Mac Mini in late 2024: M2 Pro 16GB/512GB or wait for M4 Mac Mini

[Pahn]

So, I'm looking to finally get off of Windows, but I'd rather not break the bank to do so. My wife has an M1 Mac Mini that she enjoys. My workload is slightly heavier than hers, but still mostly fairly light.

I've heard rumors that the M4 Mac Minis will finally ship with 16GB of RAM in the base config. I'm guessing they'll still have 256GB SSD.

The alternative would be a used M2 Pro with 16GB/512GB. Probably at a savings of at least a few hundred dollars.

So which would you recommend at this point? Get the M2 Pro now, get the M4 when it launches, or hold off and get the M2 Pro after the M4 launches? I think the USB A ports would still be useful to me, and I don't care about AI stuff.

I'm moving from a big case PC to something much smaller, so I'd have to invest in a good USB hub and probably an external drive bay or two so I can keep my storage drives from my PC. Any recommendations there?

 

[Pahn]

Or should I grab an M3 iMac? I could use another monitor, for sure. Bummer that it's only a 24".

 

[theolderoldcoot]

I'd wait. If you going to buy a M4 go for a much Unified Memory as you can afford and a least a 2TB SSD

 

[Pahn]

I'd wait. If you going to buy a M4 go for a much Unified Memory as you can afford and a least a 2TB SSD

I don't really like the idea of spending a bunch of money on upgrades like maxing out RAM or buying a huge SSD. Some poster elsewhere in the forums put it into perspective for me: don't upgrade to double or triple the cost of the base model, when I could just buy a new base model in a few years if I need more performance. At this point, even the base M2 would be a big performance bump, and the M2 Pro, even moreso. I suspect the M2 Pro will be on par or slightly faster than the base M4. And I'm currently on 8GB of RAM in Windows, so 16GB will be a good bump as well.

If I need 32GB because I start some new, unforeseen workflow, then it seems like I can upgrade later. I don't do photo or video editing, so I'm more inclined to spend the $600 that the 2TB upgrade costs on a NAS and get 4x the storage.

 

[Big Bad D]

I'd wait. If you going to buy a M4 go for a much Unified Memory as you can afford and a least a 2TB SSD

Why??? Depending on usage, 16GB should be fine for many typical use cases. And External SDD is so much cheaper, so why expecting at least 2TB SSD?

 

[chrfr]

I don't really like the idea of spending a bunch of money on upgrades like maxing out RAM or buying a huge SSD. Some poster elsewhere in the forums put it into perspective for me: don't upgrade to double or triple the cost of the base model, when I could just buy a new base model in a few years if I need more performance. At this point, even the base M2 would be a big performance bump, and the M2 Pro, even moreso. I suspect the M2 Pro will be on par or slightly faster than the base M4. And I'm currently on 8GB of RAM in Windows, so 16GB will be a good bump as well.

If I need 32GB because I start some new, unforeseen workflow, then it seems like I can upgrade later. I don't do photo or video editing, so I'm more inclined to spend the $600 that the 2TB upgrade costs on a NAS and get 4x the storage.

For the vast majority of people, 2TB is a waste of money and is bad advice. RAM upgrades are not possible on Apple Silicon Macs, however. The M2 Pro mini is also generally not a good value and the M4 would probably cost less than an M2 Pro while being about as fast and probably faster in some tasks.
Because RAM isn't upgradable you need to buy as much as you think you'll need over the course of owning that computer.

 

[Chuckeee]

I say wait. See what the M4 mini really is. And then if you still want an M2Pro mini you should probably be able to get a better sale price from resellers

 

[Pahn]

For the vast majority of people, 2TB is a waste of money and is bad advice. RAM upgrades are not possible on Apple Silicon Macs, however. The M2 Pro mini is also generally not a good value and the M4 would probably cost less than an M2 Pro while being about as fast and probably faster in some tasks.
Because RAM isn't upgradable you need to buy as much as you think you'll need over the course of owning that computer.

Right, when I say "upgrade" (and I didn't make this clear), I mean "buy an entirely new unit." You can easily spend more on a few upgrades than what it costs to buy a new base model with more RAM. And this way, I've at least got the resale value of the unit being replaced to offset the added cost.

Given the discussion thus far, I think it's prudent to wait at least until the M4 Mini launches, and then see what happens. I'm still sort of torn between the Mini and an M3 iMac. I do want another monitor.

 

[Ray2]

My computer based workload is Lightroom, some Photoshop and MS Office with a lot of PowerPoint. I get by just fine with an M1 Air, 32/2 TB (I want my images on an internal). I’m hardly funding constrained but it’s all I need. I’d save the money. Ask questions like that around here and for suggestions you get maxed out configurations, while spending other's money.

 

[tenthousandthings]

Or should I grab an M3 iMac? I could use another monitor, for sure. Bummer that it's only a 24".

Not sure what you currently have, but the Retina (218 dpi) resolution in the iMac will probably be something you’ll notice. Once you get used to it, it’s hard to go back.

But at this point, like the Mini, it’s probably best to wait for the M4 iMac (assuming it exists), and then decide how you want to spend your money.

One key difference between M1/M2 versus M3/M4 is in the GPU. So the equation is different. M2 versus M4 is not the same as M3 versus M4.

Also, in comparing tiers of Apple products, it’s helpful to consider memory bandwidth. The M2 Pro (200 GB/s) has twice that of both M2/M3 (100). M4 has a nice bump to 120, so M4 Pro could be 240.

 

[chrfr]

My computer based workload is Lightroom, some Photoshop and MS Office with a lot of PowerPoint. I get by just fine with an M1 Air, 32/2 TB (I want my images on an internal). I’m hardly funding constrained but it’s all I need. I’d save the money. Ask questions like that around here and for suggestions you get maxed out configurations, while spending other's money.

The M1 Air maxed out at 16GB RAM, and the M2/M3 models at 24. I guess you're making do with less RAM than you thought! (and for most people 16GB is plenty.)

 

[Ray2]

The M1 Air maxed out at 16GB RAM, and the M2/M3 models at 24. I guess you're making do with less RAM than you thought! (and for most people 16GB is plenty.)

My PS layers are modest, LR doesn’t need RAM. I’m fine. Better than fine as the Air handles some of the newer LR features materially faster than some Windows users with what was a “serious” Intel config for photography. The M1 was the huge leap. So far, M2 was incremental, M3 was a beta 3 nm, we'll see about the M4.