Soldato
I'm going to hold out until I see some more reviews and benchies as I need something decent to replace my 11yr old PC. I'm really after a 16GB/1TB machine and would like it to last a good while at least.
*** The official 2023 and 2024 Mac mini thread (it has the M2 chip, the M4 chip and everything!) ***
- Thread starter Feek
- Start date
Caporegime
Sounds like the M2 Pro mini isn’t too quiet. 1690rpm idle according to an owner.
forums.macrumors.com
So how silent is the M2 Pro Mac Mini?
I have already returned my Mac mini M2 Pro because of the fan noise. Compared to my MacBook Pro 16" M1 Pro, which is completely dead silent, the fan of the mini I received was clearly audible when idle. Perhaps it was a Monday morning sample.
forums.macrumors.com
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Sounds like the M2 Pro mini isn’t too quiet. 1690rpm idle according to an owner.
So how silent is the M2 Pro Mac Mini?
I have already returned my Mac mini M2 Pro because of the fan noise. Compared to my MacBook Pro 16" M1 Pro, which is completely dead silent, the fan of the mini I received was clearly audible when idle. Perhaps it was a Monday morning sample.
I can't hardly hear mine compared my M1 model. My Steam Deck is louder than my M2 Pro Mac Mini.
Fan noise is not something that has ever bothered me, I was previous on an antec 1200 case with constant fan noise. Now after going to a M1 mini and my study being completely silent that's spoilt me going forwards. I decided to not bother with NAS or DAC storage as I didn't want a single fan running anymore!
Soldato
I almost bought one of these with my uni pricing at 539 but the seen this video. It certainly is noticeable in real world use. Some of the differences in even basic file transfers is disgusting. Proper poor showing especially as nand prices are super low.
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Never buy the base storage of any device, from any manufacturer. They all suffer from exactly the same problem. Every single time. This is the case even for iPhones.
This is the important thing. For an average user, the speed of these devices (even if the base model storage is slower than last year), is not just adequate, it’s blisteringly fast.
Soldato
I don’t get how you are all in agreement it’s not noticeable when the whole video clearly shows how it’s noticeable in file transfers and rendering time. Apple takes the utter urine with the cost of 200 to move up to 512gb storage. I got a 1tb black sn850x for half that price. It’s a joke.
Caporegime
Ah yes, rendering, the common everyday use case. I better tell my nan to skip the base model then, because rendering time is a little slower and that will translate to slow load times checking her online bingo results…
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People doing renders and big file transfers wouldn't get the base 256GB storage though.
Soldato
You realise many users of mac minis at this price point are not hardcore mac enthusiasts it does not stop them wanting to make family movies / or deal with drone footage or photos etc. You do not need to be a hardcore video editor to notice the rendering difference times as the video says if you had an m1 and like many apple users "upgrade" you would notice. I understand completely its not going to be noticeable in day to day browsing and general use but it still does not make it acceptable in a newer product to be slower. It certainly is not acceptable how much they want to charge to upgrade the storage. Only a complete moron would advocate for apple charging £200 to upgrade to 512GB of storage.
Nobody advocates for anything, especially not Apple's memory/storage upgrade costs (which are extortionate). People are explaining to you that the base config being slower than higher specs is perfectly normal and completely expected in consumer electronics. Consumers understand that if they pay more for higher specs, they get better performance.
At the end of the day, you need to see what £650 gives you from other manufacturers in a similar form factor. You often get a 256GB Gen 3 DRAM-less QLC SSD with those.
Soldato
I have no issues with the base config being slower than a higher end config that's a given. What is not acceptable is making it slower than the outgoing base model from 2020 at a insignificant cost decrease to justify it. Especially with with the price of nand chips actually getting cheaper.
Soldato
Honestly, the value argument is very rarely taken into account when buying Apple products.
It’s also subjective in some ways.
I could build my mom a great PC for half the price of an Apple product but I know that the Apple product won’t confuse her or need nearly as much tech support so I don’t need to spend my precious spare time fixing her computer.
Having my afternoon to myself is priceless so I’ll happily buy her a Mac Mini or whatever.
Also, the new M2 processors are amazing and a lot of the Linus Media Group employees have moved to Mac products because they give fewer problems.
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Soldato
I also have macs iPhones and iPads was just disappointed as was buying one for the Mrs to use and it’s annoying I had to choose faster storage with the older m1 or the newer chip with slowed storage or pay a ridiculous markup for a small storage bump.
Soldato
After much head scratching and crying, I decided to avoid the Pro and get a M2 24/1TB model for replacing my power hog of a PC. I am hoping it'll work well with my 1440p monitor via a DP to Thunderbolt cable.
Caporegime
Should work fine
I'm currently rocking an base M2 Mini which I ordered on a whim. I had intended to send it back and order an M2 16/512 but actually this base model (£539 education price) doesn't miss a beat in my day job so going to hang onto it until later in the year.