New Apple Mac Mini M2 Pro released yesterday...totally revolutionary!

[sometimewoodworker]

2 hours ago, WaveHunter said:

I guess that's possible, even likely it will ship right off the assembly line in China, but Apple is claiming very short delivery times of 1 -5 days, so I don't care where it's coming from really.

 

I talked with Apple in Singapore today and they affirmed the short delivery time, and also affirmed that if I wait a couple of weeks I should be able to pick one up at the Apple store in Bangkok, and that way I can get a refund on VAT when I leave Thailand in September.  It's only a savings of $90 but still, money is money.

The availability on the website was only at 17th when it was available on Tuesday and the delivery is given at 1 to 1½ weeks (9th to 13th) , it’s got shorter this evening, and if you have the correct visa you will get the VAT back, but you may not if you have an extension.

[WaveHunter]

14 hours ago, sometimewoodworker said:

The availability on the website was only at 17th when it was available on Tuesday and the delivery is given at 1 to 1½ weeks (9th to 13th) , it’s got shorter this evening, and if you have the correct visa you will get the VAT back, but you may not if you have an extension.

As of this morning this is what I see from Apple-Thailand:

I can live with that ????

 

It would be nice to get a refund on VAT but no big deal if I don't since it's really only 7%

 

My real dilemma right now is deciding between the Mini Pro and the basic Mini configured with 16gB of RAM and a 512gB SSD.  The difference is cost is:  45,000 THB for the pro, and 34,900 for the custom configured Mini. It's enough of a difference to really decide whether I need the Pro or not.

 

I know I need 16gb RAM and 512gB SSD, but I'm not so sure if I really need the added cores and 4 (instead of 2) Thunderbolt 4 ports on the Pro model

 

I mean, most of my work is in Photoshop (no video work at all).  Typically I have Photoshop, Lightroom, and some other apps like Mail and Chrome open with 7-10 tabs open on it.  I'm pretty sure the Basic Mac can handle that.

 

I only really need one thunderbolt port for its' high speed (to connect to an external SSD).  All of my other peripherals will run fine on regular USB ports, and the enhanced HDMI isn't necessary since my monitor can work fine on a regular HDMI port.

 

If anyone can think of a reason I might be overlooking as far as the more expensive pro version mini goes, I'd like to hear about it.

 

 

 

Edited February 3, 2023 by WaveHunter

[sometimewoodworker]

5 hours ago, WaveHunter said:

If anyone can think of a reason I might be overlooking as far as the more expensive pro version mini goes, I'd like to hear about it.

The base M2 Pro has 25% more CPU (available 50% more) 62% more GPU (available 90% more)

the 16GB of unified memory is probably the minimum, the M2 Pro can double that.

 

The biggest mistake is buying a computer that will do exactly what you need today unless you envision buying a new model In about 2 years. I made that mistake once with the iMac I bought in 2015 as it could not be upgraded. I didn’t make that mistake with all the other machines.

 

Only you can decide how much you want to spend.

 

My experience is that my needs have increased over time so if you are looking at a 10 year usable life span then apple’s prices are something you only cry about once but enjoy for years. Spend too little and you are likely to want to trade it in long before you need to.

[WaveHunter]

47 minutes ago, sometimewoodworker said:

The base M2 Pro has 25% more CPU (available 50% more) 62% more GPU (available 90% more)

the 16GB of unified memory is probably the minimum, the M2 Pro can double that.

 

The biggest mistake is buying a computer that will do exactly what you need today unless you envision buying a new model In about 2 years. I made that mistake once with the iMac I bought in 2015 as it could not be upgraded. I didn’t make that mistake with all the other machines.

 

Only you can decide how much you want to spend.

 

My experience is that my needs have increased over time so if you are looking at a 10 year usable life span then apple’s prices are something you only cry about once but enjoy for years. Spend too little and you are likely to want to trade it in long before you need to.

I agree with your line of reasoning about trying to be future-proof, but the truth is that in two years, even the mini-pro will be obsolete.

 

Bottom line for me is that until this year I was working just fine with my old 2013 MacBook Pro with 16gB RAM, and only had to upgrade now because the latest versions of Photoshop require more graphics power than my MBP can provide.

 

Even the basic mac mini with only 8gb RAM would probably work ok.  Remember that the M chips utilize RAM in a much more efficient way than the intels did.

 

 

I think the basic Mac Mini with 16gB RAM and a 512 SSD should be more than enough, and take me through at least a few years, and by then, no matter if I had the most advanced Mac available right now, it would also probably be obsolete. 

 

I mean, buying a computer, or smartphone these days is not really an investment anymore; they're just commodities that you use for a few years and then discard unfortunately.  I've got three old iPhone's sitting in my desk drawer right now that can't run present day iOS anymore, and my current one is soon due to join them ????

 

 

[sometimewoodworker]

40 minutes ago, WaveHunter said:

the truth is that in two years, even the mini-pro will be obsolete.

That depends on your definition of obsolete. I have a Mac Mini 2008 version that is (or will be when I manage my supply of round tuits) providing music storage.
Until the end of last year my 2010 Mac Mini server was running my email since the program wasn’t updated beyond Snow Leopard.

So the useful, though limited use, life of Macs for me is vastly longer than 2 years

 

I have an iPhone 3GS (12 years old) that is locked to SoftBank that is a perfect iPod resident on one of my Kenwood boomboxes.

I have an iPhone 4s that is also locked to SoftBank that will be a perfect iPod resident on another of my Kenwood boomboxes.

 

40 minutes ago, WaveHunter said:

I've got three old iPhone's sitting in my desk drawer right now that can't run present day iOS anymore, and my current one is soon due to join them

I have several more of the Kenwood players that could usefully use more old phones so if you feel like donating any 30 pin interface phones I will be happy to accept them and give them a new lease on life. 
 

I do have a few iPods that probably will be resuscitated by putting in flash memory (when I manage my supply of round tuits) so though the old phones would be useful they are not vital just would be nice to have.

 

I also have iMazing so if there is any data that you haven’t managed to extract I can assist, though you may prefer to reset them to factory standard before letting them into the wild if you allow their escape. ???? 

 

 

 

Edited February 3, 2023 by sometimewoodworker

[sometimewoodworker]

18 hours ago, WaveHunter said:

Even the basic mac mini with only 8gb RAM would probably work ok.  Remember that the M chips utilize RAM in a much more efficient way than the intels did.

It’s rather difficult to compare the M series chips with Intel as the M series uses the RAM for graphics and CPU while the intel doesn’t, so the integrated is more efficient but looses out on the required amount needed, for your use going up to 24Gb will probably be beneficial here is a comparison of 8 to 16 the 16 to 24 is likely to see an additional speed up 

 

 

[WaveHunter]

2 hours ago, sometimewoodworker said:

It’s rather difficult to compare the M series chips with Intel as the M series uses the RAM for graphics and CPU while the intel doesn’t, so the integrated is more efficient but looses out on the required amount needed, for your use going up to 24Gb will probably be beneficial here is a comparison of 8 to 16 the 16 to 24 is likely to see an additional speed up 

 

Hey @sometimewoodworker, That was a really informative video. I thought I had seen every video on the M2 chip on YouTube but somehow I missed this one!  I found it super informative since it's one of the few videos I've seen that really focused on Adobe Lightroom which I use much more than Photoshop lately.

I'm going to watch it later tonight in-depth but my takeaway is that the Mini configured with 16 gigs RAM and 512 SSD should be just fine.

 

Though this video was made 6 months ago, he mentioned that Lightroom (at that time) had not yet been optimized for the M2 chip, so I'm going to look into that, but even so, it sounds like I should be fine.

 

Thanks for posting the video!