I chose the 12-core because it's very close to the M3 Max in overall performance. There are cheaper ways to build most things. A high-end Thinkpad is $3000-400

I chose the 12-core because it's very close to the M3 Max in overall performance. There are cheaper ways to build most things. A high-end Thinkpad is $3000-4000 and you can buy a terrible gaming laptop with the same components for $1000-1500. The Thinkpad is going to be more reliable and last longer than the gaming laptop because the build quality is much higher. Apple uses good components that cost more, so comparing to bottom-of-the-barrel components isn't an apples-to-apples comparison.