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

Then I guess that's what the mac studio is for.
Aye, you're basically describing a Studio.

I feel like I will still need a dock for the SD card slot and add more ports too since at least 1 port at the back will be taken up by external storage (likely 3), I also need to plug in my mechanical keyboard, external speakers, WiFi dongle for controllers.
See above ;)
You know you want one! (but wedding, etc, I get it).
 
I'd take this with a pinch of salt. As mentioned, run 4K on a 27" monitor at 200% scaling, and it's not "fuzzy" by any stretch of the imagination; quite the opposite. It still absolutely "feels" retina, it just looks the tiniest bit "jumbo" as it's effectively 1080p at 27".

That said, now that I've looked it up, I really want dual 5K 27" displays but that's gonna cost me £3k :( guess I'll just get a second 4K 27" for now and wait for 5K to get more affordable.
See I used a 27” 4K screen and thought it looked okay, but after using the studio display the 4K screen definitely looked fuzzy in comparison.
 
M4 Pro mini has a higher geek bench than the M2 Ultra.


Is there a chart somewhere that shows all the M processors side by side?

I want to see where the base M4 sits compare to all the older M chips, not so much difference to the M1, but more like the M1 Pro or the M2 Max.
 
Not a chart, but you can go on Nanoreview and compare the M4 to each of the individual processors and see how they stack up against each other: https://nanoreview.net/en/cpu-compare/apple-m4-vs-apple-m2-max

Just picked up a base model M4 to try out. M1 MBP needs to go in for trackpad repair so I'm "saving money" by having this to work on while the laptop is repaired. That's my justification and I'm sticking to it :D
 
Not a chart, but you can go on Nanoreview and compare the M4 to each of the individual processors and see how they stack up against each other: https://nanoreview.net/en/cpu-compare/apple-m4-vs-apple-m2-max

Just picked up a base model M4 to try out. M1 MBP needs to go in for trackpad repair so I'm "saving money" by having this to work on while the laptop is repaired. That's my justification and I'm sticking to it :D

It seems it performs similarly to the M3Pro but the M3 pro is slightly better on the graphics front.
 
Life long windows user but decided to make the jump to mac on a new mini.

Few questions,

I have a 4TB Samsung 990 Pro i want to attach to it via one of the rear thunderbolt ports, is there a go to enclosure i should be looking at?

Also I have a 32" Samsung G8 Oled ultrawide as my main display but also want to connect my tv via the HDMi port.

What's the best way to connect the monitor if I want to use the monitors display port? I have never used a mac before so unsure if it's a simple thunderbolt to display port cable?

Thanks.
 
Life long windows user but decided to make the jump to mac on a new mini.

Few questions,

I have a 4TB Samsung 990 Pro i want to attach to it via one of the rear thunderbolt ports, is there a go to enclosure i should be looking at?

Also I have a 32" Samsung G8 Oled ultrawide as my main display but also want to connect my tv via the HDMi port.

What's the best way to connect the monitor if I want to use the monitors display port? I have never used a mac before so unsure if it's a simple thunderbolt to display port cable?

Thanks.
I have a SABRENT M.2 NVMe Enclosure, PCIe NVMe Adapter SSD Enclosure.

Currently £15.99.

Thunderbolt is also display port these days. You can get thunderbolt to DP cable and then use that.
 
Life long windows user but decided to make the jump to mac on a new mini.

Few questions,

I have a 4TB Samsung 990 Pro i want to attach to it via one of the rear thunderbolt ports, is there a go to enclosure i should be looking at?

Also I have a 32" Samsung G8 Oled ultrawide as my main display but also want to connect my tv via the HDMi port.

What's the best way to connect the monitor if I want to use the monitors display port? I have never used a mac before so unsure if it's a simple thunderbolt to display port cable?

Thanks.
For a monitor USBC to display port cable/adaptor will be sufficient and cheaper than a thunderbolt 4 specific cable/adaptor. Hdmi to display port also exists.

I have a ugreen branded one I use that cost about 15 quid.


rp2000
 
I think I've settled on my order:

Mini M4
24GB RAM
1TB SSD
AppleCare +
Magic Keyboard with USB-C
Magic Trackpad with USB-C

Sub Total: £1477.00
Apple Gift Cards: £381.00

Apple Store Total: £1096.00

Other Retailer: Studio Display with Tilt Stand (Standard Glass) = £1469.00

Grand Total: £2565.00

Would still need to purchase AppleCare+ for the Studio Display.

Should I stick with the RAM upgrade to 24GB to give me an extra cushion of performance going forward and for future macOS and additional Apple Intelligence features?
 
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I think I've settled on my order:

Mini M4
24GB RAM
1TB SSD
AppleCare +
Magic Keyboard with USB-C
Magic Trackpad with USB-C

Sub Total: £1477.00
Apple Gift Cards: £381.00

Apple Store Total: £1096.00

Other Retailer: Studio Display with Tilt Stand (Standard Glass) = £1469.00

Grand Total: £2565.00

Would still need to purchase AppleCare+ for the Studio Display.

Should I stick with the RAM upgrade to 24GB to give me an extra cushion of performance going forward and for future macOS and additional Apple Intelligence features?

Do you NEED 1TB internal? surely 512 would be enough and put £200 towards a 2TB external NVME + enclosure?

p.s. I am going to get one with 24G of RAM too, I think its worth it.
 
Do you NEED 1TB internal? surely 512 would be enough and put £200 towards a 2TB external NVME + enclosure?

p.s. I am going to get one with 24G of RAM too, I think its worth it.
I’ve got a 1TB SSD in my current iMac and that can hover around the 40-50% full mark.

However, if I’m honest that’s me probably being lazy and not copying files off to my Synology NAS regularly.

If I was more strict with storage and archived files to my Synology then, yes I probably could get by with the 512GB SSD.

Think I need to spend sometime sorting out files and either transferring them to my Synology or deleting them to get a better picture of my storage before I order my Mac Mini.
 
I’ve got a 1TB SSD in my current iMac and that can hover around the 40-50% full mark.

However, if I’m honest that’s me probably being lazy and not copying files off to my Synology NAS regularly.

If I was more strict with storage and archived files to my Synology then, yes I probably could get by with the 512GB SSD.

Think I need to spend sometime sorting out files and either transferring them to my Synology or deleting them to get a better picture of my storage before I order my Mac Mini.

I have 256G in my M1 Mac mini at work, after 4 years it sits at 76G free. That is including the OS taking whatever it takes up. I just install Outlook, Adobe LR/PS/ID/IL and a couple of other work apps and put everything externally.
 
I think I've settled on my order:

Mini M4
24GB RAM
1TB SSD
AppleCare +
Magic Keyboard with USB-C
Magic Trackpad with USB-C

Sub Total: £1477.00
Apple Gift Cards: £381.00

Apple Store Total: £1096.00

Other Retailer: Studio Display with Tilt Stand (Standard Glass) = £1469.00

Grand Total: £2565.00

Would still need to purchase AppleCare+ for the Studio Display.

Should I stick with the RAM upgrade to 24GB to give me an extra cushion of performance going forward and for future macOS and additional Apple Intelligence features?
Nice, good shout on the SSD upgrade. My first MacBook had 256Gb and I grew to fill it up, the second had 512Gb and I nearly filled that up as well which is why I went with 1Tb on this one (M2 MBA). I think I'm hovering around 650Gb in use so it's the perfect size for me with no need to even consider plugging in any external storage.

I've never felt the need to take a laptop above 16Gb but my usage is light. It certainly can't hurt, that's the main thing.

You're going to like this lot when you get it, it's a cracking package and with the gift cards, you're getting a decent price.
 
Nice, good shout on the SSD upgrade. My first MacBook had 256Gb and I grew to fill it up, the second had 512Gb and I nearly filled that up as well which is why I went with 1Tb on this one (M2 MBA). I think I'm hovering around 650Gb in use so it's the perfect size for me with no need to even consider plugging in any external storage.

I've never felt the need to take a laptop above 16Gb but my usage is light. It certainly can't hurt, that's the main thing.

You're going to like this lot when you get it, it's a cracking package and with the gift cards, you're getting a decent price.

I’m thinking of getting pretty much the base spec Mini, my sister is a teacher so I can get the EDU discount

I’m hoping to get away with base storage and buy external SSD. I can move my Final Cut library and photoshop scratch disk to the external. My work files will be on another ssd that I’ll have plugged in the front then I can take it with me to work from my MacBook

I am tempted to go for 24gb of ram though as I’m lazy and have everything open at once is it likely to be worth it or should I just spend the £200 on a 4tb nvme
 
I’m thinking of getting pretty much the base spec Mini, my sister is a teacher so I can get the EDU discount

I’m hoping to get away with base storage and buy external SSD. I can move my Final Cut library and photoshop scratch disk to the external. My work files will be on another ssd that I’ll have plugged in the front then I can take it with me to work from my MacBook

I am tempted to go for 24gb of ram though as I’m lazy and have everything open at once is it likely to be worth it or should I just spend the £200 on a 4tb nvme
I'm not sure if you're conflating them as the same thing, but if you're going that route it's worth considering putting an NVME in a decent enclosure instead of a conventional 2.5" SSD.
 
I'm not sure if you're conflating them as the same thing, but if you're going that route it's worth considering putting an NVME in a decent enclosure instead of a conventional 2.5" SSD.

Yeah I usually use the sandisk portable SSDs for out and about but the nvme speeds seem great and a similar cost to the sandisk ones. I’d not really considered them before with an enclosure to use with my MacBook but it seems worthwhile to get one with the Mini
 
Yeah I usually use the sandisk portable SSDs for out and about but the nvme speeds seem great and a similar cost to the sandisk ones. I’d not really considered them before with an enclosure to use with my MacBook but it seems worthwhile to get one with the Mini
With the transfer speeds of thunderbolt, you'd be silly not to - NVME are markedly faster than conventional 2.5" SSDs.
 
I don’t game much anymore and turning my PC on for non gaming tasks seems like a waste of, expensive, electricity. I’m now tempted to buy the base M4 Mac Mini, along with a usb switch to share my keyboard and mouse, and just leave the MM in sleep mode for easy usage.

Thinking of buying it as a Xmas present to myself so that will, hopefully, allow time for maybe a dock, with nvme, that integrates with it to come out.
 
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