Caporegime
That require having a 10gb network at home, 10gb switch, 10gb NAS....it's going to cost a lot more than £100 upgrade.
*** The official 2023 and 2024 Mac mini thread (it has the M2 chip, the M4 chip and everything!) ***
- Thread starter Feek
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That require having a 10gb network at home, 10gb switch, 10gb NAS....it's going to cost a lot more than £100 upgrade.
Soldato
You see this is why I’m not even sure if it’s the system, or whether there’s a software issue somewhere. Export times have slowed but most noticeably is the Enhance/AI Denoise. Even my fairly modest X-T5 files take 1 minute to run the enhance feature. I can’t recall exactly but it never took this long in the past, was more around half that. Doesn’t sound like a big deal but when you’re batch processing it soon adds up.
Processing my GFX files has become a real slog - I’ve seen an image enhance take upwards of 4 minutes. Again, I don’t recall it being that slow but then again that could be my mind playing tricks on me as I’ve not had the GFX all that long.
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Soldato
Cant be many people that need anymore than the 1gb ethernet?
Soldato
Picked up my MMM4 from Milton Keynes this morning, I'm sure the store has moved to the opposite side of the part of the shopping centre it's in, it's definitely been refurbished and the upper floor has gone. Waiting for some bits to be delivered before I can set it up and I'm 3D printing a button actuator as I type.
Do you build and edit from smart previews? Lightroom is slow for me on any computer with library and files on a fast SSD but build smart previews and enable "edit from smart previews" in settings and its instant
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I think we're in the extended Christmas return period now so you could buy it, use it for nearly two months to see if it meets your requirements and then return it if it doesn't.
Can't see it for most users.
What is the use case for having 10gb ethernet out of interest?
I had a quick nosey at upgrading my network a while ago but it would cost me a fortune and just can't see that id benefit that much apart from slightly quicker transfers to my backup server.
Caporegime
Not sure it does tick the repairable box. Hopefully Apple will, in the near future be forced to offer replacement parts for these things at cost. You can't claim repairability when you need specialist software and parts that the manufacturer won't sell you to be able to repair it. Right to repair means you have access to the tools and parts you need, easily and at reasonable cost.
Apple would literally lose billions if that was the case though because a bunch of services would pop up immediately offering to take your 256GB SSD to 4TB for about £500 instead of £1200. I would 100% do that.
As others have said, Apple are very good at offering you an excellent base model with some serious flaw in the spec and then they keep tempting you up the spec ladder. "Well, you're going to want 512gb at least but perhaps for another £200 you should get 1tb. Now its £1000 though you might as well get the base pro model and then stick 1tb in that"
Suddenly you have got from a £500 machine to a £1600 machine.
Caporegime
It's mainly if you work out of your NAS, or have many users sharing 1 central storage. Think Linus Tech Tips, having all the editors working, editing videos with it all stored centrally.
Like you said, moving files at home, photos, videos over from internal HD to the NAS. It makes little difference if it takes 2mins or 15mins for me. If I play video or music from it, it doesn't take advantage of the speed.
Caporegime
What bugs me, or concerns me isn't the speed of the Pro (although it will be nice), but the RAM. I want more. I have 32G of RAM in my iMac and it is what really made it last this long. It doesn't need to go into a swap file due to all that RAM.
So, upgrading the RAM to 24G might be the way to go for me, I know it's £200, but with edu it drops it to £500 before adding that back on so it will probably be around £680. Man Math tells me that is only £80 upgrade the RAM
What bugs me, or concerns me isn't the speed of the Pro (although it will be nice), but the RAM. I want more. I have 32G of RAM in my iMac and it is what really made it last this long. It doesn't need to go into a swap file due to all that RAM.
So, upgrading the RAM to 24G might be the way to go for me, I know it's £200, but with edu it drops it to £500 before adding that back on so it will probably be around £680. Man Math tells me that is only £80 upgrade the RAM
That was what I was going to do but then I was impatient and wanted to get it straight away!
Interestingly on all the Apple Silicon machines I have Mac OS uses loads of swap even when there is ram left. I think it puts stuff in swap to keep a good chunk free for if a big amount is suddenly needed.
I did a bit of stress test with my base model last night with the activity monitor open and with photoshop, Lightroom and Final Cut all open and working between them the memory pressure didn’t go yellow very often so it seems to cope well.
Soldato
3D printed button finished, just got to see how well it works. I know a lot of people will say why bother, just leave it in sleep mode. I will leave it in sleep when not using but the reason is, I can.
Soldato
WiFi isn't too shabby on the new mini
www.speedtest.net
Speedtest by Ookla - The Global Broadband Speed Test
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Soldato
I think you're right, I'm not playing BG3 at the moment - however I am playing an older, less demanding game and when playing it on Ultra I heard the fans ramp up and down a lot, whereas I never heard them on my 16" M1 Pro.
Caporegime
3D printed button finished, just got to see how well it works. I know a lot of people will say why bother, just leave it in sleep mode. I will leave it in sleep when not using but the reason is, I can.
How is that attached?
Soldato
The weight of the Mini holds it in place. Once my new keyboard and USB C dongle thingy turn up I can test it and see if I need to affix it somehow. Is don’t think I will have to though.
Soldato
Agreed
Soldato
Anyone tempted to give it a try
That’s as far above my ability as making these forums truly family friendly is.
Soldato
I keep ummming on whether to get an M4 to replace one of my 2018 Mini's (64GB, 1TB, 10Gb); sure it'll be a bit snappier but £2300 though 
Anyone know what the Edu discounts are like?
I wonder if it's the same setup as with the Studio? If so, then maybe the Polysoft Services guys might be able to get a third-party SSD upgrade out for the Mini like they're doing with the Mac Studio.
Anyone know what the Edu discounts are like?
The SSD is not soldered on !!!!
I wonder if it's the same setup as with the Studio? If so, then maybe the Polysoft Services guys might be able to get a third-party SSD upgrade out for the Mini like they're doing with the Mac Studio.