[PragmaticPulp]

> Does anyone know how cost effective a base M1 Mac Studio would be compared to a PC build with comparable cost?

If you normalize to performance, building a comparable PC for things like compiling code can be about half the price. Intel and AMD’s latest top-end consumer CPUs are very, very fast and significantly cheaper.

> Is the power efficiency of Apple Silicon still a major advantage in a desktop system?

If you’re going for ultimate silence and/or you need the smallest machine possible, power efficiency matters.

If you’re spending 99% of your time in the code editor and web browser, your CPU is going to be mostly idle anyway and peak power usage basically doesn’t matter. A decently configured AMD or even Intel system with reasonable fan curves can be plenty quiet for the 1% of time that you’re at 100% CPU usage (hint: embrace the high temperatures and let it throttle, it’s fine).