I Bought a Second M1 Mac Mini (Here's Why)

Let's explore the reasons why I bought two Mac mini's and which of the two you should buy!

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[faisallllllllllll]

Reviews like this is what makes a review worth it! I want to hear user experience and reasoning, and this does it. Thanks!

[edglue]

Just ordered min yesterday.
16gb ram, 1tb HD and logic Pro.
Can't wait for arrival.
Great video

[StyleSensePlus]

Thanks! This was really helpful. I’m not a tech person. Just a regular person looking to buy the best Mac that I can afford. You explain why it’s important to get the most ram at the beginning in order to have the unit perform for the longest time without issues.And equally important how to continue to utilize old technology.I really enjoyed the story about your folks. That made it more relatable.

[goobfilmcast]

This is my intention the M2 / MX becomes available, I will use my current base M1 Mini as a Media server / HDTV-based computer with a bluetooth keyboard

[Funnelfest]

Yep.. I returned my Base Mac mini and got the Mac Mini with 16GB and 500 GB Storage. Made ALL the difference for my daily use and I am extremely happy with it!

[adeebkhan]

Awesome video! Great real world reasons for choosing the 16gb version. When the M1 came out there was so much confusion between the 8gb and 16gb with most tech YouTubers recommending the 8gb version.

[larryaugsburger]

Same configuration just arrived today. Very excited.

[studios]

Dang I thought you were going to combine the two for one Big Mac. :)

[FairchlldMusic]

Couldn’t be happier with my 16gb/1Tb mini m1

[edrumsense]

Garrett: I Bought a Second M1 Mac Mini
Me: I bought my first Macbook Pro Mid 2012

[jdlitson]

The additional storage also makes a difference in performance. The memory more so, but as storage fills up performance suffers. This is true on any device I have ever used.

[edwardlin]

Thanks for the vid, reinforces my decision to just spend more upfront for the 16gb.

[nickademuss]

running the base model M1 mini, I love it, it was an upgrade from the 11 year old iMac upgraded to 16gb memory and a SSD, as to ram, I edit a ton of photos, large 300-700 mega pixel scans of large format film shots. The mini loads them just fine in optimised Pixelmator pro, about twice as fast as the iMac. For life span, of the device or usability for the years to come, for the average user, either models will be fine, edit vids? then get more memory. Oh and look at the tear down vid, the case is half empty, I see some mods to come for adding an internal drive, even if you have to piggy back the cables from the socket.

[jefcoachbb]

Longevity is the main reason I purchased M1 Mac Mini with 1TB SSD and 16GB memory. I have owned a 2007 iMac and a 2012 Mac Mini. I did not purchase the max size for either the iMac or Mini and regretted that I didn't. I did not do that this time because there are no after-purchase upgrades and because of my age this could be my last Mac, thus I may not have the money to purchase another Mac later in life.

[firstnamesecondname]

My analogy is it’s like a restaurant, if the dinning room, kitchen, cash up, and service counter/stores, are all close to each other, then the step count of all the staff is lower, the kitchen gets dishes out faster and communicating between departments is clearer with less mistakes, and the staff are less tired than they would be if all the areas where spaced out or even on a different floor (throw a lift/elevator in to the equation for that one 😬)
🤔 of course there also the analogy that with everything in the restaurant so close then more customers can be shoved through in the same time frame and thus take more money it’s a double advantages even when only one advantage is initially thought of

[superviewer]

Thanks for the video. I was hoping you were going to say you had figured out a way to use the first Mac Mini as extra rendering power for the second one :D

[vernearase]

Not to be nit picky, but it just makes sense - especially if you're going to be using it for high resource workflows.

Let's face it, these things are so inexpensive to start off with that cheaping out on the RAM or storage just doesn't make any sense.

Sure they use memory much more efficiently - but data is data, and just because the process workflow within the system is so efficient simply doesn't change the fact that you're dealing with very large files and data which has to fit in memory while you're working with it.

Never could understand why creators who paid 3, 4, maybe even 5 thousand dollars for their previous MacBooks were buying base models of these new spec-bumped ultrabook competitors expecting them to fit all that data into 8 GB while their old models required 32 GB or more for the same tasks.

It's unified memory - not _magic_ memory.

Most people are looking at these first Apple Silicon Macs wrong - these aren't Apple's powerhouse machines: they're simply the annual spec bump of the lowest end Apple computers with DCI-P3 displays, Wifi 6, and the new Apple Silicon M1 SoC.

They have the same limitations as the machines they replace - 16 GB RAM and two Thunderbolt ports.

These are the machines you give to a student or teacher or a lawyer or an accountant or a work-at-home information worker - folks who need a decently performing machine with decent build quality who don't want to lug around a huge powerhouse machine (or pay for one for that matter). They're still marketed at the same market segment, though they now have a vastly expanded compute power envelope.

The real powerhouses will probably come later with the M1x (or whatever). Apple has yet to decide on an external memory interconnect and multichannel PCIe scheme, if they decide to move in that direction.

Other CPU and GPU vendors and OEM computer makers take notice - your businesses are now on limited life support. These new Apple Silicon models can compete speed-wise up through the mid-high tier of computer purchases, and if as I expect Apple sells a ton of these many will be to your bread and butter customers.

In fact, I suspect that Apple - once they recover their R&D costs - will be pushing the prices of these machines lower while still maintaining their margins - while competing computer makers will still have to pay Intel, AMD, Qualcomm, and nVidea for their expensive processors, whereas Apple's cost goes down the more they manufacture. Competing computer makers may soon be squeezed by Apple Silicon price/performance on one side and high component prices on the other. Expect them to be demanding lower processor prices from the above manufacturers so they can more readily compete, and processor manufacturers may have to comply because if OEM computer manufacturers go under or stop making competing models, the processor makers will see a diminishing customer base.

I believe the biggest costs for a chip fab are startup costs - no matter what processor vendors would like you to believe. Design and fab startup are _expensive_ - but once you start getting decent yields, the additional costs are silicon wafers and QA. The more of these units Apple can move, the lower the per unit cost and the better the profits.

So ... who should buy these M1 Macs?

If you're in the target demographic - the student, teacher, lawyer, accountant, or work-at-home information worker - this is the Mac for you.

If you're a heavy computer user like a creative and don't simply want a light and cheap computer with some additional video and sound editing capability for use on the go - I'd wait for the M1x (or whatever) later this year. You'll probably kick yourself when the machines targeted at _you_ finally appear.

[traknologist]

I'd love to see a behind the scenes breakdown of you editing process!

[JuganautTimelapse]

Really excellent video. I have used Mac's since around 1999, So the old G5 towers and several types of iMacs. I actually still use an iMac G5 from 2004 (antique) which just runs photoshop CS3 perfectly well. For the last 6 years I have used Mac Mini's with 16GB RAM and they work so well. However, I really like the new Mac Mini with the M1 chip purely because it will run apps such as the video editing app Lumafusion ;-) Game changer...

[andreasf]

Very good review! I am writing this on my 2010 27" iMac and that too has 16 GB RAM, which stops me from repacking it. I did buy a MacBook Pro 16" in 2017 as a replacement but use that for gaming only ... say no more. A properly spec'd Mac lasts a very long time.