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New Mac Mini with M4

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Re: New Mac Mini with M4

#561

Post by rootusrootus »

crakhamster01 wrote: post #479

I've always loved the form factor/pricing of the Mac Mini, but I've never been able to convince myself to buy it. If you're able to afford a Macbook/MBP, is there any reason why someone would purchase the Mini? Seems like the former gets you the same performance with the benefit of portability.

The MBP is over twice as much and you're still going to buy a keyboard, mouse, and screen for your desk. Portability is nice, but for many people I suspect the use case is too narrow -- for most things you need to do when you are not at your desk computer, the smartphone suffices.

Re: New Mac Mini with M4

#562

Post by samatman »

Thomashuet wrote: post #510
supportengineer wrote: post #419

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But you have to run Windows, which is a deal breaker for most people.

You don't have to, you can run your favorite flavor of Linux. Unlike with the Mac Mini which can only run macOS.

Apple has never put any technical or legal obstacles in the way of installing other operating systems on Mac hardware. Nor do they assist in any way, it's consistent benign neglect.

The old Intel machines made excellent Linux boxes, excepting the TouchBar era because the TouchBar sucked (it was possible to install Linux, it would display the fake function keys, they worked, but not a good experience). I've converted two non-TouchBar Mac laptops into Linux machines, with zero complaints, one of them is in current use (not the laptop I'm typing on this instant however).

Now there's Asahi, which as a sibling comment points out, will surely be supported for M4 eventually. This is a great time to buy the M2 Minis and put Linux on them, if that's what you're into. Or you can wait around for the M4 port, whatever suits your needs.

Re: New Mac Mini with M4

#563

Post by calf »

architect64 wrote: post #439
e63f67dd-065b wrote: post #330

With educational pricing this thing starts as $500, and at 16GB of RAM (finally) I think this easily beats any sort of desktop PC you can buy at that price (let's exclude custom builds, they're not the same market). I think this just became the go-to recommendation I'll give to anybody wanting an entry-level desktop computer of any kind. In fact I might buy one for my parents right now to replace the old mac mini the…

One issue to watch out for: Sub-4K res monitors look surprisingly bad on newer versions of macOS with Apple Silicon Macs. And no, it's not simply a matter of non-Retina obviously not looking as nice as Retina monitors - something like a 1440p monitor will look much worse on macOS than it would on Windows or Linux. This is partly caused by a lack of subpixel rendering for text on macOS, but it doesn't affect just text…

Is there a review that demonstrates and corroborates this issue? Is it a difficult problem if choosing to buy a new display for a Mac mini? My old display is 10 years old and I would have to get a new one then.

Re: New Mac Mini with M4

#564

Post by pdimitar »

kstrauser wrote: post #155
diggan wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Apple is now in decline I've been saying this since the butterfly-keyboard fiasco. At that point it was clear that professional users weren't the focus anymore, and I promptly left the ecosystem. I still have a iPhone (12 mini) that I only keep because it still works, but every time CarPlay tries to murder me in traffic, I get one step closer to just yeeting that phone into the sea.

That was the low point for MacBooks. The newer models are much better.

Hardware-wise they undoubtedly are. That's not contested and it's easy to check and prove.

Software though? Not at all impressed. They still check every program you ever start and it's very noticeable by the performance.

Or they don't care about Intel Macs anymore, that's also a real possibility.

Re: New Mac Mini with M4

#565

Post by BobAliceInATree »

donatj wrote: post #121

It would appear the air intake is on the bottom like the Mac Studio. As someone who lives in a very dusty 150 year old house, My Mac Studio does not appreciate the air input being directly on the desk. It collects all the dust that lands anywhere near it. I have a large levoit air filter running 24/7 in my office and still end up with this[1] regularly. I wish I could at least reasonably take the thing apart to clean…

I know it won’t look great, but what if you run the studio upside down or on its side.

Re: New Mac Mini with M4

#566

Post by mysteria »

sangnoir wrote: post #454
tmikaeld wrote: post #440

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you factor in memory bandwidth (80GB/s for DDR4) - that's not even close to the M4 (120GB/s base model).

Which regular desktop tasks are kneecapped by 80GBps memory bandwidth?

If local LLMs become mainstream then you want as much memory bandwidth as possible. For regular home and office use two channels of DDR4 is more than enough.

Re: New Mac Mini with M4

#567

Post by fulafel »

lawlessone wrote: post #27
jsheard wrote: post #8

16GB base RAM across the board, following the iMac. AI is certainly good for pushing up the baseline RAM that manufacturers can get away with shipping if nothing else.

Unified memory too. It's your GPU and your ram.

The reality distortion field is not dead, rebranding the iGPU like this even convincing the technical crowd has been a great marketing win for Apple.

Re: New Mac Mini with M4

#568

Post by mkagenius »

celestialcheese wrote: post #542
goosedragons wrote: post #416

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's still good deals in mini PC land. Yes, the M4 is faster but there's loads of mini PCs with decent CPUs, 32GB RAM and a 1TB of SSD storage for under $600. I think for a lot of people for basic usage they'll get more value out of the larger and upgradable SSDs than the faster CPU. https://www.amazon.com/BOSGAME-5700U-Displays-Computers-Emul... https://www.amazon.com/Beelink-SER5-Desktop-Computer-Graphic...

From my experience, TCO on most apple products ends up being roughly the same when you factor in resale value. You'll be able to sell your M4 mac mini in 5 years for $150 for an instant-cash offer from backmarket or any other reseller, while you'd be lucky to get $30 for the equivalent Beelink or BOSGAME after 6 months on ebay.

Is there a black market for old macbooks/minis?

My macbook pro 15 inch, mid 2017 is valued at $195 by apple trade in. Bought for 2k iirc.

Re: New Mac Mini with M4

#569

Post by kwanbix »

e63f67dd-065b wrote: post #330

With educational pricing this thing starts as $500, and at 16GB of RAM (finally) I think this easily beats any sort of desktop PC you can buy at that price (let's exclude custom builds, they're not the same market). I think this just became the go-to recommendation I'll give to anybody wanting an entry-level desktop computer of any kind. In fact I might buy one for my parents right now to replace the old mac mini the…

Sure, if they are used to macOS, this is a great option.

But I wouldn't recommend it to people who are not used to it.

I tried to recommend Linux, with XFCE setup as basically windows, and people complain. Same for ChromeOS.

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