2023 Mac Mini M2 Pro with 10‑core CPU and 16‑core GPU $1099

[trs96]

This has to be the best performance per dollar that Apple offers today. It's $200 off normal retail price at Amazon.com

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BSHFS6XX


Yes, you're limited to 512GB of internal storage but, you get 4 TH4 ports and you can buy Gen 4 NVMe SSDs at a fraction of Apple's prices for that extra storage you need. Hard to beat this performance with most of the hacks you can build in this price range.

 

[craighazan]

And it crushes the Mac Pro in performance for a fraction of the cost. Deal of the decade IMO!!!.

 

[nottooshabby]

and takes up a lot less desk space that my lian li 011 case even with some external drives attached.

 

[scottkendall]

You mention the hard drive space is small but the real issue with these is the memory is only 16GB. Install a few Adobe apps, and you are at 8GB at idle. Unless your plan is to only listen to music and do shopping on Amazon, 16GB is not enough.

 

[ffk]

You mention the hard drive space is small but the real issue with these is the memory is only 16GB. Install a few Adobe apps, and you are at 8GB at idle. Unless your plan is to only listen to music and do shopping on Amazon, 16GB is not enough.

I agree, 16 is not enough. 32 is not enough either... I have a MacStudio with 32, and, if you push the RAM limits, the machine is useless! Open and Save dialogs do not open. It doesn't crash. It just refuses to do anything until you Force quit the problem app waiting for the dialog. You can attempt to reboot but sometimes it just sits with a blank screen as if it's waiting for something... maybe it's TRIM... idk... I hate my Apple Computer.

The only thing it doesn't do is suck alot of power like the i9 13900k hackintosh... but the way things are going with this world, just add another solar panel and that'll help absorb some of the cost to run a computer that is actually usable during the day when the sun is out.

 

[trs96]

Even though Apple calls this "Pro" it's obviously not enough for demanding professional use. I don't know of many pros that try to do all of their work on a $1,100 computer. If you're going to use a Mac to make money, it makes sense to spend a lot more than $1,100 on it.

What the first post actually says is:

best performance per dollar that Apple offers today

There is no mention that it's the best Mac for professional use. It's obviously more than enough for an average Mac user doing everyday tasks and some less demanding photo/video editing. In that regard it will outperform most off the shelf Windows PCs in that price range. If you build your own hack with a dGPU like an RX6600 you'll get better graphics performance but draw a lot more power and need a much bigger case. What a hack can never give you is perfectly working TH4 ports. At least I've never seen anyone here claim this.

 

[trs96]

Here's a photo/video editor that is much better off with a base M2 Pro Mac mini than his $4,500 2019 Macbook Pro. You can use this base model for a "moderate" level of professional use. 8K red raw editing. Not so much. That's what the first Apple Si Mac Pro is intended for. Just common sense.

 

[scottkendall]

I agree, 16 is not enough. 32 is not enough either... I have a MacStudio with 32, and, if you push the RAM limits, the machine is useless! Open and Save dialogs do not open. It doesn't crash. It just refuses to do anything until you Force quit the problem app waiting for the dialog. You can attempt to reboot but sometimes it just sits with a blank screen as if it's waiting for something... maybe it's TRIM... idk... I hate my Apple Computer.

The only thing it doesn't do is suck alot of power like the i9 13900k hackintosh... but the way things are going with this world, just add another solar panel and that'll help absorb some of the cost to run a computer that is actually usable during the day when the sun is out.

I do not believe that 32GB is enough, either. It is not so bad that I hate it though, and I do not blame the Mac for my problem I blame myself. I blame Epic Games for not creating software that works natively on M1/M2 Macs. Also it is not a memory problem it is a problem with the software and apples VTdecoderXPCService. It starts out stable but then at some point it goes off the rails and status pulling upwards of a 100GB of memory. I have seen similar behavior with the software on the Hack in last years release of Twinmotion. Epic Blames Apple, Apple blames Epic I blame them both.