*** The official 2023 and 2024 Mac mini thread (it has the M2 chip, the M4 chip and everything!) ***

Honestly, I’m very tempted. Moving my MacBook Pro from the kitchen to put in a stand to use in my office is tedious. I’d prefer a studio but ultimately I don’t need the extra power.
 
Is there any point in getting the 10gb ethernet unless you have NAS that uses SSDs? I have a synology NAS that has a lot of media and is used to backup timemachines etc but its all on mechanical HDs so those would be the massive bottleneck if in the future I connect my mac mini directly to the NAS.
 
fez said:
Is there any point in getting the 10gb ethernet unless you have NAS that uses SSDs? I have a synology NAS that has a lot of media and is used to backup timemachines etc but its all on mechanical HDs so those would be the massive bottleneck if in the future I connect my mac mini directly to the NAS.
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Most consumer synology NAS only have Gigabyte networking so not worth it.
 
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fez said:
Is there any point in getting the 10gb ethernet unless you have NAS that uses SSDs? I have a synology NAS that has a lot of media and is used to backup timemachines etc but its all on mechanical HDs so those would be the massive bottleneck if in the future I connect my mac mini directly to the NAS.
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For me I have 10 Gbit/s internet up and down. Most of my systems have 10gb NIC's.
 
They’re nice dinky wee things. I’m desperately trying to think of a reason to buy one. I’d most likely use one as a small server - I’ll need to look at what ARM packages are available and how well x86 VMs run through emulation
 
malachi said:
A sentence you never see related to Apple computers :cry:
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And possibly won't see again.
To be fair, it only applies to the base spec of this one product. Want an extra 256Gb storage or 8Gb ram? That'll be an extra £200 Apple tax for either.
 
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heman said:
And possibly won't see again.
To be fair, it only applies to the base spec of this one product. Want an extra 256Gb storage or 8Gb ram? That'll be an extra £200 Apple tax for either.
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The base model cost less than their Mac Pro Wheels (£699), or the XDR display stand (£949).

I think the base model is fine for 99% of people. If you want more storage, get external SSD.
 
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Raymond Lin said:
The base model cost less than their Mac Pro Wheels (£699), or the XDR display stand (£949).

I think the base model is fine for 99% of people. If you want more storage, get external SSD.
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Its their greatest deal by far. And 100% external storage is the way forward.
 
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Any suggestions for a monitor to use with these which doesn't cost the earth? More like £200-300? Preferably 27-32 inches. On my Windows machine, I'm happy enough with 1440p, although I understand that it looks fuzzy on Macs?
 
fez said:
Is there any point in getting the 10gb ethernet unless you have NAS that uses SSDs? I have a synology NAS that has a lot of media and is used to backup timemachines etc but its all on mechanical HDs so those would be the massive bottleneck if in the future I connect my mac mini directly to the NAS.
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A lot of ISPs are offering 1 Gbps and above broadband, for the sake of £100 I think it's worth getting. It'll still work at 1 GbE and 2.5 GbE, and it'll be ready in case you need the extra bandwidth in the future.

Alternatively you can get a USB-C to 2.5 GbE dongle for about £30, but it's always nicer to have a NIC integrated into the unit itself.

I did originally think WTF Apple, £100 is insane. But, it's actually not too bad when you consider Thunderbolt 10 GbE adaptors are over £150 and they're generally very hot when running and not the nicest looking things.

With that said, if you have no intention of ever running more than 1 Gbps Internet, or an upgraded NAS with NVMe/SSD storage (lot of them come with 2.5 GbE and 10 GbE now), 1 GbE would be perfectly fine.
 
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