Can't Decide which M2 Mac Mini Configuration to buy ? Help !!

[phrehdd]

I use Affinity Photo regularly (along with Topaz stand-alone and plug-in and at times, Luminar Neo). My experience is that the M1 Mini 16 gigs can work somewhat okay IF* you have nothing else open or very little open. In particular, if you have a Web browser open on some pages, your RAM will be sucked up. The notion of swapping out should be a very last resort and not the norm. I ended up moving to a Studio Max with more RAM (and a larger drive). The RAM makes a big difference. If the M2 Mini was available then (and the ability to get more than 16 gigs RAM) I might have gone that route.

This is something I recommend watching just to get some ideas.

 

[DonCarlos]

I was one of the first here to get the m2 mini. I went with the base 8gb/256. in comparison with my m1 mini, 16gb/2TB, the m2 ran much slower. Actually about half the speed of the m1.

My advice , get the M2 with 16 GB. As mentioned here before, you can always get external storage. Here is the link to my thread, see page 3, for my comparisons M1 vs. M2. https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...ay.2377462/page-3?post=31907681#post-31907681

 

[foo2]

I was one of the first here to get the m2 mini. I went with the base 8gb/256. in comparison with my m1 mini, 16gb/2TB, the m2 ran much slower. Actually about half the speed of the m1.

To clarify, it wasn’t’t that the M2 was much slower; the M2 is about 10-20% faster than the M1. You’re talking about just the disk speed, and even at that, only the speed in one Benchmark, Black Magic, which only looks at one thing, what they call “max speed”, rather than the much more important random IO speeds that we all use every day.

My advice , get the M2 with 16 GB. As mentioned here before, you can always get external storage. Here is the link to my thread, see page 3, for my comparisons M1 vs. M2. https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...ay.2377462/page-3?post=31907681#post-31907681

Your comment only showed disk speed in that one benchmark. Do you have any statements on other items or speeds / comparisons?

 

[foo2]

So you are saying I should not pay much attention to these theory of 2 Nand Chips in 512 GB also acting as indirect RAM ?

Of course not. That’s been YouTube nonsense / clickbait since the get-go. It’s something people who don’t understand how disks work like to focus on. Random IO is vastly more important, and at that, it appears the M2 Macs (all the minis at least) are a touch faster than the previous generation, regardless of the disk capacity.

 

[Kelvinsin]

I’m in dilemma to go m2 with 16gb or 512gb upgraded. Can’t have both of two together due to cost concern. Both option also have reviews said can help on ram paging and slow ssd issue on base model.
There is feedback above with high ram consumption on multi chrome/safari tabs opening.
Planning to use parallel to work in mini environment with windows. May getting external m2 ssd but the thunderbolt 4 casing cost is killing.

Would like to have advise which option is more worth to upgrade, ram or ssd?

 

[thebart]

I’m in dilemma to go m2 with 16gb or 512gb upgraded. Can’t have both of two together due to cost concern. Both option also have reviews said can help on ram paging and slow ssd issue on base model.
There is feedback above with high ram consumption on multi chrome/safari tabs opening.
Planning to use parallel to work in mini environment with windows. May getting external m2 ssd but the thunderbolt 4 casing cost is killing.

Would like to have advise which option is more worth to upgrade, ram or ssd?

Parallels you say? Get the RAM

 

[foo2]

I’m in dilemma to go m2 with 16gb or 512gb upgraded. Can’t have both of two together due to cost concern. Both option also have reviews said can help on ram paging and slow ssd issue on base model.
There is feedback above with high ram consumption on multi chrome/safari tabs opening.
Planning to use parallel to work in mini environment with windows. May getting external m2 ssd but the thunderbolt 4 casing cost is killing.

Would like to have advise which option is more worth to upgrade, ram or ssd?

Not even a question; get the RAM. You can always add more storage, easily; you cannot add RAM.

If all you do is browse, you don't need > 8GB. You will want more RAM for Parallels, to run Windows 11 ARM Edition.

I bought a $10 USBC case. It runs at only 800MB/s or so. It's perfect. Yours will be too. Skip the costs, use what works.

 

[phrehdd]

I’m in dilemma to go m2 with 16gb or 512gb upgraded. Can’t have both of two together due to cost concern. Both option also have reviews said can help on ram paging and slow ssd issue on base model.
There is feedback above with high ram consumption on multi chrome/safari tabs opening.
Planning to use parallel to work in mini environment with windows. May getting external m2 ssd but the thunderbolt 4 casing cost is killing.

Would like to have advise which option is more worth to upgrade, ram or ssd?

Zero hesitation to answer RAM RAM and more RAM.

 

[marcusalwayswins]

Hi Guys,

An absolute first timer trying to Purchase a Mac ever in my Life. And I am literally tearing my hair apart thinking which configuration to buy as I am mighty confused.

So I am Planning to buy the newly released M2 Mac Mini and I have one question to ask you guys, almost everyone has been telling me that even if someone is a budget buyer it is always advisable to buy atleast 16GB of RAM and 512 GB of SSD because of the 2 NAND Chip in the 512 GB SSD vs 1 in 256GB SSD. As the extra 512 GB SSD which has the 2 NAND Chip makes the exchange of Data between the SSD and RAM faster and hence the net result is a faster working computer.

My question to you guys is now when I am just about thinking to buy a M2 Mac Mini I can only afford to buy 16GB of RAM and 256GB of SSD because someone is sponsoring my purchase and I can't really further ask him to bear the cost of the additional SSD of going from 256GB to 512 GB SSD

I am mostly a Mid Level Power user meaning occasionally video editing (Just occasionally that too not professional level I am not a YouTuber) but yes I am a Affinity Photo Power User. But other wise just normal web browsing, using emails and watching YouTube and movies. But yes, I do want to future prof myself against all the Future MAC OS that might be coming out at least for another 4 Years. So do you guys really think I should be buying the 512 GB SSD because of faster data transfer and exchange between the RAM and SSD because of the 512 GB SDD. Do you guys think for a mId level Power user like me would it make any difference. ? Will the 16GB of RAM and 256GB SSD will it not suffice my kind of user needs.

Before you tell me that go for the Base Level Mac Mini that should also work in your case LIke I said, I could have also gone for the base level Mac Mini but I want to future proof my purchase against future Software OS Updates that Apple may release for Mac OS and hence my decision from 8GB RAM to 16GB RAM what do you guys feel will I be ok with 16GB RAM and 256 GB SSD ? Or will the extra 512 GB SSD that will indeed make a noticable difference

Can you please tell me?

TIA !

Hi Guys,

Just reviving this old thread. I have still not pulled the trigger but kind of have made a decision to go with 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD of the M2 Mac Mini but still wanted to ask you guys Looking at reading going through my requirement listed above I definitely don't need a M2 Pro Mini right ? If I am going with the M2 Mac Mini with 16GB RAM and 512 GB SSD ? I should not spend my .Money unnecessarily there as all it offers is some extra cores and some more ports.

 

[CBlakeston]

Posting this in case it helps any other video editors. Having moved from a base model M1 MacBook Air to an M1 Mac Studio this week I took the opportunity to revamp my editing storage.

Buying an Acasis Thunderbolt 4 Enclosure an WD Black sn850x 4TB SSD m2 drive to fit into it. In speed tests it reaches the theoretical max data Thunderbolt 4 transfer rate of 3050 Read/Write. This thing is a beast.

Just exported my first video to it with a run time of 17m 10s.

It took 2m 21s. Wow, Very cool.

For fun, I exported to one of the many Samsung T7 SSD drives I have, connected over USBC to see how much slower it would be.

It took 2m 23s. 🤣

The moral of the story is, a super fast SSD drive won't speed up exports.

You don’t mention what type of footage you edit or what camera it comes from or codec, bitrate ect. But I’ve just spent two years running a video production company from a base model M1 Air and honestly that’s all you need unless you’re doing seriously heavy work.

In general will more ram speed things up. A little. Will doubling the storage improve the SSD speed. Yes. Do you NEED either of those things. No. They’re just nice to have and both have diminishing returns on investment.
If you know you use something that will benefit from more Ram. Get more ram. That’s cool. You know you need it.

Are you a hobbiest editor or filmmaker and doesn’t really mind if a video takes 15 minutes to export instead of 3 minutes. What you’re paying the extra for is saving time. If that’s worth it to you go for it. I did.

Love my new Mac Studio but honestly I’m more surprised at how similar it performs to the M1 Air for 90% of stuff then how fast it is at the other 10%.

I would just get the base model M2 Mini up to 16GB as you’re a power user and and invest in a 2TB T7 external SSDs to edit from. (Currently on sale £90 direct from Samsung)

 

[marcusalwayswins]

Posting this in case it helps any other video editors. Having moved from a base model M1 MacBook Air to an M1 Mac Studio this week I took the opportunity to revamp my editing storage.

Buying an Acasis Thunderbolt 4 Enclosure an WD Black sn850x 4TB SSD m2 drive to fit into it. In speed tests it reaches the theoretical max data Thunderbolt 4 transfer rate of 3050 Read/Write. This thing is a beast.

Just exported my first video to it with a run time of 17m 10s.

It took 2m 21s. Wow, Very cool.

For fun, I exported to one of the many Samsung T7 SSD drives I have, connected over USBC to see how much slower it would be.

It took 2m 23s. 🤣

The moral of the story is, a super fast SSD drive won't speed up exports.

You don’t mention what type of footage you edit or what camera it comes from or codec, bitrate ect. But I’ve just spent two years running a video production company from a base model M1 Air and honestly that’s all you need unless you’re doing seriously heavy work.

In general will more ram speed things up. A little. Will doubling the storage improve the SSD speed. Yes. Do you NEED either of those things. No. They’re just nice to have and both have diminishing returns on investment.
If you know you use something that will benefit from more Ram. Get more ram. That’s cool. You know you need it.

Are you a hobbiest editor or filmmaker and doesn’t really mind if a video takes 15 minutes to export instead of 3 minutes. What you’re paying the extra for is saving time. If that’s worth it to you go for it. I did.

Love my new Mac Studio but honestly I’m more surprised at how similar it performs to the M1 Air for 90% of stuff then how fast it is at the other 10%.

I would just get the base model M2 Mini up to 16GB as you’re a power user and and invest in a 2TB T7 external SSDs to edit from. (Currently on sale £90 direct from Samsung)

So I don't need any of the Pro or the M2 Mac Mini Pro ?

 

[CBlakeston]

So I don't need any of the Pro or the M2 Mac Mini Pro ?

from what I’ve read you edit some video but want to run Parallels and it’s mentioned that likes ram. So definitely upgrade to 16GB. But no, you don’t need a Pro to do anything I’ve seen you describe.

Unless you’re adding so much ram and storage it puts the price up to the same as a pro in which case get a pro. You might as well.

 

[marcusalwayswins]

from what I’ve read you edit some video but want to run Parallels and it’s mentioned that likes ram. So definitely upgrade to 16GB. But no, you don’t need a Pro to do anything I’ve seen you describe.

Unless you’re adding so much ram and storage it puts the price up to the same as a pro in which case get a pro. You might as well.

No I am gonna just stick to the M2 Mac Mini with 16GB of RAM and 512GB SSD. I was thinking about what if I take the base level M2 Mini Pro which offers the same RAM and SSD but just the extra core and extra ports. But comes with the same 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD. So the difference between the base level M2 Mac Mini Pro against the M2 Mac Mini with the above specifications is just the extra ports and extra cores ? is it Worth it in my case ?

 

[CBlakeston]

No I am gonna just stick to the M2 Mac Mini with 16GB of RAM and 512GB SSD. I was thinking about what if I take the base level M2 Mini Pro which offers the same RAM and SSD but just the extra core and extra ports. But comes with the same 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD. So the difference between the base level M2 Mac Mini Pro against the M2 Mac Mini with the above specifications is just the extra ports and extra cores ? is it Worth it in my case ?

Are the extra ports worth it? If you have the money then sure. But if you’re on a budget then no. Will you have to buy a hub to replace those ports? Will that then add up to the money you would have spent on a Pro? But If you won’t use the extra ports. I’d save the money.

I guess the point I’m trying to get across is extra cores are nice but it’s not going to make a dramatic difference in real world tasks. It’s the M1 platform itself that’s a game changer, not a specific model M1 if you see what I mean.

I know where you’re coming from, I thought the exact same. Then decided to buy the cheapest MacBook Air I could from Amazon’s official Apple Store which was 100 cheaper than direct from apple. I figured I’d get the baby binned m1 with the least amount of ram and storage to tide me over for a few months when the MacBook Pros came out. It was so good I kept it for two years. I never needed more.

I only got the max studio because I’m getting so busy with work that time is money. So being able to edit and export video faster helps me take on my jobs. But it’s nothing I couldn’t do on my air, just a little slower.

 

[wordsworth]

After using clamshell-mode laptops for my desktop-based computing experience these past few years I recently decided that my next computer would probably be a Mac Mini.

I was inclined to get more than the base model.

In the past I've always had the base model Apple computers and they have invariably performed well. However, as a text editor, I do not place too many demands on the MacBook Air, my current 'desktop' machine. Thus, I'd reasoned, a Mac Mini M1 seemed like a good bet though I was somewhat concerned about the amount of RAM in the base model when projecting the Mac Mini's usage over a future period of several years.

In the meantime the M2 and M2 Pro Mac Minis appeared though my question remained the same – should I get the base model or increase the RAM?

Because I anticipate the Mac Mini serving my professional needs for the next seven or eight years (seemingly the average time I use a Mac before moving on to something new) I now looked at the M2 Mini. Factoring in 16GB of RAM and also increasing the storage to 512GB (because I continued to be wary of getting a base model that would serve me for several years) led me to considering the M2 Pro Mac Mini which was specced just so. For the extra ports too, and enhanced CPU and GPU, it was close to being a more attractive proposition than the M2 Mini with upgraded to 16GB RAM and 512GB storage. When I then found that I could get a 10% reduction on that M2 Pro Mini, that was the clincher.

I don't suppose I'll ever take full advantage of the M2 Pro Mini's impressive capabilities, but as someone who relies on the Mac to earn money and faces regular deadlines, I am very happy that I will have such a versatile machine on my desk, with sufficient memory, enough storage, sufficient ports and the power to cope with all manner of unforeseen requirements in its future use case.

Such an investment only once every eight years or so works out as a very modest sum across those eight years, and I am now sure that I need not be concerned about any potential base-model inadequacies.

It does seem that Apple knows its customers pretty well, and that users with non-demanding tasks are served well enough by the base model machines. Based on past experience another base model would probably have been fine for me, too. But one never knows, and so, at a cost that I was comfortable enough with, I went for M2 Pro Mac Mini.

 

[CBlakeston]

After using clamshell-mode laptops for my desktop-based computing experience these past few years I recently decided that my next computer would probably be a Mac Mini.

I was inclined to get more than the base model.

In the past I've always had the base model Apple computers and they have invariably performed well. However, as a text editor, I do not place too many demands on the MacBook Air, my current 'desktop' machine. Thus, I'd reasoned, a Mac Mini M1 seemed like a good bet though I was somewhat concerned about the amount of RAM in the base model when projecting the Mac Mini's usage over a future period of several years.

In the meantime the M2 and M2 Pro Mac Minis appeared though my question remained the same – should I get the base model or increase the RAM?

Because I anticipate the Mac Mini serving my professional needs for the next seven or eight years (seemingly the average time I use a Mac before moving on to something new) I now looked at the M2 Mini. Factoring in 16GB of RAM and also increasing the storage to 512GB (because I continued to be wary of getting a base model that would serve me for several years) led me to considering the M2 Pro Mac Mini which was specced just so. For the extra ports too, and enhanced CPU and GPU, it was close to being a more attractive proposition than the M2 Mini with upgraded to 16GB RAM and 512GB storage. When I then found that I could get a 10% reduction on that M2 Pro Mini, that was the clincher.

I don't suppose I'll ever take full advantage of the M2 Pro Mini's impressive capabilities, but as someone who relies on the Mac to earn money and faces regular deadlines, I am very happy that I will have such a versatile machine on my desk, with sufficient memory, enough storage, sufficient ports and the power to cope with all manner of unforeseen requirements in its future use case.

Such an investment only once every eight years or so works out as a very modest sum across those eight years, and I am now sure that I need not be concerned about any potential base-model inadequacies.

It does seem that Apple knows its customers pretty well, and that users with non-demanding tasks are served well enough by the base model machines. Based on past experience another base model would probably have been fine for me, too. But one never knows, and so, at a cost that I was comfortable enough with, I went for M2 Pro Mac Mini.

That’s really cool. Seems like a great decision. The thing with M1 and now M2 chips is that one being 15% faster than the other in this or that.. when you zoom out and take a top level view they’re all super cars. That’s how game changing Apple Silicon is.

We’re all stressing over whether to get a Porsche or Ferrari because one has slightly better torque than another, but when at the end of the day they’re both super cars

 

[hajime]

The next step up of the pre-configured base model is 8GB RAM, 512GB SSD. Knowing that RAM is more important than SSD, why there is no pre-configured model of M2, 16GB RAM and 245GB SSD? Is this Apple's way of making us to pay for more RAM?

If except for the 16GB RAM and 512 GB SSD I don't need those extra stuffs that come with the pre-configured M2 Pro Mini, is it better to upgrade M2 Mini to 16-512 or buy the pre-configured M2 Pro with 16-512? Given that trade-in for upgrades do not get much, will I end up losing more money buying the M2 Mini 16-512 rather than the M2 Pro Mini 16-512 if I trade-in when M3/M3 Pro come out? In either case, I will upgrade the ethernet to 10GbE.

 

[CBlakeston]

The next step up of the pre-configured base model is 8GB Ram, 512GB SSD. Knowing that Ram is more important than SSD, why there is no pre-configured model of M2, 16GB RAM and 245GB SSD? Is this Apple's way of making us to pay for more RAM?

If except for the 16GB RAM and 512 GB SSD I don't need those extra stuffs that come with the pre-configured M2 Pro Mini, is it better to upgrade M2 Mini to 16-512 or buy the pre-configured M2 Pro with 16-512? Given that trade-in for upgrades do not get much, will I end up losing more money buying the M2 Mini 16-512 rather than the M2 Pro Mini 16-512 if I trade-in when M3/M3 Pro come out? In either case, I will upgrade the ethernet to 10GbE.

I think they do it that way because storage is more important to people and the way unified ram works is very different to the Ram you’re used to on intel machines.

I genuinely think they don’t believe everyday people need more than 8GB and having gone from an 8GB M1 Air to a 32GB M1 Mac Studio there’s honestly not a lot of real world difference. Using both machines unless I labelled them you couldn’t tell which was which.

 

[foo2]

No I am gonna just stick to the M2 Mac Mini with 16GB of RAM and 512GB SSD. I was thinking about what if I take the base level M2 Mini Pro which offers the same RAM and SSD but just the extra core and extra ports. But comes with the same 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD. So the difference between the base level M2 Mac Mini Pro against the M2 Mac Mini with the above specifications is just the extra ports and extra cores ? is it Worth it in my case ?

Be sure you order through the Edu store and get the $100 gift card. You can still customize and add RAM and whatnot to the base, but it turns the M2 mini into an effectively $399 machine. ‘Cheap’.

 

[marcusalwayswins]

Be sure you order through the Edu store and get the $100 gift card. You can still customize and add RAM and whatnot to the base, but it turns the M2 mini into an effectively $399 machine. ‘Cheap’.

No I was debating about, should I bump the Nase Level Mac Mini to 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD ? Or should I opt for the base Pro Mac Mini which offers the same configuration at base level but with extra ports and extra cores.

 

[Yebubbleman]

Hi Guys,

An absolute first timer trying to Purchase a Mac ever in my Life. And I am literally tearing my hair apart thinking which configuration to buy as I am mighty confused.

So I am Planning to buy the newly released M2 Mac Mini and I have one question to ask you guys, almost everyone has been telling me that even if someone is a budget buyer it is always advisable to buy atleast 16GB of RAM and 512 GB of SSD because of the 2 NAND Chip in the 512 GB SSD vs 1 in 256GB SSD. As the extra 512 GB SSD which has the 2 NAND Chip makes the exchange of Data between the SSD and RAM faster and hence the net result is a faster working computer.

My question to you guys is now when I am just about thinking to buy a M2 Mac Mini I can only afford to buy 16GB of RAM and 256GB of SSD because someone is sponsoring my purchase and I can't really further ask him to bear the cost of the additional SSD of going from 256GB to 512 GB SSD

I am mostly a Mid Level Power user meaning occasionally video editing (Just occasionally that too not professional level I am not a YouTuber) but yes I am a Affinity Photo Power User. But other wise just normal web browsing, using emails and watching YouTube and movies. But yes, I do want to future prof myself against all the Future MAC OS that might be coming out at least for another 4 Years. So do you guys really think I should be buying the 512 GB SSD because of faster data transfer and exchange between the RAM and SSD because of the 512 GB SDD. Do you guys think for a mId level Power user like me would it make any difference. ? Will the 16GB of RAM and 256GB SSD will it not suffice my kind of user needs.

Before you tell me that go for the Base Level Mac Mini that should also work in your case LIke I said, I could have also gone for the base level Mac Mini but I want to future proof my purchase against future Software OS Updates that Apple may release for Mac OS and hence my decision from 8GB RAM to 16GB RAM what do you guys feel will I be ok with 16GB RAM and 256 GB SSD ? Or will the extra 512 GB SSD that will indeed make a noticable difference

Can you please tell me?

TIA !

I switch between using M1 Macs with 8GB of RAM, 256GB of storage and 7 GPU Cores and M1 Macs with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage (1TB in the case of my flagship M1 Mac) fairly frequently. I can tell you that 8GB of RAM is limiting even on an M1. It's fine if you don't plan on having more than a few apps open and more than 15 tabs open simultaneously. But, you will feel sluggishness past that because RAM is still RAM and you can still run out of it.

I can also tell you that 256GB of storage is fine if you don't plan on installing a lot of games or a lot of intensive or large applications AND if you also don't intend on storing that many files that aren't merely word documents or PDFs. Certainly, I would not want that on any Mac I consider to be a primary (or only) Mac, let alone computer. But that's just me.

The M2 is more or less the same, though, as you mentioned, the SSD IS slower due to fewer NAND chips. You won't have that problem on 512GB or larger drives on a standard M2 Mac mini and you won't have that problem on 1TB or larger drives on an M2 Pro Mac mini.

Personally, if it were me and I had to choose between 16GB of RAM or 512GB of SSD, I'd wait until I could scrounge the extra $200. Or I'd buy a $200 gift card to whichever retailer I was buying the Mac mini from and give that to whomever you say was sponsoring the purchase. 8GB of RAM is not great and neither is 256GB of SSD. You can't upgrade the machine after the fact, so whatever you configure it with is what that machine will have on its logic board until the day that Mac mini is no more. As they say in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: CHOOSE WISELY.

 

[hajime]

In many youtube reviews, it is suggested that if somebody wants to upgrade only one component, it would be going from 8 to 16GB due to increased performance in computations and that we cannot upgrade the RAM. In addition, swap memory is not as fast as actual RAM and using swap too often would reduce the life of the SSD. However, there are also people saying that given an option, one should upgrade the SSD from 256 to 512GB since MacOS can use the extra SSD storage for swap memory and that 512GB improves the overall performance. Moreover, external NVMe is not as fast as the internal SSD.

So, in practice, which component to upgrade? RAM or SSD?

 

[KeepCalmPeople]

I have the base M2 Pro Mac mini, but if I were you and on a budget, I'd get the M2 Mac mini upgraded to 16GB/512GB and save myself $300+.

 

[CBlakeston]

In many youtube reviews, it is suggested that if somebody wants to upgrade only one component, it would be going from 8 to 16GB due to increased performance in computations and that we cannot upgrade the RAM. In addition, swap memory is not as fast as actual RAM and using swap too often would reduce the life of the SSD. However, there are also people saying that given an option, one should upgrade the SSD from 256 to 512GB since MacOS can use the extra SSD storage for swap memory and that 512GB improves the overall performance. Moreover, external NVMe is not as fast as the internal SSD.

So, in practice, which component to upgrade? RAM or SSD?

It depends on what programs you use. There are situations where each would be beneficial but depends entirely on what software you use and how you use your computer.

 

[hajime]

I have the base M2 Pro Mac mini, but if I were you and on a budget, I'd get the M2 Mac mini upgraded to 16GB/512GB and save myself $300+.

I plan to use it as a temporary machine until M3 or Silicon Macs with Thunderbolt 5 come out. I will then trade-in. Looks like M2 Mini base model might have the best trade-in value as it is the cheapest to start with.

Windows PC is my main work computer as software I use only available in Windows.