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New Mac Mini

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Re: New Mac Mini

#31

Post by seanw444 »

counttheforks wrote: post #27
austenallred wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. You can add more 2. New RAM is not like old RAM. Macs are dramatically more optimized than they used to be. I have a MacBook Air (M1) with 16GB of RAM and it runs more smoothly than older systems that had twice that much. 8GB of RAM today feels like what 32GB of RAM used to. 8GB of RAM can handle very process-heavy tasks, like... running Chrome ;)

> 1. You can add more Tell that to Apple so they can do that out of the box. > 8GB of RAM today feels like what 32GB of RAM used to No. I think you're confusing memory speed with capacity. Making ram faster doesn't mean it can magically store more.

If it's running an SSD, at least the swap speed won't be as crippling. Assuming it uses any.

Re: New Mac Mini

#32

Post by arprocter »

crypt1d wrote: post #7

disappointed to see them still selling these with 8gb RAM. More than a dozen chrome tabs and a few discord servers has been enough to crash/significantly slow down my m1 mac mini edit: the ad says up to 24/32GB of ram, but seems like 8gb/16gb models are the only ones available for pre-order at the moment.

Oof - once you bump the base model to 16GB RAM and 1TB of storage it doubles the price

Apparently Mini RAM hasn't been user upgradable since the 2014 model

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT205041#2020

Re: New Mac Mini

#33

Post by cmatthias »

wilsonnb3 wrote: post #12
crypt1d wrote: post #7

disappointed to see them still selling these with 8gb RAM. More than a dozen chrome tabs and a few discord servers has been enough to crash/significantly slow down my m1 mac mini edit: the ad says up to 24/32GB of ram, but seems like 8gb/16gb models are the only ones available for pre-order at the moment.

Another anecdote: I have a M1 air and an m1 iMac both with 8GB and have never run into a problem. I think 8gb is still the sweet spot for casual users.

Can you define "sweet spot" in this case?

Usually I see that term used when the thing being considered is a pricey upgrade, and you need to strike a compromise between price and performance.

In this case, we're talking about an extra 8GB of memory, which would add perhaps $10 in cost to the bill of materials for the machine (or maybe less in sufficient volume). Given that Apple is also overcharging by at least 3x current standard retail price for SSD upgrades, my guess is that there's some room to bump up the wholesale cost a bit.

Not doing so is, IMHO, insulting to users, and given the non-upgradable nature of these machines, bad for the environment, counter to all of Apple's talk about being environmentally friendly.

Re: New Mac Mini

#34

Post by coder543 »

counttheforks wrote: post #27
austenallred wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. You can add more 2. New RAM is not like old RAM. Macs are dramatically more optimized than they used to be. I have a MacBook Air (M1) with 16GB of RAM and it runs more smoothly than older systems that had twice that much. 8GB of RAM today feels like what 32GB of RAM used to. 8GB of RAM can handle very process-heavy tasks, like... running Chrome ;)

> 1. You can add more Tell that to Apple so they can do that out of the box. > 8GB of RAM today feels like what 32GB of RAM used to No. I think you're confusing memory speed with capacity. Making ram faster doesn't mean it can magically store more.

> Making ram faster doesn't mean it can magically store more.

For real. This myth that "Unified RAM" doesn't need as much capacity as "regular RAM" needs to stop being perpetuated. Intel-based Macs already had memory compression and SSD swap.

My M1 MBA with 16GB of RAM was definitely limited by the amount of RAM a number of times throughout its life, and my 24GB M2 MBA has a much better balance due to the additional RAM.

8GB is fine for someone who doesn't do anything but basic web browsing and word documents, but I'm not comfortable recommending 8GB of RAM to anyone who intends on doing more than that. I'm honestly a bit uncomfortable with 16GB these days, but it is tremendously nicer than 8GB.

If Apple hadn't just lowered prices by $100 on Mac mini, I would say that 16GB should be the minimum, but for $599... I think 8GB is probably fine for what you're getting.

Re: New Mac Mini

#35

Post by shortformblog »

arprocter wrote: post #32
crypt1d wrote: post #7

disappointed to see them still selling these with 8gb RAM. More than a dozen chrome tabs and a few discord servers has been enough to crash/significantly slow down my m1 mac mini edit: the ad says up to 24/32GB of ram, but seems like 8gb/16gb models are the only ones available for pre-order at the moment.

Oof - once you bump the base model to 16GB RAM and 1TB of storage it doubles the price Apparently Mini RAM hasn't been user upgradable since the 2014 model https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT205041#2020

It was upgradeable in 2018, but they the teardown to reach the RAM needlessly complicated: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQq4hLKv1Cc

Re: New Mac Mini

#36

Post by davidy123 »

dijit wrote: post #26
austenallred wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. You can add more 2. New RAM is not like old RAM. Macs are dramatically more optimized than they used to be. I have a MacBook Air (M1) with 16GB of RAM and it runs more smoothly than older systems that had twice that much. 8GB of RAM today feels like what 32GB of RAM used to. 8GB of RAM can handle very process-heavy tasks, like... running Chrome ;)

Everything you said is true; I'll even add that MacOS is probably the best functioning Desktop OS under low memory conditions! However the parent is right, it's disgusting how much memory capacity is needed to run a basic environment. Maybe having exceptionally fast machines with limited ram will cause people to actually think about their resource usage.

> the answer to bloated apps

RAM is dirt cheap these days. Bloated apps are bad, but 8GB really is simply a joke that punishes many people for the sake of product categories, at least until RAM is indistinguishable from storage.

Re: New Mac Mini

#37

Post by chazeon »

rsynnott wrote: post #22

I feel like adding the Pro makes the Studio increasingly niche.

Seems the differentiation factor would be RAM. Mac mini maxed out at 32 GB even with M1 Pro, where I am expecting 48 GB.

Re: New Mac Mini

#38

Post by octotoad »

arprocter wrote: post #32
crypt1d wrote: post #7

disappointed to see them still selling these with 8gb RAM. More than a dozen chrome tabs and a few discord servers has been enough to crash/significantly slow down my m1 mac mini edit: the ad says up to 24/32GB of ram, but seems like 8gb/16gb models are the only ones available for pre-order at the moment.

Oof - once you bump the base model to 16GB RAM and 1TB of storage it doubles the price Apparently Mini RAM hasn't been user upgradable since the 2014 model https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT205041#2020

The 2018 model has socketed RAM.

Re: New Mac Mini

#39

Post by synergy20 »

All devices should be upgrade-able and repairable by customers, we paid for it and we own it, we have the rights to change it easily. We need to enforce the right-to-repair law fast, and please sue Apple if it does not conform to it(along with its only-me and pay-me-30% apple app-store policy)

Re: New Mac Mini

#40

Post by adolph »

frognumber wrote: post #9

Is the RAM and SSD upgradeable? The baseline model is 8GB / 256GB, and very reasonably priced at $600. Upgrading to 24GB is a whopping $400, and to 1TB is another $400. The $700 baseline seems reasonable. $1500 for a minimum usable machine seems more than a little excessive.

Apple's pricing is pretty interesting. On the low side they annoy with a hobbled option (256G storage); on the high side they price things to ask "do you _really_ want 2T ssd in this thing?" In the middle is the product they'd like to sell the most.

An $800 box with a power cord. Spend the same and get a therma-throttled cpu with iOS and display (iPad); a little more and get a monitor (MBA). Spend double and get a larger monitor with a keyboard and mouse (iMac).

Maybe the primary question is if the user is cloud first (minimal storage) or classic filesystem packrat (better buy big).

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