Mac Mini M4 256GB vs 512GB?

[Jacques Wegier]

Hello,
my 13-year-old computer is starting to show its age (13 years) and I am looking for a new one. I edit short videos with Davinci Resolve (maximum 6 minutes and 4K being the highest resolution) for YouTube and social media and do some simple Fusion effects. I also edit my photos with Affinity Photo and RAW with DxO PhotoLab. All these edits are for my personal use (not making a living of it)
I would like to purchase the Mac mini M4 16GB RAM/256GB SSD because of its relatively low price and the many positive reviews.

I am going to connect an external SSD to move my movies, photos, and anything that is not an application.
The only thing that worries me is the 256GB Internal SSD (even though on my old Windows PC the Internal SSD is also 256GB during its 13 years life) I know of the possibility of transferring the Mac Mini Home folder to the external SSD but not being a tech-savvy person and I want to keep it simple so I will not go this route.

People claim that the internal 512GB SSD is faster than the 256GB. I guess that it is true but is it something that matters in real daily use or makes a huge difference? Is it worth the $200 difference?

Thank you very much

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

For video editing, I suggest upping the RAM instead of the internal SSD. Else, you risk using what is called SWAP (leaning on the internal SSD as if it is extra RAM). Writes are what wear out SSDs and when the internal conks, the whole Mac is useless.

So consider spending the extra on more RAM to avoid any potential SWAP and otherwise go with your idea of a fast, external, BIG pool of SSD storage. Fast, third-party 8TB m.2 is below $600 (instead of Apples $2200) these days and 4TB is below $200. If you get a Thunderbolt enclosure instead of USB, it will feel about as fast as the internal and great for video editing.

If your work sometimes needs more than 8TB of fast storage (which can be easy in "short videos" with a lot of edits/overlays/titles/etc), consider something like the ACASIS TBU405 PRO MAX which is a dual bay Thunderbolt 4 enclosure. You could start with just one stick of m.2 in there and add another later- if & when you need it. Else the single slot version is about $100 less. And ACASIS is not the only Thunderbolt enclosure game in town... so do some careful shopping around and read reviews.

Or if you want to take a bit of a gamble on a newer enclosure from a lesser brand name with minimal reviews, there's a 4-bay for not too much more than that 2-bay. That looks pretty interesting. Assuming it can take 8TB m.2, that would be one you could grow into as much as 32TB of fast m.2 storage over time. That would be overkill for "short video" work unless any of them are VERY COMPLEX... but if you are buying for long-term use, it only takes desire to go from working on short videos to working on longer ones.

 

[Ifti]

I personally would go for the 24GB/512GB combination as a bare minimum. Especially if you hang on to your computers for a long while.

 

[Fishrrman]

4k videos?
Even "short" ones?

You need a 1tb SSD.

A 512gb will do... for now.

256?
That's not going to be good enough. You'll soon understand why.

And 16gb of RAM?
Again, for 4k, you're probably going to wish you had bought more.
Sooner... rather than later.

 

[marclondon]

I personally would go for the 24GB/512GB combination as a bare minimum. Especially if you hang on to your computers for a long while.

I'm thinking that and then of course this is the entry spec for the M4 Pro and I guess if I upgrade from my 2018 i7 Mini with 32GB ram I'll spend the extra for the Pro as you get the better CPU/GPU and Thunderbolt 5 ports.

 

[WCA]

I am using Final Cut and Adobe doing the same editing.

I bought a 24GB ram and 1TB drive for my editing and mostly 720/1080.

I also have a Qwiizlab enclosure and a 2TB WD Black SN850X and I keep the video all on the external to keep the write as low as possible on the internal.

 

[EugW]

24 GB RAM + 512 GB SSD + Colorii/Hagibis/Qwiizlab finned USB 4/Thunderbolt NVMe enclosure paired with DRAM-endowed NVMe SSD.

Qwiizlab Fanless 40Gbps USB4 Thunderbolt External SSD Enclosure with Aluminum Heat Sink Chasiss, Supports M.2 NVMe SSD up to 8TB - AliExpress 7

Smarter Shopping, Better Living! Aliexpress.com

www.aliexpress.com

 

[lawrencesheed]

Buy the cheaper one, and upgrade the drive later.

Will cost about 200$ for a replacement 3rd party internal 2TB drive for the M4. Bit painful as you'll need another Mac to do it, and reformat while in DFU mode, but not super hard. Not sure if the drives are making their way across to wherever you live, but they do exist here in China.

 

[EugW]

Buy the cheaper one, and upgrade the drive later.

Will cost about 200$ for a replacement 3rd party internal 2TB drive for the M4. Bit painful as you'll need another Mac to do it, and reformat while in DFU mode, but not super hard. Not sure if the drives are making their way across to wherever you live, but they do exist here in China.

I would generally not recommend this because it is indeed a “bit painful”, requires more technical knowledge than average, and as you say requires a second Mac and the drive modules are not widely available outside Asia.

I also suspect it voids the warranty.

 

[ForkHandles]

Hello,
my 13-year-old computer is starting to show its age (13 years) and I am looking for a new one. I edit short videos with Davinci Resolve (maximum 6 minutes and 4K being the highest resolution) for YouTube and social media and do some simple Fusion effects. I also edit my photos with Affinity Photo and RAW with DxO PhotoLab. All these edits are for my personal use (not making a living of it)
I would like to purchase the Mac mini M4 16GB RAM/256GB SSD because of its relatively low price and the many positive reviews.

I am going to connect an external SSD to move my movies, photos, and anything that is not an application.
The only thing that worries me is the 256GB Internal SSD (even though on my old Windows PC the Internal SSD is also 256GB during its 13 years life) I know of the possibility of transferring the Mac Mini Home folder to the external SSD but not being a tech-savvy person and I want to keep it simple so I will not go this route.

People claim that the internal 512GB SSD is faster than the 256GB. I guess that it is true but is it something that matters in real daily use or makes a huge difference? Is it worth the $200 difference?

Thank you very much

You can do what you need on a 13 year old computer. I can do what you need on a 2016 12” MacBook

Those spaffing on about minimum RAM requirements are costing you money. It’s not that it won’t be faster, obvs it will. But that’s mainly in render time it will improve, you’ve got all the time in the world, it’s not an issue.

I’d go for the 512gb. This should allow you to load up lots of raw footage in order to make your video whilst not impacting with your ever growing video 4K library and other files.

 

[Lasermoon]

Mac mini M4 SSDs

Instructions, how to replace

Restore Mac

 

[mizzoucat]

I went through the EDU store since I have a college aged daughter . 16GB RAM 512GB SSD for $699 is the sweet spot value wise. I then purchased the OWC Express 1M2 enclosure and paired it with the 4TB Samsung 990 Pro. I think this combination would also suit you very well.

 

[EugW]

You can do what you need on a 13 year old computer. I can do what you need on a 2016 12” MacBook

Hmmm... Neither a 13 year old Mac nor a 2016 12" MacBook support full hardware h.265 HEVC acceleration. While it can be done, that would definitely not be recommended. BTW, I have a 2017 12" MacBook which does have hardware h.265 HEVC acceleration, and it's still very slow overall even with 16 GB RAM.

I went through the EDU store since I have a college aged daughter . 16GB RAM 512GB SSD for $699 is the sweet spot value wise. I then purchased the OWC Express 1M2 enclosure and paired it with the 4TB Samsung 990 Pro. I think this combination would also suit you very well.

If you're in the US or Canada, it doesn't really matter if you have a college aged kid or not, because for online edu purchases, Apple doesn't check for edu credentials. I personally do qualify, but even if I didn't, I'd still always buy off the edu store here in Canada.

I agree that 16 GB / 512 GB is indeed a very good value, but if I were buying in 2025 and plan on using it for a long time for video editing, I'd strongly consider getting the 24 GB / 512 GB. I also agree the OWC 1M2 is an excellent drive, but the Colorii/Qwiizlab/Hagibis is also an excellent drive but only costs half the price of the 1M2. Of course, if the 1M2 can be purchased on sale, that changes things, but here is the current pricing:

16 / 512 GB + Colorii/Qwiizlab enclosure = $699 + $60 = $759
16 / 512 GB + OWC 1M2 enclosure = $699 + $120 = $819
24 / 512 GB + Colorii/Qwiizlab enclosure = $899 + $60 = $959
24 / 512 GB + OWC 1M2 enclosure = $899 + $120 = $1019

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[HobeSoundDarryl]

You can do what you need on a 13 year old computer. I can do what you need on a 2016 12” MacBook

Those spaffing on about minimum RAM requirements are costing you money. It’s not that it won’t be faster, obvs it will. But that’s mainly in render time it will improve, you’ve got all the time in the world, it’s not an issue.

I’d go for the 512gb. This should allow you to load up lots of raw footage in order to make your video whilst not impacting with your ever growing video 4K library and other files.

The "spaffing" is not about speed- though that is an added benefit- but NOT leaning on SWAP for the additional RAM demands. When the internal drive conks from all the writes, a Silicon Mac is dead: toss the whole thing even though only one part is actually lost.

OP can add enormous fast storage as an external and that can even be expanded with additional storage should OP ever need more. However, that capability is for nothing if SWAP usage wears out the internal SSD. He can't even boot from an external clone if the internal is dead.

Before 10 guys chime in that macOS is optimized to not wear out the internal before natural end of life, see seemingly countless threads about Fusion drives conking... about which the very same thing was spun when people voiced concern about wearing out the SSD portion of those back in the day. There it is in all of our faces... except with fusion, there is a remedy to go in and replace the dead part. Silicons remedy is "buy a new Mac."

OP could be just fine with 16GB RAM... but many spun how "99% would be just fine with 8GB RAM" as recently as only a few months ago (while Apple still shipped 8GB RAM Macs). I haven't seen any of those people ripping into Apple for forcing "too much RAM" into Macs which begs the question: did they really feel that way? All those people who heeded that "advice" are now facing issues running just the full macOS with A.I. as intended and will likely soon felt their relatively new Macs are increasingly left behind... especially as all of the A.I. push spreads across various Apple apps like the iWork apps.

Why did Apple do it? 8GB wasn't enough for something Apple wanted to inject into macOS. There's nothing that says they won't need > 16GB 3 or 5 years from now. Or something else may pop up that needs more than 16GB of RAM 3 or 5 years from now. OP will probably still own this Mac at that time but Silicon allows no RAM expansion later if needed. It's only a "buy a new Mac" proposition.

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

I think that base model will do just fine.
as you say in your original post, the base Mac mini is extremely affordable and very positively reviewed.
It should last you years.
Everyone here going on and on about how you need to have the most storage and the most RAM completely ignores the fact that even the baseline M1 from five years ago with 8 GB of RAM can still rip through 4K video, the M4 is better in every aspect.
Another thing people are ignoring about your original post is the affordability aspect.
You can get the base Mac mini for $500.
To upgrade the ram and storage is almost the cost of the entire Mac mini itself, so you’re basically paying double for upgrade that there is a large possibility you will not ever use.
Ignore all the fluff, ignore all the people try and get you to get shady upgrade modules from who knows where and what origin, the basic Mac mini will absolutely get the job done.

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

The "spaffing" is not about speed- though that is an added benefit- but NOT leaning on SWAP for the additional RAM demands. When the internal drive conks from all the writes, a Silicon Mac is dead: toss the whole thing even though only one part is actually lost.

This is absolutely incorrect.
If the SSD fails in the new Mac mini, you can replace it. Apple even officially lets you purchase the replacement SSD straight from them.
And of course, there are those previously mentioned shady third-party SSD‘s that can be used.
And either way, it doesn’t matter, I have not once heard a story of Apple Silicon computers just simultaneously dying due to SSD swap, that’s not really a thing.
Of course components can fail, and as a device ages, the chances of components failing goes up, but given that there are millions of 256/8 machines in usage, and there isn’t widespread reports of random SSD failures, it’s not really a problem worth thinking about.
If someone even cares in the slightest about their data, they will be backing up anyway.
Also, for people that paranoid about things like SSD failure, AppleCare exists. Other insurance plans from retailers exist. Exactly for this reason.
If swap truly killed someone’s Mac mini (again not really a thing) AppleCare will replace it.

 

[ForkHandles]

Hmmm... Neither a 13 year old Mac nor a 2016 12" MacBook support full hardware h.265 HEVC acceleration. While it can be done, that would definitely not be recommended. BTW, I have a 2017 12" MacBook which does have hardware h.265 HEVC acceleration, and it's still very slow overall even with 16 GB RAM.


If you're in the US or Canada, it doesn't really matter if you have a college aged kid or not, because for online edu purchases, Apple doesn't check for edu credentials. I personally do qualify, but even if I didn't, I'd still always buy off the edu store here in Canada.

I agree that 16 GB / 512 GB is indeed a very good value, but if I were buying in 2025 and plan on using it for a long time for video editing, I'd strongly consider getting the 24 GB / 512 GB. I also agree the OWC 1M2 is an excellent drive, but the Colorii/Qwiizlab/Hagibis is also an excellent drive but only costs half the price of the 1M2. Of course, if the 1M2 can be purchased on sale, that changes things, but here is the current pricing:

16 / 512 GB + Colorii/Qwiizlab enclosure = $699 + $60 = $759
16 / 512 GB + OWC 1M2 enclosure = $699 + $120 = $819
24 / 512 GB + Colorii/Qwiizlab enclosure = $899 + $60 = $959
24 / 512 GB + OWC 1M2 enclosure = $899 + $120 = $1019

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Smarter Shopping, Better Living! Aliexpress.com

www.aliexpress.us

With respect. Who cares an about 265???

The OP makes home videos. If they make 12 a year, it’ll be more than most. Over 13 years they’ll take up 156Gb at 4K. Maybe much more of 8K become standard.

The extra render time or quality drop from 264 is absolutely irrelevant to their needs.

 

[ifxf]

Go with the minimum disk but upgrade the memory, then buy an external thunderbolt drive.

 

[EugW]

Everyone here going on and on about how you need to have the most storage and the most RAM completely ignores the fact that even the baseline M1 from five years ago with 8 GB of RAM can still rip through 4K video, the M4 is better in every aspect.

16 GB is indeed fine for a lot of people but 8 GB can be problematic for even "just" 4K video editing. I've seen some reports of random crashes on 8 GB M1 machines that disappeared when the machine was exchanged for a 16 GB M1 model. Often this involved several layers of 4K video with some effects, but nonetheless, 8 GB had occasional stability problems whereas 16 GB didn't.

However, going forward from 2025 on in the era of AI, 24 GB is a reasonable consideration for video editing machine if the buyer is planning on keeping it for a long time, as OS and app memory requirements gradually increase with time. It also depends upon whether or not the user likes to multitask. Nobody here is suggesting a 32 GB M4 or 48 GB M4 Pro, but 24 GB is a reasonable upgrade.

With respect. Who cares an about 265???

The OP makes home videos. If they make 12 a year, it’ll be more than most. Over 13 years they’ll take up 156Gb at 4K. Maybe much more of 8K become standard.

The extra render time or quality drop from 264 is absolutely irrelevant to their needs.

Uh, just about every phone in existence these days can record 4K video in h.265, and these files are usually shared in their original format now, not transcoded to h.264. In fact, the reason I am upgrading my wife's 2017 MacBook Air this year to an M4 is because we are now receiving our kids' dance recital videos in h.265 format from some organizations. h.264 isn't even provided as an option, so she can't even view the videos at all on that 2017 MacBook Air. Try dropping that h.265 video in your timeline and see how that 2016 machine reacts.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

This is absolutely incorrect.
If the SSD fails in the new Mac mini, you can replace it. Apple even officially lets you purchase the replacement SSD straight from them.

I'm not aware of that service. Do you know the link to that Apple service? And, of course, if Apple offers such a service, that's likely at Apple's super premium pricing instead of market... both for the service itself and the replacement SSD part. But please, point me to it so I can see for myself.

Edit: Ahh SELF service- thanks EugW. Buy the part from Apple at the steep Apple premium and then get in there and do it yourself.

And of course, there are those previously mentioned shady third-party SSD‘s that can be used.

Yes, at great complication and trouble... needing a very steady hand and tech skills.

And either way, it doesn’t matter, I have not once heard a story of Apple Silicon computers just simultaneously dying due to SSD swap, that’s not really a thing.

Not time yet. They're still fairly new. Notice how we've been seeing Fusion SSD failures last few years, not back only a few years after Apple installed them mostly in 2012-15 or so.

Of course components can fail, and as a device ages, the chances of components failing goes up, but given that there are millions of 256/8 machines in usage, and there isn’t widespread reports of random SSD failures, it’s not really a problem worth thinking about.

Same kind of rationale offered for fusion drives to rationalize buying Macs with fusion drives. Yes, they too worked fine for the first few years. And then? Do a search for "Mac Fusion Drive failures" and see for oneself. And what's generally the problem with them? SSD side of them fails. Why? Too many writes.

If someone even cares in the slightest about their data, they will be backing up anyway.

It's not so much loss of data- it's loss of entire Mac. This is like iMac: one part goes bad, throw the whole thing out. Of course, OP should be backing up their Mac, no matter how much storage they buy inside. But that's nearly an entirely different consideration.

Also, for people that paranoid about things like SSD failure, AppleCare exists.

...for up to 3 years. Fusion had no problems for 3 years. But then after AppleCare ran out... BAM. Again, anyone can do a simple search and see for themselves.

Other insurance plans from retailers exist. Exactly for this reason.

At relatively high annual costs. OP could take maybe a couple of years of "other insurance/Applecare" and up the RAM and lean on at-market-priced, third party storage as recommended.

If swap truly killed someone’s Mac mini (again not really a thing) AppleCare will replace it.

...within the term that AppleCare covers. If Fusion is any example, it won't be replacing many Macs in only the first 3 years. It's AFTER the AppleCare term where Fusion and/or Silicon internal SSDs show/may show the too-many-writes problem.

If OP would be concerned with new Mac longevity, the smart thing to do here is pay a lot LESS than Apple's premium for an internal storage upgrade (the amount in consideration is really not much for even smallish video editing purposes anyway) and buy external storage... but apply the SSD upgrade budget to more RAM, since RAM is completely un-upgradable in Silicon Macs. The $200 Apple wants for 256GB of additional storage inside could buy 4000GB of fast m.2 storage.

 

[Boyd01]

Have been using a base m4 Mini 16/256 as a media server for over two months now; it just runs homesharing for my AppleTV's with a media library on a 4tb external SSD. It's connected to my home stereo with speakers in different rooms and I also directly use the Music app and stream Sirius/XM audio in Safari. That's really all I do with it. No opinion on whether it would meet your needs as a general purpose computer (certainly wouldn't meet mine) but you might find this interesting.

Here's how much of the 256gb ssd is used for a (more or less) plain vanilla MacOS install with no user files. That should give you an idea of how much space you'd have for your apps and essential files.

 

[EugW]

I'm not aware of that service. Do you know the link to that Apple service? And, of course, if Apple offers such a service, that's likely at Apple's super premium pricing instead of market... both for the service and the replacement SSD. But please, point me to it so I can see for myself.

AFAIK, Apple allows SSD replacement but not upgrades. However, for a while, I seem to recall that they didn't always police the ordering process so some were able to order larger capacity drives in some instances. I think that has probably been disallowed though now.

Self Service Repair - Apple Support

Self service repair

support.apple.com

https://selfservicerepair.com/en-US/home

Fusion had no problems for 3 years. But then after AppleCare ran out... BAM. Again, anyone can do a simple search and see for themselves.

Heh. I avoided Fusion like the plague. The whole idea just made me so uneasy. The 1 TB SSD in our 2017 27" iMac is doing great. Not much wear since we had 24 GB in that iMac - 8 GB OEM + 16 GB aftermarket.

 

[ForkHandles]

16 GB is indeed fine for a lot of people but 8 GB can be problematic for even "just" 4K video editing. I've seen some reports of random crashes on 8 GB M1 machines that disappeared when the machine was exchanged for a 16 GB M1 model. Often this involved several layers of 4K video with some effects, but nonetheless, 8 GB had occasional stability problems whereas 16 GB didn't.

However, going forward from 2025 on in the era of AI, 24 GB is a reasonable consideration for video editing machine if the buyer is planning on keeping it for a long time, as OS and app memory requirements gradually increase with time. It also depends upon whether or not the user likes to multitask. Nobody here is suggesting a 32 GB M4 or 48 GB M4 Pro, but 24 GB is a reasonable upgrade.


Uh, just about every phone in existence these days can record 4K video in h.265, and these files are usually shared in their original format now, not transcoded to h.264. In fact, the reason I am upgrading my wife's 2017 MacBook Air this year to an M4 is because we are now receiving our kids' dance recital videos in h.265 format from some organizations. h.264 isn't even provided as an option, so she can't even view the videos at all on that 2017 MacBook Air. Try dropping that h.265 video in your timeline and see how that 2016 machine reacts.

I don’t really want to get tied up in the semantics but 265 is supported by iPhone 7 and High Sierra. It will drop into a 2016 no problem.

 

[EugW]

I don’t really want to get tied up in the semantics but 265 is supported by iPhone 7 and High Sierra. It will drop into a 2016 no problem.

It depends on the video. Even several year-old iPhones can record in 10-bit h.265. My old iPhone 12 Pro Max uses this format.

iPhone 7 has A10 Fusion which has full 10-bit hardware h.265 decode acceleration.
The 2013 Macs have no h.265 acceleration at all.
Some (but not all) of the 2016 Macs have 8-bit h.265 decode acceleration, but none have 10-bit.



A 2016 27" iMac Core i7 cannot cleanly decode the Sony Nature 10-bit h.265 test file even at 100% CPU usage.
A 2017 27" iMac Core i5 can cleanly decode the same 10-bit h.265 file at just ~10% CPU usage.
A 2017 12" MacBook Core m3 can cleanly decode that same 10-bit h.265 file at ~25% CPU usage.

 

[EugW]

Have been using a base m4 Mini 16/256 as a media server for over two months now; it just runs homesharing for my AppleTV's with a media library on a 4tb external SSD. It's connected to my home stereo with speakers in different rooms and I also directly use the Music app and stream Sirius/XM audio in Safari. That's really all I do with it. No opinion on whether it would meet your needs as a general purpose computer (certainly wouldn't meet mine) but you might find this interesting.

Here's how much of the 256gb ssd is used for a (more or less) plain vanilla MacOS install with no user files. That should give you an idea of how much space you'd have for your apps and essential files.


View attachment 2480316

This is my main machine with most of the stuff on the internal drive, but my pictures and Photos Library on an external drive.





BTW, I'm not sure how those storage amounts work, since they add up to way more than the 150 GB it says I'm using.