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CTO M1 Mini 16GB, 1TB, 1Gbit or wait for M2?

M

Mity

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 1, 2014
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I just had a custom order M1 Mini delivered: 16GB, 1TB, 10Gbit

Luckily, I just saw this thread as I didn't know about apps force quitting. I was familiar with some monitors not working but luckily mine does work according to this.

But I'm beginning to think I made a mistake because there may be another Apple event in October where the M2 Mini may be released. Should I return it and wait for the M2 or have the issues with the M1 been fixed? I need the machine to be able to accommodate 20+ Chrome tabs with interactive charts. Would the M1 be sufficient or should I return it (it's still sealed) and wait for the M2 version?

What has your experience been like with the M1 Mini?
 
We have two of the base models, bargain priced with an intended 5+ year use for average user.
 
An M2 Mini will most likely be announced in two months, so your two years old model will be upgraded. Price will likely also increase though, at least it did so quite a bit, for the MBA.
 
It’s true there’s a good possibility that a new Mini will debut next month, but as T`hain Esh Kelch noted, look for a price increase to debut as well.

That Mini you just got should handle “20+ Chrome tabs with interactive charts” without breaking a sweat.
 
I am waiting one for October’s Apple event and then will see what happens. Unless you just want the good deal, but I don’t upgrade Macs often and want this to last as long as my 2012 iMac has. Thing has been a beast with the upgraded SSD drive and memory. :)
 
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Do you guys know if the new M2 will be based on TSMC's 3nm process or will this still be on 3nm+/4nm?
 
steve217 said:
It’s true there’s a good possibility that a new Mini will debut next month, but as T`hain Esh Kelch noted, look for a price increase to debut as well.

That Mini you just got should handle “20+ Chrome tabs with interactive charts” without breaking a sweat.
Click to expand...
What about the issues people mentioned with apps force quitting due to improper memory management? That took me by surprise because my M1 Air has been great for my 20+ Chrome tabs with YouTube videos.

The only Mini issues I was familiar with were bluetooth/WiFi and external monitor support. So, the 16GB will not have any issues with many, many Chrome windows with YouTube, other streaming sites and interactive Javascript?
 
Mity said:
What about the issues people mentioned with apps force quitting due to improper memory management? That took me by surprise because my M1 Air has been great for my 20+ Chrome tabs with YouTube videos.

The only Mini issues I was familiar with were bluetooth/WiFi and external monitor support. So, the 16GB will not have any issues with many, many Chrome windows with YouTube, other streaming sites and interactive Javascript?
Click to expand...
I've never had an issue with apps force quitting, and I've got the 8GB version. Your 16GB model should handle anything reasonable you want to throw at it.
 
I've had an M1 mini 16/512 for about 15 months and it is great but it would be better with the 24 GB option and even better than that with support for three displays. I am considering upgrading if they do an M2 Pro or maybe just an M2 with 24 GB of RAM. I would otherwise look at a Studio which is overkill for me.

I don't feel that there are memory issues with the M1 16 GB as macOS works really hard to compress RAM to save it and then only tries to swap. Mine doesn't swap at all though I run it along with an iMac with 32 GB of RAM and I move more memory-intensive programs to that system.
 
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Mity said:
But I'm beginning to think I made a mistake because there may be another Apple event in October where the M2 Mini may be released.
Click to expand...
Before every Apple event over the last year rumor sites and people in these forums have said a new Mac Mini would be announced. Every single time every single one of them were WRONG. Will they finally be right next month? Maybe. Even a stopped clock is right twice a day. :)
 
pshufd said:
I've had an M1 mini 16/512 for about 15 months and it is great but it would be better with the 24 GB option and even better than that with support for three displays. I am considering upgrading if they do an M2 Pro or maybe just an M2 with 24 GB of RAM. I would otherwise look at a Studio which is overkill for me.

I don't feel that there are memory issues with the M1 16 GB as macOS works really hard to compress RAM to save it and then only tries to swap. Mine doesn't swap at all though I run it along with an iMac with 32 GB of RAM and I move more memory-intensive programs to that system.
Click to expand...
My M1 Air 8GB swaps like crazy. It's kind of my fault though because I leave open lots of tabs with videos so I can watch them later. Luckily it's just my streaming, casual browsing computer to use in bed.

The swap is the main reason I got 16GB and 1TB (for the Mini). I figured, even if it does use swap like my Air, at least the 1TB will last me a few years.

I agree - Studio is overkill and I think it's the oddest machine in their lineup. It does, have the potential to be their new Mac Pro, though. A Mini that allows up to 64GB of RAM would be awesome! I don't use a lot of computing power but I do like having lots of tabs and programs open.
 
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Mity said:
My M1 Air 8GB swaps like crazy. It's kind of my fault though because I leave open lots of tabs with videos so I can watch them later. Luckily it's just my streaming, casual browsing computer to use in bed.

The swap is the main reason I got 16GB and 1TB. I figured, even if it does use swap like my Air, at least the 1TB will last me a few years.

I agree - Studio is overkill and I think it's the oddest machine in their lineup. It does, have the potential to be their new Mac Pro, though. A Mini that allows up to 64GB of RAM would be awesome! I don't use a lot of computing power but I do like having lots of tabs and programs open.
Click to expand...

I like to save videos to listen to or watch later. My process is to download the audio or the video using Downie so I don't have the webpage overhead duplicated many times. Then I put audio on my phone to listen to while running or at the gym. The video I put on the NAS so I can watch it from any device. I have all of my pinned tabs on the iMac as there's lots of RAM there.

My old process was to open up YouTube videos in tabs and then save the title and link in Notes and close the tabs. That way I could watch from an iPad, iPhone or MacBook later on or at the gym.
 
You can also use the youtube feature that has been there forever called Watch later. It will save the video in your Watch later list.
 
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Mity said:
But I'm beginning to think I made a mistake because there may be another Apple event in October where the M2 Mini may be released.
Click to expand...

gradi said:
Before every Apple event over the last year rumor sites and people in these forums have said a new Mac Mini would be announced. Every single time every single one of them were WRONG. Will they finally be right next month? Maybe. Even a stopped clock is right twice a day. :)
Click to expand...

Well, it is November now. What are the people who have been wrong every time predicting now? :)
 
gradi said:
Well, it is November now. What are the people who have been wrong every time predicting now? :)
Click to expand...

No one here has a direct line to Tim Apple. We have to go by what is being reported, or better stated, rumored:
https://www.macrumors.com/2022/08/29/when-to-expect-m2-pro-and-m3-macs/
https://www.macrumors.com/2022/10/21/new-macs-likely-in-november/

Screenshot 2022-11-02 at 03.26.36.png
 
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