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Comment by saagarjha | Hacker News Reader

I don't think today's computers were aimed at those kinds of usecases.

Apple has a "missing middle" problem.

They have a ton of fantastic consumer-level computing devices, and one ridiculously-priced mega-computer.

But there are many of us that want something in the upper-middle: a fast computer that is upgradable, but maybe $2k and not $6k (and up).

(The iMac Pro is a dud. People that want a powerful desktop generally don't want a non-upgradable all-in-one.)

Apple doesn't care about your upgradability concerns on the notebook lineup. Once you get past that, it has traditionally done fairly well at covering a wide spectrum of users from the fanless MacBook to the high-powered MacBook Pros.

Apple's solution for upgradability for their corporate customers, is their leasing program. Rather than swapping parts in the Mac, you swap the Mac itself for a more-powerful model when needed — without having to buy/sell anything.

Apple has missing middle _strategy_

I have a late-2013 13" MBP with 16GB of memory. Seven years later I would expect a 13" MBP to support at least 32GB. I can get 13" Windows laptops that support 32GB of memory. The Mini is a regression, from 64GB to 16GB of memory. The only computer worth a damn is the new MBA.

Wait just a bit and I'm sure your concerns in this area will entirely disappear.

They already disappeared, I switched to Windows in 2019.

I use MacStadium for compiling and testing iOS apps. I was wondering if the ARM machines would be worth a look, but they are disappointing. If I was still using Macs as my daily driver, I would buy the new MBA for a personal machine.

Pretty sure my 2014 ish 13inch MBP with 16gb and 512 storage cost me around £1200, today speccing an M1 13inch MBP to the same 6 year old specs would cost almost £2000.

Seems absurd.

But 16gb is what I had in a computer 10 years ago.

I was just window shopping a new gaming rig, and 32gb is affordable (100 bucks), 64gb (200 bucks). Cheap as shit, what’s the hold up?

A new processor architecture. Wait a couple months and you'll probably have the computer you wanted released too.

The memory is on package, not way out somewhere on the logic board. This will increase speed quite a bit, but limit physical size of memory modules, and thus amount. I think they worked themselves into a corner here until the 16” which has a discreet GPU and reconfiguration of the package.

A little bit up is was shown the memory in M1 is 5.5GHz DDR5. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25050625

Can you please provide the link to 64GB DDR5-5500 for $200? I'd love to buy some too!

It's fair but if they choose fast but expensive and unexpandable technology, possibly the choice is failed in some perspective. I think most people who buy mini prefer RAM capacity than faster iGPU.

https://www.newegg.com/p/pl?d=64gb+ram

I guess DDR 500 runs you 350. It looks like Apple charges you 600 for ddr 400 32gb. I don’t know, what am I missing here?

I’m confused. The link is for DDR4, it’s all too slow, and Apple doesn’t offer a 32MB M1 option at this time.

Can you actually link to a product, not a search ? Because none of the items coming up there are DDR5-5500, they're all DDR4-3600 or worse, as far as I can see.

I guess I was wrong, everything is ddr4.

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