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

Kol said:
Thanks @Bluecube - everything I’ve read suggests the m1 is miles ahead of any intel based mac so I suspect by now the M4 will be blisteringly fast in comparison.

Decisions!
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What’s so very impressive about the Apple silicon is how fast it is as well as quiet and small.

Like, my Mac Mini M4 is always on yet I never notice it - it doesn’t make a sound at all.
 
malachi said:
When I upgraded from Intel Macbook Air to my M1 Macbook Air a few years back. The difference was like night and day.
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What probably also was a huge performance upgrade was the move from a regular hard drive to an SSD and especially to an integrated SSD where the Apple silicon has very high bandwidth.

I still think that an M1 based anything is plenty fast for most people and an M4 is faster but probably overkill.

I went for the M4 Mac Mini because 1) it was a decent price in the used section and 2) the used price of older Mac Mini’s haven’t quite caught up to the fact that Apple now offers 16gigs of RAM by default so the relative price needs adjusting.

I can absolutely see why Apple moved away from Intel based CPUs and I think Intel have been greedy for a solid 15 or so years, offering small performance improvements to power usage instead of what’s now on the market which includes Apple M1 to M4 and Snapdragon processors which are fast and have very low power draw.

AMD offer much better products for a different segment of the market but you can’t argue with Apple silicon being incredible for what it is.

I’m still amazed at how small the Mac Mini M4 is for the performance.
 
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JollyJamma said:
What probably also was a huge performance upgrade was the move from a regular hard drive to an SSD and especially to an integrated SSD where the Apple silicon has very high bandwidth.

I still think that an M1 based anything is plenty fast for most people and an M4 is faster but probably overkill.

I went for the M4 Mac Mini because 1) it was a decent price in the used section and 2) the used price of older Mac Mini’s haven’t quite caught up to the fact that Apple now offers 16gigs of RAM by default so the relative price needs adjusting.

I can absolutely see why Apple moved away from Intel based CPUs and I think Intel have been greedy for a solid 15 or so years, offering small performance improvements to power usage instead of what’s now on the market which includes Apple M1 to M4 and Snapdragon processors which are fast and have very low power draw.

AMD offer much better products for a different segment of the market but you can’t argue with Apple silicon being incredible for what it is.

I’m still amazed at how small the Mac Mini M4 is for the performance.
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Best thing Apple done was build the M series CPU's.

My M1 MBA and M2 Ultra Mac Mini are doing fine but I'm going to M4 everything now. M4 MBA and M4 Mac Studio before my friend jumps ship from Apple and I loose the discount advantage.
 
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Why am I also looking at iPads as well as a Mac mini. What are you guys doing to me?! Maybe I can swing it if I find a cheap one on the MM but then they are only £539 new at the moment which is about what I paid for my 2014 Mac mini. That’s crazy.
 
Kol said:
Why am I also looking at iPads as well as a Mac mini. What are you guys doing to me?! Maybe I can swing it if I find a cheap one on the MM but then they are only £539 new at the moment which is about what I paid for my 2014 Mac mini. That’s crazy.
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£500 if you can bag an Edu discount… do it, you know you want to!

Quack mini FTW
 
Having thoughts about trading in my 24GB M2 MM and getting an M4 before the prices increase. Trade in gets me £255 off from a equivalent spec M4 model that is £999. So £744.
 
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Kainz said:
Having thoughts about trading in my 24GB M2 MM and getting an M4 before the prices increase. Trade in gets me £255 off from a equivalent spec M4 model that is £999. So £744.
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Any official confirmation on this? Far as I heard Apple are not going to increase the prices on their current products. If they do, it will be for the US only.
 
I was just going off my own logic weeks ago since apple have a massive supply chain in the East, and this was my thought process before the tariff issues got out of hand. So I had assumed prices on all US hardware would get worse.

If there's articles already stating that iPhones will get more expensive due to supply chain constraints then I assume the same will be for other apple hardware too. How this affects UK customers I don't know to be honest.
 
Kainz said:
I was just going off my own logic weeks ago since apple have a massive supply chain in the East, and this was my thought process before the tariff issues got out of hand. So I had assumed prices on all US hardware would get worse.

If there's articles already stating that iPhones will get more expensive due to supply chain constraints then I assume the same will be for other apple hardware too. How this affects UK customers I don't know to be honest.
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If there is, looks like it be spending 3K on Apple hardware earlier than expected!

Base model M4 Mac Mini shouldn't be as cheap as it which could change with the next model :(
 
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malachi said:
If there is, looks like it be spending 3K on Apple hardware earlier than expected!

Base model M4 Mac Mini shouldn't be as cheap as it which could change with the next model :(
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It looks like prices will go up, there are many reasons, tariffs is just one of them. Even though we are not imposing tariffs on China, but because Apple’s profit will fall due to the tariffs, in order to balance out the books, they are likely to raise prices just a little across the board in markets that isn’t affected by direct tariffs to make up the difference in the US.

Due to the tariffs, inflation is likely to go up so making our money worth less, that will cause a price correction too, and people will buy what they were going to sooner, either stock up or just get it before price goes up, that increase spending will also push inflation higher too.

All signs points to price rise in the next round of update, rather than hold. The M1 iPad Air when it first launch in 2020? Were like £469 or something, i remember paying less than £500 for mine, and then due to inflation in Covid it went up to like £539? Or £569? It only got back down a little in the M4 now.
 
Raymond Lin said:
There are a few, and are split into a few categories

Satechi makes one, but it's crap IMO. It opens from the bottom where the SSD sits and the lid is plastic so not sure how it dissipate the heat.

There are a couple where there is this halo design with massive 2 inch gap between the base and the Mac, the original design of those kills the wifi some reason.

There are also some that only have 10gbps connection....which is a waste of nvme..

There are some that are 40gbps, at minimum.

Then there is one with TB5 speed, but it has no other ports.

I got a Raycue, they make various models, from 10gbps with lots of other ports and even SD card reader, to 40gbps with couple of USB ports and a 80gbps one with no other ports.

Ignore the duck.
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Do you use software to ramp the fan up though? People have found that Apple would rather cook the SoC, rather than spin the fan up.
 
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nlel1975 said:
I also use the minis built in speakers for YouTube, EDM sounds ok on it.
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Well I purchased a set of Logitech Z407 2.1 Speakers to use with my Mac and PC via Bluetooth. They seem to connect every time I boot my PC but sometimes don't connect when I boot my Mac. To save me having to go into the settings every time to manually connect them, I placed the Bluetooth settings in the menu bar.

So now its just a case of clicking the Bluetooth icon at top of screen and clicking on Logi Z407 to connect them...

f2Rnrr9.jpeg
 
Just playing BG3 on the m4 base mini, the cheapest possible one. You will need an external drive but wow, what a machine.

1080p, fsr on 60fps with medium settings.

game changer!
 
Raymond Lin said:
It's pretty quick until it thermal throttles lol
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You should download and install DriveDx gives you information about your drives, including the drive temperature. Can run for free in trial mode for 15 days. Here's my NVMe drive in the UGREEN enclosure...

ug9aSue.jpeg


Temp is 48C, max temp should be no more than 70C.
 
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