Replacing my $8000 Mac Pro with a $1400 Mac mini [video] | Hacker News Reader

Replacing my $8000 Mac Pro with a $1400 Mac mini [video]

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13 pointstosh20 comments

For $550 on sale, the base M4 Mini is a steal. It's a really good deal.

I'm not a desktop person at all. My last desktop was bought in around 2010. But I'm tempted to pick one up just because.

With education discount, it’s $500.

I upgraded from a base model M1 because with my trade in it came to $270. I have no regrets at all, the M4 Mac mini is a phenomenal computer for the price.

A computer you cant run any of your own code on without constant "This Program Could Harm Your Mac" popups.

Not only do I compile my own code and have absolutely no issues with pop-ups, I distribute my code to others without issue. You have options like homebrew or even just curl/wget (which bypasses those pop-ups too).

I’ve never seen any of my own code that I’ve written trigger Gatekeeper warnings.

Even for third party software, it’s trivial to disable on a case by case basis as needed while still keeping the security benefits that Gatekeeper provides.

This is an exaggeration

What? I use my MacBook for development and I’ve got no idea what you’re referring to. Hell I use Nix on Mac, a massive pile of custom codes lol

Downloading mac builds of software I have used for years for the first time (new to mac) has actually given me this popup several times and I had to do this `xattr -cr` dance manually, this is on 15.0/15.1.

I'm neither saying it's constant nor am I saying it's never happening. So far I have not run into any serious problems compared to Windows or Linux.

Does anyone know if through some chain of adapters i can plug my old Cinema HD 30" in to one of the new mac minis? i already have the mini display port adapter. but it doesn't work correctly if its not plugged in to a real USB port on the computer, doesn't like hubs.

Ive been tempted by the new machine, but really like my old monitor. 16:10 displays are getting scarce.

In the end it'll require some kind of active adapter as DP Alt Mode with USB-C doesn't support DP++. With regular DisplayPort ports supporting DP++, the port could detect HDMI and DVI connections and support those signaling protocols on that same port. This is how your passive mini display port adapter works on DisplayPort/Thunderbolt ports, as those support DP++. However, that's not the case with USB-C Alt Mode. See:

https://www.anandtech.com/show/8558/displayport-alternate-mo...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DisplayPort#Dual-mode

You might be able to get it to work with this. I've found Apple Cinema displays to be very picky in the end, so it may not work. This will require being plugged directly into a port supporting video out.

https://plugable.com/products/usbc-dvi/

That anandtech article is from 2014. And the wikipedia article contains a similar claim, but un-citationed, as far as I can see. Do you have any links to recent articles that confirm that this is still the current state of things?

I have a chromebook that doesn't have video-out ports, but a relatively basic USB-C hub with HDMI-out port sufficed to get it connected to my HDMI monitor. Not sure if that's a counter-example, or something else entirely, but it may be relevant either way...

That Plugable adapter is interesting -- the page doesn't claim it's an "active adapter", and it only costs $15. In my mind, "active adapter" always translated to "costs $50 or more".

There just aren't enough pins. In USB Type-C DP Alternative Mode with 4xDP lanes, you've got 12 pins not including ground and power as it also does USB 2.0 in there. A single-link DVI cable or HDMI takes 19 pins. Regular DP could do it because regular DP had 20 pins to map to things. DP Alt Mode works because its pretty much just directly using the DP signaling on the four lanes and ignoring some of the other optional features of DP.

Any USB-C to HDMI adapter is an active adapter; practically nothing supports the USB-C HDMI alt-mode. That USB-C hub with HDMI is either doing things with a DisplayLink chip or it is doing USB-C DP Alt Mode and then doing an active converter from DP to HDMI. DisplayLink is pretty common on USB docks and can perform decently well for a number of tasks, especially the kind of workloads you'd expect for a Chromebook. And they'll work on pretty much any USB 3.0 (and even sometimes USB 2.0!) ports.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DisplayLink

Active adapter just means it is performing some kind of signaling modification. Chips can be quite cheap these days.

Just a random aside, but I think it would be amazing if there was a website where you put in the device you have, like a projector, and what you want to plug into it. The site will then tell you what will work, what will not, and what connectors you will need.

I don’t know for sure.

It’s dual link DVI.

So maybe you’d need Dual Link DVI to mDP, then mDP to USBC?

Or maybe a TB2 style adapter to TB3. Instead of mDP. I think Apple sold one of those?

I googled and Dual Link DVI to mDP seems to exist!

Hoping the M4 Mac Pro/Studio will be incredible. Bought a non-pro M4 Mini to tide me over until the M4 Ultra comes out.

I have a minipc with an AMD 8945HS, 96GB ram and 2x2TB storage for quite a bit less than $1400.

That's a good deal.

But the M4 Pro Mini has a significantly faster CPU, much faster GPU, much higher bandwidth, quieter, cooler.

And while mini PCs can get pretty small, they often come with an external power supply that is half the size of the computer. M4 Mini doesn't have an external PSU, which is a really nice bonus if you ever want to put it in a backpack.

It depends on what you value.

https://browser.geekbench.com/v6/cpu/compare/8794796?baselin...

> But the M4 Pro Mini has a significantly faster CPU, much faster GPU, much higher bandwidth, quieter, cooler.

For 4000€ with just 64GB of RAM instead of 96GB and the same 4TB of storage. So, sure it might be "significantly better" but at 3 times the price that is the bare minimum.

Side question: Lots of mini pcs accept usb-c PD input, i.e. your external PSU can be any laptop charger. Does the mac mini support that?

64GB of RAM is $2,000.

You can get a cheap external SSD.

But the RAM bandwidth is not in the same class. The 64GB would be a lot more useful than RAM on an AMD chip.

On the other hand, a slower CPU just means your task will take longer, but lacking sufficient ram it becomes infeasible to execute.

The minipc can also power off of USB-PD, and many offices will come with hubs or monitors that can deliver 90W on USB.

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