How much Mac Mini do I need? (RAM, storage)

[hky740]

I have a mid-2020 Intel iMac that's on borrowed time as an Intel machine.

I can get up to $210 in trade-in credit through Apple. I've been thinking about trading the iMac in for M4 mini, especially since I'm looking at a move and the iMac is a beast to move.

When I got the iMac a little more than five years ago, it came with 16 GB RAM, and I upgraded it myself to 32 GB RAM. I've never used that much RAM, but even doing basic office tasks, Spotify, and having maybe a handful of tabs open, I can get near 13-15 GB according to Activity Monitor.

My iMac came with a 512 GB SSD, and I'm sitting at around 449 GB empty. I just don't store a ton of stuff on there.

Because I'd hope to have the machine for 3-5 years, and RAM is soldered, I'm thinking the $999 24 GB/512 GB SSD is the way to go. A trade in would bring that down to as low as $789.

But maybe I'm overestimating my needs. Any opinions?

 

[richmlow]

Hello hky740,


From the description of your usage, I think that the Mac mini M4 (24GB RAM, 512GB SSD) is indeed the way to go! Good luck on your decision.


richmlow

 

[Fishrrman]

If you have your eyes "on the future", get an m4 Mini with 32gb of RAM and a minimum of 512gb SSD. 1tb would be better.

These are available at the Apple online refurbished store for 10-12% discount.
That's where I got mine. Both my last Mini and the m4. Good deal both times.

 

[!!!]

a minimum of 512gb SSD. 1tb would be better.

No reason to give Apple $400 for 1TB of storage when we can easily find a 4TB USB-C SSD for less than that. OP doesn't seem to use very much at all, so it'd be a waste to buy so much, especially when considering the fact that the mini is a desktop and you don't need to worry about lugging around an ext drive.

 

[hky740]

Appreciate the responses. After my post, I realized I have an aging 9th gen iPad I'd be willing to trade in. Apparently, it's worth up to $135. That, plus my iMac, would get me up to around $345.

I'm wondering if I apply both trade-ins to the purchase of a new Mac Mini, along with using the educational discount? I've gotten mixed signals from Apple - a chat person said yes, a phone call said no.

If not, could I send my wife in with the iPad, let them give her a gift card for it, then give me the gift card to use towards the Mini?

 

[cjsuk]

Might be worth trying to privately sell the old stuff. Had some lower than expected offers from trade ins and the process is a pain in the ass, at least in the UK. Edu discount is a winner though - everything I bought is on that as I'm a perpetual student 🤣

 

[Starfia]

I'm wondering if I apply both trade-ins to the purchase of a new Mac Mini, along with using the educational discount? I've gotten mixed signals from Apple - a chat person said yes, a phone call said no.

I don't see why not – it sounds like you know what you're after. For frugality, I tend to sell locally or on eBay to get higher returns than trade-in values, and I usually look for sales rather than buying from Apple; but the educational pricing sounds like a good strategy if you have access to that.

For the record, I've been using my M1 Mac mini for all kinds of things – audio editing, video editing, browsing, image editing, background rendering, all while playing videos while also playing music, et cetera. I've never caught Activity Monitor showing that I'm exceeding 12 or so or my 16 gigabytes of RAM, or showing any memory pressure indicators. I think the system and apps these days are just pretty good at using memory efficiently and relinquishing it when they're not actively using it. I might reconsider next Mac if I thought I was going to be harping on Apple Intelligence features – it seems like Apple's timing for doubling the entry-level memory coincided with Apple Intelligence – but… I currently don't think I will. I expect the M1 to support me for years to come if I need it to.

 

[rb2112]

Because I'd hope to have the machine for 3-5 years, and RAM is soldered, I'm thinking the $999 24 GB/512 GB SSD is the way to go. A trade in would bring that down to as low as $789.

But maybe I'm overestimating my needs. Any opinions?

The low SSD size makes sense as there are plenty of USB-C drives available.
The RAM also sounds good for lasting 5 years as RAM usage (for many people) has not gone up at a rate that would make 24 GB a poor choice that soon from now.
Exception (as I found out recently) is running local LLMs...if you are dabbling you may want to get the 32GB now.
Good luck!

 

[JamesMay82]

I went from iMac to a mini set up and I really miss the iMac for some reasons… Ive never been a laptop guy but recently bought a 15 inch air which I use more than the mini..

I’d consider a laptop and then if you really want a monitor get one for it down the road.

I’d go 24 and 512 like you suggested

 

[Thirio2]

I agree. For your use case (and mine) the 24/512 is the way to go.