I spent 2 months on a base M2 Mac Mini

[ric22]

How does it work? Does it work fast enough?

MacOS works fast enough.

Meanwhile, using a few SSD's and backing them up is irritating, and caused me a massive headache after my MacBook Air's RAM died, bricking the machine. The SSD with my photos library on it was a Samsung one with protection, meaning I'd need to buy another old Mac to access it as Apple silicone doesn't support it. Meanwhile I had a Time Machine backup of it all saved, but on the only occasion I ever needed to use a Time Machine backup in all the years using it, the backup corrupted and failed on me...

Edit: Of course that headache is a mix of having to use external SSD's, non removable RAM and storage, a Time Machine failure, and proprietary Samsung software. An unfortunate combination of events.

 

[zapmymac]

Ive used my m2 base for ~ 5 months now, and I'll insert the photo of the Memory Pressure tab, but I have been elated that for general purpose computing it has been awesome. I do get a beachball every once in a while for a 2-4 seconds [don't know why]...I suspect that has to do with it dealing with 2-6 TB Spinners in an OWC external dock though.

My goal with this computer is to manage my Apple Photos library, and read/browse the web with Firefox. The library is about 53k photos and my PhotoLibrarySystem is on a external Lacie 2TB SSD (the one exclusive to Apple Stores) and it ALL works well. No regrets. 😎


Wishlist: I'd love to see apple with the m3 Mini put in a user-serviceable M slot in the Mini to be able to use those newly released SSD's for the Mac Pro! Stupid expensive, but at least it would be an option for those with cash, and/or those who don't want dongles and cables running to external SSD's 🤓.

 

[vjl323]

If I didn’t run Logic projects I would already have an 8/256 model. Unless you know for a fact that you need more RAM, the 8/256 is factually sufficient.

I used an INTEL 8/256 MBA for work for years and even that was just fine.

For 2 years my travel Mac and my favorite laptop ever, a 2015 11" MBA, was my primary machine, and I am a big time power user. It was hooked up to a 2560x1440 display, 2 external RAID hard drive boxes, 1 external SSD RAID box, CF/SD/more card reader, Dymo scale, Voyager barcode scanner, Eltron 2844 thermal printer, plus bluetooth connections for mouse, touchpad, and keyboard. I did upgrade the internal SSD to a 2TB, but it had 8GB of memory [CPU is a core i7]. I ran as 2 user accounts logged in, and the machine performed amazingly well with the exception of having lots of tabs open in both accounts in Safari, and FCP X wasn't as snappy as it had been on my prior machine.

I've been using Apple products for a long, long time, and while I'm not a fan of everything they've made, nor their upgrade pricing for memory or storage when buying a new Mac, I will say that they have well optimized their OS to run comfortably on 8GB with plenty of room to spare for multiple apps. I think for most Normals, 8GB really is plenty when purchasing a new Mac.

 

[AirpodsNow]

Alas I need to go back to the MBP now as the primary machine as I need to actually do some stuff while travelling but that is the only reason. I don't think that the memory paranoia resulting in moving to 16Gb is valid for most users. I mean I'd like 16Gb as a baseline but meh, it's fine.

I got a M1 Pro with 16GB (16" MBP). My memory pressure is 95% of the time under 50%. I don't know whether that could equate to half of the ram used. I do a lot of office stuff, photos, podcast, YouTube. Nothing 'special' and it's more than fine. The only time I do appreciate having the silicon Pro and extra ram is when I spin up Ryujinx the switch emulator, then I can suddenly see that it eats up all it can get. So those who game regularly or do more intensive tasks, I can imagine more ram = better.

 

[Lift Bar]

For 2 years my travel Mac and my favorite laptop ever, a 2015 11" MBA, was my primary machine, and I am a big time power user. It was hooked up to a 2560x1440 display, 2 external RAID hard drive boxes, 1 external SSD RAID box, CF/SD/more card reader, Dymo scale, Voyager barcode scanner, Eltron 2844 thermal printer, plus bluetooth connections for mouse, touchpad, and keyboard. I did upgrade the internal SSD to a 2TB, but it had 8GB of memory [CPU is a core i7]. I ran as 2 user accounts logged in, and the machine performed amazingly well with the exception of having lots of tabs open in both accounts in Safari, and FCP X wasn't as snappy as it had been on my prior machine.

I've been using Apple products for a long, long time, and while I'm not a fan of everything they've made, nor their upgrade pricing for memory or storage when buying a new Mac, I will say that they have well optimized their OS to run comfortably on 8GB with plenty of room to spare for multiple apps. I think for most Normals, 8GB really is plenty when purchasing a new Mac.

Now the only way to upgrade to 2TB ssd is to do it at purchase which nearly doubles the price of a MBA.

 

[yadmonkey]

...the memory paranoia resulting in moving to 16Gb...

I suffer from IRDS (Insufficient RAM Derangement Syndrome) and got 64GB on my M2 Studio. Just the thought that I could never upgrade the RAM later drove me to getting slightly more (4x) than I really needed.

 

[robinp]

The memory pressure being elevated on these modern SSD macs is fine as long as your SSD has space because the swap is so incredibly fast. If you end up in a situation where your SSD is full (or close to full) and you’re short of memory (RAM) then performance starts to go down hill fast.

That’s the risk you run with the base config macs with small SSDs and low RAM. But if you manage the SSD utilisation and you’re not doing anything too intense you’re probably going to be OK.

 

[AlmightyKang]

I suffer from IRDS (Insufficient RAM Derangement Syndrome) and got 64GB on my M2 Studio. Just the thought that I could never upgrade the RAM later drove me to getting slightly more (4x) than I really needed.

Have you considered seeing a Therampist? 😀

(sorry pub lunch. Terrible joke. We are all hammered).

 

[marcusalwayswins]

I am a new adopter to the Mac OS and even though I have 16GB of RAM with my Mac Mini I recently faced an memory issue with the Memory Pressure I don't know showing weird colors.

Just posted it here...

Read it here..

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/freeform-app-made-my-mac-system-go-for-a-toss.2420722

 

[Lakersfan74]

For what you pay 8GB ram is not enough. I don’t care if you don’t need it it’s the principal. Apple only gets away with it because of you guys.

 

[vjl323]

Now the only way to upgrade to 2TB ssd is to do it at purchase which nearly doubles the price of a MBA.

Yeah, that's a pill I have a hard time swallowing. I like storage, and storage will eventually need replaced - it would be better - and more environmentally sound - to allow storage to be upgraded. The bean counters won't like it - back in the day, I would get a Mac with the minimum memory specs and buy 3rd party memory when/if I wanted more. It was cheaper, and buying quality 3rd party memory meant I didn't have issues with it. It seems darn silly that putting 2TB in a laptop costs just as much as buying 2 of the default configs. There's the Apple Tax and then there's the Apple Gouging.

And when a system becomes old enough to not be one's daily driver, maybe one wants to repurpose it as a storage hub or media hub, etc - having external SSD dongles hanging off the thing to do that doesn't feel as elegant as just having the ability to swap a cheap 50TB SSD [imagining the future, where a 50TB SSD exists and is considered to be a small amount ].

 

[Zdigital2015]

Even if you think 8GB base RAM is enough

Can we all agree Apple charges too much for upgrading that component?

(All their component upgrades are overpriced)

I know they have long term contracts that set their flash and NAND prices, but they could cut their BTO prices in half and still make money. They won’t, because that would reduce their gross margin and we know that Wall Street would punish them if gross margin falls. It is what it is.

 

[Corefile]

The M2 Mini killer app is Asahi Linux.

 

[hgfjhbvytjdnb]

Well that was boring. Sorry if you read to here and are asleep.

Thanks for reiterating what has been said 1000000's of times on the internet since M1 launched in 2020. Yes 8/256 is going to work and you might not notice it or care if you're a casual user. Glad you managed to get it off your chest.

 

[illini71]

Because according to a lot of MR users no one nowadays can do any meaningful things on a Mac with minimal (8/256) configuration …

After listening to the latest podcast you'd think the M3 Air was completely unusable with 8/256. I had to turn off the podcast because it was just ridiculous.

 

[AlmightyKang]

Quick update on the M2 Mac Mini project. Ultimately there have been no developments. Past a couple of times I got lazy and decided to use my MBP for something in bed, I am still using the base M2 Mini 100% of the time. The previous declaration of the project being over turned into something I could use the iPad Pro for so I used that. I have had no problems with it performance or reliability wise. It's absolutely flawless.

One additional requirement crept in, which was Julia, a mathematics oriented programming language. No performance issues at all. Works absolutely fine.

It was rebooted a grand total of one time which was when I did an update and mounted it under the desk.

It is now lurking here, in a cheap mount from Amazon.

This is the most boring computer I've ever owned which is the best kind of computer.

 

[AgeOfSpiracles]

Quick update on the M2 Mac Mini project. Ultimately there have been no developments. Past a couple of times I got lazy and decided to use my MBP for something in bed, I am still using the base M2 Mini 100% of the time. The previous declaration of the project being over turned into something I could use the iPad Pro for so I used that. I have had no problems with it performance or reliability wise. It's absolutely flawless.

One additional requirement crept in, which was Julia, a mathematics oriented programming language. No performance issues at all. Works absolutely fine.

It was rebooted a grand total of one time which was when I did an update and mounted it under the desk.

It is now lurking here, in a cheap mount from Amazon.

View attachment 2369721

This is the most boring computer I've ever owned which is the best kind of computer.

I love you that you're still out here riling people up. 😂

 

[AlmightyKang]

I love you that you're still out here riling people up. 😂

Someone's got to do it 🤣

 

[Chuckeee]

Just wondering, did you consider mounting it the other way? With the bottom facing out. Just thinking the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth communications might be better if the antenna was not up against a metal bracket.

 

[AlmightyKang]

Honestly, despite being an actual RF engineer for a few years, I didn't actually even slightly consider this.

My airpods work fine still though when I'm peeing which is the furthest distance away from the mac I can get in my apartment and through three walls 🤣

 

[Ben J.]

I've had many mac minis over the last few years, and they all had more or less issues with bluetooth. One of the best things I did to help this was to have the bottom facing out into the room, as the bluetooth antenna is situated just under the black plastic. Along with avoiding physical obstacles, and experimenting with the arrangement of the arrangement of thunderbolt and usb devices connections. I now have three sets of magic keyboard/mice spread around the room, plus airpods, iphone etc - so it's very much possible to make it work. There seems to be a limit to the number of devices connected simultaneously, though. 5 or 6, I think.