Entering edit mode
2.1 years ago
akh22
▴
110
Hi,
For those who have received and played a brand new, top of line Mac Stuidio ($6000?) for bioinformatics analyses, I would appreciate a posting on your first impression, non-scientific benchmark, and pros and cons (besides limitations on number of installable R and Python packages due to Arm chip) as compared to similar PCs and Mac (IMAC Pro and Mac Pro) ?
My reason to switch away from Mac was mainly insane pricing and the inability to upgrade hardware. Get a top workstation for the same price and run either native Linux if it is really just for plain analysis or Windows11 + WSL2 if for hybrid office and analysis. I really don’t see why one would overpay for analysis workstations these days. With 6000$ you can really buy a super bossy workstation with fast Xeon or i9 processor, 128GB or more memory and SSDs and other fancy specs, and probably even have quite some money left. Rather be sure that you have some NAS or similar storage going to properly backup data and results if the machine catches fire.
The main advantage of the new Macs with Apple silicon appears to be the lower power consumption at similar performance levels as other chips. Worth considering for the environmentally conscious maybe? Otherwise, the cost/performance ratio doesn't look like it's in Apple's favour. Also with cloud solutions available, an expensive high performance workstation is not always the best solution.