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Considering a new M1 Mac Mini
- Thread starter brit7679
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It depends on your usage. What does your typical computer day look like (app usage)?
If all you mainly do is email, surf the web, watch YouTube videos. look at photos, spreadsheets and other menial tests, 8GB is more than enough.
If you edit 4K video on a regular basis as well as coding, raw photo editing etc. you would want to get the 16GB of RAM. Anything that caused the CPU to have a sustained load for long periods of time needs more RAM.
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If you want to get a higher spec and save quite a bit, check out the M1 Mac Mini refurbs. You can get a 16/512 for $929 or an 8/512 for $759 delivered tomorrow or the next day in the US. There's also the 8/256 for $589.
Refurbished Mac mini Apple M1 Chip with 8âCore CPU and 8âCore GPU
The Apple M1 chip takes our most versatile, do-it-all desktop into another dimension. With up to 3x faster CPU performance. Up to 6x faster graphics. And our most advanced Neural Engine for up to 15x faster machine learning. Get ready to work, play, and create on Mac mini with speed and power...
www.apple.com
Thanks for the info. Currently running an older mini. Late 2009. Intel core2duo with 8 GB memory. Memory is sitting at almost 6GB used and cpu pegged most of the time. Running SecuritySpy, BitDefender and mail and doing light web browsing. Just running like a dog. Painful at times.
I see on backmarket.com they have some 2012 mini’s with 4 core I7 processor, SSD drive, 16GB memory. Thoughts?
I see on backmarket.com they have some 2012 mini’s with 4 core I7 processor, SSD drive, 16GB memory. Thoughts?
I have mac mini M1 8Gb / 512, I am ios/macos developer. XCode works fast, always runned Little Snitch, Time Machine, pCloud drive, ForkLift, Safari, SourceTree. I am happy.
The M1 allegedly makes more efficient use of memory. I see no reason to doubt this as my 16gb / 1TB M1 outperforms my ancient cMP5.1 with 24gb, while running Final Cut with several open programs and a whole lot of open Safari tabs.
Meanwhile, my ancient i5 2012 MacBook Pro runs just fine on 8gb for mundane tasks, again with many apps running and a whole bunch of Safari tabs. It even does well at Fusion 360 with everything else open.
If you're not doing the pro apps, you should be fine with 8gb on the M1. I would find the tiny SSD more of a concern.
Meanwhile, my ancient i5 2012 MacBook Pro runs just fine on 8gb for mundane tasks, again with many apps running and a whole bunch of Safari tabs. It even does well at Fusion 360 with everything else open.
If you're not doing the pro apps, you should be fine with 8gb on the M1. I would find the tiny SSD more of a concern.
At some point I'm going to replace my late 2012 Mini 256/16 which has been flawless with an M1 Mini. I just picked up an M1 Macbook Air 256/8 and love it. But with the Mini I'll probably go with a 512/16 just because everything is soldered in an you can't upgrade like I did with my 2012. That refurb listed above is to my spec and looks pretty temping.
How do you like the 2012. That’s the exact build I was looking at on backmarket. Price is tempting.
The 2012 model with SSD and 16GB RAM is still good. But it no longer supports MacOS Big Sur.
If you can, go with the 2018 model or 2020 M1. 8GB is enough for the work you do.
I have a 2012 Mini Server 2.6ghz quad-core i7 with 16gb RAM and original Apple 256gb SSD. It has been a great machine, but is showing its age. I would not pay much for one of these today. The bottom of the line 2018 Mini with the i3 processor has about the same GeekBench rating but much better ports and other improvements that make it faster, plus it supports up to 64gb RAM. If you need an Intel Mini, I'd look at the 2018 models and forget the 2012 and 2014 Mini.
Get 16gb of RAM.
Even if you have to special-order it.
Less disk-swapping of RAM that wears the internal SSD...
Even if you have to special-order it.
Less disk-swapping of RAM that wears the internal SSD...
I'm also thinking of getting the M1, but for a kind of funny reason. It would be replacing a 2018 Mini which is great. My use case is office work as I work from home due to office being closed (now for over a year) due to COVID. Will likely go back into office eventually, but will permanently have some work from home days as we adapt to new normal. Work is PCs, but I prefer to work on Macs so I generally use my personal computer for work. Large spreadsheets and PDFs with many layers of diagrams is the hardest thing I ask my computer to do. Any recent computer is plenty powerful for me. However, my home office is in the attic and it is hot. The 2018 mini gets up to 140 degrees regularly and so I'm paying to AC my office space and I've got a little heater sitting on my desk 10 hours a day fighting the little window AC. The M1 mini will be much cooler, right?
Looking at price difference between reselling my 2018 mini (it being the last of the Intel minis, it seems to be retaining its value on the secondary market) and buying a refurbished M1, and I think I can do the swap for probably only $200. And the M1 would be vastly faster, right?
Looking at price difference between reselling my 2018 mini (it being the last of the Intel minis, it seems to be retaining its value on the secondary market) and buying a refurbished M1, and I think I can do the swap for probably only $200. And the M1 would be vastly faster, right?
Cooler, faster, less power use and more likely that Apple will retain full support for an extended period, yes.
Ability to replace/upgrade anything at all, run Windows natively or multiple monitor use on the two Thunderbolt ports, no.
It seems that many dislike the M1 Mini's limit of 2 monitors, 1 on Thunderbolt, 1 on HDMI, the drop from 4 TB ports to 2, and the complete inability to upgrade anything or run Windows natively.
Also, being a first generation platform, there are bound to be bugs and issues that might affect you, as opposed to your current mature platform.
But given your situation, I would absolutely sell the 2018 space heater while the value is high and move to an M1, especially since I wouldn't dream of infecting my primary computer with Windows. I just moved from a cMP5.1 to an M1 Mini and like it. Renders on FCP are a lot faster with no noticeable fan noise or heating.
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I'm probably going to do it. My work from home set up is work PC laptop next to monitor connected to Mac mini. 90% of my work is done on the Mac, but only the work PC can access the work shared drive due to company policy. So I end up with two monitors already and certainly would never need three monitors. The drop to 2 TB ports in the back would be an inconvenience. But I already have a dongle for access to more USB-A ports as needed from time to time. A dongle attached to a desktop doesn't bother me. It will just be in the back with the other mess of cords (power, ethernet, monitor, microphone, webcam, etc.) I could presumably attach all those to the dongle and go through one TB port.
The first gen issues could be a thing. The M1 Minis don't seem bad at all. But if I hold out I could get a second gen M2 mini. But with the M1 being screaming fast already, I don't need more power and certainly wouldn't need a "pro" mini.
I went for 16gb to avoid too much disk swapping, and to give it a bit of future proofing just in case future OS updates get bloated.
Best computer I’ve ever owned, brilliant machine, definitely worth the extra investment.
Best computer I’ve ever owned, brilliant machine, definitely worth the extra investment.
I’m in the same boat as you and I finally pulled the trigger this week on a 16/512 model (with education pricing to get the free AirPods which I’ll probably sell). I didn’t want the purchase of the Mini to be over $1K but the benefits outweighed the costs. I definitely wanted the 16GB RAM for future proofing and I just think the 256 hard drive will be too small in the long run as my current 2011 Mini has 500GB hard drive and I use that for a lot of file processing and swapping. The fact that you should keep an SSD at least 10% unused and that 256 would disappear on my real quick.
I wanted to wait and see if there was going to be a new model but the more I thought about it, I don’t want/need a Pro version and if we think the next iteration of processor will be either more expensive or only available in a Pro version, then I don’t want it with how good the current M1 Mini is benchmarking.
I think 16/512 is the sweet spot for most users - plenty of RAM headroom, and 512 big enough for most apps and main work files. I’ve invested in an external 1tb SSD (Samsung, £100) for extra storage, and I’ve got a couple of additional drives for backups.
I’ve been using it for a month now, and the RAM/storage is more than adequate for my needs (web, graphic design work and music production), and speed wise it’s faster than anything else I’ve owned.
I have a 2012 mini, i5 dual core processor, 16GB memory, and 1TB SSD. It still works fine for the most part (email, web browsing, messages, youtube, etc.) though it stutters sometimes when editing photos/videos in the Photos app. I even run a Windows virtual machine when I need to use Windows-only work applications; I just have to be patient sometimes LOL. Last Mac OS version that it can run is Catalina which still works fine for my usage.
Running the Mac Mini M1 with 8GB memory here. When I first received and set it up, I have Activity monitor running all the time. Well, after a week, there simply was no need to do so. The thing works, even with a Parallels application for work, TeamSoftware (ERP application)...
You know, that if the SSD in the M1 Mac mini dies, you computer is practically bricked?
www.zdnet.com
How bad is the M1 Mac's SSD failure problem?
If your M1 Mac's SSD fails, you can't boot off an external drive, a change from past decades. Here's the problem and strategies to manage the risk.
www.zdnet.com
We get 6 year hardware cover in the UK, so that would be a pretty clear case for a free replacement or fix. Also be interesting how Apple will respond to the right to repair legislation that’s being considered, as they’re selling non-repairable equipment.You know, that if the SSD in the M1 Mac mini dies, you computer is practically bricked?
How bad is the M1 Mac's SSD failure problem?
If your M1 Mac's SSD fails, you can't boot off an external drive, a change from past decades. Here's the problem and strategies to manage the risk.
I got 16 GB for the M1 and it is snappy and has no issues. However the one time I opened the Apple News and had Safari with one tab open I got the dreaded "Out of RAM" message. I checked the activity monitor and News was consuming around 6 GB +. With 16 GB RAM, you would think an App using 6 GB wouldn't cause a dent. But there it was and I closed the app. It has not happened since and even though I follow a lot of topics in Apple News, it goes to around 1 GB. Maybe it was refreshing all the topics that time would be my guess.
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Based on that article, all the new M1 Macs would be bricked should their SSDs fail. That would include those incredibly expensive new MacBooks just released.You know, that if the SSD in the M1 Mac mini dies, you computer is practically bricked?
How bad is the M1 Mac's SSD failure problem?
If your M1 Mac's SSD fails, you can't boot off an external drive, a change from past decades. Here's the problem and strategies to manage the risk.
Either there isn't truth to this story or no one is aware of this. Would be a real reason NOT to buy any of these new computers.
Same thing applies to iOS devices. And they are generally quite sturdy and long lasting.
Also, if your heart completely and suddenly fails, your body is bricked. But we generally last a long time too
In other words: bit of luck involved, but all in all nothing I’d worry about.