PLEASE ANY HELP!! So I have been using Mac’s for over 20 years but I have always had a “Mac guy” to help me with these questions. He recently passed away. I have already googled the topic but have read mixed reviews/advice. I use an ancient Mac mini to write and record my music as I do t need it for anything online. I have a PC that is reaching end of life and I want to get back to a Mac for simple things like going through photo’s, banking, surfing, and some other things one might use a desktop in lieu of an iPhone. I really miss a Mac for these things. I have enough saved to get a basic M2 Mac mini. I know SSD’s have a limited life depending on how many time one write over them. At 256gb that’s not a lot. I was thinking of moving the photos and iTunes app to an external. I’m thinking there must be a way with the Silicone Mac’s to still use/store all photos and music to an external as to bypass the internal SSD saving life and storage as well. I know that the basic mini swaps RAM with the SSD when tasked hard and I plan to try not to do this. I live in a very fixed income so anything beyond the basic model is more than I can justify spending within my means. I am disabled so money is tight. Am I right in thinking that I am essential bypassing the chance of writing to the internal drive this way saving space and the life of the SSD. I want to get 4 years or so out of this Mac if I do buy it. If anyone has an answer and perhaps a YouTube link, that would be SO APPRECIATED…. Thanks for taking the time to reading and help with my situation.
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From Intel to M2 (external HDD question)
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Addressing buying a new Mac Mini, I would suggest you look at the Apple Refurbished store first, as you can save some money there, with the same warranty as new. Since 2007 for my wife, daughter and myself at 2 locations, I have purchased 7 Macs and have only bought 1 new one; the rest refurbished, with no need for repairs, either Apple or from itsworthmore.com, which provides an Allstate Warranty .
As far as SSD's having limited lives, it's not something I'd worry about, since unless there is a defect or abuse, it should hold up for quite some time. You'd probably have to be running around the clock in your 4 year time frame to burn it out. If a defect, your selling source should make good on it. Here's an article regarding that: https://superuser.com/questions/1764255/how-reliable-is-the-remaining-lifetime-of-an-ssd
My current iMac is an 2017 Intel, I have swapped out the Fusion drive for 2 x 1TB SSD's, with no issues for several years running, using it for Photography Post processing, word processing, spreadsheets and surfing. That said, if the SSD in the Silicon Mac goes bad, you'd have a big repair bill, since it's all one soldered system.
You absolutely can use external drives to store everything, even moving your entire User Folder onto one. I don't like that setup as I've had issues in the past, so I use a drive called HOME and move my files to it, calling them, My Documents, My Music, My Pictures, etc. and then save new ones to those, taking them off the main drive. Basically, I only leave the OS, Applications and User on the main drive, and ignore the Documents, Music, Pictures, etc. in the User Folder. I also keep My Downloads on the HOME drive and have an Automator workflow move any files put into User>Downloads to the HOME>My Downloads folder.
You mention moving the iTunes app, but 2 things you need to know. 1) There is no longer an iTunes app on a Mac. it has been split into three standalone music, video, and podcasting apps. 2) Additionally, you don't need to move the apps as, for instance, you can maintain your Music Library on the HOME drive and point the app there in its' settings.
I know it all starts to get a bit complicated,so you may need to find a new "Mac Guy" or pay someone to help you through all these changes. Maybe a local college or school or senior center can help out too. One last word, make sure you have at least one, preferably 2 or more backups of all your data.
Good luck
I’d suggest you find a refurbished, base model M1 Mac Mini for even cheaper, especially if all you’re doing is light, basic tasks as you’ve described. I haven’t ever found a reason to upgrade my M1 Mac Mini to the M2, as the CPU performance still takes the cake. Check Apple’s refurbished/clearance page, or the various other places that sell used Macs (eBay, Offerup, Craigslist, etc etc) for good deals.
IMO the SSD lifespan should not be a concern with your use case. You’d have to be routinely writing dozens to hundreds of gigabytes a DAY to wear that SSD out within the next 10-15 years. Some online articles discussing this topic estimate that the Mac Mini’s SSD could last up to 750TB of writes. You’d be better off with offloading your media onto an external SSD anyway, since the internal 256GB is actually puny after a while.
Memory management is stellar with the recent releases of macOS. I daily drive a base 8GB RAM MacBook Air M1 for all of the basic stuff and a bit of gaming, and it’s all still running quite seamlessly. I could run multiple screen sharing/VNC instances, Safari with dozens of tabs, transfer large files back and forth in Finder, and Factorio on several virtual Spaces and it’s unrelentingly responsive. From what I understand, macOS allocates almost all of the available memory toward OS functions by default (unused memory is wasted memory). It will then smartly reallocate the memory depending on your usage and the apps you open, which helps keeps things snappy. As long as the “memory pressure” stays green in the Activity Monitor, it’s running optimally. I’ve used my Mac Mini M1 as a Plex server and for general desktop uses for weeks since the last reboot, and checking now, “Swap used” still reports as 0 bytes.
Overall, I think you’ll be okay for the next 7+ years with even a base model M1 Mac Mini. Hope this helps!
IMO the SSD lifespan should not be a concern with your use case. You’d have to be routinely writing dozens to hundreds of gigabytes a DAY to wear that SSD out within the next 10-15 years. Some online articles discussing this topic estimate that the Mac Mini’s SSD could last up to 750TB of writes. You’d be better off with offloading your media onto an external SSD anyway, since the internal 256GB is actually puny after a while.
Memory management is stellar with the recent releases of macOS. I daily drive a base 8GB RAM MacBook Air M1 for all of the basic stuff and a bit of gaming, and it’s all still running quite seamlessly. I could run multiple screen sharing/VNC instances, Safari with dozens of tabs, transfer large files back and forth in Finder, and Factorio on several virtual Spaces and it’s unrelentingly responsive. From what I understand, macOS allocates almost all of the available memory toward OS functions by default (unused memory is wasted memory). It will then smartly reallocate the memory depending on your usage and the apps you open, which helps keeps things snappy. As long as the “memory pressure” stays green in the Activity Monitor, it’s running optimally. I’ve used my Mac Mini M1 as a Plex server and for general desktop uses for weeks since the last reboot, and checking now, “Swap used” still reports as 0 bytes.
Overall, I think you’ll be okay for the next 7+ years with even a base model M1 Mac Mini. Hope this helps!
As posted above, you don't have to worry about the life span of the SSD, it will last longer than you do. If you are short of cash, look at the Apple refurbished models, and try to get a model with a 512GB SSD. The basic MacBook Air is also a good deal, and the refurbished store often has models with the 512Gb SSD. Either a MBA or a Mini will do anything you throw at it, the Apple Silicon machines are in a whole different class than what you have been using!
Miss when I had the money to buy new machines with fairly maxed out specs. Two G5 towers and they were AWESOME!!!!! . The current 2010 mini I have severed me very well even though it was a downgrade from the towers. I do miss when you could add your own ram and HDD ( well, ow SSD )….
I'm considering a Mac Mini to replace my very old iMac.
Since Apple charges so much for the internal NAND chip (the SSD), I'm planning on using an external SSD as my "Start Up" disk, as it used to be called.
This means installing MacOS on the external drive. It is not difficult, but may be something quite foreign to you so you may find it a bit scary.
In order to keep using my old iMac I had to, years ago, switch from the internal HD (which failed anyway) to using an external SSD as the boot drive. Works great.
I'm planning on also getting an external SSD for Time Machine. Currently I use an OWC hard drive daisy chained from the Start Up SSD as my Time Machine.
Note: while buying refurbished is a great way to save money, I've not found the M-series Mac Minis to be that as the Education Store price is the same or better than the refurbished price. Use the Education Store to get the M2 Mini for only $499.
OP:
DO NOT buy any Mini UNLESS it has 16gb of RAM.
DO NOT buy any Mini UNLESS it has a 512gb SSD.
DO buy from the Apple online refurbished store:
If you buy a Mini with only 8gb of RAM and 256GB SSD, I predict you will become dissatisfied with it sooner, rather than later.
My opinion only.
Others will disagree.
Some will disagree vehemently.
DO NOT buy any Mini UNLESS it has 16gb of RAM.
DO NOT buy any Mini UNLESS it has a 512gb SSD.
DO buy from the Apple online refurbished store:
Refurbished Mac - Mac mini
Save up to 15% on a refurbished Mac mini. Tested and certified by Apple including a 1-year warranty. Free delivery and returns.
www.apple.com
If you buy a Mini with only 8gb of RAM and 256GB SSD, I predict you will become dissatisfied with it sooner, rather than later.
My opinion only.
Others will disagree.
Some will disagree vehemently.
This is true. Buy refurbished, you can get much better specs for the same price. Also, don't worry about M1 vs M2. Either is fine for your needs. M2 is only 20-30% better than M1 in benchmarks and that's not enough to make a difference for you.DO NOT buy any Mini UNLESS it has 16gb of RAM.
DO NOT buy any Mini UNLESS it has a 512gb SSD.
DO buy from the Apple online refurbished store:
Refurbished Mac - Mac mini
Save up to 15% on a refurbished Mac mini. Tested and certified by Apple including a 1-year warranty. Free delivery and returns.www.apple.com
If you buy a Mini with only 8gb of RAM and 256GB SSD, I predict you will become dissatisfied with it sooner, rather than later.
Focus instead on buying more RAM. In 2023, it doesn't matter what you're doing. You need more than 8gb.
Not for the M2 Mini!
Refurbished price for the base config: $509.
New price in the Edu store: $499.
I don't think they're buying from the edu store, and that's a good point. On the apple education store, you can get up to $150 off of Macs. OP, look on there and see if that is a good deal. (It's technically supposed to be for education only, but nobody really cares)
I may buy from edu store as my kid is homeschooled ( thanks to 2020 ). It’s turned out to be a good thing. Learning to type on a keyboard is going to be something that my kid will have to learn so I don’t feel dishonest by doing so if I go that route. Wonder if they charge shipping and that brings it up to almost the same price m, obviously shipping won’t be $100 but I did read where people were waiting weeks to get there desktop via the Apple Store /edu Store. As far as the ram I will very much consider the upgrade. It is nuts that they want that much for $35 worth of ram. In the past I always upgraded my own ram and HDD. Those days are gone it seems. I really only need this for the most basic of things. Everything is basically able to be done on my iPhone but it is nice to use a desktop to do the few things that iOS doesn’t do as well. Making folders for my photos and family videos would be one such thing. I don’t plan on any editing, just keeping them labeled and in the right place ( external drive and a backup of said drive ). At $499 it is hard not to just get 2 to 3 years out of it. The only thing about the upgrade ( if I don’t go with a refurbished) is that once I get to a certain price point than apple care starts to look like a must and the deductible for the mini is like half the price of the machine m. Lots to think a out as I have some good advice coming in.
I have seen posts of f people buying “tax free out of state”. If one orders from apple or even Best Buy doesn’t apple or Best Buy send it from a location within your state. I don’t see how others are getting around out of state tax? No tax would help going with a 16gb machine.OP:
DO NOT buy any Mini UNLESS it has 16gb of RAM.
DO NOT buy any Mini UNLESS it has a 512gb SSD.
DO buy from the Apple online refurbished store:
Refurbished Mac - Mac mini
Save up to 15% on a refurbished Mac mini. Tested and certified by Apple including a 1-year warranty. Free delivery and returns.www.apple.com
If you buy a Mini with only 8gb of RAM and 256GB SSD, I predict you will become dissatisfied with it sooner, rather than later.
My opinion only.
Others will disagree.
Some will disagree vehemently.
So I am seeing B&H Photo has the best price on a 16gb ram M2… I’m not considering the 512gb SSD as that would be completely out of financial reach. I know that 512gb would be the way to go but my disability income keeps me from going that high. Weirdly I do not see a way to buy a M2 mini 16gb 256gb configuration on apples site but other sites do. I see they offer 8gb with 512gb but if you want 16gb ram then they only have them in a 16gb ram with 512gb SSD. Interesting that B&H has it in the 16gb 256gb…. Before becoming disabled I would have gone with something like a mini with 32gb RAM and 1TB storage, even if I thought I would only get 6-7 years out of it.OP:
DO NOT buy any Mini UNLESS it has 16gb of RAM.
DO NOT buy any Mini UNLESS it has a 512gb SSD.
DO buy from the Apple online refurbished store:
Refurbished Mac - Mac mini
Save up to 15% on a refurbished Mac mini. Tested and certified by Apple including a 1-year warranty. Free delivery and returns.www.apple.com
If you buy a Mini with only 8gb of RAM and 256GB SSD, I predict you will become dissatisfied with it sooner, rather than later.
My opinion only.
Others will disagree.
Some will disagree vehemently.
Your situation makes that 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD sound good to me. I have an older iMac that originally had a 1TB Fusion drive, which was rather slow. I separated the Fusion drive into its components, an Apple 128GB blade SSD and a HDD 1TB Seagate drive. Putting the OS on the 128GB SSD, and with 7GB of music and my data files, I have 67GB free on that 128GB drive. I put about 17GB of installer files and such on the 1TB Apple HDD.
So your 256GB SSD would seem huge to me! As long as you don't hoard large music or video files, you should be good for years. Don't worry about SSD wear, that concern was valid years ago, not now for your usage.
Tough decisions, I need back into the apple world as I have been using an old windows 10 i3 for everyday use kind of stuff and a 2010 Mac mini with 8gb and an old spinning HDD. One would think that yes, it’s only 8gb ram but I was getting by for SO LONG with the 8gb of my old intel mini. I was running in online longer than I should have but it kept working. Just didn’t bank and stuff with it. Now it’s just for music production which it still works great with my forcusrite 2i2. I get very little latency, even with this old machine running El Capitan and snow leopard.
Not to mention the whole “swapping” ram slowing down the M2 256gb models. So basically it’s either get the upgraded 16gb ram or 512gb if you want improvement. Sounds like the ram would be the best choice but that would depend on how much the 512 GB helps with the swapping of ram for speed.
You can do that on the Education site.
I know because I've already priced one of those out for a system I have spec'd out. M2 Mac Mini 16GB with 256GB SSD is $679.
Oh, and the Edu store says "Free shipping."
OTOH, while Edu store strikes us as a good deal, let's face it: Apple products are premium priced. Apple offers high quality items but at prices higher than other makers. For many people on this planet, owning an Apple computer is aspirational.
I could get an AIO Dell computer with more RAM and a bigger SSD just for the price of an M2 Mini w/16GB RAM. And for the latter I still need to buy a monitor and keyboard.
It's a tough choice to make if one really likes a Mac but is one a tight budget.
The education store has free shipping.
Also, you may not need 16gb right now, but if you want to keep it for more than 2 years or so, you will need it. It's really necessary for longevity.
As per posts above don't worry about the SSD life. And yes, store your photos and music on the external SSD to save space, not SSD life. SSDs wear the most on writes and your photos and music are basically read-only once populated. Don't forget to budget for the recommended 3-2-1 backups.
Really depends on what you are doing. Mail, web browsing are not likely to give you swap slowdowns with minimal memory. Working in Final Cut Pro might.
You will get 4 years from the internal SSD, no matter what you do. It will not fail in such a short time. Maybe this is different if you want to use the Mac Mini for 16 or 20 years. Then maybe you should go lightly on the SSD. But if you only require four years of service, just don't bother.
But you can simply run out of space. 256GB might not be enough space for all the photos and other files.
It is VERY easy to store the files in some other location. I use a Synology NAS for media like photos, videos and music. Generally, the library location is an option in the App's "settings"
But you can simply run out of space. 256GB might not be enough space for all the photos and other files.
It is VERY easy to store the files in some other location. I use a Synology NAS for media like photos, videos and music. Generally, the library location is an option in the App's "settings"
THos details are all true but you need to run benchmarks to see them. In normal use, you would never know if your Mac has 8 or 16 GB of RAM or if the SSD were 256 or 512. You need special tools to tell you.
But if you have the extra money to spend, doubling the SSD to 512 also makes it twice as fast. with more RAM the system will use it to cache files from SSD so the system will be even faster. But again, will you notce without setting up a test case?
One thing you MUST buy, that is far more important than extra RAM or storage is a hard disk for Time Machine. It sould be 2X or more larger than the data you have on the Mac. Speed does not matter at all. Get one that is quiet and looks good as it will sit on your desk near the Mni "forever".
And with a modern OS, many times a "swap" does not require writing to the SSD. This seems impossible until you realize that most of the "stuff" in RAM was at one time on the disk. So a "swap" can be done by deleting the data in RAM only. Mostly this works for executable code.