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Who's buying the new Mac Mini this week?
- Thread starter Macalway
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I put my m2 pro on eBay and will be getting an m4 when it sells. The only reason I got the pro was for 120hz hdmi. The m4 does that and is actually more powerful. I’m considering getting the 256gb model because I already have a thunderbolt 4 2tb NVMe I can use for storage.
Pretty sure the benchmarks showed the m4 pro beating the M2 Ultra for cpu performance but if the price is similar you’re getting a lot more gpu and ram for that price. So it really comes down to your needs. If you’re doing video encoding the m4 will likely be better. For 3d tho. The studio will likely be the winner.
Need to wait for more extensive benchmarks, thermal tests...etc. If your current kit is still working personally I would wait to next year as paying money for a M2 Max Studio this late in the game may not be the best choice long term unless you got a ridiculously good used deal on one. Just don't have fomo when they show off the M4 Studios next year and you just dropped close to $4 grand on a M2 version.
I decided it was time for a desktop update and ordered the M4 Pro with the 14/20 CPU/GPU, 64GB RAM, 1TB SSD and 10Gbe. It will be a significant update to the M1 Mini and allow the use of more than one TB display. Do miss the USB-A ports...
A lot of cheap but serviceable products use USB-A connectors, and many people have years' worth of USB-A connector-based peripherals lying around - thumb drives, an external HD for backups, a wired mouse for when trouble shooting right after startup or having bluetooth problems, an old wireless keyboard, etc...
Dongles, docks and adapters may work for many (though not everything does well that way), but often the simplest, most elegant solution to the problem is a USB-A port in the main device.
Most new peripherals come with USB-C, but several of the peripherals for my current M1 Mini are USB-A. There's also a lot of new electronic test equipment with USB-A/B connectors.
Two things:
A number of USB-A devices are bus powered, thus requiring an externally powered hub as opposed to a simple hub running off the power supplied by the host's USB port. This is a bit more expensive and the external power supply adds more clutter.
What has been brought up time and time again is that there are some USB devices that will not work with a hub.
Apparently the major motivation for shrinking the Mini was to reduce the amount of aluminum used - though I wonder how much extra aluminum will be used for hubs.
"Practically everything is USB-C these days. What do you still use with USB-A?"
My...
- mouse is USBa
- keyboard is USBa
- backup drives are USBa
- several additional external drives are USBa
- flash drives are all USBa (one exception).
I have a few USBc SSDs, not many yet.
But MOST of "my stuff" is USBa.
Does this answer your question?
My...
- mouse is USBa
- keyboard is USBa
- backup drives are USBa
- several additional external drives are USBa
- flash drives are all USBa (one exception).
I have a few USBc SSDs, not many yet.
But MOST of "my stuff" is USBa.
Does this answer your question?
Yeh I’m going to struggle getting everything connected,
- I use a powered 8 port USBa hub which I’ll use a USBc to USBa adapter.
- Also a USBa external drive which ill need an adapter as well,
- also a ACASIS M.2 NVMe SSD Enclosure which handily has 2 USBa and 1 USBc ports.
So that’s all the 3 thunderbolt ports used! Ports are a head scratcher for me !
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So many ways to think of which one to get. I want 24gb ram and 2tb ssd. I can get the M4 10 core cpu and 10 core gpu with 16core neural engine at $1439 use vets discount.
or get the pro for 1799 24gb 2tb I don't think the pro with 12 core cpu 16 core gpu 16 core neural engine is worth 360 more
I think I will get the base model with 24gb ram and 2tb ssd save the 360
or get the pro for 1799 24gb 2tb I don't think the pro with 12 core cpu 16 core gpu 16 core neural engine is worth 360 more
I think I will get the base model with 24gb ram and 2tb ssd save the 360
I wait for further infos e.g. noise of m4 vs. m4pro, ssd speed vs. size.
I went for base 512gb option, I use 4TB external storage which works well and is 1/3 rd of the price.
Honestly the worst part is the obscene pricing for RAM. From 24GB to 48GB on a Pro it's $400. Notwithstanding that this is bonkers, I think the issue with Apple Silicon is that the RAM is baked into the chip, so when you're getting more RAM you're effectively buying a different chip/SoC. This is unlike conventional RAM that you can just pop into a DIMM. Suspect that is part of the reason for the much higher pricing, but not all of it.
Have you seen these sort of things? Cheap as chips and work v well.
USB C zu USB Adapter 4 Stück, USB 3.0 Buchse auf USB-C Stecker OTG Adapter Kabel Kompatibel mit MacBook Pro, Samsung Galaxy, Typ-C Handys, Tablets und Mehr (Grau)
USB C to USB Adapter: USB-C zu USB-A 3.0, USB Buchse auf USB-C Stecker, kompatibel mit USB-Kabel, USB-Stick, USB-Kartenleser, USB-Tastatur, Maus, und anderen Computerperipheriegeräten. Der USB-C-Adapter ist USB 3.0 auf USB-C und das USB-C-Adapterkabel ist USB 2.0 auf USB-C. Dieser USB C zu USB O...
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Since the new Mini is elevated a little, I'll still use my satechi hub that I got for my M2 Pro Mini. I think it will have the right ports, external storage (SSD and M.2).
The M.2 I get R/W about 2000, the SSD is about 700. It's enough for external storage.
All upgrades are obscenely priced. 256GB for $200. 2TB NVME drives are $150. That pricing should be illegal.