The M2 Mac mini 512GB Storage / 16GB Memory Dilemma

[jessea]

Does anyone have thoughts on whether it's worth the extra $300 to jump to the M2 Pro model if you're going to get 512GB of storage and 16GB of memory anyway?

I have no experience with M1 vs M1 Pro chips, so not sure what to expect in terms of performance. Outside the chip, seems like you're getting HDMI 2.1 (which is nice) and a couple extra Thunderbolt ports.

I'll be doing graphics work, light video editing, audio engineering, and Xcode development (I have a lot of interests... lol).

 

[628]

At first I thought was going to get a 32GB/512GB upgraded M2 Pro, then I realized that it was almost the cost of a Mac Studio so I rethought my choice and finally settled on ordering the M2 with 24GB ram and 512 storage and after a few more hours re-considering my order, I finally settled on the 16GB 512GB M2 Pro Mac Mini because I realized I need to be able to use 3 screens for multitasking and the regular M2 only supports 2 screens.

Yeah I don't know if the $300 is worth it to be able to add an additional monitor, it's essentially like buying a graphics card upgrade for the Mac mini...

We will see if the 16GB is enough RAM, was really tempted to get the base model and upgrade after 2-3 years.

 

[jessea]

At first I thought was going to get a 32GB/512GB upgraded M2 Pro, then I realized that it was almost the cost of a Mac Studio so I rethought my choice and finally settled on ordering the M2 with 24GB ram and 512 storage and after a few more hours re-considering my order, I finally settled on the 16GB 512GB M2 Pro Mac Mini because I realized I need to be able to use 3 screens for multitasking and the regular M2 only supports 2 screens.

Yeah I don't know if the $300 is worth it to be able to add an additional monitor, it's essentially like buying a graphics card upgrade for the Mac mini...

We will see if the 16GB is enough RAM, was really tempted to get the base model and upgrade after 2-3 years.

Yeah, I’m wondering similar things. The smart thing is probably for me to wait until there are benchmarks, but I’ve been holding off for months for the M2 mini to launch so I can stop stealing my wife’s MacBook.

 

[teohyc]

Does anyone have thoughts on whether it's worth the extra $300 to jump to the M2 Pro model if you're going to get 512GB of storage and 16GB of memory anyway?

I have no experience with M1 vs M1 Pro chips, so not sure what to expect in terms of performance. Outside the chip, seems like you're getting HDMI 2.1 (which is nice) and a couple extra Thunderbolt ports.

I'll be doing graphics work, light video editing, audio engineering, and Xcode development (I have a lot of interests... lol).

It probably comes down to whether you need the 2x TB ports, 3 display support.

If not you can just get the cheaper M2 model and use the money saved for external storage.

 

[Stow]

M2 pro 16gb enough to get into Xcode and last me a few years?

 

[jessea]

M2 pro 16gb enough to get into Xcode and last me a few years?

It should be. The base M2 chip should be enough for that.

 

[Fishrrman]

$300 for a "bump up" from m2 to m2pro sounds fairly reasonable to me.