Mac mini or studio

[jclin10]

If this has been answered elsewhere, please feel free to direct me there

With the announcement of new models for the Mac Studio, I am looking to upgrade my old iMac 27 inch 5K. Most of my work at home is home computing including a lot of photo editing, and some home video work.

Between a higher end Mac mini, and a base level Mac Studio, will I notice any difference in performance or available options?

 

[David Taub]

Hey, jclin, I'd like to know this too. And I don't do video. Just lightroom classic work and some photoshop work, layering etc. But a pretty maxed out mac mini pro is within 300 euros of a mac studio m2 max and just an upgrade to a 1tb ssd. I tend to keep my computers a long while. I'd be upgrading from a 2015 macbook pro. Thanks for advice in advance.

Was thinking I'd go for the mac studio for the better cooling system, if not for the other upgrades it offers over the mac mini pro. That said, except for the fans coming on pretty often when using my macbook pro, it has been a great computer. Only problem, swelling battery about a year ago. All fixed, replaced for about 200 euros.

 

[isdoo]

Also considering this.

I am leaning towards a Mac Studio - probably with 4tb of storage as 1tb is not enough and I suspect 2tb will not be by the time I upgrade again (if I ever do)

Currently running a 2019 macbook pro with 2.3 Ghz i9 and 16GB of ram.

 

[jclin10]

If you take the lowest level Studio (M2 Max, 32GB, 512SSD) and compare to the highest end Mini (M2 Pro, 32GB, 512SSD), the difference comes out to $300. Not sure if the extra two cores in the Studio will make a difference or whether I will need the additional Thunderbolt ports, but the difference between the two isn't as bad as I anticipated.

 

[Toutou]

I'm sure that performance-wise you'd find even the base Mini quite satisfying (with SSD and RAM upgraded according to your needs), so I'd just get the M2 Pro Mini for a bit of extra oomph and find a better use for the $300.

I do my photo editing (just hobby-level stuff in Affinity) on my M1 Air, zero issues with performance. Honestly, with Apple Silicon, there are no underpowered machines left in the lineup.

 

[arw]

I am leaning towards a Mac Studio - probably with 4tb of storage as 1tb is not enough and I suspect 2tb will not be by the time I upgrade again (if I ever do)

If you don't need the insane internal speeds, I recommend looking for some external storage.
I mean $1200 for upping 512GB to 4TB is just shameless.
A complete M2 Pro Mac mini (512/16 GB) costs $1300.
But of course, for some, the convenience of not having to deal with external storage is worth the Apple upcharge.

 

[isdoo]

There isn't any difference in the UK if you up the mini m2 pro to the 12 core option.

In reality I doubt those extra cores will make a massive difference to many.

 

[isdoo]

If you don't need the insane internal speeds, I recommend looking for some external storage.
I mean $1200 for upping 512GB to 4TB is just shameless.
A complete M2 Pro Mac mini (512/16 GB) costs $1300.
But of course, for some, the convenience of not having to deal with external storage is worth the Apple upcharge.

I have plenty of external storage for images etc.

I guess it could work better on the fixed system - I just find that I run out of ports rapidly and keep forgetting to eject etc.

Not had a desktop type computer for many years (maybe 20 plus)

 

[JamesMay82]

If this has been answered elsewhere, please feel free to direct me there

With the announcement of new models for the Mac Studio, I am looking to upgrade my old iMac 27 inch 5K. Most of my work at home is home computing including a lot of photo editing, and some home video work.

Between a higher end Mac mini, and a base level Mac Studio, will I notice any difference in performance or available options?

I'm the same but im constantly torn on waiting for a new iMac. because you still have to fork out for the monitor and id like the studio display. for the extra 300 id just go with the studio.

 

[ikir]

If this has been answered elsewhere, please feel free to direct me there

With the announcement of new models for the Mac Studio, I am looking to upgrade my old iMac 27 inch 5K. Most of my work at home is home computing including a lot of photo editing, and some home video work.

Between a higher end Mac mini, and a base level Mac Studio, will I notice any difference in performance or available options?

I’ve made this video with benchmark, the video it is in Italian but you can easily check benchmark

Mac mini vs Mac Studio 2023