Why the new Mac mini is the perfect home & family computer

Comments

• Reply 1 of 11

  slow n easy Posts: 323member

  January 24, 2023 1:52AM

  I ordered one but it won't be here until the end of February, and it's also spec'ed out at $1,999.99. I debated waiting to see how it would compare to a Mac Studio but who knows how long it would take for the update to arrive.
• Reply 2 of 11

  mikethemartian Posts: 1,320member

  January 24, 2023 2:06AM

  The base unit has half the main memory and storage of the Mac Mini I bought ten years ago.

  
• Reply 3 of 11

  DrBoar2 Posts: 7unconfirmed, member

  January 24, 2023 12:28PM

  Half the HD space of my mid 2011 budget and half of what I upgraded the RAM to on my own.
  The real insanity is that with the M2 I have to pay as much for adding 256 GB SSD as getting a 2 TB external HD!  That is an 8:1 ratio
  And why do I have to pay as much for adding 256 (256 to 512) as adding 512 (going from 412 to 1TB) !?
  
  
  
  

  
• Reply 4 of 11

  JMStearnsX2 Posts: 86member

  January 24, 2023 2:57PM

  slow n easy said:

  I ordered one but it won't be here until the end of February, and it's also spec'ed out at $1,999.99. I debated waiting to see how it would compare to a Mac Studio but who knows how long it would take for the update to arrive.

  I'm in the same situation, I'm not sure which one to get. I have my money ready, I wish I knew when the new Mac Studio is going to come out. I can wait a bit longer though.
  
  

  DrBoar2 said:

  Half the HD space of my mid 2011 budget and half of what I upgraded the RAM to on my own.
  The real insanity is that with the M2 I have to pay as much for adding 256 GB SSD as getting a 2 TB external HD!  That is an 8:1 ratio
  And why do I have to pay as much for adding 256 (256 to 512) as adding 512 (going from 412 to 1TB) !?
  
  
  
  

  I agree it's insane, I wouldn't mind the soldered memory and storage as much if it were more reasonably priced. How much they charge for memory and storage upgrades is criminal. External Thunderbolt storage has a bandwidth cap, even a single NVMe 3.0 will be much faster. Move to PCIe 4.0 or 5.0 and there is no comparison.
  I'm a certified Mac technician, I've seen the inside of the M1 mini. There is SO much empty space, you could fit 2x 2.5" drives inside and still have lots of air movement, much less having a few NVMe blades. The logic board & heatsink only takes about 20% of the interior volume, the rest is just air space from using the same enclosure from the last 13 years.  It would be trivial for Apple to add that capability to the logic board, but they won't when they make as much as they do on storage upgrades.

  
• Reply 5 of 11

  thadec Posts: 97member

  January 24, 2023 3:56PM

  I have a family of geeks so we all need (way) more than 8 GB RAM. I typically buy an 8 GB RAM machine intending to upgrade it to 32 GB, which costs about $80 if you do DDR4 and $120 if you go DDR5. But I do say that for "most people" $599 for such performance and the benefits of macOS - especially for iPhone and iPad users - is the best deal in ages. 

  edited January 2023
• Reply 6 of 11

  DAalseth Posts: 2,783member

  January 24, 2023 5:47PM

  I ran the numbers when the M2MM came out and got the same result. The MM is a far better deal with better performance than the iMac or the Studio. (Unless you max out the Studio.) Even buying a monitor for the Mini, I’m still several hundred ahead. 

  
• Reply 7 of 11

  AKApple Posts: 14member

  January 25, 2023 7:17PM

  JMStearnsX2 said:

  slow n easy said:

  I ordered one but it won't be here until the end of February, and it's also spec'ed out at $1,999.99. I debated waiting to see how it would compare to a Mac Studio but who knows how long it would take for the update to arrive.

  I'm in the same situation, I'm not sure which one to get. I have my money ready, I wish I knew when the new Mac Studio is going to come out. I can wait a bit longer though.
  
  

  DrBoar2 said:

  Half the HD space of my mid 2011 budget and half of what I upgraded the RAM to on my own.
  The real insanity is that with the M2 I have to pay as much for adding 256 GB SSD as getting a 2 TB external HD!  That is an 8:1 ratio
  And why do I have to pay as much for adding 256 (256 to 512) as adding 512 (going from 412 to 1TB) !?
  
  
  
  

  I agree it's insane, I wouldn't mind the soldered memory and storage as much if it were more reasonably priced. How much they charge for memory and storage upgrades is criminal. External Thunderbolt storage has a bandwidth cap, even a single NVMe 3.0 will be much faster. Move to PCIe 4.0 or 5.0 and there is no comparison.
  I'm a certified Mac technician, I've seen the inside of the M1 mini. There is SO much empty space, you could fit 2x 2.5" drives inside and still have lots of air movement, much less having a few NVMe blades. The logic board & heatsink only takes about 20% of the interior volume, the rest is just air space from using the same enclosure from the last 13 years.  It would be trivial for Apple to add that capability to the logic board, but they won't when they make as much as they do on storage upgrades.

  Apple/Mac has always been overpriced, yes, to the extent that it borders on criminal. But there are millions and millions of chumps like myself that continue to pay those insane prices. Until we convince ourselves that PC's will do precisely the same tasks for far less $$ it will remain as it is, and we have no one but ourselves to blame. I'm still running a 2013 27" iMac that is way, way obsolete by Mac standards, I refuse to get caught up in that "I gotta' have it because it's the latest and greatest from Apple" syndrome. Same with my 2016 MBP. Both machines still work great.

  
• Reply 8 of 11

  charlesn Posts: 833member

  February 3, 2023 3:59PM

  The new Mac mini can rightfully be called many great things, but "the perfect home and family computer" is not one of them... unless said home or family already owns the full suite of peripherals that will be necessary to buy to make the Mini comparable to an iMac: monitor, mouse, keyboard, webcam, speakers. You get premium Apple versions of all of these in one thin, attractive and "matched" package with an iMac, plus a single power cord that ties up just one outlet. Purchasing these peripherals of Apple quality separately would quickly get you to (or past) the price of an iMac, plus you end up with more cords and mismatched peripherals, like speakers and webcam, that are added on rather than built-in. Yes, the new Mac mini offers more power, but what's the home or family use case that demands more power than a base iMac M1? Here's what's curious about the tech press: even thought the base M1 chip blew the doors off of its Intel predecessors, the press still discusses base M1 machines like they're grannycore computers only suitable for casual email and web-browsing. The base M1 iMac will easily handle anything that the average family or home will throw at it without breaking a sweat. 
  
  The more interesting and valid use case for the new Mac mini is it's potential as a Mac Studio Junior -- there are probably many buyers for whom the Mac Studio form factor makes sense, but for whom even the base model is more than they need--now the new Mac mini offers similar power at a reduced price, minus some bells and whistles that likely aren't important to the Mini buyer. 
• Reply 9 of 11

  charlesn Posts: 833member

  February 3, 2023 4:39PM

  AKApple said:

  Apple/Mac has always been overpriced, yes, to the extent that it borders on criminal. But there are millions and millions of chumps like myself that continue to pay those insane prices. Until we convince ourselves that PC's will do precisely the same tasks for far less $$ it will remain as it is, and we have no one but ourselves to blame. I'm still running a 2013 27" iMac that is way, way obsolete by Mac standards, I refuse to get caught up in that "I gotta' have it because it's the latest and greatest from Apple" syndrome. Same with my 2016 MBP. Both machines still work great.

  Whether something is "overpriced" involves consideration of much more than just the initial price paid. 
  
  First, let's consider that your now 10-year-old iMac "still works great" per your own description. You've had a decade of use and still going strong for a desktop that listed (standard model) at $1799. That's $180 per year or about 50 cents a day for a desktop that STILL does everything you need it to do well. How many of the cheaper Windows desktops you could have bought are still "working great" after ten years? A very under appreciated part of the Mac value proposition is that they CAN be used for a decade or longer -- you can choose to avoid upgrading if you wish because Apple machines last... and because of #2 below, which is equally important. 
  
  Second. let's consider that your 2013 iMac was able to run the latest and greatest Mac OS until Nov 2020 when Big Sur was released. For seven years the OS of your iMac was as current as any other Mac out there. You had seven years of new Mac OS releases for FREE. And even now, Apple continues to support Catalina on your 10-year-old machine with security updates. Again, how many of the cheaper Windows desktops you could have bought were supported with the latest Windows OS for free for that time. Here, let me help: None. How many are still getting security updates? In terms of support with the latest OS with the latest features, nothing matches the longevity of a Mac and you get that kind of support for free. 
  
  Third, where Apple used to lag behind in price/performance comparisons, that is no longer the case. Especially since the M-chip debuted, Apple is performance competitive with anything else at its price point. 
  
  And finally: even after years of use, if you've kept your Mac or Macbook in excellent condition, they still have resale value. Last year, I sold my 2015 Macbook 12" on Craiglist for $350. Back in 2017, I sold my 2009 iMac for $500. Show me a cheap Windows desktop or laptop that retains that kind of resale value after that many years. A key part of value retention is that a 6 or 7 year old Apple machine is able to run a very recent (if not the latest) Mac OS, and will still receive security updates from Apple. 
• Reply 10 of 11

  muthuk_vanalingam Posts: 1,333member

  February 3, 2023 6:16PM

  charlesn said:

  AKApple said:

  Apple/Mac has always been overpriced, yes, to the extent that it borders on criminal. But there are millions and millions of chumps like myself that continue to pay those insane prices. Until we convince ourselves that PC's will do precisely the same tasks for far less $$ it will remain as it is, and we have no one but ourselves to blame. I'm still running a 2013 27" iMac that is way, way obsolete by Mac standards, I refuse to get caught up in that "I gotta' have it because it's the latest and greatest from Apple" syndrome. Same with my 2016 MBP. Both machines still work great.

  Whether something is "overpriced" involves consideration of much more than just the initial price paid. 
  
  First, let's consider that your now 10-year-old iMac "still works great" per your own description. You've had a decade of use and still going strong for a desktop that listed (standard model) at $1799. That's $180 per year or about 50 cents a day for a desktop that STILL does everything you need it to do well. How many of the cheaper Windows desktops you could have bought are still "working great" after ten years? A very under appreciated part of the Mac value proposition is that they CAN be used for a decade or longer -- you can choose to avoid upgrading if you wish because Apple machines last... and because of #2 below, which is equally important. 
  
  Second. let's consider that your 2013 iMac was able to run the latest and greatest Mac OS until Nov 2020 when Big Sur was released. For seven years the OS of your iMac was as current as any other Mac out there. You had seven years of new Mac OS releases for FREE. And even now, Apple continues to support Catalina on your 10-year-old machine with security updates. Again, how many of the cheaper Windows desktops you could have bought were supported with the latest Windows OS for free for that time. Here, let me help: None. How many are still getting security updates? In terms of support with the latest OS with the latest features, nothing matches the longevity of a Mac and you get that kind of support for free. 
  
  Third, where Apple used to lag behind in price/performance comparisons, that is no longer the case. Especially since the M-chip debuted, Apple is performance competitive with anything else at its price point. 
  
  And finally: even after years of use, if you've kept your Mac or Macbook in excellent condition, they still have resale value. Last year, I sold my 2015 Macbook 12" on Craiglist for $350. Back in 2017, I sold my 2009 iMac for $500. Show me a cheap Windows desktop or laptop that retains that kind of resale value after that many years. A key part of value retention is that a 6 or 7 year old Apple machine is able to run a very recent (if not the latest) Mac OS, and will still receive security updates from Apple. 

  I think you are mixing up Android and Windows interchangeably when it comes to software support. Android phones - you would be lucky if you get OS or security updates after 2 years of purchase (except Samsung Flagship/Pixel phones), Not so with windows. I have a 15 year old windows PC (assembled) and it is running windows 10 with latest security patches. Of course, I upgraded it during various times in the last 15 years (Processor and mother board about 8 years ago, HDD to SSD about 3 years ago and Monitor about 2 years ago). Only windows 11 is not supported in older hardware due to new hardware requirement imposed by the OS. The prior versions of windows did NOT impose this restriction and even ancient PCs had the capability to run latest OS and security updates without any problem (unlike MacOS). The key point is - Windows OS has been historically supported on ALL PCs for a much longer span than MacOS was ever supported.

  edited February 2023