AIR/PRO vs. Mini

[joecatz1]

assume PORTABILITY is not an issue, but a convenience, and youve got a good monitor, keyboard, mouse set up with decent speakers already.

Is there ANY REASON to spend the extra $350-500 to get the same chip, same ram, same storage in the laptop over just buying the MINI if you really want a silicon mac first generation?

assume its an everyday computer with the ability to start dabbing with FC pro and the user is a teenager who never leaves his computer station at home.

also, can you GET BY with 8G, 256 and an external hardrive with the native apps?

 

[ADGrant]

assume PORTABILITY is not an issue, but a convenience, and youve got a good monitor, keyboard, mouse set up with decent speakers already.

Is there ANY REASON to spend the extra $350-500 to get the same chip, same ram, same storage in the laptop over just buying the MINI if you really want a silicon mac first generation?

assume its an everyday computer with the ability to start dabbing with FC pro and the user is a teenager who never leaves his computer station at home.

also, can you GET BY with 8G, 256 and an external hardrive with the native apps?

If you don't need the portability, the Mini is a much better idea. A MBA will be slower and more expensive.

 

[theluggage]

Is there ANY REASON to spend the extra $350-500 to get the same chip, same ram, same storage in the laptop over just buying the MINI if you really want a silicon mac first generation?

No - unless not having Touch ID is a deal-breaker.

Of course, if you didn't already have the display, keyboard, mouse/trackpad, speakers, webcam (if needed) they'd probably eat the price difference - but you say you've got those.

However, Captain Obvious, he say you can use a laptop on a desk, but you can't use a desktop on your lap, so if you have any doubts about not wanting portability...

also, can you GET BY with 8G, 256 and an external hardrive with the native apps?

Tricky. This is where the non-upgradeability bites, because if you get it wrong you're stuck. If I were doing anything with video or graphics I'd go with 16GB "just in case".

 

[brianmowrey]

I don't see how you bridge "really want 1G Apple silicon" with "teenager learning FC Pro."

Is this hypothetical teenager insisting they will only develop an interest in filmmaking if they can do it without Intel, but by next year that ship will have sailed?

Anyway, yes there's reasons to shell out more money for a portable instead of the Mini for a teenage user, as their usage pattern is susceptible to radical changes within the lifespan of the machine.

 

[joecatz1]

I don't see how you bridge "really want 1G Apple silicon" with "teenager learning FC Pro."

Is this hypothetical teenager insisting they will only develop an interest in filmmaking if they can do it without Intel, but by next year that ship will have sailed?

Anyway, yes there's reasons to shell out more money for a portable instead of the Mini for a teenage user, as their usage pattern is susceptible to radical changes within the lifespan of the machine.

hes been wanting final cut for a while now, but he currently has a 2017 i5 macbook air and its just not fast enough or powerful enough. the education store has a fantastic PRO apps bundle we qualify for, and we've been waiting the silicon to come out to upgrade. we initially were hoping for (or going to wait) for the 24' imac to replace the 8 year old 27' IMAC in my wifes office (1 TB harddrive full of 8 years woirth of photos and word docs and videos) but the MINI just looks like a real interesting option when we can build it with 16G and 512 for right around a grand.

give the wife the 2017 for her everyday stuff, and maybe wait on the imac for a the second or third gen now... not sure what to do...

 

[ThirteenXIII]

i dont think RAM is as important as it was in previous Mac models where the new Apple silicon architecture and SSD are handling more of those tasks. if that is the case i think a baseline Mac mini would be a perfect entry device

 

[KPOM]

hes been wanting final cut for a while now, but he currently has a 2017 i5 macbook air and its just not fast enough or powerful enough. the education store has a fantastic PRO apps bundle we qualify for, and we've been waiting the silicon to come out to upgrade. we initially were hoping for (or going to wait) for the 24' imac to replace the 8 year old 27' IMAC in my wifes office (1 TB harddrive full of 8 years woirth of photos and word docs and videos) but the MINI just looks like a real interesting option when we can build it with 16G and 512 for right around a grand.

give the wife the 2017 for her everyday stuff, and maybe wait on the imac for a the second or third gen now... not sure what to do...

The mini will be faster because of the fan. The Air might be more versatile in the long run for taking notes in college, etc. 256GB might be constraining since videos take up lots of room, but you can always add external storage for older files. I’d suggest getting 16GB RAM, though.

 

[joecatz1]

The mini will be faster because of the fan. The Air might be more versatile in the long run for taking notes in college, etc. 256GB might be constraining since videos take up lots of room, but you can always add external storage for older files. I’d suggest getting 16GB RAM, though.

yeah. agree. the fear with 256 for me with this move to silicon (probably overworrying here) is that as apple continues to move to an "APP" based environment those will eat up internal storage much faster than we're used to.

 

[joecatz1]

It’s also incredibly hard to decide how to configure this thing without any on hand reviews yet.

 

[brianmowrey]

hes been wanting final cut for a while now, ... we initially were hoping for (or going to wait) for the 24' imac to replace the 8 year old 27' IMAC in my wifes office ... give the wife the 2017 for her everyday stuff, and maybe wait on the imac for a the second or third gen now... not sure what to do...

Unless it's low-spec, your 8 year old 27 iMac can likely keep pace with an M1 Mini or Macbook in FC pro as long as you plop in 16/32GB memory. (But there's a big CPU and GPU bandwidth range for iMacs bought in 2012, so "likely" is tentative).

Potentially, you could swap the MBA and iMac and change nothing else for another year, allowing the teen plenty of FC Pro skill-building on the iMac while M1 graduates to true "pro"-kitted Macs. Buy a nice 1440p Sony/ASUS external display for the MBA in the meantime, they're prettier than 4k+ displays anyway.

 

[KPOM]

It’s also incredibly hard to decide how to configure this thing without any on hand reviews yet.

If you are in the US, the good news is that we are now in the extended return period. Right now orders are showing delivery 11/27-12/4. That would give you over a month to decide if the base is sufficient.

 

[jazz1]

i dont think RAM is as important as it was in previous Mac models where the new Apple silicon architecture and SSD are handling more of those tasks. if that is the case i think a baseline Mac mini would be a perfect entry device

I’m kind of perplexed about the RAM limitation in the M1 Macs! In the past more RAM, was “more good” . I suppose there is always an upper limit on how much RAM your Mac can actually take advantage of. For instance my 2015 iMac loved get bumped up with third party RAM, as I could see I was using most of it. In the old days running out of RAM was definitely a “beach ball” spinning wheel event! So, with the new M1, and Big Sur I sure would like to know what old equivalencies would be between Intel Macs and M1 Macs. Meaning, am I going to be “beach balling” with 16GB vs. higher RAM in my Intel Mac? I do have a 16GB MacMini on the way.

 

[joecatz1]

Unless it's low-spec, your 8 year old 27 iMac can likely keep pace with an M1 Mini or Macbook in FC pro as long as you plop in 16/32GB memory. (But there's a big CPU and GPU bandwidth range for iMacs bought in 2012, so "likely" is tentative).

Potentially, you could swap the MBA and iMac and change nothing else for another year, allowing the teen plenty of FC Pro skill-building on the iMac while M1 graduates to true "pro"-kitted Macs. Buy a nice 1440p Sony/ASUS external display for the MBA in the meantime, they're prettier than 4k+ displays anyway.

yeah the imac is toast.

 

[brianmowrey]

yeah the imac is toast.

Ah. Too bad. The late 2012 i7 27's at 16GBwould def outperform your current 8GB MBA.

You are likely forced to reassess how much you are willing to pay for a timely upgrade. Yes, if it were a year from now, and M1 had graduated into "pro" configs, where barely adequate RAM and storage plus portability did not obviate the attractive pricing of the 2020 M1 baseline mini, you would reap the large discount compared to current high-end MBPs.

But it is not a year from now. And that discount confers no value if the lack of storage/portability becomes a constraint 14 months from now. Write off the higher cost of a current Intel MBP as a "tax" on bad timing, and move on. You want a 16GB-min 13 Intel MBP refurb.