One-year review of base Mac Mini Pro

[jim0266]

I'm at my one-year anniversary of owning an Apple refurbished base M2 Mac Mini Pro (16/512). It replaced a 2015 27" iMac with 32GB of RAM.

I spent a decent amount of time debating between this machine and a base M1 Apple Studio. I visited my Apple store several times to test the machines with video projects, exporting photos and trying to stress the machines with web browser tabs and lots of applications open while running FCP, etc.

My main concern was the 16GB of RAM in the Mini. Would it be enough? I work from home and use this Mac for my day job so I don't have to use a work-supplied Windows laptop. For personal work I'm using FCP to edit 4K videos from a GoPro. They are fairly simple videos, with at times another layer if I need to blur something out, along with a title track. I also run Lightroom and occasionally fire up Photoshop. I run ThinkorSwim during the week.

This little machine has met, and probably fair to say, exceeded my expectations. I have never regretted not going with the base Mac Studio. It runs silently and never seems to keep me waiting. It's paired with an Apple 5K display and an Asus PA278CV. Three 2GB NVMe drives in Acasis TB-405 enclosures are used as my "home" directory, my photo/video archive and as a FCP work drive. The internal SSD simply handles the OS and apps. I still have 380GB available on the internal drive.

 

[Mac-key]

Thank you for the review! I'm a professional photographer and videographer. I do mostly weddings, events, corporate work, etc. I'm currently editing everything on a 2017 iMac with an i5 CPU. I shoot tons of 4K footage in all frame rates. Surprisingly this old computer handles everything pretty well. The problems I encounter with real slowdowns is in Lightroom. Anyway, I've been going back and forth between the base M2 MAX Mac studio and this base model m2 pro Mac mini (16/512). So this review is helpful in that. THANK YOU! I'm leaning toward the m2 pro Mac mini. Besides I'm sure it's a HUGE step forward from my 2017 iMac. LOL

 

[Boil]

...I've been going back and forth between the base M2 MAX Mac studio and this base model m2 pro Mac mini (16/512). So this review is helpful in that. THANK YOU! I'm leaning toward the m2 pro Mac mini. Besides I'm sure it's a HUGE step forward from my 2017 iMac. LOL

That $700 difference gets you:

• Two more CPU cores
• Fourteen more GPU cores
• Sixteen more GB of RAM
• Double the UMA bandwidth
• Support for (up to) three more displays
• 10Gb Ethernet
• Two additional USB-C ports
• SDXC card slot

But if you hold out for the M4-series of Mac minis & Mac Studios, who knows what kind of value proposition might arise...? ;^p

 

[EugW]

But if you hold out for the M4-series of Mac minis & Mac Studios, who knows what kind of value proposition might arise...? ;^p

M1, M2, & M3 have 2 Thunderbolt controllers.
M4 apparently has 4 Thunderbolt controllers.

Hopefully this means the non-Pro M4 Mac mini will get more Thunderbolt/USB ports. A base M4 Mac mini with 6 USB ports (including some Thunderbolt ports) would be perfect for a lot of people. I see Apple killing off USB-A though.

The M4 iPad Pro 8 GB actually has 12 GB RAM. Or at least some of them do.

Hopefully this means the base M4 Mac mini will come 12 GB RAM. A base M4 Mac mini with 12 GB RAM would be a perfect entry level machine.

 

[Mac-key]

That $700 difference gets you:

• Two more CPU cores
• Fourteen more GPU cores
• Sixteen more GB of RAM
• Double the UMA bandwidth
• Support for (up to) three more displays
• 10Gb Ethernet
• Two additional USB-C ports
• SDXC card slot

But if you hold out for the M4-series of Mac minis & Mac Studios, who knows what kind of value proposition might arise...? ;^p

These are all excellent points! Thank you for the breakdown.