Buying a new Mac.

[Auto Artisan]

I’m looking to update my Macbook Pro as it’s sixteen years old and it’s starting to show its age. I’ve been thinking about a Mac Mini as I’ve already got several Thunderbolt Monitors. What specs would be worth considering?

[SchillingTwo]

I’ve just bought the M6 one, and paid up for 512Gb storage (which I messed up by having DropBox fill it with old files.)

I’m a bit shocked at the price, at £1,100 (or about £60 less on Amazon) but think it should do me for years. My previous one was coming up to ten years old and still sort of doing OK.

[Magnum 475]

Spec depends on what it’s used for.

Basic browsing, documents, spreadsheets, a MacBook Neo is plenty.

High end photo editing, 4k video editing, etc - high spec processor & lots of RAM become more important.

That said, I’m still using an M1 Pro Mac for 4k editing, and it runs plenty fast enough, and the CPU fan never starts up. So even this older gen CPU is more than adequate.

[butchstewie]

Is there anything you need that the base M6 won't do?

[WyrleyD]

I bought one of those stands that the mini sits on and it gives you extra ports and space for a SSD, I put a 1TB one in and made it my home drive.

[Auto Artisan]

Magnum 475 said:

Spec depends on what it s used for.

Basic browsing, documents, spreadsheets, a MacBook Neo is plenty.

High end photo editing, 4k video editing, etc - high spec processor & lots of RAM become more important.

That said, I m still using an M1 Pro Mac for 4k editing, and it runs plenty fast enough, and the CPU fan never starts up. So even this older gen CPU is more than adequate.

I’m planning to use it for Web Development, Graphic Design and I’ve recently started Photography. I’ve been told the M4 are supposed to be good as a slightly cheaper option.

[mmm-five]

Remember that the smallest SSDs on the Minis are about half speed of the bigger (512gb+) SSDs due to only using a single channel/slot.

The bigger ones use both slots so effectively run at 2x the speed.

Of course, if speed isn t a concern then buy the cheapest

If you want a better price on the new M6 Mini, then KRCS usually come in c.5% below MSRP - £829 if you are a Costco member.
https://www.krcs.co.uk/mac-mini-m6-12-core-cpu-12-... (£854 vs £899)
https://www.costco.co.uk/Computers/Desktops-PCs-iM... (£829 with extra £20 discount at checkout)

Edited by mmm-five on Sunday 4th October 14:42

[Dave Hedgehog]

also dont forget there is a command to set the app install folder to another drive so its often cheaper to buy a dock and a large drive than get the increased storage and just have the OS on the incl drive

https://uk.ugreen.com/products/mac-mini-m4-dock-11...

[danb79]

M4 16GB/256GB or 16GB/512GB via eBay or see if Apple have one on their refurb store

Still a superb Mac; massively powerful & speedy and unless you need/want the absolute latest; save some pennies and get the M4 one