The new Mac mini is almost certainly coming

[Che Castro]

Same here. Thunderbolt 4 / USB 4 enclosure ordered. I'm waiting for a sale on a decent 4 TB SSD, but luckily Black Friday is coming soon. In the meantime I have my 2 TB Samsung T7 Shield.

Which enclosure did you think ? I’m thinking about the Owc express 1m2
But I need a 4tb nvme , so I’m also waiting for Black Friday

 

[EugW]

Which enclosure did you think ? I’m thinking about the Owc express 1m2
But I need a 4tb nvme , so I’m also waiting for Black Friday

I thought about the OWC 1M2 as it has the best heat sink design but it is also far more expensive than the others. It also does not support Thunderbolt 3. On Thunderbolt 3 systems it drops down to 10 Mbps USB 3.2 unfortunately.

I ordered the Qwiizlab ES40UR as the heatsink design also is excellent and it uses the same chipset as the OWC, but apparently without the Thunderbolt 3 limitation. There is also the outwardly identical Hagibis but for some reason the specs say it is limited to 4 TB despite also using the same chipset.

The OWC is colour matched to the Mac mini though. The Qwiizlab / Hagibis is not. It’s a grey colour. Also, the OWC places the USB port on the opposite end of the status light, which makes sense. The Qwiizlab / Hagibis put the USB port on the same end as the status light, which works well for a laptop but is a bit more awkward for a desktop.

 

[Che Castro]

I thought about the OWC 1M2 as it has the best heat sink design but it is also far more expensive than the others. It also does not support Thunderbolt 3. On Thunderbolt 3 systems it drops down to 10 Mbps USB 3.2 unfortunately.

I ordered the Qwiizlab ES40UR as the heatsink design also is excellent and it uses the same chipset as the OWC, but apparently without the Thunderbolt 3 limitation. There is also the outwardly identical Hagibis but for some reason the specs say it is limited to 4 TB despite also using the same chipset.

View attachment 2449654

The OWC is colour matched to the Mac mini though. The Qwiizlab / Hagibis is not. It’s a grey colour. Also, the OWC places the USB port on the opposite end of the status light, which makes sense. The Qwiizlab / Hagibis but the USB port on the same end as the status light, which works well for a laptop but is a bit more awkward for a desktop.

Which NVME are you looking to get, I'm thinking the crucial p3 plus 4 TB

 

[EugW]

Which NVME are you looking to get, I'm thinking the crucial p3 plus 4 TB

The P3 Plus is what Qwiizlab has in its 3D render. 🤓 See pic above.

I considered the top-of-the-line Samsung 990 Pro but its heat generation makes me uncomfortable. I’m considering the DRAM-less 990 EVO Plus, but right now it’s very expensive since it just came out. Street pricing is actually more than the 990 Pro.

 

[PaulD-UK]

@EugW "...it's absolutely clear I do NOT need to upgrade my M1 16 GB Mac mini."

Earlier this year I needed to edit an hour and a half wedding video shot with 1080p cameras using an M1 mini 16/512, using FCP.
The footage was all on external 2800MB/s TB3 SSDs, but I used the m4v source files to edit as I didn't want to transcode to ProRes if I didn't have to.

Right at the start the mini crashed, and beach balled several times, then settled down.
So everything proceeded OK from then, with memory flatlining at max yellow, but never becoming red.

However there was a real problem throughout the edit, because the audio part of the timeline/project display could never update immediately, so throughout the edit I had to wait a second or so before I could get on with the next edit.
It was a real pain.

I think in part it was down to using external SSDs for the source footage, as when on the internal disk the lag was far less apparent.
I ended up leaving the source footage external, but keeping the FCP projects on the internal SSD.

512GB fills up really quickly with and hour and a half of edited timeline...
I was constantly having to clear older project snapshots off the internal onto the external SSDs.
And I wasn't even dealing with 4K.....

Moral: An M1 mini 16/512 is absolutely fine – until it isn't.
PS: M4 Pro mini on its way, with 24/1TB haha

 

[EugW]

@EugW "...it's absolutely clear I do NOT need to upgrade my M1 16 GB Mac mini."

Earlier this year I needed to edit an hour and a half wedding video shot with 1080p cameras using an M1 mini 16/512, using FCP.
The footage was all on external 2800MB/s TB3 SSDs, but I used the m4v source files to edit as I didn't want to transcode to ProRes if I didn't have to.

Right at the start the mini crashed, and beach balled several times, then settled down.
So everything proceeded OK from then, with memory flatlining at max yellow, but never becoming red.

However there was a real problem throughout the edit, because the audio part of the timeline/project display could never update immediately, so throughout the edit I had to wait a second or so before I could get on with the next edit.
It was a real pain.

I think in part it was down to using external SSDs for the source footage, as when on the internal disk the lag was far less apparent.
I ended up leaving the source footage external, but keeping the FCP projects on the internal SSD.

512GB fills up really quickly with and hour and a half of edited timeline...
I was constantly having to clear older project snapshots off the internal onto the external SSDs.
And I wasn't even dealing with 4K.....

Moral: An M1 mini 16/512 is absolutely fine – until it isn't.
PS: M4 Pro mini on its way, with 24/1TB haha

Heh. I very likely won’t be doing anything that demanding for the foreseeable future., but yeah, I’m getting 24 GB for breathing room for the very occasional much more demanding multitasking session, and for future proofing.

Note that I’m going from an M1 16 GB with 1 TB, to an M4 24 GB with only 512 GB. I currently only have about 200 GB used on the 1 TB which is why I’m downgrading the storage. Actually, the only reason why I got 1 TB in the first place was because it was an inexpensive used unit and that’s just what it happened to come with. At the time used machines here in Canada with 16 GB RAM for a reasonable price were uncommon so I couldn’t be picky with the storage.

However, I will add a 4 TB Thunderbolt 4 drive. The machine will never leave my home office, so the external large fast storage will always be available. I think if were to buy a machine like this to be a portable editor, my minimum internal storage might have been 1-2 TB and M4 Pro preferred, like you’ve ordered, but I understand that circumstances sometimes may not always cooperate. I’m curious though, why were you using an M1 16 / 512?

EDIT:

Hmmm... I guess if you bought it at launch, that would explain it. I forgot that a M1 Pro Mac mini doesn't exist, and the Mac Studio didn't get released until 1.5 years later.

 

[Gloor]

Hahahaha, that's funny. I have the same one

And also waiting for BF discount. Haven't ordered the Mini yet as I'm still testing the Pro but might get it soon after I'm done with this

Same here. Thunderbolt 4 / USB 4 enclosure ordered. I'm waiting for a sale on a decent 4 TB SSD, but luckily Black Friday is coming soon. In the meantime I have my 2 TB Samsung T7 Shield.

 

[PaulD-UK]

Q: "...why were you using an M1 16 / 512?"
A: ...open box machines here in the UK with 16 GB RAM for a reasonable price were uncommon so I couldn’t be picky.

I bought a higher end iMac 27 2019 for 'Future Proofing', last pre-T2 upgradable iMac etc etc haha.
But I wanted an AS Mac when they came out (of course), but I've been aware that 'the best' was yet to come, so I've been waiting.

The iMac will eventually become a DIY 5K screen to use with it (I've already built one).

 

[EugW]

Large power supply components (capacitors?) are put in a cut out in the board, to make it fit:

It isn't just the antennae that are in the base of the Mac mini like I originally thought, but the entire WiFi daughter board.

 

[EugW]

The shipping box opens up like a flower 🌺

 

[Corefile]

I thought about the OWC 1M2 as it has the best heat sink design but it is also far more expensive than the others. It also does not support Thunderbolt 3. On Thunderbolt 3 systems it drops down to 10 Mbps USB 3.2 unfortunately.

I ordered the Qwiizlab ES40UR as the heatsink design also is excellent and it uses the same chipset as the OWC, but apparently without the Thunderbolt 3 limitation. There is also the outwardly identical Hagibis but for some reason the specs say it is limited to 4 TB despite also using the same chipset.

[...]
The OWC is colour matched to the Mac mini though. The Qwiizlab / Hagibis is not. It’s a grey colour. Also, the OWC places the USB port on the opposite end of the status light, which makes sense. The Qwiizlab / Hagibis put the USB port on the same end as the status light, which works well for a laptop but is a bit more awkward for a desktop.

For a lot of these external devices, make sure to speed test it as some of the flimsy cables are only USB2 speed (40MB/sec), compared to USB3.0 which is slightly faster and cables are thicker.

 

[EugW]

For a lot of these external devices, make sure to speed test it as some of the flimsy cables are only USB2 speed (40MB/sec), compared to USB3.0 which is slightly faster and cables are thicker.

The included cables are 40 Gbps USB 4 / Thunderbolt 4. The transfer speeds are in the 3000 MB/s range.

 

[Che Castro]

The shipping box opens up like a flower 🌺

View attachment 2449850

I didn’t notice that , I just broke the box open like an animal

 

[WC7]

All set ...

 

[Boil]

Moral: An M1 mini 16/512 is absolutely fine – until it isn't.
PS: M4 Pro mini on its way, with 24/1TB haha

I was thinking of:

• M4 Pro Mac mini (full-fat SoC)
• 64GB RAM
• 2TB SSD
• 10Gb Ethernet
• $2,899

But then I realized...

• M2 Max Mac Studio (full-fat SoC)
• 64GB RAM
• 2TB SSD
• 10Gb Ethernet
• $3,199

...is only an extra $300 & gets me a more substantial cooling system & PSU...

So I believe I will wait to see what the M4 Max Mac Studio brings...?

 

[EugW]

Old and new:





Migration assistant worked great! Typing on it now.

 

[Easttime]

Upgraded from 2018 mini mostly because it will soon be orphaned by Apple. Touch ID on silicone Macs handy too. But in truth the 2018 mini is working fine. I wonder if the time will come where it will be routine to keep a desktop until the hardware dies and can’t be fixed?

 

[WC7]

So, I didn't use migration assistant ... I just told it to sync Desktop and Documents (from my iCloud+) ... plus the iCloud has my data, too for Photos, Pages, Numbers, etc. etc. ... so I had everything running, basically, immediately after giving it my iCloud info. I know, (I'm not) not a power user, with external files and applications.

 

[WC7]

Upgraded from 2018 mini mostly because it will soon be orphaned by Apple. Touch ID on silicone Macs handy too. But in truth the 2018 mini is working fine. I wonder if the time will come where it will be routine to keep a desktop until the hardware dies and can’t be fixed?

I still have my 1984 Mac ... and it still works.

 

[Easttime]

I still have my 1984 Mac ... and it still works.

What about safety online? And I admit to enjoying some of the conveniences of the newer silicone models not available on the 2018.

 

[WC7]

What about safety online? And I admit to enjoying some of the conveniences of the newer silicone models not available on the 2018.

I mean I can turn it on ... but it is just my 'museum' piece.

 

[EugW]

 

[jonh229]

Migration assistant worked great! Typing on it now.

View attachment 2450021

I‘ve read different methods on using Migration Asst w/ TB. Did you do full install of macOS (Sequoia?) on new mini before running MA or did you just do the partial setup & make a fake user acct then use target disk mode on M1 to use the TB transfer? I’ll be migrating from an i7 running Ventura.

 

[WC7]

This is my hybrid iMac + Mac mini set-up ... I use Screen Sharing and have separate Full screens on the iMac to work on either computer.

 

[EugW]

I'm not sure if this was directly discussed already, but do you know what really bugs me?

$599 - Mac mini 16 GB / 256 GB
$1198 - 2 x Mac mini 16 GB / 256 GB
$1199 - Mac mini 32 GB / 512 GB

So, it's actually cheaper to buy two Mac minis than it is to buy one with same total amount of memory and storage.

I‘ve read different methods on using Migration Asst w/ TB. Did you do full install of macOS (Sequoia?) on new mini before running MA or did you just do the partial setup & make a fake user acct then use target disk mode on M1 to use the TB transfer? I’ll be migrating from an i7 running Ventura.

Sequoia was already on there. I just started the migration right at the initial setup.