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Gigabyte Z690 Aero G + i5-12600K + AMD RX 6800 XT

trs96 said:
I'm certain the next Mac mini refresh will not let the end user upgrade anything post purchase from Apple. ...
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I am tempted to build a Mac Mini ... er, I mean a Mac Mini-ITX. It won't be quite as compact, but it will still be small -- and modular.
 
dehjomz said:
Apple also wins on power efficiency. My M1 Max uses 7-15 watts during normal operation with a peak of around 30 or so during a Cinebench run. While I’m out at a coffee shop or elsewhere, I can completely run my M1 Max laptop from a portable USB-c battery bank, and extend the battery life by several hours.
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Believe it or not, I am posting this from my 14" MacBook Pro at a lovely downtown coffee shop (a different one this time) while sipping on a hot latté. I have just downloaded and installed Tensorflow along with Apple's Metal extensions. There's a wonderful series of tutorials on YouTube by Better Data Science. I can sit here and work on machine learning all day on this thing, so I absolutely understand the value of power efficiency!

Apple wins on another front as well: Industrial Design. Designs of a new 27" iMac Pro, a new Mac mini Pro, a new standalone Apple Thunderbolt Display, etc. can win hearts if they don't win minds.

dehjomz said:
...
But for desktops like the Mac Mini or Mac Pro or even the iMac, with Raptor Lake, Sapphire Rapids, and Meteor Lake coming, it’s not clear that Apple’s desktop offerings will rival what Intel has to offer. So what’s the point then of choosing a desktop Mac with lesser performance than Intel/AMD? What are you getting in exchange for your money, and the lack of modularity? This is something apple will have to address.
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That is an existential question for Apple Silicon, but I believe Apple has thought through this. It will therefore be interesting -- and exciting -- to see what comes next.

dehjomz said:
What Apple might do though is build in custom accelerators in its Silicon for artificial intelligence, matrix operations, various video codec (like H.264, H.265, H.266, pro res, etc.) encode/decode and other types of compute. This would differentiate its silicon from Intel/AMD silicon. Also, with apple recently announcing a program for users to repair their own products, perhaps apple might launch more modular products in the future… Only time will tell.
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Another good point. Even AMD has publicly announced their intention to build custom accelerators into next generation Ryzen processors. But, of course, without support in macOS, these accelerators on the Intel and AMD platforms will be useless for us in the Hackintosh world.

So Apple's advantages seem to fall along these lines:
  • Performance per watt
  • Industrial design
  • Custom accelerators
M1 Pro and M1 Max have demonstrated quite poignantly the ability of custom HEVC/H.264/ProRes accelerators to compensate in a gigantic way for shortcomings of conventional GPU compute units.

After all, accelerating real world workflows is much more important than accelerating synthetic benchmarks.

Hackintosh, however, has these advantages:
  • Performance per dollar
  • Modularity
  • Industrial design our way
 
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CaseySJ said:
Believe it or not, I am posting this from my 14" MacBook Pro at a lovely downtown coffee shop (a different one this time) while sipping on a hot latté. I have just downloaded and installed Tensorflow along with Apple's Metal extensions. There's a wonderful series of tutorials on YouTube by Better Data Science. I can sit here and work on machine learning all day on this thing, so I absolutely understand the value of power efficiency!

Apple wins on another front as well: Industrial Design. Designs of a new 27" iMac Pro, a new Mac mini Pro, a new standalone Apple Thunderbolt Display, etc. can win hearts if they don't win minds.


That is an existential question for Apple Silicon, but I believe Apple has thought through this. It will therefore be interesting -- and exciting -- to see what comes next.


Another good point. Even AMD has publicly announced their intention to build custom accelerators into next generation Ryzen processors. But, of course, without support in macOS, these accelerators on the Intel and AMD platforms will be useless for us in the Hackintosh world.

So Apple's advantages seem to fall along these lines:
  • Performance per watt
  • Industrial design
  • Custom accelerators
M1 Pro and M1 Max have demonstrated quite poignantly the ability of custom HEVC/H.264/ProRes accelerators to compensate in a gigantic way for shortcomings of conventional GPU compute units.

After all, accelerating real world workflows is much more important than accelerating synthetic benchmarks.

Hackintosh, however, has these advantages:
  • Performance per dollar
  • Modularity
  • Industrial design our way
Click to expand...
Completely agree! Enjoy that latte. I’m gonna go sip one later.
 
CaseySJ said:
Apple wins on another front as well: Industrial Design. Designs of a new 27" iMac Pro, a new Mac mini Pro, a new standalone Apple Thunderbolt Display, etc. can win hearts if they don't win minds.
Click to expand...
Question already answered: Apple had custom Xeon W-21xxB parts with 120 W TDP in the iMacPro; as always, Intel raised TDP up with the next generation and Apple passed to upgrade, presumably because the new Xeon W-2200 were too hot to cool quietly in the iMacPro form factor. (With the MacPro6,1, and the earlier PowerMac G5, CPU becoming too hot over generations is a well-known pattern for Apple.)
At over 200 W under load, Alder Lake is not suitable for an iMacPro housing. I won't even mention the Mac mini form factor… So, for the sake of its designs, Apple was 100% right to drop Intel and go Apple Silicon.

Let's get over it: Apple will NOT look back.
 
etorix said:
…

Let's get over it: Apple will NOT look back.
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Agreed. The question now is what Apple will pit against the latest workstation processors from Intel. All we can do is speculate and watch the rumors, and that’s all we plan to do…because it is an interesting topic.
 
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Running...
  • Monterey
  • Windows 11
  • Ubuntu 20.04
...on an i5-12600K with 6 P-cores, 12 threads and 16GB DDR4 memory. Smooth as silk!

Multi-OS.jpg
 
Stork said:
BTW, very informative article at AnAndTech.com on the new Z690 DDR4 motherboards.

www.anandtech.com

The Intel Z690 Motherboard Overview (DDR4): Over 30+ New Models

www.anandtech.com www.anandtech.com
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The ASRock Z690 Extreme WiFi 6E DDR4 looks like an amazing option for US$290 on NewEgg. Compared to Gigabyte Z690 AERO G, the ASRock has:
  • WiFi 6E instead of WiFi 6
  • 8 SATA ports instead of 6
  • One Intel GbE Ethernet and one Realtek Dragon 2.5GbE Ethernet
  • GPU anti-sag bracket (photo #2) -- might be the best implementation I've seen so far
  • 2 on-board USB 3.2 Gen 1 headers instead of 1
Looks like it's time for me to get over my own prejudices against ASRock! @bootmacos has installed Monterey on an ASRock Z690 Steel Legend.

13-162-029-V80.jpg
13-162-029-13.jpg
 
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