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Mac mini 2 last as long as it can be

M

Mardiel8128

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 27, 2023
72
9
Hello friends,

I'm not a seller personl so if I buy a product i use it as it lasts. I'm going for the mac m2 mini, after a lot of research and support of this forum (thanks!!! this forum rocks !) I decided to go for the m2 pro 1tb ssd, about the ram it should be 16gb ram or 32gb ram? The m2pro will be the base mode 10cpu
 
Nowadays, half the questions are about how much RAM to buy (and not only in these forums!) But, it's OK. I'd go for the 32 GB. And, expect it to last and last...
 
apostolosdt said:
I'd go for the 32 GB. And, expect it to last and last...
Click to expand...

Can you elaborate on this choice? Why 32GB instead of 16GB? A few guys here, supposed to be "knowledgeable" on this forum, are saying it's better to keep our money by taking 16GB only.
 
Cham2000 said:
Can you elaborate on this choice? Why 32GB instead of 16GB? A few guys here, supposed to be "knowledgeable" on this forum, are saying it's better to keep our money by taking 16GB only.
Click to expand...
There are many “knowledgeable” members in this forum and I do listen to them, too. But I wrote from my own experience. The heaviest-duty task I run is image processing, the day-to-day task is typesetting. I need a lot of memory for the former; I can survive with 8GB (!) RAM for the latter. Yet, the base Mini M1 lags all too often with other common tasks, and we are all accustomed to fast machines, aren’t we?

Doubling the anticipated RAM is good economy in the long run. Especially with current Apple’s policy of non-upgradable Macs, unless it’s an MP.
 
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Mardiel8128 said:
Hello friends,

I'm not a seller personl so if I buy a product i use it as it lasts. I'm going for the mac m2 mini, after a lot of research and support of this forum (thanks!!! this forum rocks !) I decided to go for the m2 pro 1tb ssd, about the ram it should be 16gb ram or 32gb ram? The m2pro will be the base mode 10cpu
Click to expand...
If you plan on using it as a door stop, 16GB will be enough.
 
It depends on how you’re going to use it. For light use 16GB is fine (except to the FUD crowd). For heavy use, 32GB.
 
Mardiel8128 said:
Hello friends,

I'm not a seller personl so if I buy a product i use it as it lasts. I'm going for the mac m2 mini, after a lot of research and support of this forum (thanks!!! this forum rocks !) I decided to go for the m2 pro 1tb ssd, about the ram it should be 16gb ram or 32gb ram? The m2pro will be the base mode 10cpu
Click to expand...
Writing this response on a Mac mini M2 Pro with 1TB SSD and 16GB RAM. I have 16GB of RAM. If Apple had offered a 24GB upgrade at $200 I'd have gotten it, probably. But a 32GB upgrade at $400 seemed too much. Only once so far have I hit the limit on 16GB, and that was rendering a pretty complicated scene in Blender.
 
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tubular said:
Writing this response on a Mac mini M2 Pro with 1TB SSD and 16GB RAM. I have 16GB of RAM. If Apple had offered a 24GB upgrade at $200 I'd have gotten it, probably. But a 32GB upgrade at $400 seemed too much. Only once so far have I hit the limit on 16GB, and that was rendering a pretty complicated scene in Blender.
Click to expand...
How have you hit the limit? Did you got lags, beach balls or other performances issues, or just a yellow pressure in the Activity Monitor?
 
Actually got it up to red pressure, but that was one particular case -- in which I was sorta testing the limits anyway. Otherwise memory pressure is pretty rare.

But again, it depends on what you're doing with it. I'm doing development, a little iMovie video here and there, and some light gaming.

Which again brings us to the question -- what are *you* going to use it for? Because that's what determines what you'll need.
 
tubular said:
Which again brings us to the question -- what are *you* going to use it for? Because that's what determines what you'll need.
Click to expand...
I determined that I would be better with 32GB (my mini is on the road, right now. I should have it in 2 weeks). I'm doing a lot of strong multitasking, with many apps running at the same time. LaTeX compilations, Mathematica heavy calculations (some may be pretty intensive), many tabs open in 1 or 2 web browsers, music playing in background, etc. I know that I could do most of this with 16GB, but I would frequently hit the yellow pressure (and maybe the red zone). Like you, I would have selected 24GB if Apple offered it, so I had to choose 32GB, even if it's a premium price and a bit overkill to me.
 
Cham2000 said:
[…] LaTeX compilations, Mathematica heavy calculations (some may be pretty intensive), many tabs open in 1 or 2 web browsers, music playing in background, etc. I know that I could do most of this with 16GB […]
Click to expand...
Just curious, how come a LaTeX compilation drains your memory? I used to run Plain TeX on Linux with 500MB RAM and no sweat.
 
No kidding, Mathematica. I used to work for those guys, around the turn of the century.

I wanted to see whether 16GB was enough — usually I future-proof by grabbing the low-hanging fruit when speccing a machine, but the $400 delta was too steep a step. Let’s see if I regret it.
 
apostolosdt said:
Just curious, how come a LaTeX compilation drains your memory? I used to run Plain TeX on Linux with 500MB RAM and no sweat.
Click to expand...
I'm writing and compiling lots of physics documents, with lots of figures. I may compile several "small" documents at once, which may contain many figures, or big documents with hundred of pages and figures. My largest document has 2100 pages and about 350 figures! So LaTeX may need more memory than a "typical" small doc of just a few pages.

Also, when I write/compile a LaTeX doc, I frequently have to draw several figures with a vectorial app (I was using Intaglio), or modify some pictures/photos with Pixelmator Pro (or another app), and also have frequently to do some Mathematica calculations or graphics (I use a lot Mathematica to produce 2D/3D graphics).
 
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OP:

Base model m2pro Mini with the SSD upgraded to 1tb is a good choice.
You'll do fine with it.
 
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