine did you finally get at the store?
Hard to track the revisions in this post.
If even MacSparky has trouble configuring a system that is not over powered but also meet his needs for a couple of years, what is a regular person to do.
I tend to keep my Mac computers for years, I am writing this on a MBP Late 2012 that I picked up in 2014.
It shows the Monterey is availble for update, even though the announcement said it was not supported.
Should I take it to Monterey? Surprised to see it offered as supposedly it is not supported on this machine, do you think that if I upgrade there will be major issues
My plan was to take the 2TB drive out of my 2014 Notebook and put it in a OWC Thunderbolt 4 Enclosure and use it on my new M1 notebook. I will put the original 256 Drive back in and just install the basic software for use out and about but for real work I would primarily remote desktop into my new M1 Notebook or M1 Mini.
I have a M1 Mini w 16Gb of memory off of which I have hung a OWC Thunderbolt 3 Raid Drive. I would probably keep the M1 Mini and have it act like NAS device and a Plex Server. I need to see if I can configure Acronis to back up all of my devices, and run that off of the mini.
I need to set up a process where I back everything up to a couple of drives that I rotate and then I take off line. Ransomware really scares me. I would hate to have all of my photos held for ransom.
Does anyone know if you got infected and had iCloud, would it also lock those files as well?
I worked in IT for about 25 years, I am retired but have a small datacenter in my office. I recently got a note from Edison that I use about twice the energy as my neighboors.
Cores/GPUs
What is the sweet spot?
I want to start posting videos to YouTube but it will be on a casual basis, I just want to be my give back project. I don’ t need Max right now but in 3 years if I get into it I am sure that I will regret not getting the Max.
14 inch vs 16 inch
I would love a notebook that was fast enough to do voice dictation well. Regularly using it for Dictation around the house would have me leaning to the 14 inch. If I needed a big screen I could plug it into my 5K monitor in my office.
I would love a notebook that could run DevonThink quickly, as sometimes in need to ingest a lot of information.
If a fast system that would quickly would let me find information quickly it would be worth whatever the cost.
The time between idea and action is key, when I get in the flow it feels really good, but recently it feels like I am fighting with the computer, instead of flow, it feels like wading through jello. It sometimes it feels like the bad old days with MS Windows, always having to fix something before I can get the job done.
Hopefully a clean install will get the flow back.
Do you have any recommendations/guidelines as to how to configure my next notebook? What is your process when you sit down to order a new computer
I’m not sure that’s hugely valuable as purchasing advice. The 24 Core M1 Max is almost certainly a binned 32 Core but…does that matter if someone doesn’t need the extra cores?