Recent upgrades

Kubrak

It is +20%, not 17 above M1. ;-) And beside 64 GB RAM also 2x1TB NVMe SSDs. Just SSDs were about 300 EUR. One could place 5700G to enclosure giving it passive cooling, but price would go up. And my setup is real silent, the sound of blood circulating in one's body makes more sound. Or breathing....

IMHO, Apple set the entry price down (zerro or negative profit) to attract people and speed up M1 transition. Once one goes a bit higher more RAM, bigger SSD, the prices steeply rise....

We will see. I guess that Apple did not expect fast x86 development. Neither Intel did. AMD has changed it.

According to leakers M2Pro/Max were expected to be 3 nm, but they are on improved 5 nm like M2. I doubt any M2 will be on 3 nm. If M3 comes this year, then yes 3 nm. But the less nm, the more costly production.

Using chiplets helps to radically cut down production costs and eases engineering, development. Again cut of costs and development times. And also allows to use different nodes in one CPU and produce different parts at different producers.

AMD is going to make CPUs with up to 96 big cores (for servers and workstations). That is something Apple will have problem to come with something comparable. I guess.

We will see in few years. It is good that Apple has introduced ARM to laptops/desktops. It forces x86 to inovations in power effectivity, add AI instructions and so on.

Ed M

Always buy a computer that is way more than you actually need, go for current gen parts, and maintain your system along the way. My previous computer lasted for 10 years. In the end it was still ok for basic computing, but music software was becoming way too demanding for the CPU and ram. Then I knew it was time to upgrade.

Do some research, inform yourself on what parts are important and why. Configure your dream machine based on that info. Probably the dream will be too expensive, but because you spent time doing research you will be able to make the right decisions and still have a great computer at a cost you can afford.

If budget is tight and you would have to make too much concessions, don't buy and save some money first.