2023 MacBook Pro and Mac mini (1 Viewer)

[Greg.K]

Part of me thinks getting 64GB RAM for my Studio was a total waste of money. Another part of me thinks it's just really cool to have a computer with 64GB RAM.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Part of me thinks getting 64GB RAM for my Studio was a total waste of money. Another part of me thinks it's just really cool to have a computer with 64GB RAM.

My personal belief is that since these Macs are not upgradeable, you need to be mindful of how long you plan to own your device. With that in mind, you look to the future. The worst thing you can do is to buy something with minimal specs and find that in a short time, you have pushed it beyond its capabilities.

With the way silicone and Mac OS seem to improve RAM performance, in hindsight, I could have been fine with 32GB, but I sleep better at night with 64GB knowing that -- at least the way I abuse my startups -- I am not going to be frustrated with my purchase decision a year from now.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Meh... of course, I wasn't suggesting the mainstream masses to go for more than the baseline Mini, especially given the 33%-plus price bump to go from 8GB to 16GB RAM (as I've already noted).

Just hyperbolic silly to persistently call the desire for some reasonable futureproofing "madness" -- and there are no current tests for the future that hasn't happened yet of course, LOL.

Also, most people looking at these Macs (at least so far) aren't particularly experienced Windoze users anyhow, so that notion doesn't really hold much water...

Anyhoo...

_Man_

 

[Sam Posten]

 

[Sam Posten]

 

[Ronald Epstein]

I love his videos. One of the best out there.

What is most interesting to hear is how you can compare the Mini in the same league as the existing Mac Pro. As I keep saying over and over again, I am just in awe of what silicone has brought to the table.

Also interesting, after Apple hiked up the price of the base AIR that they lowered the price of the base MINI. Gives me a little bit of hope for the next iPhone which is rumored to be more expensive. Of course, that same rumor existed a year ago and there was never a price hike.

 

[Sam Posten]

It still cracks me up that people mix silicon and silicone

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

It still cracks me up that people mix silicon and silicone

No comment...

_Man_

 

[Ronald Epstein]

It still cracks me up that people mix silicon and silicone

Thanks for mocking me publicly on that. Simple spelling mistake. Appreciate it nonetheless, Sam.

 

[Sam Posten]

Wasn’t just you Ron, Dave 2d also pronounced it Silicone

 

[DaveF]

Those of you buying Mac mini, what do you do for storage? Max out the SSD, or go with minimal internal and use external or NAS for all your files?

 

[Citizen87645]

External for anything that's not system or app files.

 

[JohnRice]

Yep. I actually made that change at least ten years ago when I replaced all the platter drives with SSDs in the Minis. At that time, a 128GB SSD cost maybe $200. Since then, the internal drive is OS and apps only.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Yeah, there's less and less need for internal drive for anything more than that -- presumably, you may still need/want to include whatever (more performance sensitive) scratch/temp/swap workspace in the calculus for system+apps, which could possibly be substantial for hardcore multimedia and/or 3D-rendering pros or the like, but not much more.

And the speedier, more powerful connectivity of today also helps offload to external storage (that also could see performance increases in the future if/as the need/demand should arise)...

_Man_

 

[Citizen87645]

Going this route for OS and apps though has taken a bit of babysitting. It's not onerous by any description, but since I'm on an older Mini model with only 128GB internal, it doesn't take much for that space to get eaten up if I'm not paying attention to where apps like TV and Music are saving downloads. Usually it's because I don't have my external drive spun up (which is a behavior of my JBOD enclosure that I have to manually "turn it on"), and those apps don't bark at me when it can't find the specified external save location (e.g. like Lightroom). So then it just saves to the internal drive in the default place and next thing I know I've got a bunch of downloads to move.

 

[Greg.K]

Going this route for OS and apps though has taken a bit of babysitting. It's not onerous by any description, but since I'm on an older Mini model with only 128GB internal, it doesn't take much for that space to get eaten up if I'm not paying attention to where apps like TV and Music are saving downloads. Usually it's because I don't have my external drive spun up (which is a behavior of my JBOD enclosure that I have to manually "turn it on"), and those apps don't bark at me when it can't find the specified external save location (e.g. like Lightroom). So then it just saves to the internal drive in the default place and next thing I know I've got a bunch of downloads to move.

Agree. macOS makes it a bit of a pain. I had a similar setup for my 2018 Intel Mini, 128GB internal and 2TB external SSD.

Occasionally the Thunderbolt connection would quietly disconnect from the external drive and macOS & apps would do weird stuff like you describe.

When I got my Studio I splurged on the 2TB internal drive and don't regret it for a second.

 

[Citizen87645]

Looks like I'm getting my delivery earlier than projected. Today is the day!

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Looks like I'm getting my delivery earlier than projected. Today is the day!

Good for you, Cameron. You must be excited. Let us know your initial impressions.

I take it this is an M2 Mini with 16GB ram?

 

[Citizen87645]

Yes, that's correct. I initially ordered one with 8GB RAM, but I decided to listen to John over Sam and changed it to 16GB.

 

[JohnRice]

OK, here's how I see it regarding RAM. If you're really pinched, such as having a $599 option means you can finally buy a brand new Mac for the first time, then the $200 is probably a huge deal. Go ahead with 8GB. But if not, and you just want to be certain you won't have memory issues, then it's probably just best to go ahead with 16GB. It IS absurd that it increases the price of the computer by 1/3. Still, you're talking about a Mac that will blow away just about anything, for $800. I remember when the base model G4 cost $1,500. That was the entry level Mac, and that was in 1997 dollars. So, let's just appreciate the options we have today.