20 ms·

New Mac Mini with M4

• alberth 2y ago
  Does anyone know how many P vs E cores? 10 core = 4 P and 6 E 12 core = 8 P and 4 E <-- 2.0x P core over base 14 core = 10 P and 4 E <-- 2.5x P core over base EDIT: Updated with known P and E amounts. Thanks HN for posting below. https://www.apple.com/mac-mini/specs/ https://www.apple.com/mac-mini/specs/ https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2024/10/apples-new-mac-mini-is-more-mighty-more-mini-and-built-for-apple-intelligence/ https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2024/10/apples-new-mac-mini-i...
  • WesleyLivesay 2y ago
    Spec page: https://www.apple.com/mac-mini/specs/ https://www.apple.com/mac-mini/specs/
    • alberth 2y ago
      No M4 on the spec sheet. Maybe Apples CDN cache is stale but I only see M2 specs on that page.
      • r2_pilot 2y ago
        Force refresh on your end as I see the M4 specs.
      • wongarsu 2y ago
        definitely a stale cache somewhere, shows M4 specs for me too
    • wongarsu 2y ago
      So 4P+6E for the M4, and 8P+4E for the M4 Pro
  • scrlk 2y ago
    M4 10-core = 4P, 6E M4 Pro 12-core = 8P, 4E M4 Pro 14-core = 10P, 4E
    • deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
    • alberth 2y ago
      Where do you see the 14-core version detailed on the spec sheet? I don't see it stated with the specific P vs E cores are for the 14-core version on: https://www.apple.com/mac-mini/specs/ https://www.apple.com/mac-mini/specs/
      • deleted 2y ago
        [deleted]
      • scrlk 2y ago
        From the press release: https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2024/10/apples-new-mac-mini-is-more-mighty-more-mini-and-built-for-apple-intelligence/ https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2024/10/apples-new-mac-mini-i... > With up to 14 cores, including 10 performance cores and four efficiency cores They've backtracked from the M3 Pro P:E ratio downgrade, which is a welcome surprise.
  • korhojoa 2y ago
    10 = 4P 6E 12 = 8P 4E 14 doesn't seem to be listed at the moment
• kissiel 2y ago
  M4 pro comes with Thunderbolt 5, which means one cable to run 2x 2160p120. And in case of macbooks equipped with TB5, one cable to do 2x high res, high refresh displays + power + plenty of bandwdith for data accessories. Omnomnom.
• chaostheory 2y ago
  Are they shrinking minis for future versions of Apple Vision or would an iPhone be enough?
  • sureIy 2y ago
    I'm seeing 3200 points for iPhone 16 Pro single core and 3800 for an M4 Mac. That's only about a 18% difference. I don’t think a cabled desktop computer is the right choice for this endeavor anyway.
  • Refusing23 2y ago
    I think generally they wanna shrink it as much as possible, as it gives them more freedom for designs and more product options. i think maybe in the future, maybe they'll only have 1 chip line - but thats just a wild guess.
• jsheard 2y ago
  16GB base RAM across the board, following the iMac. AI is certainly good for pushing up the baseline RAM that manufacturers can get away with shipping if nothing else.
  • mentos 2y ago
    No mention of the SSD size that was the reason I returned my Mac mini 256Gb last year was just a pain juggling files
    • nordsieck 2y ago
      > No mention of the SSD size The base model is 256 gb. You can see it here: https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-mac/mac-mini https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-mac/mac-mini
    • wongarsu 2y ago
      Base model is 256GB configurable up to 2TB, all others start at 512GB, the M4 Pro model can go up to 8TB
      • rtkwe 2y ago
        It's $800 to go up to 2TB from the 256GB model which is just criminally over priced. I can get double that for half the price with a Gen 4 NVMe drive. Weirdly the 8TB drive on the Pro is at least in line with the top of the line 8TB NVMe SSDs you can buy though there are cheaper options at about $600 vs the $1200 Apple is charging.
        • wongarsu 2y ago
          That's regular Apple pricing for you. Great deals on the baseline models, but insane margins on the upgrades that make them usable. And of course the ability to upgrade the devices yourself has been phased out in the name of performance and power efficiency
          • 2y ago
• nordsieck 2y ago
  The new model is looking really good. * Kept HDMI * New, much smaller form factor * Front facing USB-C * Base model has 16 gb of ram
  • melling 2y ago
    How much faster is the M4 vs the M2 for Swift development? I’d probably get 32GB. I started buying 16GB Macs in 2013. The extra RAM will keep any Mac useful for a few extra years. In fact, my 2013 Intel MB Pro would be still be great if I could upgrade the OS
    • svantana 2y ago
      Geekbench clang benchmark: M4: 21k lines / (core-second) https://browser.geekbench.com/v6/cpu/8495624 https://browser.geekbench.com/v6/cpu/8495624 M2: 16k lines / (core-second) https://browser.geekbench.com/v6/cpu/8546977 https://browser.geekbench.com/v6/cpu/8546977
  • Hamuko 2y ago
    I think I’d miss my USB-A ports if I switched my Mac Studio for this. Apart from that, it looks pretty good. Not really sure if it’s worth saving a couple of hundred when you spec it up to par with an M4 Max Mac Studio when that comes out though. It’s the same price as the base M2 Max Mac Studio when you upgrade the memory and SoC.
    • nordsieck 2y ago
      I have lots of USB-A devices, so I get what you're saying. But converters are pretty cheap and seem reliable. And Apple has a long history of making this change ahead of the rest of the market. It's been years since they've move to all USB-C in their laptops, so IMO, it was only a matter of time. And yeah - upgrades are awful price wise. From what I can tell, it's basically only worth it to buy base models unless the machine is making you money. Hopefully they upgrade the Mac Studio to M4 down the line.
      • 2y ago
• 2OEH8eoCRo0 2y ago
  No AV1 encode?
  • bdcs 2y ago
    That is correct[0], as known from the iPad M4 analysis. I will say SVT-AV1 has had some significant ARM64 performance improvements lately (~300% YoY, with bitrate savings at a given preset[1][2], so call it a 400% increase), so for many use-cases software AV1 encoding (rather than hardware encoding) is likely the preferred modality. The exceptions, IMO, are concurrant gaming with streaming (niche on MacOS?) and video server transcoding. However, even these exceptions are tenuous: Because Apple Silicon doesn't play x86's logical core / boost clock games, and considering the huge multi-threaded performance of M4, I think streaming with SW encoding of AV1 is quite feasible (for single streams) for both streaming and transcoding. x86 needs a dedicated AV1 encoder more-so due to the single-threaded perf hit from running a multi-threaded background workload. And the bit-rate efficiency will be much better from SW encoding. That said, latency will suffer and I would still appreciate a HW AV1 encoder. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_M4 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_M4 [1] https://www.phoronix.com/news/SVT-AV1-1.8-Released https://www.phoronix.com/news/SVT-AV1-1.8-Released [2] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Intel-SVT-AV1-2.0 https://www.phoronix.com/news/Intel-SVT-AV1-2.0
• Flux159 2y ago
  Time to update all the Mac Mini server racks for the new design
  • jelled 2y ago
    Specs say it's 2.0 inches tall, going to need a 2U rack
  • roopepal 2y ago
    I believe the previous design was around for well over a decade, so it did have a pretty good run.
  • aterp 2y ago
    People have Mac mini server racks? What for?
    • spectre3d 2y ago
      One example is Mac mini Colo (which I believe has been in business since 2010) http://www.macminicolo.net/ http://www.macminicolo.net/ Also, Amazon https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/instance-types/mac/ https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/instance-types/mac/
• Afforess 2y ago
  This seems like the perfect home media transcoding server (Plex, Kodi, etc). I am curious if these will ever be able to run Linux.
  • vineyardlabs 2y ago
    Almost certainly. Asahi linux is getting pretty useable on M1 and M2. They don't support M3 yet, let alone M4, but support will surely come eventually.
    • amelius 2y ago
      There are no guarantees that it runs correctly, though, as it's all based on reverse-engineering work that includes a lot of guesswork.
      • amelius 2y ago
        And this also has implications for security.
      • prewett 2y ago
        I would be shocked if they weren't using a test suite, especially given all the platforms and devices Linux supports. POSIX has a test suite, and there are several Linux test suites [1], [2]. Although, I would think that an architecture port is fairly straightforward. It's reverse-engineering and writing all the device drivers, but devices generally have a well-known interface (and, therefore, presumably tests). The OpenGL drivers are being tested against the official OpenGL test suite. Of course, there are no guarantees that it runs correctly. Probably doesn't, given that even Apple and Microsoft's software don't run correctly, either. But saying software doesn't run perfectly in all cases is almost tautological. [1] https://github.com/phoronix-test-suite/phoronix-test-suite https://github.com/phoronix-test-suite/phoronix-test-suite [2] https://github.com/linux-test-project/ltp https://github.com/linux-test-project/ltp
        • amelius 2y ago
• fckgw 2y ago
  Having a fully fledged computer this small without an external power brick is pretty impressive.
  • jsheard 2y ago
    Not making it VESA mountable is a missed opportunity, but I suppose they want you to buy an iMac instead of doing that.
    • fckgw 2y ago
      There's currently plenty of 3rd party VESA mounts for Mac Mini, I'm sure they'll have some for this new Mac Mini as well. They slide down into a "clamp" style bracket. They run about $15 on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-Mount-Under-Black-BK-MABM/dp/B082XHZLQ8 https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-Mount-Under-Black-BK-MABM/dp/...
    • aseipp 2y ago
      You can get 'sandwich' enclosures that put the mini between the monitor arm and the monitor itself, or off to the side. That's what I do with an M1 Mac Mini sitting next to me. Maybe it's a blessing in disguise since you can get these cheaper than what Apple would sell them for :)
    • deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
    • tootie 2y ago
      A box that small can be mounted with double-sided tape or velcro.
    • grahamj 2y ago
      No surprise there; even their monitors’ VESA mounts are optional :D
    • Refusing23 2y ago
      a small 3d print can solve that for ya apple wanna 'show it off'
• wpwpwpw 2y ago
  As usual, no upgradability. There's evidence that it's possible with SSDs with no loss of performance. Probably the same would apply to memory, maybe with replaceable memory chips and a simple switch. More future landfill material.
  • kissiel 2y ago
    On a desktop computer it's not as bothersome to have an NVME plugged in to one of the thunderbolt ports.
    • Longlius 2y ago
      Thunderbolt is significantly slower than gen 4 NVME. In the PC world, gen 3 speeds are considered an extreme budget-tier option these days.
      • PaulRobinson 2y ago
        Not everyone needs a Lamborghini just to do their weekly grocery shopping. The vast majority of people who will buy this will be just fine with that level of performance for many years to come.
        • kissiel 2y ago
          Bandwidth vs latency is like a pickup vs lambo I guess. And what the tb limits is the bandwidth, if you catch my drift (although lambos are awd and poor at drifting). So the actual performance that matters (the snappiness) is still there.
      • kstrauser 2y ago
        This is the Mac Mini, their budget desktop. It's not the one targeted at people who would consider Thunderbolt a limiting factor.
        • jsheard 2y ago
• terramex 2y ago
  How good are modern external hard drives? Is it worth paying for more internal SSD storage or is it more reasonable to get high quality USB one?
  • vessenes 2y ago
    What’s your use case?
  • kissiel 2y ago
    I get 2GB/s+ with a USB4 NVME enclosure. If I buy this, this is where the main storage will be.
    • ayewo 2y ago
      Can you share more details about your external storage setup?
      • sib 2y ago
        I'm not the OP but I use this [1] enclosure and [2] NVME SSD on my MacBook Pro and get read & write speeds > 2,500MB/s. [1] enclosure: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BB74BQVN/ https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BB74BQVN/ [2] drive: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0B7CQ2CHH/ https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0B7CQ2CHH/
      • kissiel 2y ago
        Enclosure: https://www.unitek-products.com/products/solidforce-reefer-pro-usb4-to-m-2-ssd-pcie-nvme-enclosure?srsltid=AfmBOoosYI_ceL4t0V63cVug7Y-ZcDVi7tG68UUDLOZJnMQXyDTzQ1fw https://www.unitek-products.com/products/solidforce-reefer-p... The SSD: https://www.crucial.com/ssd/t500/CT2000T500SSD5?_gl=1*1g4r3lu*_up*MQ..*_ga*NjYxMjk4NDEwLjE3MzAyMjA1MDk.*_ga_6H4RYWV7QY*MTczMDIyMDUwOS4xLjEuMTczMDIyMDUxNy4wLjAuODU4NjkzODM5 https://www.crucial.com/ssd/t500/CT2000T500SSD5?_gl=1*1g4r3l...
  • ErneX 2y ago
    I have an NVME SSD on a TB enclosure and I get 2600MB/s read speeds on my Mac Studio.
• lawlessone 2y ago
  The Dyson of PCs
  • sliken 2y ago
    Dunno, seems the opposite. Dyson are plastic, don't last long, and generally aren't serviceable. Apples have been improving repairability, their laptops have many replaceable parts, and generally last longer than PCs. Compare new price / used for 4 years old price on apple vs any PC. In my experience used apples age well, are reliable, still get years of OS updates, and general age better than PCs.
    • Refusing23 2y ago
      my M1 still runs nicely today, at 4 years old, almost. and it even got the newest apple intelligence update for MacOS, which is nice
• leetharris 2y ago
  Love to see that it still starts at $599. My M2 Mac Mini that I got for $499 is my favorite gaming computer I've had in a long time. Runs many games like WoW, Dota, League of Legends, etc great. Anything that it doesn't run due to MacOS I use GeForce Now over ethernet. And this was with 8gb unified memory, now with 16gb it'll be even better value. Very excited to see how the GPU has improved in the M4, especially the Pro model.
  • eamag 2y ago
    Isn't steamdeck a better option for this use case?
    • tom_ 2y ago
      Assuming you don't want to use it for all the various other things you can also use a Mac for - sure, maybe.
    • leetharris 2y ago
      I have a Steam Deck, Asus ROG Ally, M2 Mac Mini, M1 Pro laptop, M2 Max laptop (work). All of this runs on either an LG C3 42" OLED or a 34" 1440p ultrawide. Linux GeForce Now can only do 720p or 1080p, can't remember which. Also, it's just kind of laggy in desktop mode. The Macs run so much smoother. My current "main" desktop is actually my Asus ROG Ally. I use one USB C hub that is capable of 4k120hz, and I can move it between my Mac laptops and Asus ROG Ally very seamlessly. The problem for me is Windows. Yesterday my start menu stopped loading for some reason and required a full reboot. Sometimes it refuses to go to sleep. Sometimes it refuses to come out of sleep. Sometimes a Windows update kicks off in the middle of a game and it slows everything to a crawl. Windows drives me crazy these days!
      • talldayo 2y ago
        Get rid of Windows on it! Digital Foundry put out a great video on this exact process the other day, weighing the pros and cons: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwWRCrGoXV0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwWRCrGoXV0 Neither MacOS nor Windows are very good console OSes - you're really better off using Linux where anticheat isn't concerned. Even on the Ally.
• allenu 2y ago
  Putting the audio jack on the front is a strange design choice to me if you plan on hooking it up to wired speakers all the time. Did they run out of space to keep it in the back?
  • wongarsu 2y ago
    Probably for public computers and classroom settings (think libraries, schools, etc) for people to plug their wired headphone in. Would have been nice to have audio both in the front and rear, with front audio overriding rear audio (like in most desktops), but I guess that would have been too much maximalism for apple
  • deergomoo 2y ago
    On the front is far more practical for wired headphones. Plus you can always do something with USB-C pretty easily if you want to run it out of the back; if I had to choose a dongle for either fixed speakers or headphones, I’d pick them for the speakers.
    • allenu 2y ago
      It's definitely more practical for headphones. I'm curious as to why Apple decided to make this change now. Previous Mac Minis and the Mac Studios have always had them in the back. It seems uncharacteristic of them to go out of their way for wired headphone users after they removed the port entirely from the iPhone, so I wonder if it was a hardware/industrial design thing where it was simply more convenient to move it to the front for the new form factor. Edit: also I noticed they moved the power button to the bottom corner of the Mac Mini! (It used to be on the back as well.) This makes me think even more that they didn't want to crowd up the back too much.
  • LegitShady 2y ago
    its for headphones
  • chronogram 2y ago
    At the front is ideal for most usecases: headphones. Monitors with speakers, televisions, receivers, all use HDMI.
• deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
• animal_spirits 2y ago
  > Mac mini is made with over 50 percent recycled content overall, including 100 percent recycled aluminum in the enclosure, 100 percent recycled gold plating in all Apple-designed printed circuit boards, and 100 percent recycled rare earth elements in all magnets. The electricity used to manufacture Mac mini is sourced from 100 percent renewable electricity. And, to address 100 percent of the electricity customers use to power Mac mini, Apple has invested in clean energy projects around the world. Apple has also prioritized lower-carbon modes of shipping, like ocean freight, to further reduce emissions from transportation. Together, these actions have reduced the carbon footprint of Mac mini by over 80 percent. I’m inclined to trust Apple with this information but the skeptical side of me is questioning, how can we fact check this data? If it’s true it is very cool.
  • eddieroger 2y ago
    Third party auditors that come in to verify it. "We" probably can't verify it, but Apple more than likely has these claims audited so they are prepared when they get sued over them.
    • toomuchtodo 2y ago
      If they're lying, it's also securities fraud if you're an Apple investor, so I am inclined to believe them.
  • deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  • infecto 2y ago
    https://www.supplychainreports.apple https://www.supplychainreports.apple But ultimately its down to the third-party auditors they hire.
  • xhkkffbf 2y ago
    What does it mean for the gold to be "recycled"? I get that the aluminum probably came for a pile of cans, but does this mean that the gold definitely came from a pile of electronics? Or could it be that they melted down a few old $20 coins from the US? It's not like a lot of gold ends up in landfills.
• nickthegreek 2y ago
  Max 64gb. Was hoping they would allow it to go a bit higher.
  • wongarsu 2y ago
    I thought the same. But that would cannibalize those juicy Mac Pro and Mac Studio sales
• PaulRobinson 2y ago
  Apart from the huge price jump from M4 to M4 Pro, I really like this product line-up. Last time I bought a Mac Mini was before the 2018 model got introduced, and I almost took it back in to get it exchanged (I was within 30 days of purchase when the 2018 model dropped), but it's been plugging away doing everything I have asked of it for 6 years, and it's still going strong. All the upgrades since have left me a little cool, but this genuinely looks like a contender for an upgrade. Only thing stopping me from getting the credit card ready is waiting to see what the M4 MacBook Air - which is inevitably going to be announced in the next 72 hours - looks like in comparison.
  • deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  • samcat116 2y ago
    M4 MacBook Air is rumored for the spring. Last announcement tomorrow is rumored to be the MacBook Pros.
    • PaulRobinson 2y ago
      Seems weird to stagger it like that, unless they have a huge amount of M3 Air stock they're hoping to shift over the holidays.
      • samcat116 2y ago
        The M3 airs came out in March of this year, so it’s a bit soon.
      • vvvvvvvvvvvvv 2y ago
        The release cycle is the same every year, aside from occasional refresh omissions and delays. It would be weird if they actually did release the M4 Air tomorrow.
    • adastra22 2y ago
      They never released in that order, no? That would mean perfecting the highly integrated M4 Pro and Max before releasing a regular M4 laptop.
• geewee 2y ago
  Does anyone have any idea if we can expect a MacBook Pro with M4 release announcement this week as well?
  • ErneX 2y ago
    Yes, tomorrow.
  • svantana 2y ago
    Pretty much guaranteed. They explicitly said there would be 3 announcements, and the remaining one is almost surely MBPs. https://www.macrumors.com/2024/10/28/apple-promises-two-more-mac-announcements/ https://www.macrumors.com/2024/10/28/apple-promises-two-more...
  • GeekyBear 2y ago
    The MacBook Pros with either a base M4, M4 Pro, or M4 Max are said to be due for announcement tomorrow.
  • victorbjorklund 2y ago
    It is all but guaranteed. But I think no big news are to expected. It is most just a spec bumb. The macbook pro m4 already leaked on youtube.
• jumperabg 2y ago
  Can those live in a data center rack?
  • wongarsu 2y ago
    People made rack mount kits for the previous generations. Not sure if the dimensions changed, if they did I'm sure products will be updated and you will be able to 3d print your own or buy a professional version from Amazon shortly
• BXlnt2EachOther 2y ago
  Front ports: 2 USB‑C, headphone Back ports: 3 Thunderbolt 4 ports (Thunderbolt 5 on the top $1399 tier), HDMI, Gigabit Ethernet RAM can be upgraded to 32GB on M4, to 64GB on M4 Pro 10 GbE looks selectable on any of these, +$100
• rapfaria 2y ago
  From the specs: Up to three displays: Two displays with up to 6K resolution at 60Hz over Thunderbolt and one display with up to 5K resolution at 60Hz over Thunderbolt or 4K resolution at 60Hz over HDMI Up to two displays: One display with up to 5K resolution at 60Hz over Thunderbolt and one display with up to 8K resolution at 60Hz or 4K resolution at 240Hz over Thunderbolt or HDMI Are these set in stone? Would it be enough to run say, two external 2560 x 1440 at 144hz?
  • _ph_ 2y ago
    I can't say it from first hand experience, but usually that are just example stats. The limit usually is pixels/sec for the bandwidth, so any configuration which requires less bandwidth should work too.
• unpopularopp 2y ago
  >Delivers up to 13.3x faster gaming performance in World of Warcraft: The War Within This is such an Apple stat especially for a game. What does "faster gaming performance" even mean? Every zone and city hub loads 13.3x faster so loading screens are quicker? They don't say anything about FPS and no one would use "faster" as a synonym for higher FPS. An MMO is really not the best benchmark tbh Edit: notes has the compared spec "Results are compared to previous-generation 3.2GHz 6-core Intel Core i7-based Mac mini systems with Intel Iris UHD Graphics 630, 64GB of RAM, and 2TB SSD." So they compared the 2024 M4 to a 2018 8th gen Intel i7 (i7-8700B). Take that as you will
  • madeofpalk 2y ago
    You didn't see the "1.7x more Excel productivity" chart from yesterday's new iMac? https://youtu.be/eaB7nCdId0Y?t=364 https://youtu.be/eaB7nCdId0Y?t=364 https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/28/24281965/honestly-this-is-a-work-of-art https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/28/24281965/honestly-this-i...
    • jeffbee 2y ago
      It's funny that they advertise this because a Mac comes with a spreadsheet application that is hard to use and unbelievably slow. If they sent some engineers to work on that program they could get a 10x-100x improvement on the software side instead of grinding it out on the hardware side.
      • OnionBlender 2y ago
        It's also funny because Visicalc was a big contributor to the Apple II's popularity. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VisiCalc https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VisiCalc
      • seec 2y ago
        Yeah Numbers is nice for making cool layouts and convenient for its multi-table functionality in one page but it's also very lackluster in so many ways (no pivot for stater). But the worst thing is by far its abysmal performance. Even simple accounting sheets get absurdly slow in the low hundreds of rows, no matter how powerful your machine is. So, you might as well use a web app, like Google sheets that has other advantages. To be honest it feels like they still offer their office suite just to say they have something else than Microsoft offerings, they have stopped caring about any of it a long time ago (with the redesign IMO).
• duxup 2y ago
  With such small footprints for these things now. I wish they were a little more creative with case design. The mini seems like the perfect thing to have a mini version and a ... creative design, bring back the trash can!
• luis8 2y ago
  Bandwidth it’s at 273 GB/s for the m4 pro. I hope the m4 max is two times that. It will allow using llama 70b a little bit faster
• _han 2y ago
  > Mac mini is Apple’s first carbon neutral Mac Hats off! I didn't expect the Mac to be next in line for the carbon neutral goals. But they did it!
  • sureIy 2y ago
    Easy if you just buy meaningless carbon credits.
    • makeitdouble 2y ago
      Given how Apple is pushing the carbon neutral narrative while still not reaching the goal on all its products, I assume just buying the credits would tank their margins enough to push them to actually reduce the footprint first. This looks to me like one instance where the incentives are decently working, at least to some point.
      • erur 2y ago
        Maybe. Alternatively it could just be the marketing department milking the narrative over an extended amount of time. Going instantly 100% “carbon neutral” through carbon credits is certainly a worse move in this regard.
        • Kon-Peki 2y ago
          You can find this on their website with a bit of clicking around and looking at footnotes: https://www.apple.com/environment/pdf/products/desktops/Mac_mini_PER_Oct2024.pdf https://www.apple.com/environment/pdf/products/desktops/Mac_... > Only after these efforts do we cover residual emissions through high-quality carbon credits that are real, additional, measurable, quantified, and have systems in place to avoid double-counting and ensure permanence. Better than nothing... Also interesting: Maxed out: Mac mini with M4 Pro (64GB memory, 8TB SSD): Product footprint before carbon credits 121 kg CO2e Min spec: Mac mini with M4 (16GB memory, 256GB SSD): Product footprint before carbon credits 32 kg CO2e I wouldn't have thought that there is this much of a difference in electronics!
• etempleton 2y ago
  What a great little computer at a very reasonable price. A few interesting things with this announcement: 1. Interesting that they did not have this as part of an event. I think this either means they do not have much else to share around the Mac right now or the opposite, there just won't be room to talk about the iMac or Mac Mini. I am leaning towards the former as a I suspect the other computers in their lineup will just receive a spec bump soon. 2. On the product page (https://www.apple.com/mac-mini/ https://www.apple.com/mac-mini/) Apple highlights a number of third party accessories. Notably the PS5 controller and several keyboards and mice from different manufacturers. This seems small, but it would have been almost blasphemy under the jobs era. 3. This is quite the little powerhouse. Honestly it is so good it eliminates the need for most people to even consider the Mac Studio.
  • Writingdorky 2y ago
    Thats actually a really good price. The mac book air with the M chip was absolutly a steal already. I'm surprised by this. Is that some thing to allow cheaper MX / Arm architecture in DCs? Is getting Apple affordable oO?!
    • etempleton 2y ago
      I have to think economies of scale are coming into play for Apple. They can cut deals for chips and other components at a scale no one else is really capable of and they have the luxury of being able to pay up front in advance if they need to.
      • Writingdorky 2y ago
        I mean yes for sure but apple always had a high margin. I'm pretty sure they did not suddenly become 'nice'. Would be interesint to know though if the margin stayed the same and they literaly just save a lot of money.
  • detourdog 2y ago
    This whole week will see a Mac annoucement according to what this Greg Joswiak said last week. https://www.apple.com/leadership/greg-joswiak/ https://www.apple.com/leadership/greg-joswiak/
• pdimitar 2y ago
  I've been pondering giving up on Macs for a while and this blind and rather stupid deferral to "AI" is going to accelerate the process. Almost nobody asked for this. I personally would have wanted one program to not stop starting with a cryptic message after upgrading to macOS 15.1 earlier today. But hey, crazies like me who want a decently working software are apparently not welcome in the customer base. The only reason I am still staying with Apple for my desktop needs is that I paid $8000 for my iMac Pro and that was just some short 5 years ago. But as time goes by, buying 1-2 specialized text rendering displays and going full Linux looks more and more attractive, especially with Fedora and Manjaro now offering the "immutable" distros i.e. you can frak around with your environment but then revert everything if you don't like it (or the contrary, do a DB commit of sorts i.e. have your changes persist after reboot) -- those features make backing up entire workstations even easier. Sprinkle an external ZFS server and the ability to just zfs send/recv entire disks with encryption and compression and I think just some 2-3 short years into the future I'll be laughing at Macs. Apple keeps dropping the ball. iOS 18 lost all my tab groups in Safari as well. And Photos randomly chooses not to show pictures in the big Photos feed; you have to know which day they were saved to be able to see them. /facepalm Apple is now in decline, it can't be more obvious by these fairly outrageous bugs + the fact that they are now regular followers like everyone else and are jumping on the "AI" bandwagon.
  • diggan 2y ago
    > Apple is now in decline I've been saying this since the butterfly-keyboard fiasco. At that point it was clear that professional users weren't the focus anymore, and I promptly left the ecosystem. I still have a iPhone (12 mini) that I only keep because it still works, but every time CarPlay tries to murder me in traffic, I get one step closer to just yeeting that phone into the sea.
    • kstrauser 2y ago
      That was the low point for MacBooks. The newer models are much better.
      • 2y ago
• oldpersonintx 2y ago
  [dead]
• rsync 2y ago
  How many 4k screens can be attached? The published specs call out 3 6k screens but is that a display bandwidth limit or an arbitrary “screen” limit ? I’d like to drive four displays and 4k is sufficient for me … possible? Perhaps with Number four on the HDMI port?
  • ErneX 2y ago
    Website says it supports 3 6K displays, here you go: M4 (Thunderbolt 4): - Up to three displays: Two displays with up to 6K resolution at 60Hz over Thunderbolt and one display with up to 5K resolution at 60Hz over Thunderbolt or 4K resolution at 60Hz over HDMI - Up to two displays: One display with up to 5K resolution at 60Hz over Thunderbolt and one display with up to 8K resolution at 60Hz or 4K resolution at 240Hz over Thunderbolt or HDMI M4 Pro (this one has Thunderbolt 5): - Up to three displays: Three displays with up to 6K resolution at 60Hz over Thunderbolt or HDMI - Up to two displays: One display with up to 6K resolution at 60Hz over Thunderbolt and one display with up to 8K resolution at 60Hz or 4K resolution at 240Hz over Thunderbolt or HDMI
    • rsync 2y ago
      OK, so unnecessary and arbitrary restrictions on screen numbers, once again. There is really no reason you couldn't drive four (or more) lower resolution (4k) screens, given the array of ports. In case anyone is wondering, the use-case here is a triple-monitor configuration at a desk with a much larger "TV" positioned, or hung, elsewhere in the room.
      • wtallis 2y ago
        USB PHYs aren't the same thing as display controller IP blocks. It's obviously possible to design a chip with more of the former than latter. At the hardware level, nothing is actually an arbitrarily-subdividible budget of display bandwidth.
      • kalleboo 2y ago
        The SoC needs to have a hardware display controller for each display, and Apple only put 3 of them on their chip. You can add as many extra displays as you want using DisplayLink which runs as a standard USB device and doesn't use the built-in controllers, but has worse performance, probably good enough for a "TV" though.
• donatj 2y ago
  It would appear the air intake is on the bottom like the Mac Studio. As someone who lives in a very dusty 150 year old house, My Mac Studio does not appreciate the air input being directly on the desk. It collects all the dust that lands anywhere near it. I have a large levoit air filter running 24/7 in my office and still end up with this[1] regularly. I wish I could at least reasonably take the thing apart to clean it out. 1. https://imgur.com/a/GSubONa https://imgur.com/a/GSubONa
  • perch56 2y ago
    Many people are eager to plug in their air purifiers and get started, but they often miss the fine print about checking inside the unit. Leaving the plastic bag on the filter basically turns the purifier into a fan, without any actual filtering. I saw someone post that they ran theirs like that for months before realizing it—no air getting filtered the whole time! Your dust photo reminded me, so just wanted to mention it in case you hadn’t checked for the bag inside.
    • donatj 2y ago
      I replace the filter on mine every couple months. It's clear of bags and the filters are regularly filthy.
  • xyst 2y ago
    That’s a shit ton of dust. Is this in an industrial factory? I agree that mine also gets dirty as well but nothing like your picture where it’s caked there. I typically just wipe it clean after a couple of weeks. Can even go a month without any issues. I even have a dog that sheds like a mofo
    • Hamuko 2y ago
      My Mac Studio definitely has had a mat of dust surrounding the base intake.
  • Someone1234 2y ago
    Three points: - Running an Air Filter 24/7 has huge diminishing returns (i.e. waste of electricity). They are best run at max fan speed for short durations instead. - Elevate it with a platform. - Get a vacuum (or even a robo vacuum). I grew up in a 100+ year old house, it wasn't dusty, and had hard-woods/brick everywhere.
• xyst 2y ago
  Positives: + form factor + ARM/Apple silicon/SoC Negatives: - Apple tax on memory, storage - non-upgradeable - Apple tax on 1GbE to 10 GbE ($100 surcharge lol) - maxes out at 64G of configurable memory w/ m4 pro Got to give it to Apple. The traunches between different configuration levels is “small” enough to convince buyers to enter the next level. It’s like “hey, you are already at $4000 for m4 pro with 64g. Just spend an extra $400-$600 for that bump in storage. It’s no biggy. We losing money at this point”. I wonder how many consumers fall into this sunk cost fallacy scenario that Apple has designed.
  • wwweston 2y ago
    I'm at the point where I wonder what my options are for unauthorized capacity-expanding repairs.
    • xyst 2y ago
      I sub to a content creator on YT that does exactly this. The amount of tools and expertise to undue the Apple soldering can be intensive. He has done this for nearly every product line (iPhone, Mac Mini, iPads, …) * Mac Mini storage upgrade https://youtu.be/ApAffuPAl5A https://youtu.be/ApAffuPAl5A
  • badrequest 2y ago
    I would genuinely be buying one today if the memory upgrades were half as much and I could go to 128GB or even 96.
  • fallat 2y ago
    > I wonder how many consumers fall into this sunk cost fallacy scenario that Apple has designed. Millions. Let that sink in.
  • pjmlp 2y ago
    Millions, all of those not able to set up a desktop computer for themselves, or if they do know, not willing to spend the effort.
  • whywhywhywhy 2y ago
• drexlspivey 2y ago
  I want to buy one of these and run it headless as a plex server and a few other things. It can handle multiple transcodes without sweat. Is there a solution to log in to the OS GUI over wifi (like from an ipad or mac) if I need to use it as a computer? It won’t have a screen attached.
  • xnx 2y ago
    https://remotedesktop.google.com/ https://remotedesktop.google.com/
  • jamesfmilne 2y ago
    Yes, Apple Screen Sharing is built in. It's based on VNC. You can definitely run it from another Mac, although it's not a great experience with other VNC clients on Windows or Linux. They appear to have their own encoding via VNC, based on H264 or HEVC, and falling back to the encodings supported by other clients is pretty laggy. NoMachine runs alright on macOS.
  • nickv 2y ago
    I do this exact thing with my M2 Mac Mini (plex, a few home lab things with no display). I use Chrome Remote Desktop to get into the box remotely. If the box does end up losing power/restarting, I also make sure to have SSH on so I can ssh into the box and start remote desktop before being logged in (Google provides instructions). I found this to be the path of least resistance to getting it remotely accessible.
• conacts 2y ago
  What are opinions on refurbished macs? I got one and love it so far
  • orangecat 2y ago
    I've gotten a few over the years and they've been indistinguishable from new.
  • krackers 2y ago
    Official apple refurbished might even be better than new, they probably undergo more stringent testing after whatever repairs are made.
  • FabHK 2y ago
    On a refurb M2 MBA, as good as new. No probs with refurb iPad either.
• yapyap 2y ago
  carbon neutral, HA what nonsense. edit to clarify: I don’t think reducing out carbon emissions is nonsense, that should be our top priority as a society, that’s also (part of) why AI is quite shit honestly, I couldn’t care less if they were just burning money by developing nothing burgers but they’re also burning through all our natural resources at insane rates. However I do think the term “carbon neutral” is quite nonsensical and just seems like a term to make the consumer feel less guilty about themselves, hell sometimes it’s even used to make the company execs feel better about themselvss. I didn’t forget about that HORRIBLE, TERRIBLE “mother earth” commercial apple ran. DISGUSTING.
• whatever1 2y ago
  With the inclusion of a Thunderbolt 5 port, I think that apple might have a new high resolution, high refresh rate monitor in the works.
• hggigg 2y ago
  Ordered base M4 pro already. Can finally get rid of my macbooks. Much prefer desktop machines and only use my iPad when mobile.
  • tonyedgecombe 2y ago
    I'm leaning towards that, phones have got so good now that I think I can manage without a laptop.
• bergheim 2y ago
  So that's why a tram just drove into an apple store today [1]. (4 got just minor damages, miraculously) 1: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/oct/29/tram-derails-and-crashes-into-shop-in-central-oslo-norway https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/oct/29/tram-derails-a...
  • grahamj 2y ago
    It’s just a store that sells Apple products, but anyway, pretty crazy!
• gjvc 2y ago
  16GB still seems tight in 2024
  • microtonal 2y ago
    Depends on what you are doing? Our daughter has the original Mac Mini M1 with 8GiB, has a habit to keep everything (PowerPoint, Word, DTP, web browsers, etc.) open and the machine is still lightning-fast. Developer that wants to run IntelliJ, a load of Docker containers, etc.? Sure, that's going to be tight, better get 32 or 64 GiB. Remember that many Mac users are just folks that do web browsing, Office, and a bunch of other things and 16GiB is going to be enough for a few years.
    • OnionBlender 2y ago
      Doesn't MacOS use virtual memory? If the device is low on memory, the apps that are open but not being used would be paged to SSD.
    • gjvc 2y ago
      does Mac Mini go up to 64GB ?
    • fennecbutt 2y ago
      Why defend? So many of you do it. Why not say "Well I'll probably only use 8gb most of the time but good thing my mac came with 16!" I don't understand it. Sure if they were making a loss on ram then whatever. They changed to 16gb base. Why not 32gb? Why don't y'all demand it from em? I don't get this at all.
• syndicatedjelly 2y ago
  > With M4, Mac mini can support up to two 6K displays and up to one 5K display, and with M4 Pro, it can support up to three 6K displays at 60Hz for a total of over 60 million pixels. Okay so how many displays can the base model Mac mini m4 support? Is it one 5K over HDMI and then 2 6K over 2 separate Thunderbolt 4 connections, for a total of 3 displays?
• js2 2y ago
  Be interesting to see how long till M4 shows up here: https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/instance-types/mac/ https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/instance-types/mac/ Amazon will have to accommodate the new form factor. They've already had to accommodate the previous mini and the Studio.
• stego-tech 2y ago
  I love its form factor, less so the price difference between the M4 and M4 Pro models ($800 USD, presumably so it doesn’t cannibalize the Studio). It looks small, friendly, and inviting to the user, despite not breaking its industrial aesthetic. Honestly kind of want one as a desktop, even though my M1 Pro MBP is still insanely powerful for my needs.
  • jhickok 2y ago
    I feel the same way. I have a really nice MBP and I cannot justify a dedicated desktop when a single thunderbolt cable to my laptop does the job just fine, but I do love the value and design. Maybe I'll pick one up for the kids.
  • tootie 2y ago
    To me, it really is just an aesthetic thing. What purpose does this actually serve? It's small, but not portable. If it's going under my desk or on a rack never to be moved or looked at, why does it need to be cute?
    • heraldgeezer 2y ago
      Wife-approval factor can be a powerful thing. The females will often choose small over powerful.
• deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
• tmountain 2y ago
  I wish there was a way to use my existing M1 iMac as the display in conjunction with the Mac Mini. Ironically, this is preventing me from buying one of these.
  • stevenae 2y ago
    Airplay? Lunadisplay?
• vyrotek 2y ago
  Note. The power button is on the bottom now. Does this mess up datacenters using Mac Minis in racks now?
  • Hamuko 2y ago
    Well, the whole form factor is different, so you’d need to redesign your Mac Mini racks anyways.
  • magarnicle 2y ago
    Yes it does. We have some in chassis with graphics cards attached and I'm considering whether I can just put these new minis outside the chassis and run extension cords.
• Jiahang 2y ago
  120Gb/s ！
  • taneliv 2y ago
    The Pro model seems to have 273Gb/s as per https://www.apple.com/mac-mini/specs/ https://www.apple.com/mac-mini/specs/
    • wtallis 2y ago
      Gb/s is not the same as GB/s. 120Gb/s could be referring to the speed of Thunderbolt 5. You misquoted 273GB/s, the memory bandwidth of the M4 Pro.
• mitjam 2y ago
  The larger M4 Pro with 64g RAM, 1 TB, 10 GBit/s lan is a nice system for content production and local inference at 2499,-
  • sliken 2y ago
    Hard to imagine that being price competitive with the M4 max, hopefully out tomorrow.
• dcchambers 2y ago
  Honestly a fantastic update for this machine. So much bang for your buck at the entry level now that they've FINALLY made 16GB of RAM the baseline. And fully specced out with M4 Pro + 64GB of Ram makes this a serious powerhouse in a tiny box. I love it. I really want to see what they're going to do with the Studio this/next year. M4 Ultra could be insane.
• xmly 2y ago
  Need Mac studio...
• modeless 2y ago
  > With M4, Mac mini delivers up to 1.8x faster CPU performance and 2.2x faster GPU performance over the M1 model They're comparing three generations back now? Oh, I see that they never updated the Mini for M3. So it's only two generations of Mini. Still, I prefer to see one generation comparisons. And it's kind of weird that Apple doesn't keep their smaller product lines more up to date. They certainly have the resources to do so.
  • gandalfgreybeer 2y ago
    > They're comparing three generations back now? My guess is the leap from intel to M1 was significant for an upgrade and M1 vs M2/M3 wasn’t really. I’m personally on an M1 and use it heavily but I don’t think I need the M4 jump still. The mini hardware is appealing to me though.
    • hbn 2y ago
      The other consideration is people don't upgrade their Macs every year. They're selling to people with several year old Macs. Though honestly my M1 Pro MBP from 2021 still performs so incredibly well I have no desire to upgrade anytime soon. Best computer I've ever purchased.
  • fennecbutt 2y ago
    Not only that but they're still comparing m3 as being "17x more powerful than Intel" for the air, but neglecting to point out they haven't used Intel for several generations now. Lmaoooo.
• non-nil 2y ago
  They may have higher ambitions for this generation! In the presentation (roughly at the 10-minute mark), they show off the standard target demographics and setups for creative work, then complementing that with some more enterprise-flirty stuff about making workers more productive and lowering office energy usage, only to finish off with this: "And with the industry-leading reliability of macOS, healthcare systems can count on mini when providing critical care." A bit out of character, and also – what?!
• vbezhenar 2y ago
  I wish they would add small UPS inside (like super-capacitor or something like that) there to provide way for forced sleep when power is cut off. It's a neat small device which must be accompanied by huge bulky UPS for reliable operation. If someone didn't know, macOS ignores fsync, so without UPS your data is not safe. Not an issue for laptops, obviously, but issue for battery-less devices.
  • HenloFive 2y ago
    You could use an USB C power bank, because it seems to be usb-c powered
    • nicce 2y ago
      Does it work 24/7 or have two power sources? Can you charge the powerbank at the same time so it will rely on the battery only when the power is down?
      • quux 2y ago
        Many power banks support pass through charging where it powers attached devices while also charging the battery
    • holycrapwhodat 2y ago
      It is not USB-C powered. It needs 100-240V, 50hz-60hz AC power.
      • adib 2y ago
        A missed opportunity though. If it’s USB-C powered, it could be even smaller and Apple could simplify its BOM by including a MacBook Pro charger with it.
        • TheFuzzball 2y ago
          If it was USB-C powered people would be complaining about the size of the external power supply.
• laweijfmvo 2y ago
  Apple really is the kind of cherry picking comparisons. They seem to compare the new Mini with the M1 Mini, the Core i7 Mini, and the M2 Mini, all in different categories, whenever it benefits them.
  • 39896880 2y ago
    Can you think of any examples where a company trying to sell you something made unfavorable comparisons between their product and a competing product?
    • threatofrain 2y ago
      HTMX, I guess.
  • theshrike79 2y ago
    I have a M1 mini, didn't want to upgrade before. This one might be a big enough bump that I'm seriously considering it.
  • thefz 2y ago
    From yesterday's iMac announcement: > The M4 chip brings a boost in performance to iMac. Featuring a more capable CPU with the world’s fastest CPU core,(4) Then, deeper in the footnotes where no one ever reads > (4) Testing was conducted by Apple in October 2024 using shipping competitive systems and select industry-standard benchmarks. Basically, this is The Fastest CPU Ever* *we tested it, trust us. How can anyone still give money to this company is a mystery to me.
• palijer 2y ago
  Only USB-C in the back front and back? I suppose this is a "BYOKVM" machine that is going to need a dongle to connect the keyboard and mouse... Even the iKeyboard I bought from them last year was lightning to USB-A and needed a dongle to connect to my Apple laptop. At least it has an HDMI port.
  • hocuspocus 2y ago
    USB-C monitors with a bunch of A ports (so, not from Apple) are pretty handy if that's important to you.
• kylehotchkiss 2y ago
  This seems like such a cool home server... BUT with all the disk encryption stuff, you'd need to be logged in to run things, right? If the power goes out, your server does too? Does anybody have a guide or tips on how to make one of these better for hosting a website with cloudflare tunnel and being resilient to power outages?
  • mike-cardwell 2y ago
    UPS
  • evgen 2y ago
    Macs run decently as headless servers except for the limit that you cannot use full disk encryption -- the boot process stops and waits for you to provide the decryption key via local keyboard and there is no way around this. If you are concerned about this then you can look at running an encrypted external disk or a partition of an internal disk as an encrypted volume. You still need to decrypt things before everything starts working again but at least the system can boot for remote access. Yes, yes, this is not a secure as having the system fully encrypted and we can all think of various ways something like this can be compromised. It all depends on the threat model you are looking at.
  • xenadu02 2y ago
    FileVault is not required. Daemons can still start without an Aqua session or user logged in. You can also still configure Aqua session auto-login.
• e63f67dd-065b 2y ago
  With educational pricing this thing starts as $500, and at 16GB of RAM (finally) I think this easily beats any sort of desktop PC you can buy at that price (let's exclude custom builds, they're not the same market). I think this just became the go-to recommendation I'll give to anybody wanting an entry-level desktop computer of any kind. In fact I might buy one for my parents right now to replace the old mac mini they have. I really can't think of any reasonable competition for it at that price.
  • zackymacky 2y ago
    Help me understand the $500 starting price? I see $1250 starting price on pre-orders from the education store.
    • plushpuffin 2y ago
      That’s for the model with the M4 Pro chip. Mac mini with M4 starts at $599 (U.S.) and $499 (U.S.) for education. Mac mini with M4 Pro starts at $1,399 (U.S.) and $1,299 (U.S.) for education.
      • zackymacky 2y ago
        My mistake! I was looking at M4 iMac pricing. So you still need a monitor on top of the $500 price, but that is a good entry point.
    • xiasongh 2y ago
      From the article > Mac mini with M4 starts at $599 (U.S.) and $499 (U.S.) for education. Additional technical specifications are available at apple.com/mac-mini.
      • zackymacky 2y ago
        It is true, I was on the Apple edu page and looking at the wrong computer. Thanks for the correction!
  • 2y ago
• ksec 2y ago
  As far as I am aware, there isn't a single competitor from big brand manufacture at $599 price point regardless of size. M4, 16GB RAM, Thunderbolt 4. The SSD is the main failing point but with TB4 you can easily get an external SSD. You can also get 10Gbps for extra $100. With EDU or Staff pricing this thing stars at $499. Which is practically a steal. I am thinking it may be better for cooperate to buy this and run Windows on VM than buying a PC. Considering iPad and iPhone has been replacing 99% of my workflow outside of office I am thinking if my next computer could be a mini rather than a Laptop.
  • xenospn 2y ago
    I’m always confused as to why people are so paranoid about storage size. I got the base MacBook Air and an external 2TB drive for cheap. Super fast and I never worry about anything - I didn’t even manage to get up to 50% of my 256GB drive.
    • birdgoose 2y ago
      I agree with your sentiment but I feel like many people just don't like the idea of carrying around dongles/cables/hdds/etc with their laptops.
      • chihuahua 2y ago
        Especially if you value the Apple aesthetic, where there can be only 1 button, 1 port, and everything has to be as thin as possible.
    • greenpresident 2y ago
      There is a generation of tech users that downloaded TB of media for local storage. It’s just not something a lot of people do anymore but it created a psychological need, even if it’s not a technical necessity.
      • heraldgeezer 2y ago
        I mean have you noticed how bad streaming services have gotten...
• rafaelturk 2y ago
  The presenters look so stiff and rehearsed, and the makeup and lighting are so bland that it feels like an AI-generated video!
• sroussey 2y ago
  I was really hoping for upgraded monitors today.
• OnionBlender 2y ago
  Is there a good performance benchmark website/channel for Mac hardware? (Once reviewers get their hands on the hardware) I'm trying to decide if I should get the Pro or the base model mini. I've been learning Swift and Metal using an old work Macbook and I want to get my own hardware. The only games I play recently at Factorio and Baldur's Gate 3, so I was thinking perhaps I should get the Pro and not bother upgrading my desktop (an i7 6700k from 2015).
• LargoLasskhyfv 2y ago
  When will the 819.2 GB/s memory bandwith of the M2 Ultra be topped? With about one TB/s, say? Otherwise I'm unimpressed.
  • int_19h 2y ago
    Surely that won't show up in Mac Mini, though...
  • sliken 2y ago
    Well the M4 pro crushes the M3 pro. Presumably the M4 max will be a better than the M3 max. No idea if the Ultra will come out, apple hasn't done that since the M2, even if they do it's likely to be 6 months away.
• franczesko 2y ago
  Ryzen mini pcs seem to beat this in most of scenarios. Does anyone see clear advantages?
  • srid 2y ago
    Is there a particular brand recommended for someone looking to run Linux server (not Windows or Linux desktop)?
    • Flux159 2y ago
      I have a Minisforum UM690S, it's about the same size (5x5x2.25 inches) and works well as a small machine. They just announced the EliteMini AI370 today that has the latest AMD laptop chip with 12 cores/24 threads - I assume that would also be a decent linux server (note that ram is soldered on that one).
      • wcallahan 2y ago
        Just ordered one the UM690S after this comment - I had been looking for another machine like it and saw the sale. Thanks for sharing! I just deployed another System76 machine that I’m using for the same purpose — using both for redundant containerized web servers I’m self hosting. I got it with 64GB RAM. Has the machine been a solid performer?
  • magarnicle 2y ago
    ProRes hardware decoding.
• farawayea 2y ago
  Does this still have soldered flash chips for the SSD? This would've looked a lot better without the soldered non-upgradable SSD. It's not great at all. This guy will probably have a lot of clients https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3N-z-Y8cuw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3N-z-Y8cuw.
  • ErneX 2y ago
    Yes, but that’s easy to solve via USB
    • farawayea 2y ago
      That's not a solution when your main SSD dies. The system no longer boots. The guy from the youtube video explains that as well. Normal computers with NVMe storage will always be more repairable than Apple's hardware with everything soldered on the board.
      • reaperducer 2y ago
        That's not a solution when your main SSD dies. The system no longer boots. Is that new? I ran an iMac with a dead internal drive off of an external Thunderbolt drive for several years.
        • farawayea 2y ago
          I've watched that guy's video. The Apple arm64 Macbook Pro doesn't even charge without a functional SSD. I suspect it also doesn't boot off anything else if its main SSD is dead.
        • kalleboo 2y ago
          Was that an Intel iMac? On the Apple Silicon machines, the internal SSD also contains all the stuff that would be on the firmware flash chip and NVRAM on an Intel machine, so it's required even when you boot from an external drive
      • xenospn 2y ago
• klum 2y ago
  Somewhat unrelated but Apple are mainly focusing on Apple Intelligence in these new announcements. The first version of OS X I used was Mavericks. In hindsight, that was the last great version of OS X for me — the last version where it seems the priorities of the people deciding the direction of development where somewhat aligned with mine. Many have written about the decline in usability and attention to detail in OS X since then — I guess Apple Intelligence represents this shift in focus perfectly: a black-box interface that may or may not do something along the lines of what you were intending.
• diimdeep 2y ago
  From what I gather from x.com gamedev corner of the web and elsewhere [1] is that Apple hardware is completely unusable for them still, or even more so after switching to alien ARM arch relative to desktop x86-64 PC. I wish Apple would invest in gaming, so that we won't have such a capable hardware allocating puny market-share of only 2% according to Steam survey. [2] [1] https://gamesbymason.com/2023/08/21/way-of-rhea-linux/#way-of-rhea-drops-plans-to-support-macos https://gamesbymason.com/2023/08/21/way-of-rhea-linux/#way-o... [2] https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey
• znpy 2y ago
  > just 5 by 5 inches It's basically an Intel NUC, 12 years later.
• lenerdenator 2y ago
  sigh C'monnnn. Give us custom colors, like you already do for the iMac. Otherwise seems like a fine machine for those who want UNIX and energy efficiency.
• not_your_vase 2y ago
  Funny thing that when I look at it, $600 is objectively cheap, not only by Apple standards - I remember 8 or 9 years ago I really-really wanted a Mac Mini, but just couldn't afford the 320 EUR (including like 10 EUR IBMer discount) they asked for the base model back then, new. Inflation happens on strange ways...
  • objclxt 2y ago
    The entry-level 2014 Mac Mini had a launch price of 499 EUR, I'm not sure it was ever that cheap new. If anything the price has deflated.
• echoangle 2y ago
  With the iMac yesterday and this now, what are the odds of new MacBooks (Air?) in the coming days?
  • feep 2y ago
    One more announcement this week. Almost certainly MacBook Pro. M4 Air should be in the spring.
• c0nsumer 2y ago
  I'm finding this monitor: https://press.asus.com/news/press-releases/asus-proart-5k-pa27jcv-november-launch https://press.asus.com/news/press-releases/asus-proart-5k-pa... ...to be looking really appealing to pair with one of these new Mac Minis. $899 MSRP in the US, 5120 x 2880, same dimensions as an Apple Studio Display but a lot cheaper... And B&H just got them in stock. Just ordered one myself, now I need to pick which variant of the Mac Mini M4 to pair it with. (My goal here is replacing a 27" Intel iMac for map making / CAD / DTP type stuff.)
  • seec 2y ago
    Ah that's cool, it seems to be better than the one Samsung released. And the price is not too bad. Is Asus going to make "cheap" Macs better with their display offering, that would be kind of hilarious. But yes, if that display is half decent, it makes entry level Mac Mini pretty good, at least you can get a sub 2k setup.
    • c0nsumer 2y ago
      I ordered one, still went for a $2K+ Mac mini, but yeah. My goal is to replace an aged 27" iMac and because of doing DTP type work, I wanted a nice high DPI screen. Really seriously considered a new iMac, but the mini and a non-Apple-specific monitor wins. It's too bad target display mode is no longer a thing.
      • seec 2y ago
        Yes that is exactly the kind of use case the previous iMac shined at. Which is why I think it's bonkers they want people to put so much money into their standalone display, it's way too steep for the use case and you don't need that much performance making the lack of all-in-one annoying. Isn't the 2K Mac Mini a bit lackluster though? It's Mac Studio price territory, you get a lot more for 2K. Then again, they need to refresh it, so if you need something now, sure... You can convert your old iMac into a display with a controller board if you want to keep it. It would cost about 300 but you get a great display, and those old iMacs don't sell for much anyway.
• crakhamster01 2y ago
  I've always loved the form factor/pricing of the Mac Mini, but I've never been able to convince myself to buy it. If you're able to afford a Macbook/MBP, is there any reason why someone would purchase the Mini? Seems like the former gets you the same performance with the benefit of portability.
  • sharno 2y ago
    It’s portability for a price especially if you already have your own peripherals
  • rootusrootus 2y ago
    The MBP is over twice as much and you're still going to buy a keyboard, mouse, and screen for your desk. Portability is nice, but for many people I suspect the use case is too narrow -- for most things you need to do when you are not at your desk computer, the smartphone suffices.
    • crakhamster01 2y ago
      Yea that's a fair point. I live in a small apt so I often find myself working anywhere other than my desk, but I imagine there's a lot of folks that prefer the niceties of a dedicated workspace (monitor, keyboard, etc).
• vid 2y ago
  So Apple just released their new caste-defined product line. Sure, they're technically good. But I don't know how they can claim any vision aligned with any legacy, they're basically a shiny walled-garden Dell.
• wslh 2y ago
  Does this new Mac Mini is fanless?
  • sliken 2y ago
    No.
• bilsbie 2y ago
  Can I train LLM with this?
• bilsbie 2y ago
  Would this make a good gaming computer?
  • nicce 2y ago
    Depends on what you play. It can probably play most games already. For high-end graphics, you would need GeForce Now (which works on M series Macs flawlessly btw).
  • fourfour3 2y ago
    Not really. Most games are still released for Windows + x86 (AMD/Intel). Proton on Linux works wonders on AMD/Intel CPUs, but your best bet is still Windows.
  • Reubend 2y ago
    No. Game compatibility is still a big issue for many AAA titles, and the GPU is still not nearly as powerful as a dedicated graphics card from NVIDIA or AMD. However, this is a fantastic general purpose machine for things like light web browsing, text editing, coding, etc.
  • utf_8x 2y ago
    Yes and no, depends on what you play. I've been semi-lightweight gaming on my M1 MacBook Pro with some level of success... Games that are optimised to run on Apple Silicon natively mostly run great (No Man's Sky easily pushes 120FPS at "almost-maxed-out" settings at native resolution and looks amazing on the built-in display). Games running in rosetta also work well. The performance hit of Rosetta is only a couple percent. Less demanding games such as Minecraft, Factorio, various MMOs, etc. will all run very well. For Windows-only games, Parallels works shockingly well. I can run Skyrim with 3rd party shaders at 60 FPS without any issues in Parallels. There is no 1st party support for SteamVR. You can supposedly get it working with some older Vive models. I couldn't get my Quest 2 working, even in Parallels. Some games with aggressive (rootkit) Anti-Cheats will probably also not work.
• catlikesshrimp 2y ago
  Duplicate of: New iMac with M4 (apple.com) 509 points by tosh 1 day ago | flag | hide | past | favorite | 1058 comments https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41971726 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41971726
• albastru 2y ago
  Buyers beware: the current Apple cloth is not compatible with the new Mac Mini.
• pixelready 2y ago
  Does anyone know how well Asahi Linux supports M4? I only see M1 and M2 listed on the website, but I’m not sure how often it gets updated. I think thunderbolt displays are still a pain point as well?
• newman314 2y ago
  Looks like it is not a big price differential to get 4x the cheapest Mac mini vs. a fully loaded 64GB mem version with the Mac mini Pro. That and we would end up getting more GPU cores (4x10 vs. 20). And if this is cross connected with TB4 networking and using exolab, might be good for a nice local setup. Anyone up to try this out?