*** The official late 2020 Mac mini thread (it has the M1 chip and everything!) ***

tsinc80697 said:
Decided to go for a Dell U3821DW which should be here tomorrow along with the Mini. Hopefully no huge visual difference between the Dell and my 5k iMac, or have I been spoilt for 4 years with the retina display? Not used a non-retina display in quite a while!
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It's quite a sizeable drop in PPI, I'd be lying if I said you wouldn't notice it.
I run a 1440p 34 UW off my MBP and the fonts are noticeably inferior compared to the in built display.
A lot of users report the fonts are blurry which is a bit of an exaggeration - it's more that they seem to lack a little Anti-aliasing.
That being said the other UI elements look great and the extra real estate will be a real boon.
 
tsinc80697 said:
Decided to go for a Dell U3821DW which should be here tomorrow along with the Mini. Hopefully no huge visual difference between the Dell and my 5k iMac, or have I been spoilt for 4 years with the retina display? Not used a non-retina display in quite a while!
Click to expand...

It's going to be very noticeable unfortunately. Unless you sit very far from the screen..
 
So now we're about 6 months on from launch how's everyone getting on with their M1 Mac mini's? I was thinking of buying one to replace my old desktop as don't really use it much for gaming anymore.

I've heard some conflicting reports about the performance. Most reviews say it's great but some have complained about slow performance in some apps. Not sure if that's s compatibility/emulation issue with Rosetta though. Likewise I've heard reports of Bluetooth problems.

What are folks thoughts about specs? 8Gb ram sounds a bit low but is it as workable for most uses and apps as reviews imply? The costs begin to spiral as soon as you start upgrading beyond the base 8gb/256gb Mac mini so would rather avoid expensive upgrades if the base model is fine.

I've seen a couple of nifty looking docks for the Mac mini to sit on which allow you to add a 2.5" SSD storage drive. That seems like a better option than paying Apple £200 for another 256Gb of SSD! That or I'll just connect a 2.5" drive over USB or thunderbolt.

How well does the iPad app support work? Seems pretty cool but at the same time I'm not sure how useful it would be to run iPad apps on a Mac?

Sorry for all the questions! I've read and watched loads of reviews but so many online seem to "contain paid promotion" that I can't help but feel most are very far from impartial. That's why I wanted to ask people who'd actually bought them with their own money!
 
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silvagti said:
So now we're about 6 months on from launch how's everyone getting on with their M1 Mac mini's? I was thinking of buying one to replace my old desktop as don't really use it much for gaming anymore.

I've heard some conflicting reports about the performance. Most reviews say it's great but some have complained about slow performance in some apps. Not sure if that's s compatibility/emulation issue with Rosetta though. Likewise I've heard reports of Bluetooth problems.

What are folks thoughts about specs? 8Gb ram sounds a bit low but is it as workable for most uses and apps as reviews imply? The costs begin to spiral as soon as you start upgrading beyond the base 8gb/256gb Mac mini so would rather avoid expensive upgrades if the base model is fine.

I've seen a couple of nifty looking docks for the Mac mini to sit on which allow you to add a 2.5" SSD storage drive. That seems like a better option than paying Apple £200 for another 256Gb of SSD! That or I'll just connect a 2.5" drive over USB or thunderbolt.

How well does the iPad app support work? Seems pretty cool but at the same time I'm not sure how useful it would be to run iPad apps on a Mac?

Sorry for all the questions! I've read and watched loads of reviews but so many online seem to "contain paid promotion" that I can't help but feel most are very far from impartial. That's why I wanted to ask people who'd actually bought them with their own money!
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I was going to get an external Samsung SSD to use but a dock with an internal drive sounds better, didn't know they existed!
 
The “Hagibis” and related disk docks have some ropey reviews, mentioning regularly disconnecting the drive/USB ports and not reconnecting unless powered off/on. I’ve possibly stuck with a Samsung 980 in a decent NVMe caddy, as I found the cheaper ones have been abysmal after I tried a couple.

Loving the M1 though, and definitely one of the best machines I’ve had in a long time.
 
Yeah, I guess the Hagbis "Dock" is effectively just an external drive connected via what's basically a USB hub. I like how it presents extra USB ports plus a SDCard reader on the front of the device and looks integrated though.
 
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At this point I think I'm going to wait for the m2 mac mini or whatever the upgrade one is. Hopefully a couple more ports and 32gb ram options.

Saying that the mac silicon requires so little cooling I may just get mbp 16 M2 and use it as my main work machine and just dock it when I want a desktop experience.....performance wise it wouldn't really be any different.
 
Combat squirrel said:
At this point I think I'm going to wait for the m2 mac mini or whatever the upgrade one is. Hopefully a couple more ports and 32gb ram options.

Saying that the mac silicon requires so little cooling I may just get mbp 16 M2 and use it as my main work machine and just dock it when I want a desktop experience.....performance wise it wouldn't really be any different.
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The latter set up would cost 3x as much.

I'm in a similar boat, I'm tempted to upgrade to the M2 MBP once it comes out.

My current set up is MBP - mid 2014 - and I use it 99% of the time with a monitor now (lockdown) and Ipad pro 10.5

I'm potentially looking at getting the base model MBAir, ipad pro 12.9 and mac mini for around the same price as the current 16'' MBP. I suspect the price of the new M2 MBP will be far cheaper than the current line of intels. I'm on the fence thinking it will be over kill and i'll end up rarely using the air but hopefully we will be nearer the time when everything is back to normal and we can travel abroad as well.

Decisions decisions.
 
Reuben klang said:
The latter set up would cost 3x as much.

I'm in a similar boat, I'm tempted to upgrade to the M2 MBP once it comes out.

My current set up is MBP - mid 2014 - and I use it 99% of the time with a monitor now (lockdown) and Ipad pro 10.5

I'm potentially looking at getting the base model MBAir, ipad pro 12.9 and mac mini for around the same price as the current 16'' MBP. I suspect the price of the new M2 MBP will be far cheaper than the current line of intels. I'm on the fence thinking it will be over kill and i'll end up rarely using the air but hopefully we will be nearer the time when everything is back to normal and we can travel abroad as well.

Decisions decisions.
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Yeah but its a work machine ill use all the time for non gaming stuff, so, worth it.

I don’t see why you’d get a MBA AND an iPad 12.9 unless you specifically need Final Cut Pro - I’d just get the iPad tbh.

My work apps are Lightroom and FCP so ill use a MBP M2, even when FCP is released to iPad OS, ill still likely use the laptop, higher spec, bigger screen and i need the ports.

Once its all settled ill have the MBP as work machine, PC for gaming and iPad for general use/non work.
 
Combat squirrel said:
Yeah but its a work machine ill use all the time for non gaming stuff, so, worth it.

I don’t see why you’d get a MBA AND an iPad 12.9 unless you specifically need Final Cut Pro - I’d just get the iPad tbh.

My work apps are Lightroom and FCP so ill use a MBP M2, even when FCP is released to iPad OS, ill still likely use the laptop, higher spec, bigger screen and i need the ports.

Once its all settled ill have the MBP as work machine, PC for gaming and iPad for general use/non work.
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I agree, I'm just going to go for mac mini and ipad. I can do away with the macbook as i'll be able to connect hard drive. I'll probably change my mind tomorrow.
 
Yeah saw that, fingers crossed - likely to be a toss up between this and a more powerful imac. I do wonder if we will get a monitor thats not 5k also, or if LG will fresh their for mac line as they are sold out everywhere
 
silvagti said:
What are folks thoughts about specs? 8Gb ram sounds a bit low but is it as workable for most uses and apps as reviews imply? The costs begin to spiral as soon as you start upgrading beyond the base 8gb/256gb Mac mini so would rather avoid expensive upgrades if the base model is fine.
Click to expand...

I've got the base M1 mini with 8GB and it's been fine, I've not had any issues with RAM so far. I also use it as a Plex server with my media on an external USB drive and it hasn't missed a beat.

My PC only gets turned on for gaming now, for everything else I prefer to use the Mac Mini.
 
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