M4 Mac mini

[VodkaPear]

What's everybody using to enable split-view on their Macs?
There's the built in Split View function on MacOS, but that's really limited to left/right screens.

Anybody using something more customisable?
I'm using Divvy, which works pretty well, but am curious as to what everybody else is using.

Also, are there apps that combines the scaling function of BetterDisplay + the split view function of Divvy?

bettersnaptool?

 

[ohtani]

getting a m2 mini as my current 2014 mini is getting slower i.e boot up slower when my bootup is using SSD .
advice what can i do with my old mini?

just to confirm m2 mini can handle 34" resolution

 

[junk610]

bettersnaptool?

Unfortunately that one requires one to pay for it before you can try it.

 

[junk610]

getting a m2 mini as my current 2014 mini is getting slower i.e boot up slower when my bootup is using SSD .
advice what can i do with my old mini?

just to confirm m2 mini can handle 34" resolution

Repurpose it as a media/backup server?
M2 can handle up to 6K resolution.

 

[VodkaPear]

Unfortunately that one requires one to pay for it before you can try it.

Haha. Forgot how much I paid. But no regrets. My Mus hav app in mac os

 

[kelvinsin]

Just placed order for a 16gb 256gb model and an acasis tb4 enclosure. Sourcing 1tb good deal from amazon. So excited.

 

[mynameised]

i just received my 16/256 m2 mm but not sure what display to get, need some advise before making the purchase.

thinking of getting the LG 2k or 4k with 60 or 120hz display...

27" 2k - run native 2k will 108ppi cause text to be blurry?
27" 4k - if better display can fix scaling with 1440p with 160ppi will be better?

27" not much scrolling when reading so is the 60 vs 120hz obvious? or just good to have?

the LG 27GP95 120hz vs LG 4k 60hz price like nearly double.

or will the LG 27GP850 120 hz be a better choice if resolution is clear and sharp enough?

 

[junk610]

Just placed order for a 16gb 256gb model and an acasis tb4 enclosure. Sourcing 1tb good deal from amazon. So excited.

That’s the setup I’ve got too haha. Bought my 2TB Samsung 980 Pro on Amazon as well. Great deal!
Did you go with the Acasis TBU401 or the TBU405 enclosure?

 

[junk610]

i just received my 16/256 m2 mm but not sure what display to get, need some advise before making the purchase.

thinking of getting the LG 2k or 4k with 60 or 120hz display...

27" 2k - run native 2k will 108ppi cause text to be blurry?
27" 4k - if better display can fix scaling with 1440p with 160ppi will be better?

27" not much scrolling when reading so is the 60 vs 120hz obvious? or just good to have?

the LG 27GP95 120hz vs LG 4k 60hz price like nearly double.

or will the LG 27GP850 120 hz be a better choice if resolution is clear and sharp enough?

In my opinion, PPI is more important than a monitor’s native resolution, especially if you’re planning on using BetterDisplay. Generally, higher PPI = smaller dot pitch = smoother appearance.

Demo a 27” 2K and 4K display at the store and have them put on a spreadsheet with small fonts.

If you can spot individual pixels at your regular viewing distance, it probably won’t provide you with a retina-quality experience. Then check if the text appears blurry at the smallest font size.
Other issues like UI scaling can easily be fixed with BetterDisplay.

That‘s how I decided on my 32” LG 4K monitor.

As for 60hz vs 120hz, I’m not sure if anyone can read content fast enough on a 27” monitor to notice a difference. It’s more a thing for gamers I think. For reference, both the Studio/Pro displays are 60hz displays.

Good luck and have fun shopping.

 

[junk610]

Whether a display appears Retina depends on the PPI and your viewing distance.

I just found this helpful online resource that calculates the Retina viewing distance based on your display: http://tools.rodrigopolo.com/display_calc/

For example, for my 31.5” 4K display to be Retina, it calculates that I will need to sit at least 24.58” (62.43cm) away from the display. Which confirms the findings of my own little experiment.

Hope this will help you guys decide on the display to purchase for your Mac Mini.

 

[yotoden]

That’s the setup I’ve got too haha. Bought my 2TB Samsung 980 Pro on Amazon as well. Great deal!
Did you go with the Acasis TBU401 or the TBU405 enclosure?

I have the TBU405 also with Samsung 980, the SSD seems to overhead therefore the speed is throttled, do you have such situation? Then I often see the spinning beach ball, or the system will freeze for few secs, then the BlackMagic shows less than 100mbps speed or lesser. Once it is cooled down, the speed will back to 2700+.

I bought a few dollars copper heat sink pasted on top on the SSD, without cover, everything is very smooth now. Just order a better heat sink to replace the copper one, hope can reduce the heat further prolong the ssd life span.

 

[junk610]

I have the TBU405 also with Samsung 980, the SSD seems to overhead therefore the speed is throttled, do you have such situation? Then I often see the spinning beach ball, or the system will freeze for few secs, then the BlackMagic shows less than 100mbps speed or lesser. Once it is cooled down, the speed will back to 2700+.

I bought a few dollars copper heat sink pasted on top on the SSD, without cover, everything is very smooth now. Just order a better heat sink to replace the copper one, hope can reduce the heat further prolong the ssd life span.

No I didn’t encounter such issues, and I’m consistently seeing 2800MB/s.

Did your SSD already come with a heat sink??

Did you use the 0.5mm/1mm white thermal pads that were included with the Acasis TBU405 enclosure?

I installed the 0.5mm thermal pad on the ssd itself and it works fine.

 

[yotoden]

No I didn’t encounter such issues, and I’m consistently seeing 2800MB/s.

Did your SSD already come with a heat sink??

Did you use the 0.5mm/1mm white thermal pads that were included with the Acasis TBU405 enclosure?

I installed the 0.5mm thermal pad on the ssd itself and it works fine.

Mine did not come with heat sink.

my thermal pad only applied to the controller, meaning I cut it into half only. that could be the reason, I will try again. Thank you.

 

[VodkaPear]

Anyone using m2 Mac mini with HomePod mini? is there delay?

my purpose is to watch some YouTube, listen to  music (this one I know no delay).

 

[anthonygreenisreal]

Anyone using m2 Mac mini with HomePod mini? is there delay?

my purpose is to watch some YouTube, listen to  music (this one I know no delay).

I using with m1 Mac mini, yes sometimes will have delay if you are quick to switch your applications. And the response laggy abit.

 

[yotoden]

No I didn’t encounter such issues, and I’m consistently seeing 2800MB/s.

Did your SSD already come with a heat sink??

Did you use the 0.5mm/1mm white thermal pads that were included with the Acasis TBU405 enclosure?

I installed the 0.5mm thermal pad on the ssd itself and it works fine.

Hi,
May I know, is the macOS installed on the external SSD and serves as an bootable SSD?

I am not sure whether I should use the internal SSD as a boot disk?

 

[junk610]

Hi,
May I know, is the macOS installed on the external SSD and serves as an bootable SSD?

I am not sure whether I should use the internal SSD as a boot disk?

Yes, I had my external SSD set up as a bootable SSD via Disk Utility, so MacOS Ventura was automatically installed on it.

I decided on the 256GB Mac Mini, cuz I don’t wanna use the internal SSD at all.

The external SSD speed at 2800MB/s is almost double the internal 256GB SSD speed at 1500MB/s, so it doesn‘t make much sense to use the internal SSD.

That also means that any memory swap will be performed on the external SSD instead of the internal SSD, which means faster memory swaps as well.

Also, I prefer having everything running on my 2TB external SSD instead of having to deal with 2 separate drives. I even hid the ”Macintosh HD” desktop icon just so I don’t have to look at it haha.

 

[yotoden]

Yes, I'm with you.

I used to do the same with my iMac 2003, Samsung T5 USB SSD, File Vault on, everything was good till the iMac die in late 2022. Then I booted the T5 with my MacBook to retrieve some data

I am not sure what is wrong with my current setup, trying to turn off the File Vault now. I read some T2 encryption with Silicon Mac but not entirely sure. Got this "installation failed in order to continue installing you need to be an owner" 3 days ago while updating the OS. So I am sure something is not setup correctly, maybe will redo a fresh installation again.

 

[longdi]

Yes, I had my external SSD set up as a bootable SSD via Disk Utility, so MacOS Ventura was automatically installed on it.

I decided on the 256GB Mac Mini, cuz I don’t wanna use the internal SSD at all.

The external SSD speed at 2800MB/s is almost double the internal 256GB SSD speed at 1500MB/s, so it doesn‘t make much sense to use the internal SSD.

That also means that any memory swap will be performed on the external SSD instead of the internal SSD, which means faster memory swaps as well.

Also, I prefer having everything running on my 2TB external SSD instead of having to deal with 2 separate drives. I even hid the ”Macintosh HD” desktop icon just so I don’t have to look at it haha.

Are you sure memory swap on the external SSD is fast vs internal SSD? I think it does not work this way. I remember I watched a YouTube who tested this, the YouTuber setup to boot using external SSD like you did, everything works well until he opened many app to force memory swap. Memory swap on external SSD is very slow, almost unusable. He did the same test on internal SSD and memory swap works well without too much slow down.

 

[junk610]

Are you sure memory swap on the external SSD is fast vs internal SSD? I think it does not work this way. I remember I watched a YouTube who tested this, the YouTuber setup to boot using external SSD like you did, everything works well until he opened many app to force memory swap. Memory swap on external SSD is very slow, almost unusable. He did the same test on internal SSD and memory swap works well without too much slow down.

I understand that the M2 chip has a unified memory architecture, where the RAM and SSD are integrated on the same chip and optimized.

However, memory swapping is still basically just moving data between RAM and SSD, so generally the faster the drive, the faster the swap.

So far, no matter how many tabs/apps I open, I still can’t utilize more than the 16GB RAM I have to trigger a memory swap, so I can’t quite test that theory.

There are a few variables though. Obviously a slower ssd or enclosure interface will produce a slower result. For the case you mentioned, it seems pretty extreme that the memory swap was almost unusable.

Which external ssd was the YouTuber using? Was it a Gen 4 NVMe external SSD connected via Thunderbolt 4?

Maybe you could share that YouTube video? Thanks.