M1 vs. M2. vs. M4 Mac Mini Buyer's Guide: 25+ Upgrades Compared

[Daws]

I can’t wait until the M5 rolls out.

 

[Chuckeee]

View attachment 2444136I can’t wait until the M5 rolls out.

But the M-80 will be a bigger bang.

 

[Velli]

Actually the old mini could fit 4 mini in a 1U shelf.
View attachment 2443992

Ah. Didn’t consider that. So, I guess you could place 9 new Minis like that, but it requires 1.5U, which is kind of hacky I guess. But in 3U, you could potentially have 12 old Minis vs 18 new ones.

Edit: Help me out here: Will be tight for cables, but will it actually be possible to put three rows of 9 vertical new Minis in 3U? Guess cooling becomes an issue too if packed that tight, so probably not.

Again, I’m not the expert on this, just curious. I’d think they would often be installed just as a single in a rack together with other types of gear, for instance in home control situations. The new one would be a downgrade if you want it to fit in a 1U shelf, but an upgrade in a 2U shelf which you are likely to have since much other gear that you might be installing also doesn’t fit in 1U anyway.

 

[svish]

Good to see the changes compared to the M1 version. Happy to see the reduction in size for the new mini.

 

[Alameda]

Yeah but you’re going to need a very expensive hub/dongle to actually split Thunderbolt 5 out, and who knows if the Studio Display would play nice with that since it’s so picky.

I think it’s more of a forward-looking feature. In a year or two, accessory prices should be reasonable.

 

[MacFarmer]

MR comparison tables do suck though.. You guys need to find a way to better represent data.

 

[Silverlox]

Advice requested. Currently run an HP Z8 G4, 96gb ram and nvme drives with three monitors.
Used for running Vmware pc's

If I buy the new mini with a decent spec and then run Fusion or Parallels, would it be good enough to run 2 or 3 VM's at the same time?

VM's are not high use programs, Office or re-encoding music files or watching videos/ genealogy etc whilst doing other things in the main pc.

Would save a lot of energy/cash/space replacing the big pc with a small mini from apple.

Would I be able to drive the monitors easily with conversion cables

 

[Alameda]

Advice requested. Currently run an HP Z8 G4, 96gb ram and nvme drives with three monitors.
Used for running Vmware pc's

If I buy the new mini with a decent spec and then run Fusion or Parallels, would it be good enough to run 2 or 3 VM's at the same time?

VM's are not high use programs, Office or re-encoding music files or watching videos/ genealogy etc whilst doing other things in the main pc.

Would save a lot of energy/cash/space replacing the big pc with a small mini from apple.

Would I be able to drive the monitors easily with conversion cables

You could do this, but I suggest you first investigate whether the VM is needed, because you’re describing tasks which can be performed natively under the MacOS. Certainly audio/video encoding/re-encoding and running MS Office shouldn’t require a VM. Maybe if you have proprietary work apps which were written for Windows, then you likely need a VM.

 

[Silverlox]

You could do this, but I suggest you first investigate whether the VM is needed, because you’re describing tasks which can be performed natively under the MacOS. Certainly audio/video encoding/re-encoding and running MS Office shouldn’t require a VM. Maybe if you have proprietary work apps which were written for Windows, then you likely need a VM.

On Windows, I have minimal apps etc installed. Windows seems to suffer from age related disability, needing re-installing every year or so to get back speed etc.
Hence using VM’s. I also use older work software that needs windows 8/10.
Also other software that there is no direct replacement in the macworld.
Being an old’un muscle memory makes it easier to stick with the current VM’s with all the familiarity.
So VM’s work for me.

Replacing the HP workstation with the apple mini would save me a lot of money and space on the desktop.
Just will the new mini with decent memory be able to run them at a decent speed etc.

 

[Alameda]

On Windows, I have minimal apps etc installed. Windows seems to suffer from age related disability, needing re-installing every year or so to get back speed etc.
Hence using VM’s. I also use older work software that needs windows 8/10.
Also other software that there is no direct replacement in the macworld.
Being an old’un muscle memory makes it easier to stick with the current VM’s with all the familiarity.
So VM’s work for me.

Replacing the HP workstation with the apple mini would save me a lot of money and space on the desktop.
Just will the new mini with decent memory be able to run them at a decent speed etc.

I have found that the MacOS is very pleasurable to use. On my last job, I had to write some software for a Linux system, so I bought VMWare Fusion and installed Linux and it worked perfectly for that. I still used a Mac to edit the C code but I ran the compiler and tested the code on Linux. The only downside I found was that it was an 8 GB computer and 4GB had to go to Fusion leaving just 4 GB for the Mac part, but I only needed to run Fusion when working on the software, so it was ok. I don’t know Parallels well, but if you’re going to run multiple instances of Windows on your Mac then you’ll probably want a computer with a lot of DRAM.

 

[Silverlox]

To recap, my normal day to day computer is a 2018 Macbook pro Retina laptop.
I also have an iPhone 15 and an iPad mini 6
So I’m familiar with the Apple ecosystem.

I’m probably looking for answers from someone who already has the previous Mac Mini and can make a comment on the capabilities etc.

 

[jdmc]

I've had my Intel 2018 Mac mini for almost six years, and I feel it's finally time to upgrade. With the introduction of the M4 and M4 Pro mini, is there any circumstance in which it would make sense to buy a discounted new, or refurbished, M2 Pro mini? Or is the M2 Pro mini completely obsolete at this point, in terms of new purchases?

For reference, here's a comparison of current pricing:

- M4 mini (10-core CPU, 10-core GPU, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) = $799 (new from Apple)
- M4 mini (10-core CPU, 10-core GPU, 24GB RAM, 512GB SSD) = $999 (new from Apple)
- M2 Pro mini (10-core CPU, 16-core GPU, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) = $1,099 (refurb from Apple)
- M2 Pro mini (10-core CPU, 16-core GPU, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) = $1,149 (new from B&H or Amazon)
- M4 mini (10-core CPU, 10-core GPU, 24GB RAM, 1TB SSD) = $1,199 (new from Apple)
- M4 mini (10-core CPU, 10-core GPU, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD) = $1,399 (new from Apple)
- M4 Pro mini (12-core CPU, 16-core GPU, 24GB RAM, 512GB SSD) = $1,399 (new from Apple)
- M2 Pro mini (10-core CPU, 16-core GPU, 32GB RAM, 512GB SSD) = $1,449 (new from B&H)
- M4 Pro mini (12-core CPU, 16-core GPU, 24GB RAM, 1TB SSD) = $1,599 (new from Apple)
- M2 Pro mini (10-core CPU, 16-core GPU, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD) = $1,649 (new from B&H)
- M2 Pro mini (12-core CPU, 19-core GPU, 16GB RAM, 2TB SSD) = $1,859 (refurb from Apple)
- M4 Pro mini (12-core CPU, 16-core GPU, 48GB RAM, 1TB SSD) = $1,999 (new from Apple)

Personal notes: All support triple 4K60 displays (which I have). The M2 Pro and M4 support Thunderbolt 4, though the M2 Pro has four ports to the M4's three; the M4 Pro supports TB5, but I don't really care about that. The M2 Pro has two 10-Gbit USB-A ports (on the back), whereas the M4 and M4 Pro have two 10-Gbit USB-C ports (on the front). I don't have a preference as to the case shape.

Thanks,
~ Justin

P.S. - Here are some current M2 Pro mini listings on eBay (with 32GB RAM).

 

[jdmc]

P.S. - Here are some current M2 Pro mini listings on eBay (with 32GB RAM).

Welp, I found an M2 Pro mini (12-core CPU, 19-core GPU, 32GB RAM, 2TB SSD) on eBay for $1,500 and couldn't pass it up. Hope I made the right choice.