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RAM Max the same: M1 v 2014 - beach balls?

roland.g

roland.g

macrumors 604
Original poster
Apr 11, 2005
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So I have an almost 5 year old (got it spring 2016) Late 2014 Mac Mini 2.6ghz i5 that I specced with a 256GB SSD and 16GB Max RAM.

The new M1 I would expect is way superior in performance, not only due to the 5 years, but also the awesomeness of the M1 chip. And while I get that the M1 Mini uses Unified Memory, it still tops out at 16GB. I leave my machine running all the time.

My question is whether I will still get beach balls, and slowness if I upgrade? Is it worth it? I can get $350ish on eBay for my Mini. With AppleCare the new Mini is $1075. So around $700-750 to upgrade after eBay fees.

And the time 😡😩 to deal with the listing, sale, and transition to the new Mini.
 
Its only 699 not 1075. 8gb is enough. No need for 16gb. And I had the same 2014 mini but 8gb ram. Apple gave me 150 tradein. So 16gb might be more. No need for ebay.
 
Beach balls are not just about ram. If your system is busy waiting on something, you're likely to see a beach ball. When it comes to memory, this often correlates with swaps.

There was a ton of speculation on here right at the beginning about how well the ssd compensates, so I want to point out, GB/s transferred indicate throughput, not latency. SSD latency still appears to be significantly higher and should therefore not be treated as additional ram.

Also $350 seems quite good for a mini of that age.
 
Ever noticed how a clean fresh system runs smoothly and better? Before adding apps and restoring old files?

You'll be fine and it's a good opportunity to clean house.

If it's too much of a stretch, otherwise I'd look into the 512GB SSD. If clean install of system now us enough you could hold off until this time next year.

I traded in 2015 MacBook, so glad i did, got $240. But i had to do a clean install back in fall 2019 with upgrade to Catalina, was running poorly, all those years of updates and old profile junk in home folder.
 
ivnj said:
Its only 699 not 1075. 8gb is enough. No need for 16gb. And I had the same 2014 mini but 8gb ram. Apple gave me 150 tradein. So 16gb might be more. No need for ebay.
Click to expand...
The $699 model with 16GB RAM is $899, plus AppleCare is $99 more, and tax comes to around $1073 and change. I rounded. The trade in Apple is quoting is $160. I checked eBay auctions and completed / sold listings. It looks like I could expect to get $350-400 for a 2.6Ghz i5 with 256SSD and 16GB RAM. Less eBay fees I think around $300-350. That would put my out of pocket upgrade at $700-$750 or so, and new AppleCare coverage which obviously now I don't have.

As to the RAM, I bought my 2006 MacBook Air with max RAM and the Mini I have now with max RAM because it is not upgradable. I can't see why I would go from 16GB to 8GB even on a more efficient CPU and GPU. And additional RAM will help it run smoother.

thekev said:
Beach balls are not just about ram. If your system is busy waiting on something, you're likely to see a beach ball. When it comes to memory, this often correlates with swaps.

There was a ton of speculation on here right at the beginning about how well the ssd compensates, so I want to point out, GB/s transferred indicate throughput, not latency. SSD latency still appears to be significantly higher and should therefore not be treated as additional ram.

Also $350 seems quite good for a mini of that age.
Click to expand...

Good points. I had not thought about that.

As to price, as mentioned above, that is what my search showed.

IowaLynn said:
Ever noticed how a clean fresh system runs smoothly and better? Before adding apps and restoring old files?

You'll be fine and it's a good opportunity to clean house.

If it's too much of a stretch, otherwise I'd look into the 512GB SSD. If clean install of system now us enough you could hold off until this time next year.

I traded in 2015 MacBook, so glad i did, got $240. But i had to do a clean install back in fall 2019 with upgrade to Catalina, was running poorly, all those years of updates and old profile junk in home folder.
Click to expand...

I definitely like the fresh install concept. It should make it run smooth. I wouldn't go for the 512 SSD. Reason: I have a 500GB Samsung T3 External USB3/C SSD that is very fast. Only thing on it is my Photos Library which is 190GB. Photos is fast and runs smooth off the external. My 256 SSD on my current Mini is apps and some data and still sits at 100GB free space. And then I run a Seagate 8TB External for iTunes and a second of those for Time Machine, which backs up the iTunes drive, the internal SSD, and the Photos external SSD. Neither of those drives currently has more than 3TB used.
 
roland.g said:
I wouldn't go for the 512 SSD. Reason: I have a 500GB Samsung T3 External USB3/C SSD that is very fast.
Click to expand...

I have two 500gb and two 1TB Samsung T3's and they are great. Just keep in mind the T3 tops out at about 400MB/sec while the internal SSD on my 2018 Mini is about 2700MB/sec (the M1 may be even faster). :)
 
Boyd01 said:
I have two 500gb and two 1TB Samsung T3's and they are great. Just keep in mind the T3 tops out at about 400MB/sec while the internal SSD on my 2018 Mini is about 2700MB/sec (the M1 may be even faster). :)
Click to expand...
T7 ~900-1100MB/sec. The T5 I think got round 550. I use one for cloning, another for TimeMachine. Quet, small, bus powered.
 
Right, I also have two 2tb T7's, very fast on my 2018 Mini. However, there are a couple threads here where users have been disappointed with their performance on the M1 Mini. For some reason they are much slower on the M1 apparently.
 
Boyd01 said:
I have two 500gb and two 1TB Samsung T3's and they are great. Just keep in mind the T3 tops out at about 400MB/sec while the internal SSD on my 2018 Mini is about 2700MB/sec (the M1 may be even faster). :)
Click to expand...
I use the T3 strictly for Photos and honestly am not in the application enough to warrant changing anything there. It does the job much faster than a platter HDD and I don't access the data on a frequent enough basis to move to a faster SSD. I could do a 512 internal and keep the photo library internal but then I'm looking at $400 over base or having to choose between storage and RAM and I think RAM is better for longevity.
 
ivnj said:
I have 4 externals. Boots in 17 seconds. No stalling.
Click to expand...
To clarify, not during boot. Rather, when you perform an open or save file command, the OS reads the directories of every drive, including externals. If any external HDDs are ’asleep’ at that time, the OS will wait — display the “beach ball” — until the HDD(s) spin up and can provide the data. Of course, this doesn’t apply to SSDs because they don’t have such a mechanical operation delay.
 
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