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The "I just ordered / bought / got my new/refurb Mac mini" threads, merged
- Thread starter MacRansom
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Headed over to the Apple Visitors Center (Apple HQ) during my son’s Lacrosse practice and picked up a base 16/256gb. Software Update in progress
Ordered an M4 Pro 12/16, 1TB SSD, 48GB RAM on 11 November. Delivery estimate 22 November.
It started in Shenzhen on Friday. Then stopped off in Hong Kong for the weekend and is now having a stopover in Bahrain.
I'm guessing the Friday delivery estimate to my home in the UK is probably going to be accurate...?
It started in Shenzhen on Friday. Then stopped off in Hong Kong for the weekend and is now having a stopover in Bahrain.
I'm guessing the Friday delivery estimate to my home in the UK is probably going to be accurate...?
The first thing that struck me was the size difference. One of the most impressive redesigns I've seen from modern Apple. It's difficult to tell just how small this thing is from the reviews. (It's slightly taller than the old one despite a much smaller footprint.)
Easily up and running with my 5K iMac converted to a dumb display, and at full 5120x2880 with P3 color support just like a "real" Studio Display. Credit to the people behind MonitorControl as this app provides the native brightness and volume controls which makes the experience so much better.
The delivery experience was pretty terrible, not only was it delayed but they even managed to nick one of the box corners despite it being double-boxed. I will be going for in-store pickup next time.
Easily up and running with my 5K iMac converted to a dumb display, and at full 5120x2880 with P3 color support just like a "real" Studio Display. Credit to the people behind MonitorControl as this app provides the native brightness and volume controls which makes the experience so much better.
The delivery experience was pretty terrible, not only was it delayed but they even managed to nick one of the box corners despite it being double-boxed. I will be going for in-store pickup next time.
Quick progress from yesterday...
Left Bahrain early yesterday morning, then stopped briefly in Leipzig before arriving in the West Midlands. Overnight down to Southampton. Now out for delivery! 😀
Just ordered the M4 Pro, 12/16, 24GB, 1TB. I decided to go for at least the 1TB drive as the machine will be shared with two other people, and needs room for the three user accounts.
I bought an OWC 1M2 Thunderbolt 4 enclosure and fitted it with a 2TB Crucial SSD. Very impressed, the build quality is great and it benchmarks at around 3GB read/write per second. I will use this drive for all of my photos/videos and games.
The main reason for going for the Pro is gaming, I have a PS5 and switch but love playing games on the Mac as well.
I bought an OWC 1M2 Thunderbolt 4 enclosure and fitted it with a 2TB Crucial SSD. Very impressed, the build quality is great and it benchmarks at around 3GB read/write per second. I will use this drive for all of my photos/videos and games.
The main reason for going for the Pro is gaming, I have a PS5 and switch but love playing games on the Mac as well.
just ordered the m4pro 14/20 with 1tb drive and 64gb of ram. Replacing a imac 10 core i9 with 128gb of ram. I will be kissing 64gigs of ram with my use case.
Ordered the the same, plus 10gbe. Will replace my M2 Pro 1TB 16gb ram. Not sure how much performance will increase, but like smaller form factor, some ports up front and wanted 10gbe, since getting 2.5gb fiber next week.
Maybe should have gone with non pro mini with same specs, but seems like pro will be faster.
I've just replaced my 2018 Intel i7 Mac Mini with a new base model M4 Pro Mini. The 10G NIC burned out years ago on the old device.
So far my impressions are very solid, but I have FOMO about upgrading b/c I grabbed the M4 Pro on sale at MicroCenter for $1200. I had planned to order with 14c / 1TB / 10G upgrades. I think 24G RAM will be plenty for my use case. I just couldn't pass up the 15% savings on the base model.
I'm already at 130 gig free on storage.. I have plenty available on my 10G NAS, but now I have a slower interface there too.
So far my impressions are very solid, but I have FOMO about upgrading b/c I grabbed the M4 Pro on sale at MicroCenter for $1200. I had planned to order with 14c / 1TB / 10G upgrades. I think 24G RAM will be plenty for my use case. I just couldn't pass up the 15% savings on the base model.
I'm already at 130 gig free on storage.. I have plenty available on my 10G NAS, but now I have a slower interface there too.
That was tempting: the MicroCenter sale ... but I had already purchased my base model. Also, I think Amazon and Costco may have sales.
Yeah I was coming into this with an objective of grabbing the base M4 Mini at Costco for $499. After some consideration, I've decided to shift a lot of my work to the Mac. I have a stupid powerful workstation and I want Windows there for gaming, but Microsoft has annoyed the crap out of me. They killed the mail app I was using, ****ed up Outlook.. and Teams is probably equally ****** everywhere.
I also need to do things with my photo and video libraries, so that's underway. Loving the little box, just debating whether I want to order the better, more $$ config.
I worked from a Mac Pro for about 10 years but they have priced me out. I also have an M1 Air for travel.
No, was in Missouri. I happened to look and they were $200 off so I grabbed one for store pickup. They only had 3 when I saw it and they were gone quickly.
A friend picked up the base model 256 GB / 16 GB m4 Mac mini (late 2024) from Costco for me last Friday. I spent Saturday fighting with macOS getting it setup 
and my account migrated.
I finally got it working normally Sunday afternoon.
What I notice is that after a reboot, the login with all windows restored is super fast. All the apps just appear. Much less waiting compare to my 2017 i5 iMac.
Also, I plugged my 4TB Time Machine into a USB-C port with instead of a USB-A port and it's 10x faster! I don't know how I missed this all these years. But this one update moving to the new machine made Time Machine so much better.
and my account migrated.I finally got it working normally Sunday afternoon.
What I notice is that after a reboot, the login with all windows restored is super fast. All the apps just appear. Much less waiting compare to my 2017 i5 iMac.
Also, I plugged my 4TB Time Machine into a USB-C port with instead of a USB-A port and it's 10x faster! I don't know how I missed this all these years. But this one update moving to the new machine made Time Machine so much better.
Just hit the Purchase button on an M4 Mini, 32GB RAM and 1TB SSD. It'll replace my 2018 Intel Mac Mini which is starting to have some weird issues. Looks like it'll arrive shortly before Christmas time (Dec. 16-23)!
I also picked up a Western Digital 4TB NVMe SSD on a Black Friday sale that seems to work well in my Sonnet Thunderbolt/eGPU enclosure. The size of that enclosure will look completely ridiculous next to the tiny Mac Mini but, hey, I already own it -- and can hopefully I can sell the AMD RX580 graphics card for at least a little cash. 😆
I also picked up a Western Digital 4TB NVMe SSD on a Black Friday sale that seems to work well in my Sonnet Thunderbolt/eGPU enclosure. The size of that enclosure will look completely ridiculous next to the tiny Mac Mini but, hey, I already own it -- and can hopefully I can sell the AMD RX580 graphics card for at least a little cash. 😆
Even though I already had an M2 MacMini, 16GB, 512GB drive, I purchased the MacMini M4 base model. After a couple of days I realised I had made a mistake and should have bought the 512GB version. I did a SuperDuper backup, reset the machine and took it back to the Apple store to exchange it for the 512GB model. It was great that the Apple Store asked me to pay the £200 difference, rather than doing what I thought they’d do - refunding me for the first machine and charging me for the second. I was pleasantly surprised. I feel a lot happier now.
When I decide to buy something relatively expensive I prevaricate at the expense, but once I’ve spent the money in my head I adopt the mindset of 'I might as well pay a little more and get the better option’.
While setting up the new Mini I pointed it to my backup and within a short time everything was set up identicallly to the previous model. So easy.
I’m using the previous M2 Mac Mini as a Roon server and for Spam Sieve. It’s hopelessly over-specced for those tasks, but hugely better than the 2012 Mac Mini I was using!
When I decide to buy something relatively expensive I prevaricate at the expense, but once I’ve spent the money in my head I adopt the mindset of 'I might as well pay a little more and get the better option’.
While setting up the new Mini I pointed it to my backup and within a short time everything was set up identicallly to the previous model. So easy.
I’m using the previous M2 Mac Mini as a Roon server and for Spam Sieve. It’s hopelessly over-specced for those tasks, but hugely better than the 2012 Mac Mini I was using!
You lost me a bit here - financially it should be exactly the same; why do you care which is done?
Huh? The base model has 256GB storage, I realised that wasn’t enough so swapped it for the 512GB model for an extra £200.
Agree, but whether they charge you another 200 for the 'upgrade' or they refund your money and have you spend for the higher model (at 200 premium), the net effect - the cost - is exactly the same. Hence I didn't understand your comment.
So, I thought I’d go in store, receive a refund for the base model I returned, then have to pay another £699 for the 512GB version, meaning for a few days my credit card would show a debt of £1198 since refunds are not instant. it was much easier just paying the additional cost.
Yesterday I ordered:
- Apple M4 Pro with 14‑core CPU, 20‑core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine
- 64GB unified memory
- 2TB SSD storage
- Gigabit Ethernet
- Mac Studio Display
- Apple M4 Pro with 14‑core CPU, 20‑core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine
- 64GB unified memory
- 2TB SSD storage
- Gigabit Ethernet
- Mac Studio Display