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M4 Mac mini's efficiency

jeffgeerling.com

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Re: M4 Mac mini's efficiency

#141

Post by henryfjordan »

1-6 wrote: post #45

“If only they didn't put the power button on the bottom.” While I think Apple was off the rocker on this particular decision, I do respect their org structure that allows this type of decision to occur. Believe me, there are companies where a dozen people or more would weigh in and prevent an unpopular choice. Consensus sometimes hinders a desired result (both good and bad).

It's a way of signaling how the product should be used. Plug it in, hit the power button, put it down, and never turn it off again. For many users that's probably the only time they will ever interact with that button (or want to).

I actually think it's a really good choice and shows Apple really understands design. And with the relatively low power consumption it makes sense. It's not like it's drawing a ton of power on idle

Re: M4 Mac mini's efficiency

#142

Post by va1a »

baq wrote: post #100
dansky wrote: post #95

The Mac mini M4 performance is around 4-5x in DaVinci Resolve for me - compared to my HP laptop (i5-1135G7). Rendering HDR video was around 12fps there on the i5 - the same project in the Mac mini gets 60fps. The M4 10 core GPU seems on par or better with a mobile RTX3060(65W) for video tests (NR / Deflicker) so I'm also impressed about the M4's efficiency. A lot of power per Watt. It's becoming a dedicated video ren…

> The power button placement is an annoyance for me, though. Keep the thing upside down. Not joking.

Yeah it seems like this would also increase airflow. Is there any possible issue with just having it upside down all the time?

Re: M4 Mac mini's efficiency

#143

Post by geerlingguy »

00deadbeef wrote: post #136
rgovostes wrote: post #22

> If only they didn't put the power button on the bottom. I can't tell if anyone is being serious about the "Powergate" issue. The thing is 5" wide and weighs 1.5 lbs, it's not exactly a burden to lift it a little. And there are highly practical workarounds: https://www.reddit.com/r/macmini/comments/1gncek7/nailed_the...

The comment in the article is in the context of rack mounting them which is a common thing to do with Mac minis. Having it on the bottom makes it hard to press as you can’t lift them up when they’re secured in a mount.

Exactly this.

I am working on a solution to make it easier to hit the button from the front of a rack shelf, but the fact I have to mess with 3D printing just to hit a power button is silly.

Older Macs also had the power button on the back, which was also annoying, but at least a Mac that's secured to a shelf could have its power button pressed pretty easily.

The Mac mini _requires_ a mechanism to press up from the bottom in any permanent-ish install.

Re: M4 Mac mini's efficiency

#144

Post by koiueo »

nextos wrote: post #9

I use Linux, but I think the cheapest M4 Mini offers an incredible value and efficiency per €. With education discount, it's around €650, including VAT. It's pretty hard to find such a silent and powerful machine for that little. Any comparable options? A good fanless build with a i3-14100T is more expensive and 40-50% slower on Geekbench. An i5 is a bit closer. Some 2024 Ryzen CPUs can match or exceed its multicore…

After experiencing NixOS it's hard to settle for anything less. Nix is only good for running home-manager; nix-darwin is mostly a joke (I don't mean disrespect, I appreciate the work devs are doing, but limitations of the platform cripple the entire experience).

FWIW, Mitchell Hashimoto runs NixOS VM on his Mac for development. And that's the option I'm gonna implement once I get my MBP from repairs.

Re: M4 Mac mini's efficiency

#145

Post by m3kw9 »

How does one “idling” like this? “ In 1.25U of rack space, you could run three Mac minis, idling around 10W, giving almost a teraflop of CPU performance. ”

Re: M4 Mac mini's efficiency

#146

Post by sourcepluck »

cguess wrote: post #63
echoangle wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Official Linux support would help, is anyone running MacOS on a server?

This isn't the market for MacMinis though. Why are people on this forum so bad at understanding market segmentation? Apple made an incredible desktop machine that happens to work pretty damn well as a server if you poke around. This machine is for people at home to for editing video. It's great in the field for production where it goes from pelican case to hotel desk to folding table to pelican case to cargo hold to…

Have you ever thought that maybe people understand "market segmentation", but at the same time, they'd like to know how broad a range of computing options one would have on these general purpose computers, with price tags in the many-hundreds to thousands range?

Re: M4 Mac mini's efficiency

#147

Post by [deleted] »

WesleyJohnson wrote: post #110
Jtsummers wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't even need a .edu email address. I logged in with my regular Apple account and made a purchase on the education store expecting them to ask for that or some other verification, and they never did.

I can't confirm, but I had a Apple store employee tell me the same. And then I forgot to use it when I ordered my Mac Mini.

[deleted]

Re: M4 Mac mini's efficiency

#148

Post by opdahl »

ghaff wrote: post #49

I may have to break down after the holidays. I have a 2015 iMac and I've been holding off (and haven't really been using my Apple Silicon MacBook as intended) so it may be time to do the upgrade.

This seems like one of the best times to do it as long as you get your own monitor. You will probably be set for 10 more years with this thing.

Re: M4 Mac mini's efficiency

#150

Post by choonway »

GeekyBear wrote: post #23

Also interesting, the M4 Mini has the flash storage on a replaceable module, instead of being soldered to the motherboard, although the NVMe controller is still integrated into the SoC. iFixIt and others have already posted videos showing that the flash storage is now upgradable. > M4 Mac mini Teardown - UPGRADABLE SSD, Powerful, and TINY https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rtdGxBeSkz8

I think the reason to make it replace/removable is to reduce e-waste at EOL. Lots of companies have policies on data storage on decomissioned computers to be physically destroyed, so making it replaceable allows the machines to be repurposed after.
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