M1 to M4

[mustu]

Hi I have the M1 Mac mini with one terabyte of space and 16 GB Ram. I am thinking to upgrade to the M4 Pro with 512GB. I have over 90,000 photos. My main reason is to do with the photos should I get 2TB built in or should I get the 512GB And add a 4TBSSD externally?

 

[Donka]

I would just add an external NVME drive. You'll see excellent speeds at a very reasonable cost. Unless you need the clean looks of the mini without an external drive, I see no reason not to go external.

 

[Ray2]

Just today I dealt with this. I have an M1 Air with a 2tb internal and a 1tb external ssd on a USB 3.2 bus. I just spent the last week editing 61mb files. They were a non starter on the external using any AI processing. On the internal they were far from quick.

I decided to move to a mini or Studio (will wait for an M4) with either a .5tb or 1tb internal and a 4tb Thunderbolt 5 (OWC on pre-order) external. My thinking: with Thunderbolt 5, external I/O will approach internal speeds. I avoid the Apple tax for drive space. I travel a lot. The iPP is my editing machine. With all my images files on an external it’s a snap to bring them with me.

Be aware that sizing a small internal is a bit tougher. iOS backups and Snapshots take up 380gb on my internal. Pretty much wipes out a .5tb internal. I backup an iPP to the Mac and those backups are on the internal. I'll symlink the MobileSync folder to the external. Then there’s the Snapshots and highly desired free space. While the Snapshots are considered free space, I like at least a third of my internal free at any given time. Frankly I don’t need backups of backups but I'm not sure, if deleted, how long they take to recreate themselves and if there’s an impact during usage. I tossed them all this morning so will see. In-any-event, I may go with a 1tb internal just so I don’t need to stay on top of anything.

I think you’re heading in the right direction. Just make sure you do some space planning first. We tend to look at our files. But Apple can grab a big chunk of a small internal's space of which some, can’t be moved to an external.

 

[Defever]

My sister has a M1 Mac mini 16 GB RAM/512 GB SSD. Will an M4 be noticeable faster in basic tasks such as web browsing, Microsoft Office and Affinity Suite? Is it worth to upgrade?

 

[throAU]

Hi I have the M1 Mac mini with one terabyte of space and 16 GB Ram. I am thinking to upgrade to the M4 Pro with 512GB. I have over 90,000 photos. My main reason is to do with the photos should I get 2TB built in or should I get the 512GB And add a 4TBSSD externally?

The way i try to rationalize these things is this:

• what is your expected lifetime of the machine
• how much is the upgrade, and thus how much will it cost you in terms of $/day/week/month
• how much will external storage annoy you during the life of the machine
• is it worth spending an extra $X amortized over the life of the machine to be less annoyed by having the storage internal instead of hanging off a USB cable

YMMV, but myself - i would be keeping the machine 3-5 years or so and shuffling data around to an external drive that has to clutter up my desk for 3-5 years is pretty annoying. Not as bad as dealing with that on a macbook but still... its one more thing to have on the desk.

Yeah, the up front cost sometimes hurts a bit, but i don't like spending the next 3-5 years kicking myself for having to put up with a compromise.

 

[Broken Hope]

My sister has a M1 Mac mini 16 GB RAM/512 GB SSD. Will an M4 be noticeable faster in basic tasks such as web browsing, Microsoft Office and Affinity Suite? Is it worth to upgrade?

My M4 Pro is definitely much more responsive when browsing the web, after trade in the difference in price won't be that large.

 

[FreakinEurekan]

I have 4TB NVMe Thunderbolt used with both the M1 mini and the M4 Pro mini. Works fine for photos, etc.