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M4 Mac mini's efficiency

jeffgeerling.com

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Re: M4 Mac mini's efficiency

#441

Post by n_ary »

justinclift wrote: post #314
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).

As a counter point, that same org structure resulted in the removal of the 3.5mm audio port. Ugh.

Probably to gear up towards their bluetooth airpod series, which doesn’t need that port.

The wired ones are decent yet cheap, but if they did not remove the 3.5mm, then except teens and hip adults, most people would opt for the wired ones.

My M1 Max Pro again has the 3.5mm port, and I have bought a pair of wired ones and gifted my airpods to my teen nephew.

Re: M4 Mac mini's efficiency

#442

Post by n_ary »

twilo wrote: post #411

Apple's ARM chips have been incredibly effecient for a while now. My m3 air draws around 3W on avarage and that's with a 14 inch screen running at around 40% brightness.. impressive stuff. Passive cooling too!

M3 airs come in 14” or did you mean m3 pro?

To best of my knowledge, airs come in 13” and 15”.

Re: M4 Mac mini's efficiency

#443

Post by 620gelato »

vunderba wrote: post #298
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).

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.

For better or worse, I have a habit of clicking the touchpad or a few keys after I shut down my laptop. Just to make sure it's shut down properly. Back in Windows days with HDDs and hibernate, laptops sometimes took minutes to shut down completely, and I don't like closing the lid before shut down is complete.

Now, I end up restarting with that mere act, and have to long-press to shut down again because the shut down option won't show up on login screen.

Re: M4 Mac mini's efficiency

#444

Post by n_ary »

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

My EU mind is blown by these claims. Let’s take the lowest(1W) at sleep mode. With a thousand mac minis at sleep mode, that is already 1kW! In my country, a single person household’s yearly electricity package comes at 1400kW(+100 depending on provider) per year.

Note: intentionally keeping it simple, please don’t nitpick.

Re: M4 Mac mini's efficiency

#445

Post by mkl »

ewzimm wrote: post #225
MBCook wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was a comparison mentioned on last week’s episode of the Accidental Tech Podcast, I don’t remember if it was pointed out to them or they noticed it themselves. Base Mac mini: $599, 16/256 GB Double storage and ram: $600 upgrade. Price of 32/512 config: $1199 Two 16/256 machines: $119 8 . The ram is (Apple) reasonable at $200, but $400 for the storage doubling is insane.

Also, the 256 uses 2x128 drives while the 512 uses a single drive, so you even get slightly slower storage with the upgrade. The base model is a great deal.

Do you have a source on that? It's not what I've read elsewhere, but I'm having trouble finding anything specific.

Re: M4 Mac mini's efficiency

#446

Post by Suppafly »

tredre3 wrote: post #44
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…

> With education discount I don't understand why so many people use the discounted price as reference. Surely very few of us on HN are still in college? So let's use the actual price when making comparisons.

>I don't understand why so many people use the discounted price as reference.

Or when they only use it to make the Apple pricing seem more favorable and ignore it when it comes to PC pricing. Most PC manufacturers also have educational pricing, whether directly or through some portal provided by your institution. I know my son's college had a deal and also had a list of the tax free days in the state so that you could pre-order and then pay and pick up on the day the tax didn't apply.

Re: M4 Mac mini's efficiency

#447

Post by fulafel »

throawayonthe wrote: post #191
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

There's no container support on macOS unfortunately, except for the frontends for linux virtual machines.

(Well they do have a thing called containers, but it's a desktop app security/sandboxing feature that does something conceptually different)

Re: M4 Mac mini's efficiency

#448

Post by yalok »

tredre3 wrote: post #44
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…

> With education discount I don't understand why so many people use the discounted price as reference. Surely very few of us on HN are still in college? So let's use the actual price when making comparisons.

It may be a local thing in Bay area, but usually there’s some way to get some discount when making a purchase with Apple - be it via education, or via a corporate discount (just show your badge from another company), or via a friend who works at Apple, or some big retailers start selling at good discount (eg Amazon easily gets 5-10% lower price over time).

Anecdotally, last week I visited a local Apple Store with my son who is in middle school. Without any prompting from us, the Apple rep asked my son if he is planning to go to college some day, and applied the college discount to our purchase without my son saying much…

Re: M4 Mac mini's efficiency

#449

Post by Suppafly »

no_wizard wrote: post #62
tredre3 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> With education discount I don't understand why so many people use the discounted price as reference. Surely very few of us on HN are still in college? So let's use the actual price when making comparisons.

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

>which only further supports your argument directly, as the EDU discount isn't universally attainable

Pay someone with an edu account to complete the purchase for you. Also, they are commonly available for community college students, including those taking free classes.

Re: M4 Mac mini's efficiency

#450

Post by switch007 »

Stupid question but why can't it (non Pro particularly) be powered over USB C like a MBP, if it's so power efficient?

Does it have extra performance that makes full use of the 155W input?

What would have it taken Apple to have given us the option to be powered by 100W USB C (eg the tech to downgrade power usage to match the power input)?

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