As a Windows user, I think this is by far the best review of the Mac Mini to convince me to finally try the MacOS operating system. Didn’t know that it was so easy run Windows in a VM using UTM, wow!
@@ZhuJo99 Thanks for letting me know. But I was just wondering that in case some M365 advanced features would not work for work on MacOS, I could quickly boot up Windows 11 in a VM and fix it from there.
@@FilipCools yes, but it will be Windows for ARM. Not sure how feature wise is Office 365 for Windows for ARM. I don't use office so not sure about macos features too.
My base model M4 mini arrived yesterday and I'm using it now (setup was easy because I already had all of the necessary peripherals, including external storage). It more than meets my needs and the power button placement is a non-issue. I'm super happy with it.
@@bryans8656 what about the disk speed? The 256gb base model seems to reach 2000/1900 Mbps rates right? What about the external disk? Are you using a USB 4.0/thuderbolt interface? It is supposed to support 40gbps, but they say 8gbps are reserved for video, it suffers from protocol overhead? What if you install a 3500/2700 ssd in a thuderbolt case? It becomes faster than internal storage?
A very comprehensive and useful real world centered review. Despite being a life long Mac user (we are talking OG Mac) it is refreshing to hear someone review the product from a Mac-noob perspective. No tear-down, no speculation, not going heavy on the bench mark scores, just using it and reviewing it. Well done.
I always trust Lon's reviews. This is exactly how reviews should be done; thorough and well-informed. It's also refreshing to see an acknowledgment that this form factor has been around for a while with Windows PCs, unlike other reviewers who naively claim that no one has ever made a desktop computer this small before.
It is not “incredibly expensive”. The Mac Pro is incredibly expensive. The Max is expensive. The Mini M4 is reasonable for people that need performance.
@@mavfan1 all opinions are welcomed :) but a good chunk of the mac mini M4 reviews are not just the base M4 pro but fully loaded systems which is at the 2k range. At that price point it is incredibly expensive. That's not a system for your regular computer user. That's what I meant
@@l0n3w01f the M4 Pro model is not that much more expensive than the M4 base model if you foresee the M4 base model also with 24GB of RAM and an SSD of 512GB. It can be a very interesting model as well.
I loved this review. You covered many details mainstream Mac reviewers skip and it really helped for users not up on all the various programs and features of the Mac.
Just got one and pleased to see you're one of the few that is reviewing probably the most sought after model and not the highest SPECT one that Apple hands out. To get around the power button dilemma I just turned it upside down and glued some rubber feet to it.
I got around the power button issue by sitting my Mac mini on top of my Apple DVD burner drive… yes, I still own one! It raises the mini just high enough so that it’s now easy to reach under the back and operate the power button. It also raises the exhaust off the table too! 🏴 I bought the M4 Mac mini, the middle one, and upgraded it to 1Tb. Sold my M1 Mac mini which funded the upgrade.
Very good review. One tip about the M4 Mini is that Applecare if you pay annually *never* expires and is less than $40 a year. Compare that to thr M4 Macbook Pro’s annual rate of $149.99. The M4 Mini is turning out to be an incredible value. If you need faster disk performance it is possible to add a thunderbolt 4 NVMe enclosure (add your own drive) and get better speeds at least to that disk. Definitely do get more internal drive space than th le base 256GB. Get at least double that or a terabyte. Much beyond a terabyte becomes a sticker shock, though. I have the 1TB model and paid a grand for it. Any additional disk space will be via external or to our Synology NAS. Thanks, Lon, for a great review. One of your best.
I watched the eclipse video but I watch everything that you do. But I realize though you really tend to lean on the algorithm versus subscribers, which makes sense. Understanding the business as youve explained it
Thanks for this. I’m considering getting one just to control and manage files on my iOS devices remotely with a mouse when at home, for ergonomics. I haven’t used a Mac laptop or desktop since they were on PowerPC CPUs, so this was a great update to my mental “what is a Mac like” file. The prices for anything above the base model are absurd if you don’t use them to make money, but this looks like a good deal for what I need.
Looks like the guy who posted that he’d already ordered one to be his media PC then actually watched Lon’s video and heard Lon say he didn’t recommend it as a media player, so he pulled his comment. 😄
You should try to make a whole video with the pc. Kinda curious what this can do in obs since my m1 struggles to screen record yet other external capture devices work fine.
What a great machine! My old man would love this! You should put your benchmarks into bar charts, very easy to see differences in a value then instead of reading a number down a table. Glad you recommend the AppleTV still for media as indeed the HDR switching and sound options are simplified for that use! Wish it had a SD Card slot but hey, dongle it is Cheers
One question: Can you connect the "Siri Remote" (the new Apple TV Remote) to the M4 Mac and can you use the M4 with the remote? Currently, the M4 - Mac is the only device with HDMI - Output that supports HW-AV1 - decoding.
Great video as always Lon. I have to say this machine is more than enough for the average consumer - but then so is the M1 mini, I have three M1 devices (Macbook Air, Mac Mini and iPad 12.9") and they all still fly and I have no trouble using them for home and work use and some light gaming
so when youtubers say that this is just for light video editing, what is really heavy video editing, what are we talking about? what is it that this machine cant do for 99.9999% of consumers?
Following up with Ziggy below - larger 4k files, RAW footage, color grading and correction, 3D renders, etc. But this is good for almost every video editing task.
@@LonSeidman lon why not and put it to the test and let us see what are the limits of this machine so we can get a sense of its capabilities... that would be an awesome video by the way
Thanks for the in-depth review. Do you think the base Mac Mini (upgraded to 24 or 32 gigs of RAM) would be enough to edit video files with multiple layers such as titles, PiP and green screening in 4K? Or, would I have to jump up to the base Mac Mini Pro with a better processor?
@@soniccinos I have a base model sitting on my desk waiting for the screen to arrive today (Sunday) and cannot wait to set it up. I also have the Samsung T9 SSD 2 TB coming.
Because of this video I tried that LLM chatbot on my M1 Mac Studio. I asked it the same exact question and it tore the M4 Mac Mini apart as far as speed. Can you imagine an old 6502 Apple (G1) tearing apart a G4 Mac? Processor upgrades don't mean much these days.
Which M1 do you have in the studio? The LLM relies more on the GPU vs. the CPU so you probably have a Max or a Pro. Also the model makes a difference too - did you use the Snoozy one?
I've been putting my M1 Mac Mini -- vertically -- behind one of the monitors out of the way and out of the sight with the Apple logo facing the back of the desk and all the ports on the left. That makes the power button at the lower left corner and a bit hard to reach. As I was influenced by all the videos, including this one, questioning the placement of the power button, I was also skeptical about the placement of the power button on the M4 Mini. Then I learned, with the way I will continue to place the M4 Mini, that the button will be at the upper left corner facing the front. Voilà - Apple's choice of the location for the power button is not by accident.
How well would it do as a Plex server? As in how many 4K transcodes can it do simultaneously? Also on the Apple website it lists this as supporting Dolby Vision and Atmos? Is that incorrect?
Thanks for the video. I like Apple products for their security but not their price but this Mac has me thinking. I would have liked to have seen an extended video transcoding test with something like Handbrake, as Arm chips can not yet match Intel CPUs for hardware video transcoding such as Quicksync. It would also have been good to see the M4's software transcoding performance.
I'm one of the people who are buying a mac for the first time EVER. I even got the latest macOS running on my surfacebook from 2015 in a VM JUST yesterday and I was like BLEH, I need SPEED! I am a fan of iOS though and thats my biggest problem as a windows user. I do tons of things on my desktop (not just getting mac VMs to work:p ) like AI training, adobe suite, 3D, blah blah blah... I use it for work! Gaming! Etc. But I am, and have been, for over 20 years, locked out of an ecosystem on the desktop side that I didnt want to buy into. I was ready to buy an ipad pro, but now? My old ipad will be the screen to my new baby mac! I can FINALLY iMESSAGE ON THE COMPUTER. I get it tomorrow so I'd thought I check out reviews, but the SOLE reason I got it, is the form factor, and the price/value which is INSANE. Also I love tiny things. And ranting apparently.
Tbh I would just use Crossover as Whiskey isn’t being updated and is on an older version of Wine. I haven’t has any issues playing games on my M1 Pro 14in
I have had two now and had to return them both, the power supply is making a humming noise. The guy in the Apple Store suggested it might be a grounding issue, but regardless it was annoying. Apple displays are properly grounded and the ones in the store were not making the noise. A number of other people on Reddit are having the same issue, but I'm surprised no RUclipsrs have picked up on this issue.
@ basically it seems to be an issue with grounding and if you don’t use an Apple screen, my screens are not grounded so as soon as you connect the HDMI cable or even just touch the outer shell with the outside of the HDMI cable the unit buzzes and it’s quite loud, especially when you’re sitting in a silent room. The device even buzzes when it’s shut down, but the power is still connected very strange. Could be something else. I’ve just ordered my third unit and will do more investigating with that if it makes the sound. It’s 100% not the speakers or the fan you can hear the components inside buzzing.
I have a question because I can’t sleep without an answer 😅 Mac mini does not have usb a port nor a keyboard or a mouse connected. Since all accessories like keyboard they have either usb a or Bluetooth or both how you connect Bluetooth keyboard and mouse for the very first time? Do you need an adapter to usb a ?
Hey Lon! How about a video about running a plex server on Apple silicon? Would the Mac Mini M4 be a good plex server vs an Intel mini PC with Quick Sync Video?
Awesome review, thanks! I've been looking at these for development purposes and while the base storage sucks (a lot), w/ an external ssd it should fit my purpose.
Great review, thanks for giving the base M4 a good look, most reviews are geared towards the Pro version of the M4. I was long debating wich one to get and after this and another M4 base Video I am sure that for me (doing light video editing in PR and photography editing in Photoshop I know that the M4 is capable enough for my needs. Thank you
@@bywthlo after three years of light use i had a problem when i was using it for a difficult task (it was heating up and it had cpu throttling)....i gave it to a local technician, and after cleaning it and changing its thermal paste, i now have no problem....if it overheats, probably wants cleaning from dust and/or changing its thermal paste, otherwise it is only slightly warm if you use it for a heavy task!!!
All of these mini PCs these days only have a front jack for audio. So if you have a set of wired desktop speakers you have to run them off the front jack? Or toss your wired speakers and buy a new BT pair?
A fair amount of monitors have a 3.5mm (headphone) Audio output jack as well. Which makes it so you can plug your wired speaker setup into that. That's how I'm running my Mac Mini and Dell monitor.
Thanks for the awesome video. I am struggling to get a m4 with 32 gb ram and 512 gb storage, or m4 pro with 14+20 cores with 24 gb ram and 512 gb storage. Any insight could u suggest if I need to run windows with power bi, power apps, and power automate, as well as tableau and x-code on mac os… May I ask if there are any recommendations? Should I go for more ram vs more cpu and gpu power?
It will be a bit of a bump up but not as significant going up from the M1 or earlier Intel models. I think in my benchmarks section I have the score from my M2 Air - it's a little constrained thermally vs. the pro but a good indicator.
I honestly don’t think you need the pro chip for professional video editing. The base model M4 Mac mini is more powerful than the M3 pro. As long as you have a lot of RAM the M4 should be more than enough.
The basic concern while buying a $599 Mac Mini M4 for older Mac Mini users is if all the old versions of Mac OS like Calalina or software like InDesign 2019, Coral, MS Office 2019, Pixelmator would work on M4 chip or for a $599 machine the user would require buying new software versions for $5000 Can you run a video on the basic problem of users?
Would be interesting to see tests for how it performs with high end emulation - ps3 and xbox360 and switch. Also would be interesting to see if virtual machine linux/windows can play games on it. Also didn't Apple release a tool that anyone can try to compile or run windows games on the mac? I saw people playing cyberpunk 2077 and baldurs gate 3 on a mac
Knowing that Apple computers run silently, I was concerned when I could hear my M4 base Mac Mini's fan. I stopped what I was doing and rebooted her. I logged in and with nothing running I could still hear the fan. It wasn't loud but it was audible. Not what I expect with a Mac. I was about to restore her to factory defaults when I realised.. it was my external hard drive making all the noise.
So when setting this up and connecting this Mac Mini M4 to a KVM, (sigh) yeah you definitely want to have a USB hub or just get a USB-A to USB-C adapter for it. I don't have any Thunderbolt devices, though. I even don't care for anything higher than 480Mbps (USB 2) as I the only reason is to have USB non-storage/non-networking devices hook up to a Mac Mini. I like having a clean look without having a bunch of devices hooked up to a Mac, Windows, or Linux PC. I have a 16-port KVM switch with HDMI 2.0.
As a Windows user, I think this is by far the best review of the Mac Mini to convince me to finally try the MacOS operating system. Didn’t know that it was so easy run Windows in a VM using UTM, wow!
Be aware this is ARM version of Windows, you can't natively run x86 Windows on Apple Silicon (or Qualcomm Snapdragon laptops)
@@ZhuJo99 Thanks for letting me know. But I was just wondering that in case some M365 advanced features would not work for work on MacOS, I could quickly boot up Windows 11 in a VM and fix it from there.
A good portion of x86 and x64 apps run in emulation on arm 11
@@FilipCools yes, but it will be Windows for ARM. Not sure how feature wise is Office 365 for Windows for ARM.
I don't use office so not sure about macos features too.
@@FilipCools you can also run lotus on it and you can buy a Commodore 64 as well. That is a fun product.
My base model M4 mini arrived yesterday and I'm using it now (setup was easy because I already had all of the necessary peripherals, including external storage). It more than meets my needs and the power button placement is a non-issue. I'm super happy with it.
@@bryans8656 what about the disk speed? The 256gb base model seems to reach 2000/1900 Mbps rates right? What about the external disk? Are you using a USB 4.0/thuderbolt interface? It is supposed to support 40gbps, but they say 8gbps are reserved for video, it suffers from protocol overhead? What if you install a 3500/2700 ssd in a thuderbolt case? It becomes faster than internal storage?
Whats the available space on base variant.
@@mastermemer8351 I still 183GB of space after transferring all of my apps and other stuff over from my MBP.
@@Jorge-2.0 I haven't had it long enough to run benchmarks or properly respond to your questions. RUclipsrs have covered the benchmarks nicely.
@@bryans8656 as possible the product is not happy with you. It might want to return you to Costco and then it will live in your house.
A very comprehensive and useful real world centered review. Despite being a life long Mac user (we are talking OG Mac) it is refreshing to hear someone review the product from a Mac-noob perspective.
No tear-down, no speculation, not going heavy on the bench mark scores, just using it and reviewing it.
Well done.
I always trust Lon's reviews. This is exactly how reviews should be done; thorough and well-informed. It's also refreshing to see an acknowledgment that this form factor has been around for a while with Windows PCs, unlike other reviewers who naively claim that no one has ever made a desktop computer this small before.
By far the best review / presentation of the new mac mini
Because Lon does actual reviews. Most everyone else is an infomercial like overview for free stuff.
Thank you!!!! all the tech tubers are reviewing the mini pro which is incredibly expensive
The pro is for pros. I'm making videos for normal people :)
It is not “incredibly expensive”. The Mac Pro is incredibly expensive. The Max is expensive. The Mini M4 is reasonable for people that need performance.
@@LonSeidmanI have never been accused of being normal before. 😂
@@mavfan1 all opinions are welcomed :) but a good chunk of the mac mini M4 reviews are not just the base M4 pro but fully loaded systems which is at the 2k range. At that price point it is incredibly expensive. That's not a system for your regular computer user. That's what I meant
@@l0n3w01f the M4 Pro model is not that much more expensive than the M4 base model if you foresee the M4 base model also with 24GB of RAM and an SSD of 512GB. It can be a very interesting model as well.
Thank you for the video.
The first real video with the M4 chip. All the other RUclipsrs always had the M4Pro with sinfully expensive equipment.
This is the review I've been waiting for. Thank you!
I ordered the Base model. and went back to this review. the best one yet.
LonBall you did the right thing slowing down the bronze supporters list so that people could easily see their name. Smart.
I did not realize people actually pay attention to those. haha
@ My entire team was very concerned for those poor bronze persons
Good to see you after years that I left your content. You know use glasses (as I do) but still as passionate as always. Keep rocking Lon!
Blessings!
Thanks for coming back!
I loved this review. You covered many details mainstream Mac reviewers skip and it really helped for users not up on all the various programs and features of the Mac.
Just got one and pleased to see you're one of the few that is reviewing probably the most sought after model and not the highest SPECT one that Apple hands out. To get around the power button dilemma I just turned it upside down and glued some rubber feet to it.
Same. Had 4 extra rubber feet form an 8 pack i bought a while back. Works great. lol
I got around the power button issue by sitting my Mac mini on top of my Apple DVD burner drive… yes, I still own one!
It raises the mini just high enough so that it’s now easy to reach under the back and operate the power button.
It also raises the exhaust off the table too! 🏴
I bought the M4 Mac mini, the middle one, and upgraded it to 1Tb. Sold my M1 Mac mini which funded the upgrade.
I just wish they put one more Thunderbolt 4 port on the back! Using it now. Loving it.
Best review of the M4 Mac Mini I've seen so far!!!
An honest and useful review. Most others are reviewing M4 Pro mini which Apple gave it to them. You can easily make it out.
Always enjoyed your content and passion, especially when reviewing great hardware. Great review. Thank you.!
Best review of this model I've seen. Subscribed!!
Great video! A windows user here who just ordered one of these!
Very good review. One tip about the M4 Mini is that Applecare if you pay annually *never* expires and is less than $40 a year. Compare that to thr M4 Macbook Pro’s annual rate of $149.99.
The M4 Mini is turning out to be an incredible value.
If you need faster disk performance it is possible to add a thunderbolt 4 NVMe enclosure (add your own drive) and get better speeds at least to that disk.
Definitely do get more internal drive space than th le base 256GB. Get at least double that or a terabyte. Much beyond a terabyte becomes a sticker shock, though.
I have the 1TB model and paid a grand for it. Any additional disk space will be via external or to our Synology NAS.
Thanks, Lon, for a great review. One of your best.
applecare exists outside u.s.???
@@yannisgkyes but not in all countries
I love this little speed demon. It loads apps and web browsing so fast. I'm happy they went with Wi-Fi 6e.
I watched the eclipse video but I watch everything that you do. But I realize though you really tend to lean on the algorithm versus subscribers, which makes sense. Understanding the business as youve explained it
this is easily the most valuable review no youtube right now (ive watched 40). the only one in the running is that Mirani guy
Thanks for this.
I’m considering getting one just to control and manage files on my iOS devices remotely with a mouse when at home, for ergonomics.
I haven’t used a Mac laptop or desktop since they were on PowerPC CPUs, so this was a great update to my mental “what is a Mac like” file.
The prices for anything above the base model are absurd if you don’t use them to make money, but this looks like a good deal for what I need.
Looks like the guy who posted that he’d already ordered one to be his media PC then actually watched Lon’s video and heard Lon say he didn’t recommend it as a media player, so he pulled his comment. 😄
You should try to make a whole video with the pc. Kinda curious what this can do in obs since my m1 struggles to screen record yet other external capture devices work fine.
One correction: power supply is actually on the top of the unit :) otherwise the review is flawless.
What a great machine! My old man would love this!
You should put your benchmarks into bar charts, very easy to see differences in a value then instead of reading a number down a table.
Glad you recommend the AppleTV still for media as indeed the HDR switching and sound options are simplified for that use!
Wish it had a SD Card slot but hey, dongle it is
Cheers
One question: Can you connect the "Siri Remote" (the new Apple TV Remote) to the M4 Mac and can you use the M4 with the remote? Currently, the M4 - Mac is the only device with HDMI - Output that supports HW-AV1 - decoding.
Great video as always Lon. I have to say this machine is more than enough for the average consumer - but then so is the M1 mini, I have three M1 devices (Macbook Air, Mac Mini and iPad 12.9") and they all still fly and I have no trouble using them for home and work use and some light gaming
Great review with helpful tips, the best review I've seen and watched loads on the M4 mini 👍
I’m loving mine. Got a ROG Ally and now a Mac mini as my main devices.
Getting mine on Monday…definitely going to try UTM!
so when youtubers say that this is just for light video editing, what is really heavy video editing, what are we talking about? what is it that this machine cant do for 99.9999% of consumers?
@@ziggy8757 Lon is probably talking about large 4K video files. Because rendering those after editing does require a powerful processor.
Following up with Ziggy below - larger 4k files, RAW footage, color grading and correction, 3D renders, etc. But this is good for almost every video editing task.
@@LonSeidman lon why not and put it to the test and let us see what are the limits of this machine so we can get a sense of its capabilities... that would be an awesome video by the way
Thanks for the in-depth review. Do you think the base Mac Mini (upgraded to 24 or 32 gigs of RAM) would be enough to edit video files with multiple layers such as titles, PiP and green screening in 4K? Or, would I have to jump up to the base Mac Mini Pro with a better processor?
@@elizabethw7917 I think you'd probably be fine with the 16GB version for that.
I need that 8TB SanDisk Desk Drive free of charge coming into my house too!
Really enjoying my M4 mac mini so far.
Did you get the base model, or made upgrades?
@@soniccinos I got the base model. Huge upgrade from my M1 iMac.
@@MotherRat-ii6ji Nice! I’m planning on getting the base model too! Just plug a nice external ssd and it’s all good!
@@soniccinos I have a base model sitting on my desk waiting for the screen to arrive today (Sunday) and cannot wait to set it up. I also have the Samsung T9 SSD 2 TB coming.
Because of this video I tried that LLM chatbot on my M1 Mac Studio. I asked it the same exact question and it tore the M4 Mac Mini apart as far as speed. Can you imagine an old 6502 Apple (G1) tearing apart a G4 Mac? Processor upgrades don't mean much these days.
Which M1 do you have in the studio? The LLM relies more on the GPU vs. the CPU so you probably have a Max or a Pro. Also the model makes a difference too - did you use the Snoozy one?
@@GameSackLLMs use the Neural Engine cores rather than the CPU cores. They might use the GPU as well.
Do you have the Max or the Ultra?
@@LonSeidman I have the M1 Ultra. The Model was L2 Llama B2 or something like that. It was the one that downloaded when they said "Download a model".
@@fmax3000 Ultra.
@@fmax3000depends on how the environment is configured. There are options for CPUs, GPUs and NPUs
I've been putting my M1 Mac Mini -- vertically -- behind one of the monitors out of the way and out of the sight with the Apple logo facing the back of the desk and all the ports on the left. That makes the power button at the lower left corner and a bit hard to reach. As I was influenced by all the videos, including this one, questioning the placement of the power button, I was also skeptical about the placement of the power button on the M4 Mini. Then I learned, with the way I will continue to place the M4 Mini, that the button will be at the upper left corner facing the front. Voilà - Apple's choice of the location for the power button is not by accident.
Great review. This is a great computer for a normal content user and occasional dabbler with videos and photos.
How well would it do as a Plex server? As in how many 4K transcodes can it do simultaneously? Also on the Apple website it lists this as supporting Dolby Vision and Atmos? Is that incorrect?
This Mac mini is very resposnsive and snappy
Can you power it via USB-C and not the ac cable ‽
Negative
Very good presentation. The information is very helpful.
Thanks for the video. I like Apple products for their security but not their price but this Mac has me thinking. I would have liked to have seen an extended video transcoding test with something like Handbrake, as Arm chips can not yet match Intel CPUs for hardware video transcoding such as Quicksync. It would also have been good to see the M4's software transcoding performance.
Best computer ever made imo, when you factor in cost to performance, build quality, size, noise, connectivity.
This is a game changer!
I'm one of the people who are buying a mac for the first time EVER. I even got the latest macOS running on my surfacebook from 2015 in a VM JUST yesterday and I was like BLEH, I need SPEED! I am a fan of iOS though and thats my biggest problem as a windows user. I do tons of things on my desktop (not just getting mac VMs to work:p ) like AI training, adobe suite, 3D, blah blah blah... I use it for work! Gaming! Etc. But I am, and have been, for over 20 years, locked out of an ecosystem on the desktop side that I didnt want to buy into. I was ready to buy an ipad pro, but now? My old ipad will be the screen to my new baby mac! I can FINALLY iMESSAGE ON THE COMPUTER. I get it tomorrow so I'd thought I check out reviews, but the SOLE reason I got it, is the form factor, and the price/value which is INSANE. Also I love tiny things. And ranting apparently.
welcome to the apple ecosystem!!!
can an iPad be used as the monitor?
So, how many years back for a Mac Studio would this base model M4 Mini be equal to power wise?
Tbh I would just use Crossover as Whiskey isn’t being updated and is on an older version of Wine. I haven’t has any issues playing games on my M1 Pro 14in
I have had two now and had to return them both, the power supply is making a humming noise. The guy in the Apple Store suggested it might be a grounding issue, but regardless it was annoying. Apple displays are properly grounded and the ones in the store were not making the noise. A number of other people on Reddit are having the same issue, but I'm surprised no RUclipsrs have picked up on this issue.
I have not heard it on my end. Do you have it plugged into a UPS? Some have a synthetic sign wave they generate that could result in some coil noise.
@ basically it seems to be an issue with grounding and if you don’t use an Apple screen, my screens are not grounded so as soon as you connect the HDMI cable or even just touch the outer shell with the outside of the HDMI cable the unit buzzes and it’s quite loud, especially when you’re sitting in a silent room. The device even buzzes when it’s shut down, but the power is still connected very strange. Could be something else. I’ve just ordered my third unit and will do more investigating with that if it makes the sound. It’s 100% not the speakers or the fan you can hear the components inside buzzing.
@@LonSeidman Just got my third M4 Mac mini and this one is silent!!! All the same cables so it was the device in the end.
@@Butcher-Butcher Interesting - can you check the country of origin? Mine was made in Vietnam
@ I can’t check the first two but I can check the one I have. Will look in the morning.
I kinda wanna see how emulation runs on this thing. Dolphin and rpcs3 etc
I'd love to see some benchmarks on those virtual machines showcased. especially windows. curious about how much a a performance hit we get from those
I have a question because I can’t sleep without an answer 😅 Mac mini does not have usb a port nor a keyboard or a mouse connected. Since all accessories like keyboard they have either usb a or Bluetooth or both how you connect Bluetooth keyboard and mouse for the very first time? Do you need an adapter to usb a ?
How.much memory is.available to the virtual Windows 11 ARM?
Great video Lon.
Is the new mac mini 4 good for designing ( photoshop , illustrator and blender ) ?
6:34 - Does Apple actually still use the iWork term? I personally haven't seen that used lately, unless I'm overlooking it.
I think they dropped it awhile ago but I'm old school :)
Well done review Lon. Thank you.
No mention of pushing the machine and the fan noise... that I could see?
It was mentioned
@@LonSeidman 21:27 found the mention.
@@LonSeidman It looks like the noise is from the M4 Pro machines.
Just discovered your channel, great video. Can I power the M4 mini using a lithium battery? Then it will truly be portable….Thanks
Hey Lon! How about a video about running a plex server on Apple silicon? Would the Mac Mini M4 be a good plex server vs an Intel mini PC with Quick Sync Video?
Awesome, you literally covered it all.
Hi, how much faster will their 512gb storage version be? Contemplating do i need to upgrade to 512gb if it's significantly faster.
How many transcode films on Plex can handle?
Awesome review, thanks! I've been looking at these for development purposes and while the base storage sucks (a lot), w/ an external ssd it should fit my purpose.
What happens if you get a flat tire?
hey lon , do you think amazon will have a sale on black friday on the m4 pro ? what do you think
Great review, thanks for giving the base M4 a good look, most reviews are geared towards the Pro version of the M4. I was long debating wich one to get and after this and another M4 base Video I am sure that for me (doing light video editing in PR and photography editing in Photoshop I know that the M4 is capable enough for my needs.
Thank you
Will i be able to use blender, light gaming, vs code stuff, and middle browsing on 256gb with 16gb ram? Great video
of course....i dunno 'bout blender and code stuff, but light gaming and browsing is capable even in my m1 mac mini with 8gb ram!!!
@yannisgk does it heat up a lot?
@@bywthlo after three years of light use i had a problem when i was using it for a difficult task (it was heating up and it had cpu throttling)....i gave it to a local technician, and after cleaning it and changing its thermal paste, i now have no problem....if it overheats, probably wants cleaning from dust and/or changing its thermal paste, otherwise it is only slightly warm if you use it for a heavy task!!!
@yannisgk it's a basic task on every pc, thanks for the tip
@@bywthlo don't mention it!!!bye!!!
Great review! Thank for covering such a variety of uses.
All of these mini PCs these days only have a front jack for audio. So if you have a set of wired desktop speakers you have to run them off the front jack? Or toss your wired speakers and buy a new BT pair?
Get a USB DAC.
A fair amount of monitors have a 3.5mm (headphone) Audio output jack as well. Which makes it so you can plug your wired speaker setup into that. That's how I'm running my Mac Mini and Dell monitor.
Hey Lon you're looking great! Any chance we can see a comparison between the new Mac mini and the old Mac Studio?
I don’t have the studio so unfortunately I won’t be able to do that one
Only with your keyboard you got a new subscriber ! does the mac mini have its own speakers?`
It has a speaker but a very basic one that is not for music.
@@pedrosa144 but much better than mine!!! (mac mini m1)
Thanks for the useful info in this video. Is webbrowsing noticeable faster on a M4 than a M1? (16GB RAM/512 GB SSD).
Not really.. My wife's M1 Air doesn't feel that much slower.. Although on paper the M4 is far superior.
How faster could be an external drive? The 512gb version is faster than 256?
Great Review..Thank You.👍
Would this be good for a plex server are there any formats it wouldn't be good for and also streaming content on other locations?
What’s the best Thunderbolt external SSD for the M4 Mac Mini?
Thanks for the awesome video.
I am struggling to get a
m4 with 32 gb ram and 512 gb storage, or
m4 pro with 14+20 cores with 24 gb ram and 512 gb storage.
Any insight could u suggest if I need to run windows with power bi, power apps, and power automate, as well as tableau and x-code on mac os…
May I ask if there are any recommendations? Should I go for more ram vs more cpu and gpu power?
Can you test running a plex server on the Mac mini
What is ur take on it as a media center with atmos
Is that a 4k monitor?
Yes
Lon. Great video. Would the base Mac Mini 4 be an upgrade over the MacBook Pro M2 chip 16 GB RAM 512 GB memory?
It will be a bit of a bump up but not as significant going up from the M1 or earlier Intel models. I think in my benchmarks section I have the score from my M2 Air - it's a little constrained thermally vs. the pro but a good indicator.
I honestly don’t think you need the pro chip for professional video editing. The base model M4 Mac mini is more powerful than the M3 pro. As long as you have a lot of RAM the M4 should be more than enough.
Only in CPU tasks. In GPU tasks the M3 Pro is more powerful
@@ChrisIngramTheEditor If by professional you mean editing for RUclips videos you are probably right.
What is the available space on the 256 GB variant?
The basic concern while buying a $599 Mac Mini M4 for older Mac Mini users is if all the old versions of Mac OS like Calalina or software like InDesign 2019, Coral, MS Office 2019, Pixelmator would work on M4 chip or for a $599 machine the user would require buying new software versions for $5000 Can you run a video on the basic problem of users?
Alot of gpus are costing the same has this model of mac. What you are getting amazing for what you can do.
Would be interesting to see tests for how it performs with high end emulation - ps3 and xbox360 and switch. Also would be interesting to see if virtual machine linux/windows can play games on it. Also didn't Apple release a tool that anyone can try to compile or run windows games on the mac? I saw people playing cyberpunk 2077 and baldurs gate 3 on a mac
Great review. Does anyone know how much memory is taken up by the software the Mini comes with?
There was about 180 gigs free give or take.
@ that’s very helpful, thank you!
Pl connect USB-A - laser (wired) printer to Mac mini m4
Awesome review...thanks
Knowing that Apple computers run silently, I was concerned when I could hear my M4 base Mac Mini's fan. I stopped what I was doing and rebooted her. I logged in and with nothing running I could still hear the fan. It wasn't loud but it was audible. Not what I expect with a Mac. I was about to restore her to factory defaults when I realised.. it was my external hard drive making all the noise.
Good Video,Got my mac mini m4 base model 2 days ago and the ssd speed has got faster with use WRITE 2909MB/s. and READ 2923MB/s.
for $200 more I would definitely get the next model with the 512 GB SSD for storage.
So when setting this up and connecting this Mac Mini M4 to a KVM, (sigh) yeah you definitely want to have a USB hub or just get a USB-A to USB-C adapter for it. I don't have any Thunderbolt devices, though. I even don't care for anything higher than 480Mbps (USB 2) as I the only reason is to have USB non-storage/non-networking devices hook up to a Mac Mini. I like having a clean look without having a bunch of devices hooked up to a Mac, Windows, or Linux PC. I have a 16-port KVM switch with HDMI 2.0.
Thanks for the productivity tools overview! I’m getting the Mac mini and will be using those.
Awesome & Thanks Sir :)
No emulation test?
Mentioned - PCs are much better suited for emulation right now