M2Pro Mini vs M1Pro Studio?

[GooseInTheCaboose]

So Apple updated the Minis with M2Pro but left the Studio at M1Pro/Max.

I want to get a desktop now. Which should I get and why?

I will be using it for 2 things:

1) lots of multitasking working with numerous big (100MB PDFs) doing writing of large manuscripts with lots of figures/images (which I will have to manipulate/edit myself) with hundreds of tabs and other documents open at once.

and 2) my Photography hobby: a big 600+GB Photos library with shots from my DSLR, drone, and some video from my gopro. Sometimes I photo stack (sometimes hundreds of) macro shots or composite night sky astrophotography stills, and I often try to trim out the useless segments of the videos I take. I want to be able to do my photography work speedily when all of the windows etc are still open for my writing/studying work in #1). So, I want to be able to organize my library and edit photos/video WHILE I have hundreds of tabs and documents open for my ongoing projects.

Should I get a Mac Studio or Mac Mini? Which configuration?

I NEVER want to see UI lag, beach balls, stuttering/choppy scrolling or window resizing etc. I need my computer to work fast/snappy so that I can think fast for my writing and creative work where I format large manuscripts and write, reorganize chapters, etc. I don’t want to be held back. BUT given that the Studio is M1, I don’t want to buy an expensive overkill system that is ALSO already old. So…help/advice appreciated!

Also: Apple storage is expensive and my Photos library is big. Regardless of Mini/Studio, Will performance take a hit during organizing my Photos library or editing photos/video if I use an external SSD for the Photos library? (I’m thinking the small Sandisk 2TB portable SSD; I will keep all the photos there, and just get 512 or 1TB built in for the Mac where all of the work/documents/pdfs/ebooks will be stored which will be more than enough for that)

 

[tstafford]

Studio comes with Max/Ultra (not the Pro). Your use case sounds RAM intensive. My bet is you will benefit more from 64 GB RAM on the Studio M1 Max than the M2 Pro chip Mini (limited to 32 GB). I have the M1M Studio and love it - I wouldn't want to change anything. If I had to say right now - I'd recommend a refurb Studio w/ 64 GB RAM and a decent size SSD.

MAybe wait a week or two and see some benchmarks and reviews.

 

[ColdCase]

I've used external SSDs for both large photo and video libraries. For my Studio I chose the external NVMe option as discussed in this thread and am much happier. Snappy performance that's near identical to internal memory. I'd recommend thinking about it.

Thunderbolt 4 & NVMe M.2 External Storage: Read/Write Speeds?

I plan to supplement Mac Studio/M1 Max storage by connecting one of the Thunderbolt 4 ports to an enclosure containing two 2TB Samsung 970 EVO Plus SSDs in RAID 0. The enclosure is an Asus XG Station Pro. This enclosure has an excellent fan and ventilation. I currently use it to run an AMD RX...

forums.macrumors.com

My libraries tend to reach 3-4 TB over the course of a year, so I put a 4TB Seagate FireCuda 530 in one Acacias TBU401E enclosure and a WD_BLACK SN850X in another. The Seagate for durability, the WD for performance at a lower cost. There are plenty of other options in the 2TB drive range.

 

[jz0309]

I have ~1.1TB of photos right now managed in LRC and some PS, I wanted 64GB as PS is RAM hungry, so I have a Studio.
I had my photos on an external Sandisk extreme and the LR index on internal on my iMac but with the Studio I got the 4TB internal to have the best possible experience.

 

[now i see it]

Get as much RAM as you can afford. In your instance, that’s going to be limiter

 

[playtech1]

The M2 Pro does have faster CPU performance than M1 machines, so may be a little 'snappier', but overall I doubt there will be a particularly noticeable difference between the two unless you are RAM starved.

Definitely a tough choice. I have just picked up a refurbed M1 Max Studio as it worked out a little cheaper than an equivalent spec M2 Pro Mini. I like the Studio's extra ports up front, 10Gb ethernet as standard and ability to add a 4th monitor, although I was sad not to have the Mini's HDMI 2.1 port. At MSRP I think the M2 Pro Mini would have won.