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I did it. Ordered a Mac Mini M1

This is purely out of curiosity, but why order a Mac Mini when you can get a MacBook Air with similar specs for $300 more and connect it to an external monitor?

Edit: I noticed that Mac Mini has a full I/O hub, including 2 USB-A ports and HDMI.
 
I’ve had some back-and-forth with the MacBook Pro 13 and the Mac mini but this is going to be for ultimately desktop use. Plus I have a MacBook 12 retina already
 
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MICHAELSD said:
This is purely out of curiosity, but why order a Mac Mini when you can get a MacBook Air with similar specs for $300 more and connect it to an external monitor?
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If you don't have need for a battery then having one slowly cooking, ageing and potentially swelling makes little sense. A swollen battery out of warranty is a very costly repair.

Mac minis can be easily rack mounted (2 or 4 can fit in 1U space), or dropped into a Vesa bracket and with no external power brick either.

Mac minis are brilliant little things.
 
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RobbieTT said:
If you don't have need for a battery then having one slowly cooking, ageing and potentially swelling makes little sense. A swollen battery out of warranty is a very costly repair.

Mac minis can be easily rack mounted (2 or 4 can fit in 1U space), or dropped into a Vesa bracket and with no external power brick either.

Mac minis are brilliant little things.
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Wow, I never heard of a VESA bracket for the MacMini. Thanks!
 
mrianforest said:
Hmm I like the idea of attaching an M1 mini to the back of my 4K monitor!
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I do too, but I'll probably fill up my desk with Lego Mandalorian/The Child models :p No actually I think it is a great idea if you can easily get behind you desk for cable access. In my case I cannot due to limit space/desk placement.
 
danpass said:
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The 16gb/1tb I ordered was $400 less than the equivalent i7 configuration.

And even better, I suspect I won’t feel a need to add an eGPU lol.

Delivery in mid December.
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Click to expand...

I ordered the same config and have a delivery date of 11/24-11/27. Can't wait to get it and try it out
 
MICHAELSD said:
This is purely out of curiosity, but why order a Mac Mini when you can get a MacBook Air with similar specs for $300 more and connect it to an external monitor?

Edit: I noticed that Mac Mini has a full I/O hub, including 2 USB-A ports and HDMI.
Click to expand...
With a Company Discount, the Mini was almost $500 cheaper than a comparable configured Air. I previously had a 2015 MacBook Pro that spent most of it's time at my desk. Decided that I really didn't want to pay extra for the convenience of being able to take it with me with I rarely do. I can get by with my iPad and iPhone. And I really like to use more than one monitor most of the time and the Air can't do that with the M1.
 
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Ocnetgeek said:
With a Company Discount, the Mini was almost $500 cheaper than a comparable configured Air. I previously had a 2015 MacBook Pro that spent most of it's time at my desk. Decided that I really didn't want to pay extra for the convenience of being able to take it with me with I rarely do. I can get by with my iPad and iPhone. And I really like to use more than one monitor most of the time and the Air can't do that with the M1.
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That’s a large part of the reason I’m waiting to see what they do with the iMac. At the same time the M1 chip is a game-changer for portable computers.

I suppose that will also apply to an iMac redesign, since Apple silicon will enable it to be even thinner.
 
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So is any M1 MacMini buyer eyeing up a dock to make up for the fewer ports on the new MacMini. Any recommendations? I'm planning on running two monitors (one on USB-C, and the other on HDMI), a headphone DAC/AMP, some kind of external speakers. Oh, an as a photography buff, I need an SD card input.
 
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jazz1 said:
So is any M1 MacMini buyer eyeing up a dock to make up for the fewer ports on the new MacMini. Any recommendations? I'm planning on running two monitors (one on USB-C, and the other on HDMI), a headphone DAC/AMP, some kind of external speakers. Oh, an as a photography buff, I need an SD card input.
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I had already purchased a caldigit ts3 thunderbolt dock that I was going to use with a laptop before deciding to go with the M1Mini. If you search online here and other places and the Caldigit comes highly recommended
 
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Ocnetgeek said:
With a Company Discount, the Mini was almost $500 cheaper than a comparable configured Air. I previously had a 2015 MacBook Pro that spent most of it's time at my desk. Decided that I really didn't want to pay extra for the convenience of being able to take it with me with I rarely do. I can get by with my iPad and iPhone. And I really like to use more than one monitor most of the time and the Air can't do that with the M1.
Click to expand...

I prefer a desktop computer too. I recently bought a new iMac but before that I was using a 15" MBP which stayed on my desk in a stand with the lid closed. I had it hooked up to a mechanical keyboard, external monitor and Magic Trackpad. The fans were quite noisy.

My iMac is faster and quieter. The MBA of course is fanless so it will run quiet but it will also run hot. I would rather have something with decent cooling.
 
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ADGrant said:
I prefer a desktop computer too. I recently bought a new iMac but before that I was using a 15" MBP which stayed on my desk in a stand with the lid closed. I had it hooked up to a mechanical keyboard, external monitor and Magic Trackpad. The fans were quite noisy.

My iMac is faster and quieter. The MBA of course is fanless so it will run quiet but it will also run hot. I would rather have something with decent cooling.
Click to expand...
I learned over time to appreciate even more my 2015 27” iMac. Bumping up the RAM has helped keep it performing well for my purposes (which I admit are relatively moderate).

My 2018 iPad Pro has pretty much given me what I need for portable computing. The insanely expensive Magic Keyboard has kept me from wanting to purchase a new M1 laptop. Yet, I want to dip my toe into the M1 world, so the M1 MacMini seemed like a reasonable way to do that.
 
jazz1 said:
So the 16GB models are tending to ship later. Darn it:rolleyes:
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Maybe now with more people jumping onboard buying but I ordered my mac mini 16gb/256gb on the evening of 10 Nov and it has already shipped with a arrival date on UPS tracking of 17 Nov.
 
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