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- Thread starter TWHH
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I'm surrounded by some of the most powerful machines Apple & others have made, and yet I do 90% of my work, including nearly all my photo, audio, CAD & even video work, on this 2011 17" Macbook Pro with a what, Core2Duo and 16GB of DDR3 ram, and it's honestly fine unless I have batch processing to do to long file lists of video, & only then the time savings worth the trouble of moving the files on to a faster system for processing.
I'm pretty sure you'll survive with an M4/16.
I'm pretty sure you'll survive with an M4/16.
My M1 Mac mini is still blazing for Web and app development, video and audio editing, graphic design, and on and on. In my opinion, all the "M" Pro, Max, and Ultra chips really are for pros who are constantly using cutting-edge technology that almost no one currently uses.
Something is missing from your description. Why does the 2017 MBP need updating? Not arguing with you, just looking for info because you are going from mobile box to desktop box. E.g. when my 2016 MBP needed updating it was because the (max available in 2017) 16 GB RAM became inadequate.
You got 7 years from your 2017 MBP. If you want a life cycle that long you probably should have more than 24 GB RAM, but based on your initial description the Mac mini you describe should be fine for a bit shorter life cycle than that (five years my estimate).
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Interesting how we look at things differently. I consider SSD capacity to be easily and cheaply done externally. RAM however cannot be done externally and 8 GB would be sub-optimally paging to SSD on day one. And RAM needs are constantly increasing. I consider it important to equip any new box with appropriate RAM for the full planned life cycle of that box.
What programs do you use? I see you have already approvingly said here that you have enough for everything, but no one asked you what software you use and what level you possess.
You'll regret it. In 2024, 24gb of memory is not enough. Every year programs become more and more demanding, as well as the OS.
I'm still on an M1. I do all that plus Final Cut Pro. The chip hasn't lost a step yet. You're beyond fine!
Don`t know how recent or present Macbook Pros are in terms of battery/charging management, do they eat them for breakfast if permanently attached to fixed gear and power on? If the machine is being used in one place - sitting upright, you`ll get about the same performance for quite a bit less with a Mac Mini. So if not moving around with it, why waste money on stuff you don`t need? Get a monitor that suits you and whatever mouse/keyboard/pad you prefer. If it don`t work for you, it can always be passed on to the next owner.
If you weren't running into issues with your 2017 machine, you are going to be fine with new mini you described, no probably about it. Caveat, unless you are drastically chaning your work flow/type/load. but it does not sound like you are. It is strange that you are going from laptop to desk top, but I am guessing that is not an issue for you.
If there's one lesson from the M4 Mini vs M2 Studio benchmarks, this is it.
My wife’s 11” MBA is older than my MBP and really needs replacing- battery is gone and it’s almost impossible to find a replacement and the OS is really old, and is now pretty sluggish.
She’s getting my MBP.
She needs a laptop, these days I really don’t.
Reason for the higher end M4 machine is that my laptop is 512 storage and I don’t want to have a machine with less storage (or have to have external drives)
Some chip will eventually reveal itself as the real bottleneck trigging a replacement. On mine it was the graphics card as everything else was maxed out when new. And running it as a stationary consistently attached to my 32" killed the battery. That`s the main reason for Mac Mini making sense for my usage. With the spec I need and no battery trouble.
Fully agree wrt sufficient storage unless special needs on a budget. External SSD is a drag for day to day usage.
I don't think some Intel Mac users have fully got their head round just how much of a chasmic jump was made when the M* chips were launched. Unless you're coming from an absolutely-ripped Mac Pro that cost you fifty grand to build (and you're not, you're coming from a fairly bland 2017 Macbook Pro), an M* Mac of any description is going to be so stratospherically quicker, quieter, more efficient and more refined than your current machine, that any worries you might have about buying a base model or 'non-pro' model are completely unfounded.
The M4 Mini you've just bought will utterly destroy your old MBP in terms of performance.
The M4 Mini you've just bought will utterly destroy your old MBP in terms of performance.
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I just replaced an even older mbp with the mini. I realised that the once a year trip that I took with the laptop didn't warrant the compromise that using a laptop involves. mine is a little higher spec'd than yours, but my use case is more demanding. I've also just returned from one of the rare trips where I may have taken my mbp. I bought a cheep-ish portable monitor and set it up in the motel. it was too easy and worked exceptionally well. At home I have a lovely big monitor and I can now reliably VPN to my mini from my ipad when I'm out and about. this is a better option than leaving a laptop always running, just in case I want to connect. If money was no object, I may have done things a little differently but I think I made the right decision.
As to whether you chose an underpowered computer, only time will tell but for now, you will enjoy a superior experience to your mbp and if you don't need the portability, you wont miss a thing. Enjoy your new mac!
Just out of sheer curiosity why use the Core2Duo which seemed painful to me over a decade ago now f you're surrounded by high end Apple machines? I understand if that was the only machine and you felt like upgrading didn';t justify the price I'd get it, but the start up and loading times itself, not even accounting for the actual processing and the heat that chip generated. If the choice was an SSD with any binned version of literally the least powerful Apple silicon or the most powerful Core 2 Duo machine, it would be the Apple Silicon 100/100 times.
Nonsense. 24gb for his use is overkill from what his stated use is. For perspective, I ran latest Photoshop beta using it's gen fill and all the other AI stuff on a base Mini M2 and it never broke a sweat. Also edited video with Resolve, no problem (mind not large huge projects). My new base M4 pro runs rings around my old M2. For some, sure, 24gb won't be enough... if your editing hundreds/thousands of photos in PS, upscaling video in 4/8K with Video AI one could. My lousy 2 cents whether right or wrong.