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Weren't 512GB models selling like hot cakes to the complete surprise of Apple? Wait time was up to 3 months last time I checked. Glad I got mine last October.

by storus 7mo ago

appreciatorBus 7mo ago
“Like hot cakes” is relative. > The 512GB Mac Studio was not a mass-market machine—adding that much RAM also required springing for the most expensive M3 Ultra model, which brought the system’s price to a whopping $9,499. Number of people willing the number of people willing to spend $10,000 on a computer is pretty tiny. Maybe they are common enough in HN circles, but I doubt any one at Apple is losing sleep over them.
- dangus 7mo ago
  Of course, $10,000 workstations for a corporation working on AI products might just be a necessary tool. Just a guess, but I think it’s entirely possible that Apple sold through the full production run that they intended for this generation of the machine and they don’t want to order a new batch before the next generation of processors come out. I have to think that Apple is close to replacing the M3 Ultra with an M5 Ultra or something of the sort.
- storus 7mo ago
  A retailer told me they sold more 512GB RAM MacStudios than any other type. N=1 I know but still...
  - __patchbit__ 7mo ago
    There is a $6 thousand value add service to configure your Mac Mini with AI and have that accessible over iMessage.
rattray 7mo ago
Curious, what do you use it for?
- jonhohle 7mo ago
  Probably an Electron app or two.
- storus 7mo ago
  Huge local thinking LLMs to solve math and for general assistant-style tasks. Models like Kimi-2.5-Q3, DeepSeek-XX-Q4/Q5, Qwen-3.5-Q8, MiniMax-m2.5-Q8 etc. that bring me to Claude4/GPT5 territory without any cloud. For coding I have another machine with 3x RTX Pro 6000 (mostly Qwen subvariants) and for image/video/audio generation I have 2x DGX Sparks from ASUS.
  - ganoushoreilly 7mo ago
    We must be twins, i've got the same three working in a cluster. I was really excited to see where the GB300 Desktops end up, with 768gb ram but now that data is leaking / popping up (dell appears to only be 496gb), we may be in the 60-100k range and that's well out of my comfort zone. If Apple came out with a 768gb Studio at 15k i'd bite in a heart beat. https://www.dell.com/en-us/lp/dell-pro-max-nvidia-ai-dev https://www.dell.com/en-us/lp/dell-pro-max-nvidia-ai-dev
    - storus 7mo ago
      Yeah, I didn't want to spend more than 50k for local inference stack. I can amortize it in my taxes so it's not a big deal but beyond it would start eating into my other allocations. I might still get M5 Ultra if it pops up and benchmarks look good, possibly selling M3 Ultra.
irusensei 7mo ago
Any custom configuration takes a while for them to prepare. I remember my M3 max took 2 or 3 months to a arrive. Good thing is they only seem to charge when device ships so if an M5 comes along you should be able to cancel the m3 ultra and get the m5.

Weren't 512GB models selling like hot cakes to the complete surprise of Apple? Wait time was up to 3 months last time I checked. Glad I got mine last October.

by storus 7mo ago

Weren't 512GB models selling like hot cakes to the complete surprise of Apple? Wait time was up to 3 months last time I checked. Glad I got mine last October.

appreciatorBus 7mo ago

“Like hot cakes” is relative. > The 512GB Mac Studio was not a mass-market machine—adding that much RAM also required springing for the most expensive M3 Ultra model, which brought the system’s price to a whopping $9,499. Number of people willing the number of people willing to spend $10,000 on a computer is pretty tiny. Maybe they are common enough in HN circles, but I doubt any one at Apple is losing sleep over them.

dangus 7mo ago
Of course, $10,000 workstations for a corporation working on AI products might just be a necessary tool. Just a guess, but I think it’s entirely possible that Apple sold through the full production run that they intended for this generation of the machine and they don’t want to order a new batch before the next generation of processors come out. I have to think that Apple is close to replacing the M3 Ultra with an M5 Ultra or something of the sort.
storus 7mo ago
A retailer told me they sold more 512GB RAM MacStudios than any other type. N=1 I know but still...
- __patchbit__ 7mo ago
  There is a $6 thousand value add service to configure your Mac Mini with AI and have that accessible over iMessage.

rattray 7mo ago

Curious, what do you use it for?

jonhohle 7mo ago
Probably an Electron app or two.
storus 7mo ago
Huge local thinking LLMs to solve math and for general assistant-style tasks. Models like Kimi-2.5-Q3, DeepSeek-XX-Q4/Q5, Qwen-3.5-Q8, MiniMax-m2.5-Q8 etc. that bring me to Claude4/GPT5 territory without any cloud. For coding I have another machine with 3x RTX Pro 6000 (mostly Qwen subvariants) and for image/video/audio generation I have 2x DGX Sparks from ASUS.
- ganoushoreilly 7mo ago
  We must be twins, i've got the same three working in a cluster. I was really excited to see where the GB300 Desktops end up, with 768gb ram but now that data is leaking / popping up (dell appears to only be 496gb), we may be in the 60-100k range and that's well out of my comfort zone. If Apple came out with a 768gb Studio at 15k i'd bite in a heart beat. https://www.dell.com/en-us/lp/dell-pro-max-nvidia-ai-dev https://www.dell.com/en-us/lp/dell-pro-max-nvidia-ai-dev
  - storus 7mo ago
    Yeah, I didn't want to spend more than 50k for local inference stack. I can amortize it in my taxes so it's not a big deal but beyond it would start eating into my other allocations. I might still get M5 Ultra if it pops up and benchmarks look good, possibly selling M3 Ultra.

irusensei 7mo ago

Any custom configuration takes a while for them to prepare. I remember my M3 max took 2 or 3 months to a arrive. Good thing is they only seem to charge when device ships so if an M5 comes along you should be able to cancel the m3 ultra and get the m5.