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M4 Mac mini's efficiency

jeffgeerling.com

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Re: M4 Mac mini's efficiency

#351

Post by cellwebb »

atonse wrote: post #304
tshaddox wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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."

But that IS actually true, that if everyone used a coupon, the coupon would eventually go away or become weaker. The expected percentage of people using a coupon is often part of the calculation (however vague) when deciding the coupon.

Likewise, the expected percentage of people using the education discount is part of Apple's calculation. Even if they lose money on the device (which I personally think is unlikely), they'll make it back from subscriptions and their cut of app store purchases.

Re: M4 Mac mini's efficiency

#353

Post by nicce »

derefr wrote: post #294
nicce wrote: post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's not cheating if they intend for you to do it It feels like you are proving my point of people finding excuses to buy the Mac with educational discount, when they don't meet the requirements :) The intend it clearly for educational setting. For students and teachers. You dishonor the intend if you still try to claim the discount. Whether you are punished or not.

I think you might be suffering from a categorical blindness to a certain type of thing humans do. Let's say I own a private beach. I want to allow my beach to be enjoyed freely and responsibly by a reasonable number of people, whether friends or strangers. I don't want to constantly be cleaning up garbage on my beach. And I don't want the beach to be overcrowded when I myself use it. So what do I do? Well, I'm sure n…

That is a great write up. But I think this proves even more my point that people do anything to make an excuse for cheating :)

I agree that there might be some open secrets. This particular case is not comparable. Simply, because it does not make sense. Apple is making a harware business. They are already are giving the discount for the correct use base where the discount is an actual investment

* Students that then might pick the same hardware in the future at work, company they found, etc.

* Teachers, who promote the same hardware for students

For others, why this would be open secret? The correct user base already gets the discount. There are no benefits to give discount for others as well, even in secret. It is just loss. These same people likely would by the hardware anyway. I bet that this price difference does not make them to not buy the product.

The story you are telling is not comparable in this case. The comparable comparison would include that you allow some random people into that beach well, that you don't trust. But because the count is so small, it does not matter.

However, people start posting about your beach in social media, or even in Hacker News. Friends of friends of friends tell about their friends too. Now the beach is crowded and all randoms are the all the time! What would you do? Get a bouncer or put "a real" Trespassing sign? And even your friends can't enjoy the beach anymore.

It is all about statistics and in what direction we let these things go.

Re: M4 Mac mini's efficiency

#354

Post by wishfish »

mcv wrote: post #97
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

Does that mean the discount is only for Americans? I don't see anything about it on the Dutch version of the Apple site. Still looks pretty affordable. Until you look at the upgrades. € 230,00 for +8 MB RAM?! There are places you can get that for a tenth of that price. I suppose doing your own upgrades isn't an option anymore? (My last Mac was a 2011 unibody.)

One thing that will potentially future-proof the new Mac Mini is that the SSD is on a removable board. It's a custom Apple design but someone's already hand made their own upgrade. Wouldn't be surprised if there will be 3rd party upgrades commercially available within a year.

Re: M4 Mac mini's efficiency

#355

Post by llm_nerd »

cchance wrote: post #309
mamp wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When do you turn it off? I have a Mac M1 Studio and I just let it sleep. If things get weird I reboot. I think I recall using the power button about a year ago after returning from vacation after I had shut it down.

Like seriously WTF are people turning it off its 3 watts at idle lol, most power supplies have that much phantom drain lol

Everyone keeps citing idle, which is when the device is on and active but not particularly doing anything.

The standby power draw is 1W or less. I've used Mac Minis for years -- just replaced my M1 with an M4, though the M1 left me wanting for nothing -- and the number of times I've interacted with the power button is so negligible I imagine I've gone over a year without touching it. When I haven't touched it in a while it goes to standby, waking instantly when I engage it again.

Re: M4 Mac mini's efficiency

#356

Post by H1Supreme »

lukevp wrote: post #329
vunderba wrote: post #298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mind this design decision a hell of a lot less than the baffling deliberate decision to map EVERY KEYBOARD BUTTON to be equivalent to the power button (which the damn thing already has) on their laptop line-up. I love it when my macbook is turned off and I accidentally nudge a single letter on the keyboard and it powers back on - not to mention when you're drying to clean it with a micro fiber cloth.

If you fully shut down a mac laptop, you have to press and hold the power button to turn it back on. Not sure what you’re talking about here and probably why you’re getting downvoted.

My M1 Macbook Pro turns on (after being fully shut down) by keypress.

Re: M4 Mac mini's efficiency

#357

Post by llm_nerd »

bitwize wrote: post #153
favorited wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The storage is not soldered to the M4 mini SOC.

M4 Macs only accept SSDs of the exact same make and model as the one installed at the factory. So to expand storage in an M4 Mac, you indeed need to desolder the flash chips and solder in new ones.

The video at the base of this thread has iFixIt take the 500GB SSD from one Mac Mini and swap it with the 250GB SSD from another, and both recognized and worked with the replacement.

It is a swappable part. Which means much more attainable servicing for flash failure or exhaustion, and possibly even upgrading storage in the future.

Re: M4 Mac mini's efficiency

#358

Post by sjoerger »

cchance wrote: post #309
mamp wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When do you turn it off? I have a Mac M1 Studio and I just let it sleep. If things get weird I reboot. I think I recall using the power button about a year ago after returning from vacation after I had shut it down.

Like seriously WTF are people turning it off its 3 watts at idle lol, most power supplies have that much phantom drain lol

Not everyone lives the same way. I am seriously considering a Mac Mini as my next upgrade yet I live in a RV and move frequently. Are there ways that I can keep the Mac mini powered while traveling.. sure, but why would/should I?

Re: M4 Mac mini's efficiency

#359

Post by ganoushoreilly »

ideashower wrote: post #342

I’m contemplating whether this can handle editing 8K video. Does anyone have any idea? My goal is to venture into 180-degree VR production. With the Canon R5C and the RF 5.2mm f/2.8 Dual Fisheye Lens, I want to produce stereoscopic video at 8K. However, rendering such high-resolution footage demands substantial processing power, and my current setup definitely isn't enough.

Base version, probably not. If you went with one with M4 Pro cpu and the 48gb or greater ram you should be ok. Storage isn't as much an issue with Thunderbolt 4/5 drives easily meeting similar speeds to the internal storage.

I've done some 8k fisheye footage and converted for Vision Pro / Quest with the prior gen hardware kit and was able to edit and process it on an M2 Max with 96gb ram.

Re: M4 Mac mini's efficiency

#360

Post by rcstank »

ideashower wrote: post #349
prewett wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe they already have, depending on what you need. Settings >> General >> Sharing provides lots of options. "Remote Login" is SSH and SFTP, and last time I used it, "File Sharing" was SMB. "Screen Sharing" and "Remote Management" seem useful, too. I assume that "Media Sharing" is supposed to allow iTunes on your network to see media files, although I've never used it and the information on the dialog is limited.

Can you run it headless? Like, if I have it power on after a reboot, is it possible to log in remotely?

You can enable SSH to do this
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