M4 Mac mini

[Singrish]

I’m currently using a MBP (bought in 2018 or 2019 can’t remember). Am thinking of switching to M2 mac mini with a 27” monitor cos due to lifestyle change i no longer use a laptop outside home & IMO its pointless paying more for a laptop that is used at home.

Am not a power user. I don’t game, edit photos, edit videos or do encoding or programming. The closest to editing videos is basic editing on Movies where i snip parts of a movie or TV show & join together for a short clip.

Rest of the time its mostly web browsing, youtube videos & the occasional word or powerpoint doc. Based on this i definitely do NOT need the M2 Pro mac mini & the M2 is good enough.

However the cheapest M2 only had 8gb ram.Would that suffice? And coming from a MBP with 16gb, would i notice a lag when i switch to a mini with 8gb?

256gb ssd confirm not enough so its either i get the $849 M2 & upgrade to 512gb ssd or if its better to have 16 gb ram then i get the $1149 M2 & upgrade the ram.

I mean $300 for extra 8gb ram is not say unaffordable lah but since i need to buy apple care, keyboard, trackpad & monitor, of course every bit counts.

Having said that since the ram is not user upgradable if 8gb is really not enough for my needs then i guess have to spend lor.

 

[elvintay07]

I’m currently using a MBP (bought in 2018 or 2019 can’t remember). Am thinking of switching to M2 mac mini with a 27” monitor cos due to lifestyle change i no longer use a laptop outside home & IMO its pointless paying more for a laptop that is used at home.

Am not a power user. I don’t game, edit photos, edit videos or do encoding or programming. The closest to editing videos is basic editing on Movies where i snip parts of a movie or TV show & join together for a short clip.

Rest of the time its mostly web browsing, youtube videos & the occasional word or powerpoint doc. Based on this i definitely do NOT need the M2 Pro mac mini & the M2 is good enough.

However the cheapest M2 only had 8gb ram.Would that suffice? And coming from a MBP with 16gb, would i notice a lag when i switch to a mini with 8gb?

256gb ssd confirm not enough so its either i get the $849 M2 & upgrade to 512gb ssd or if its better to have 16 gb ram then i get the $1149 M2 & upgrade the ram.

I mean $300 for extra 8gb ram is not say unaffordable lah but since i need to buy apple care, keyboard, trackpad & monitor, of course every bit counts.

Having said that since the ram is not user upgradable if 8gb is really not enough for my needs then i guess have to spend lor.

For surfing internet etc, can’t really see any significant. But if you use it for video editing, then 8gb maybe an issue. If you intend to use it for long time, go for 16gb

 

[ringrain_78]

I am using the Mac mini M1 with 8gb and 256gb SSD since mid 2021. For RAM, I think 8gb is good enough for office work, emails and media consumption. I had not had any out-of-memory situations yet. I do not do any photo/video editing, so 8gb is sufficient for me.

256gb SSD - this depends on your usage, I store most of stuff on iCloud and OneDrive, so 256gb is good enough for me as well. I don't game or have a lot of apps. I added a Samsung T5 1gb SSD to handle my Time-Machine backups and partition another 256gb for my data files. Works well and cheaper as well.

 

[anthonygreenisreal]

I'm using M1 Mac mini 16gb Ram and 256gb storage. Been working like a beast. No complain, Love it alot.

 

[Xihe]

I'm using M1 Mac mini 16gb Ram and 256gb storage. Been working like a beast. No complain, Love it alot.

Do you use external storage? If yes, do you experience random storage disconnection while transferring stuff? I have a macbook m1 and I get disconnection. Wondering if it is the chipset problem or power not enough.

 

[reddevil0728]

Do you use external storage? If yes, do you experience random storage disconnection while transferring stuff? I have a macbook m1 and I get disconnection. Wondering if it is the chipset problem or power not enough.

I think it depends on which external storage and the connection used

 

[Xihe]

I think it depends on which external storage and the connection used

It is just a normal seagate external HDD. When I connect to other device (PC/Laptop) I don't get any disconnection. Only the M1 Macbook got this problem. Sleep mode for ext storage device is turned off.

 

[reddevil0728]

It is just a normal seagate external HDD. When I connect to other device (PC/Laptop) I don't get any disconnection. Only the M1 Macbook got this problem. Sleep mode for ext storage device is turned off.

Usb-c / usb-a?

 

[Xihe]

Usb-c / usb-a?

Got interchangeable cables. The HDD is usb c output type. 2 seperate cables giving usb c and usb a connection options.

 

[Singrish]

For surfing internet etc, can’t really see any significant. But if you use it for video editing, then 8gb maybe an issue. If you intend to use it for long time, go for 16gb

Would your comment about video editing apply even for simple snipping clips from a longer video clip using iMovie? Am not a hardcore editor using Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premiere

Unlike iphone which i tend to change every 2 generations, max 3 gens, usually for desktop i just use till it conks.

One of the reasons im thinking of changing is cos of the new M2 processor which is supposed to be blazing fast compared to my old intel processor. Plus of course im sick of my small 15.4” screen

 

[Singrish]

I am using the Mac mini M1 with 8gb and 256gb SSD since mid 2021. For RAM, I think 8gb is good enough for office work, emails and media consumption. I had not had any out-of-memory situations yet. I do not do any photo/video editing, so 8gb is sufficient for me.

256gb SSD - this depends on your usage, I store most of stuff on iCloud and OneDrive, so 256gb is good enough for me as well. I don't game or have a lot of apps. I added a Samsung T5 1gb SSD to handle my Time-Machine backups and partition another 256gb for my data files. Works well and cheaper as well.

Yeah but i do some simple video editing hence my concern. I used to store all my vids & docs on cloud too till i read this article which made sense at least to me. I mean its convenient cos you can access the files anywhere even on phone but its still better to have the files on a hard disk & maybe treat the cloud as a back up. At least that’s my theory

 

[Singrish]

I'm using M1 Mac mini 16gb Ram and 256gb storage. Been working like a beast. No complain, Love it alot.

Haha i guess cos its 16 gb

 

[Kiddream]

I'm using M1 Mac Mini with 8Gb ram and 256Gb storage with external 1TB external HDD. Based on your usage which is similar as mine, I think the 8Gb is good enough. It's been 2 years since I bought it and I didn't encounter any lag issues.

 

[Singrish]

I'm using M1 Mac Mini with 8Gb ram and 256Gb storage with external 1TB external HDD. Based on your usage which is similar as mine, I think the 8Gb is good enough. It's been 2 years since I bought it and I didn't encounter any lag issues.

Thanks for the feedback. I guess as long as Apple doesn’t change the minimum requirement for mac os to 16 gb ram one day im safe

 

[reddevil0728]

Thanks for the feedback. I guess as long as Apple doesn’t change the minimum requirement for mac os to 16 gb ram one day im safe

Reckon they will only do so concurrent with the support for a particular series

 

[GotBetrayed]

Basic model will do. I used m1 Mac mini for my work for over a year, no issues and I love it very much, more than my m1 mbp.

 

[THFC78]

Just wondering, what monitor brand are you guys using for your mac mini

 

[twosix]

8GB is enough for web surfing and netflix, etc...

 

[sevensomerset]

can mac mini display 4k netflix? and disney+ 4k? amazon prime 4k?
currently only netflix 4k on windows by using ms edge browser, with a plugin from microsoft which i paid like $1.60++

 

[GotBetrayed]

can mac mini display 4k netflix? and disney+ 4k? amazon prime 4k?
currently only netflix 4k on windows by using ms edge browser, with a plugin from microsoft which i paid like $1.60++

Should be able to if your display supports 4K. Anyway, just get lg oled 42/48 tv and use native apps to watch better. From pc all that the picture quality is not going to be good for watching content