Great question. Because if for some reason it is not silent, I will not buy one. So it had better be silent. I am waiting for youtubers to help me out with this.
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M4 Pro Mac mini - form over function?
- Thread starter Peter_M
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I am quite confident it is going to be silent. That is something Apple cares a lot about, and it is a considerable part of their value proposition to many users. I very much doubt they would go forward with this chassis redesign if it resulted in loud operation.
Noting that there is a MBP M4 Max but there is no Mac mini M4 Max. Probably gonna be in Studio.
The concern about thermal throttling / heat just because the new Mini is smaller than before is completely unwarranted in my opinion. MacBook Pros are incredibly thin, comparatively the Mini is significantly taller. Heat dissipation is going to be comparable or better than the MacBook Pro. No way it is worse / louder. I’m speculating of course, but I share your confidence.
This conversation is amusing....some of us remember when Apple was vilified for putting a 3.5 floppy in the original Macintosh......THE END OF THE WORLD!!!! Somebody always needs to lead the trends, and so many times for 45 years it just happens to be Apple. The arguments used to focus on sheer performance, but now that that is answered empirically, I guess we need to find something.....ANYTHING to bellyache about!
You are right, and the redesigned Mini is also taller than the old one. That should actually improve thermal performance since you have more space for heatsink and airflow.
It is an article about a picture Apple put up on their website. There is no data, in the article, about how it works.
Not being funny but your existing i7 Mac Mini is neanderthal compared to what this thing can do.
You're absolutely viewing it from the perspective of someone who seems to have only used Intel Macs.
This thing so exponentially more powerful than what you're used to, that even if its 'compromised size' throttled it down to half speed, it would still comfortably burn-off the antique you're using.
And trust me i'm not an Apple apologist. Try reading some of my other posts.
The mini is meant to be an entry level machine. If you need more power, that’s what the studio is for, which already has that bigger form factor
Two questions regarding desktop Mac computers and the power button.
If the mini, or studio, is powered down using the physical power button, will the computer power up if the keyboard or mouse is used?
Same question, but powering down using the OS instead of the physical power button. Assuming it is the same, but not sure…
Obviously I’ve been using laptops exclusively since my mini with a CD drive hence my ignorance regarding this simple subject
If the mini, or studio, is powered down using the physical power button, will the computer power up if the keyboard or mouse is used?
Same question, but powering down using the OS instead of the physical power button. Assuming it is the same, but not sure…
Obviously I’ve been using laptops exclusively since my mini with a CD drive hence my ignorance regarding this simple subject
You need space for the fan to work properly. I'm betting this new Mini will run hotter than M1 and M2.
I haven't noticed anything about power usage of the new Mini compared to previous models.
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I can see people know very little about electronic and thermal design here.
Heat generated is wasted energy. We have a process shrink here and it probably has a somewhat higher efficiency power supply than previous units as well. End game is less watts getting turned to heat for the same workload. That means less thermal bulk required and less surface area required even if you have active cooling.
Also look at the old Intel Mac minis. I used mine to keep my coffee warm. The M1 didn’t even get warm after an hour of transcoding.
Heat generated is wasted energy. We have a process shrink here and it probably has a somewhat higher efficiency power supply than previous units as well. End game is less watts getting turned to heat for the same workload. That means less thermal bulk required and less surface area required even if you have active cooling.
Also look at the old Intel Mac minis. I used mine to keep my coffee warm. The M1 didn’t even get warm after an hour of transcoding.
$1400 for the M4 Pro Mini (with BTO options that easily take it over the $2000 mark, even without resorting to the super-expensive 4G/8G SSD options) is not what I'd call "entry level" for a headless desktop sans display/keyboard/mouse.
I'm sure the base M4 will be fine - it's a chip designed for fanless laptops and tablets - and seems to be all-round better than the old $600 Mini. The question is over the M4 Pro model - we'll have to see about the cooling, but it's also lost a physical TB port c.f. the M2 Pro Mini (and more bandwidth on the 3 existing ports isn't going to pay off for most people without a TB5 hub or a super-expesive DP 2.1 display).
...and, so far, the Studio still has a 2-generations-out-of-date processor (not even a M3 Max, which was a big step forward from the M2 Max, with more cores, hardware ray tracing etc.) so its not a particularly compelling buy. Unless Apple are going to surprise us today or tomorrow (which would go against all the rumours).
Nope. Also, annoyingly, for all Mac desktop computers, you can't program the BIOS to just switch the computer on when it receives power. I wanted to hide my Studio visibly out of the way in a place that also unavoidably would be difficult to physically reach, but because I choose to be one of those 'werdos' who powers their computer down every day (because why waste power), I would then have to go crawling around to physically switch it on. On most PC motherboards, you can program the BIOS to switch the computer on when the motherboard receives power, so all I would need to do is incorporate a reachable physical switch that turns the mains on and off. But no. Apple deems I cannot do that.
PCs have been able to do that forever. Would be nice addition to Macs.
The studio will get updated at some point, it exists for a reason
regardless of reality, silent or not, there will be a loud contingent that swears its noisy. truth. go back and look at the Mac Studio forums.. people swearing it was loud, offended their ears, etc etc. and if you said yours was quiet, you were told your ears where not sensitive enough, or that your room was already loud, or apparently you were not standing behind it because thats where its loudest if you press your ear to the back.
I disagree. Apple nailed the M3 Air cooling. So they probably nailed the mini also. I think it will run silent and cool and fast. But I wait for YouTube to prove me right
...but if anybody wants to buy a powerful desktop Mac for serious content creation today or, likely, during the next 6 months - and isn't in the small niche that needs a Studio Ultra (or the even smaller niche who absolutely need the PCIe in the Mac Pro), the only choice is a M4 Pro Mac Mini or outdated M2 Max Studio.
Whether or not it is faster overall, the M4 Pro beats the M2 Max on bangs-per-buck, and will blow it out of the water for hardware ray tracing, and maybe AI stuff.
Likewise, the M4 Max may not reliably beat the M3 Ultra on all tasks, but it would give it a serious run for its money and likely beat it on tasks that didn't utilise all of the extra cores on the Ultra.
The only reason I can see for not releasing a M4 Max Studio now is that it might spoil the market for the M4 Ultra Studio if/when that arrives - but on past performance that's going to cost twice as much as the Max version, so would they really be in competition?
You're complaining about something that hasn't happened yet. Can you not just wait a couple of weeks to check the in some of the inevitable thousands of YT videos that will be testing it for everything including noise and heat?