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The "I just ordered / bought / got my new/refurb Mac mini" threads, merged

My first "M" Mac. I don't need it but I got it anyway. Plan to do a video project on it to "justify" it. The 16GB and HDMI 2.1 screamed "Buy Me".

I went cheep. Lowest model.

I have a 1 TB external NVME drive I can use (leftover drive after I upgraded my PC to 2TB for $79 last year.) I just can't see giving Apple $380 for a 1TB drive.
 
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Ordered M4 Pro mini, 14 / 20 core, 48gb ram, 2tb storage. Placed the order around lunchtime on Wednesday. Says delivers Nov 21 - Dec 2.

Do these things ever beat their estimate? I vaguely remember a similar estimate for my 2018 Air but it arrived like a week earlier than originally expected.
 
tim34567 said:
Ordered M4 Pro mini, 14 / 20 core, 48gb ram, 2tb storage. Placed the order around lunchtime on Wednesday. Says delivers Nov 21 - Dec 2.

Do these things ever beat their estimate? I vaguely remember a similar estimate for my 2018 Air but it arrived like a week earlier than originally expected.
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Yes, they sometimes beat the quoted delivery date if that estimated date is not super early in the release.

In my case, I ordered an M4 non-Pro today (Hallowe'en) with 10 GigE networking, and in one section it says ships in 8-10 days, which would be Nov. 8-10, but in another place it says delivers Nov. 19-21. So, that implies a shipment time of 11 calendar days. I'm hoping they will truly ship Nov. 8-10 but deliver in about a week (5 business days), which would be Friday, November 15 to Monday, November 18.
 
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Really think a 10gbe would be ideal for me since I have a 10gbe NAS. Especially with this crap 256gb drive which is almost useless.

Unfortunately, these are shipping around November 25th now with 10gbe.
 
same here ordered m4 pro base version within couple of hours on the announcement day, card charged today and preparing to ship.
 
Ordered my Mac mini today - M4 Pro, 48GB, 1TB, 10Gbe, and it says Nov 24 - Dec 1 for delivery. Boy I knew they’d sell like hot cakes but even this much of a delay shipment got me surprised!

I can’t wait though. Going to be my first real Mac for day to day use since I had a 2015 MBP. Been using hackintoshes since then, but now I’m ready to go back to real Macs!
 
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My first Mac computer ever! I'm a software engineer who has used Windows and Linux all his life and owns a gaming desktop, but I'm honestly tired of it for anything other than gaming. It's big, it's loud, programs can feel sluggish even with top-end specs.
Ordered the base M4 model and plan to use an external SSD for most stuff. Use case will be mainly indie game dev, music production, coding.
 
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Forgot to say ... I ordered the base model so that it would be delivered on November 8th ... I need that fast thrill ... as soon as possible. Also, I guess, I should have ordered the 512 GB storage (maybe should have) but I checked my storage on my present machine and I saw I was using about three quarter of the 256 GBs ... however, of that, at least a quarter was just my iPhone back-ups. I deleted the back-up (I know they will accumulate again at some point) but I now use less than 1/2 the 256. A caveat ... I do use the iCloud+ with 2 TB. Not a creator or power oriented ... just the basic Apple apps.
 
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WC7 said:
Forgot to say ... I ordered the base model so that it would be delivered on November 8th ... I need that fast thrill ... as soon as possible. Also, I guess, I should have ordered the 512 GB storage (maybe should have) but I checked my storage on my present machine and I saw I was using about three quarter of the 256 GBs ... however, of that, at least a quarter was just my iPhone back-ups. I deleted the back-up (I know they will accumulate again at some point) but I now use less than 1/2 the 256. A caveat ... I do use the iCloud+ with 2 TB. Not a creator or power oriented ... just the basic Apple apps.
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After deleting my old iPhone and iPad backups (I have iCloud) and some huge (and duplicate) video files in Messages, I'm down to 242 GB used on my current M1 Mac mini.

For my M4 Mac mini order, I originally spec'd 1 TB to give myself some breathing room, but ended up changing that to 512 GB. Of the 242 GB used, about 100 GB of that is music and documents.* 512 GB is the sweet spot for me. I do mainly office type work but with occasional simple video and photo edits, and I will be connecting a 2 TB external SSD anyway for Photos.

In contrast, my wife uses about 120 GB of her 256 GB drive, and my kids use only about 55-60 GB each. It's a real waste for my son with his 2017 iMac with 1 TB SSD (hand me down from me). :p

Screenshot 2024-11-02 at 12.49.36 PM.jpeg


*The documents could easily be optimized to iCloud, or could be moved to my external drive. I'm not sure how it works with my music files if I don't subscribe to Apple Music, but I'd prefer not to move those to an external drive for now. If I moved my documents, I could technically get by with 256 GB but it's really pushing it.

OTOH, on my 256 GB MacBook, about half the storage is empty, since it's a secondary machine.
 
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Ordered an M4 Pro Mac Mini. It is replacing an M1 Mac Studio that unfortunately took some kind of power surge through its ethernet port during a storm at my home that damaged a bunch of other electronics. Unfortunately i didn't have apple care on the Mac Studio and the repair was going to be over $1k. Upgraded to the mac mini instead.
 
MBHockey said:
Ordered an M4 Pro Mac Mini. It is replacing an M1 Mac Studio that unfortunately took some kind of power surge through its ethernet port during a storm at my home that damaged a bunch of other electronics. Unfortunately i didn't have apple care on the Mac Studio and the repair was going to be over $1k. Upgraded to the mac mini instead.
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What kind of work do you do with your Mac? I’m just curious because the Max still has distinct advantages for the Pro, but for people like me with only light media needs, that advantage is lost.
 
Trading in an M2 MBP and 2018 Mini for a M4 24GB/1TB. Can’t pick up till 11/18. Seems like custom to order are being pushed out at least a couple weeks(if i wanted 10GB Ethernet it would be closer to I think 11/20).
 
Just ordered a base M4 Mac mini 256gb.

Sold my 2021 MacBook Pro 14” base with M1 for $900. Used the laptop very little, mostly at my desk, which is why I thought now might be a perfect time for Mac mini.
 
It looks like they have sufficient stock at least here in Canada to satisfy launch day demand for the lower end M4 standard configs, and for the M4 Pro standard config. Even if you order now, they're still delivering by Nov. 8. The only delayed standard config is the M4 / 24 GB / 512 GB, delivering Nov. 27 to Dec. 5.

Also, anything with 10 Gigabit Ethernet extends the delivery to Nov. 21-25 (or speeds it up to Nov. 21-25 in the case of the M4 / 24 GB / 512 GB).

Mine is still processing, to deliver Nov. 20-22. I ordered the M4 / 24 GB / 512 GB / 10GbE on Nov. 1. Note that when I ordered, it said ships in 8-10 days (meaning ships Nov. 9-11), but that delivery is Nov. 20-22, implying an 11-day shipping time.

BTW, I hope Black Friday deals on higher end NVMe drives start soon. I'm looking maybe to pick up one with DRAM to use in an external USB4 enclosure with this Mac mini.
 
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Just ordered an M4 and upgraded RAM to 32GB and storage to 1TB. Delivery is now from 15/11 which suits me as wanted delivery within the Xmas return window, which I suspect will be from this Friday. Didn’t need a Pro as have an M3 Max 16” MBP. This machine is to replace a 2014 iMac retina i7 as my "office" machine. I have a 34" curved Philips monitor arriving today free from work. Went 32GB as that's what's in the iMac and you can never have too much RAM. Went 1TB as I like some flexibility in local storage despite having a NAS and external NVMe drives/caddies.
 
MrGimper said:
Just ordered an M4 and upgraded RAM to 32GB and storage to 1TB. Delivery is now from 15/11 which suits me as wanted delivery within the Xmas return window, which I suspect will be from this Friday. Didn’t need a Pro as have an M3 Max 16” MBP. This machine is to replace a 2014 iMac retina i7 as my "office" machine. I have a 34" curved Philips monitor arriving today free from work. Went 32GB as that's what's in the iMac and you can never have too much RAM. Went 1TB as I like some flexibility in local storage despite having a NAS and external NVMe drives/caddies.
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32 GB seems like extreme overkill for a machine for mainstream office productivity but I guess YMMV.
 
EugW said:
32 GB seems like extreme overkill for a machine for mainstream office productivity but I guess YMMV.
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Yeah I thought about going with 24. Then I thought about if I could really drop to 512GB storage, and then I was considering the base Pro :rolleyes::rolleyes:
 
For me, then comes the decision of the monitor to use ... I guess it depends on if I can find the power and hdmi cables. (I moved and put things in boxes everywhere.) Sort of ironic I am considering using just my little old 20 inch LCD monitor with the modern M4 mini. I do have the larger 4k monitor but it doesn't fit in my cubbyhole space.
 
MrGimper said:
Yeah I thought about going with 24. Then I thought about if I could really drop to 512GB storage, and then I was considering the base Pro :rolleyes::rolleyes:
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Heh. I'm currently using an M1 16 GB with 1 TB SSD. 16 GB is definitely fine for my business application usage with usually no swap at all, albeit usually with a few GB of compressed memory. So, I bought the M4 with 24 GB. I didn't actually want the 1 TB SSD but I got it just because it was what was available in the used Mac mini I bought for relatively cheap. I currently have 786 free out of 995 GB. That means the base model 256 GB would have been too tight, but a 512 GB SSD would still have well over 256 GB free, and my storage usage pattern has been similar for years. Actually, like you, for the sake of future proofing I actually originally spec'd a 1 TB drive too, but in the end decided to go with my usual philosophy:

If you like to keep your machines a long time and you expect to have relatively stable usage patterns, it's still good to future-proof your machines, but perhaps not to over-future-proof machines. Because if you over-future-proof you may end up spending money unnecessarily. It's a fine balance though, everyone's needs and wants are different.
 
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EugW said:
Heh. I'm currently using an M1 16 GB with 1 TB SSD. 16 GB is definitely fine for my business application usage with usually no swap at all, albeit usually with a few GB of compressed memory. So, I bought the M4 with 24 GB. I didn't actually want the 1 TB SSD but I got it just because it was what was available in the used Mac mini I bought for relatively cheap. I currently have 786 free out of 995 GB. That means the base model 256 GB would have been too tight, but a 512 GB SSD would still have over 256 GB free, and 1 TB would have been overkill. My storage usage pattern has been similar for years. I actually originally bought 1 TB too, but decided to go with my usual philosophy:

If you like to keep your machines a long time, and you generally have relatively stable usage patterns, it's still good to future-proof your machines, but perhaps not to over-future-proof machines. Because if you over-future-proof you may end up spending money unnecessarily. It's a fine balance though, everyone's needs and wants are different.
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My iMac is 10 years old, running Sequoia via OCLP. I really don't need the Pro but I'm a sales persons dream. I sticking to my guns this time as I have the M3 Max 16/40/64GB/2TB that I bought on Apple Refurb. This is the main machine I use. I could probably drop to 24GB RAM, but the 1TB storage makes me feel happier.
 
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