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The "I just ordered / bought / got my new/refurb Mac mini" threads, merged
- Thread starter MacRansom
- Start date
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Today, I ordered the following with a deliver date of Dec 5-11.
Apple M4 Pro chip with 14‑core CPU, 20‑core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine
64GB unified memory
4TB SSD storage
Gigabit Ethernet
Apple M4 Pro chip with 14‑core CPU, 20‑core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine
64GB unified memory
4TB SSD storage
Gigabit Ethernet
M4 Pro, 14-core
48GB
1TB
Not being delivered until December, but I’m excited. Upgrading from a 2015 iMac.
48GB
1TB
Not being delivered until December, but I’m excited. Upgrading from a 2015 iMac.
Good thinking! Their prices are insane.
It is good, that I am not dependent on Mac anymore (except here and there I am using and old Mac mini 2014 for scanning purpose). This was the last model, where you could change/swap the SATA drive or even apply a 3rd party converter/adapter for an NVMe drive.
I’m considering purchasing my first Apple-powered home computer. Since our household has iPads and iPhones, it might be time to go all the way.
The pictures show what type of computer I currently have. Please suggest which version/specifications of the new mini I should order.
I’m 74, and I don’t thoroughly understand what I need. I'm not too worried about the cost; I want to ensure I get the best value for my dollar.
We use it mostly for photos, videos, banking, shopping, surfing, etc. TIA.
The pictures show what type of computer I currently have. Please suggest which version/specifications of the new mini I should order.
I’m 74, and I don’t thoroughly understand what I need. I'm not too worried about the cost; I want to ensure I get the best value for my dollar.
We use it mostly for photos, videos, banking, shopping, surfing, etc. TIA.
M4 Mac mini with 16 GB RAM and 512 GB storage. Or perhaps an M4 iMac with the same specs.
P.S. Your current storage is 438 GB. That's kind of an odd amount. What is it exactly? I'm just curious.
CLX SET GAMING PC Liquid-Cooled Intel Core i9 9900K 3.6GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 8GB, 16GB 3000MHz Mem, 480GB SSD + 2TB HDD
My son purchased it for us and used it to play his games on when visiting.
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The more concerning thing is are you willing to learn on a new operating system that isn't Windows to a Mac OS at your age? I've had experiences where older people didn't want to change computers because they didn't want to learn on a new operating system.
Excellent point. My wife and I both use iPhones and iPads. The pictures seem to go to Google, Apple, and then somewhere on the Microsoft side. Ultimately, we hope to achieve a seamless situation where any images we take go to one place to avoid the confusion of figuring out where they ended up. I probably have this all wrong, but I thought it would be more straightforward if everything were the same.
Hey, he's not senile. 😜 Some of my colleagues are in their 80s and are still working part time, not because they need the money, but because they would get bored otherwise. They are very computer literate too, despite not working in IT or tech.
It looks like Apple Photos might work for you. That of course is only on macOS. It integrates seamlessly with iCloud, along with your iPhones and iPads. However, otherwise you could try something like Adobe Lightroom if you want more fine-grained photo management and some more advanced features.
Many years. ago I bought a Lightroom licence but in the end I didn't use it because it took way more effort and just was inconvenient to use for a non-professional. Apple Photos is dead easy to use if you're already on an iPhone and iPad, but doesn't have the plethora of professional features of Lightroom.
So, would using Google Chrome on a mini defeat the purpose? I ask because we use Chrome, and I think that’s probably a big part of our problems.
I don't know what you mean by you're using Google Chrome. Are you using the Chrome to organize your photos in Google Photos or something?
If you go all Apple - iPad, iPhone, Mac - then you could get yourself an iCloud account and share the photos automatically. They get sync'd.
For example. I own an iPad, an iPhone, a MacBook and a Mac mini, and all of them share the same Photos library, all sync'd through iCloud (although I pay a monthly fee for the family iCloud subscription). If I take a picture on my iPhone, it automatically gets sent to my iCloud Photos Library, and then gets synchronized to my iPad, MacBook and Mac mini. If I delete something in the library on my Mac, it gets deleted on my iPhone too. I have the entire library on my Mac with all the original full size photos (as I've set it to download all the original photos), but actually on the iPhone, iPad, and MacBook, to save space I've set them only to keep recent photos, while the rest are there just as thumbnails. I can access any of them at any time, but there may be a few second delay because it downloads the original from iCloud when I access the pictures.
The only drawback to this is that the Photos Libraries are not shared. So my wife has her own and I have my own, in our own iCloud accounts linked to our email addresses. We do text each other important pictures though, so when we receive them we click the button beside it to download them into our own Photos Libraries.
macOS - Photos
Photos keeps your images organized and accessible. Rediscover favourite shots with Memories. Access them on your devices with iCloud Photos.
www.apple.com
Photos for iOS and iPadOS
Photos for iOS and iPadOS makes it easy to relive, edit and share your favourite moments.
www.apple.com
Chrome is the web browser we use on our ipads and iPhones.
Your explanation about the photos is exactly what we want. I'm going for a mini, and if I find out it's too complicated to figure out, I'll get rid of it and return to Windows. Thanks for the info.
Libraries.
macOS - Photos
Photos keeps your images organized and accessible. Rediscover favourite shots with Memories. Access them on your devices with iCloud Photos.www.apple.com
Photos for iOS and iPadOS
Photos for iOS and iPadOS makes it easy to relive, edit and share your favourite moments.www.apple.com
Fully agreed. My current thought for when I pick up a new Mini (probably December) is to take the eGPU enclosure from my old 2018 Intel Mac Mini and replace the GPU with a PCIe-NVMe adapter. I should be able to get up to 4TB of Thunderbolt storage for about what Apple charges for 1TB. The speed will be slightly slower but I highly doubt I'll really notice that much.
Picking up an M4, 24GB, 512SSD today.
Talked myself out of the M4 Pro, as figured I just wouldn’t need it. Most I’ll do is some fairly standard hobby video editing in FCP, and design stuff in Figma.
Might have sprung for 32GB RAM / 1TB, but would have been a 2/3 week wait. Figure 24 should probably be enough, and I can just add an external SSD for less cash.
Talked myself out of the M4 Pro, as figured I just wouldn’t need it. Most I’ll do is some fairly standard hobby video editing in FCP, and design stuff in Figma.
Might have sprung for 32GB RAM / 1TB, but would have been a 2/3 week wait. Figure 24 should probably be enough, and I can just add an external SSD for less cash.
M4 Pro 12 core / 2 TB / 48 GB / 10G ethernet ordered on launch day. Arrival window is Nov 20 - 22. Moved to 'preparing to ship' yesterday.
Looks like it should be here on Nov 11. Quite a bit earlier than the original window with such a custom config.
M4 Pro 14 Core, 64GB, 1TB just changed to Preparing to Ship yesterday!! Original delivery window is Nov 21 - Dec 2
I ordered an M4 32GB/1TB on Monday, was dispatched yesterday and arrives monday 11th. Original date when I ordered was 15th to 19th.
I finally pulled the trigger on the M4 Pro 24/512, the only one available to purchase physically on the store.
I have two whole months to use it in depth and see if 24GB of RAM are enough for me, or if I need to downgrade the SoC to a regular M4 to get 32GB of RAM.
I’m quite eager to boot my first new Mac in almost 15 years! (because the 2014 mini of my signature was purchased second hand, for just a few hundred bucks, as a stopgap machine that finally lasted 6 or 7 years).
I have two whole months to use it in depth and see if 24GB of RAM are enough for me, or if I need to downgrade the SoC to a regular M4 to get 32GB of RAM.
I’m quite eager to boot my first new Mac in almost 15 years! (because the 2014 mini of my signature was purchased second hand, for just a few hundred bucks, as a stopgap machine that finally lasted 6 or 7 years).
Purchased my M4 Mini yesterday. Let it do updates and install things. I went with the base model - 16GB 256GB M4 and this thing is awesome!
I only have a 1080p monitor so I'm not getting the full resolution I could out of it.
So far, the things I've tried have worked flawlessly. Coding compiles faster, games play better, everything synced just fine. No hiccups so far.
I did have to install 15.1 as it only came with 15.0. Geekbench Scores here: https://browser.geekbench.com/v6/cpu/8725091
Loving it so far! Highly recommend. 10/10. It's so small!
I only have a 1080p monitor so I'm not getting the full resolution I could out of it.
So far, the things I've tried have worked flawlessly. Coding compiles faster, games play better, everything synced just fine. No hiccups so far.
I did have to install 15.1 as it only came with 15.0. Geekbench Scores here: https://browser.geekbench.com/v6/cpu/8725091
Loving it so far! Highly recommend. 10/10. It's so small!
Custom M4 mini arriving two weeks early! My maxed out mini was slated for After November 27th… but is now arriving on the 14th per Apple text alert. I’m delighted.