And yet other UA-camrs are saying… “don’t make this mistake, I sent back my base model and got a Pro instead”. For example, one reported that FCP’s timeline was less laggy with the Pro. I use Logic Pro mostly with sample libraries and guitar sims which can be heavy on CPU and RAM. It’s been said to get the most RAM you can afford for sample libraries. With respect, most of us aren’t changing their machines every five minutes like reviewers. It makes more sense to me to future proof when buying a machine especially when AI is likely to become part of the software experience in a few years.
The pro is awesome. Took me two days to move all my plugins and samples to an external drive and now everything is moved over I only used 150gb of internal storage and everything works so fast and so much better
By the way, nothing against Mark as he provides decent reviews but my point is that it’s so confusing when there are conflicting opinions. The only thing you can do is go with what you can afford. 😊
I got the base model. I installed Microsoft Office, Adobe Premiere Pro, Lightroom CC and Lightroom Classic, Whatsapp and a few other apps to the in-built memory. I have over 150Gb left on the internal SSD I also bought a Seagate Expansion HDD 6Tb and set it as the default download location for all files. Paid £115 for it. This is a steal.
I have just brought a M4 Pro 24/1Tb for use mainly with Logic Pro. I did so because Logic does NOT use the efficiency cores - so the the difference in performance between the two levels of Mac Mini is immediately much more pronounced and will ensure that this model will last me much longer.
I'm subscribed. I have 2 M4 minis: 1 base with 16RAM 512SSD hooked up to my AV system as a media server. The 2nd is a Pro 48RAM 2TB SSD on which I edit video and do a lot of video transcoding. I have a drawer full of SSDs including Sandisk and Samsung. Video takes up a lot of space!
I’m going to buy a M4 Pro Mac Mini with 1TB storage, 10Gbps, and 48GB DDR. I do quite a bit of photo editing and am worried that 24GB DDR isn’t enough. I also want a bit more room on my local SSD, but I’ll be adding a 4TB external drive for my main photo & other storage.
I've had the M1 Mac Mini (16 RAM/256 SSD) for 4 years now. I do light-medium 4K video/photo editing, color grading + other everyday tasks. I have the OS, softwares and essential files on the internal SSD and everything else including DaVinci Resolve Cache folder (which can build up quickly) setup on an external SSD. It has been more than enough. I usually have 150 - 190 GB available on the internal SSD. One thing to monitor regularly - due to video editing, certain types of system cache files build up and my available space got down to 130 GB after 2 years. After a OS reset + OS update, it was back to 190 GB. After a lot of looking online, a hard reset/OS update was the only clean way to remove those files I've found. For light-medium use cases involving editing of any kind, I would recommend more RAM as can be afforded and an external SSD for everything outside of OS/softwares. I just put this out here, for anyone looking to get the best machine for a similar use-case on a tight budget. Loved the video, great recommendations and easy-to-understand breakdowns Mark. Cheers!
thank you for your comment, exactly what i was looking for. Im into music production with Logic Pro and every reddit answer is like "256gb is not enough in 2024!" But i don't understand why it wouldnt be if I just keep Softwares on the internal and everthing else on external. Your comment has given me more confidence to buy the 256gb model.
@cortg7930 Glad I could help. I think what they're referring to is - you would know - Logic Pro has a sound library (approx 70 GB) and I've seen people who aren't that tech savvy have trouble with moving/keeping this library on an external drive. I'm not into music production so not sure. Maybe it's that. Wish you well.
@@watzmaaname It's very possible. That and i think the majority of people just think they need more than they actually do, or don't want to put in the time to manage their files/folders properly. I admit i fell into the 1st group my entire apple career but only now with the new M4 minis am i realizing that every macbook/ mac studio i ever bought in the past was vastly over-specced / overkill. So now i'm trying to do things smarter, save money, and manage my files more closely. Thanks again 👍
You and @Patrick_Rambles are like Asterix en Obelix (you can work out who is who!). I can be the Roman Agent if you both need more excitement. Jeez boys, it's not the size of the ship but the motion of the ocean. 🤣🤣🤣 Happy New Year and a continuing successful 2025 for you both!
I got the Mac Mini M4 with 32 GB RAM and 256 GB storage. I got the 32 GB instead of the 16 or 24 GB RAM because of my music arranging hobby, as I use NotePerformer Playback Engines (NPPE) with BBC SO Core (which recommends 32 GB). With this set up, I still have about 10 GB RAM free when I run NPPE, and I have about 150 GB of storage remaining. I use OneDrive extensively, as I also occasionally use a Surface Pro, and I often delete my WAV/MP3 and video files, as I can easily reproduce them. I don't use an external SSD now given that I don't currently need it. For my monitor, I went with a cheap one from Acer (available at Costco for ~$90) given that I may be moving soon, and I'll buy a more expensive one once I get settled. For my keyboard, I bought a Logitech Wave, and I use a ~3 year old Logitech mouse. For my speaker, I use an Amazon Echo connected via Bluetooth (I've gotten used to Alexa's announcements).
Also what i intend to do. I run alot of different software and vms at once when coding and doing IOS development, so i 32gb ram and 256gb SSD was the most bang for my buck. Eventually i will get a NVMe and a SSD Enclosure.
Hello our very dear and unique Mark Ellis! I have watched respectable amount of your review videos and still staying tuned for next ones. I don't know if you are going to see or reply my comment but I just wanted to share my honest emotions and thoughts with you. The main problem for some channels on this industry is they mostly try to act like some high end, flawless reviewing technicians who doesn't have any kind of special taste or liking towards a certain brand. What attracted me to you -I mean your reviews obviously :D- is you are trying to deliver the main deal and the real general user experience which is going to be expected when any human being who is familiar with these products get in touch with these products just right after letting your all viewers that you are an apple fan and especially a macOS lover. I know that I already said too much but this thing about you made me pay attention to your reviews and it helped me a lot to find the best options for myself. I just wanted to thank you for this. It is a great channel service. Also I will be part of a master program in UK from next september on and who knows, maybe by chance I can even encounter you one of my days over there -don't worry, I won't annoy you-. Thanks a lot again Sir!
Thanks for the really informative video. I am planning to move from Windows to Mac this year. The spec I have in mind is M4 Mac Mini, 24Gb, 512Gb. Probably a bit more than I need, but hopefully future proofed. Main uses will be Office applications, Lightroom and Photoshop. I do a lot of focus stacking, so juggling multiple images is my biggest concern. 24Gb should give me a lot of headroom for this.
Got the base model with 2TB SSD and returned it last week after 2 months (thanks to the extended return period). Reordered it qith 32GB ram , 1TB SSD and got a samsung T7 2TB which i will attach to the back of my Samsung G8 ultrawide 34" as I like a minimal look. I need to run windows 11 on a VM for work amd possibly Home Assistant and Ubuntu which brought the 16 GB to its limits
Your usual standard of excellence. This machine is remarkable. I purchased a loaded Mini Pro 4, gambling that it would do what I had been looking at a studio to accomplish. I was amazed, and the notion of a studio is gone. Some complain about the ports in the front. Not me. I love the position.
I am an amateur photographer and when I decided to upgrade from my Intel Based 21" IMac, I chose the M4 Mac Mini and upgraded to 24 GB of RAM and the 1 TB SSD drive. I primarily use Capture One and ON1 Photo Raw for photo editing. Both programs utilize AI in various modules of their softwares and the upgrade to the M4 has vastly improved the performance of these modules. I run a 2TB external SSD, in a Thunderbolt 4 rated enclosure, on which I store my photo libraries and my entire music collection. I notice no difference in speed when comparing the loading/saving photos from/to the external drive, to the speed of loading/saving from/to the internal drive. In addition I use an older slower speed 2TB external SSD drive, from my old system, for my Time Machine Backups.
Which monitor are you using for your Capture One editing? I've some comments online about slowdowns with the Mini, CO and Apple Studio display combination. Have you observed that?
@@jcktoronto3533 I don't use an Apple display. I use a 27" ASUS ProArt 4K display (PA279CRV) . I have no complaints with this monitor other than I find it slow waking up from Sleep Mode. But then, I'm retired...I have the time to wait!
someone else is getting low scores, I got only arround 19400 score in Cinebench R23 multicore, I have the Mac Mini M4 Pro with 48 GB of ram... Some of my core temperatures are reaching up to 106 C....
Thank you so much! I love all the extra suggestions for accessories to the computer like the screen and the keyboard and the mouse etc. You definitely earned my subscribe. I just took my iMac into the Apple store the other day and they informed me that I'm very close to becoming obsolete and that it's time to shop for a new computer so I am doing a lot of research and this has been the most helpful video by far!
As a new Mac user, I opted for the base mini with 24gb ram. I have added 2tb NMVe external storage for all programs than I can move from the Mac. 1tb external NMVe for Time Machine backups. I expect this will keep me happy for a few years
My needs don't outstrip what my M1 Mac Mini can do. Just keeping the M1...for now. My last new Mac was purchased in 2011, and it operated until 2024. Good machines, these Macs.
I got the Mac Mini M4 Pro, 24 GB with 512 GB. Using it for AI Coding (VS Code, Cursor, Windsurf) and running LLM locally. Thank you again for making this video. Very insightful. Much appreciated.
@@kdta91 using ollama and running Phi4, llama3.2 -text, llama3.2-vision and llava models locally. Cursor response is the same to prompts, however compared to my old macbook pro intel (i7, 16GB) the applications run faster on the mac mini. The RAG pipeline I have setup completes in 30 secs on the mac mini compared to macbook pro intel which takes 3 mins thats huge time saving 😀
I’m going to get the m4 pro, I’m choosing the fastest cpu, 48 gig of ram and a 1TB storage, I’m not so sure about the 10gigabit Ethernet as I don’t use cloud storage or stream or anything like that. I use photoshop and iMovie that’s it but I tend to keep my macs a long long time, my current iMac is from 2014 and still runs just fine but it’s a bit chuggy with the latest OS and the new photoshop package with my new camera which has quite big raw files. I’ve come into some cash so why not go for it, unless Apple bring out a 27inch iMac with an m4 pro option, then I’ll go that way but I’m waiting!!!
I'd do EXACTLY the same, as my iMac 2019 is getting a little long in the tooth and I love the monitor. Would kill for another 27". That's not gonna happen. Look at @MarkEllisReviews on the BenQ PD3225U vs PD3220U
I bought the exact spec. You recommended several weeks ago, and love it! One point of caution to those that like to use beta versions of the OS: 15.3 beta is buggy! Final Cut Pro 11 is very laggy and can’t even do some things in this beta release of the OS. Don’t upgrade. Stay on public release 15.2 I made the mistake and I regret it. Otherwise, this Mac mini M4 is an absolute beast, and I absolutely love it. Thank you for an excellent, excellent video.
After much research… I went with the Mac Mini 24 ram 512 HD… wanted the Pro but after looking at the upside vs. the costs I went with the MacMini I picked for my work flow needs.
the Ram and CPU speed are different between base and pro. Pro has 2 more performance CPU core and 6 more GPU core. You will upgrade your base mac mini in the next 2 years.
The RAM is soldered to the board, so get what you feel you need. But the Thunderbolt ports make the internal SSD largely irrelevant. Instead of paying the Apple Tax on SSD storage, use that money to buy a good external Thunderbolt 4 NVMe SSD enclosure (NOT a fixed external SSD). This means you'll be able to avail yourself of the FAR cheaper NVMe SSDs out there, and in many cases they'll be FASTER than the internal SSD. Buying an enclosure means you can upgrade the external drive any time you like. You can even treat this SSD as removable, having different SSDs for different use cases or project archival. I strongly recommend going through the setup wizard to make your basic user account on the internal SSD, but then move your Home folder (documents, application software etc) to the external Thunderbolt drive. You can buy a very good 4Tb or 8Tb PCI 4.0 NVMe SSD for a fraction of what Apple charge, and fitting it into an external enclosure is a piece of cake. If you really want to go bananas, you can buy a Thunderbolt DAS (Direct Attached Storage) array with multiple SSDs or hard drives fitted for huge amounts of archive and backup storage.
I just bought the new acaisis Tb5 enclosure and will pair it with 4Tb Samsung 990 Pro. Ive already set up my Mac mini M4 Pro but can you change the Home folder to the external SSD after the fact? My iCloud is set up too and currently stores my Documents folder. Probably not the fastest way to access files though??? I also run Windows 11 on a parallels VM and plan on putting that on the external too as its an 80Gig VM.
I’m waiting to see if apple releases an updated Mac Studio before buying a Mac mini Pro with upgrades. The performance of the MacBook M4 Max is phenomenal and I would benefit from the upgraded GPU. My birthday is in June let’s see what new products are released this spring 😊
I did go with the M4 Mac mini 512GB, didn't want to deal with moving my Home directory to an external SSD and what that may bring in the future (which probably would have needed to do with a 256GB model). I did connect an already owned CalDigit TS4 Thunderbolt 4 dock and a 4TB M.2 NVMe SSD. This replaced my Windows 11 Desktop server, which I gave away to my son. Loving it!
Great video and advice Mark, I had to delay changing my iMac 27 inch and before the switch to the M4, was debating between the M2 and M2pro in part because while gamers don't buy a Mac, I enjoy playing the odd game and in part because there were more ports. Now that with the two ports in the front and the back having 3 for both base and Pro (although TB5) I think that as a consumer the base M4 will be plenty, TB4 is plenty fast for my external drive and needs and I don't feel the need to future proof that much. Because leaving the iMac is expensive, in the long run it saves money and also upgrading the computer will be much cheaper hence future proofing is not as much of a requirement for those buying a base config. Happy new year!
I needed a 24/512 config and it was not available in Houston, so I ended up getting the base M4 Pro. It was a ~12 minute out the door transaction at the flagship store and life is good.
Just Subscribed 🎉 Just got the M4 Pro with highest cpu & 64GB with 1Tb. Just used for photography and video editing. Spent to much and over spec, yes probarly but it should last me years 👌 upgrade from a 2019 imac with 48GB, 2TB Intel chip which struggles with Video in Davince studio and even LR on times.
I bought the base model and moved my home folder to a 1TB Thunderbolt4 external drive that now has 326GB used. I have about 190GB free on the internal drive. My memory usage runs around 11-12GB with mail, safari (with 5 tabs open), messages , stocks and calendar, activity monitor open. I see 431MB of swap usage in activity monitor but haven't noticed any slow downs. So far this machine is awesome for my casual use. Im a lifelong Windows user and have a I year old Dell XPS15 that I haven't touched in over a month since I got this MAC. I had an Intel i7 MacBook Air a few years back with OS12. I just couldn't use it as a daily driver so I gave it to my Son.This new Mac with OS15 with some settings tweaks to add some windows like conveniences finally got me to switch. In Hindsight I wish I would have got the 512GB SSD. Im afraid the external drive will fail or get corrupted somehow or Apple will "accidentally" change something that will no longer allow the remote home folder.
Me too I am a teacher and use pc only Do some videos by screen shot and editing by luma fusion on ipad I want to try mac for first time especially for editing videos Other work i will do with my pc Do you think base model is okey for my work I can buy enclosure and external nvme ssd I
I bought the M4 Mac Mini with 16GB RAM and 256GB SSD for $500 on Amazon - a fantastic deal, and it's really fast. The SSD is too small but so is 512GB therefore I will be adding a 2TB external SSD. I remote login via screen sharing from my 27" 2017 iMac and its glorious 27" 5k display.
Still not sure whether to choose the M4 Mini - 32GB RAM / 1TB SSD or the M4 Mini Pro - 24GB RAM / 512GB SSD. I’m not worried about storage, as there are plenty of options for external SSDs, but I’m still unsure if 24GB RAM in the Mini Pro is enough for video editing and After Effects. The Pro version doesn’t offer 32GB RAM; the next option is 48GB RAM, which costs €500 more.
I see it differently. Also a light user, usually no more than 5 browser tabs open + maybe the email app. Not much more than that. The ram used almost never below 12gb. Usually around 14gb. That’s very near the limit without a swap. I say upgrade ram to 24gb even for light users.
@@MarkEllisReviews Because 200$ for 256 GB more SSD Storage or 8 GB more RAM is a scam. You can get 2 TB M2 SSDs for half the price. Apples upgrade prices are all scam. For almost every product. The base model price is usually not that bad, but if you want a little more, you have to pay just too much.
@@GreatOne0815 so, one pub charges £4 for a pint and another charges £6.50 for a pint (the exact same beer) - is the latter running a scam? A scam is when something is promised and not delivered. Apple just charges a lot for their storage and memory - that’s a fact I do not disagree with. But using the word ‘scam’ is hyperbolic.
Love all your recommendations, I have studio display (pricey) and keycron keyboard, and MX mouse, Sony headphones M4 as per your recommendation, check check check, check. I would like the fingerprint log in on the Apple keyboard. I would almost buy it just to log in without password. And I still have M2 pro Mac mini which was the sweet spot choice at the time. I would love an M4 mini but can't justify at moment, you are right I don't really need it. The base model seems so good now, don't even need the M4 pro.
I bought the spec you recommended about a month ago, and am happy so far. I had an M2 mini with a 512GB ssd and I wanted to just get 256GB in the M4, but my photo and music libraries were too big. I tried turning on Optimize Mac Storage for Photos on the M2, which seemed to do the trick, reducing my overall usage to well below 256, but in the end I chose the 512 M4 and I’m glad I did. The photos still used the full amount of space on the M4, so I would not have been able to migrate to a 256 M4. (Comments, anyone? Am I incorrect?)
256 makes absolutely no sense for a photographer, even 512 is really on the small size and will have people running into trouble if working from the internal drive.
i would say skip the 16GB ram if you are using your mac for other than web browsing. With only 2 ides open Windsurf and Vscode, spotify and couple of chrome tabs, im hitting swap memory about 1.5GB im not noticing any performance drops or anything but for longevity wise i dont think its gonna get better from this point on :) TLDR get the 24GB and external drive.
Studio might be a bit niche but anyone upgrading from the base Mini Pro will rapidly come into touch with the studio’s base price and at that point, the studio makes a lot more sense (once released)
Satechi is supposed to be releasing an M4 dock…not sure why they’re dragging their feet. I plan on purchasing an M4 at some point this year, but I don’t wanna do it until I can get an M4 specific hub because I still need the micro SD and the type A ports. I have a Satechi hub on my M1 Mini and I would like to go with one of their products again, but if they keep delaying their new hub for the M4 then I may just have to go with the Raycue…even though I don’t know anything about the quality of their products.
My base model M1 Mac mini is still chugging along as the family transcoder but compared to my M2 Max MacBook Pro it’s definitely not as quick. I want a Studio, but the M4 Pro is probably what I’ll upgrade to and it’ll last longer than a 8GB M1 ever could’ve.
I’ll buy the M4 Mini and will only upgrade to a 1TB model. I know I can get there for less money but I like the simplicity of a clean device. Magic Keyboard with numeric keypad and the Magic Mouse because it’s simple, clean and I own it.
I would suggest M4 256/16 for light users, M4 512/16 for normal users, M4 mac mini pro for professional people. some suggest use of a external drive for your home directory but moving home directory makes troubles for few programs. For example, iterm2 has AI features that you can't use for it.
Since I’m just a casual photographer these days, 256GB would be completely fine because my entire 15,000 photo library is only 250GB which are all stored and edited on Adobe Lightroom. All of my video projects are stored on an external drive and backed up to a HDD/Backblaze redundancy. I don’t even use all the Samsung 2TB Evo drives on my gaming PC either.
@ I didn’t mention the audience. I might be completely wrong but watch Nicolas James Johnson’s video M4 vs M1 Max, the section about export rendering. I’m going to assume the M4 pro is bottle necked like the M4. (By the encoding engine not cpu/gpu) If so I’d think you aren’t going to see an advantage from the extra cores in export rendering because the cores aren’t the bottleneck holding performance back, hence my comment. The advantages of the cores I’d think would be best reflected in the actual work you are performing.
@@eldanno5970 I totally agree mate. And I know you didn’t reference my audience; I was simply referring to the fact that this video is targeted at a very specific audience, for whom I don’t believe that detail matters.
one thing nobody *ever* mentions in these review videos is that the m4 does not support hidpi over 3k, so if you want to have a non-grandma level resolution on a 5 or 6k display, you need to get the m4 pro. Just a heads up for the monitor snobs out there
Hello Mark, I got off the phone with Apple UK adviser (I actually spoke to two advisers who came up with the same specs) and asked for advice on specs and described what I would be using the Mac mini for; which was Multiple photoshop layers, heavy use digital art, some files 2GB plus; also wanted to make sure it was future proof (at least 5 years+) for adobe increasing use of generative ai; and possible use of generative ai such as Mid Journey or Stable Diffusion; almost certainly no video or animation use; they have recommended the Mac Mini Pro 48Gb Unified Ram and 1TB SSD (although I normally use 2TB SSD on my 2015 iMac); do these specs sound about right, reasonable or overkill; would appreciate constructive comments/advice from any subscribers; many thanks...
I was not in the market for a Mac at all until a phone call came. I have been an 11" M2 iPad Pro only connected to an external monitor. Last week of November my phone rings and a friend of mine offered me a Mac mini m2 pro with 16gb ram and 1 tb drive for $700. He used it for a week and boxed it back up and was going to return it and he left it in the box and put away. I jumped at this opportunity. All that said, I DO NOT need the pro chip but the price was too good.
I got the pro. It was that or a studio m2 and I don’t regret the decision my logic and Final Cut projects open so fast and the machine hasn’t even turned the fan on yet let’s hope it lasts.
Have been tempted to get an M4 Mac mini base model , I know 99% of my use is basic harry suburban stuff, so the M4 base would do the job no worries , but ….. at the same time , i wouldn’t mind having a go at some gaming , like first person shooters , multiplayer gaming , i don’t need all the fancy shadows and ray tracing , i like the old games like counter strike , battlefield , day of defeat , half life original, , quake . I don’t know how either version would hold up , don’t really want to spend 4 or 5 K + on a dedicated PC gaming machine . Decisions decisions 😊.
I'm hesitating between 16GB and 24GB RAM. Is it advisable to make the computer last for several years or is it an unnecessary investment? As for the SSD, I think 256GB could be a problem in the coming years, so I think I'll get the 512GB SSD version.
Planning to order a baseline M4 Mac mini but with 24 GBs of RAM instead of leaving it at 16GBs. The reason is that there are a couple of applications that I’ll use which are RAM-hungry (iMovie and GarageBand), with more coming later of course. I also play city simulators, and Cities Skylines and Transport Fever 2 are VERY RAM-hungry. I’m not worried about the low internal storage as I’ll have a 4TB external drive ready to go before I pick up the mini.
From my own experience, if you intend to use anything more ram hungry and want to stay away from a swap and still have some safety margin then get 32gb.
For fcpx it won’t matter. For davinci resolve with Braw 6k it will, and if you do animation or other cpu intensive work. That and pick middle memory and middle storage (1tb for instance). I think 80% of buyers will be fine with m4. I’m solid m4 pro and max cores. Though for the increase of price I could argue a m4 and a windows box with $400 gpu for other work and be a hybrid work environment
I have an M1 Mac Mini with 512gb ssd and 16gb unified memory. I’ve had it for about 4 years. I’ve currently got nearly 300gb of data and software combined. Thanks to the introduction of AI this system is now starting to show the spinning beach ball for the lightest photo editing that includes a bit of AI object removal in Lightroom. Due to this, I am considering getting the entry level m4 Pro Mac Mini with 48gb memory and 512gb SSD. It will last longer. If Apple are providing 16gb memory in the base model then it’s almost guaranteed to be inadequate in a couple of years or so as the AI overhead increases. Those are my thoughts. There is also a valid argument stating that you can always replace the entry level model in a couple of years and with the new base model and still be better off.
My MacBook Pro is 2017 model, my IMac is a 2014 model. I do need to upgrade. But, my performance was great in the first 2-4 years, getting worse for various applications from year 3 onwards as new hardware was launched and didn’t connect at optimum speeds due to older ports, and using photoshop, and lately CapCut for video I have more issues. So when you say 10 seconds saved by a big investment, just buy the base model, then that will of course be fine now, but what about 3-7 years down the track? I also want to play some games on my Mac, what benefits does the higher GPU and cores do for that? You don’t buy a Mac for Christmas you buy it for ‘life’.
I am a sad panda watching everyone have fun with the new Mac Mini's while I patiently wait for the M4 Mac Studio! I'm currently on the base M1 Max Mac Studio and I need the extra ports. Maybe Apple can surprise us by making the new Mac Studio an M5?
I'll toss in a comment about RAM... I got 32GB, 99% of the time is zero swap used but a massive amount of RAM is compressed. When switching from Android Studio to Xcode depending on whats compressed, I'll be presented with the loading beach ball for sometimes a minute plus. For some reason Apple is hyper aggressive with memory compression with at times I'll be looking at 20GB+ of compressed memory. This is all while memory pressure is still low, still very very green. Apps freezing will happen around 30 minutes of not using it, like the app goes to sleep and then when I do alt+tab to it... just freezes.
I would love to wait for the Mac Studio M4 Max, but think the M4 Mac Mini will in all reality work fine for me (already have a base Mac Studio M1 Max). Hovering between the 16Gb/512Gb or 24Gb/512Gb variants via the Education store for £699 or £899 respectively, paired with the discount Final Cut Pro/Logic Pro package at £199. Would like to have 32Gb memory really like my PC (even though someone will say it's not the same), but don't think the extra £180 will ultimately be worth spending.
🤦♂️ using an SD Card slot ( who still does this?) doesn’t mean you need a dock when you could use a £20 usb-c dongle…. Still can’t see past the base model M4….
I’ll be going with 24GB Mac Mini with 512GB storage, plus the BenQ PD3225U (the one you should have said, not the 3220U). I do mostly raw photo processing to push the computer, so want a little more headroom
@@MarkEllisReviews I remember your comparison b/w the two! I'm still rocking an iMac 2019 with the 5K monitor, and I cannot justify throwing Apple Studio. I suppose a question re the BenQ, is it easy enough to ensure the colour stays "correct"? I use a ColorChecker Display Pro to ensure the colour is right before I start my photo editing.
I need a Mac for audio production and I use large sample libraries, so for me, I need at least 32GB of RAM, so I'm either going with the base Mac Mini with 32GB of RAM which will cost me $1000.00 or a used M1 MAX Studio which will also cost me $1000.00 but I'll also get a 512GB hard drive. If I upgrade the base Mac Mini to 512GB then I'm spending $1199.00 which is close to the price of the M4 Pro Mac Mini. Unfortunately, the M4 Pro Mac Mini comes with 24GB of RAM and the smallest RAM upgrade is to 48GB of RAM which puts me at $1799.00 and at that price point I can build an awesome PC for audio recording. I'm not a Mac or PC guy for I use both, but for creative professionals Macs are just better just as PCs are better for gaming and high-end engineering and CAD applications where for some there just isn't a Mac version. I'm torn with spending the money on a Mac that I know is better for audio production when I could build a much better spec wise PC for less money and 128GB of RAM if I wanted and as much storage as I'll ever need. This will always be a dilemma because I love Macs for audio production, but they just charge so much for upgrades. I'll probably buy a used Mac Studio.
My base model Mac Mini just arrived home and now I get a video that basically tells me “you just wasted your money lol”. But to be fair I think I’ll be alright, I’ll use it mostly for light video editing and coding, not much else besides light daily tasks. It’s my first Mac too so I’m very excited to try it out.
i got my iMac Mini 256/16 just end of last week. I did debate the 512gb/16 but just couldnt justify the extra £200 for 256gb extra storage. Maybe its a bit short sighted but i bought a 2TB external M.2 drive and throw all and run all non built in apps on the external HD including, Logic, Ableton, Word, Excel Spotify etc. (assuming there's no issue doing this) Im left with 183gb free space on my internal HD.
I definitely agree that most people should be going for the 512-GB SSD. I went with a 1-TB internal SSD and I'm happy I did, but I expect that most normal people won't install as much oddball stuff as I do. But people should keep in mind how long they intend to use their new computer. You'll want room for everything you need *3 YEARS* from now, and not just want you need on January 1st 2025. I also went with the M4 Pro chip and 48-GB of memory, but that's because of the work I do and some services I intend to have running on this machine (for 24 hours every day). I'm happy with my choices for what I do, but I'm confident that most Mac users will be fine with the basic M4 chip and 16-GB.
I was on the fence between 256gb and the 512gb. Amazon had the 512 last week for $699 so I went with that. I am happy to have saved $100 for doubling up the base storage.
Going with more memory is the preferred option especially if you do photo and video work. You can buy fast and cheaper external storage (heck you can even offload your apps to your external SSD).
I knew what wanted as a like for like replacement for my M1 Mac Mini. So I got the M4 Mac Mini with 16gb memory and 1TB SSD. Can’t be bothered with an external ssd for system files. Too much faffing around. I use external drives for backups and Time Machine. So a bit more for the internal ssd but for me it’s something I’m happy to pay more the ease and convenience. Such a great computer. Peerless IMO
Hey Mark! Great video! I am torn, I am considering the Mac Mini spec'd out to M4 Pro chip with the 64GB ram. Do you reckon this machine will easily handle 4K video editing. (I am a videographer / editor by trade) This will be my main machine as my custom windows laptop is starting to throw the towl in. I can't justify the crazy price increase to get the M4 Max MBP. Any guidance would be much appreciated!
You can get a 2TB M.2 and and external 10gbps enclosure for it for less than $200. I would never spend $200 to add a measly 256GB of storage to the base model. That's just throwing money away when using a stationary device like this one. Just get the 2TB instead and leave the drive plugged in permanently. You can always install apps to the external drive if you want.
The front facing headphone jack is a minus for me as I use an adapter to split it into two channels that goes in two cables to my hifi amp so is awkward and much better for me on the back.
I do a lot of trading and my current 3 year old windows desktop intel i7 with 32 gb ram is slowing my work down considerably and lately cpu and ram are almost at 100% capacity. Do u recommend me using M4 or M4 pro ?? Thanks
I have a gaming channel with Mac mini M1 (very light) and from the release of these mini I’m thinking of upgrading. Having the idea to start doing some live and some streams, in your opinion the basic model can be enough, or is it necessary to go directly to the pro model? Sorry for the question, but I don’t know what impact a stream or live on the Mac could have without having tested it...
I bought the m4 pro with 48 GB/1TB SSD and did a comparison with my M1 Mac mini 16GB/1TB SSD 18GB 4K video from iMovie to desktop. Results? M4 Pro Mac Mini 25 minutes M1 Mac mini 28 minutes So I saved three minutes and paid $1999.00. plus tax I returned the M4. It’s just not worth for me.
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Bought the M4 one with 512Gb, Really pleased with it and it runs Photoshop beautifully. happy new year
And yet other UA-camrs are saying… “don’t make this mistake, I sent back my base model and got a Pro instead”. For example, one reported that FCP’s timeline was less laggy with the Pro. I use Logic Pro mostly with sample libraries and guitar sims which can be heavy on CPU and RAM. It’s been said to get the most RAM you can afford for sample libraries. With respect, most of us aren’t changing their machines every five minutes like reviewers. It makes more sense to me to future proof when buying a machine especially when AI is likely to become part of the software experience in a few years.
The pro is awesome. Took me two days to move all my plugins and samples to an external drive and now everything is moved over I only used 150gb of internal storage and everything works so fast and so much better
You've answered your own question, mate - we are only offering one type of opinion. Go with your gut.
By the way, nothing against Mark as he provides decent reviews but my point is that it’s so confusing when there are conflicting opinions. The only thing you can do is go with what you can afford. 😊
Depends on what kind of video you're editing. I'm still using M1 and FCP timeline is smooth.
I got the base model. I installed Microsoft Office, Adobe Premiere Pro, Lightroom CC and Lightroom Classic, Whatsapp and a few other apps to the in-built memory. I have over 150Gb left on the internal SSD
I also bought a Seagate Expansion HDD 6Tb and set it as the default download location for all files. Paid £115 for it.
This is a steal.
💯
That's exactly what I got; 16GB/512GB SSD. Thanks for the great, down to earth videos Mark; keep them coming! Regards from New Zealand!
What a lovely comment - thank you!
I have the M4 Mini base model with a Samsung 4TB external drive. This combination exceeds my needs for music composing production.
I have just brought a M4 Pro 24/1Tb for use mainly with Logic Pro. I did so because Logic does NOT use the efficiency cores - so the the difference in performance between the two levels of Mac Mini is immediately much more pronounced and will ensure that this model will last me much longer.
Interesting 👍🏽✌🏽
I am still rocking a Bose QC 15 that I purchased in 2009.😅
What a lovely gesture - thank you!
I'm subscribed. I have 2 M4 minis: 1 base with 16RAM 512SSD hooked up to my AV system as a media server. The 2nd is a Pro 48RAM 2TB SSD on which I edit video and do a lot of video transcoding. I have a drawer full of SSDs including Sandisk and Samsung. Video takes up a lot of space!
Welcome onboard!
I’m going to buy a M4 Pro Mac Mini with 1TB storage, 10Gbps, and 48GB DDR. I do quite a bit of photo editing and am worried that 24GB DDR isn’t enough. I also want a bit more room on my local SSD, but I’ll be adding a 4TB external drive for my main photo & other storage.
You can buy 3rd party 2TB internal ssd. Lookup tutorial on youtube. Changing is very easy (2 screws). And its price is insanely good.
@@gordonramsay2177 still experimental, voids warranty & NO it's not ````
just "2 screws". We'll have to wait before validating that kludge.
Really I still edit on an M1
I've had the M1 Mac Mini (16 RAM/256 SSD) for 4 years now. I do light-medium 4K video/photo editing, color grading + other everyday tasks. I have the OS, softwares and essential files on the internal SSD and everything else including DaVinci Resolve Cache folder (which can build up quickly) setup on an external SSD. It has been more than enough. I usually have 150 - 190 GB available on the internal SSD. One thing to monitor regularly - due to video editing, certain types of system cache files build up and my available space got down to 130 GB after 2 years. After a OS reset + OS update, it was back to 190 GB. After a lot of looking online, a hard reset/OS update was the only clean way to remove those files I've found.
For light-medium use cases involving editing of any kind, I would recommend more RAM as can be afforded and an external SSD for everything outside of OS/softwares.
I just put this out here, for anyone looking to get the best machine for a similar use-case on a tight budget. Loved the video, great recommendations and easy-to-understand breakdowns Mark. Cheers!
thank you for your comment, exactly what i was looking for. Im into music production with Logic Pro and every reddit answer is like "256gb is not enough in 2024!" But i don't understand why it wouldnt be if I just keep Softwares on the internal and everthing else on external. Your comment has given me more confidence to buy the 256gb model.
@cortg7930 Glad I could help. I think what they're referring to is - you would know - Logic Pro has a sound library (approx 70 GB) and I've seen people who aren't that tech savvy have trouble with moving/keeping this library on an external drive. I'm not into music production so not sure. Maybe it's that.
Wish you well.
@@watzmaaname It's very possible. That and i think the majority of people just think they need more than they actually do, or don't want to put in the time to manage their files/folders properly. I admit i fell into the 1st group my entire apple career but only now with the new M4 minis am i realizing that every macbook/ mac studio i ever bought in the past was vastly over-specced / overkill. So now i'm trying to do things smarter, save money, and manage my files more closely. Thanks again 👍
@@cortg7930 Exactly, I'm on the same path. 🙂
You and @Patrick_Rambles are like Asterix en Obelix (you can work out who is who!). I can be the Roman Agent if you both need more excitement. Jeez boys, it's not the size of the ship but the motion of the ocean. 🤣🤣🤣 Happy New Year and a continuing successful 2025 for you both!
I'm obviously Obelix. Happy new year!
I got the Mac Mini M4 with 32 GB RAM and 256 GB storage. I got the 32 GB instead of the 16 or 24 GB RAM because of my music arranging hobby, as I use NotePerformer Playback Engines (NPPE) with BBC SO Core (which recommends 32 GB). With this set up, I still have about 10 GB RAM free when I run NPPE, and I have about 150 GB of storage remaining. I use OneDrive extensively, as I also occasionally use a Surface Pro, and I often delete my WAV/MP3 and video files, as I can easily reproduce them. I don't use an external SSD now given that I don't currently need it. For my monitor, I went with a cheap one from Acer (available at Costco for ~$90) given that I may be moving soon, and I'll buy a more expensive one once I get settled. For my keyboard, I bought a Logitech Wave, and I use a ~3 year old Logitech mouse. For my speaker, I use an Amazon Echo connected via Bluetooth (I've gotten used to Alexa's announcements).
Also what i intend to do. I run alot of different software and vms at once when coding and doing IOS development, so i 32gb ram and 256gb SSD was the most bang for my buck. Eventually i will get a NVMe and a SSD Enclosure.
Hello our very dear and unique Mark Ellis! I have watched respectable amount of your review videos and still staying tuned for next ones. I don't know if you are going to see or reply my comment but I just wanted to share my honest emotions and thoughts with you. The main problem for some channels on this industry is they mostly try to act like some high end, flawless reviewing technicians who doesn't have any kind of special taste or liking towards a certain brand. What attracted me to you -I mean your reviews obviously :D- is you are trying to deliver the main deal and the real general user experience which is going to be expected when any human being who is familiar with these products get in touch with these products just right after letting your all viewers that you are an apple fan and especially a macOS lover. I know that I already said too much but this thing about you made me pay attention to your reviews and it helped me a lot to find the best options for myself. I just wanted to thank you for this. It is a great channel service. Also I will be part of a master program in UK from next september on and who knows, maybe by chance I can even encounter you one of my days over there -don't worry, I won't annoy you-. Thanks a lot again Sir!
Thanks for the really informative video.
I am planning to move from Windows to Mac this year. The spec I have in mind is M4 Mac Mini, 24Gb, 512Gb. Probably a bit more than I need, but hopefully future proofed.
Main uses will be Office applications, Lightroom and Photoshop. I do a lot of focus stacking, so juggling multiple images is my biggest concern. 24Gb should give me a lot of headroom for this.
Got the base model with 2TB SSD and returned it last week after 2 months (thanks to the extended return period). Reordered it qith 32GB ram , 1TB SSD and got a samsung T7 2TB which i will attach to the back of my Samsung G8 ultrawide 34" as I like a minimal look. I need to run windows 11 on a VM for work amd possibly Home Assistant and Ubuntu which brought the 16 GB to its limits
Your usual standard of excellence. This machine is remarkable. I purchased a loaded Mini Pro 4, gambling that it would do what I had been looking at a studio to accomplish. I was amazed, and the notion of a studio is gone. Some complain about the ports in the front. Not me. I love the position.
Mini M4Pro, 20-core, 48gb, 1Tb, 10Gb-Ethernet. My first new mac ever. Will use to support PC based game dev for App store releases.
I am an amateur photographer and when I decided to upgrade from my Intel Based 21" IMac, I chose the M4 Mac Mini and upgraded to 24 GB of RAM and the 1 TB SSD drive. I primarily use Capture One and ON1 Photo Raw for photo editing. Both programs utilize AI in various modules of their softwares and the upgrade to the M4 has vastly improved the performance of these modules. I run a 2TB external SSD, in a Thunderbolt 4 rated enclosure, on which I store my photo libraries and my entire music collection. I notice no difference in speed when comparing the loading/saving photos from/to the external drive, to the speed of loading/saving from/to the internal drive. In addition I use an older slower speed 2TB external SSD drive, from my old system, for my Time Machine Backups.
Which monitor are you using for your Capture One editing? I've some comments online about slowdowns with the Mini, CO and Apple Studio display combination. Have you observed that?
@@jcktoronto3533 I don't use an Apple display. I use a 27" ASUS ProArt 4K display (PA279CRV) . I have no complaints with this monitor other than I find it slow waking up from Sleep Mode. But then, I'm retired...I have the time to wait!
someone else is getting low scores, I got only arround 19400 score in Cinebench R23 multicore, I have the Mac Mini M4 Pro with 48 GB of ram... Some of my core temperatures are reaching up to 106 C....
Thank you so much! I love all the extra suggestions for accessories to the computer like the screen and the keyboard and the mouse etc. You definitely earned my subscribe. I just took my iMac into the Apple store the other day and they informed me that I'm very close to becoming obsolete and that it's time to shop for a new computer so I am doing a lot of research and this has been the most helpful video by far!
That's lovely to hear!
As a new Mac user, I opted for the base mini with 24gb ram. I have added 2tb NMVe external storage for all programs than I can move from the Mac. 1tb external NMVe for Time Machine backups. I expect this will keep me happy for a few years
My needs don't outstrip what my M1 Mac Mini can do. Just keeping the M1...for now. My last new Mac was purchased in 2011, and it operated until 2024. Good machines, these Macs.
I got the Mac Mini M4 Pro, 24 GB with 512 GB. Using it for AI Coding (VS Code, Cursor, Windsurf) and running LLM locally. Thank you again for making this video. Very insightful. Much appreciated.
May I know what model you're running and if Cursor responds quickly to prompts?
@@kdta91 using ollama and running Phi4, llama3.2 -text, llama3.2-vision and llava models locally. Cursor response is the same to prompts, however compared to my old macbook pro intel (i7, 16GB) the applications run faster on the mac mini. The RAG pipeline I have setup completes in 30 secs on the mac mini compared to macbook pro intel which takes 3 mins thats huge time saving 😀
@@jaggyjut Thanks for the feedback. Great to hear it from someone having a similar workflow.
I’m going to get the m4 pro, I’m choosing the fastest cpu, 48 gig of ram and a 1TB storage, I’m not so sure about the 10gigabit Ethernet as I don’t use cloud storage or stream or anything like that. I use photoshop and iMovie that’s it but I tend to keep my macs a long long time, my current iMac is from 2014 and still runs just fine but it’s a bit chuggy with the latest OS and the new photoshop package with my new camera which has quite big raw files. I’ve come into some cash so why not go for it, unless Apple bring out a 27inch iMac with an m4 pro option, then I’ll go that way but I’m waiting!!!
I'd do EXACTLY the same, as my iMac 2019 is getting a little long in the tooth and I love the monitor. Would kill for another 27". That's not gonna happen. Look at @MarkEllisReviews on the BenQ PD3225U vs PD3220U
I bought the exact spec. You recommended several weeks ago, and love it! One point of caution to those that like to use beta versions of the OS: 15.3 beta is buggy! Final Cut Pro 11 is very laggy and can’t even do some things in this beta release of the OS. Don’t upgrade. Stay on public release 15.2 I made the mistake and I regret it. Otherwise, this Mac mini M4 is an absolute beast, and I absolutely love it. Thank you for an excellent, excellent video.
After much research… I went with the Mac Mini 24 ram 512 HD… wanted the Pro but after looking at the upside vs. the costs I went with the MacMini I picked for my work flow needs.
the Ram and CPU speed are different between base and pro. Pro has 2 more performance CPU core and 6 more GPU core. You will upgrade your base mac mini in the next 2 years.
The RAM is soldered to the board, so get what you feel you need. But the Thunderbolt ports make the internal SSD largely irrelevant. Instead of paying the Apple Tax on SSD storage, use that money to buy a good external Thunderbolt 4 NVMe SSD enclosure (NOT a fixed external SSD). This means you'll be able to avail yourself of the FAR cheaper NVMe SSDs out there, and in many cases they'll be FASTER than the internal SSD. Buying an enclosure means you can upgrade the external drive any time you like. You can even treat this SSD as removable, having different SSDs for different use cases or project archival. I strongly recommend going through the setup wizard to make your basic user account on the internal SSD, but then move your Home folder (documents, application software etc) to the external Thunderbolt drive. You can buy a very good 4Tb or 8Tb PCI 4.0 NVMe SSD for a fraction of what Apple charge, and fitting it into an external enclosure is a piece of cake. If you really want to go bananas, you can buy a Thunderbolt DAS (Direct Attached Storage) array with multiple SSDs or hard drives fitted for huge amounts of archive and backup storage.
I just bought the new acaisis Tb5 enclosure and will pair it with 4Tb Samsung 990 Pro.
Ive already set up my Mac mini M4 Pro but can you change the Home folder to the external SSD after the fact? My iCloud is set up too and currently stores my Documents folder. Probably not the fastest way to access files though??? I also run Windows 11 on a parallels VM and plan on putting that on the external too as its an 80Gig VM.
I’m waiting to see if apple releases an updated Mac Studio before buying a Mac mini Pro with upgrades.
The performance of the MacBook M4 Max is phenomenal and I would benefit from the upgraded GPU.
My birthday is in June let’s see what new products are released this spring 😊
I did go with the M4 Mac mini 512GB, didn't want to deal with moving my Home directory to an external SSD and what that may bring in the future (which probably would have needed to do with a 256GB model). I did connect an already owned CalDigit TS4 Thunderbolt 4 dock and a 4TB M.2 NVMe SSD. This replaced my Windows 11 Desktop server, which I gave away to my son. Loving it!
Great video and advice Mark, I had to delay changing my iMac 27 inch and before the switch to the M4, was debating between the M2 and M2pro in part because while gamers don't buy a Mac, I enjoy playing the odd game and in part because there were more ports. Now that with the two ports in the front and the back having 3 for both base and Pro (although TB5) I think that as a consumer the base M4 will be plenty, TB4 is plenty fast for my external drive and needs and I don't feel the need to future proof that much. Because leaving the iMac is expensive, in the long run it saves money and also upgrading the computer will be much cheaper hence future proofing is not as much of a requirement for those buying a base config. Happy new year!
hi, happy new year
Happy New year!
Same to you!
I needed a 24/512 config and it was not available in Houston, so I ended up getting the base M4 Pro. It was a ~12 minute out the door transaction at the flagship store and life is good.
Same with me but I am in Australia.
Still got the M1 Mac Mini and it’s doing perfectly fine for general use.
Just Subscribed 🎉
Just got the M4 Pro with highest cpu & 64GB with 1Tb.
Just used for photography and video editing.
Spent to much and over spec, yes probarly but it should last me years 👌 upgrade from a 2019 imac with 48GB, 2TB Intel chip which struggles with Video in Davince studio and even LR on times.
I bought the base model and moved my home folder to a 1TB Thunderbolt4 external drive that now has 326GB used. I have about 190GB free on the internal drive. My memory usage runs around 11-12GB with mail, safari (with 5 tabs open), messages , stocks and calendar, activity monitor open. I see 431MB of swap usage in activity monitor but haven't noticed any slow downs. So far this machine is awesome for my casual use. Im a lifelong Windows user and have a I year old Dell XPS15 that I haven't touched in over a month since I got this MAC. I had an Intel i7 MacBook Air a few years back with OS12. I just couldn't use it as a daily driver so I gave it to my Son.This new Mac with OS15 with some settings tweaks to add some windows like conveniences finally got me to switch. In Hindsight I wish I would have got the 512GB SSD. Im afraid the external drive will fail or get corrupted somehow or Apple will "accidentally" change something that will no longer allow the remote home folder.
Me too
I am a teacher and use pc only
Do some videos by screen shot and editing by luma fusion on ipad
I want to try mac for first time especially for editing videos
Other work i will do with my pc
Do you think base model is okey for my work
I can buy enclosure and external nvme ssd
I
Got the base M4 Pro. Awesome.
I bought the M4 Mac Mini with 16GB RAM and 256GB SSD for $500 on Amazon - a fantastic deal, and it's really fast. The SSD is too small but so is 512GB therefore I will be adding a 2TB external SSD. I remote login via screen sharing from my 27" 2017 iMac and its glorious 27" 5k display.
Still not sure whether to choose the M4 Mini - 32GB RAM / 1TB SSD or the M4 Mini Pro - 24GB RAM / 512GB SSD. I’m not worried about storage, as there are plenty of options for external SSDs, but I’m still unsure if 24GB RAM in the Mini Pro is enough for video editing and After Effects. The Pro version doesn’t offer 32GB RAM; the next option is 48GB RAM, which costs €500 more.
I would buy the base model with just the 256gb as I’m a light Mac user.
This. Every other option is just a scam.
@@GreatOne0815 How on _earth_ can configurations for a computer be a 'scam'?! Please do not add to the comical overuse of that word, mate.
I see it differently. Also a light user, usually no more than 5 browser tabs open + maybe the email app. Not much more than that. The ram used almost never below 12gb. Usually around 14gb. That’s very near the limit without a swap. I say upgrade ram to 24gb even for light users.
@@MarkEllisReviews Because 200$ for 256 GB more SSD Storage or 8 GB more RAM is a scam. You can get 2 TB M2 SSDs for half the price. Apples upgrade prices are all scam. For almost every product. The base model price is usually not that bad, but if you want a little more, you have to pay just too much.
@@GreatOne0815 so, one pub charges £4 for a pint and another charges £6.50 for a pint (the exact same beer) - is the latter running a scam?
A scam is when something is promised and not delivered. Apple just charges a lot for their storage and memory - that’s a fact I do not disagree with. But using the word ‘scam’ is hyperbolic.
Love all your recommendations, I have studio display (pricey) and keycron keyboard, and MX mouse, Sony headphones M4 as per your recommendation, check check check, check. I would like the fingerprint log in on the Apple keyboard. I would almost buy it just to log in without password. And I still have M2 pro Mac mini which was the sweet spot choice at the time. I would love an M4 mini but can't justify at moment, you are right I don't really need it. The base model seems so good now, don't even need the M4 pro.
I bought the spec you recommended about a month ago, and am happy so far. I had an M2 mini with a 512GB ssd and I wanted to just get 256GB in the M4, but my photo and music libraries were too big. I tried turning on Optimize Mac Storage for Photos on the M2, which seemed to do the trick, reducing my overall usage to well below 256, but in the end I chose the 512 M4 and I’m glad I did. The photos still used the full amount of space on the M4, so I would not have been able to migrate to a 256 M4. (Comments, anyone? Am I incorrect?)
256 makes absolutely no sense for a photographer, even 512 is really on the small size and will have people running into trouble if working from the internal drive.
It is possible to move the photo library to an external SSD, but I think you did the right choice.
i would say skip the 16GB ram if you are using your mac for other than web browsing. With only 2 ides open Windsurf and Vscode, spotify and couple of chrome tabs, im hitting swap memory about 1.5GB im not noticing any performance drops or anything but for longevity wise i dont think its gonna get better from this point on :)
TLDR get the 24GB and external drive.
I bought the base model M4 Mac Mini and paired it with a Crucial X9 Pro SSD. Works fine with my extensive photo library on the external drive.
Studio might be a bit niche but anyone upgrading from the base Mini Pro will rapidly come into touch with the studio’s base price and at that point, the studio makes a lot more sense (once released)
I agree. And I think anyone exploring the upper echelons of the M4 Mac mini will naturally be considering the Mac Studio, too.
Satechi is supposed to be releasing an M4 dock…not sure why they’re dragging their feet. I plan on purchasing an M4 at some point this year, but I don’t wanna do it until I can get an M4 specific hub because I still need the micro SD and the type A ports. I have a Satechi hub on my M1 Mini and I would like to go with one of their products again, but if they keep delaying their new hub for the M4 then I may just have to go with the Raycue…even though I don’t know anything about the quality of their products.
If you plan on just hooking it up to a TV to be a media server, I'm sure the base model is more than capable with an added external drive.
My base model M1 Mac mini is still chugging along as the family transcoder but compared to my M2 Max MacBook Pro it’s definitely not as quick. I want a Studio, but the M4 Pro is probably what I’ll upgrade to and it’ll last longer than a 8GB M1 ever could’ve.
Happy new year bro
You too!
I’ll buy the M4 Mini and will only upgrade to a 1TB model. I know I can get there for less money but I like the simplicity of a clean device. Magic Keyboard with numeric keypad and the Magic Mouse because it’s simple, clean and I own it.
I would suggest M4 256/16 for light users, M4 512/16 for normal users, M4 mac mini pro for professional people. some suggest use of a external drive for your home directory but moving home directory makes troubles for few programs. For example, iterm2 has AI features that you can't use for it.
Since I’m just a casual photographer these days, 256GB would be completely fine because my entire 15,000 photo library is only 250GB which are all stored and edited on Adobe Lightroom. All of my video projects are stored on an external drive and backed up to a HDD/Backblaze redundancy. I don’t even use all the Samsung 2TB Evo drives on my gaming PC either.
Think you are missing the point of all those extra cores in the M4pro chips using only rendering/exports as a benchmark.
I'm not missing the point for the intended audience of this video, who absolutely don't need those extra cores.
@ I didn’t mention the audience.
I might be completely wrong but watch Nicolas James Johnson’s video M4 vs M1 Max, the section about export rendering. I’m going to assume the M4 pro is bottle necked like the M4. (By the encoding engine not cpu/gpu)
If so I’d think you aren’t going to see an advantage from the extra cores in export rendering because the cores aren’t the bottleneck holding performance back, hence my comment. The advantages of the cores I’d think would be best reflected in the actual work you are performing.
@@eldanno5970 I totally agree mate. And I know you didn’t reference my audience; I was simply referring to the fact that this video is targeted at a very specific audience, for whom I don’t believe that detail matters.
one thing nobody *ever* mentions in these review videos is that the m4 does not support hidpi over 3k, so if you want to have a non-grandma level resolution on a 5 or 6k display, you need to get the m4 pro. Just a heads up for the monitor snobs out there
You earned the subscibe for sure.! That's exactly what I was thinking if I go for an M4 Mini.
Nice - welcome onboard!
Hello Mark, I got off the phone with Apple UK adviser (I actually spoke to two advisers who came up with the same specs) and asked for advice on specs and described what I would be using the Mac mini for; which was Multiple photoshop layers, heavy use digital art, some files 2GB plus; also wanted to make sure it was future proof (at least 5 years+) for adobe increasing use of generative ai; and possible use of generative ai such as Mid Journey or Stable Diffusion; almost certainly no video or animation use; they have recommended the Mac Mini Pro 48Gb Unified Ram and 1TB SSD (although I normally use 2TB SSD on my 2015 iMac); do these specs sound about right, reasonable or overkill; would appreciate constructive comments/advice from any subscribers; many thanks...
I was not in the market for a Mac at all until a phone call came. I have been an 11" M2 iPad Pro only connected to an external monitor. Last week of November my phone rings and a friend of mine offered me a Mac mini m2 pro with 16gb ram and 1 tb drive for $700. He used it for a week and boxed it back up and was going to return it and he left it in the box and put away. I jumped at this opportunity. All that said, I DO NOT need the pro chip but the price was too good.
Thinking to get my 1st Mac device, this Mac mini. Thinking to upgrade to 24/512 for future proofing.
I got the pro. It was that or a studio m2 and I don’t regret the decision my logic and Final Cut projects open so fast and the machine hasn’t even turned the fan on yet let’s hope it lasts.
Have been tempted to get an M4 Mac mini base model , I know 99% of my use is basic harry suburban stuff, so the M4 base would do the job no worries , but ….. at the same time , i wouldn’t mind having a go at some gaming , like first person shooters , multiplayer gaming , i don’t need all the fancy shadows and ray tracing , i like the old games like counter strike , battlefield , day of defeat , half life original, , quake .
I don’t know how either version would hold up , don’t really want to spend 4 or 5 K + on a dedicated PC gaming machine .
Decisions decisions 😊.
I'm hesitating between 16GB and 24GB RAM. Is it advisable to make the computer last for several years or is it an unnecessary investment?
As for the SSD, I think 256GB could be a problem in the coming years, so I think I'll get the 512GB SSD version.
My base Mac M1 mini still does pretty well, I def struggle with SSD size, I, always moving stuff around to create space.
Planning to order a baseline M4 Mac mini but with 24 GBs of RAM instead of leaving it at 16GBs. The reason is that there are a couple of applications that I’ll use which are RAM-hungry (iMovie and GarageBand), with more coming later of course. I also play city simulators, and Cities Skylines and Transport Fever 2 are VERY RAM-hungry. I’m not worried about the low internal storage as I’ll have a 4TB external drive ready to go before I pick up the mini.
From my own experience, if you intend to use anything more ram hungry and want to stay away from a swap and still have some safety margin then get 32gb.
I have decided to go with an OpenBox Mac Mini M2 Pro 16/512. Found some going for $649.
For fcpx it won’t matter. For davinci resolve with Braw 6k it will, and if you do animation or other cpu intensive work. That and pick middle memory and middle storage (1tb for instance). I think 80% of buyers will be fine with m4. I’m solid m4 pro and max cores. Though for the increase of price I could argue a m4 and a windows box with $400 gpu for other work and be a hybrid work environment
I agree with your conclusions. However, I bought the M4 pro just to future proof with the TB5 ports.
I have an M1 Mac Mini with 512gb ssd and 16gb unified memory. I’ve had it for about 4 years. I’ve currently got nearly 300gb of data and software combined. Thanks to the introduction of AI this system is now starting to show the spinning beach ball for the lightest photo editing that includes a bit of AI object removal in Lightroom. Due to this, I am considering getting the entry level m4 Pro Mac Mini with 48gb memory and 512gb SSD. It will last longer. If Apple are providing 16gb memory in the base model then it’s almost guaranteed to be inadequate in a couple of years or so as the AI overhead increases. Those are my thoughts. There is also a valid argument stating that you can always replace the entry level model in a couple of years and with the new base model and still be better off.
I buy the mac mini m4 pro 12core cpu. 48GB RAM 1TB SSD
My MacBook Pro is 2017 model, my IMac is a 2014 model. I do need to upgrade. But, my performance was great in the first 2-4 years, getting worse for various applications from year 3 onwards as new hardware was launched and didn’t connect at optimum speeds due to older ports, and using photoshop, and lately CapCut for video I have more issues. So when you say 10 seconds saved by a big investment, just buy the base model, then that will of course be fine now, but what about 3-7 years down the track? I also want to play some games on my Mac, what benefits does the higher GPU and cores do for that? You don’t buy a Mac for Christmas you buy it for ‘life’.
If you want your Mac to last up to 7 years, spend as much as you can on the configuration, mate.
I am a sad panda watching everyone have fun with the new Mac Mini's while I patiently wait for the M4 Mac Studio! I'm currently on the base M1 Max Mac Studio and I need the extra ports. Maybe Apple can surprise us by making the new Mac Studio an M5?
When it comes your going to be very happy 🎉
I'll toss in a comment about RAM... I got 32GB, 99% of the time is zero swap used but a massive amount of RAM is compressed. When switching from Android Studio to Xcode depending on whats compressed, I'll be presented with the loading beach ball for sometimes a minute plus. For some reason Apple is hyper aggressive with memory compression with at times I'll be looking at 20GB+ of compressed memory. This is all while memory pressure is still low, still very very green. Apps freezing will happen around 30 minutes of not using it, like the app goes to sleep and then when I do alt+tab to it... just freezes.
I would love to wait for the Mac Studio M4 Max, but think the M4 Mac Mini will in all reality work fine for me (already have a base Mac Studio M1 Max).
Hovering between the 16Gb/512Gb or 24Gb/512Gb variants via the Education store for £699 or £899 respectively, paired with the discount Final Cut Pro/Logic Pro package at £199. Would like to have 32Gb memory really like my PC (even though someone will say it's not the same), but don't think the extra £180 will ultimately be worth spending.
🤦♂️ using an SD Card slot ( who still does this?) doesn’t mean you need a dock when you could use a £20 usb-c dongle….
Still can’t see past the base model M4….
Who still does that? A lot of people who bought a recent MacBook Pro. And there are of course lots of options for getting SD card files onto your Mac.
Mark- Just became a subscriber to your channel. Thanks for the advice! Cheers to you in the New Year!!!
Welcome onboard, and happy new year to you, too!
I’ll be going with 24GB Mac Mini with 512GB storage, plus the BenQ PD3225U (the one you should have said, not the 3220U). I do mostly raw photo processing to push the computer, so want a little more headroom
Enjoy. And as for the BENQ product names... I'm surprised I got any of the letters and numbers right, mate.
@@MarkEllisReviews I remember your comparison b/w the two! I'm still rocking an iMac 2019 with the 5K monitor, and I cannot justify throwing Apple Studio. I suppose a question re the BenQ, is it easy enough to ensure the colour stays "correct"? I use a ColorChecker Display Pro to ensure the colour is right before I start my photo editing.
I need a Mac for audio production and I use large sample libraries, so for me, I need at least 32GB of RAM, so I'm either going with the base Mac Mini with 32GB of RAM which will cost me $1000.00 or a used M1 MAX Studio which will also cost me $1000.00 but I'll also get a 512GB hard drive. If I upgrade the base Mac Mini to 512GB then I'm spending $1199.00 which is close to the price of the M4 Pro Mac Mini. Unfortunately, the M4 Pro Mac Mini comes with 24GB of RAM and the smallest RAM upgrade is to 48GB of RAM which puts me at $1799.00 and at that price point I can build an awesome PC for audio recording. I'm not a Mac or PC guy for I use both, but for creative professionals Macs are just better just as PCs are better for gaming and high-end engineering and CAD applications where for some there just isn't a Mac version. I'm torn with spending the money on a Mac that I know is better for audio production when I could build a much better spec wise PC for less money and 128GB of RAM if I wanted and as much storage as I'll ever need. This will always be a dilemma because I love Macs for audio production, but they just charge so much for upgrades. I'll probably buy a used Mac Studio.
My base model Mac Mini just arrived home and now I get a video that basically tells me “you just wasted your money lol”. But to be fair I think I’ll be alright, I’ll use it mostly for light video editing and coding, not much else besides light daily tasks.
It’s my first Mac too so I’m very excited to try it out.
no no - you bought the perfect "starter" Mac .. enjoy it will be amazing!
i got my iMac Mini 256/16 just end of last week. I did debate the 512gb/16 but just couldnt justify the extra £200 for 256gb extra storage. Maybe its a bit short sighted but i bought a 2TB external M.2 drive and throw all and run all non built in apps on the external HD including, Logic, Ableton, Word, Excel Spotify etc. (assuming there's no issue doing this) Im left with 183gb free space on my internal HD.
I definitely agree that most people should be going for the 512-GB SSD. I went with a 1-TB internal SSD and I'm happy I did, but I expect that most normal people won't install as much oddball stuff as I do. But people should keep in mind how long they intend to use their new computer. You'll want room for everything you need *3 YEARS* from now, and not just want you need on January 1st 2025.
I also went with the M4 Pro chip and 48-GB of memory, but that's because of the work I do and some services I intend to have running on this machine (for 24 hours every day). I'm happy with my choices for what I do, but I'm confident that most Mac users will be fine with the basic M4 chip and 16-GB.
I was on the fence between 256gb and the 512gb. Amazon had the 512 last week for $699 so I went with that. I am happy to have saved $100 for doubling up the base storage.
Going with more memory is the preferred option especially if you do photo and video work. You can buy fast and cheaper external storage (heck you can even offload your apps to your external SSD).
@@AdmiralCecil You make a good point. I understand that may be the preferred option for your needs, however I am completely fine with my choice.
What editing program do you use?
I got the M4 with 512GB and 32RAM. Everything else (my Photos) are on a 2TB M.2 SSD. Love this little maschine😅
I knew what wanted as a like for like replacement for my M1 Mac Mini. So I got the M4 Mac Mini with 16gb memory and 1TB SSD. Can’t be bothered with an external ssd for system files. Too much faffing around. I use external drives for backups and Time Machine.
So a bit more for the internal ssd but for me it’s something I’m happy to pay more the ease and convenience. Such a great computer. Peerless IMO
I returned the pro for the base M4, 1 month on I have not noticed any difference!
Got the base Pro m4 happy with it cam from m1 mac mini
Hey Mark!
Great video! I am torn, I am considering the Mac Mini spec'd out to M4 Pro chip with the 64GB ram. Do you reckon this machine will easily handle 4K video editing. (I am a videographer / editor by trade) This will be my main machine as my custom windows laptop is starting to throw the towl in. I can't justify the crazy price increase to get the M4 Max MBP. Any guidance would be much appreciated!
How does the Mac mini m4 pro do when using adobe After Effects and Premier Pro?
You can get a 2TB M.2 and and external 10gbps enclosure for it for less than $200. I would never spend $200 to add a measly 256GB of storage to the base model. That's just throwing money away when using a stationary device like this one. Just get the 2TB instead and leave the drive plugged in permanently. You can always install apps to the external drive if you want.
The front facing headphone jack is a minus for me as I use an adapter to split it into two channels that goes in two cables to my hifi amp so is awkward and much better for me on the back.
I do a lot of trading and my current 3 year old windows desktop intel i7 with 32 gb ram is slowing my work down considerably and lately cpu and ram are almost at 100% capacity. Do u recommend me using M4 or M4 pro ?? Thanks
You failed to mention which version of Mac OS it's running. I'm going to assume it would be the latest version? (Sequoia 15.2)
I'm not sure how that's relevant to this video, but it is indeed running the lastest macOS (as will every new M4 Mac mini).
happy new years eve
Same to you!
🎉Happy New Year… base model
Same to you!
I have a gaming channel with Mac mini M1 (very light) and from the release of these mini I’m thinking of upgrading.
Having the idea to start doing some live and some streams, in your opinion the basic model can be enough, or is it necessary to go directly to the pro model?
Sorry for the question, but I don’t know what impact a stream or live on the Mac could have without having tested it...
Anyone using Studio One with the base model? If so, any issues? What track count, plug-ins, VI’s?
I bought the m4 pro with 48 GB/1TB SSD and did a comparison with my M1 Mac mini 16GB/1TB SSD
18GB 4K video from iMovie to desktop.
Results?
M4 Pro Mac Mini 25 minutes
M1 Mac mini 28 minutes
So I saved three minutes and paid $1999.00. plus tax
I returned the M4. It’s just not worth for me.
Exactly.
Please stop doing "watch time from subscribers", but maybe you can save it for the end of a video.
Whenever I do this, we see a huge surge in new subscribers. You would be doing exactly the same thing in my position.
I love my m2 base Mac mini but was tempted by the m4, but decided to buy an m4 iPad Pro instead.
Get an iMac M4 , best vfm Mac imo
Screen , keyboard and mouse all colour co ordinated and all included !!!