mac book compared to mac mini

Now as people may know I am looking at going for a MAc, my ida was to wait and see what was Apple was going to do with the Mac mini in will they stick a M1 pro chip in them. But I had a thought a couple of days ago about getting a Macbook pro and using that as a desktop and then being able to use it as a laptop if need be.
would there be any real difference in the Mini than a macbook pro in power if they both use the M1Pro?

A few years ago a laptop was not as powerful as a desktop, but I take that a Mac mini is more or less like a laptop internally anyway

There shouldn't be any difference in power. The main difference is that the Mini will come with more ports and will cost about half the price of the MacBook.

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

Now as people may know I am looking at going for a MAc, my ida was to wait and see what was Apple was going to do with the Mac mini in will they stick a M1 pro chip in them. But I had a thought a couple of days ago about getting a Macbook pro and using that as a desktop and then being able to use it as a laptop if need be.
would there be any real difference in the Mini than a macbook pro in power if they both use the M1Pro?

A few years ago a laptop was not as powerful as a desktop, but I take that a Mac mini is more or less like a laptop internally anyway

An M1 Mini and either an M1 MacBook Air or a 13" M1 MacBook Pro (not the just released 14" and 16" MacBook Pro's) will basically be the same specification/power.

The larger MacBook Pro's are now using the M1 Pro or M1 Max chip - which is substantially faster than the original M1 machines, but also around 50% more of the base cost.

Sorry forgot to say, I don't think there's been any announcement of putting an M1 Pro chip in a Mini (yet). They may hold off for a while on that....where's my crystal ball

That is what I may wait for, I am in no rush. I did think about the macbook pro as I could then use it for desktop use and laptop use, the problem is I really don't have much use for a laptop.
thanks peeps for the answers

Adrian - I know I just mentioned to you on the other place, to wait and see if you're not in a hurry - but thought I'd mention that I had an email shot from Costco with a special offer until the 29th on the original 13" M1 MacBook Pro's with 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD on offer for £1350.

As far as I can see that's £350 less than getting it from Apple, and cheaper than other retailers.

Thank you for the thought, but I have decided to wait until next year.
i have a few things to decide, one of them is if I will be staying in the job I am in at the moment, because it is getting close to telling them to stick it where the sun don't shine.

But thanks anyway.

No worries. Good luck with it all. 👍

thanks.

Adrian - If you want to give macOS a try on M1 silicon, came across these guys offering a hosted M1 Mini running from their cloud.

https://www.scaleway.com/en/hello-m1/

https://www.scaleway.com/en/docs/faq/apple-silicon-m...

Identical to Amazon AWS, except their current rental price (minimum 24 hours) at €0.10 per hour is about 1/10 of what Amazon are charging and Amazon have only started doing M1 Mac cloud tin on an invite only basis. Amazon's regular Apple instances are based on Intel CPUs.

So this place works out at just over £2 for a 24 hour run. Much cheaper than Amazon, which will cost you £24 for the same...

Try and M1 Mac for 24 hours for less than a cup of coffee!

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

Adrian - If you want to give macOS a try on M1 silicon, came across these guys offering a hosted M1 Mini running from their cloud.

https://www.scaleway.com/en/hello-m1/

https://www.scaleway.com/en/docs/faq/apple-silicon-m...

Identical to Amazon AWS, except their current rental price (minimum 24 hours) at €0.10 per hour is about 1/10 of what Amazon are charging and Amazon have only started doing M1 Mac cloud tin on an invite only basis. Amazon's regular Apple instances are based on Intel CPUs.

So this place works out at just over £2 for a 24 hour run. Much cheaper than Amazon, which will cost you £24 for the same...

Try and M1 Mac for 24 hours for less than a cup of coffee!

Cheers for that, I will have a look at that, maybe tomorrow or Thursday or sunday, sometime when I have sometime to have a good look.
sound very useful.
I am pretty sure i am going for a Mac but not until next year, depending on what happens in the next couple of months or so. I need to do some thinking about life and stuff.
thanks again

This video is a few months old, but is quite a good one from Patrick at STH (ServeTheHome). Not your typical Apple fanboy-0ish videos (you know the ones

https://youtu.be/4gXUfAgLKj0

He'e reviewing the version with the 10 GbE NIC in it, but raises a couple of interesting points along the way, which I though you may be interested to hear if you're thinking about getting one (M2 model??) next year.

While on on about M1 Mini videos....yeah I know

https://youtu.be/Akqx0F5-gs4

Linus Tech Tips above trying to out-bottle the bottleneck...couldn't really find one.

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

This video is a few months old, but is quite a good one from Patrick at STH (ServeTheHome). Not your typical Apple fanboy-0ish videos (you know the ones

https://youtu.be/4gXUfAgLKj0

He'e reviewing the version with the 10 GbE NIC in it, but raises a couple of interesting points along the way, which I though you may be interested to hear if you're thinking about getting one (M2 model??) next year.

cheers for that, but it looks like it concentrates on the network only, but i have not had a proper look, i am going to have a look at it in a bit on my Tv, while having a drink.

Yes the subject is all about how well the little mini handles the raw networking side of things. Impressively continuing full output on 10 Gbit (well 9.4 Gbps net data rate) whilst maxing out read/write via external Thunderbolt/USB, internal SSD and pushing graphics.

Just a shame Apple ridiculously over charge for additional RAM and SSD - clearly where the profit margin sits. The base config. / price (and even 10 GbE option) is standout bang for buck.

When choosing between MacBook Pro and Mac Mini, the answer to this would always depend on the factors that are more important to you.... Is it the performance or portability or price or features or ports and connectivity? Once you know, then it would be easier to choose which one would suit your needs and preference.

Portability is not what I need, I am not a fan of laptops to be honest, but I suppose being able to have that choice may be useful.
I was hoping that Apple would announce a m1 pro version of the Mac mini, i know the M1 mini is a pretty powerful machine, but if they are going to bring out a newer version then I may as well go for that.
To be honest, I still am not sure what I will go for, update this machine or go for a Mac, just want a change from Windows.

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

I was hoping that Apple would announce a m1 pro version of the Mac mini

I'm sure they will fairly soon - and it will be a whole lot cheaper than the MacBook.

As an aside, I got my wife a MacBook Air (M1) for Christmas, and I'm very impressed with it. Might even treat myself to one (although I'm also keen to see what they announce about the Mini).

In reply to a post by TinyMongomery:

I'm sure they will fairly soon - and it will be a whole lot cheaper than the MacBook.

As an aside, I got my wife a MacBook Air (M1) for Christmas, and I'm very impressed with it. Might even treat myself to one (although I'm also keen to see what they announce about the Mini).

I am in no rush, I need to wait for a couple of months anyway as I am still deciding what I am going to do job wise.

Adrian the earliest in all probability (based on Apples historic media launch dates) will be late March next year.

If not then likely it will be October as iPhones typically are announced in September. June tends to be when they announce iPads. Not set in stone of course….especially with global pandemics and chip shortages in play…

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

Adrian the earliest in all probability (based on Apples historic media launch dates) will be late March next year.

If not then likely it will be October as iPhones typically are announced in September. June tends to be when they announce iPads. Not set in stone of course….especially with global pandemics and chip shortages in play…

Cheers, I will wait until March and see what happens, give me time to stick more money into the account i am using to save for it, save taking money out of my main savings, not that it makes much difference as I can put it back.
I am going to phone my landlord up next week as I am pretty sure I am a few quid in advance, maybe a grand

More than enough for a Mac mini, a new keyboard and a dock.
I am looking at the Logitech MX keys mini, but I am not sure how I would get on with the flat keys as the keyboard I have now, is mechanical.

The keyboards at work are cheap Dell flat keyboards and I get on okish with them, but then I only use them for a few minutes a day. The Logitech one should be better than them.
the only problem is, the Logibolt, which is required for it to work on my PC is out of stock and have been for a couple of months or so.

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

Adrian the earliest in all probability (based on Apples historic media launch dates) will be late March next year.

If not then likely it will be October as iPhones typically are announced in September. June tends to be when they announce iPads. Not set in stone of course….especially with global pandemics and chip shortages in play…

Latest rumor mill suggestion is they could launch an up-spec Mac Mini at a launch event on 8 March …

https://www.macrumors.com/2022/02/06/gurman-apple-ev...

I have seen a video that says the new Mac mini may have the M2 chip, shame really I would have liked it to have the pro, but the M2 will do ok, as long as the price stays the same.

Yeh rumours, rumours swirling everywhere. It will be interesting to see what exactly they announce on the macs.

I believe their processor timeline is running a bit skewwhiff…M1 Pro and Max were about 6 months late out of the oven, so they’re in a situation where they want to give these ‘new’ processors some breathing space in the market before they whack out the M2 based stuff…who really knows until the day😀

M2 is a slightly updated M1 by the seems of it, same amount of cores, but slightly updated, fine for me to be honest. the M1 would do me, but I may as well wait and see what happens.
I could get a Mac book pro I suppose. We will see.

For the M2 looks likely they will use the same "Avalanche" high-performance cores and "Blizzard" energy-efficient cores as they used in the most recent A15 mobile SoC.

As you say probably will be an incremental performance improvement for M2 over the M1 generation, as these will be ARMv8.5-A revision cores up from the ARMv8.4-A cores in the M1 (aka Firestorm & Icestorm).

The next really big step up ought to be a fresh design based on the ARMv9-A architecture.

Edited by Pheasant (Wed 09-Feb-22 19:45:17)

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

For the M2 looks likely they will use the same "Avalanche" high-performance cores and "Blizzard" energy-efficient cores as they used in the most recent A15 mobile SoC.

As you say probably will be an incremental performance improvement for M2 over the M1 generation, as these will be ARMv8.5-A revision cores up from the ARMv8.4-A cores in the M1 (aka Firestorm & Icestorm).

The next really big step up ought to be a fresh design based on the ARMv9-A architecture.

Well, we will see, Which ever way I go, I will not be updating again for a long time. To be honest, I am fed up with spending on these machines, so will get something that will last.

When I got my first computer, my ZX81, I never realised it would cost me so much over the years

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

When I got my first computer, my ZX81, I never realised it would cost me so much over the years

My first "proper" computer was a 25MHz Intel 386 with 4MB of RAM, a 13" VGA display and an 80MB HDD (near top of the range at the time)... it cost me slightly more than this 3.1GHz 6-core Intel Core I5 iMac with 8GB RAM, a 27" 5K retina display and a 256GB SSD.

In real terms that first computer probably cost me more than my last 2 iMacs combined... it's a funny old world

And I'm just waiting for Apple to bring out a 27" iMac with an M2 in it

Snap. Wind the clock back 30 years…to 1992 I had bought my first Acer 386SX 20 MHz as a first year engineering student. A whopping 4 MB of RAM and 120 MB Quantum hard drive. 14” SVGA monitor. I can’t recall how much video RAM it had but I think it wasn’t more than 1024K. DOS 5.1 and Windows 3.1. Not such thing as USB - a high speed connection was a centronics parallel printer port 😂

In reply to a post by billford:

My first "proper" computer was a 25MHz Intel 386 with 4MB of RAM, a 13" VGA display and an 80MB HDD (near top of the range at the time)... it cost me slightly more than this 3.1GHz 6-core Intel Core I5 iMac with 8GB RAM, a 27" 5K retina display and a 256GB SSD.

In real terms that first computer probably cost me more than my last 2 iMacs combined... it's a funny old world

And I'm just waiting for Apple to bring out a 27" iMac with an M2 in it

While I did not have much to do with IBM compatibles when I was younger, I was a student I could not afford a proper computer, I did use an Amstrad Pc, i think it was the PC 1512, we used a card index system to store recipes. Before that we used a torch, but that used a z80 I think.

I know people complain about prices now, certainly with video cards, but if I made this machine from scratch, instead of using parts from the last upgrade, it would come out just slightly more than my first PC, a Cyrix 166 based machine.

I did think about an Imac, the problem is I already have a pretty good monitor, i doubt it is Imac quality, but it is fine for me, cost me over £300 and it is larger than the largest Imac screen, also the cheapest iMac is around £1,700. the Mac mini is a fair bit cheaper, the only thing I would have to get is a decent keyboard, because this one is on its way out, I was thinking of the Logitech MX Keys Mini, mainly because it can change between computers, but I am not sure if I can cope with the flat keys, this keyboard I use now is a mechanical one. I will keep my anker Vertical mouse, great mouse, certainly for the price. I will certainly get one of those docks that fits under the MAc mini to add more ports and space for another hard drive.

I will go for a Mini with more memory, but with the minimum storage, as storage is easy to solve, but memory is not.
The M1 mac mini with 256GB of storage and 16GB ram is £899, the talk is that the new versions will be the same price, but higher cpu SPEC.

i have to sort things out to be honest, lots of stuff to clear out from this room.

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

Snap. Wind the clock back 30 years…to 1992 I had bought my first Acer 386SX 20 MHz as a first year engineering student. A whopping 4 MB of RAM and 120 MB Quantum hard drive. 14” SVGA monitor. I can’t recall how much video RAM it had but I think it wasn’t more than 1024K. DOS 5.1 and Windows 3.1. Not such thing as USB - a high speed connection was a centronics parallel printer port 😂

I never realised Acer have been going that long. My monitor is a Acer, great monitor, also my Laptop is a Acer, was great in its day, not so much now, too slow.

At least we have got rid of the Packard bell, machines, they were awful.

That was in Sydney back in the day. Not sure what their status was in the UK at the time. They were fairly brand new to the scene there. It was supposedly socket upgradable to a 486 although I never bothered and kept that until I built my own Pentium II when I started working in ‘97. I can even recall the salesman’s name (bizarre the details you remember) from the small computer shop where I got it.

Acer was founded in 1976.

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

I never bothered and kept that until I built my own Pentium II when I started working in ‘97.

You haven't built your own computer unless you've soldered all the ICs onto a printed circuit board and constructed a keyboard from individual switches.

I bought my first real computer in 1988 - the Amstrad PC1640 with a CGA monitor - slightly more RAM than the 1512. Dual 5 1/4" floppies and no hard drive. Been through many a PC since then, I used to change them probably about once every 18 months but these days the rate of change has slowed enormously.

Yeh done plenty of that in my time, but soldering a Pentium II system from loose 7400 glue logic kicking around was a bit above my pay grade 😂

In reply to a post by billford:

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

When I got my first computer, my ZX81, I never realised it would cost me so much over the years

My first "proper" computer was a 25MHz Intel 386 with 4MB of RAM, a 13" VGA display and an 80MB HDD (near top of the range at the time)... it cost me slightly more than this 3.1GHz 6-core Intel Core I5 iMac with 8GB RAM, a 27" 5K retina display and a 256GB SSD.

In real terms that first computer probably cost me more than my last 2 iMacs combined... it's a funny old world

And I'm just waiting for Apple to bring out a 27" iMac with an M2 in it

For a bit of 90’s era nostalgia courtesy of YouTube

What Happened to Cyrix Processors? Nostalgia Nerd

I never used them so I'd almost forgotten about Cyrix... although I have fond memories of their Intel Inside headstone

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

Adrian the earliest in all probability (based on Apples historic media launch dates) will be late March next year.

If not then likely it will be October as iPhones typically are announced in September. June tends to be when they announce iPads. Not set in stone of course….especially with global pandemics and chip shortages in play…

Latest rumor mill suggestion is they could launch an up-spec Mac Mini at a launch event on 8 March …

https://www.macrumors.com/2022/02/06/gurman-apple-ev...

March 8 event now confirmed as “Peek Performance”…might be some new Mac’s and Minis being announced.

https://www.apple.com/apple-events/

Looks like an updated/up spec’d Mac Mini is looking increasingly likely to be announced next Tuesday.

In the meantime I thought I’d share this. Quite interesting on a number of levels…

YouTuber Modifies M1 Mac Mini to Be 78% Smaller