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As you say, you're comparing a far higher TDP chip here (Ryzen 3600X/3700X). I don't think those can realistically fit into the Mac Mini's form factor, right? Surely we should be comparing the M1 to the "U" series Ryzen chips?

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I was comparing M1 to higher TDP chips, yes. If you take TDP into account M1 wins hands down, of course (unless your workload requires more than 16GB RAM). The context of this post is specifically the price-sensitive customer, not a TDP/space-focused one (compare to this[1] for example, once you upgrade RAM and SSD, and install a decent cooler). You also get better I/O in the PC world.

[1] https://www.officedepot.com/a/products/7814504/HP-Pavilion-T...

Audio folks tend to be fairly sensitive to all of size/noise/heat - this sort of setup is going to end up slotted into a rack of audio equipment, after all.

macOS/CoreAudio alone probably justifies Mac mini before performance comes into play at all. To say Mac mini is cheaper than alternatives matching in CPU performance is however still incorrect, though dangerously close. That’s all.

Form factor is most important. After that, price. Then third is probably the cooling situation, though we can install some extra fans if needed. Better I/O doesn't really matter here as we only need 2-3 USB ports, Ethernet, and display.

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