and also very expensive LOOOL. Upgrading the chip to the higher CPU/GPU and then 64 Ram…and then a 1TB storage….already at $2,500….these are hard decisions…
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Not forgetting that they will need to come up with something for the newly relocated power button…
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I agree with you and @webwalrus. Although connectivity is not an issue once everything becomes USB-C the key will be the thermals. My M2 Pro Mac mini can reach 90º C in the summer when occasionally rendering video with Da Vinci and I guess there’s some form of throttling there (not that I care, btw, the thing is absolutely silent and I love it!).
Surely for these kinds of tasks Apple will want me to use a Studio, but I will wait to see the reviews of the M4 Pro mini.
I’m definitely going to upgrade to the M4 mini to replace my 2012 i7 Mac mini. Think it’s time? 
I’m trying to figure out if I should get 24 GB RAM or 32 GB. I’d like to keep it a while (see above as replacement for 2012 model), but don’t know if I’ll need it. Sure, who can’t use more RAM, but I’m debating if it is worth the extra cost. I primarily use it for the web, email, Obsidian/Notes, photos (not a lot of video), backing up other computers in the house (Time Machine for other computers and then to Backblaze). I’m not a “power user” in the horsepower sense of the word, but am in terms of tweaking, trying new things, and productivity apps (Alfred, Hazel, BTT, Hookmark, etc) running in the background.
I’m sure 90% of people here will say to get the extra RAM, but I’d like to rationalize it with some reasons / justification.
I also have a 2012 i7 Mac mini connected to my TV that will be replaced by my current M2 Pro Mini, so I’m getting an M4 mini, that’s for sure. I like my computers to be retired with honours after long services. With that in mind, if you intend to have your computer for, say, 12 years, that’s 144 months. Not so sure about the 32GB RAM upgrade, but I’d say it’s less than 2$/month. So there you have it: probably your workloads will not be that different because you would not expect to, say, research new AI models, but the apps themselves will be heavier with more features (we are contemplating a decade here!), so for a long term investment, I think maxing out RAM is advisable. You can add external SSD storage in a pinch, but you cannot add RAM.
It’s worth noting that even the Pro level of CPU is the third option diwn from the top of the line. I stand corrected on “inexpensive”, but there is still a very clear delineation between the Mini and the Studio.
The fact that a relatively low level chip can accommodate 64 GB of RAM is a pretty solid testimony to how good the M series chips are.
I mean, even the “base” M4 goes up to 32 GB of RAM. It’s getting kind of insane.
First thing that came to mind was that AI will probably become a much more important topic in the future and I’d guess Apple would aim to have more and more done locally on the machines themselves - hence the demand for ram may become increasingly important. Even if one only does relatively light computing tasks, the demand for Ram is probably going to rise - 16gb is now the bare minimum Apple seems ok enough … even with AI still in it’s infancy.
If you keep your Mac for a decade macOS 25 will be a complete different AI entity than what things are now … at least that’s what I guess will be coming.
Therefore with more Ram you will keep more legroom for the future OS versions.
And as mentioned before if you simply do the math of your investment today over a decade then it becomes a Latte a day instead of an Americano 
.
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Futureproofing, especially for a decade, is a folly. At any point in time Apple will (and has!) introduced new software features that require the latest hardware. A prime example of this is that there is no Apple Intelligence for you if you bought your iPhone over two years ago, even if you went for the top of the line.
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I can’t say I’m PLANNING to keep the new M4 mini for 10 years, but I’d like to keep it as long as I can. One of the main reasons I’m still using the 2012 mini is that it’s mainly only doing backups now. My main daily computer now is an M1 MBA, which I will probably give to my wife when I get the M4 mini. Currently she has a 2018 Intel MBA, which is seriously slowing down and has a very loud fan (for such as small device). Because physically they are nearly identical, I’d like to see if she notices if I swap her out with my M1 MBA. 95% likely she won’t even notice (she’ll just stop the occasional comments about how slow and loud her computer is).
It’s a very fair point that future proofing for a decade is a folly. The way Apple (slow) rolls out their new features now, though, it seems I have a few years to go in the upgrade cycle before things really get good enough to use. I have an iPhone 13 and don’t feel that I’m missing anything in terms of Apple Intelligence at this point. I don’t think that will change for at least a year or two.
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I predict that some company will have a monitor mount for these within days. Anyone want a “do it yourself” iMac?
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i mean…a couple of Command strips would do it.
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+1 on DANG! So tempting, how to justify yet another Mac at home?
For your usage, I’d say that even 16 GB is sufficient.
Darn it, today my main current Mac Mini, a 2023 M2 is trying to go tits up. And then I found this…
SOOOOO Tempting! I’ve been lusting after an Oxford Nanopore system for several years now.
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Do it! And please tell us all what you think. I’m dying to hear what somebody in your field thinks about these chips.
I am trading in my last intel Mini (2018), my backblaze file server workhorse for a base model.
I’d love to, but first I need to figure out a kitchen table way to extract DNA from a TSU sample and prepare it for the Nanopore system including tagging so that I can run multiple animals on a single flow cell. I’ve talked to the folks at Oxford Nanopore and even participated in their usability testing of the iPad app but so far there are some sticking points on the actual DNA extraction and preparation process. Biggest issue is having relatively unskilled lab folks (eg farmers) extract the DNA cleanly enough to run a good analysis. Oxford asked for use cases so I gave them a detailed explanation of mine. They are working on it and similar use cases for in the field DNA analysis.
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I bought one to use as a Roon server (basically a music server). I was going to just buy the $600 model, but I figured if I ever stopped using Roon, I better buy a computer that would have more acceptable specs. So I ended up buying a $1,100 model.
Since ordering it though, it occurred to me that it’s probably a better machine than my M1 Max Studio. The Studio has more memory (32GB vs 24) and a much bigger SSD (4TB vs 512 GB), but I could just use an external SSD with it. The catch is, I think I need the USB ports on the Studio, and I use the SD card reader almost daily. On the other hand I do have Thunderbolt dock somewhere around here…
I ordered a M4 Pro 14/20 48GB 1TB mini last night.
It will replace the 64GB 2TB M1 Max MBP.
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