Yet another 'Which M2 mini is right for me?' thread

[C-Dub87]

Hi, sorry for being one of many topics on this.

I've got a budget of about £1,400, which is the price of the M2 Pro mini at its base configuration. But I don't necessarily want to spend that if I don't have to.

I currently have a M1 MacBook Pro 13 inch (8gb RAM, 256gb storage) which, while good as a laptop, is kind of pointless for me to have since I use it docked all the time and frankly it struggles a little on my huge monitor. If I buy a mini and I'm happy with it I will likely sell the MBP on afterwards and rely on my iPad Pro with Magic Keyboard for the extremely rare instances where I need a keyboard on the go (mostly using Scrivener in cafes).

Most of my work is writing-related with windows side-by-side (or top-to-bottom since my monitor is an 16:18 LG DualUp 2560 x 2880 display), but I also do some image editing, and I usually have 3-4 apps open (any combination of: Safari or Chrome with a lot of tabs/web apps open, Discord, Scrivener, Notability, Obsidian, Affinity Photo/Designer/Publisher, Microsoft Outlook/Teams/Word and Spotify).

I think 16gb RAM is a must. Maybe even more...

Other than that the computer might be used for some light gaming on titles that actually work nice on my strange monitor (usually strategy games like Civ VI), but gaming performance isn't as important since I have a high end gaming PC in another room that I can remote into using Moonlight if necessary, though being able to play on the device is preferable.

I heard the 512GB SSD in the mini is slower than the 1TB option, but I have no specific need for a large amount of storage as any large files will be stored on my NAS. I'm currently using about 150GB out of 256GB on my MBP so I don't see myself filling 512GB let alone 1TB any time soon.

With that in mind, is the M2 Pro going to be overkill here?

Would I better off adding more RAM and/or faster storage to the base M2 mini and calling it a day?

Here are my four configs:

Option 1
M2 Pro mini (base model)
10-Core CPU
16-Core GPU
16GB Unified Memory
512GB SSD Storage
£1,399

Option 2
M2 mini (upgraded RAM)
8-Core CPU
10-Core GPU
16GB Unified Memory
512GB SSD Storage
£1,049

Option 3
M2 mini (upgraded RAM & storage)
8-Core CPU
10-Core GPU
16GB Unified Memory
1TB SSD Storage
£1,249

Option 4
M2 mini (upgraded RAM)
8-Core CPU
10-Core GPU
24GB Unified Memory
512GB SSD Storage
£1,249

 

[TorbenIbsen]

As you write yourself, a question like yours is raised often in various forums. - But nobody is really qualified to answer on your behalf. - And when you ask in a forum, any Tom, Dick or Harry can pose an answer without having the faintest idea what they are talking about. So it is risky to follow advice from random answers in forums like this.

With four similar options and some random answers in here you might just as well throw a dice and decide from that. Or you could use Google and search for more qualified information from known, reputable sources. In the end only you can make the compromises between power, features and price.

 

[Juicy Box]

Do you have any complaints about the performance of your current M1 MacBook Pro?

If not, the base Mac Mini might be good enough for you. The SSD will be slower, but depending on your workflow, this may not matter as much.

You can use the activity Monitor app in the utilities folder to determine if your current amount of ram is adequate.

If you plan to do games, anything that has been released in the past five-ish years, I would get at least 16GB of RAM. I know you said gaming isn't as important, but you can check out MrMacRight YouTube channel, he is one of the best Mac gaming reviewer on YouTube.

He often posts how much ram is currently being used while he plays the games he’s reviewing, and most of the games come close to, and more often than not, exceed 8 GB.

I currently have a M1 MacBook Pro 13 inch (8gb RAM, 256gb storage) which, while good as a laptop,

Another thought, while I’m sure there’s certain things in your work flow that could be improved upon with a new Mac Mini, have you considered holding on to your current Mac, and wait for the next two years for what the M3 Mac Minis will look like?

Besides the fact that your current MacBook Pro is docked all the time, is there anything else about it that makes you wanna replace it?