Studio for Home Office - overkill?

[jfried8]

I need a desktop for my home office.
I primarily use Citrix along with Microsoft Apps such as Teams, Outlook, PowerBI, Office, etc. I want a computer that will last me the next 5-10 years, with two young kids as well.
I was looking at a Mac Mini with M2 Pro and adding 32gb of ram due to Teams being a ram hog but then price started driving me towards the Studio with the standard 32gb of ram.
I’m ready to get the base 512gb model but am concerned about the SSD speed everyone talks about.
I do no video editing or photo editing and very little gaming but in the future may dabble a bit.

Go with the Studio 512gb or pay to upgrade which I really prefer not to, to the 1TB or drop down to the Mini with the Pro?

All advice welcome!

 

[George Dawes]

I’m in the same boat , I’ll be doing very very basic stuff , but once you start speccing the pro mini it soon starts invading the studio pricing

Really the whole thing is bewildering

From research it seems it best to go for the basic studio and add external ssd as apple’s pricing is expensive to say the least and if you upgrade the ram and ssd to the mini pro it’s actually a hundred more than the basic studio !

32 gig ram should be more than enough for basic office stuff in fact it’s probably total overkill

Maybe look at the basic Mac mini 8gb ram and add ssd external ?

 

[jfried8]

I’m in the same boat , I’ll be doing very very basic stuff , but once you start speccing the pro mini it soon starts invading the studio pricing

Really the whole thing is bewildering

From research it seems it best to go for the basic studio and add external ssd as apple’s pricing is expensive to say the least and if you upgrade the ram and ssd it’s actually a hundred more than the basic studio !

32 gig ram should be more than enough for basic office stuff in fact it’s probably total overkill

Maybe look at the basic Mac mini 8gb ram and add ssd external ?

My issue is I need 32gb of ram for the nonsense that is Teams.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP:

If price is a consideration, have you considered buying from Apple's online refurbished store?
Same 1-year warranty as if it were "new".

You could add the 1tb SSD, and come in at the same price as the 16/512 base model sells for "new".

 

[CoMoMacUser]

Similar story here. I'm self-employed (technical writer) and work from home. My Dell all-in-one from 2012 was a great machine but getting old and slow. I kept holding out for a next-gen iMac with a bigger screen than the current models because that's what I had before the Dell.

But finally I couldn't wait any longer and got the base model M1 Max Studio in November and paired it with a 32" Samsung M8. No regrets. It has plenty of horsepower for my workstyle, which typically is Outlook, a couple of PDFs, Safari and a few Word docs all up at once, sometimes with Teams or Zoom going, too.

One reason why I went with the base 512 GB is because I back up everything to the cloud (OneDrive) anyway. With a fast connection, there's not a whole lot that I need to keep local. Certainly not anywhere near 512 GB worth.

Like you, I wanted a machine that would last five to 10 years. I think I've got that.

Hope that helps.

 

[jfried8]

Is there really a massive difference in SSD speed that’s noticeable to the office focused user?

 

[RokinAmerica]

No. It is going to be evident for most anyone only in benchmarks. Having used SSDs for over a decade now, and I have 3 in my current desktop pc, 2 in my MSI laptop, a dozen on my shelf from prior pc's. I work from home so my pc's are my life.

 

[mcnallym]

In the studio then the base 512gb is still 2 NAND Flash so around 3000Mbps min.
I doubt that for a machine that is for Office work that even the 256Gb Base Mini 1550Mbps would be an issue other then potentially capacity.

My Work laptop has 16Gb and it runs Teams with rest of Office and various Web Apps fine all day long without Swapping.

A Base M2 Pro 16/512 Mini is sufficient for what you need.

 

[MacGizmo]

Is the Studio overkill for your basic office needs? Yes. Is the souped-up Mini overkill for your basic office needs? Also yes.

Honestly, for what you're talking about, a base model Studio or 16GB RAM Mini should be well more than adequate. The RAM you want for Teams is really unnecessary. The problem with Teams is that it's a poorly written and managed app, and no amount of RAM is going to fix that.

That being said, we've got Teams running on several M1 Mac Minis in our office with base configs and they all run fine. In other words, they work (and don't work) no better or worse than the Macs with much more powerful processors and much higher RAM configs.

Note, we're running the latest version of Teams with Microsoft 365 - I don't know if it makes a difference because MS makes it so complicated with the different versions of their apps and services.

 

[flobach]

What about a base mini with 24GB RAM? Still cheaper than the Pro, and defo cheaper than the studio. I’m certain that the base mini M2 should suffice in regards to computing power, my m1 air doesnt break a sweat with those tasks you mentioned, and even my shoddy work laptop (8GB ram and 8th gen i5) is ok(ish), even it sounds like a jet engine starting up during calls

Also, consider that the studio is taller, maybe the mini will fit better on (or under) your desk.

Whatever you do, I’m sure you’ll make the right choice! Have fun with it.

 

[Yebubbleman]

I need a desktop for my home office.
I primarily use Citrix along with Microsoft Apps such as Teams, Outlook, PowerBI, Office, etc. I want a computer that will last me the next 5-10 years, with two young kids as well.
I was looking at a Mac Mini with M2 Pro and adding 32gb of ram due to Teams being a ram hog but then price started driving me towards the Studio with the standard 32gb of ram.
I’m ready to get the base 512gb model but am concerned about the SSD speed everyone talks about.
I do no video editing or photo editing and very little gaming but in the future may dabble a bit.

Go with the Studio 512gb or pay to upgrade which I really prefer not to, to the 1TB or drop down to the Mini with the Pro?

All advice welcome!

A Mac Studio for those needs is overkill. I'd try to sway you toward an M2 Pro Mac mini with 32GB of RAM; but the Mac Studio is...inexplicably...the exact same cost and, honestly, probably just as overkill.

Here's what I'd recommend instead:

Get a standard M2 Mac mini with 24GB of RAM, one size larger SSD than you think you'll need (512GB will accommodate a handful of games; 1TB and larger will allow for more; you can't upgrade it after the fact), and your choice of either Gigabit or 10 Gigabit Ethernet.

16GB of RAM is more than enough for most Mac games out there today and will probably be enough for most of them for years to come). So, I'd probably customize it with the maximum 24GB of RAM as that'll give you some overhead for the future. Otherwise, it's plenty of Mac. As for the SSD, the drives you want to avoid are the 256GB SSD on the standard M2 Macs OR the 512GB SSD on the M2 Pro and M2 Max Macs. The 512GB SSD on the standard M2 is not affected. Incidentally, eve aside all of that, I'd probably opt for the 1TB or 2TB drive to accommodate games and evolving storage needs over time. But that ought to suit your needs just fine. I have an M1 13-inch MacBook Pro with 16GB of RAM; Alien Isolation (admittedly, an Intel game) is mildly sluggish on that; every other game I have is pretty smooth. I can't imagine a standard M2 Mac mini with 24GB of RAM won't be that much better.

 

[jfried8]

A Mac Studio for those needs is overkill. I'd try to sway you toward an M2 Pro Mac mini with 32GB of RAM; but the Mac Studio is...inexplicably...the exact same cost and, honestly, probably just as overkill.

Here's what I'd recommend instead:

Get a standard M2 Mac mini with 24GB of RAM, one size larger SSD than you think you'll need (512GB will accommodate a handful of games; 1TB and larger will allow for more; you can't upgrade it after the fact), and your choice of either Gigabit or 10 Gigabit Ethernet.

16GB of RAM is more than enough for most Mac games out there today and will probably be enough for most of them for years to come). So, I'd probably customize it with the maximum 24GB of RAM as that'll give you some overhead for the future. Otherwise, it's plenty of Mac. As for the SSD, the drives you want to avoid are the 256GB SSD on the standard M2 Macs OR the 512GB SSD on the M2 Pro and M2 Max Macs. The 512GB SSD on the standard M2 is not affected. Incidentally, eve aside all of that, I'd probably opt for the 1TB or 2TB drive to accommodate games and evolving storage needs over time. But that ought to suit your needs just fine. I have an M1 13-inch MacBook Pro with 16GB of RAM; Alien Isolation (admittedly, an Intel game) is mildly sluggish on that; every other game I have is pretty smooth. I can't imagine a standard M2 Mac mini with 24GB of RAM won't be that much better.

Thanks for the responses but when most people say there is absolutely no noticeable difference in SSD speed for my needs, why should I avoid 512gb in the Max?

 

[Yebubbleman]

Thanks for the responses but when most people say there is absolutely no noticeable difference in SSD speed for my needs, why should I avoid 512gb in the Max?

It's a subpar drive relative to what the M1 and T2 Macs had. Whether or not you will be bothered enough by it is purely subjective. Those that aren't bothered by it do not do a lot of file copying or manipulation of data on the drive (which is where performance will be more impacted). For my money, I'm not buying anything subpar from Apple when I'm already spending more than $1000 for the privilege. You may not have the same priorities when buying a Mac from Apple and may therefore not care as much as I do. Incidentally, I think a Max (and even a Pro) is overkill for your projected needs; also that you will, for reasons that have nothing to do with these subpar drives, want more than 512GB of storage considering you want this thing to last a long while and might play games on it (the average game is now around 30GB; many are larger).

 

[colodane]

For me, buying a new non-iMac system is a strange dichotomy. The processor part is easy and could be done in a minute: Studio Max, 32 GB, 1 or 2 TB. But then, there is the monitor. Don't know how many hours I've already spent looking at all the options - none of them totally ideal.

 

[mcnallym]

Thanks for the responses but when most people say there is absolutely no noticeable difference in SSD speed for my needs, why should I avoid 512gb in the Max?

because people get too focused on benchmark figures rather then actual overall usage.

the 512gb Storage in an M2 Studio still is around 3000MBps.

for office work that is NOT going to be an issue.

the problem that people obsessing with benchmarks is that the m1 studio was around 4900 read and 3950 write speed.

yet an m2 studio beats out m1 studio still when performing real world applications other then disk benchmarks.

basically apple found that the storage in the m1 outperforms what it needed too And so dropped speed with the m2 to be nearer where needs to be to match the rest of the components.

 

[jha]

No matter what you do, it will be outdated with time. More changes with these machines than just raw numbers like storage and RAM.

If cost is a factor – best thing to do is buy what you need, avoid overkill, and upgrade when things slow down enough to be an issue. If you haven't tried Apple Silicon yet, you probably need much less than you think when it comes to RAM.

 

[Adelphos33]

I need a desktop for my home office.
I primarily use Citrix along with Microsoft Apps such as Teams, Outlook, PowerBI, Office, etc. I want a computer that will last me the next 5-10 years, with two young kids as well.
I was looking at a Mac Mini with M2 Pro and adding 32gb of ram due to Teams being a ram hog but then price started driving me towards the Studio with the standard 32gb of ram.
I’m ready to get the base 512gb model but am concerned about the SSD speed everyone talks about.
I do no video editing or photo editing and very little gaming but in the future may dabble a bit.

Go with the Studio 512gb or pay to upgrade which I really prefer not to, to the 1TB or drop down to the Mini with the Pro?

All advice welcome!

I think I have a similar use case as you. In terms of teams being a RAM HOG, I have an elegant solution - I run Teams on a separate iPad whenever I need it. The Teams iOS/iPadOS App is excellent.

With teams taken care of, honestly the M1/M2 (not Pro, Max orExtreme) configuration of your choice will last for a long time. I would to an M2 Mini. I personally do all of the tasks you described on an M1 iMac with 16GB RAM and 256GB storage, and the computer is as snappy and effective as when I bought it.

For some reason, in the Apple silicon era, people are being encouraged to buy more than they need - maybe because how Apple prices its upgrades. But almost by definition, the vast majority of users (including home office users) only need the base M chip.

 

[0339327]

I need a desktop for my home office.
I primarily use Citrix along with Microsoft Apps such as Teams, Outlook, PowerBI, Office, etc. I want a computer that will last me the next 5-10 years, with two young kids as well.
I was looking at a Mac Mini with M2 Pro and adding 32gb of ram due to Teams being a ram hog but then price started driving me towards the Studio with the standard 32gb of ram.
I’m ready to get the base 512gb model but am concerned about the SSD speed everyone talks about.
I do no video editing or photo editing and very little gaming but in the future may dabble a bit.

Go with the Studio 512gb or pay to upgrade which I really prefer not to, to the 1TB or drop down to the Mini with the Pro?

All advice welcome!

10 years is pushing it for any computer technology.

The MacMini you spec'd sounds perfect for your needs. Understand, however, that most Apple devices are not supported beyond 7 years, and many even less.

I would expect this machine to work for you for about 5 - 7 years.

 

[Populus]

The problem here, as previously stated, is that an M2 Pro Max mini with more SSD and 32GB of RAM goes almost to the same price as a Mac Studio. But the studio is more expensive and the base model is only 512GB.

So if your budget is tight, I think an M2 mini with 24GB of RAM and 512GB of SSD should be good enough for the next 6 years or so.

If you know you will need 32GB of RAM on macOS, then I’m afraid the M2 Pro is the best solution, with upgraded RAM and you could stick with the 512GB, even tho it will be faster if you update the SSD to 1TB as well.

Good luck, it’s a tough decision I’ll have to make when Apple releases the M3 Mac mini.

 

[dmr727]

So if your budget is tight, I think an M2 mini with 24GB of RAM and 512GB of SSD should be good enough for the next 6 years or so.

If I were to get a desktop Mac, this is exactly how I'd play it (or maybe 1TB). I'd be willing to bet that 16GB would work fine, but I'm always a fan of buying a little more memory than I think I'd actually need.

If my budget were less constrained, I'd probably go to 32GB and get the Studio.

 

[SpotOnT]

Everyone seems to have their own take on this.

Mine is that the Pro based Mini is not worth getting. It runs hot and isn’t priced competitively compared to the Studio.

I would either aim for the M2 Mini with upgraded RAM or the base M2 Max Studio.

In that light, the Studio has a lot of creature comforts that make it extremely attractive…but if budget is a major concern, I would just go for the M2 Mini with 16GB or 24GB of RAM

 

[BanjoDudeAhoy]

32 gig ram should be more than enough for basic office stuff in fact it’s probably total overkill

Yes, I’d classify that as overkill.
My daily driver is a base M1 MBA. I use Edge, Parsec, WhatsApp, Messages, Slack, Office. No problems.
Sometimes even Teams. Still no problem.

Granted, I would now not get an 8 GB RAM machine again but instead opt for 16 (or more if my budget allows for it and I want to future proof) but you don’t need 32 GB for office stuff.

Edit:
I make games for a living, the computer I connect to via Parsec is a beast of a machine and that one does have 32 GB RAM because it actually needs it for in-engine work.

 

[impaler]

I need a desktop for my home office.
I primarily use Citrix along with Microsoft Apps such as Teams, Outlook, PowerBI, Office, etc. I want a computer that will last me the next 5-10 years, with two young kids as well.
I was looking at a Mac Mini with M2 Pro and adding 32gb of ram due to Teams being a ram hog but then price started driving me towards the Studio with the standard 32gb of ram.
I’m ready to get the base 512gb model but am concerned about the SSD speed everyone talks about.
I do no video editing or photo editing and very little gaming but in the future may dabble a bit.

Go with the Studio 512gb or pay to upgrade which I really prefer not to, to the 1TB or drop down to the Mini with the Pro?

All advice welcome!

I think it's overkill, but I did the M2 Max, 32GB RAM and 2TB SSD. This, along with the Studio Display, is amazing and lets me do everything I could ever ask for. Expensive upfront but I have future proofed myself for many years. It's the first setup that's not an iMac (all in one), and I love the modular setup. I do feel it's a Lamborghini and I have Corolla needs...but worth it.

 

[chrfr]

My issue is I need 32gb of ram for the nonsense that is Teams.

Teams is an inefficient app but your needs would be more than adequately covered with 16GB and a regular M2 mini.

 

[jfried8]

I ordered the Studio with the 1TB as the only option. Figured I’d want to be prepared for the future.