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New Mac Mini with M4

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Re: New Mac Mini with M4

#611

Post by wing-_-nuts »

rowanG077 wrote: post #311
wing-_-nuts wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is huge for AI / ML at least for inference. Apple chips are among the most efficient out there for that sort of thing, the only downside is the lack of cuda

I consider that a plus. Maybe the AI community wil start to wake up and realize that going all in on cuda is ridiculously stupid.

To be totally honest, there's enough money in the ML / AI / LLM space now that I fully expect some companies to put forward alternative cards specifically for that purpose. Why google does not sell their TPU to consumer and datacenter instead of just letting you rent is beyond me.

Re: New Mac Mini with M4

#612

Post by tiltowait »

fourfour3 wrote: post #260
xyst wrote: post #129

Positives: + form factor + ARM/Apple silicon/SoC Negatives: - Apple tax on memory, storage - non-upgradeable - Apple tax on 1GbE to 10 GbE ($100 surcharge lol) - maxes out at 64G of configurable memory w/ m4 pro Got to give it to Apple. The traunches between different configuration levels is “small” enough to convince buyers to enter the next level. It’s like “hey, you are already at $4000 for m4 pro with 64g. Just s…

$100 for the 10GbE upgrade doesn't seem unreasonable to me. A PCIe 10GbE NIC using the same Aquantia chipset as existing Macs is $80-$90. https://www.amazon.com/ASUS-XG-C100C-Network-Adapter-Single/... edit: in fact, compared to Apple's usual price gouging for extra RAM/SSD/etc it is downright reasonable .

Not to mention, the vast majority of people don’t need 10GbE. Most users use WiFi and never touch Ethernet. Adding the functionality would just drive up the cost unnecessarily.

Re: New Mac Mini with M4

#613

Post by pixelready »

Does anyone know how well Asahi Linux supports M4? I only see M1 and M2 listed on the website, but I’m not sure how often it gets updated. I think thunderbolt displays are still a pain point as well?

Re: New Mac Mini with M4

#614

Post by nordsieck »

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.

> 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

If you want to put in a bit of elbow grease, you can get a much better deal. M1 Mac Minis in my area are regularly selling for $350+ on FB Marketplace right now.

Re: New Mac Mini with M4

#615

Post by FireBeyond »

angoragoats wrote: post #246
rtkwe wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's $800 to go up to 2TB from the 256GB model which is just criminally over priced. I can get double that for half the price with a Gen 4 NVMe drive. Weirdly the 8TB drive on the Pro is at least in line with the top of the line 8TB NVMe SSDs you can buy though there are cheaper options at about $600 vs the $1200 Apple is charging.

> I can get double that for half the price with a Gen 4 NVMe drive It's worse than that -- 4TB gen 4 drives can be had for well under $300, sometimes $225-250, and that's for buying a drive outright, not "trading up" from a 256GB device. I think it'd be more accurate to say that you can get double the capacity for a _quarter_ of the price.

Very much so. When I bought my "cheesegrater" Mac Pro, I wanted 8TB of SSD.

Except Apple wanted $3,000 for 7TB of SSD (considering the sticker price came with a baseline of 1TB).

I bought a 4xM.2 card and 4x2TB Samsung Pro SSDs, cost me $1,300, I got to keep the 1TB "system" SSD, and was faster, at 6.8GBps versus the system drive at 5.5.

Similar with memory. OWC literally sells the same memory as Apple (same manufacturer, same specifications. Apple also wanted $3,000 for 160GB of memory (going from 32 to 192). I paid $1,000.

Re: New Mac Mini with M4

#616

Post by jamesy0ung »

jlokier wrote: post #442
Afforess wrote: post #16

This seems like the perfect home media transcoding server (Plex, Kodi, etc). I am curious if these will ever be able to run Linux.

The other comments talk about Asahi Linux, which doesn't support the M3 yet. You can also run Linux in a VM on MacOS, and it runs very well. For some uses you won't get the best performance compared to native Linux. But for a Plex/Kodi server a VM should be great. (On an x86 Apple laptop I found the power consumption better with a Linux VM on MacOS than with native Linux, so VMs can be quite efficient for some uses.…

One of the reasons Asahi doesn't support M3, is that Apple never released a Mac Mini, so they can't do continuous integration. [1] That being said, it seems Apple does re use a lot of the parts on the SoC in each generation, so it's not too different.

[1] https://social.treehouse.systems/@marcan/112277289414246878

Re: New Mac Mini with M4

#617

Post by Flux159 »

srid wrote: post #544
franczesko wrote: post #360

Ryzen mini pcs seem to beat this in most of scenarios. Does anyone see clear advantages?

Is there a particular brand recommended for someone looking to run Linux server (not Windows or Linux desktop)?

I have a Minisforum UM690S, it's about the same size (5x5x2.25 inches) and works well as a small machine. They just announced the EliteMini AI370 today that has the latest AMD laptop chip with 12 cores/24 threads - I assume that would also be a decent linux server (note that ram is soldered on that one).

Re: New Mac Mini with M4

#618

Post by dvfjsdhgfv »

sangnoir wrote: post #450
wtallis wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right. The repairability argument is the reasonable discussion to have. The silly pricing games are more of a red herring.

"Repairability" is a red-herring when the discussion is about user-upgrades and the ability to purchase components from 3rd-party suppliers (who compete against each other and the OEM)

Apple is getting at throwing this red herring.

Re: New Mac Mini with M4

#619

Post by isametry »

vondur wrote: post #549
architect64 wrote: post #439

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

If you have a 1440P 27" monitor, they work great.

Basically operating at standard pre-Retina Mac DPI levels. The 27" Apple Cinema Display had exactly this resolution, as well as the 27" iMac before it went to 5K.

I agree, it works… fine. But sadly more and more elements of modern macOS will look blurry / aliased because they are only made with hi-DPI in mind.

For example all SF Symbols, as far as I know, are not defined as pixel graphics but only stored as vectors and rasterized on the fly. Which works great at high res and makes them freely scalable, but on low-DPI displays they certainly look worse than a pixel-perfect icon would.

Re: New Mac Mini with M4

#620

Post by mr_toad »

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…

> you may want to budget for a basic 4K display as well

Best investment you’ll ever make. They’re not all that expensive. Having experienced 4k I feel impoverished having to return to lower resolutions.

I feel it’s a travesty that workplaces spend thousands on fancy desks and chairs and cheap out on bargain basement monitors.

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