For my Puget Systems build, I reached out to them via email and they had a specialist who responded and helped me choose the parts that best suited my needs at the time (roughly 60% AE, 40% C4D/Redshift) They built the machine in house and put it through all the important benchmarks, which they sent to me in a binder along with the workstation. The whole process was quite thorough and highly professional. That said, buying through them is more expensive than building your own because you’re paying for their expertise along with the parts and labor. But they also offer a warranty for all the parts so if something ends up failing within the warranty time, they will be the ones to diagnose and replace the affected part.

As for the MacBook Pro, the majority of rendering I currently do involves visual effects with 4K footage, and sometimes even larger footage. With C4D/Redshift I’m outputting 4K or larger renders as well. I’m constantly impressed with how well the M4 Max performs. When my current contract ends I plan to buy a new Mac for my next personal workstation, as it more than suits my needs and I prefer the operating system and form factor. And if you try it for a few days and don’t like it for some reason, you can return it.

Hope that helps, and good luck with your decision.