Just before this video starts,
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Apart from that, let's just get into this video.
PCs are hot, loud, ugly, and power hungry.
This is why Macs are the greatest computers on the planet
and why Apple is the...
Hang on, I don't remember writing this.
Tim, I told you to stop editing my scripts.
(audience clap)
(beep)
Okay, in all seriousness, Macs are pretty good,
especially the most recent Apple Silicon Macs.
And yes, some PCs are hot and loud,
but one of the most common points of difference
regarding the great Mac versus PC debate
is that you can typically get a much more powerful PC
for a much cheaper price than a Mac.
But seeing just how insanely powerful
these new Apple Silicon chips are, is that still the case?
Well, let's find out.
Currently, the most powerful Mac device
is the M1 Ultra Mac Studio.
Now, I made a video comparing it
to an equivalently priced Mini-ITX PC Build,
featuring powerful components like the Intel i9-12900K
and RTX 3080.
Now, I got some comments saying
that it wasn't a fair comparison
that I shouldn't have used DDR5 memory
or Mini-ITX form-factor, for example, to save money.
Even though in terms of pure specs,
it was as similar to the M1 Ultra Macs Studio
as you could get at the time.
I mean, Apple Silicon Macs do use DDR5 memory.
Also PC components, GPUs specifically,
have been marked up quite a lot recently
due to the pandemic and current global situation.
So to answer the question that this video asks,
I went out and built the most powerful
and most cost effective PC build that I possibly could.
Here's the build list and prices.
Remember, we're comparing this PC
against the base model M1 Ultra Macs Studio
with 48 GPU cores and 64 gigabytes of RAM,
which costs $4,000.
Now, I did leave out the 10 Gigabit Ethernet adapter here
because most people won't need it,
but it can be added in later at any time.
The Macs Studio comes
with a 10 Gigabit Ethernet port as stock.
If you're asking why I'm not comparing a 3090
with a maxed out M1 Ultra with 64 GPU cores instead,
well, the answer is I've already sold both my kidneys
just to afford these
because don't forget that upgrading the M1 Ultra
to the 64 GPU core option is an additional $1,000,
which is a lot of money for not that much performance gain.
Okay, let's break these parts down a little further
starting with the GPU.
Now, when I made my previous video on this topic,
GPU prices were still pretty high,
but pretty much just after I posted that video,
they dropped significantly.
Now an RTX 3080 or 90 will smoke Apple Silicon
in a lot of workflows, like 3D work or gaming, for example,
because they are more optimized
and the PC can simply suck up more power.
Now there are some side effects to this
like massively increased fan noise
and thermal output from the PC.
But like I'll show you later on in the video,
this can actually be improved quite significantly.
Now for the CPU, I went with the Intel 12900K.
Yeah, you can usually save a little money
by going with the non K version,
but at the time of this video,
they were all the same price, about $560.
Also in my last video, I went with DDR5 RAM
on a DDR5 compatible motherboard.
But looking into this further,
DDR5 really doesn't have that many benefits over DDR4
despite the massive difference in price.
So I decided to go with a cost effective solution
of a DDR4 LGA 1700 motherboard
paired with 64 gigabytes of DDR4 RAM
at almost half the cost of the combo I used
in my previous video.
Moving on the form factor,
I wanted to keep this size of this PC build relatively small
because I don't think it's fair
to compare a full sized ATX build
to something with such a tiny form factor
like the Mac Studio.
In my previous video,
I used the A4-H2O from Lian Li, which is a tiny case,
but a little pricey and restrictive in terms of airflow.
Enter the NR200P from Cooler Master.
I was able to pick up this case for just $70 on sale.
And the airflow is phenomenal.
With a 12900K hooked up to a 280 millimeter AIO
and an RTX 3080, I was able to keep temps
almost as cool as my full sized ATX case.
Sure, it is a little bit tricky
to build in being a mini ITX case,
but honestly most of that difficulty was due
to the motherboard VRMs and also just the massive heat sink
of the RTX 3080 graphics cards.
Seriously, check this out.
The red card is a GTX 1080 and the huge slab of metal
on the other side is an RTX 3080,
just two generations apart, but almost three times bigger.
And this brings me to my next point.
Typically PCs, although more powerful, are much hotter
and louder than something like the dead quiet Mac Studio,
but with a little bit of customization,
you'd be surprised at how cool and quiet this PC can get.
Firstly, the 140 millimeter fans
that came with my Corsair AIO
and also the top exhaust fans on the NR200P case are good,
but I had some Noctuas laying around.
The Noctuas did make a difference
in terms of noise reduction and cooling ability,
but honestly not much over the stock fans.
What did make a difference though was taking the time
to test and create custom fan curves.
After tweaking these, my PC is now as silent
as the Mac Studio when doing anything but intensive tasks
like gaming or rendering a video.
And even then, the noise is noticeably reduced.
Next, I also under vaulted my RTX 3080 slightly
and was able to knock off about five degrees Celsius
from peak temps, reduce fan noise significantly
and reduce power draw by roughly 70 Watts
while not seeing any noticeable performance drops.
Now you can do the same to the 12900K, but I didn't bother
because most of my workloads are GPU heavy.
And when I am using the CPU, it doesn't get that hot anyway.
So what's the result of building a super powerful PC
for just over half the price of Apple's most powerful Mac?
Well, if you want to see benchmarks
and a full performance comparison,
make sure you watch my previous video on this topic.
Sure, that video features slightly different components
in DDR5 RAM instead of DDR4,
but the results are essentially the exact same.
This PC comes very close
or even exceeds the M1 Ultra Macs Studio
in almost every single area, such as After Effects,
Photoshop, video editing, timelines scrubbing, rendering 4K
and AK video, et cetera.
But the PC really shines
in areas like 3D modeling and gaming,
where it utterly destroys the Mac,
again for just over half the cost.
And like I mentioned, it runs a lot quieter and cooler
than traditional PCs, but to be fair, nowhere near as quiet
and as cool as the Mac Studio.
Seriously, CPU temps
on the Studio barely reach 70 degrees Celsius
and I've never heard the fans go off.
And the form factor, although pretty small for a PC,
is nowhere near as compact as the Mac.
You also get all of the traditional pros
of going with a PC instead of a Mac.
For example, modularity.
I can add multiple NVMe SSDs at once
or I can swap the GPU for a more powerful one in the future
or I can swap the case and motherboard for something larger
and add more parts via the PCIE slots.
The options are limitless.
Now I do understand that there are a lot of pros and cons
to both platforms, including hardware and software,
but most comparison videos I see
are people comparing a full sized ATX PC build
with a MacBook or a tiny Mac Studio.
There's no custom fan curves or under vaulting
or even similar form factors.
And I think the fact that you can build and customize a PC
to look and perform in this way
just goes to show how versatile the platform is
and also shows the massive leaps in performance
that Apple Silicon has introduced to the Mac lineup.
But apart from that, guys,
hopefully you enjoyed this little comparison video
and I'll catch you in the next one.