Mac Mini M2 Standard model

[LOKI30]

Hi guys,

I want to buy the standard model with 8Gb and 258Gb SSD but I need to know if it’s the right choice. I want to make the change from windows to macOS and I’m willing to use it just for social media, streaming services, movies, utorrent, music and with chrome having between 15-20 tabs opened; ohh and wired to 4k TV. Can I still do that without lag/stuttering or do I really need 16gb of ram? My old pc (almost 7y/o) is also has 8gb ram, i5-6500 cpu and a 1060 6gb gpu, and some outdated ssd, but lately it started to have some freezes and lags.

Thank you for your time and patience with me!

 

[AlixSPQR]

With 8 GB RAM you'll inevitably experience a lot of swap files to the SSD, and it will therefore ultimately degrade. With your description, I'd say you'll be fine for some years to come (since it is new we don't know much about it for certain). You can check out Dave Lee's YouTube channel, he thinks it's great value for the money, at least.

 

[now i see it]

Pretty much guaranteed you’ll be wishing you got 16GB a year or two from now.

 

[Orizence]

Get the 16GB. That way you don't wear down the SSD with extra swap

 

[mcnallym]

Would say you lag/stutter when paging, ie retrieving from Disk as paged RAM out to Disk,

16gb RAM should reduce need to page (if at all)

having said that the 256gb NAND is still about 1500mbps so not exactly slow, yes it isn’t Samsung 990pro quick but 1500mbps isn’t exaclty snails pace either.

stats also seem to show that even with paging should last way longer then machine likely too.

 

[akuma13]

I just got he baseline M2 Mac mini and even though I've not put it through its paces I'm satisfied with the experience so far. Granted I do have a Gaming PC with enough graphics power to handle processing huge media files. I just got the mini for basic browsing needs and light processing. I truly did miss the swipe features of Mac OS.

 

[Fishrrman]

Get 16gb of RAM.
I'd also suggest a 512gb SSD.

If you bought the base model m2pro, it comes equipped this way right out-of-the-box.

It also has FOUR USBc ports on the back (instead of just two on the non-pro Mini).
They may prove useful to you.

 

[Cham2000]

Get 16gb of RAM.
I'd also suggest a 512gb SSD.

If you bought the base model m2pro, it comes equipped this way right out-of-the-box.

It also has FOUR USBc ports on the back (instead of just two on the non-pro Mini).
They may prove useful to you.

Well, in that case, this M2 Pro 16GB/512GB would cost about 230$CD more (taxes included) than the M2 non-Pro with 24GB/512GB. Is that really worth it (faster and more TB ports but less ram), if you don't do heavy video editing and 3D games? Will you really use and appreciate the performance difference? Considering the power consumption (185W against 150W), the heat generated and probably a longevity reduced on the long run for the Pro version, I now believe that the M2 non-Pro 24GB/512GB is a better long term value than the M2 Pro 16GB/512GB (if we don't do heavy video editing and large recent games).

 

[michelg1970]

Well, in that case, this M2 Pro 16GB/512GB would cost about 230$CD more (taxes included) than the M2 non-Pro with 24GB/512GB. Is that really worth it (faster and more TB ports but less ram), if you don't do heavy video editing and 3D games? Will you really use and appreciate the performance difference? Considering the power consuption (185W against 150W), the heat generated and probably a longevity reduced on the long run for the Pro version, I now believe that the M2 non-Pro 24GB/512GB is a better long term value than the M2 Pro 16GB/512GB (if we don't do heavy video editing and large recent games).

I may hope that the power consumption you mention is the peak consumption and not the average...

 

[Cham2000]

I may hope that the power consumption you mention is the peak consumption and not the average...

That would be a very interesting information. Someone may elaborate on this? What is the proper interpretation of the values 150W (for M2 non-Pro) and 185W (for M2 Pro)?

 

[Orizence]

That would be a very interesting information. Someone may elaborate on this? What is the proper interpretation of the values 150W (for M2 non-Pro) and 185W (for M2 Pro)?

I believe the numbers refer to the max power consumption assuming you have devices plugged in to all the ports and are using the CPU, GPU, and probably the other components of apple silicon. Idle or regular usage should not see these numbers often. My gaming PC pulls about 500w on full load, but only 130 at the desktop for example. I really dont think it would be an issue unless you were worried about reliability at 24/7 100% load.

 

[mous94410]

Just receive my 16GB model and just with a few apps opened, I use more than 8GB of ram so… I think that I will keep this model

 

[Orizence]

Well, in that case, this M2 Pro 16GB/512GB would cost about 230$CD more (taxes included) than the M2 non-Pro with 24GB/512GB. Is that really worth it (faster and more TB ports but less ram), if you don't do heavy video editing and 3D games? Will you really use and appreciate the performance difference? Considering the power consumption (185W against 150W), the heat generated and probably a longevity reduced on the long run for the Pro version, I now believe that the M2 non-Pro 24GB/512GB is a better long term value than the M2 Pro 16GB/512GB (if we don't do heavy video editing and large recent games).

Personally I have decided to get the 24/512 for that very reason. I paid $1300CAD after tax for my machine, a Thunderbolt dock like the OWC one with the 3 extra TB ports that I can daisy chain and the extra USBs will be plenty.

I think I'm going to have my Mouse, Keyboard, USB Dac (Schitt Modi), and an external memory card reader off one USB hub, leaving 1 USB free on the back. Also have my Samsung t7 plugged into 1 TB port, and then a OWC hub connecting another USB hub for my External drives, leaving me two extra TB ports to daisy chain off of.

 

[michelg1970]

That would be a very interesting information. Someone may elaborate on this? What is the proper interpretation of the values 150W (for M2 non-Pro) and 185W (for M2 Pro)?

I don't know where your info comes from, this is from Apple's website:

Mac mini power consumption and thermal output (BTU) information - Apple Support

Learn about the power consumption and thermal output of Mac mini computers.

support.apple.com

 

[Orizence]

Just receive my 16GB model and just with a few apps opened, I use more than 8GB of ram so… I think that I will keep this model

Memory pressure is a much better metric than Memory used. MacOS stores and caches alot of stuff in memory to make things quicker, its job is to use as much ram as you have available. Its once the memory pressure starts to creep up towards yellow or red that you start using swap. Using ram is not the issue, its swapping out that is the concern

 

[Heat_Fan89]

Just receive my 16GB model and just with a few apps opened, I use more than 8GB of ram so… I think that I will keep this model

Hmm, I have the M2 8/256GB Mini. I have Safari, Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Pages, Numbers, Keynote, iMovie, Garage Band open.

I'm sitting at 5.74GB of RAM, compressed memory is 1.39GB and no Swap file. Memory Pressure is around 40%. Now i'm really glad I went with the Base Mini. 😘

 

[brucewayne]

Well, in that case, this M2 Pro 16GB/512GB would cost about 230$CD more (taxes included) than the M2 non-Pro with 24GB/512GB. Is that really worth it (faster and more TB ports but less ram), if you don't do heavy video editing and 3D games? Will you really use and appreciate the performance difference? Considering the power consumption (185W against 150W), the heat generated and probably a longevity reduced on the long run for the Pro version, I now believe that the M2 non-Pro 24GB/512GB is a better long term value than the M2 Pro 16GB/512GB (if we don't do heavy video editing and large recent games).

One other difference is that the M2 Pro with 512GB will have a slower SSD - the M2 upgraded to 512GB will have SSD speeds about 40% faster.

You will likely never see the difference in the real world (other than benchmarks) but it is a point worth noting if that is important to you.

 

[Cham2000]

One other difference is that the M2 Pro with 512GB will have a slower SSD - the M2 upgraded to 512GB will have SSD speeds about 40% faster.

You will likely never see the difference in the real world (other than benchmarks) but it is a point worth noting if that is important to you.

I didn't saw this anywhere. What's the source of your info? Can you give a link?

The other threads on the mini give 3000MB/s (read/write) for 512GB ssd, on both the M2 and M2 Pro.

 

[brucewayne]

I didn't saw this anywhere. What's the source of your info? Can you give a link?

The other threads on the mini give 3000MB/s (read/write) for 512GB ssd, on both the M2 and M2 Pro.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/202...have-slower-ssd-performance-than-m1-versions/

Explanation why is in the story.

M2 Pro mini with 512GB uses the same SOC as the M2 MBP with 512GB. Note an M2 with 256GB is in the same boat.

Again, you probably won't ever see the difference in the real world unless you love to run benchmarks.


EDIT: So rereading the bench marks between the M2 512GB SSD and M2 Pro 512GB SSD shows they should perform about the same like you said - they both use 2 256gb NAND chips so it can read/write to both at the same time.

The M2 256GB SSD will be slower due to it using one 256GB NAND chip, and the M2 PRO SSD at 1TB will be 40% faster because it is using 4 256GB NAND chips...

 

[etaleb]

Any more comments or practical experience from someone who has used the base edition 8gb ram and 256gb ssd? Thx

 

[msRN2021]

I have the base m2 with upgraded 512 ssd. This thing is fast and it can handle tasks that I usually do. Microsoft office word, ppt, excel, outlook. Safari, Chrome & youtube. I record using garage band and the audio interface connection from zoom h6 to mini is flawless! No interference at all which I normally get when I use other devices. One more plus is.. the thing is silent! My only concern now is the ports which is an easy fix. Now do I wish I opted out with the pro? Sure! But instead, I got an ipad pro. And for me, this is a killer combo

 

[sracer]

Any more comments or practical experience from someone who has used the base edition 8gb ram and 256gb ssd? Thx

I bought a base M2 Mac Mini (8GB/256GB) 2 weeks ago to replace my 2017 21" iMac that finally died.

I have a 1TB Samsung T7 external SSD that I use for my media and keep the internal drive in the Mini dedicated to the OS, apps, and documents. I bought a Satechi dock for it that includes additional front-facing ports, sd card slots, headphone jack, and an internal SATA space... I inserted a 2TB WD Blue SSD for dedicated use as a Time Machine backup.

The combination of the Mini and dock is extremely compact and performance is outstanding. The total cost for this setup really surprised me... it's an outstanding value.

On this single machine, I'm simultaneously encoding videos in iMovie, processing audio with Audacity, and remotely working via VMWare Horizon. Sadly, VirtualBox is only in development mode so I'm using my Windows system for spinning up virtual machines.

Although that old iMac had "only" 8GB of RAM (I was using an external 1TB SSD for boot drive and data because the internal hard drive died a few years prior), I was able to encode video and audio, run virtual machines, and a ton of other things. Never did it feel sluggish or unresponsive during those tasks.

The base model of Apple's computers/tablets offer the best value, IMO. Unless I know for certain that I'll need more than the base (as was the case when I bought a 256GB iPad Mini 5), I stick with the base models.

FOMO (fear of missing out) is a real thing and I can understand why people play it safe and go for models with more RAM and storage. But playing it safe will cost you... a lot.

 

[Kelvinsin]

Just 5 tabs of safari with news taken 1.6gb. Chrome tabs taking even more ram than safari. I doubt those theories mentioned 5-10tabs opening for “normal” web browsing usage, 8gb base model is more than enough? Not to mention if open microsoft office tools and one video player.
Anyone can verify with actual ram usage for above usage?

 

[Kelvinsin]

View attachment 2176970
Just 5 tabs of safari with news taken 1.6gb. Chrome tabs taking even more ram than safari. I doubt those theories mentioned 5-10tabs opening for “normal” web browsing usage, 8gb base model is more than enough? Not to mention if open microsoft office tools and one video player.
Anyone can verify with actual ram usage for above usage?

Anyone can help?

 

[Don Jose Luis Grijander]

View attachment 2176970
Just 5 tabs of safari with news taken 1.6gb. Chrome tabs taking even more ram than safari. I doubt those theories mentioned 5-10tabs opening for “normal” web browsing usage, 8gb base model is more than enough? Not to mention if open microsoft office tools and one video player.
Anyone can verify with actual ram usage for above usage?

Modern internet browsers freeze the tabs you are not using, this means that stop the processing of the page and move it from the RAM to the SSD. I am using an ancient 4gb windows PC with tons of tabs open and is not a problem, probably your system is not stopping and page the tabs because it detect you still have free memory. RAM this days is not so important for multitasking as SSDs pages really fast.