M1 Mini (today) vs. M1 Studio (in a month)

[irj]

Due to a job change, I need to get back on an Apple Silicon Mac. My choices are:
1) buy an M1 Mini 16GB / 512GB today for $1099, which I can afford
or…
2) base Mac Studio 32/512 for $900 more — I would need to save up for a month or so to get this.

What draws me to Studio: double the RAM and more ports, although honestly I already have a good Thunderbolt expansion hub, and I am not sure I will need the RAM anytime soon.

I don't do video work, except at hobby level.

I do multitrack recording (Logic, etc.) but not at a professional level.

I do see the Studio as a better future-proof choice and assume I could keep it 5 years. I assume with the Mini I will get an itch to upgrade in a couple years.

What would you do? Currently on a 2017 iMac that feels very slow after coming from M1 with my work laptop.

 

[Juicy Box]

If you didn't already have a Mac to use, I would just have to go with the Mac mini. But, you have a 2017 iMac, just use that until you have enough money to get what you want.

On the 2017 iMac, are you using a solid state drive as your boot drive? If not, fusion drives and HDDs do not run well on modern MacOS.

Maybe getting a cheap external solid-state drive would improve performance, and let you hold off until the rumored 27 inch Apple Silicon iMacs come out.

 

[rm5]

M1 with my work laptop

An aside—you're lucky your old job gave you an M1 Mac!! All the computers here at school are still Intel...

You should get an M1 Mac mini, UNLESS your music production projects are extensive. I've run into numerous RAM issues with my M1 MBA with 16 GB of RAM when running larger projects. I do some film scores, and those projects regularly go into the 60-70 track range on the low end—they can easily reach over 100 tracks if the project requires many instruments. And this is when running a minimal number of built-in Logic sounds, because those sound pretty bad, so I always use third-party libraries. For example, I have the Berlin Orchestra (huge investment but DEFINITELY worth the steep price!), and when running 50 of those instruments—the process "AUHostingService" which manages the libraries regularly uses upwards of 8 GB of RAM (each instrument uses ~250-300 MB of RAM), plus Logic which uses an additional 3-4 GB of RAM. That gets DEEP into the swap territory, too.

So sorry for my extremely long explanation, but it depends on how big your projects are! If they're small, the mini should work fine. But if they're large like mine, just get a Mac Studio.

 

[irj]

If you didn't already have a Mac to use, I would just have to go with the Mac mini. But, you have a 2017 iMac, just use that until you have enough money to get what you want.

On the 2017 iMac, are you using a solid state drive as your boot drive? If not, fusion drives and HDDs do not run well on modern MacOS.

Maybe getting a cheap external solid-state drive would improve performance, and let you hold off until the rumored 27 inch Apple Silicon iMacs come out.

Yes, it is booting from an external SSD which makes a ton of difference. It's … usable for another few months! Thanks for good advice.

 

[irj]

An aside—you're lucky your old job gave you an M1 Mac!! All the computers here at school are still Intel...

You should get an M1 Mac mini, UNLESS your music production projects are extensive. I've run into numerous RAM issues with my M1 MBA with 16 GB of RAM when running larger projects. I do some film scores, and those projects regularly go into the 60-70 track range on the low end—they can easily reach over 100 tracks if the project requires many instruments. And this is when running a minimal number of built-in Logic sounds, because those sound pretty bad, so I always use third-party libraries. For example, I have the Berlin Orchestra (huge investment but DEFINITELY worth the steep price!), and when running 50 of those instruments—the process "AUHostingService" which manages the libraries regularly uses upwards of 8 GB of RAM (each instrument uses ~250-300 MB of RAM), plus Logic which uses an additional 3-4 GB of RAM. That gets DEEP into the swap territory, too.

So sorry for my extremely long explanation, but it depends on how big your projects are! If they're small, the mini should work fine. But if they're large like mine, just get a Mac Studio.

This definitely helps. Maybe I should not max out at 16 GB ram for the foreseeable future. This iMac has 40GB, but of course that was when it was easy to add more on your own.

 

[ADGrant]

Due to a job change, I need to get back on an Apple Silicon Mac.

....

What would you do? Currently on a 2017 iMac that feels very slow after coming from M1 with my work laptop.

Were you also using your M1 Work laptop as your personal laptop? If so, this is really not a good idea.

 

[tstafford]

My two cents:

• Buy Apple refurb and save on either of those. Base MS is regularly available for $1799.
• Sounds like you want to buy the MS and if that's the case wait and do it - I love mine
• Seems like the Mini is plenty of machine and takes advantage of the money you already spent on the TB doc

My advice - buy the Mini

 

[wonderings]

Get what you need now. If you think you might need more RAM get more RAM. Apple being so friendly to consumers is nice enough to not allow you to upgrade or add more RAM when you want. So you are wonderfully stuck with a machine you cannot upgrade... ever.

 

[maflynn]

1) buy an M1 Mini 16GB / 512GB today for $1099, which I can afford
or…
2) base Mac Studio 32/512 for $900 more — I would need to save up for a month or so to get this.

Do you need 32GB of ram?

What does the Studio do for you that the Mini won't? The two computers seem to be for very different markets. Its just me, but I'd probably look to get 1TB of storage.

If this is strictly for work, why won't your employer supply a computer for you to do your job?

 

[edubfromktown]

You might also consider buying a refurb base Studio for $1799 from Apple's website.

Nothing wrong with the Mini either for your purposes...

 

[Gudi]

What would you do?

3) A purple 24" iMac.

 

[Basic75]

until the rumored 27 inch Apple Silicon iMacs come out.

I thought those rumours were dead when the Mac Studio and 27" Studio Display arrived?

 

[Juicy Box]

let you hold off until the rumored 27 inch Apple Silicon iMacs come out.

I thought those rumours were dead when the Mac Studio and 27" Studio Display arrived?

Not dead, but with all rumors it could never happen.

No one knows for sure.

For example, there has been rumors, off and on, about an actual TV set made by Apple since around 2004. Probably will never happen, but the rumor never died.

I would bet on a 27" way more that the Apple Television.

Although, it may not have the price tag of the old Intel 27" base model, and might be considered more "Pro".

Again, the 27" may never happen. Or if could happen tomorrow. That is how things works on MR.


More to the point of my post, if the OP has a working Mac that can get them by for now, I suggested continuing to use it until a decent replacement comes out. Maybe a 27" iMac or the next Apple Mac Studio.

If the OP didn't have a Mac to use, or if the Mac that the OP had was super old or dying, then I suggested that get the M1 MM because the need is urgent.

 

[irj]

Were you also using your M1 Work laptop as your personal laptop? If so, this is really not a good idea.

True. I did have a separate login for personal stuff but wouldn't want to repeat this experience.