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New Mac Mini with M4

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Re: New Mac Mini with M4

#71
post #18

As usual, no upgradability. There's evidence that it's possible with SSDs with no loss of performance. Probably the same would apply to memory, maybe with replaceable memory chips and a simple switch. More future landfill material.

Are we going to hear this for every product release ad nauseam forever? Not sure about you but at least for myself, I always trade-in/recycle my products with Apple which I hope closes the loop as close as possible.

Re: New Mac Mini with M4

#72
post #18

As usual, no upgradability. There's evidence that it's possible with SSDs with no loss of performance. Probably the same would apply to memory, maybe with replaceable memory chips and a simple switch. More future landfill material.

It does not apply to memory. It’s much harder to maintain signal integrity. 200+ 4GHz signals.

Re: New Mac Mini with M4

#73
post #35

The new model is looking really good. * Kept HDMI * New, much smaller form factor * Front facing USB-C * Base model has 16 gb of ram

How much faster is the M4 vs the M2 for Swift development? I’d probably get 32GB. I started buying 16GB Macs in 2013. The extra RAM will keep any Mac useful for a few extra years. In fact, my 2013 Intel MB Pro would be still be great if I could upgrade the OS

Geekbench clang benchmark:

M4: 21k lines / (core-second) https://browser.geekbench.com/v6/cpu/8495624

M2: 16k lines / (core-second) https://browser.geekbench.com/v6/cpu/8546977

Re: New Mac Mini with M4

#75
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No mention of the SSD size that was the reason I returned my Mac mini 256Gb last year was just a pain juggling files

Base model is 256GB configurable up to 2TB, all others start at 512GB, the M4 Pro model can go up to 8TB

It's $800 to go up to 2TB from the 256GB model which is just criminally over priced. I can get double that for half the price with a Gen 4 NVMe drive. Weirdly the 8TB drive on the Pro is at least in line with the top of the line 8TB NVMe SSDs you can buy though there are cheaper options at about $600 vs the $1200 Apple is charging.

Re: New Mac Mini with M4

#76

Apart from the huge price jump from M4 to M4 Pro, I really like this product line-up. Last time I bought a Mac Mini was before the 2018 model got introduced, and I almost took it back in to get it exchanged (I was within 30 days of purchase when the 2018 model dropped), but it's been plugging away doing everything I have asked of it for 6 years, and it's still going strong. All the upgrades since have left me a littl…

[deleted]

Re: New Mac Mini with M4

#77
From the specs:

  Up to three displays: Two displays with up to 6K resolution at 60Hz over Thunderbolt and one display with up to 5K resolution at 60Hz over Thunderbolt or 4K resolution at 60Hz over HDMI

  Up to two displays: One display with up to 5K resolution at 60Hz over Thunderbolt and one display with up to 8K resolution at 60Hz or 4K resolution at 240Hz over Thunderbolt or HDMI
Are these set in stone? Would it be enough to run say, two external 2560 x 1440 at 144hz?

Re: New Mac Mini with M4

#78
post #53
post #18

As usual, no upgradability. There's evidence that it's possible with SSDs with no loss of performance. Probably the same would apply to memory, maybe with replaceable memory chips and a simple switch. More future landfill material.

> Probably the same would apply to memory, maybe with replaceable memory chips The memory chip is embedded in the SoC, how do you envision a way to do replacement of memory chips with this design/architecture?

It is possible but very hard and dangerous. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

0: https://www.chongdiantou.com/archives/73084.html

Re: New Mac Mini with M4

#79
post #53
post #18

As usual, no upgradability. There's evidence that it's possible with SSDs with no loss of performance. Probably the same would apply to memory, maybe with replaceable memory chips and a simple switch. More future landfill material.

> Probably the same would apply to memory, maybe with replaceable memory chips The memory chip is embedded in the SoC, how do you envision a way to do replacement of memory chips with this design/architecture?

As discussed in the iMac thread yesterday, LPCAMM2 makes it possible. There are LPCAMM2 modules with the same 7500 MT/s spec as the M4s integrated memory, and two of them running in parallel would match the M4 Pro.

https://www.anandtech.com/show/21390/micron-ships-crucialbra...

Even if Apple wanted to support modular memory, which they obviously don't, the ultra-tiny form factor of the new Mini would probably still rule it out though. Soldering the memory down is still more compact.

Re: New Mac Mini with M4

#80

Apart from the huge price jump from M4 to M4 Pro, I really like this product line-up. Last time I bought a Mac Mini was before the 2018 model got introduced, and I almost took it back in to get it exchanged (I was within 30 days of purchase when the 2018 model dropped), but it's been plugging away doing everything I have asked of it for 6 years, and it's still going strong. All the upgrades since have left me a littl…

M4 MacBook Air is rumored for the spring. Last announcement tomorrow is rumored to be the MacBook Pros.
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