Got my Mac mini - impressive!

[Lowhangers]

So I managed to get my greedy little fingers on an 8 GB, 256 GB M1 Mac mini this afternoon.

I went to the Apple Store and waited in their "express" line for about 20 minutes. Slow as molasses! However, the woman was quite nice to me so I forgive Apple for the slowness.

Now there is one thing that is NOT slow: This Mac mini! I cannot believe the speed on this thing. It's really FAST! It feels like I have 32 GB of RAM in this tiny thing.

I am running Spark email and a VPN via Rosetta, I cannot notice any difference between them and the native apps.

I installed the 11.1 update, so far so good.

I'm fairly certain this is the best Mac I've ever owned, and I just got it this afternoon.

The only problem I had was the screen would suddenly go dark and then come back on. I thought it was a bug in Big Sur or the Mac mini itself until I bumped my desk and the screen went dark. I checked the HDMI cable, and sure enough, I had not pushed it all the way in properly. What a moron! 😳🙄

NOTE: I had no problem setting it up with a Magic Trackpad 2 and Logitech keyboard. Everything worked very well.

I am now just adding apps and finishing my setup. It will take me a while as I wanted everything to be fresh.

Edit: Despite having a lot of apps open, video playing, etc. I have not gotten the mini to warm up. It still feels cold to the touch. This is very strange compared to my last Intel mac, which had the fans come on frequently. The fan has not come on yet on the mini.

For $700, this thing is a steal. I don't think you can find a better value if you take into account its performance versus its price.

 

[Zazoh]

Ya, I traded my Intel Mini for MBA, same experience. Great devices this round.

 

[Quackers]

So I managed to get my greedy little fingers on an 8 GB, 256 GB M1 Mac mini this afternoon.

I went to the Apple Store and waited in their "express" line for about 20 minutes. Slow as molasses! However, the woman was quite nice to me so I forgive Apple for the slowness.

Now there is one thing that is NOT slow: This Mac mini! I cannot believe the speed on this thing. It's really FAST! It feels like I have 32 GB of RAM in this tiny thing.

I am running Spark email and a VPN via Rosetta, I cannot notice any difference between them and the native apps.

I installed the 11.1 update, so far so good.

I'm fairly certain this is the best Mac I've ever owned, and I just got it this afternoon.

The only problem I had was the screen would suddenly go dark and then come back on. I thought it was a bug in Big Sur or the Mac mini itself until I bumped my desk and the screen went dark. I checked the HDMI cable, and sure enough, I had not pushed it all the way in properly. What a moron! 😳🙄

NOTE: I had no problem setting it up with a Magic Trackpad 2 and Logitech keyboard. Everything worked very well.

I am now just adding apps and finishing my setup. It will take me a while as I wanted everything to be fresh.

Edit: Despite having a lot of apps open, video playing, etc. I have not gotten the mini to warm up. It still feels cold to the touch. This is very strange compared to my last Intel mac, which had the fans come on frequently. The fan has not come on yet on the mini.

For $700, this thing is a steal. I don't think you can find a better value if you take into account its performance versus its price.

I fell foul of an HDMI connection too. They seem to have a little final click before they're fully home.

 

[4sallypat]

......
Now there is one thing that is NOT slow: This Mac mini! I cannot believe the speed on this thing. It's really FAST! It feels like I have 32 GB of RAM in this tiny thing.

I am running Spark email and a VPN via Rosetta, I cannot notice any difference between them and the native apps.

I installed the 11.1 update, so far so good.

I'm fairly certain this is the best Mac I've ever owned, and I just got it this afternoon.

The only problem I had was the screen would suddenly go dark and then come back on. I thought it was a bug in Big Sur or the Mac mini itself until I bumped my desk and the screen went dark. I checked the HDMI cable, and sure enough, I had not pushed it all the way in properly. What a moron! 😳🙄

NOTE: I had no problem setting it up with a Magic Trackpad 2 and Logitech keyboard. Everything worked very well.

I am now just adding apps and finishing my setup. It will take me a while as I wanted everything to be fresh.

Edit: Despite having a lot of apps open, video playing, etc. I have not gotten the mini to warm up. It still feels cold to the touch. This is very strange compared to my last Intel mac, which had the fans come on frequently. The fan has not come on yet on the mini.

For $700, this thing is a steal. I don't think you can find a better value if you take into account its performance versus its price.

Yup, same here - I have a base M1 Mini and it runs circles around my retired 2012 Mini Server i7 with double the RAM.

Seems like the 8GB M1 UMA and SOC design has really made the Mac more efficient and snappy!

Plus no more heating, thermal slowdowns, fans whistling, and no more spinning beach balls from the 2012 Mini it replaced.

 

[Lowhangers]

I fell foul of an HDMI connection too. They seem to have a little final click before they're fully home.

Thank you for saying that! I felt like such an idiot, blaming Apple when I was in such a rush to turn it on, I could not be bothered checking the cable. 😂

 

[Lowhangers]

Yup, same here - I have a base M1 Mini and it runs circles around my retired 2012 Mini Server i7 with double the RAM.

Seems like the 8GB M1 UMA and SOC design has really made the Mac more efficient and snappy!

Plus no more heating, thermal slowdowns, fans whistling, and no more spinning beach balls from the 2012 Mini it replaced.

It's weird that the fan never comes on. Kind of freaks me out. I wonder if there's something wrong with it. 😁

 

[MarkC426]

Think of it like an iPad, apps just work with whatever hardware is there.
And they are blazing fast.

Try an app that pushes it, or a benchmark test, this may get the fan on.....

 

[4sallypat]

It's weird that the fan never comes on. Kind of freaks me out. I wonder if there's something wrong with it. 😁

Really !

Yes I am quite impressed with the M1 ice cold casing - compared to the hot i7 especially running dual displays.

 

[tdar]

It's weird that the fan never comes on. Kind of freaks me out. I wonder if there's something wrong with it. 😁

What's really weird is that the fan is on. At its idle speed of 1750 rpm. And you will never hear it. I have had my mini since launch day and I don't believe that the fan has ever left idle. The Mini never gets to any heating condition but cool.