New mac mini

So Apple have announced a new mac mini, a M2 version and M2pro version. This is what I have been waiting for. £1400 more or less for the m2 pro, not sure if I need that, but the M2 looks pretty good at £850 for 8Gb of ram and 512Gb of storage.
If it is sold at work I can get a discount on that.


Also, new mac book pros announced .

You might want to consider the 256GB version at £649 with an external SSD. A Samsung T7 1TB drive is less than £90 and gives 1,000 MBps read/write speeds. The 2TB version is under £200 so would give you 2,250GB of storage for the same price as the 500GB model.

Personally, I’d go for a model with more RAM as opposed to storage space. You’re stuck with the former but can always upgrade the latter. But it all depends upon your intended usage.

Edited by TinyMongomery (Wed 18-Jan-23 06:55:39)

I did think about the middle one at £849 and then adding more memory to it, but that is around £1,049.

They sell Mac minis at work, so I am hoping they will sell the new one, if so then I could go for the top one at £1,399, minus my discount if I get it at the right time will take it down to about £1,100. But the thought of spending a grand on a computer fills me with horror, i have spent £800on a computer, on this one, in fact no doubt more over the five years since I have added ram and more drives.

The thing about getting them from work I would have to get what they have got, so no being able to add to it like i can on Apples own site.

As for storage, yes I agree with you, I was thinking of getting one of those units that fit unto the mac mini that can have a drive fitted in them, then I can take out the 960GB Maxtor SSD from this machine as it only has a few games on it and put that in there.


I have over £1300 saved in an account for this reason, but I don't like spending money . the other thing is, am I going to like using a Mac?

According to the other half, I should be more impulsive and not think about things too much, then I end up not doing it. Like when I saw a nice Microwave on Asda website that was cheap for a flatbed and I took ages to decide and now it is not available

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

As for storage, yes I agree with you, I was thinking of getting one of those units that fit unto the mac mini that can have a drive fitted in them, then I can take out the 960GB Maxtor SSD from this machine as it only has a few games on it and put that in there.

I'm pretty sure that you can't add an internal drive to the new Minis. If you could, it would be slower than an external USB 3 drive (assuming it's SATA).

In reply to a post by TinyMongomery:

I'm pretty sure that you can't add an internal drive to the new Minis. If you could, it would be slower than an external USB 3 drive (assuming it's SATA).

My M1 Mini is a sealed unit, similar to the MacBook Air or similar. No point as the storage is fused together into the Silicon-on-Chip, for speed.

One of those Samsung USB-C connected, either USB 4 or Thunderbolt 4 drives will be equally as fast as internal. My M1 Mini internal SSD is only 3000 Mbps (3 Gbps), which is significantly faster than my old Windows PC with its Samsung 850 Evo SATA 3 drive running close to 500 Mbps.The latest PCIe 4 drives can go double that speed (close to 7 or 8 Gbps).

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

As for storage, yes I agree with you, I was thinking of getting one fof those units that fit unto the mac mini that can have a drive fitted in them, then I can take out the 960GB Maxtor SSD from this machine as it only has a few games on it and put that in there.

Yes, the OWC stuff from MacSales.com and similar (US sites) can go very fast, they connect over the Thunderbolt/USB4 connection (using the USB-C connector).
Note the M2 Mini has 2xUSB-C and the M2 Pro Mini has 4xUSB-C from what I read. My M1 Mini has only 2xUSB-C, and I used one with a displayport adaptor cable, for second screen, first on HDMI.

But don’t use the Mac much now, using work laptop more than home kit.

The Samsung externals aren’t as fast as the internal SSD (about a third the speed), but you only really notice the difference if using one as a boot drive when the boot time is noticeably longer. Once running I’d be hard pressed to tell the difference between the internal and external drives.

It’s certainly fast enough unless you are moving huge amounts of data - and then you are likely to be moving it to or from an external drive or a network device so you’ll have a speed hit anyway.

In reply to a post by TinyMongomery:

I'm pretty sure that you can't add an internal drive to the new Minis. If you could, it would be slower than an external USB 3 drive (assuming it's SATA).

No this an external unit that fits under the Mac and connects to the USB,something like this

In reply to a post by TinyMongomery:

The Samsung externals aren’t as fast as the internal SSD (about a third the speed), but you only really notice the difference if using one as a boot drive when the boot time is noticeably longer. Once running I’d be hard pressed to tell the difference between the internal and external drives.

Yes, the USB 3.0 ones were nowhere near as fast as internal but as you say still quick enough except for booting MacOS.

Some colleagues have bought the more expensive 3.2 or the really new Thunderbolt ones and claim they are ‘amazing’ but I’ve not myself benchtested.

Oh, right. Yes, you can obviously use an external enclosure, just like any other external drive. If it’s a SATA drive it will be slower than a USB C external drive, but fast enough for data.

In reply to a post by TinyMongomery:

Oh, right. Yes, you can obviously use an external enclosure, just like any other external drive. If it’s a SATA drive it will be slower than a USB C external drive, but fast enough for data.

But most external drives are SATA

No. Modern external SSDs are NVMe internally connecting to the computer via USB C or Thunderbolt. These provide read/wrie speeds far in excess of the maximum that SATA can produce. For example, a Samsung X5 Thunderbolt external SSD is 5 times after than a SATA based SSD (probably why they named it X5).

But the X5 is quite pricey. The cheaper USB C T5 or T7 disks are not quite so fast, but are considerably faster than a SATA drive.

There are some docks that have NvME slots in, but they are pretty expensive., this one here is £144 and then you have to get the drives. Mind you if i get the mini from work I will save money on that. I think the one i linked to is USB3, not thunderbolt, but are they not the same speed these days?
i have to look more into it, I am getting out of touch
I got to keep some money back to buy the affinity suite as Serif don't give an offer for people who already have it which is a shame. The other thing is, i have to look if Davinci resolve have been redone to work natively on the m1/m2 chips.

i really need to look at this before I get the machine,

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

The other thing is, i have to look if Davinci resolve have been redone to work natively on the m1/m2 chips.

It has, a long time ago, they are very quick at adopting new Apple tech.

Edited by andynormancx (Thu 19-Jan-23 11:18:03)

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

I think the one i linked to is USB3, not thunderbolt, but are they not the same speed these days?

Most USB ports are not as fast as Thunderbolt (the USB 3 support in the Mac mini is not as fast as Thunderbolt).

But that's irrelevant; if your drive is SATA then that's what limits the speed. The interface is faster than the drive.

Had a look online. Not many retailers have got it. Seems it’s end of life. 🤷‍♂️

The M series macs I thought were USB4 ?

But the drives are USB 3 or Thunderbolt, not USB 4.

Just on ‘fast’ external SSD I was reading this article reviewing the Sandisk PRO-G40 and passing mention of the OWC Envoy Pro FX.

Very nice drives but whoa certainly not cheap, especially that Sandisk!

In reply to a post by jchamier:

The M series macs I thought were USB4 ?

They are USB4? i was not sure.
I will have a better look later on, the main thing is to get the machine first and get used to it,
Oh and a better mouse, thinking of getting a Logitech one to go with this keyboard, maybe the Logitech Lift, it is a bit pricey for a mouse, but it will work with the PC and Mac.

Speaking of mice and input devices Adrian, I’m experimenting with mechanical keyboards again. Got myself a NuPhy Air75 recently so I’m looking forward to getting it setup.

Another option…spec the 10 GbE port for £100 and have a blistering connection to your NAS. Might need to up your NAS interface and network.

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

They are USB4? i was not sure.

The new 2023 M2 and M2 Pro models certainly are:

https://www.apple.com/uk/mac-mini/specs/

Two Thunderbolt 4 ports (M2) or four Thunderbolt 4 ports (M2 Pro) with support for:

* DisplayPort
* Thunderbolt 4 (up to 40Gb/s)
* USB 4 (up to 40Gb/s)
* USB 3.1 Gen 2 (up to 10Gb/s
* Thunderbolt 2, HDMI, DVI and VGA supported using adapters (sold separately)

The older 2020 Mac Mini with M1 chip has two USB-C connectors, supporting:
https://support.apple.com/kb/SP823?locale=en_GB

Two Thunderbolt / USB 4 ports with support for:

* DisplayPort
* Thunderbolt 3 (up to 40 Gb/s)
* USB 4 (up to 40Gb/s)
* USB 3.1 Gen 2 (up to 10 Gb/s)
* Thunderbolt 2, HDMI, DVI, and VGA supported using adapters (sold separately)

Edited by jchamier (Fri 20-Jan-23 11:12:52)

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

Speaking of mice and input devices Adrian, I’m experimenting with mechanical keyboards again. Got myself a NuPhy Air75 recently so I’m looking forward to getting it setup.

That looks nice, I did a search and only came up with U.s ones, so no UK one? Not that I want one, but just interested

I wish in one way I had gone for the mechanical version of this logitech keyboard, it is ok, but still trying to get used to the size and low travel of the keys, sometimes I feel like I am typing on a table. Maybe i need to get a mat under it or something.
The other problem is no print screen key, home keys or stuff like that.
but i knew this before i had it, still it will not used very often for the PC soon,

i have been moving the computer around in this room, as I where it was I was unable to get to the windows to clean them, and also I want one of the walls clear and I had a bit of a break and a coffee and watch something on YouTube about Macs SSD going belly up. I know all SSD have a life span, the old Force 3 one i have is still going strong after 10 years, but it is not used as much, anyway this video did worry me a bit as the ones in the Mac can't be replaced easily. This is themy bugbear with a Mac, saying that the SSD in a friend's Mac book pro is fine, and she uses it a lot. i suppose that is why it is best to have a external drive and save large files to that instead of the Mac internal drive.

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

Another option…spec the 10 GbE port for £100 and have a blistering connection to your NAS. Might need to up your NAS interface and network.

My nas is only 1GbE, while I could in theory stick a USB Ethernet on the nas, I don't think it is really worth it, I would also have to update the switches.
I have been wondering how to change the monitor between the mac and the PC and then realised the PC is on a display port and not HDMI, so I can plug the mac into the HDMI

cheers, for that

No worries. Just a thought. I chucked a 10GbE expansion card in my Synology after the Samsung EVOs burnt thorough in the cache card.

8 spinning sets of platters still good enough to fill the pipe without it though and the card was pretty cheap.

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

No worries. Just a thought. I chucked a 10GbE expansion card in my Synology

My Syno is now out of update support, so I'm thinking about replacement, but very little of their prosumer grade hardware does anything other than 2x 1 GbE. Have to get a 10bay or something insane for a slot and 10GbE... and I read some forums where updates to DSM stop the third party card drivers working...? You had any issues?

Mine is just over 5 years old. It's a DS1817+ with 4xGbE on board and an expansion slot. Lives under the stairs, runs 24x7 and has a stack of cameras feeding it via Surveillance Station. running the latest version DSM 7.1.1-42962 Update 3

Touch wood it hasn't missed a beat.

Most of the + series (e.g. ds923+) can be upgraded to 10GbE networking.

https://www.synology.com/en-uk/products/DS923+

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

Mine is just over 5 years old. It's a DS1817+ with 4xGbE on board and an expansion slot. Lives under the stairs, runs 24x7 and has a stack of cameras feeding it via Surveillance Station. running the latest version DSM 7.1.1-42962 Update 3

Touch wood it hasn't missed a beat.

Thanks!

In reply to a post by TinyMongomery:

Most of the + series (e.g. ds923+) can be upgraded to 10GbE networking.

Thanks - I've got a DS214+ which has run flawlessly for years, looks like I need to do some reading.

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

No worries. Just a thought. I chucked a 10GbE expansion card in my Synology after the Samsung EVOs burnt thorough in the cache card.

8 spinning sets of platters still good enough to fill the pipe without it though and the card was pretty cheap.

i can't do that either, the NAs is a cheap Terramaster, which does what I need, saying that due to energy cost it is turned off unless I need it, I have hooked up a switch bot bot to it, so I can turn it on with Alexa when required.
When I get myself sorted and start doing some videos again it will come in useful for that.

Next month i haver to take some data off a late mate's computer, audio files for different people that he was working on before he passed away, It have been over two years and people are want their music which is right, so I will use the Nas to stick them on, all in one place instead of the multiple drives they are on now