The Mac Mini is just pining for the fjords, it's not dead yet! (1 Viewer)

[Thomas Newton]

I’m still waiting for an M2 Mini to replace my mom’s 27” first gen Retina iMac, which no longer supports up to date macOS upgrades. I am, perhaps foolishly, always obsessed with just buying recently upgraded Macs or iPads or iPhones

It's hard to tell just how long you'll be waiting.

MacRumors – Apple's Next Mac Mini Refresh: Everything We Know

 

[Citizen87645]

I'm fine with 2023. My current Mini would be 5 years old by then.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

I have been waiting for a Mini Pro as I would think any new M2 Mini is going to be hampered by 16GB max ram restrictions.

However, is there still the possibility for a Pro model now that the studio has been released?

 

[Citizen87645]

Well, the Intel i5 Mini just seems to be asking to be replaced with an M-chip model on their store page. Or there would be an obvious hole in the price/product line if it stops at a $900 M1 Mini, and then the next option in the same form factor is a $2000 Studio. Whether that intermediate option is a "Pro" model is the question. I would think it would be at least be an M2 by the time 2023 comes around, if not designated as a "pro."

That said, I have a photographer friend who just switched to a Mac Studio from an iMac, and she recently raved that her exports are now basically taking a quarter of the time (e.g. exporting 4 photos used to take upwards of 60 seconds and they are now taking about 15 seconds).

 

[DaveF]

I have been waiting for a Mini Pro as I would think any new M2 Mini is going to be hampered by 16GB max ram restrictions.

However, is there still the possibility for a Pro model now that the studio has been released?

Isn’t that the Mac Studio?

Seems like Mac mini would remain normal M-series and Studio gets the “Pro” feature with the Pro chips and bigger Ram, etc?

 

[JohnRice]

Isn’t that the Mac Studio?

I expect it is. Hopefully there will be an over $1K M2 Mini coming, but with the Studio starting at $2K I don't expect anything more than an M2 version of the outgoing Intel model.

And Ron, in all honesty, with the advent of integrated memory, I suspect you'll simply need to unlearn your practice of launching so many apps all the time. I never have more than about eight running, and since Macs all have nVME drives, it takes a couple seconds to launch apps.

 

[DaveF]

I expect it is. Hopefully there will be an over $1K M2 Mini coming, but with the Studio starting at $2K I don't expect anything more than an M2 version of the outgoing Intel model.

And Ron, in all honesty, with the advent of integrated memory, I suspect you'll simply need to unlearn your practice of launching so many apps all the time. I never have more than about eight running, and since Macs all have nVME drives, it takes a couple seconds to launch apps.

Or he buys a Mac Studio with 64GB memory and continues to launch All The Things as he enjoys

 

[Clinton McClure]

A quick update on my Mac Mini.

As I posted earlier, it’s an entry level M1 with 8GB of RAM and a 256GD SSD. It’s replacing a mid-2012 13” MacBook Pro with a 2.5GHz i5 processor, 16GB of aftermarket RAM (either Kingston, Crucial, or Corsair… I don’t remember which) and a 512GB aftermarket Crucial SSD. It still boots fairly quickly but is beginning to show its age. Excel and Word docs may take upwards of a minute to open now and the latest version of MacOS it will run is Catalina. The MacBook Pro has developed an issue of late where upon booting, it sometimes gives the 3-beep code signaling the RAM didn’t pass an integrity check. I can pull the RAM and reseat it or just rap the bottom of the MacBook lightly where the RAM is installed and it boots fine. I suppose I could just purchase new RAM for it but this model is old enough that my AirPods often randomly disconnect as do the keyboard and mouse when I'm using it with an external monitor, which is almost all the time now. The monitor I'm using is a 1080p and the MacBook Pro (which supports up to 1280 x 800) has to scale its display to fit so things look a bit soft and fuzzy. It works but could be better.

Enter the M1 Mac Mini. Holy smokes this thing is fast! And cool too. With my MacBook Pro in clamshell mode, it gets warm to the touch. The Mac Mini is cool as a cucumber. Cold booting to the login screen takes under 10 seconds. After typing my password, it takes less than 10 seconds and it's fully booted and ready to go.

I don't have much running at boot, just Malwarebytes and 1Password. I usually open Music right after boot as well and minimize it. Other than that, I might have a couple of Safari tabs open, or one of about 3 mp3 ripping and editing tools.

I was looking at my memory usage and was afraid 8GB wasn't going to be enough since I was running 16GB on the MacBook Pro and would often have 8-12GB of that in use. The last thing I wanted to do was start swapping off the RAM to the SSD. I was pleasantly surprised to discover the M1 architecture uses memory so much more efficiently that I'm not swapping at all... Not even close.

For my use case, the entry level Mac Mini is a perfect fit and an excellent machine. I love it!

 

[Ronald Epstein]

A quick update on my Mac Mini.

As I posted earlier, it’s an entry level M1 with 8GB of RAM and a 256GD SSD. It’s replacing a mid-2012 13” MacBook Pro with a 2.5GHz i5 processor, 16GB of aftermarket RAM (either Kingston, Crucial, or Corsair… I don’t remember which) and a 512GB aftermarket Crucial SSD. It still boots fairly quickly but is beginning to show its age. Excel and Word docs may take upwards of a minute to open now and the latest version of MacOS it will run is Catalina. The MacBook Pro has developed an issue of late where upon booting, it sometimes gives the 3-beep code signaling the RAM didn’t pass an integrity check. I can pull the RAM and reseat it or just rap the bottom of the MacBook lightly where the RAM is installed and it boots fine. I suppose I could just purchase new RAM for it but this model is old enough that my AirPods often randomly disconnect as do the keyboard and mouse when I'm using it with an external monitor, which is almost all the time now. The monitor I'm using is a 1080p and the MacBook Pro (which supports up to 1280 x 800) has to scale its display to fit so things look a bit soft and fuzzy. It works but could be better.

Enter the M1 Mac Mini. Holy smokes this thing is fast! And cool too. With my MacBook Pro in clamshell mode, it gets warm to the touch. The Mac Mini is cool as a cucumber. Cold booting to the login screen takes under 10 seconds. After typing my password, it takes less than 10 seconds and it's fully booted and ready to go.

I don't have much running at boot, just Malwarebytes and 1Password. I usually open Music right after boot as well and minimize it. Other than that, I might have a couple of Safari tabs open, or one of about 3 mp3 ripping and editing tools.

I was looking at my memory usage and was afraid 8GB wasn't going to be enough since I was running 16GB on the MacBook Pro and would often have 8-12GB of that in use. The last thing I wanted to do was start swapping off the RAM to the SSD. I was pleasantly surprised to discover the M1 architecture uses memory so much more efficiently that I'm not swapping at all... Not even close.

For my use case, the entry level Mac Mini is a perfect fit and an excellent machine. I love it!

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Morning, Clinton!

Very happy to hear you were able to get by with such a minimal and inexpensive configuration. That's great news.

 

[DaveF]

Mark Gurman has said no M2 Pro Mac mini coming.

 

[Thomas Newton]

I have been waiting for a Mini Pro as I would think any new M2 Mini is going to be hampered by 16GB max ram restrictions.

The 13" M2 MacBook Air and MacBook Pro can have 8, 16, or 24 GB of RAM – so I would expect the same to be true of a M2 Mini.

I assume that hypothetical M2 Pro/Max/Ultra processors could be configured with at least much RAM as their M1 counterparts. I wouldn't expect to see a M2 Max or Ultra in a Mini since that would create a major overlap with the Studio.