The new Mac mini is almost certainly coming

[Micky Do]

Studio fits my use case perfectly. had the 6,1 trashcan when that became end of life for me after 7 years i bought the M1 Mini knowing it was only a bridge to see if Apple would bring a desktop that wasn't $5k, Pro was overkill and not worth the money for me, but the M1 Max Studio is perfect for me. hit the button 30min after the event. My parents get my M1 replacing their 2014 Mac Mini, everyone wins.

View attachment 1970145

Git thee outta here..... MacRumours has created a new forum for folks like you! Mac Studio

 

[JEuro2285]

Bought a Max with 32-core GPU. 32gb memory... we may need a new sub-forum indeed

 

[troop231]

Bought a Max with 32-core GPU. 32gb memory... we may need a new sub-forum indeed

Mac Studio

Apple's higher-end headless desktop

forums.macrumors.com

 

[roundski]

I believe from a customer (price/efficiency/power) point of view the M? Pro is the sweet spot, I think Apple knows it too from MacBook Pro sales,
and a M1 pro Mac mini or an M2 Mac mini would kill Mac studio sales

price/efficiency/power

M1 Good
M1 Pro Best (sweet spot)
M1 Max Bad
M1 Ultra Worst

M2 Good +
M2. Best +
M2 Max Bad +
M2 Ultra Worst +

 

[norwaypianoman]

Hi,

i work in an Apple Reseller and like many of you i'm waiting for the mini 2013 refresh....

Trust me, a new mini is coming next week, or at least we have solid evidence to believe it.

c") Nah. I would not believe it for the world... Apple will never make a normal computer

 

[opeter]

While I am following your logic, my only question is, why then keep the high end Mac mini around at all? Surely it has to be a place holder for something, or else shouldn’t it have been axed alongside the 27” today?

I can also happen, that Apple will simply discontinue the Intel i5 Mac mini that they are still selling in a month or two and there wont be any replacement at all.

So you will have in the long term:
Mac mini (low end, consumer)
Mac Studio (middle end?, prosumer)
Mac Pro (high end, professional)

And it can happen, that the Mac mini will stay on M1 for another year or two...

 

[trickster is meaningless]

I guess this thread will keep plodding on, I hope something comes out to fill the gap for those after a M1 Pro. I'll be looking forward to some benchmarks and reviews for the studio over the coming days/weeks.

Thanks for all the interesting discussions, I've learned a lot on here.

 

[staypuftforums]

There are several groups of people in this thread. Many of us wanted a high-end mac mini (myself) and this fit that need perfectly. Nobody should have expected an update to the M1 mini (M2), but I do feel bad for those that were hoping for an M1 Pro desktop.

M1 products (Air, Mini, MacBook Pro) are 15 months old. There’s been tons of leaks of a redesigned M2 Mac Mini going back several months. Perfectly reasonable to have expected at least one to have been updated.

 

[Nütztjanix]

Would have been strange to see M2 before each iteration of M1 has been shown, though. At least confusing for the non-savvy.

 

[tubular]

There are still a lot of people out there on legacy code, and will be for quite some time. Apple will keep selling some Intel SKUs for most of this year, meaning that macOS will continue to support it until 2027.

Apple sold the pre-touchbar Macbook Pro 15" for at least a year and a half after the great Macbook Pro Trainwreck of 2016. I bought mine in Oct 2017, because it seemed at the time that Apple might never make another laptop worth buying, and it would be my last chance to buy one worth having. That model was still being sold until, IIRC, July-ish 2018, because it had a solid use case the touchbar machines didn't fulfill.

So I could see the Intel Mac mini hanging on for another year or so, for those who need Intel-only applications and can't be bounced into a $6K Mac Pro.

 

[tubular]

There’s been tons of leaks of a redesigned M2 Mac Mini going back several months.

Well, there were leaks that were interpreted as "redesigned M2 Mac mini" but could (with hindsight) have actually been about the M1 Ultra and Studio.

It does seem odd that Apple offers no headless desktop with M1 Pro, though.

 

[CWallace]

I do not believe there will be a "Mac mini Pro" with the M1 Pro and M1 Max and up to 64GB of RAM, but I hope that when the Mac mini is updated with the new form factor, in addition to M2 they also offer an M1 Pro BTO option with 16 and 32GB options. That way there is a lower-cost headless desktop option to the Mac Studio.

 

[EugW]

I do not believe there will be a "Mac mini Pro" with the M1 Pro and M1 Max and up to 64GB of RAM, but I hope that when the Mac mini is updated with the new form factor, in addition to M2 they also offer an M1 Pro BTO option with 16 and 32GB options. That way there is a lower-cost headless desktop option to the Mac Studio.

I mentioned it earlier but I'm no longer completely sure that the M2 Mac mini will get a form factor change, mainly because Mac Studio shares the same footprint as the existing Mac mini. Yes, it's a form factor change, but the base dimensions are identical, and even the circular foot seems to be of similar dimensions, although in the Mac Studio the foot is full of ventilation holes.

So, right now I can only say I'm not sure, but we shall see. Either way, I'm waiting. M2 might be OK except I'm sure it won't have a huge number of ports, so I'd like to see an M1 Pro model first with more ports, say at WWDC. In terms of ports, Mac Studio is perfect for me, but the cost is too high, the machine is much taller than I'd hoped*, and the performance is roughly 3X as fast as I need.

*It's tall enough that it won't fit underneath my 30" Apple Cinema HD Display.

 

[Neodym]

The M1 Ultra is basically two M1 Max chips fused together. That's 20 CPU cores and 64 GPU cores. So it'll definitely produce some heat.

BUT... the cooling looks beefy. Two fans and a giant enclosure.

Big fans can turn more slowly while moving the same amount of air.

I'm sure Apple took noise into consideration when designing this system. But as usual we'll have to wait for reviews.

I assume that Apple designed the cooling system in the Studio for the M1 Ultra, so it'll probably be audible (though not disturbing) on an Ultra chip and whisper-quiet on the Max.

 

[Neodym]

We could see an M2 and M2 Pro in a future mini, but it does seem odd to not have the Pro chip in the Studio when the Pro and Max share the same form factor on the MBP. It seems an easy fit.

Perhaps production capabilities are simply exhausted for the Pro - after all, it seems to be the most-chosen option with the current MBP‘s.

Another possibility would be Apple‘s narrative for the Studio, selling it as a true powerhouse. The Pro‘s performance - as well as e.g. the number of supported monitors - may not be sufficient for the intended target group and thus could tarnish the Studio‘s (yet-to-be-built) reputation.

 

[Jorbanead]

We could see an M2 and M2 Pro in a future mini, but it does seem odd to not have the Pro chip in the Studio when the Pro and Max share the same form factor on the MBP. It seems an easy fit.

Agreeing with others in that the chassis is already overkill for a single Max chip, so it would be completely unnecessary for the Pro chip. I’d think maybe they group the M1 and M1 Pro together in the next Mac mini redesign instead.

 

[CWallace]

I assume that Apple designed the cooling system in the Studio for the M1 Ultra, so it'll probably be audible (though not disturbing) on an Ultra chip and whisper-quiet on the Max.

I bet it will still be very quiet when cooling the M1 Ultra since one of the product categories it is aimed at is Audio Production.

It is why the iMac Pro was popular with many podcasters - it was quiet enough that it did not interfere with recording.

 

[EugW]

I assume that Apple designed the cooling system in the Studio for the M1 Ultra, so it'll probably be audible (though not disturbing) on an Ultra chip and whisper-quiet on the Max.

The M1 Ultra model is 2 lbs heavier than the M1 Max model, according to Apple's specs. Some have postulated it's because of a different power supply, but Apple's specs have the same max power for the two models. So I'm wondering if the heatsinks and cooling could be different.

 

[Neodym]

Over at the Studio sub-forum someone posted a link to an Apple website regarding acoustic performance of the Studio (https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...always-on-like-the-mini.2337008/post-30914400).

According to that data the Mac Studio with Ultra chip will bring 15 dB into the room.

For comparison, the same poster mentioned 5 dB for an M1 mini and 13 dB for an iMac Pro.

Therefore the Studio may not be as well suited for audio production as other machines (at least acoustically - performance-wise it’ll surely scream), when equipped with the Ultra chip.

If it’s better with the Max chip depends on Apple having an adjusted fan profile in the Studio Max (hopefully they will), as I don’t expect them to have a different cooling system in place for the Max chip.

Edit: Okay - the speculation in my last sentence is now obsolete. As EugW spotted, there’s significant evidence that both variants indeed seem to have different cooling systems in place. If the Max would have a smaller cooling system, it might have some empty space in that housing. So I’m now looking forward to the first hacks bringing NVMe SSD’s into the case, connected to a TB 4 port on the back :-D

 

[CWallace]

Well 15dB is close enough to 13dB that I expect anyone using an iMac Pro for audio work will find the Mac Studio to be fine.

And depending on the audio plug-ins, 10 CPU cores might be enough so no need for the 20 in the Ultra.

 

[Jorbanead]

Therefore the Studio may not be as well suited for audio production as other machines (at least acoustically - performance-wise it’ll surely scream), when equipped with the Ultra chip.

The ultra is overkill for even the most demanding recording studios. The only real need for that much processing power would be for film scores, but even then I'd argue the M1 Max is still more than capable. I remember when the 2017 iMac Pro came out and film composers were trying to break the 18-core version and it was essentially impossible.

Aside from that, if you are running a major studio that needs the Ultra, you're not going to have it sitting next to your $500,000 mixing console. It's going to sit inside a rack or in an enclosure that can be closed and out of the way.

 

[now i see it]

The MStudio is now in the spotlight. It’s safe to say that the Mini will be dormant for a very long time.
I’d go so far as to say “the next Mac Mini is a very long way away”

 

[Boyd01]

The fact that they are still selling the Intel Mini's suggests to me that some sort of upgrade to the current M1 is coming. MacRumors had a front page story on the remaining Intel Macs yesterday, they think a M2 Mini is likely sometime in 2022. Perhaps that will be the new case with the plastic top?

Regardless, I'm quite pleased that my 2018 i7 Mini is going to be supported long into the future.

 

[Moonjumper]

Well 15dB is close enough to 13dB that I expect anyone using an iMac Pro for audio work will find the Mac Studio to be fine.

And depending on the audio plug-ins, 10 CPU cores might be enough so no need for the 20 in the Ultra.

Decibels are on a logarithmic scale, so the difference is more than it would seem when thinking about the more common linear scales such as distance (decibels is also a scale that doesn't start at zero). I've worked with audio staff who would object to either, but 13dB is the volume of a light bulb hum, probably the loudest thing in a room where the easy adjustments have been made, so that extra bit more could stand out. It is certainly a consideration for some.

 

[EugW]

Okay - the speculation in my last sentence is now obsolete. As EugW spotted, there’s significant evidence that both variants indeed seem to have different cooling systems in place. If the Max would have a smaller cooling system, it might have some empty space in that housing. So I’m now looking forward to the first hacks bringing NVMe SSD’s into the case, connected to a TB 4 port on the back :-D

Apple explains why the M1 Ultra-equipped Mac Studio is two pounds heavier

The power supplies are the same; the heatsinks are not.

www.theverge.com

They have the same 370W power supply. The additional weight is due to M1 Ultra having a larger copper thermal module, where as M1 Max has an aluminum heatsink.