Mac Mini M2

[ozimoron]

I've pretty much decided to buy a mac mini m2 soon to replace my ASUS mini ubuntu machine which has a couple of issues with some software, particularly the Slack app.

 

I won't get the pro, just the standard with optional 16 Gb RAM. I don't need the enhanced GPU for a lot more cash. The stock drive is only 256 Gb but I prefer to use external storage anyway.

 

I was tempted to build a custom machine with Intel i7 13th gen and DDR5 RAM and run ubuntu on that but it would be considerably more expensive, albeit more fun.

 

Does anybody have positive or negative experiences with the mac mini?

Edited February 24, 2023 by ozimoron

[observer90210]

Have one running loud and clear for say 8 years I would say, with heavy use of the CPU for music editing and producing.

 

The Mac Mini is a fine machine and I would take the most powerful one in the market currently  in order to have something up to date for a longer period if you use it for editing any support (music, video etc).

 

But if it's only to go on the internet with basic use, the standard MacMini should do the job.

[ozimoron]

2 minutes ago, observer90210 said:

Have one running loud and clear for say 8 years I would say, with heavy use of the CPU for music editing and producing.

 

The Mac Mini is a fine machine and I would take the most powerful one in the market currently  in order to have something up to date for a longer period if you use it for editing any support (music, video etc).

 

But if it's only to go on the internet with basic use, the standard MacMini should do the job.

My main cpu usage would be compiling flutter development which isn't particularly heavy. I don't do anything with music or video. The m2 is much better than the m1 I'm told. I can't justify the extra for the pro model, just some extra RAM.

[HappyExpat57]

I have a 2013 Mac mini that's still running like a champ. They're basically bulletproof. I just went to Youtube to see if Apple has still locked you out from doing a hard drive update yourself and was absolutely FLOORED! They finally listened to the users and made the hard drive accessible with a simple four screw panel on the bottom. For that reason alone I'm thinking of getting an M2 myself.

The only downside I saw was how the ram is integrated and can't be upgraded, so be sure to get as much as you need up front. Once you buy it, it's a done deal.

Edited February 24, 2023 by HappyExpat57
redundancy

[sometimewoodworker]

7 hours ago, ozimoron said:

I've pretty much decided to buy a mac mini m2 soon to replace my ASUS mini ubuntu machine which has a couple of issues with some software, particularly the Slack app.

 

I won't get the pro, just the standard with optional 16 Gb RAM. I don't need the enhanced GPU for a lot more cash. The stock drive is only 256 Gb but I prefer to use external storage anyway.

 

I was tempted to build a custom machine with Intel i7 13th gen and DDR5 RAM and run ubuntu on that but it would be considerably more expensive, albeit more fun.

 

Does anybody have positive or negative experiences with the mac mini?

With the base model which is the 256 GB version you are hamstring yourself, the difficulty is that the M2 (unlike the M 1 that uses 2 x 128 GB chips) uses only 1 256 chip so anything that uses  disk IO like virtual memory is going at half the speed of the 512 GB version. So upgrading the storage will have far more effect than upgrading the unified memory.

So specifically for your use which is heavily reliant on disk IO for the compiler you are going to hate your choice if you don’t spring for the 16 GB integrated and at least 512 GB storage.

 

The 512 certainly uses striped writing so is double the speed of the 256 machine I haven’t heard if the 1 TB also stripes the IO among the 4 chips so doubling the IO speed again. It is quite likely that it does as the Mac Studio has an even higher IO speed 

[sometimewoodworker]

7 hours ago, ozimoron said:

The m2 is much better than the m1 I'm told.

That is not correct, yes it is better (maybe 20% or less) but the M1 Max and ultra are still beating it

[ozimoron]

1 hour ago, sometimewoodworker said:

With the base model which is the 256 GB version you are hamstring yourself, the difficulty is that the M2 (unlike the M 1 that uses 2 x 128 GB chips) uses only 1 256 chip so anything that uses  disk IO like virtual memory is going at half the speed of the 512 GB version. So upgrading the storage will have far more effect than upgrading the unified memory.

So specifically for your use which is heavily reliant on disk IO for the compiler you are going to hate your choice if you don’t spring for the 16 GB integrated and at least 512 GB storage.

 

The 512 certainly uses striped writing so is double the speed of the 256 machine I haven’t heard if the 1 TB also stripes the IO among the 4 chips so doubling the IO speed again. It is quite likely that it does as the Mac Studio has an even higher IO speed 

Damn, you just cost me 7,000 baht. Thanks, I think. ????

[sometimewoodworker]

9 minutes ago, ozimoron said:

Damn, you just cost me 7,000 baht. Thanks, I think. ????

Isn’t that better than spending 7,000 less and regretting it for the next couple of years? ???? ????

 

As I mentioned I haven’t hear if all the memory is striped (I don’t know the actual architecture) on RAID zero, if it is then it would explain the phenomenal 7,000 + GBs speed of the Mac Studio M1 ultra that is still smoking the M2 and M2 Pro 

 

I don’t know if the M2 pro with a 1 TB disk is faster enough (or is actually faster) to warrant the cost when you are getting close to the Mac Studio prices 

[ozimoron]

15 minutes ago, sometimewoodworker said:

Isn’t that better than spending 7,000 less and regretting it for the next couple of years? ???? ????

 

As I mentioned I haven’t hear if all the memory is striped (I don’t know the actual architecture) on RAID zero, if it is then it would explain the phenomenal 7,000 + GBs speed of the Mac Studio M1 ultra that is still smoking the M2 and M2 Pro 

 

I don’t know if the M2 pro with a 1 TB disk is faster enough (or is actually faster) to warrant the cost when you are getting close to the Mac Studio prices 

I already own some decent external storage so I think I'll pull up at 512 Gb. The extra speed of the internal drive is probably a worthwhile investment for me. The pro or better would be a waste of money.

 

My choice was either that or build a custom i7 13th gen with DDR5 RAM for a similar price. I have a custom built i9 9900K back home which I built for traveling. It weighs exactly 5 Kg and goes in a samsonite bag to just make the carry on limits. Here I would buy an NZXT 510 case which isn't exactly portable but these days I'm more digital and less nomad so not a huge issue. That said, I should just pull my head in and buy the mac. I normally run ubuntu. Thoughts?

 

My current daily driver is an ASUS PN51 with 32 Gb RAM and a 1Tb single card drive running ubuntu but I'm having issues with the Slack app which I need for work.

Edited February 25, 2023 by ozimoron

[sometimewoodworker]

2 minutes ago, ozimoron said:

I already own some decent external storage so I think I'll pull up at 512 Gb. The extra speed of the internal drive is probably a worthwhile investment for me. The pro or better would be a waste of money.

 

My choice was either that or build a custom i7 13th gen with DDR5 RAM for a similar price. I have a custom built i9 9900K back home which I built for traveling. It weighs exactly 5 Kg and goes in a samsonite bag to just make the carry on limits. Here I would buy an NZXT 510 case which isn't exactly portable but these days I'm more digital and less nomad so not a huge issue. That said, I should just pull my head in and buy the mac. I normally run ubuntu. Thoughts?

Probably the best choice for you. I rather doubt that you can get anything Intel or AMD that has a chance of equaling the M series machines for similar money and everything else is so power hungry that it’s going to thermal throttle really quickly while emulating a 747 in fan noise.

So yes intel/AMD can beat the M 1 /2. series speeds but you will be using water cooling and spend far more money to do that. 

[FriendlyFarang]

On 2/25/2023 at 9:06 AM, sometimewoodworker said:

With the base model which is the 256 GB version you are hamstring yourself, the difficulty is that the M2 (unlike the M 1 that uses 2 x 128 GB chips) uses only 1 256 chip so anything that uses  disk IO like virtual memory is going at half the speed of the 512 GB version. So upgrading the storage will have far more effect than upgrading the unified memory.

So specifically for your use which is heavily reliant on disk IO for the compiler you are going to hate your choice if you don’t spring for the 16 GB integrated and at least 512 GB storage.

 

The 512 certainly uses striped writing so is double the speed of the 256 machine I haven’t heard if the 1 TB also stripes the IO among the 4 chips so doubling the IO speed again. It is quite likely that it does as the Mac Studio has an even higher IO speed 

I doubt anybody will notice the difference in read/write speed, probably not even if you use both versions right next to each other in parallel.

The only way to see the difference is if you run a benchmark.

I would still suggest going with 512gb though, because 256 is indeed very little.

[kinyara]

On 2/25/2023 at 4:06 AM, ozimoron said:

I already own some decent external storage so I think I'll pull up at 512 Gb. The extra speed of the internal drive is probably a worthwhile investment for me. The pro or better would be a waste of money.

 

My choice was either that or build a custom i7 13th gen with DDR5 RAM for a similar price. I have a custom built i9 9900K back home which I built for traveling. It weighs exactly 5 Kg and goes in a samsonite bag to just make the carry on limits. Here I would buy an NZXT 510 case which isn't exactly portable but these days I'm more digital and less nomad so not a huge issue. That said, I should just pull my head in and buy the mac. I normally run ubuntu. Thoughts?

 

My current daily driver is an ASUS PN51 with 32 Gb RAM and a 1Tb single card drive running ubuntu but I'm having issues with the Slack app which I need for work.

Can I ask if you went ahead and bought, and you are happy with the purchase ?  Since I have all the external devices needed I was thinking of going for the Mini M2 16GB/512GB version myself, main usage would be not too demanding photo editing.

Edited July 16, 2023 by kinyara
Amend

[ozimoron]

21 minutes ago, kinyara said:

Can I ask if you went ahead and bought, and you are happy with the purchase ?  Since I have all the external devices needed I was thinking of going for the Mini M2 16GB/512GB version myself, main usage would be not too demanding photo editing.

I did buy the mac mini m2. I'm happy with it. I can highly recommend it. For now, Apple have got a march on their competition and the mac mini m2 at 20,700 is a great price. Notable is that the mac uses a third of the power of previous gen processors. I had to wait almost 2 weeks for it to arrive from Shenzhen because of the extras. RAM and disk add ons were 7,000 each. They can only be added at purchase time. I also recommend the Logitech MX Keys keyboard over the Apple magic keyboard. By a long shot. The Apple magic mouse is good though.

 

 

[kinyara]

2 hours ago, ozimoron said:

I did buy the mac mini m2. I'm happy with it. I can highly recommend it. For now, Apple have got a march on their competition and the mac mini m2 at 20,700 is a great price. Notable is that the mac uses a third of the power of previous gen processors. I had to wait almost 2 weeks for it to arrive from Shenzhen because of the extras. RAM and disk add ons were 7,000 each. They can only be added at purchase time. I also recommend the Logitech MX Keys keyboard over the Apple magic keyboard. By a long shot. The Apple magic mouse is good though.

 

 

Appreciate the quick reply and good to hear it worked out for you. I'm used to the Apple Thai laptop prices being cheaper than the UK but when I checked on the Mac Mini it's even more discounted at just shy of 30%, which is a very attractive price for the spec on the 16GB/512GB model. Pretty sure my lower spec 2019 laptop which is 8GB/128GB cost me significantly more. I've got 2 previous Apple keyboards, an old wired one and a wireless one I can use - I prefer the wired but maybe the wireless might be a bit more responsive with the Mini, plus a decent Logitech mouse. Not having to buy the additional stuff is part of the attraction. Reading comments on my photography forums, users speak well on the reliability of their previous Mac Mini's.

 

Thanks again. ????

[observer90210]

On 2/24/2023 at 7:53 PM, ozimoron said:

My main cpu usage would be compiling flutter development which isn't particularly heavy. I don't do anything with music or video. The m2 is much better than the m1 I'm told. I can't justify the extra for the pro model, just some extra RAM.

So right you are. Considering the time since and with my apologies for the late response, have you purchased since your M2 or are you waiting for the new release next year ? Would be delighted on your feedback as my 8 year old Mac Mini could do with some updated help !! I'm just a bit afraid as sometimes a much older version seems to be better conceived then the latest release.

Edited October 27, 2023 by observer90210