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M4 Mac mini's efficiency

jeffgeerling.com

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Re: M4 Mac mini's efficiency

#191

Post by throawayonthe »

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…

well asahi is going to bring M4 support eventually and there is https://github.com/tpwrules/nixos-apple-silicon

also you could just Containerize All The Things on macos idk

Re: M4 Mac mini's efficiency

#192

Post by tshaddox »

nicce wrote: post #86
no_wizard wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

all you need is a .edu address If I recall correctly. you can buy them on alumni addresses. That said, a far chunk of HNs never completed college, like myself and lost access to any email accounts of this sort, which only further supports your argument directly, as the EDU discount isn't universally attainable

Regardless, if people start to abuse this by getting discount while not actually being student or teacher, we can say goodbye to that discount and real students and teachers will suffer from it.

It's not like they're taking a loss from educational purchases. It's just price discrimination. You might as well say "if we all started using newspaper coupons we can say goodbye to those discounts."

Re: M4 Mac mini's efficiency

#193

Post by redundantly »

mlsu wrote: post #98
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...

And I mean, it uses 4 watts idle. If you power it off overnight for 12 hours you've saved... half a glass of orange juice worth of energy.

As with all things regarding power efficiency, you have to consider the wide use of these devices, not just the individual use.

If moving the power button there changes the behavior of thousands of people that would typically shut their computer down when they're not using it, that half glass of orange juice turns into thousands of gallons.

Re: M4 Mac mini's efficiency

#194

Post by macNchz »

Jtsummers wrote: post #99
no_wizard wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

all you need is a .edu address If I recall correctly. you can buy them on alumni addresses. That said, a far chunk of HNs never completed college, like myself and lost access to any email accounts of this sort, which only further supports your argument directly, as the EDU discount isn't universally attainable

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.

They claim the right to audit purchases through the edu store and charge you the difference if you don't qualify, but I've never read anyone online reporting they've been audited/charged.

https://www.apple.com/us-edu/shop/browse/open/salespolicies/....

Re: M4 Mac mini's efficiency

#195

Post by matt-p »

rgovostes wrote: post #75
steeleduncan wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because minis are very commonly racked in bulk, and its both very irritating for that use case, and entirely unnecessary

Some of the rackmount kits for previous generations already reroute the power button and connectors to the front, like this https://racknex.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/with-power-bu... . (Though why not just install it backwards?) I guess they will be able to run a little lever under the M4 model the same way. Actually, the M4 model is a little taller so it no longer fits in a 1U rack mount. Whereas before you cou…

I think the airflow for more than 3 per 1.33u, or 8-9 per 3u will necessarily suck.

I have designed for both, I think both have great use cases. 2 x 8 in 6u is really neat and tidy, I just don't love the concept of sitting the fans on their side, though I think they'll still last 5 years.

Re: M4 Mac mini's efficiency

#196

Post by BoorishBears »

soheil wrote: post #87
kranke155 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not a burden. I consider it a typical Tim Cook decision, in that the man led the company that made one of the fastest CPUs in the world, makes it draw as much as a Raspberry Pi. Absolutely crazy feats of engineering, design, manufacturing… and - There is that ONE detail that would’ve made it perfected but it’s botched! I don’t mind it too much, since it’s still 99% close to perfect. But, but…

1. Given millions of things that are perfect it takes one of them for HN to lose its mind, power button happened to be it this time, Cook didn't decide that. 2. How often do people exactly have to turn off and on a mac that consumes less than a pi for them to constantly be reaching out to that power button? 3. Standby, hibernate exist.

It's not like Tim Cook personally decided to put the button there, but saying over many years he's aligned the company to be one that would leave the button there rather than bite the cost of putting it somewhere more ergonomic is something I can buy into. Seems like a way to improve margins generation over generation, which is the kind of thing he's obsessed with.

This is also the same Apple that made the G4 Cube: that felt like this in reverse, with Jobs driving them to make a capacitive touch button because of an obsession with a seamless surface.

Re: M4 Mac mini's efficiency

#197

Post by astrange »

coconut08 wrote: post #26
riknos314 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What specific feature gaps would you like to see them address?

Linux support. MacOS is a desktop first gui based operating system. Linux on the other hand is a server first cli/terminal based operating system. Everything server related is designed to on linux first and foremost and may or may not incidentally also run on MacOS.

If they work on a BSD they should work okay on macOS. (Not because macOS is exactly like FreeBSD, just that it means the project has been tested cross-platform.)

Re: M4 Mac mini's efficiency

#199

Post by 7thpower »

kranke155 wrote: post #27
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...

It’s not a burden. I consider it a typical Tim Cook decision, in that the man led the company that made one of the fastest CPUs in the world, makes it draw as much as a Raspberry Pi. Absolutely crazy feats of engineering, design, manufacturing… and - There is that ONE detail that would’ve made it perfected but it’s botched! I don’t mind it too much, since it’s still 99% close to perfect. But, but…

It could be worse, they could’ve located it in the center of the bottom.

Do people really use the physical button that often? 99% of the time I just let it go to sleep.

Re: M4 Mac mini's efficiency

#200

Post by naoru »

gzer0 wrote: post #152
naoru wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A comparable option in my opinion would be Minisforum 790S7. They also have a separate mini-ITX motherboard from that one if you want to DIY. The CPU in it is faster in raw multi-thread performance, single-threaded it's a bit slower, but still quite impressive. The only problem I had with Minisforum is that they couldn't supply the exact hardware I ordered and their suggested solution was either to wait for 1+ month…

I can't find a Minisforum 790S7 for anywhere near the price of the base model mac mini. I am seeing $459.00 USD and that is "BAREBONE (NO OS/RAM/SSD)" [1]. I am comparing this to the M4 Mac Mini base model, that does indeed come with an OS, RAM, and an SSD[2] at $499 USD. [1] https://store.minisforum.com/products/minisforum-mini-itx-pc... [2] https://www.apple.com/us-edu/shop/buy-mac/mac-mini/apple-m4-...

Welp. You're definitely correct. But that's the only machine in my opinion that comes close (and offers some advantage like a whole PCIe 5.0 x16 slot). There are other mini PCs that are cheaper, some other commenter suggested Beelinks which are also quite popular among enthusiasts, SER8 for example: Ryzen 8745HS, 24 GB RAM and 1 TB SSD for 467 Euro. Seems competitive enough.
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