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Bad idea to get an intel mac mini now?

Should I buy an Intel or m1 mac mini?

  • M1 mac mini

    Votes: 76 76.8%

  • Intel Mac Mini

    Votes: 23 23.2%
  • Total voters
    99
Black Magic said:
It was reported that these will be fixed in an upcoming update. I have a MacBook Pro that’s intel so I may take the plunge on M1.
Click to expand...
There certainly could be some software improvements to the driver, perhaps a bug with those for the M1 Macs. However, USB 3.0 still can be a problem with BT.

When I added an SSD, my HDD/SSD upgrade kit included the following, which I was surprised because I don’t recall having issues — though I then remembered I only used FW and USB 2.0 peripherals until recently.
eshop.macsales.com

OWC Bluetooth Module Shielding Kit for Mac mini 2012

The 2012 Mac mini is great, but some units don't have proper shielding on the Bluetooth module, and can experience interference from USB 3.0 drives.
eshop.macsales.com eshop.macsales.com
 
Black Magic said:
Problem is 2018 is basically 3 years of life which means 4 years of support tops for current Intel Mac minis.
Click to expand...

Not sure how you are figuring that. Apple considers Macs "vintage" after 6 years and stops supporting them after 7 years. However the "clock" doesn't start until the model is discontinued. So, the i3 Mini was discontinued last year and should be good for another 6 years. But the i5 and i7 Mini are still being sold, so they will be supported for 7 years or more, depending on when they are discontinued.

"Obsolete products are those whose sales were discontinued more than 7 years ago. Apple discontinues all hardware service for obsolete products, with no exceptions. Service providers cannot order parts for obsolete products."

Obtaining service for your Apple product after an expired warranty - Apple Support

Learn about your options for getting service and parts for Apple devices that are past their warranty period.
support.apple.com support.apple.com
 
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Boyd01 said:
Not sure how you are figuring that. Apple considers Macs "vintage" after 6 years and stops supporting them after 7 years. However the "clock" doesn't start until the model is discontinued. So, the i3 Mini was discontinued last year and should be good for another 6 years. But the i5 and i7 Mini are still being sold, so they will be supported for 7 years or more, depending on when they are discontinued.

"Obsolete products are those whose sales were discontinued more than 7 years ago. Apple discontinues all hardware service for obsolete products, with no exceptions. Service providers cannot order parts for obsolete products."

Obtaining service for your Apple product after an expired warranty - Apple Support

Learn about your options for getting service and parts for Apple devices that are past their warranty period.
support.apple.com support.apple.com
Click to expand...
For example this means the 2013 Mac Pro should be supported until at least 2025.

Plus when Macs get that old you can usually buy a replacement on eBay cheaper than it would cost to fix...
 
IMO, Intel is dead on Apple. Yes, macOS will still be built on x86, but developers might turn more and more to M chips and start abandoning progressively the Intel platform. Yes, there is still some years before this, but considering the performance packed in the M1 mini, IF all your softwares have been ported and your workload can fit into 16 GB of RAM, get the M1 mini. A lot more bang for the buck.
 
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pldelisle said:
IMO, Intel is dead on Apple. Yes, macOS will still be built on x86, but developers might turn more and more to M chips and start abandoning progressively the Intel platform. Yes, there is still some years before this, but considering the performance packed in the M1 mini, IF all your softwares have been ported and your workload can fit into 16 GB of RAM, get the M1 mini. A lot more bang for the buck.
Click to expand...
Why buy cutting edge tech now for it to only be truly ready in a few years? Doesn't it make sense to invest in fully functional tech now then upgrade when the new tech has matured?
 
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Black Magic said:
Why buy cutting edge tech now for it to only be truly ready in a few years? Doesn't it make sense to invest in fully functional tech now then upgrade when the new tech has matured?
Click to expand...
Except the M1 is pretty mature for a first release. Emulation works really well, and things like Bluetooth dropouts are minor in general.

I had more issues trying to use eGPU under Catalina than I am having with Bluetooth and M1.
 
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Too many "If's" But here's one, you're apps and you aren't ready for M1 ARM and/or Bug Sur. You may need/want new Mac, but this transition doesn't happen overnight. So Pro users, hope the new 14 and 16" are more robust.

It took OS X years to get beyond a number of issues, from 10.0 to well into 10.4.6 Tiger, but then there was the move to Intel and end to PPC. If stumbling at hyper-threading in 10.6 for six months. And then Lion stumbled at SATAIII and with SSDs. Back in 7.0 when VM was added but drivers and apps needed to be uodated. Or how buggy Mac Finder was becoming thru 7, 8 and 9.

There are always growing pains and challenges. That's a given over the decades.
 
IowaLynn said:
Too many "If's" But here's one, you're apps and you aren't ready for M1 ARM and/or Bug Sur. You may need/want new Mac, but this transition doesn't happen overnight. So Pro users, hope the new 14 and 16" are more robust.

It took OS X years to get beyond a number of issues, from 10.0 to well into 10.4.6 Tiger, but then there was the move to Intel and end to PPC. If stumbling at hyper-threading in 10.6 for six months. And then Lion stumbled at SATAIII and with SSDs. Back in 7.0 when VM was added but drivers and apps needed to be uodated. Or how buggy Mac Finder was becoming thru 7, 8 and 9.

There are always growing pains and challenges. That's a given over the decades.
Click to expand...
Fair points, and for audio production I wouldn‘t go M1 yet. Same goes for video outside of FCP. But for most the M1 is fine.

Apple is smart starting with the base MBA, MBP and Mini. Most users here have pretty vanilla use cases, and Apple can fix bugs and gain the experience necessary for the next generation while at the same time selling a lot of these devices at a good price and crushing Intel in benchmarks.
 
MarkAtl said:
Except the M1 is pretty mature for a first release. Emulation works really well, and things like Bluetooth dropouts are minor in general.

I had more issues trying to use eGPU under Catalina than I am having with Bluetooth and M1.
Click to expand...
Bluetooth connectivity issues shouldn't be considered a "minor" problem. Considering that your keyboard, mouse, trackpad, and headset are all bluetooth and are used for meetings/workflows, I can see folks asking for refunds fairly quick. WiFi connectivity issues probably rank a little higher than bluetooth issues which is pretty much the nail in the coffin. Even if it's just a system to surf the web and view your photos, the issues above ruin that standard use case.

Emulation wise, can you run Office 365, Zoom, and WebEx without issue?
 
Black Magic said:
Bluetooth connectivity issues shouldn't be considered a "minor" problem. Considering that your keyboard, mouse, trackpad, and headset are all bluetooth and are used for meetings/workflows, I can see folks asking for refunds fairly quick. WiFi connectivity issues probably rank a little higher than bluetooth issues which is pretty much the nail in the coffin. Even if it's just a system to surf the web and view your photos, the issues above ruin that standard use case.

Emulation wise, can you run Office 365, Zoom, and WebEx without issue?
Click to expand...
I run Office and Zoom daily, for hours. No problems. Also other apps.

My disconnects on my MBP last a couple of seconds and then reconnect. I get this a couple of times a day on average. Sometimes I get a weird issue coming out of sleep.

On my Mini, Office and Zoom, no problems at all so far.
 
MarkAtl said:
I run Office and Zoom daily, for hours. No problems. Also other apps.

My disconnects on my MBP last a couple of seconds and then reconnect. I get this a couple of times a day on average. Sometimes I get a weird issue coming out of sleep.

On my Mini, Office and Zoom, no problems at all so far.
Click to expand...
Are you experiencing USB port issues?
 
Black Magic said:
Why buy cutting edge tech now for it to only be truly ready in a few years? Doesn't it make sense to invest in fully functional tech now then upgrade when the new tech has matured?
Click to expand...
Because you end up never buying with this kind of thinking. You can always wait for more mature tech, something better. You end up buying nothing. If your current rig is correct for what you need to do, then fine. If not, you have to pull the trigger.

M1 is mature. Yes, it's a low power, low end chip and there is a lot more to come. But it's not the first ARM chip Apple ever produce. Big Sur is fine, software are being rolled up weeks after weeks. 11.2 is coming with a load of bug fixes. People testing it already report better stability regarding Buetooth and Wifi. If it's fine for its use case, why wait more if he knows his softwares can run either natively or with Rosetta without too many hiccups ?

Of course, if you are in audio, then absolutely no way to pick an M1. Audio is a whole another market with slow transition, slow updates... Video/photography is more proactive.
 
Boyd01 said:
Not sure how you are figuring that. Apple considers Macs "vintage" after 6 years and stops supporting them after 7 years. However the "clock" doesn't start until the model is discontinued. So, the i3 Mini was discontinued last year and should be good for another 6 years. But the i5 and i7 Mini are still being sold, so they will be supported for 7 years or more, depending on when they are discontinued.

"Obsolete products are those whose sales were discontinued more than 7 years ago. Apple discontinues all hardware service for obsolete products, with no exceptions. Service providers cannot order parts for obsolete products."

Obtaining service for your Apple product after an expired warranty - Apple Support

Learn about your options for getting service and parts for Apple devices that are past their warranty period.
support.apple.com support.apple.com
Click to expand...
7 years of support. 3 years have already passed. I guess support for me is a stretch. What I care about is will I get the new operating system after 7 years? You won't. The clock starts ticking the year it's released.

Example: 2014 iMac 5K will get the last Operating System Upgrade in October this year.

Not sure how you guys get confused on this?
 
voodoochild16 said:
Is it a bad idea to buy an Intel Mac right now?. Should I get the M1 mac mini instead?
Click to expand...
Right now Apple has deliberately separated these.

if you want more onboard ports or massive amounts of memory, then the current M1 mini is not for you. In which case buy the Intel version, it’s going to be supported for a long time.
 
Osamede said:
Right now Apple has deliberately separated these.

if you want more onboard ports or massive amounts of memory, then the current M1 mini is not for you. In which case buy the Intel version, it’s going to be supported for a long time.
Click to expand...
Or of course Windows Bootcamp/Parallels capability. That’s the other Intel requirement at the moment.
 
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No idea what you are talking about. I got a 2018 Mini with 64gb last summer so I could run Windows 10, MacOS Mountain Lion and Sierra virtual machines. It would cost about $1500 for me to upgrade my legacy version of VectorWorks, over $500 to upgrade FileMaker Pro, around $1500 for Strata3d CX and over $500 for GlobalMapper. There are also other old programs I still use, although I did subscribe to Office 365 and the Adobe Photography plans because they were more reasonable and I didn't want to deal with the bugs in my legacy versions.

I'm retired on a fixed income and don't need to use all that old software daily like I did when I was working, but I still need it. My legacy versions still do all I need and they run perfectly under Parallels - much better than they ran on the old Macs I had been using before I got the 2018 Mini. I also got rid of my old Windows 7 desktop computer, saving around $1500 I had been planning to spend on an upgrade.

That's not a "stupid joke" and it's not "crap I don't know about".

Now, for the OP, I think the M1 Mini was a good choice. For me, it just doesn't meet my needs and I suspect I'm not the only person in such a position.
 
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Boyd01 said:
No idea what you are talking about. I got a 2018 Mini with 64gb last summer so I could run Windows 10, MacOS Mountain Lion and Sierra virtual machines. It would cost about $1500 for me to upgrade my legacy version of VectorWorks, over $500 to upgrade FileMaker Pro, around $1500 for Strata3d CX and over $500 for GlobalMapper. There are also other old programs I still use, although I did subscribe to Office 365 and the Adobe Photography plans because they were more reasonable and I didn't want to deal with the bugs in my legacy versions.

I'm retired on a fixed income and don't need to use all that old software daily like I did when I was working, but I still need it. My legacy versions still do all I need and they run perfectly under Parallels - much better than they ran on the old Macs I had been using before I got the 2018 Mini. I also got rid of my old Windows 7 desktop computer, saving around $1500 I had been planning to spend on an upgrade.

That's not a "stupid joke" and it's not "crap I don't know about".

Now, for the OP, I think the M1 Mini was a good choice. For me, it just doesn't meet my needs and I suspect I'm not the only person in such a position.
Click to expand...
That's what I'm referring to. Look around the forums and people are frequently talking down anyone with said software/hardware requirements.
The main page threads are notorious for that.
 
Well, you need to make a simple checklist of what are you needs.

Because I am using:
- eGPU
- Windows OS under Bootcamp
- 32-bit Intel applications

... the Intel Mac mini was the (only) logical choice.
 
opeter said:
Well, you need to make a simple checklist of what are you needs.

Because I am using:
- eGPU
- Windows OS under Bootcamp
- 32-bit Intel applications

... the Intel Mac mini was the (only) logical choice.
Click to expand...
I would agree, I got my MacBook Pro 16 last year and it has been the best MacBook's I have owned. I would wait and see what this year brings. I am thinking we could see a Mac mini Pro with a couple of PCI 4.0 slots, Memory Slots for upgrades and AMD top of the line GPU. I think that Apple will still be using Xeon processor or cranked up latest gen Intel i9 processor for this mini tower. Or they could have option models for a M1x or Xeon. If they do this it will replace the MacBook Pro 16 with this desktop unit, I don't need a laptop when I am working at home now, and have always wanted a mini tower design.
 
Aoligei said:
M1 is great, but M1 Mac mini still have few disadvantage.

First: max 16GB RAM. The 2018 Intel Mac is capable to house 64GB RAM. My 2018 Core i5 Mac mini has 32GB RAM and my Hackintosh has 64GB RAM.

Second: M1 is first generation Apple chip. The whole ecosystem is still being built. Intel Mac is more mature, more natively supported software.

Third and most importantly: Alternative OS are available for Intel Mac. Windows 10, Linux or whatever. M1 Mac, not so much. Alternative OS support is curial for lots of people.
Click to expand...
My only use is for music production. Do you think if i fully loaded the intel mac min with 64GB Ram would this be a better choice than the m1 mac mini? Is the more ram with intel going to better for me or new M1 chip?
 
How many simultaneous tracks do you anticipate and will you be using a lot of virtual instruments or effects?

For music production either the Intel or M1 should work fine.
 
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