Trying to Justify Getting a Mac Mini M4

[cjsuk]

Whats the second place according to you? PC's like Beelink SER8 are $500 for better specs.

500 smackers for shenzhen franken PC. Urgh. Don’t do it.

 

[The Clark]

Beelinks are great in my experience, just not for anything super demanding. Thermals become an issue pretty quickly. But if you're using them as file storage or jumpboxes they're great.

 

[Ctrlos]

Buy it! And whilst your there grab Pixelmator and a Cheap Photomator sub and give your wallet-bleeding, photo-hostage taking Adobe subscription the heave-ho.

 

[leifp]

I am demoting my Mac mini to replace my AppleTV because I detest the level of ads everywhere now. As to your question on support:

Video Playback

• Supported formats include HEVC, H.264, AV1, and ProRes
• HDR with Dolby Vision, HDR10+/HDR10, and HLG

Audio Playback

• Supported formats include AAC, MP3, Apple Lossless, FLAC, Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, and Dolby Atmos

From https://www.apple.com/mac-mini/specs/

 

[TechnoMonk]

Beelinks are great in my experience, just not for anything super demanding. Thermals become an issue pretty quickly. But if you're using them as file storage or jumpboxes they're great.

Intel mini pcs couldn’t even handle file storage. I had them replaced with couple of raspberry Pi’s. Grabbed a Mac mini for sale at Costco last month. I can run my file server, vpn, and other dev utilities. Tread carefully with spec chasing.

 

[Plutonius]

Generally, when people are asking for justification for a purchase, it's something they don't really need.

If it's something you really want or need, no justification is needed.

Otherwise, skip buying it and spend your money elsewhere.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

I'm not sure how someone can use the world productivity and windows in the same post. It's the only platform I charge by the hour to work on because I genuinely can't estimate what is going to break or go wrong while I'm using it.

Just last week I lost two entire days suddenly because vmmem craps out with 100% CPU usage, the virtual machines all hang and the work stops. This happens every hour. Windows 11 + Dell Precision 7680. I had to move the workload to my M4 mini, which turns out to be faster anyway despite having 1/4 of the RAM and considerably less cores (R + Julia + simulation for ref)

And don't get me started on the hardware after the Dell Precision 5550 thermal debacle - think we lost over 100 workstations to hardware failures in total. I mean I can't even get a working laptop + dock + monitor combination across Dell/HP/Lenovo high end kit.

The whole windows and PC experience is unreliable, unrefined, cheap and nasty and I have no desire to have anything to do with it these days. I question the objectivity of anyone actually saying otherwise these days.

Again, while preferring Apple myself, more than 90% of the world’s computers are Windows PCs. I have to assume if it is as bad as you and other Apple people cast it, the planet would be in a daily technological disaster. Instead, the planet keeps turning and countless PC users seem to do just fine.

I prefer Mac myself but there’s no denying the reality that the bulk of the world runs on PC. If Mac was Apples to (rotten) Oranges better, the secret superiority could not be kept and that ratio would be very different. And no, it’s not because of relative cost if the cheap options were ‘unreliable’, ’daily trouble’, ‘regularly failing’, etc. buyers can be fooled once or twice on cheap prices but eventually figure it out.

 

[Rychiar]

Just do it’s it’s a perfect little machine and at $499 it’s a steal

 

[cjsuk]

Again, while preferring Apple myself, more than 90% of the world’s computers are Windows PCs. I have to assume if it is as bad as you and other Apple people cast it, the planet would be in a daily technological disaster. Instead, the planet keeps turning and countless PC users seem to do just fine.

I prefer Mac myself but there’s no denying the reality that the bulk of the world runs on PC. If Mac was Apples to (rotten) Oranges better, the secret superiority could not be kept and that ratio would be very different. And no, it’s not because of relative cost if the cheap options were ‘unreliable’, ’daily trouble’, ‘regularly failing’, etc. buyers can be fooled once or twice on cheap prices but eventually figure it out.

Actually no the world doesn't keep turning. It sort of jitters and lurches. We lost thousands of hours a week to crappy engineering and operational problems on Windows.

It's stockholm syndrome, that's all.

Edit: oh and price. People use windows and PCs because the up front cost is cheaper for the average user. The total productivity impact is a net loss.

 

[green_diyos]

So I want to buy a Mac Mini M4, but I'm not sure why and now I'm trying to justify it to myself. Perhaps I'm just being silly. It's been about 6 years since I last owned a Mac, and I sometimes wonder how much the user experience has changed since those days. When I look at screenshots of Mac OS 15, it just looks the same as old OS X Snow Leopard, so that worries me a bit -- but there must be more to it than looks, right?

Currently I'm thinking that I could potentially move my Adobe Creative Cloud and DXO PureRAW 4 installations (currently on a well-equipped Windows PC) over to the Mac without needing additional license outlay. But whether it would be a performance increase or reduction is a bit of an unknown to me at this point. There's also the small amount of desk space it uses up, which is nice. Do they make good media devices, say, as an AppleTV alternative (including Dolby Vision/Dolby Atmos, etc?).

Any other reasons for a Mac Mini? I'm not interested in Apple Intelligence... ran it for a week or so on my iPhone 16 Pro and didn't find it useful at all (in fact Siri got worse), and I don't need ChatGPT thinking/writing/drawing for me. I can do those things badly all by myself.

It's just $499... will $499 make you destitute? you only live once!

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Actually no the world doesn't keep turning. It sort of jitters and lurches. We lost thousands of hours a week to crappy engineering and operational problems on Windows.

It's stockholm syndrome, that's all.

Edit: oh and price. People use windows and PCs because the up front cost is cheaper for the average user. The total productivity impact is a net loss.

And yet only you seem to detect this glaring & towards absolute net loss… as the world just keeps right on buying and using PCs instead of Mac. Global Stockholm syndrome seems like something countless businesses would detect and address vs. just keep on doing the same computer purchasing but expecting a different result.

Net loss is absolutely noticeable by even a business moron sooner or later and yet Mac is still a relative fraction of all computers sold.

I get that you love Mac. I do too. But the reality is the reality. If it was clearly superior in a “net gains” way, it would be gaining share of the whole if not dominating share by now. Instead, our favorite is very much niche. And objective minds keep it there because the other platform is not nearly as you describe it, even with your own bad experiences taken into account.

OP had Mac but went to PC 6 years ago. If PC was as bad as you imply, he would have been back to Mac 5.5 years ago. Instead, he’s apparently done just fine with PC since then.

 

[CharlesShaw]

I am demoting my Mac mini to replace my AppleTV because I detest the level of ads everywhere now.

I would miss the ability to do everything I need with the single remote (which also controls the volume on AirPods or my soundbar depending on which one I'm using, and turns the TV off when I tell ATV to sleep).

AppleTV is ideal for lazy time when one hand is holding food and the other is switching between content. Use cases vary of course. For years before I got Apple TV, I had a wireless keyboard and trackpad on the coffee table. And a TV remote, and soundbar remote.

 

[cjsuk]

And yet only you seem to detect this glaring & towards absolute net loss… as the world just keeps right on buying and using PCs instead of Mac. Global Stockholm syndrome seems like something countless businesses would detect and address vs. just keep on doing the same computer purchasing but expecting a different result.

Net loss is absolutely noticeable by even a business moron sooner or later and yet Mac is still a relative fraction of all computers sold.

I get that you love Mac. I do too. But the reality is the reality. If it was clearly superior in a “net gains” way, it would be gaining share of the whole if not dominating share by now. Instead, our favorite is very much niche. And objective minds keep it there because the other platform is not nearly as you describe it, even with your own bad experiences taken into account.

OP had Mac but went to PC 6 years ago. If PC was as bad as you imply, he would have been back to Mac 5.5 years ago. Instead, he’s apparently done just fine with PC since then.

I don't dispute the market position. But the PC market is propped up entirely by a combination of corporate buyers and the fact that they have the cheapest market entry position on low ball laptops. That and the markets where a basic Apple device is 6 months salary which is a significant portion of the planet. There is very little outside that space other than the small enthusiast market and of course the games market (which does somewhat suck on the mac).

Put it in perspective: a significant chunk of people these days don't actually own anything more than a smartphone.

Really the PC platform only exists because of rock bottom prices, not because it's good for the end user in any way.

I encourage people to sit down and do a rational decision analysis against the platforms over a few days and see where you come out. Run a formal framework around it like Kepner-Tregoe - see https://courses.cs.vt.edu/cs2104/Fall07/Decisions.pdf

 

[leifp]

I would miss the ability to do everything I need with the single remote (which also controls the volume on AirPods or my soundbar depending on which one I'm using, and turns the TV off when I tell ATV to sleep).

AppleTV is ideal for lazy time when one hand is holding food and the other is switching between content. Use cases vary of course. For years before I got Apple TV, I had a wireless keyboard and trackpad on the coffee table. And a TV remote, and soundbar remote.

Correct. But I consider the ads more egregious than the additional hardware. To each their own! I even reserve the right to change my mind… or have it changed for me by my wife…

 

[CharlesShaw]

Correct. But I consider the ads more egregious than the additional hardware. To each their own! I even reserve the right to change my mind… or have it changed for me by my wife…

I absolutely understand the power of annoying advertising. And I did acknowledge that use cases vary. But if you have a spouse who shares the same TV then you could keep both systems running. When I got my first Apple TV in 2012, I kept my Mac mini running (I had no other display for it) and continued to use it for certain tasks (like watching DVDs).

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

I don't dispute the market position. But the PC market is propped up entirely by a combination of corporate buyers and the fact that they have the cheapest market entry position on low ball laptops. That and the markets where a basic Apple device is 6 months salary which is a significant portion of the planet. There is very little outside that space other than the small enthusiast market and of course the games market (which does somewhat suck on the mac).

Put it in perspective: a significant chunk of people these days don't actually own anything more than a smartphone.

Really the PC platform only exists because of rock bottom prices, not because it's good for the end user in any way.

I encourage people to sit down and do a rational decision analysis against the platforms over a few days and see where you come out. Run a formal framework around it like Kepner-Tregoe - see https://courses.cs.vt.edu/cs2104/Fall07/Decisions.pdf

Believe what you wish. I can't believe that better than 90% of the world is fooled into buying the wrong product solely on price... and can't seem to figure out the flaw in buying "junk" over their lifetimes. Buy once on price? YES. Twice? Maybe. But eventually, most people figure out junk from good or great.

A significant chunk of the population does own their computer. They are all not corporate gifts or corporate provided.

Mac mini can be had for only $100-$300 more than the rock-bottom-est PC, so anyone who wants a Mac has an option to go Mac (fairy cheaply). And refurbed/used would let anyone in for even less than that.

Again, I applaud your passionate stance for you. I too favor Mac over PC. But the difference in us is that you believe most computer buyers in the world are wrong about their decisions and I believe that their decisions work just as well for them as Mac works for you & I. Again, see OP in this thread. He was a Mac user until 6 years ago when he embraced PC. Someone who knows Mac would easily recognize the mistake if it was truly "junk" and "flawed" and "failing" them. SIX years later he's only fishing for OTHER people to offer rationalizations for why he might return to Mac, questioning it himself (even though he knows the Mac experience). I doubt he's even considering a full migration but just adding a Mac to the PC he's been using, but he's not as clear about that.

As a 24-year Mac user, I too added a PC to my mix when I went silicon because I had to have something that could reliably run some Windows-only apps too... and Windows emulation is not full Windows. I've experienced no failures, no sense of "junk", etc. In fact, I've been reminded that Power is generally faster than Power Per Watt and been handing some apps that can also run on Mac to the PC because it is FASTER. No crashes. No blue screen. No failures. Etc. What it adds besides power/speed is accessibility to countless apps that don't even exist for Mac. Now I have access to nearly all software instead of only a relatively small subset of software (as good as that subset certainly is).

That doesn't make an absolute argument for PC > Mac but PC certainly has its place. And in reality, that place is better than 90% of the market.

 

[phrehdd]

You mentioned Adobe software and with that, stay where you are with your PC and if* you want to venture over to the Mac Mini, you may want the "pro" model with at least 48 gigs of RAM to get a good Adobe software experience. I gather your PC is well equipped for Adobe software. You may want to go to Youtube and check out "ArtIsRight" videos that compare Mini models (and others) with respect to running various software (Adobe products included) for a better feel for what you might need.