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ordered my M2 Mac mini today

AlixSPQR said:
If I had a ”M1 MM, running 16 gb and 2 TB SSD” I would never buy the new base model, I believe that is a downgrade, all in all.
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And considering how Apple has been treating all previous 256GB configurations of M2 Macs, the whole incentive of upgrading to get faster video editing/rendering and transcoding might not be there unless you go at least 512GB.

Yes, it's a very cynical take. But just keep in mind that all the graphs comparing M1 to M2 refer to 2TB configurations.

I wouldn't even be surprised if the 8GB RAM are also a downgrade from the type we got in M1.

I hope not. But Apple has done it in the past.
 
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russell_314 said:
So basically a second computer. I will be interested to see to hear how it compares to the 16 GB/2 TB M1. Some people act like you can't open more than one tab in Safari with 8 GB of RAM. It's always nice to hear real world comparisons with real usage.
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I use a base M1 Mini at work. I've had 30+ Chrome tabs, Safari, Slack, Mail, our VPN app and others open at the same time and not noticed any slowdown. I've also done some video encoding via Handbrake & Apple Compressor. Using the hardware encoding, I'm getting 175+ fps on full 1080 encodes. 85-100fps on 4k ones.
 
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I'm hoping to see nice discounts on M1 MM. Fingers crossed.

I use a M1 MBA as a part-time desktop. It would be nice not to have to dock the MBA anymore.
 
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I ordered a base to replace a 2012 i7 with 32GB. Mostly used for web browsing and daytrading. I never pass 9GB RAM usage with my current setup which is clearly CPU bound, so seeing if the base works for my use case.
 
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Micro Center usually discounts their apple stuff immediately when they get it, so that’s where I’m going to head after the 24th. Caveat is that it’s in-store only but luckily I live 20 minutes from a location.
 
Replacing my i5 16GB 2017 5K iMac with Mac Mini M2 Pro base model. Also ordered Studio Display and black Magic Keyboard and Trackpad which have already been delivered! Was hanging on for a new iMac, but seems increasingly likely that model is no more (famous last words!! 😆). Loved my 2012 iMac (first Apple computer) then my 2017 iMac and hope to enjoy my Mini for years to come also. Roll on next Tuesday!
 
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I wouldn’t be surprised to see apple drop the base studio now

The mini is really encroaching on its territory , it’s a mini beast
 
George Dawes said:
I wouldn’t be surprised to see apple drop the base studio now

The mini is really encroaching on its territory , it’s a mini beast
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1799 for the base studio, I believe it was 1999 to start before. I am torn between getting the studio or a maxed mini.
 
George Dawes said:
The noise issues in the studio put me off , just can't believe this left the labs with this basic problem , knowing noise would be an issue in the places it was designed for - studios ....
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I have a pretty spec’d out mini in order, my only concern is thermal. I would rather deal with the noise then thermal throttle.
 
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I've got an M1 16/2tb and it's amazing , totally silent and does everything I ask

I'm sure you'll be more than happy with your purchase , the M2 chips seem to be real monsters
 
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Waiting for some reviews of the M2 Pro Mac Mini at the moment. I did a proper decision analysis between keeping the M1 Pro MacBook Pro, which is 99% of the time used as a desktop, versus buying a mini. The M2 comes out waaaay on top. I should be able to get 6 years out of the M2 Pro without having to futz with batteries and considerably less risk of breaking it (I have a habit of murdering macbooks). Plus I've got an iPad Pro for portable stuff which is somewhat more convenient to drag around.

Storage bandwidth is the interesting one for me what with the limitations of the base M2 MBAs.
 
I sort of was roped into buying the M2 Mac mini after buying a second LG Ultrafine 4k monitor and not realizing that my M1 MacBook Air couldn’t power the two of them. So, I guess I have a desktop computer now! :) Looking forward to this new setup. Maybe I’ll trade in my M1 MacBook Air for an iPad Pro or iPad Air and just use that as my more portable computer solution.
 
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Ordered an M2 mini Pro 19GPU , 32GB Ram, 1tb drive. Upgrading from an M1 mini 16GB Ram 512 gb drive. Was putting the M1 under some stress for coding and artwork using Adobe.

Price came out to 2199, could have got a studio for the same price. My deciding factors were

1. didn’t want to mess with the fan issue people complained about regarding the studio. studio is a 1st generation not sure what lurks down the road.
2. the mini specs was exactly what I was looking for. faster cpu little slower gpu compared to the studio. 32 gb ram hit the nail on the head
3. mini Has hdmi 2.1 so computer will handle a monitor upgrade when the time comes. Also supporting thunderbolt 4, can get a couple monitors down the road if I go that route.
4. like the mini portability and How quiet it is.
5. Mini has More than enough ports for my needs.
6. moving from a mini to studio would have been a push on single core performance. Get a little better performance with M2.

plan on keeping the M1 mini as the day to day computer. The M2 will only handle coding and artwork. plan to use this setup for about 5 years. Hopefully by then the 2nd generation of the 3nm chips are out.
 
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leerichards1 said:
Replacing my i5 16GB 2017 5K iMac with Mac Mini M2 Pro base model. Also ordered Studio Display and black Magic Keyboard and Trackpad which have already been delivered! Was hanging on for a new iMac, but seems increasingly likely that model is no more (famous last words!! 😆). Loved my 2012 iMac (first Apple computer) then my 2017 iMac and hope to enjoy my Mini for years to come also. Roll on next Tuesday!
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I am tempted to do exactly what you are doing, so I'll be interested to hear your feedback in due course.
 
I wonder if the M2 Pro will behave like the M2, where the binned version actually outperforms the higher spec version in long endurance tasks that heavily use cpu and gpu. So in theory, pegging all 12 cores and 19 GPU cores may throttle to the point where it’s performing worse than the 10-core 16 GPU version which has a lower thermal output due to disabled cores. This was observed with the M2 in early reviews.

Even if this does occur it’s still an extreme edge case - it’s very rare to have a workload that fully utilizes CPU and GPU simultaneously.
 
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NeonNights said:
Would it not be better to get the base M2 MM, also for $499, from the Apple Education Store?
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If the base M2 MM storage is built like the M2 MBA, the M1 will be the better choice for some people. We'll see in a day or two when the reviews hit the internet.

It makes no sense for the base model MSRP to drop $100 if there is no tradeoff somewhere. Few things cost less these days.

Edit: An aside, the original base Mac Mini released in 2005 sold for $499, which is $780 in 2023 dollars.
 
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gleepskip said:
If the base M2 MM storage is built like the M2 MBA, the M1 will be the better choice for some people. We'll see in a day or two when the reviews hit the internet.

It makes no sense for the base model MSRP to drop $100 if there is no tradeoff somewhere. Few things cost less these days.

Edit: An aside, the original base Mac Mini released in 2005 sold for $499, which is $780 in 2023 dollars.
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Helpful to see the conversion in todays $s. It’s great that Apple is reducing the price of this over time, bringing in more customers to the Mac family.
 
pcd213 said:
I sort of was roped into buying the M2 Mac mini after buying a second LG Ultrafine 4k monitor and not realizing that my M1 MacBook Air couldn’t power the two of them. So, I guess I have a desktop computer now! :) Looking forward to this new setup. Maybe I’ll trade in my M1 MacBook Air for an iPad Pro or iPad Air and just use that as my more portable computer solution.
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Time will really tell if I would be happy with the iPad after ditching my MacBook Air for it. I just never grew fond on iPad OS. I so much prefer MacOS.
 
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