Sure, and I also get the "Apple lifestyle" POV. I guess my PoV is with a GPU + inexpensive RAM, I can do some things more quickly, and other things are at leas

Sure, and I also get the "Apple lifestyle" POV. I guess my PoV is with a GPU + inexpensive RAM, I can do some things more quickly, and other things are at least possible. But granted, hardware nuts and bolts is a hobby for me too, I've always enjoyed researching and building systems, there is a huge community of people and companies, and I much prefer KDE to MacOS, Android to IOS. If Apple released a reasonably priced system with lots of RAM, or that could take a GPU, I'd not have as much to stand on, but they don't seem inclined to do that. Here's BoM, $2170: $700 for 192GB https://www.corsair.com/us/en/Categories/Products/Memory/VENGEANCE-DDR5-Memory---Black/p/CMK192GX5M4B5200C38 https://www.corsair.com/us/en/Categories/Products/Memory/VEN... About $200 for a LGA1700 board with four slots (currently Asus and Gigabyte support 4 X 48GB memory modules on consumer hardware) $200+ for a CPU $120 for an 850 watt PSU $700 for a used 16GB quadro, or a new 12GB A2000 $150 for 2TB NVME storage $50 for some kinda case (I use an XTIA open frame, it is the opposite of a Macbook) These are "best prices," You'd have to pay around 10% more if you're not into finding deals.