wizard69

tht said:

rob53 said:

tht said:

Nice to see!

Just keep making incremental updates and options. Hopefully upgradeable SSDs will be available for all of the other Macs in the future.

They won't be unless Apple makes a total change in the enclosures. You can open a current MBP and iMac but the iMac is not that easy. We'll see if Apple goes back to an easy to open front or rear case for the iMacs but I don't see them changing from soldered RAM and SSD on some of the MacBooks or changing back to a screwed on case. Most CPUs are also soldered to keep the height of the motherboard as thin as possible. Adding a CPU socket doubles the height of the CPU.

I think the low end ARM Macs will be quite integrated, SiP-like integrated where the RAM will be in the CPU package like in iPhones and iPads, or on the CPU like in iPad Pros. For the desktop and expensive laptops, will be interesting to see how they handle it.

Apple and all manufactures will eventually have to put RAM in package.   It is the only way to really scale performance.   We already live in an era where the APU chips simply don't have enough bandwidth to memory and DDR5 is only a minor improvement.    HBM2 in package or something similar, will have to be implemented to address the bandwidth to off chip memory issue.   Of course on Apple's current hardware, the stacked RAM is more about density than performance but even there I suspect that the are real power usage gains.

So how many people will complain if the ARM chips come with 16GB of HBM2 RAM in package.   Especially in the case of a compact laptop.   I wouldn't but I realize that there are users that need more RAM but this is different than RAM required for a compact laptop serving the needs of general users.

The Mac Pro SSD user upgrades come in 1TB, 2TB, 4TB, and 8TB sizes. The order page notes that the 1TB upgrade retails for $600, the 2TB kit sells for $1000, with the 4TB kit coming in at $1600. The 8TB upgrade retails for $2800.

When initially purchased, 1TB of storage is a $400 premium versus 256GB. The larger 2TB, 4TB, and 8TB configurations add $800, $1400, and $2600, respectively

This is why buying an Apple Mac makes no sense anymore.   It is bad enough that the Mac Pro gets creamed buy cheap Thread ripper systems but then you have these outlandish prices for storage options and upgrades.   I really don't see why people even bother with Macs any more.   Even the laptop upgrades make no sense cost wise.

SpamSandwich said:

The Supreme Court has already ruled against these unconstitutional attempts at “balancing” things by reverse-discrimination.

 Beyond that Apple should realize that two wrongs don’t make a right.   

digitol said:

Pretty sad day to see an apple fan site, ask,beg,plead Apple for a better computer. Don't get me wrong I absolutely agree with this post, it's just sad. Long gone are the days of Apple's superiority PPC RISC, special made macs. Now we just get macs from the ol parts bin. Apple has almost become all but irrelevant. That's the word in the Valley, not me saying it, just repeating/agreeing. SAD. 

rob53 said:

So the NUC 9 Pro kit won't be able to run macOS, correct? Just checking. The whole reason for this article is to try and define an xMac or expandable Mac mini, maybe? From what the article shows, the Mac mini still beats the snot out of the NUC 9 box.