Should I buy the new M2 Mac Mini (2023) with upgraded 16GB unified memory, or an upgraded 512GB storage capacity?

[ayx.sh]

I am seriously considering buying the new Mac Mini (2023) with the standard M2 chipset. However, as a student (using the discount), I can not afford to upgrade all the way. I am capable of affording only one upgrade which I would very much like. The following are the options:

• I can upgrade the unified memory from 8GB to 16GB for £180.

or,

• I can upgrade the storage capacity from 256GB to 512GB for £200.

I am a Computer Engineering student whose primary use case would be fairly intensive programming (OOP), gaming (eg: euro truck), and working on artificial intelligence/machine learning projects. Based on some research I performed, I learned that just like the MBPs, the 256GB version comes with 1 NAND storage unit as opposed to the 512GB version which comes with 2, making the latter more efficient. But I do want to be future-proof by having more RAM on hand with the 16GB unified memory version, and I do work on some intensive projects now and then. I think it is important to mention that I do have access to a 500GB spare SSD that I can plug in.

So all of this makes me a bit conflicted which is why I would appreciate some opinions/advice on this topic.

Cheers!

 

[628]

I would go RAM because you can buy external storage..

 

[ayx.sh]

I would go RAM because you can buy external storage..

Yeh I do have a spare 500GB SSD, and upgrading the RAM is cheaper.

 

[AutomaticHaze]

I just made this exact purchase today and I went with the RAM. You can always solve for additional storage externally. Upgrading from an i5 Mac Mini so I am beyond pumped. 😆

Best of luck with your decision!

 

[ayx.sh]

I just made this exact purchase today and I went with the RAM. You can always solve for additional storage externally. Upgrading from an i5 Mac Mini so I am beyond pumped. 😆

Best of luck with your decision!

Thanks for your reply, I’ll keep this in mind!

 

[anshuvorty]

You can always expand the storage by buying an external hard drive. You can’t expand the storage after the fact. If you need more RAM, just get it.

 

[hajime]

Didn’t Maxtech test that 8GB is sufficient for most and there is not much advantage in getting more RAM?

 

[fakestrawberryflavor]

Ram all day.

 

[tstafford]

Another vote for RAM. Cloud storage or external SSD is easy to add if/when needed.

 

[Tagbert]

Didn’t Maxtech test that 8GB is sufficient for most and there is not much advantage in getting more RAM?

I'm sure that Maxtech probably has another video where they yell that the base model is hopelessly slow. Controversy drives clicks. 😉

8GB is sufficient for basic tasks like email, web browsing, documents, basic photo editing, particularly if you are not doing a lot of multi-tasking. If you regularly use multiple apps at once or start doing more intensive tasks, you may run into more times where you swap. Some websites (looking at you forums.macrumors.com) tend to allocate RAM and not release it regulars so they can easily get to a couple of GB over time). If you are making money using the computer, it also might be worth investing in the extra RAM to speed up your ability to work.

There is an issue with the base 256GB SSD in the M2. it only uses a single SSD chip and the bandwidth on that is limited. If you upgrade to 512, you get two chips and in theory, twice as fast of throughput on reads and writes. In practice it is not so clear cut. Most people doing measurements show some slowness but it doesn't seem like you will notice it doing regular tasks. If you are pushing the performance a little you might see the base storage feel a little slower.

 

[dugbug]

I am seriously considering buying the new Mac Mini (2023) with the standard M2 chipset. However, as a student (using the discount), I can not afford to upgrade all the way. I am capable of affording only one upgrade which I would very much like. The following are the options:

• I can upgrade the unified memory from 8GB to 16GB for £180.

or,

• I can upgrade the storage capacity from 256GB to 512GB for £200.

I am a Computer Engineering student whose primary use case would be fairly intensive programming (OOP), gaming (eg: euro truck), and working on artificial intelligence/machine learning projects. Based on some research I performed, I learned that just like the MBPs, the 256GB version comes with 1 NAND storage unit as opposed to the 512GB version which comes with 2, making the latter more efficient. But I do want to be future-proof by having more RAM on hand with the 16GB unified memory version, and I do work on some intensive projects now and then. I think it is important to mention that I do have access to a 500GB spare SSD that I can plug in.

So all of this makes me a bit conflicted which is why I would appreciate some opinions/advice on this topic.

Cheers!

IMHO 16gb ram and just use external drive. Since this is a unified ram design you are also giving your gpu more ram

 

[anshuvorty]

There is an issue with the base 256GB SSD in the M2. it only uses a single SSD chip and the bandwidth on that is limited. If you upgrade to 512, you get two chips and in theory, twice as fast of throughput on reads and writes.

I thought you get the parallelization feature only on the 1TB storage option and up? Has Apple confirmed this?

 

[Tagbert]

I thought you get the parallelization feature only on the 1TB storage option and up? Has Apple confirmed this?

On the M2 in the Air, the 256GB has one chip. The 512GB has two. I haven’t seen any tear down of the mini with M2 yet, but it is likely to follow the same pattern.

 

[tis100]

[Edit] Just noticed you are using British Pounds. The below information is still relevant, just switch to your locale for the deals.

Why not try to get the Mac Mini M1 with 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD?

Right now it's going for $809.00 on the Apple Education Store / Certified Refurbished but may decrease in price when the new the Mac Mini M2s coming out this week. Its currently $70 dollars cheaper than the Mac Mini M2 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD on the Apple Education Store. So hopefully after the new release it gets closer to the $679.00 price point that you are looking for.

Refurbished Mac mini Apple M1 Chip with 8‑Core CPU and 8‑Core GPU

The Apple M1 chip takes our most versatile, do-it-all desktop into another dimension. With up to 3x faster CPU performance. Up to 6x faster graphics. And our most advanced Neural Engine for up to 15x faster machine learning. Get ready to work, play, and create on Mac mini with speed and power...

www.apple.com

Certified Refurbished is basically new without the nice packaging. You get the standard Apple Warranty just like the new products.

You can also try looking at regular retailers that may put the Mac Mini M1 on sale this coming week.

Based on the preliminary benchmarks the M2 is only 12% faster in single-core and 20% faster in multi-core than the M1, so it isn't that much of a difference in performance.

You can also get the Mac Mini M1 with 16GB RAM and 256GB SSD which uses two NAND chips of 128GB each if you are concerned about storage speeds. The change to a single 256GB NAND chip is happening with the Mac Mini M2.