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How is the new Mac Mini (2023) M2?
- Thread starter tbluhp
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I think it definitely is worth it. I have my M2 Mini hooked up to a 27” 4K monitor.
Do you have the base M2 or pro?
Just wondering if it's worth the $300 or so to go pro and get the HDMI 2.1 output to 4k/120Hz display or is 60Hz decent enough.
Not sure about the base M2 Mac Mini, but my M2 Pro Mac Mini is sufficiently fast. It can compile Firefox in under 11 minutes...compared to over 60 minutes on a 2016 MBP with Maxed out Quad-Core i7. Maybe comparing it to a dinosaur isn't saying much but I always thought that my MBP was fast.
Caveats:
1) Might want to double check, but it sounds like preconfigured models will have 1 NAND chip for SSD, giving half the I/O speed. Same for M2 MBA and M2 MBP apparently. I may have seen a YouTuber say even the base M2 Pro has 1 NAND chip. I got the default +1 option for SSD to avoid. AFAIK, the M1s didn't have this?
2) Apple needs to sort out their network issues that many people are seeing with the M2 Pro Mac Mini. Getting 60-70% packet loss out of the box is unacceptable. There's a usable workaround that is quite easy, but that feeling when your new computer doesn't work...
Caveats:
1) Might want to double check, but it sounds like preconfigured models will have 1 NAND chip for SSD, giving half the I/O speed. Same for M2 MBA and M2 MBP apparently. I may have seen a YouTuber say even the base M2 Pro has 1 NAND chip. I got the default +1 option for SSD to avoid. AFAIK, the M1s didn't have this?
2) Apple needs to sort out their network issues that many people are seeing with the M2 Pro Mac Mini. Getting 60-70% packet loss out of the box is unacceptable. There's a usable workaround that is quite easy, but that feeling when your new computer doesn't work...
I went with the base model and I am glad I did. It runs circles around my 2018 i5 Mini with 256GB SSD and it was upgraded to 32GB of RAM. It is 50% faster at everything it does vs the 2018 Mini. Unified Memory is seriously legit. I thought it was Apple marketing hype but 8GB of unified RAM acts more like 12-16GB.
I have yet to encounter a Swap File. Memory pressure never goes beyond 50% with 4 web browsers, Pages, Numbers, Keynote, GarageBand, iMovie and spotify all running. The highest i've seen memory climb with all of those apps running was 5.9GB out of 8GB. That is impressive.
The SSD speeds is a non-factor be because the M2 Base Mini boots at around 9 secs while it takes the 2018 Mini close to 20 secs to boot to the desktop. Apps also open on the M2 50% faster.
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What are you looking to improve by getting a desktop? While technically it's faster, in terms of speed for day to day use you likely won't notice any difference. If you want it to just use a separate computer that's not your laptop then it's worth getting.