M4 and M4 Pro Mac minis are probably Apple's best Mac minis
arstechnica.com
arstechnica.com
But it should be essentially the same speeds as the average internal m.2 drives it seems.
Source: Me, with my M1 Mac mini using a Samsung T7 connected via USB.
Things I use frequently are on the 256GB internal SSD, such as Office 365 and Xcode. Huge things like games that aren't a huge deal if they take a few more seconds to load are offloaded to the external. The only inconvenience this setup has caused me is that I have to periodically uninstall old iOS simulators from Xcode to keep enough free space available for OS updates.
I don't think there is anything else out there that has this combination of size, performance, price, and energy efficiency.
Uh, what? There are lots of nice things about the new Mac Minis for sure, but this is the weirdest and most wrong thing I think I've heard thus far.
I went to Micro Center's website and pieced this together (all parts are official Raspberry Pi brand unless I indicated otherwise):
Raspberry Pi 5 8GB: $69.99
Case: $9.99
PSU: $11.99
Active cooler: $4.99
52Pi NVMe adapter board: $7.99
Inland 256GB NVMe SSD: $24.99
Total: $130.
You could buy almost four of these for the price of one Mac Mini with edu discount.
Side note: The SSD above appears to be literally the only 256GB NVMe drive that Micro Center carries. Just goes to show you how much the rest of the PC industry has moved on while Apple's still stuck on 256GB. Also, for $13 more you can get a similar Inland 512GB SSD instead (a $200 upgrade at Apple, whether you get edu pricing or not).
Besides that, my 16in MacBook Pro with M2 Max and 32gb RAM still does everything I need. I’m still so impressed with the raw performance and long battery life that Apple Silicon has brought to the laptop space.
Not saying I agree with it, but Apple has been doing this successfully for many years.
It seems more likely that Apple is just straight up overcharging for upgrades, and people have to pay it because nothing is user-serviceable or user-repairable anymore.
Would be great if this could finally put the nail into Windows. It's about time.
There's a lot of cross pollination of ideas that comes from OS diversity and a greater resilience to cybersecurity threats, as it is unlikely for any one vulnerability to affect 3 different operating systems at the same time.
to run triple AAA games at 40-60fps on a cold and quiet device is amazing and feels like a real progression. likewise with proton
something like beelink ser8 you can open it and add RAM and extra SSD for cheap too.
these mac mini are restricted by the OS. macOS is a boring system to me.
what can you do with this that you can't with the previous models. generate genmojis faster or render 4k videos faster, useful but boring
I have no problem playing most of my steam game library on my m1 mini, I can only imagine the M4 is even better. Of the games that won't run on macos, yeah, most are "triple AAA" shooters that I spend less time with lately, so all good.
The Beelink ser8 looks cool. If I build another PC, that will be high up in the consideration list. My current PC is a watercooled monstrosity that is about as portable as a bank vault.
and i also added my own extra 4tb ssd for about $130. it took 5 minutes to do it.
i'm sure the m4 is more powerful on paper, within the apple ecosystem, and running apple software.
but i prefer to be free and run what i want. also as someone who was really jaded on tech, i found these amd gpu's to be really amazing.
i still appreciate what the mac mini stands for, low energy and efficient. but not inside that walled garden.
My friend talked about getting one for his young children, though, but will likely get an iMac so they can facetime with family.