Which older mac mini to buy

ade555

ade555

ade555

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23 Mar 2011
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359
I'm sort of confused which mac mini to buy been honest, I made my decision to downsize and mac mini has appeal to me due to size, would make the space look more clear and as I never gamed for the last year I just don't have the need to have windows base machine, apart from the normal day to day pc use I sometime edit the odd photo or video, I know lot of people getting the m1 but I noticed there is few problems like they don't like lower ppi screens? or something like that, what I need is sort of smooth operation, I'm use to i7 and nvme drives so fast boots and smooth operation is must for me, otherwise I just won't get on with it and possibly would have to look at maybe very small itx build but ideally wanted to try mac.

What would you recommend spec and year wise, I didn't set budget but if this will be sort of dead in couple of years then don't want to spend to much, never owned one so is hard for me to say what they worth 2nd hand and if even is worth getting one.

Many Thanks
 
@GMac11 is very hard decision been honest, because I never owned one and have been user of windows since 95 I'm finding very difficult to settle on no possibility of upgrade ram, storage is not a issue as I have other devices that takes care of that, looking at £900 with 16gb ram, worse case would be I buy it and me or wife just won't get on with the MacOS then this would have to go back on sale, so the idea of 2nd hand come about, if we use it and like it then most likely will sell it and get the m1 by then I'm sure apple will release something newer anyway.

If I'm correct 2012 is sort of older dual core with upgrades to ram/ssd , 2014 dual core no ram upgrade but possibility to ssd, 2018 quad core cpu with ram upgrade.
 
Regards stretching the budget is not a financial problem I'm having is the not knowing if the 8gb is enough for our usage if I go for the M1.

Giving that I'm still on 1080p what monitor would work decent with the M1, don't have to be bigger the 27" and do I need 4k or 2k would be enough due to the ppi issues in MacOS or is the work around for this. I would have to sit down and work budget out for this but if I go for the M1 16gb £899 the screen cheaper the better been honest.

PS you should all be sales man, there was me thinking I get nice cheap mac mini and you just keep pulling my wallet ;)
 
@GMac11 I mention in first post what I use the pc now for, mainly normal day to day tasks along with the odd picture/video edit but nothing to heavy, videos are 4k but from mobile devices, mainly photos, I got tired of cables/towers ect. so trying to go for minimalist look as much as possible, in all honestly Ideally would be Imac but at the price of £2k + won't happen for what I use it for, love the screen when you look at it but is way out of our price range.

The cheapest price mac mini I found 8gb version £650 and 16GB £850 but not sure about the company as I never heard of them, Most likely will strip my pc to sell in parts then should have very nice chunk for decent monitor.

Just out of interest why the new m1 is better the intel base mac mini? I have seen some video on YouTube ect. but been honest I am very sceptical as with lot of YouTube you get "oh is the next best thing ect." then few weeks later you get "oh I'm sending back ect.", so I'm more interested with your opinion is is purely how the chip works with Mac OS?
 
@GMac11 apple list £699 for 8GB and £899 for 16GB, Currys only list both models with 8GB but storage change, I found on KRCS store the 16GB model for £849

I need to find more info why the m1 mac mini is better then intel been honest, otherwise for what I need I might be wasting money, we all like new things but I have to be realistic
 
Well I just ordered the m1 but only with 8gb ram, looking from reviews ect. should be fine for our usage, finger cross anyway, best price I could find one was £629, still need to order ssd enclosure for Samsung SSD and some sort of Bluetooth keyboard/mouse.
 
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