Which older mac mini to buy

ade555 · 4 Apr 2021 at 21:02

I'm sort of confused which mac mini to buy been honest, I made my decision to downsize and mac mini has appeal to me due to size, would make the space look more clear and as I never gamed for the last year I just don't have the need to have windows base machine, apart from the normal day to day pc use I sometime edit the odd photo or video, I know lot of people getting the m1 but I noticed there is few problems like they don't like lower ppi screens? or something like that, what I need is sort of smooth operation, I'm use to i7 and nvme drives so fast boots and smooth operation is must for me, otherwise I just won't get on with it and possibly would have to look at maybe very small itx build but ideally wanted to try mac.

What would you recommend spec and year wise, I didn't set budget but if this will be sort of dead in couple of years then don't want to spend to much, never owned one so is hard for me to say what they worth 2nd hand and if even is worth getting one.

Many Thanks

GMac11 · 4 Apr 2021 at 21:12

ade555 said:
I know lot of people getting the m1 but I noticed there is few problems like they don't like lower ppi screens?Many Thanks

That isn’t an M1 issue it’s MacOS in general and how it scales for lower resolution displays.

ade555 · 4 Apr 2021 at 21:21

GMac11 said:
That isn’t an M1 issue it’s MacOS in general and how it scales for lower resolution displays.

ah ok, so is this a problem in the older MacOS is well, asking as I have no idea

Feek · 4 Apr 2021 at 22:13

What's your budget?

ade555 · 4 Apr 2021 at 22:33

Feek said:
What's your budget?

hard to say it but I was comparing to what I would have to get to change to itx build so ideally would have to be £300-500 for mac mini

GMac11 · 4 Apr 2021 at 22:59

ade555 said:
ah ok, so is this a problem in the older MacOS is well, asking as I have no idea

Sorry I didn’t elaborate any further as that’s about the limit of my knowledge on the subject. I’ve only been using Macs since around 2015 and I’ve always known the issue to exist.
FWIW I think you’d be mad to go for an older intel Mac Mini over the M1 version. From what I gather it has improved significantly.

ade555 · 4 Apr 2021 at 23:34

@GMac11 is very hard decision been honest, because I never owned one and have been user of windows since 95 I'm finding very difficult to settle on no possibility of upgrade ram, storage is not a issue as I have other devices that takes care of that, looking at £900 with 16gb ram, worse case would be I buy it and me or wife just won't get on with the MacOS then this would have to go back on sale, so the idea of 2nd hand come about, if we use it and like it then most likely will sell it and get the m1 by then I'm sure apple will release something newer anyway.

If I'm correct 2012 is sort of older dual core with upgrades to ram/ssd , 2014 dual core no ram upgrade but possibility to ssd, 2018 quad core cpu with ram upgrade.

Spleen Sauce · 5 Apr 2021 at 09:31

If it was me, if you can’t stretch to an M1 Mac Mini I’d stick with a Windows build and go with something like an Intel NUC if downsizing is really the aim. Or why not a laptop? Can always connect a screen, mouse and keyboard.

If you can stretch to the M1 then I can say that they’re excellent machines.

Feek · 5 Apr 2021 at 10:19

Don't forget that if you buy one from Apple, you have two weeks to try it and if you don't get on with it, you can send it back for a full refund.

ade555 · 5 Apr 2021 at 10:31

Regards stretching the budget is not a financial problem I'm having is the not knowing if the 8gb is enough for our usage if I go for the M1.

Giving that I'm still on 1080p what monitor would work decent with the M1, don't have to be bigger the 27" and do I need 4k or 2k would be enough due to the ppi issues in MacOS or is the work around for this. I would have to sit down and work budget out for this but if I go for the M1 16gb £899 the screen cheaper the better been honest.

PS you should all be sales man, there was me thinking I get nice cheap mac mini and you just keep pulling my wallet

Feek · 5 Apr 2021 at 10:41

I don't really understand all the comments about ppi and blurriness. I have a 27" 5K iMac and my second screen is an old Dell 24" 1080p monitor. Yes, it's not as pin sharp as the main screen but it's absolutely perfectly fine, I don't see any blurring, it's not out of focus and it's the screen I use for Safari and Tweetbot so I'm looking at it a lot.

GMac11 · 5 Apr 2021 at 11:04

ade555 said:
Regards stretching the budget is not a financial problem I'm having is the not knowing if the 8gb is enough for our usage if I go for the M1.

You didn't say what your uses are for this machine, you may find that 8gb is plenty. 8gb on MacOS goes a lot further than on an equivalent Windows machine.
As Feek pointed out above if you buy from Apple you will have a no qualms return period. Furthermore, if you keep an eye on the refurbished section you can pick up an M1 Mini at a pretty handsome discount.

Feek said:
I don't really understand all the comments about ppi and blurriness. I have a 27" 5K iMac and my second screen is an old Dell 24" 1080p monitor. Yes, it's not as pin sharp as the main screen but it's absolutely perfectly fine, I don't see any blurring, it's not out of focus and it's the screen I use for Safari and Tweetbot so I'm looking at it a lot.

This is a fair comment. I never actually said my fonts etc were blurry but neither did I counter the point. As you say the issue is not blur it's just that fonts aren't as sharp or smooth when compared to the in-built display (on my MBP 16) but then again it is a retina display. The thing is all other UI elements look great on my 1440p monitor, it's just that the fonts seem to lack any sort of anti-aliasing for want of a better phrase.

Feek · 5 Apr 2021 at 11:16

@GMac11 I wasn't specifically aiming my comment at you, I've seen quite a few posts recently which basically say that a Mac on anything other than a 4K or 5K screen is blurry and out of focus and just wanted to point out that it's not a general feeling. As you say, of course it's never going to be as sharp as a retina display.

ade555 · 5 Apr 2021 at 11:30

@GMac11 I mention in first post what I use the pc now for, mainly normal day to day tasks along with the odd picture/video edit but nothing to heavy, videos are 4k but from mobile devices, mainly photos, I got tired of cables/towers ect. so trying to go for minimalist look as much as possible, in all honestly Ideally would be Imac but at the price of £2k + won't happen for what I use it for, love the screen when you look at it but is way out of our price range.

The cheapest price mac mini I found 8gb version £650 and 16GB £850 but not sure about the company as I never heard of them, Most likely will strip my pc to sell in parts then should have very nice chunk for decent monitor.

Just out of interest why the new m1 is better the intel base mac mini? I have seen some video on YouTube ect. but been honest I am very sceptical as with lot of YouTube you get "oh is the next best thing ect." then few weeks later you get "oh I'm sending back ect.", so I'm more interested with your opinion is is purely how the chip works with Mac OS?

GMac11 · 5 Apr 2021 at 11:31

Feek said:
@GMac11 I wasn't specifically aiming my comment at you, I've seen quite a few posts recently which basically say that a Mac on anything other than a 4K or 5K screen is blurry and out of focus and just wanted to point out that it's not a general feeling. As you say, of course it's never going to be as sharp as a retina display.

I know you weren't mate

I was just pointing out that I'm almost as guilty for not clarifying that the issue isn't actually blur but just lower sharpness.

GMac11 · 5 Apr 2021 at 11:40

ade555 said:
@GMac11 I mention in first post what I use the pc now for, mainly normal day to day tasks along with the odd picture/video edit but nothing to heavy, videos are 4k but from mobile devices, mainly photos, I got tired of cables/towers ect. so trying to go for minimalist look as much as possible, in all honestly Ideally would be Imac but at the price of £2k + won't happen for what I use it for, love the screen when you look at it but is way out of our price range.

The cheapest price mac mini I found 8gb version £650 and 16GB £850 but not sure about the company as I never heard of them, Most likely will strip my pc to sell in parts then should have very nice chunk for decent monitor.

Just out of interest why the new m1 is better the intel base mac mini? I have seen some video on YouTube ect. but been honest I am very sceptical as with lot of YouTube you get "oh is the next best thing ect." then few weeks later you get "oh I'm sending back ect.", so I'm more interested with your opinion is is purely how the chip works with Mac OS?

Apologies you quite rightly did say in that post.
Are those prices not just the normal prices? The 8gb version is £648 on Amazon and the 16gb is available from Currys for £850.

I asked the very same questions as you did regarding the improvement in the M1 chips as everyone just says how good they are without actually quantifying it (for my brain anyway). But that being said there's no doubt they ARE better and if I was starting from scratch I would definitely buy M1. My MBP16 is obviously Intel and I'll likely not upgrade any time soon as it does everything I need it too plus I only bought it 11 months ago for £2k, the Mrs would throw me out if I changed again

.

I think one of the main improvements with the M1 chip is efficiency however since the Mac Mini is mains powered that improvement is moot. It's much more important for the battery powered laptops.

ade555 · 5 Apr 2021 at 11:57

@GMac11 apple list £699 for 8GB and £899 for 16GB, Currys only list both models with 8GB but storage change, I found on KRCS store the 16GB model for £849

I need to find more info why the m1 mac mini is better then intel been honest, otherwise for what I need I might be wasting money, we all like new things but I have to be realistic

Feek · 5 Apr 2021 at 12:16

ade555 said:
I need to find more info why the m1 mac mini is better then intel been honest

Faster, quieter, cooler, faster and it'll be supported for longer.

I know I said 'faster' twice but it's so important, I thought it worth mentioning twice.

Squink · 5 Apr 2021 at 12:27

ade555 said:
I need to find more info why the m1 mac mini is better then intel been honest, otherwise for what I need I might be wasting money, we all like new things but I have to be realistic

The M1 is a good SoC (and has received enormous amounts of hype, much but not all of it justified), but it is not the fastest on the market as some might have you believe. It may well be the fastest 'low power' chip, but it's not like it's destroying a 5900X. There again the latter isn't in your budget, but the M1 is getting there. As GMac11 pointed out, the importance of the M1 is chiefly felt in laptops because its low power and high speed allows for extended time off cable. This isn't so important in the Mac Mini because it's always plugged in.

I'm one of the people who has commented that MacOS fonts don't look good on 1440p screens. I recently bought a Mac Mini, and ran it on a 1440p screen. The fonts looked pretty much exactly like I was running my 1440p monitor in 1080p, and I was DEFINITELY running MacOS at UW 1440p. The different between MacOS and Windows 10 font sharpness was the single biggest reason I decided to send the Mac Mini back. I'm not even going to claim I'm super-sensitive to font sharpness or something, because I'm not. MacOS fonts just weren't very good on 1440p.

hartgeh3 · 11 Apr 2021 at 14:35

I have the basic Mac Mini M1 running my Samsung G9 49' at 5120.x1440p with no issues at 120hz. I downgraded from a Mac Pro trash can with 2xD700s and have been happy with it, even light video editing.