Apple announced New Mac Studios

[Patrick M]

What external drive did you buy? All the USB cables look the same, it's horrible for high performance needs if you plug one in that's too slow for the drive... I use an external Samsung 990 Pro in an NVME enclosure and it's blazing fast. Those "experts" tend to just be Apple haters for their pricing models, a lot of real experts on performance have measured the internal SSDs and there can be good perf improvement by having larger SSDs simply because the read/write rates are higher...

I bought a Lexar 4Tb SSD with a uGreen enclosure.

I got my M4 Mac mini Pro with an internal 2tb SSD. I based that decision on MY needs as well as performance. I was willing to pay the extra price. It makes the transition using migration assistance so much easier when going from the old Mac to the new one since the old Mac had a 2 tb SSD as well. It was seamless . I complement that SSD with an external SSD, the same Samsung 99O pro. 2 tb. SSD that you purchased. I then copied my Apple Photos library over to the external drive.

I returned my mini as the 1Tb that I figured I needed wasn’t enough and spent a lot of time simply managing storage. To me, I felt getting an internal SSD was a Better solution, however, after I returned the mini m4 pro, apple announced the new M4 Studio…so I ordered it immediately…with a 4K internal. While the mini ran so hot I had to buy a fan, even under intense use, the Mac Studio is cold. The larger size enables a much more efficient cooling system. As it’s a desk-top, that suits me fine.

I kept the external SSD as it’s useful as backup storage when we’re away and shooting a lot of images.

 

[Ralph]

I bought a Lexar 4Tb SSD with a uGreen enclosure.


I returned my mini as the 1Tb that I figured I needed wasn’t enough and spent a lot of time simply managing storage. To me, I felt getting an internal SSD was a Better solution, however, after I returned the mini m4 pro, apple announced the new M4 Studio…so I ordered it immediately…with a 4K internal. While the mini ran so hot I had to buy a fan, even under intense use, the Mac Studio is cold. The larger size enables a much more efficient cooling system. As it’s a desk-top, that suits me fine.

I kept the external SSD as it’s useful as backup storage when we’re away and shooting a lot of images.

That’s surprising about the minI running hot. I’ve never heard my fan go on at all. I was waiting for the Studio as well but I already had my mini for about a month and it is serving me well.

 

[JAJohnson]

I’ve had the Studio M4 Max now for a couple of weeks, having tried the Mac mini pro which I had to return. I’m very happy with the Studio M4. I got it with a 4 Tb internal. The mistake I made was to listen to those tech “experts“ saying to get an external SSD as Apple internal storage costs too much. Well yeah. On the mini I “saved” £900 and spent £300 on the external 4Tb SSD…then spend days managing my files! To me, that’s cost a lot more than the £600 saved! i had to buy a fan for the mini as well as it got too hot.

The Studio feels cold to the touch at all times while the mini was hot to the touch.
NX Studio, Affinity Photo and Phocus all open really quickly. I’m totally happy with this

I'm giving myself another week or so before committing to the purchase, but I'm considering a Studio M4 Max, which I think should meet my home office needs for quite a while.

 

[Hooligans Imagery]

I'm giving myself another week or so before committing to the purchase, but I'm considering a Studio M4 Max, which I think should meet my home office needs for quite a while.

I am super happy with my M4 Max MBP. LR reacts in a way worthy beyond the M1. Most importantly it's the immediate reflection of edits on the second monitor.

 

[BillW]

I have a 2019 intel iMac: 27”, 128 gb ram (OWC) and an 8 gb graphics cards. It has seemed slow to me in the last year or so and I have found myself doing more editing on my 2021 M1 Max 16” MBP (64 gb ram and 4 TB internal SSD). The MBP is noticeably faster at many things, including as Michael mentions above, reflecting edits on screen. Unfortunately, as far as I can see, you cannot drive the iMac screen, which remains very nice, with the MBP.

So I ordered a Studio M4 Max earlier this month (128 gb ram, 4 TB internal SSD). I tend to pick higher specs on a new computer than I currently need, hoping it will last 5 years or more. I keep my photos on external drives. An SSD for recent photos and hard drives for basic storage and onsite backup (with Backblaze for online backup).

 

[wotan1]

I'm getting one, still a little on the fence between the more expensive M3 ultra or the new M4. I think it's going to be M4 though - faster for single core operations and I don't do all that much where all the extra cores on the M3 Ultra would make a big difference. My understanding - which is hopefully correct - is that most photo editing tasks only use a single core (where the M4 Max is faster). Some of the more intense operation (exporting, denoise, AI masks, etc.) use multiple cores, but I'm not sure if it's enough to justify the extra expense. I have a feeling the M4 is a good balance.

I went for the m4 Studio and am very pleased. No need for the expensive M3 ultra.

 

[Anjin San]

I went for the m4 Studio and am very pleased. No need for the expensive M3 ultra.

I’m going to upgrade my M1 Max Studio to M4 Max as well. Was considering a 16 M4Max MBP and shifting to PP on the laptop while demoting the Studio to server duties…but the laptop and associated TB dock and 10GB Ethernet stuff (to get to the RAID on the Studio)…turned out to be 1200 more than the M4!ax Studio and 14 M4 Pro MBP which will upgrade both of my computers and I won’t have the hassle of moving the laptop between office and recliner.

 

[Magicspell]

I’m going to upgrade my M1 Max Studio to M4 Max as well. Was considering a 16 M4Max MBP and shifting to PP on the laptop while demoting the Studio to server duties…but the laptop and associated TB dock and 10GB Ethernet stuff (to get to the RAID on the Studio)…turned out to be 1200 more than the M4!ax Studio and 14 M4 Pro MBP which will upgrade both of my computers and I won’t have the hassle of moving the laptop between office and recliner.

I just did this upgrade myself. I traded in my M1 Max Studio for the M4 Max Studio to offset some of the cost. So far, I’m quite pleased with the ease of transferring to the new Studio. Everything transferred over quite painlessly (Adobe, Topaz, Office, etc). Obviously all the Apple stuff was seamlessly moved. I used Migration Assistant with a thunderbolt cable connection between the two Studios.

The bigger picture will be to add a M4 Mac Mini (a parting gift from my retirement) to the fold to serve as a home server for file sharing and Plex server. I’m hoping to use Thunderbolt networking between the Studio and the Mini for quick file transfers. Anyone have experience with this?

 

[Anjin San]

I just did this upgrade myself. I traded in my M1 Max Studio for the M4 Max Studio to offset some of the cost. So far, I’m quite pleased with the ease of transferring to the new Studio. Everything transferred over quite painlessly (Adobe, Topaz, Office, etc). Obviously all the Apple stuff was seamlessly moved. I used Migration Assistant with a thunderbolt cable connection between the two Studios.

The bigger picture will be to add a M4 Mac Mini (a parting gift from my retirement) to the fold to serve as a home server for file sharing and Plex server. I’m hoping to use Thunderbolt networking between the Studio and the Mini for quick file transfers. Anyone have experience with this?

No experience with a TB connection…if it requires target disk mode then it won’t work like an Ethernet connection would. But unless you’re routinely doing really large transfers of mid double digits of GB…Ethernet is probably good enough…and if the M4 mini supports 10GB then just add a 10GB switch. My new Studio gets here tomorrow nd I haven’t decided whether to just use the gig Ethernet connection since I didn’t but a 10GB switch or move the USB TM drive over…it’s a SanDISK SSD and I have no idea exactly which flavor ISB it is so whether it’s faster than Ethernet or not who knows. I wil just start it and walk away anyway…migrating my wife’s Air via a Samsung T7 CCC clone only took 20 minutes or so for the 400ish GB and MA was done.

MA wasn’t very good for a time at its inception b7t has gotten better and better as time passes…so unless the old machine has an issue I would always recommend it first.

 

[Whiskeyman]

I'm giving myself another week or so before committing to the purchase, but I'm considering a Studio M4 Max, which I think should meet my home office needs for quite a while.

I purchased the M4 Pro Mini, and now am wishing that I had not and had the M4 Max Studio instead, just for the additional ports to connect externals to. Yes, I'm even missing the USB 3.2 outlets that the Studio has but my Mini doesn't.

But, oh well, there's no going back for me now. And I still enjoy the performance upgrades provided by the M4 Mini over my i5 iMac.

 

[Tiago C]

I purchased the M4 Pro Mini, and now am wishing that I had not and had the M4 Max Studio instead, just for the additional ports to connect externals to. Yes, I'm even missing the USB 3.2 outlets that the Studio has but my Mini doesn't.

But, oh well, there's no going back for me now. And I still enjoy the performance upgrades provided by the M4 Mini over my i5 iMac.

We use affordable usb-c hubs/adaptors on the mac mini m4

 

[Magicspell]

No experience with a TB connection…if it requires target disk mode then it won’t work like an Ethernet connection would. But unless you’re routinely doing really large transfers of mid double digits of GB…Ethernet is probably good enough…and if the M4 mini supports 10GB then just add a 10GB switch.

Agreed on not using the target disk mode. I just want to use TB from Mini to Studio as a standard network connection. My new Studio has 10GB ethernet, but the new Mini is only coming with standard 1GB. I did think of buying a 5GB USB-C ethernet adapter for the mini and using a 2.5 GB switch between them if the TB network idea doesn't pan out.

MA wasn’t very good for a time at its inception b7t has gotten better and better as time passes…so unless the old machine has an issue I would always recommend it first.

I used MA from my old Studio to the new Studio (using TB between the two) and it worked flawlessly. That's pretty much what gave me the idea of connecting the Mini to the new Studio over TB

 

[Whiskeyman]

We use affordable usb-c hubs/adaptors on the mac mini m4

I also have an adapter, but need more connections on the back of the machine because I don't want to resort to a hub.

 

[Ralph]

Agreed on not using the target disk mode. I just want to use TB from Mini to Studio as a standard network connection. My new Studio has 10GB ethernet, but the new Mini is only coming with standard 1GB. I did think of buying a 5GB USB-C ethernet adapter for the mini and using a 2.5 GB switch between them if the TB network idea doesn't pan out.


I used MA from my old Studio to the new Studio (using TB between the two) and it worked flawlessly. That's pretty much what gave me the idea of connecting the Mini to the new Studio over TB

You could have purchased the new M4 Mac mini with 10 gig ethernet.

 

[Magicspell]

You could have purchased the new M4 Mac mini with 10 gig ethernet.

I would have if I bought it myself. It is a "gift" from my former employer so I was not able to choose all the options. Upgrading it to 5Gbs or 10Gbs is a lot cheaper than buying the whole thing though

 

[JWest]

I still massively prefer the Mac Pro options over any of the studio or other little bricks. I have no external devices except 3 monitors.

Internally I have 4 separate nvme drives as the first active-archive, on a fast pcie slot for personal raw, personal production, work raw, work production. Each of those copies to 2 redundant 22TB enterprise spec WD DC HC570 "opti-nand" HDD, these in turn back-up periodically to another set off site.

The 8TB Mac ssd for OS, all apps, music and apple photos album also uses Carbon Copy Cloner to backup to an OWC enterprise class SSD in the top alternate slot, above the 2 HDD on SATA connection.

This is a 16 core 3.2, 384GB ram, GPU 64GB over two pcie slots, runs a 32" 5k and two 4k 32" and 27"

There are 8 USB-C with 6 being 3.1
Another fast nvme is on a separate pcie slot for temporary use.

Then a Pegasus HDD 4 bay additional archive space on another pcie slot.

I love being able to build it how I like and LRC, Capture One, various other things work plenty fast and stable with simultaneous LRC, PS, Bridge, C1, and 50 Firefox tabs open LOL

It's only connected via the 10Gb ethernet over a dedicated fiber line. (We have two internet sources)

And this isn't even the 2023 Mac Pro but I bet the M5 MBP is going to be sweet. I tend to run my stuff out a long time. Until a year ago, my fully modified 2012 Mac Pro did fine for a lot but was finally time to make it a back-up archive and security camera server ;- )

 

[Anjin San]

Agreed on not using the target disk mode. I just want to use TB from Mini to Studio as a standard network connection. My new Studio has 10GB ethernet, but the new Mini is only coming with standard 1GB. I did think of buying a 5GB USB-C ethernet adapter for the mini and using a 2.5 GB switch between them if the TB network idea doesn't pan out.


I used MA from my old Studio to the new Studio (using TB between the two) and it worked flawlessly. That's pretty much what gave me the idea of connecting the Mini to the new Studio over TB

Used MA today…but it was strange. Both Studios were plugged into the same switch and it did not see the old one as a source…so I just pulled the TM SSD off the old one and migrated from that. Had to reinstall the Topaz stuff as the migrated ones didn’t work…and had to uninstall DxO 4 from the old one to get the new one to activate, I have v5 as well but it was never installed on the old one. Everything else works…but I did have to make some changes in Remote Management and Remote Login to get Screens to see the new one…Apple did something with macOS 15.4.1 that made previously saved Screens configs not work anymore so that’s not on MA.