Just bought a Mac Mini M1 ... tell me what I'm going to dislike about it

philip2009 · 27 Mar 2023 at 18:49

Just bought a used Mac Mini M1 16GB 512SSD(in good cosmetic condition) with 1 year warranty for £559 delivered - it seemed cheap so was a bit of an impulse buy(have owned Macs in the past, currently use Windows 11). So tell me what sort of limitations the machine has in use (small memory?) and what type of things will irritate me about it compared to a 40GB 5500U Beelink SER5 which is what I'm currently using,

philip2009 · 27 Mar 2023 at 19:04

Broken Hope said:
I've been using that spec of M1 mini since release and nothing about it irritates me to be fair.

Any issues with only 16GB RAM - which is pretty small by modern PC standards.

philip2009 · 27 Mar 2023 at 19:53

LiE said:
You’ll be annoyed at how quiet it is, because you’ll hate that everything isn’t as quiet.

Ah well, I absolutely hate noisy PCs so all the ones I have and build run with almost zero noise ... but it's good to know I won't hear the Mini's fan.

philip2009 · 27 Mar 2023 at 20:08

Let's hope it never breaks, Apple repairs cost an arm and a leg. :confused:

philip2009 · 29 Mar 2023 at 21:46

It arrived today and initial thoughts are - excellent low power consumption(between 15-22watts, my Beelink 5500u is between 40-55 watts), 16GB should really be the minimum memory offered by Apple, I don't like the soldered SSD but apparently it should last for ages under typical use. My Windows apps run fine on it, which is good.

philip2009 · 1 Apr 2023 at 10:23

ChrisD. said:
What makes you say 16GB should be minimum? My M1 Air had 8GB and I didn’t have any issues.

My minimum setup uses 12-13GB of RAM ... it certainly wouldn't avoid swap usage if it was an 8GB machine.

philip2009 · 1 Apr 2023 at 14:08

It's an SSD, SSDs life drops the more you use it ... I'm not an Apple cult member and regularly using swap in a non-expandable design is a clear design flaw.

philip2009 · 1 Apr 2023 at 16:58

Swap is the last gasp of an overloaded computer, but believe whatever fantasy you want. :rolleyes:

philip2009 · 11 Apr 2023 at 07:27

ChrisD. said:
Oh no, here’s someone else talking sense. I wonder what retort comes next.

I've sold it ... the Beelink is a far, far, better expandable design at almost half the cost .., :rolleyes: