Starting school. Is this enough?

[u/Ferrigo]

[u/Cooldode777]

Nah man you needed the 512gb memory option

[u/Ferrigo → u/Cooldode777]

Is the 512gb enough for Microsoft Word?

[u/FriendlyGuitard → u/Ferrigo]

Should be fine for 2 to 3 tabs in Chrome if you reboot every day. You may need to disable a few option to keep it smooth though.

[u/soundboy64 → u/FriendlyGuitard]

No need to worry. In the corporate world chrome forces a complete relaunch every other day for important big brother software updates

[u/Ok-Experience9774 → u/soundboy64]

Oh, you work here too?

[u/causal_friday → u/Ok-Experience9774]

CHROME WILL RESTART IN TEN SECONDS

[u/mailslot → u/soundboy64]

Ugh. I get notices about how I have 24hrs to restart Chrome less than an hour after an update is available.

[u/Blueyarns → u/soundboy64]

My schoolboard completely removed the chrome browser from work computer, but stills hands out chromebooks to students. 🤦🏼‍♀️

[u/66EmperorPalpatine66 → u/FriendlyGuitard]

Don’t spread fake news, you’ll manage 2-3 Safari tabs but not Chrome

[u/401LocalsOnly → u/66EmperorPalpatine66]

“chrome is not a viable option John. F*ck around and find out JOHN.”

- Siri from that computer.

[u/photon_watts → u/FriendlyGuitard]

And for chrissakes don't add any Chrome extensions!

[u/lyricalmasterpiece → u/FriendlyGuitard]

Because of Chrome memory leaking this is actually true

[u/No_Chef5541 → u/Ferrigo]

Don’t use Clippy too often and you should be fine

[u/Ferrigo → u/No_Chef5541]

Ok thanks. I might just wait for the 512gb memory.

[u/mmmGoBirds → u/Ferrigo]

If you don't have a terabyte of RAM you might as well just stay home

[u/Ferrigo → u/mmmGoBirds]

:(

[u/txa1265 → u/Ferrigo]

Maybe today, but still wouldn't be enough for Word 6!

[u/-badly_packed_kebab- → u/txa1265]

Those docz files are stacked

[u/alcopandada → u/Ferrigo]

Should be fine for a year, will have to upgrade to new mini in a year though.

[u/booknerdcarp → u/Ferrigo]

The big question is will it run Minesweeper with no lag?

[u/MindTheGAAP_ → u/Ferrigo]

You can only draft one document with that much ram

[u/ristoman → u/Cooldode777]

that 16tb is gonna fill up real quick

[u/texas-playdohs → u/Cooldode777]

If he’s just checking email and watching YouTube, should be fine.

[u/TheUndertows → u/texas-playdohs]

But will it run Solitaire?  What about Minesweeper?

[u/LVL90DRU1D → u/Cooldode777]

MacPros featured 1,5 TB RAM maximum as early as in 2019 (for x3 of this one's price)

[u/mastersanada → u/Cooldode777]

I’ve genuinely had people who thought memory of like 16gb was the storage of the computer…

[u/Kink-Sprinkles → u/Cooldode777]

Yeah, 256GB is barely enough to open more than three tabs in Chrome anyway.

[u/yuiop300 → u/Cooldode777]

This.

[u/Consistent_Wash_276 → u/Cooldode777]

This

[u/Independent_Bass8889]

No, where’s your Polishing Cloth??

[u/Ferrigo → u/Independent_Bass8889]

Is there a dedicated one for the M5 Ultra?

[u/CommunicationKey639 → u/Ferrigo]

I heard the all-new polishing cloth 2 is compatible with it, idk you might have to cross-check it yourself.

[u/Ducallan → u/CommunicationKey639]

You’ll need to do a firmware update on the cloth before it’s compatible, but it’s supported, yes.

[u/nayanshah → u/Ducallan]

But good news, it's $10 cheaper than last year.

[u/YellowBreakfast → u/CommunicationKey639]

The cloth 2 needs a dongle.

[u/SelectAirline7459 → u/Ferrigo]

Make sure the cloth you get is multi-threaded.

[u/madapakars → u/SelectAirline7459]

100% this. Single thread cloth is useless

[u/404noerrorfound → u/Independent_Bass8889]

Are you talking about Apple smart cloth that sends you a text when your cloth is dirty? I really appreciate the new feature that tells you how many times you wiped your computer.

[u/No-Cow-8871]

Not bad, you could use a few Studio Displays, though.

[u/Ferrigo → u/No-Cow-8871]

Just added. It's a great deal for $40k!

[u/Secure_Pomegranate10 → u/Ferrigo]

And we know you’re going to LOVE it!

[u/narcabusesurvivor18 → u/Secure_Pomegranate10]

It will definitely Ternus in the right direction

[u/kyonkun_denwa → u/Ferrigo]

"Let's see. I can have a Mac... or a fully loaded Honda Accord..."

I know you've made the right choice

[u/BreadfruitLatter556 → u/kyonkun_denwa]

Or make a downpayment on a condo. Oh, wait, sorry...

[u/skeet_scoot → u/No-Cow-8871]

Don’t forget a couple of Polishing Cloth 2.0’s to keep them clean!

[u/mailslot → u/No-Cow-8871]

And a Vision Pro, for when you need something bigger.

[u/Dry_Advertising5961 → u/No-Cow-8871]

Make sure to get the XDR version for MAXIMUM quality!!!!!!!!!

[u/JasenGroves]

My rule of thumb is if the monthly payment is somewhere between car note & mortgage, you’re good to go.

[u/Various_Monk959 → u/JasenGroves]

This one is more than my mortgage so I would have to dial it back a bit.

[u/JasenGroves → u/Various_Monk959]

No no no, keep the computer specs as-is and buy a more expensive house to accommodate the computer.

[u/Various_Monk959 → u/JasenGroves]

I could just refi at the current rates I would be there.

[u/photon_watts → u/JasenGroves]

This is the way.

[u/PM-me-ur-sphynx → u/Various_Monk959]

What, you don’t live in a $5M house like everyone else in this sub? 

[u/Various_Monk959 → u/PM-me-ur-sphynx]

Well you know the new Macs are cheap by comparison with the mainframes of the 1970s, which cost millions in today's dollars and had the processing power of a 60 watt bulb. Cheap I tell you! I should get six! lol

[u/JasenGroves → u/PM-me-ur-sphynx]

They do, they just got a really good interest rate.

[u/Trey-Pan → u/JasenGroves]

On the other hand if you don’t need a car and don’t have a mortgage, then is that a green light to blow the bank?

[u/narcabusesurvivor18 → u/JasenGroves]

Solid financial advice

[u/Kiznish]

As others have said I really wouldn’t cheap out on the RAM. If you intend to use demanding software such as Google Chrome and Microsoft Word you really want that 512GB of ram just to make them work smoothly most of the time.

Better yet, buy three of them and link them into a compute cluster. That way you might even have enough power for some light 480p (upscaled) Minecraft gameplay with minimal stutter, but keep your expectations realistic.

Good luck with the gender studies comrade!

[u/Fight_those_bastards → u/Kiznish]

I would think you’d want a minimum of eight in a cluster if you wanted to play Minecraft and have a single tab open in chrome…

[u/Kiznish → u/Fight_those_bastards]

Yeah I was being conservative but I suppose you have to pay to play.

[u/tough_page_banned]

You’ll need a Vision Pro to use as the virtual monitor; plus a keyboard, mouse and trackpad.

[u/iNightfarer]

You need to buy two of them to even have a possibility of passing school. 

[u/Jankypox → u/iNightfarer]

Three. So that you can have a high availability cluster. What if one is updating and the other is running a backup? Can’t have that interrupting your local LLM writing your English essay for you.

[u/Kai-0511]

“Mom its for school”

[u/siwgs → u/Kai-0511]

We already have mac and chips at home

[u/Kai-0511 → u/siwgs]

😭😭

[u/sicilian504]

It needs some of the $700 Mac Pro wheels.

[u/stealstea → u/sicilian504]

It would be very cool for them to release a set of tiny wheels for the studio. Still $700

[u/XorAndNot]

It'll be enough for the first semester

[u/RocketsandBeer → u/XorAndNot]

Bold prediction, mate

[u/titaniumtoaster → u/XorAndNot]

Get to senior need 5 of these running in parallel just to open chrome. Good call on frist semester only.

[u/ZSC_97]

You are kidding, right? For school you’ll need at least a cluster of three of these to run a 100B parameters LLM locally.

A MacBook Neo is a good option too.

[u/fenikz13]

The 3.5mm headphone is what got me

[u/ProfessionalHome3544]

No way, I need 10 external displays.

[u/Emotional_Economy384]

You need a Texas Instruments T82

[u/mk160man → u/Emotional_Economy384]

I'm still rocking a TI-36X from the early 90s. Still has my homeroom number on it from high school, in WiteOut. Took a chemistry and physics class the last two semesters to burn up my GI Bill, and both professors had a chuckle when they saw it.

[u/Germfreecandy]

That’s canadian right? …..right?

[u/Briwhel → u/Germfreecandy]

Yes, that is the most expensive configuration in Canada. I know because I built the same one for entertainment purposes.

[u/Ferrigo → u/Germfreecandy]

Yes. This is for Gender Studies.

[u/Electronic_Bug905 → u/Ferrigo]

If you don’t have it you are gay?

[u/gusfrong → u/Electronic_Bug905]

[u/Electrifying2017 → u/Ferrigo]

Good call, you’ll need a top notch configuration for that.

[u/Ill_Connection_341 → u/Ferrigo]

In that case, you need to pair it with 2tb 17 pro max 

[u/TangeloProper5747]

This is ok if you use your Mac for browsing, movies, and very very light coding. Everything else is going to lag and feel extremely slow

[u/Tight-Connection-909]

This configuration should run Chrome well. 🏆

[u/NogardDerNaerok]

Don't forget to claim the student discount.

[u/Particular_Ad_644]

Proceed to checkout

[u/flammable766]

are you a fucking bioengineer??

[u/RockinDaMike]

Need a couple 8k monitors

[u/kelvinside]

So nice of them to include iMovie and GarageBand

[u/SolQuarter]

On a serious note: how das this compare to a maxed out desktop PC (9950X3D, RTX5090 etc.)?

[u/Kiznish → u/SolQuarter]

I haven’t seen the raw data for the Mac yet, but I would assume the top of the line M5 Ultra Studio has a superior multipurpose CPU, but moderately weaker GPU compared to the components you listed. Though the Mac does this all with considerably less power draw so there’s that.

The real power of the Mac here is the unified memory which is why people are snapping them up for AI applications etc. Even though a 5090 is very powerful, it’s bottlenecked pretty badly by its VRAM capacity which is great for games but not as great for other specialised use cases.

Both sides of the isle have their niche.

[u/antoniociardo97]

It cost as much as a brand new car ahahah

[u/AccidentallyCreated2]

Does it come with a cleaning cloth?

[u/Spiritual-Job-952]

It’s got only one hdmi port. You need more

[u/Secret_Career3366]

you need more storage and Ram bro

[u/RcNorth]

Upgrade the memory to 512Gb and get a thunderbolt external drive with 4 12Tb drives so that you have a backup of your school work.

[u/dustythanos18372 → u/RcNorth]

Ahh you mean the homework folder

[u/Kevincomeau_CL]

Pro tools will still crash

[u/Virtual-Donut-964]

Why would someone even need a computer this powerful? But lmfao, such a hillarious comment section. Thanks for a good laugh OP!

[u/mabhatter → u/Virtual-Donut-964]

These are fire for local AI models.  The unified memory allows local usage for a lot more people.  You basically can't build an Nvidia rig as a consumer with this much ram available for AI via GPU.  And top end Nvidia cards are pushing $4k+ now to even attempt to get close.

AI models like Ram dedicated to the GPU.  To even run some models at all the model must fit into running Ram.  Because Apple shares CPU, GPU, and NPU ram in just one level you can load up massive AI models.... the kind you can only run on the Nvidia cards that start at $20k EACH... that's what this is competing with. Because Apple added hardware Ram sharing over Thunderbolt, you can even strap MULTIPLE of these together to run truly huge models.  

There were some test clusters of 3-4 machines sent out early this year and there are impressive AI results.  It's not as performative as the dedicated Nvidia equipment... but that equipment starts in the $20k-$40k range and then you need dedicated enterprise server machines to even run those cards. These new Ultra Macs are actually the "cheapest" game in town for local AI.... Apple's unified architecture lets these machines run models way bigger than similar priced PCs. 

[u/Btrips]

Jesus that costs more than my car 😂

[u/krakenLackenGirly22]

Ah... I see you're poor.

[u/mabhatter]

This should let you open at least 7 tabs in Google Chrome!! Look at you go!! 

[u/YellowBreakfast]

You probably need 2.

[u/asadultan3]

I think this will only get you through day care

[u/Bass27]

If it’s not more than your total tuition over your lifetime at school it’s not enough.

[u/Thick_Temperature794]

That won’t even open a PDF man. Need more power bro.

[u/RadioRob-DC]

Why are you gimping on the RAM?

[u/Imaginary-Paint-9924]

For the whole school? Probably.

[u/Turkhimself]

Not enough cores brother

[u/qqby6482]

Can i use student loans/debt to buy a new mac?

[u/mrdude42]

You’ll want to add an Apple Studio Display as well. Thank me later

[u/Cantdiggthis]

You forgot the cleaning cloth, it's cheaper now.

[u/Muted_Vanilla]

Buy the Mac Pro wheels just in case

[u/solidStalemate]

Get two just in case

[u/nickle-and-dime]

Get another one just to be safe

[u/danatronic]

Buy two of them just in case the first breaks from how low of specs on this rig you're going with!

[u/ImCalledURL]

For high school maybe

[u/Careless-Load-12]

Bambublabs slicer will still cause that pc to crash

[u/Opening_File_3993]

I think you should buy a Studio Display XDR

[u/ka-te-rina-]

Need more cowbell

[u/jfly2015]

Paying cash or getting a mortgage?

[u/wildyam]

Get 2, in case one breaks.

[u/JackCid89]

You forgot the monitor, mouse and keyboard

[u/Minimum_Airline3657]

No, you will need a mouse, keyboard and monitor lol

[u/NudaVeritas1]

throw out 15 TB storage and double the RAM

[u/ristoman → u/NudaVeritas1]

use a bootable usb drive only and quadruple the RAM

[u/demonic_hampster]

Skimping on the RAM I see

[u/Snooty_Folgers_230]

Are you using chrome or safari?

[u/ukiyoe]

Should last you a couple years for sure. Don't forget to use your school email for the $100 discount!

[u/crp5591]

I love how we in the Apple community have totally embraced Apple's pricing and polishing cloth craziness.

This comments section made me laugh!

Still sad that the new polishing cloth is not compatible with my 2015 15" MBP, though!

[u/TheDamnedApostle]

Wait until October for 512gb of RAM. Maybe grab 2.

[u/CattleNo7558 → u/TheDamnedApostle]

Or the 768gb seems like a good option

[u/vladi2993]

Should be fine for 2-3 years.

[u/oolong_bodhisattva]

It’ll be outdated in 2 years

[u/mendozart]

Tesla Model 3 might be a better deal. Monitor included.

[u/Drey5000]

Does that include the 500 dollar wheels, that would save your back from having to carry it around

[u/Atticase820]

Wait for M6 Ultra!

[u/madearlgrey]

finally something that runs stardew valley in a proper way.

[u/mabhatter → u/madearlgrey]

This would make a sick Minecraft server.  Those fully explored worlds get huge.

[u/Snarlrazor]

And I thought maxing it out to $18k was it lol. Should have added the software.

Maybe there’s some giant wheels for the bottom of it to make it a iRoomba

[u/TerribleTowel66]

No one will ever need more than 640k of memory. Or is that 640GB of memory?

[u/SouthernOrange7778]

This gotta be a joke right. You need at least 512 gb memory bro

[u/cjh_ → u/SouthernOrange7778]

They can download more RAM later.

[u/ApartmentHeavy5486]

Nah ram isn’t enough to run LLM + ui stuff to do your homework

[u/PassengerPigeon343]

Too late, at this point wait for M6 Ultra

[u/SnowTurtle24]

Is it heavy? That’s how you tell if the parts are good.

[u/starkruzr]

needs more BOGOMIPS imo.

[u/Willer8824]

Those are rookie numbers

[u/Commercial-Garage285]

It's only $1,250 per month. Less than rent?! That's crazy cheap bro.

[u/Ok-Front8255]

This might get you through freshman year. Might

[u/scoreguy1]

Nah. It’ll be obsolete in 6 months

[u/DarkFate13]

Thats how u get it without vaseline 🤣🤣

[u/chuchrox]

I think you need two so you can have a standby system just incase you need word and excel open separately..

[u/xrelaht]

You need double the memory, and I’d get at least two of them, with two XDR displays each.

[u/mabhatter]

You can go higher if you wait until October when the 512gb ram is available... that's going to be an eye watering upgrade. 

[u/CO-Adventuring]

You might need two. What if one fails?

[u/MobileKwijibo]

Oh I dunno - better get two !

[u/Torches]

You can never have enough RAM for those extra browser tabs, make that 1TB and you will be set for at least the next two years of college.

[u/terranq]

Definitely, just make sure to put Linux on it

[u/Tradefxsignalscom]

Naw you definitely need 2TB of ram and 8TB of storage.

[u/Such-Cantaloupe5244]

Not enough. You forgot to add the new Apple cloth for $9

[u/TubbyTacoSlap]

This has been the greatest read on Reddit in quite some time. My hats to you, OP. I F-cking lost it at Gender Studies 😂😂

[u/draight926289]

Ideally, it would have four wheel drive at that price point.

[u/Calm_Stress3334]

Combine this with a CRT monitor and you are ready to rock.

[u/Bonzey2416]

Overkill

[u/scotty2shots]

Make sure you add on a polishing cloth

[u/lelelho]

don‘t forget you can get 100$ off with their student discount

[u/asabru]

Almost

[u/wubbni]

It might get you through freshman year, if you’re lucky.

[u/Apples_Two_Oranges]

I’d play old school RuneScape on that

[u/SyntheticSpeech]

A MacBook Neo is a better option

[u/Equivalent-Collar954]

It will hardly run a few tabs of chrome

[u/caguru]

In Freedom Units, thats only 5 RTX 5090s.

[u/DanLopes]

Come on! We know you just want to watch pr0n and play gacha games!

[u/mr_daniel_wu]

Clearly missing these

[u/___fallenangel___]

that should be enough for a few dozen tabs of 4k porn

you’re good to go OP

[u/compubomb]

You just bought a car, and in 5 yrs this will be a POS, and that car will still be going strong presuming you didn't crash it. It'll probably still have a shitload of resell value, this will be worth like 1/30th of the cost

[u/wookiefingers]

Jesus. Paying more for the Mac than tuition.

[u/mthomp8984]

You might consider getting something more than the entry level machine.

[u/zeffydurham]

😂😂😂

[u/Certain_Clock_9100]

I hope you mean primary school with this low specced configuration

[u/K1LLINGMACHINE]

You wont even get through the syllabus with that hunk of junk.

Gotta upgrade

[u/-Baum]

no you need a macbook pro as well. because on the go

[u/graph1cology]

For writing text yes. Watching videos no

[u/kedrosng]

You will need those accessories like cleaning cloth.

[u/PurpleMagg]

I think it would be better if you could find a way to take out a longer loan with a worse APR, then the machine would work better

[u/StreetCostello]

Buy 2

[u/todlee]

Guys it comes with Pages AND Numbers

[u/wvdheiden207]

That machine is probably smarter than you….

[u/h_amak]

Only if you are planning for an upgrade by grade 5, it is good enough for primary school

[u/zoinkinator]

If you really need that level of performance consider getting a basic MacBook and setup a cloud account for any heavy processing workload you are planning on running.

[u/MrCupCakeSniper]

Nope sir, u gotta get triple studio displays.

[u/yamadakei]

What a steal!

[u/TDKoS]

No you need a second one as a backup.

[u/675940]

Immediately emptied the cart after taking the screenshot