Mac mini 2018...RAM now?

[Mistiff]

Hello,
Finally I decided to replace the MacBook Air 2010 with a Mini Mac. I intend to use it to edit photos in RAW and home videos. I’m not a professional. No games nor dozens of applications working in parallel: only affinity+ Apple Photos or LightRoom and, at most, Final Cut for videos.

I have already decided that it will be a core i5 4,1GHz with 1TB of SSD, but in terms of RAM I have doubts. I'll put at least 16 GB, but I'm thinking if it's worth spending 480 euros PLUS and putting 32 GB ......

I am aware that now I would not probably need the 32 GB for the use I give it now, but in the future, when a few years pass, I will surely need them. And I do not want to modify it before two years so as not to invalidate the apple guarantee.

The idea is to upgrade after two years of warranty and extend the RAM

As for the i7, I read that only if I use many applications in parallel could I take advantage of it, which is not my case.

Do you think I'm making the right decision? Thanks for your suggestions.

 

[Ybersetzer]

I just got myself a MacMini and upped the RAM myself by following the tutorials that are available. I am not a skilled tinkerer but was nevertheless able to do this easily. I paid something like 77 Euro for a 16gb kit from Crucial (2x 8gb), and a 32gb kit would cost you a little bit less than twice that, about 150 Euro. Add another 10, 15 Euro for the tools you need and you can upgrade your Mac mini with 32gb of RAM for less than 170 Euro.


About the warranty: if you feel unsure about the procedure, you could buy the RAM online and have a tech shop install it for you. There is no way they are going to mess this up, and voiding your Apple warranty will not be an issue. There are no warranty seals inside or "do not remove"-stickers or such.

 

[fourthtunz]

I just got my mini today! I will upgrade to 32gb when it comes in later the week.
I got the I7 but the I5 is a sold machine too!
watch the install vids on youtube...looks pretty easy.

 

[onespeedvelo]

I have an i7 Mac mini 2018 with 8GB RAM. I thought I would upgrade it myself later on. After 2 months of heavy use developing all sorts of iPhone Apps with tons of safari tabs open and a bunch of apps in the background I still did not come to the point where I thought I really need more RAM.. I believe that the Apple SSD is so fast that when the memory is paging there is almost no noticeable difference in performance.
So I will keep the 8GB for a while. Yes it is incredible but really the limitation of the mini are in the Intel GPU. I should put my money in an eGPU instead of 32GB of RAM.
My advice. Wait 2 weeks and see if you really need extra RAM. I believe it will not void the warranty if you replace back the old RAM when you have a problem. Yes I think it is user upgradeable even if people say differently.
The RAM price can only go down if you wait anyway
Of course it depends of what you are doing with the mini but the memory management is impressive.