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Comment by cycomanic | Hacker News Reader

I don't get the hype around apple silicon for desktop computers. I sort of understand the power efficiency argument for laptops (although it is often overstated IMO, I could work for >10h straight with my X1 carbon 6 years ago), but for Desktop it is trivial to build a PC that runs significantly faster, with much more upgradability and flexibility for a fraction of the price. So if I want performance on a Linux system why would I choose Apple silicon?

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>for Desktop it is trivial to build a PC that runs significantly faster <...> for a fraction of the price.

Is it though?

Mac Mini m2 pro with decent ram and storage starts at 2000. According to apple current intel and amd chips are faster but much less efficient (ignoring how to define that for now). If you are the "mini" target customer, 2000 will buy you lots of PC hardware.

The article list an m1 ultra with 128gb of ram, so 6000 or so. Not sure what the target market for this is, but the intersection of "4000 does not cut it" and "I don't need high performance computing, clusters, multiple GPUs, no ECC,no more ram than that" to me seems almost empty.

>current intel and amd chips are faster

These are close to 2k for CPU alone AFAIK.

I must admit though I am biased as I am yet to find a fault or reason for an upgrade in my original M1 machine, and I had dual xeon workstation prior to that.

Apple compared to the current 13th generation i5 and i7 chips. Those are not remotely close to 2k.

What if you don't want to build a PC and a need for ARM64 (lets say at work they run stuff on ARM64 servers for whatever reason, those fools!)?

What if I just want to buy a thing. And then later also be able to sell it maybe.

> So if I want performance on a Linux system why would I choose Apple silicon?

Power draw for one; it applies to desktop PCs as well. Electricity isn't always cheap.

More than 19 hours on X1 Carbon? For real? Mine barely lasts 6 hours and it's 2 years-old. I'm using Linux without a GUI.

The claim was more than 10 and seems accurate, e.g.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-ThinkPad-X1-Carbon-Gen-...

Also just throwing out there that the X1 weighs about 500g less than a MacBook pro and a powerbank is about 500g.

That said, if you are fine with weight and battery life is important, 2015 was the year to be:

https://www.anandtech.com/show/9623/the-lenovo-thinkpad-t450...

Are you making use of Cunningham's Law?

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