There’s a big issue with Black Magic’s speed test: It’s only for sequential reads/writes, not for random reads/writes, which is more important for daily system usage. For example, WD SN570 is way faster than KIOXIA G2 on sequentials, but G2 absolutely demolished SN570 in real usage because its randoms are faster. I don’t know about Mac mini M4’s drives’ randoms, but because the SSD controllers’ are the same M4 chip, the randoms might not be too different. This is why I use Amorphous Disk Mark instead of the Black Magic test, because Black Magic is a camera company, they don’t care about random reads/writes.
Thank you, now I don't have to say it. And along with that, aren't these reads and writes relatively short and greatly affected by the cache size on the SSD.
This is why CrystalDiskMark is a good tool on the Windows side. It breaks things down a lot more than the Black Magic tool, which makes sense as its testing for how well it performs with video file formats.
I saw youtube videos where the M4 base model with 256gb was only getting 1700 speed test on write. I just bought mine 2 days ago at the Apple Store here in Illinois and bought the 512 gb like you did. I did it because I realized a couple of days ago that the hard drive on the 256 gb is actually two 128 gb on a board. One 128 on one side and 1 128 gb on the other side of a circuit board. With that being said it isnt one solid 256 gb drive...so it's going to slow down a little bit. My traded in M1 Mac mini that I had was 256 gb on board was faster than the M4 256 gb in regards to hard drive speed. I was getting 2100 write on my M1 and when I bought my M1 I had it configured with 16GB memory. I have always believed and you probably as well believe that you are as fast as your slowest component. I realized when buying the M4 with 512 gb that the hard drive board will get two 256 gb chips onto one board. I am getting with the 512gb on Blackmagic 4200 to 4500 write at time. So with knowing that - it's way faster than my old machine. I do believe the small slow down on the base model with 256 gb is because it's using 2 128 GB chips - and not a solid 256gb chip. I also came to the conclusion - when trying to decide if I should get the M4 pro (since its comes with 512 and the hard drive speeds look amazing) or get the M4 with 512. The memory I know for a fact has served me well for 4 years on my M1 and I never complained about 16Gb memory. So jumping higher to 24Gb was a waste for me. The M4 pro is more for CAD or 3D modeling
Just to challenge your logic, why was the M1 256gb that used 2 128gb chips faster than the M2 that came with one 256 gb chip ? The rumor was that Apple changed to one module to save money, but the 2 module design was inherently faster. The solution to better speeds on the M2's involved either getting a machine with 16gb of ram vs 8gb, or upgrading the drive to 512gb which used 2 256gb modules. Apple has now reverted back to using dual chips on the base models because of the prior problem with the M2 series base model sluggishness.
One other note, the storage on the M4 Mac Mini is on a removable chip and there are people that have already tested swapping modules and building custom upgrade solutions for the SSD.
@@ericjohnson829yea I saw that when the M2 came out that my M1 was faster than the m2 on HD speed. I sorta chuckled at that back then. Yes I’m not really 100% sure the whole reasoning or logic to why this is happening. Maybe three is something going on with bus speeds. I joked to the store rep about the M4 base model 256gb running on a RUclips @1700 write speeds and said what is apple doing - putting in used hard drive chips and claiming new chips. I said that jokingly. Again I’m not sure what’s really going on with these ssd drives.
@@ericjohnson829 I like that they finally listened to the customer- we wanted that option. To replace if needed or upgrade the SSD. It’s very nice they did that.
These are EXACTLY the speed statistics I was looking for! Between the time the M4 came out and THIS video, I learned how to migrate my working apps and data to an external Thunderbolt drive. In essence, the machine largely boots off my external Thunderbolt box. In my case, I use an old Qwiizlab Thunderbolt 3 enclosure with 512GB NVME (I pulled this NVME out of an old Acer desktop that was my main Linux experimentation machine...) attached to my tried-and-true 8GB/256GB M1 Mac Mini. Just as you demonstrate...I simply do NOT have to worry anymore about the storage speed on my M1. So...yeah...for me a "base" M4 and a Thunderbolt 5 drive with up to 4TB of storage WILL be my next Mac! Mahalo for this timely advice! Aloha!
@@passportmarc Indeed, this is what I've done. My M1 has been with me for a fair bit of time. I got the idea of doing this from all the cool, new videos that people are making about using Thunderbolt 5 drives with M4 Mac Pros. I thought I would first practice by using a Thunder bolt 3 enclosure, an old NVME drive, and one of my existing M1 Macs. As you've seen elsewhere on RUclips, I, too, migrated my home folder, apps and date to the external. The system has to start from the internal drive. The modified parameters then tell it to seek out and find the rest of the bootup routine, the home folder and the other stuff from the external drive. It works very nicely with my crummy, old 512GB NVME so I'll then move on to replacing the 512GB NVME with a nice 4TB NVME in the near future. After I use this for a good, long while, I'll be comfortable to move on to an M4 Pro with a newer Thunderbolt 5 enclosure...possibly one with a pair of NVME drives in a RAID configuration. Sounds like a fun thing to do.
Subscribed. Been researching on reddit and watched a bunch of videos about the M4 vs M4 Pro mostly care about the ram. Then I found your video. I went with Costco config M4 512GB/24GB Ram for $800 something after discount. Mostly use it for basic 4K editing with Final Cut. Hope it will last 5 years then I can upgrade. Buying the base M4 Pro seems great with the same Ram and SSD but it’s too powerful which I do not need. It’s $1400 too where I can save almost $400 just going with the standard M4. Thank you!
The 24GB RAM upgrade is the first thing you should consider. It allows you to run an 8GB Windows virtual machine while still having enough RAM for Mac apps.
@michaelcorcoran8768 well, more and more big titles comes to Mac, so they just growing slowly.. this M4 gen should give a big push for the game devs too. Ray Tracing support just arrived in the M3 series, and with M3+M4 Macbook+Mac their nimbers just growing really fast, they can reach about the same amount of active reacheable users like Steam, or if you also add the M1 and M2 to that and even the iPad and iPhone as a gaming tool since they use the same cores, just in different amount, than already nearly 1 billion gaming ready devices on the market, what is 8x more like the Steam can offer with 120 million or Playstation can offer with 116 million active users, also the Apple store is the most profitable store on the planet, and the store renevue is actually the cut off from the spent amount of money.. so if the Apple store earns $80billion while the Steam store earns $10billion, then the devs in Apple store are also earned 8x more.. guess which company can inore the more potential profit.. because Apple already have 1,5billion of active users, and about half of them already have an A14/M1 or better chip, but they are selling about 350million gaming ready device each year, which is more what Steam+Playstation together can offer.. (250 million iPhones, and at least 100 million combined sales for iPad+Macbook+Mac)
In Canada, the base model is $899. Your upgrade is $1099, i believe . For $1299, you get 24 gb, 512 ssd, this is what i opted for. The m4 pro is $1899, i hope i made the right decision, but i figured $600 extra was a bit steep ... I will mostly just use it for recording and mixing music, Harrison mixbus user here 👍
I plan to go for the same config. I was initially going to go with 16gb RAM but 24gb might give me a little more headroom if I decide to leverage Apple Intelligence features in the future. Unless you are planning to do heavy video editing, complex music production or a lot of gaming on it then I think you made the right decision as the M4 non-pro should be more than enough.
@@ancayman As @coltjustice45 mentioned above, here in Canada it's $600 more for the M4 Pro model over the M4 with 24gb/512. It's a much bigger jump to the M4 Pro here unfortunately :(
I’m still using a 3.46ghz 12-core 2012 Mac Pro for DAW software (Pro Tools, Reason, Waves and isotope plugins). The base model will smoke my setup easily and despite currently having 96GB, I’ve yet to see it use much over 24-30GB. I also use an external 10Gbit USB-C enclosure as my recording drive and as storage for my Steam library.
I am thinking of jumping to silicon for S1 Pro and possibly Logic Pro, but am curious about simultaneous multi-channel recording latency (28+ tracks), at 24-bit 48K. I wish I could see more demos of this type of tracking. Most focus on mixing and plug-ins.
No need to upgrade the the SSD to 512 GB for a ridiculous £200. Simply buy a Crucial P3 1 TB NVMe for £60 and a Thunderbolt enclosure for £70 - £100, install the OS and all your apps on it and run the M4 from that. That way the tiny SSD gets absolutely no wear and tear and the whole caboodle will run faster than using the internal. I have been using a 1 TB USB 3.0 SSD on the basic M2 mini (8 GB RAM, 256 GB SSD) for the past year and despite the slow speed of the USB drive, it was only 1% slower in Geekbench scores. Rendering and exporting FCP and Resolve projects took 4% longer which was negligible. No need to upgrade RAM. A lot of people misunderstand RAM. The Mac is designed to use most of its RAM whatever it is doing. So your computer may be idling and yet it appears to be using 75% of its RAM and you mistakenly think you need more RAM. WRONG! The computer is working just as it should. You could put in 64 GB RAM and it would still show most of it being used whilst doing simple tasks.
@@craigneidel Sorry, I must have missed that. I don't bother with the Home Folder on the mini, I just create a new one together with all my apps on the external. As mentioned, even using a terribly slow USB SSD (c. 360 MB/s) there was no noticeable reduction in performance using FCP and Resolve etc. The only thing that was slower was straight copying of huge files which obviously would take around 5x longer but that is something i rarely ever do. My overall discovery was that the speed of a drive has almost no effect on everyday computing tasks as that is determined mainly by the CPU/GPU.
The best configuration for most is the base configuration. Anything above that is not worth it, the upgrades are priced unbelievably above market prices. Use an external SSD instead of upgrading. For the price of an upgrade to 512GB with Apple, you can buy an external Thunderbolt 2TB drive that is _faster_ than the internal one.
Yes, but with sales I think the 512 GB version is the best to get longer term. Even 512 GB is low and you can still use external storage and you won't have slowdowns when you fill up your primary drive.
@@craigneidel For me, It's about the value proposition, really. I do not disagree that a larger internal drive is better, but the $200 that it costs is a substantial amount of money compared to the cost of the base model (especially if you buy it at a discount, as you said). And if you buy say an external 2TB Thunderbolt drive, that's yet another $200 or so, and we are in $1000 territory. It's still a good computer at a good price, but the incredible value that you have with the base model is lost. At this price, you have options. And I believe that what makes the M4 Mac Mini special, is that you can have a top-of-the-line computer for a price at which there is nothing remotely comparable. You do not see this from Apple often (if ever.) A good computer at a normal price is not so jaw dropping. And if you use an external drive anyway, the size of the internal drive just does not matter, as long as it can hold the OS comfortably (and 256GB is plenty for that).
But if you make that in 1 job to buy a $2500 Mini M4 Pro which many do it’s really not a huge deal or concern. No need to cut corners when it’s your livelihood. I remember the days spending $15k on a Mac Tower with far less potential and $5k on a shi$$y monitor that really sucked back in the day!
@@AtortAerials If it's your livelihood, for $2500 you can buy a more performant computer for most use cases. Otherwise it's just a matter of luxury, and there is no way to argue with that. If you dearly desire the $10,000 golden Apple watch and you have the disposable income for it, what argument could possibly deter you? But this is not what we are talking about when discussing value.
@@craigneidel I see it as a better longterm investment for my needs, setting up a music composition workstation with orchestral libraries etc. Will require a bunch of external drives as well, but that's always how I set these things up anyway.
Did you use the thunderbolt port in your external SSD test? Do you get the same results using one of the non-thunderbolt USB-C ports? I’m considering the studio display and would need to use the thunderbolt port for that full time. Thanks for the review!
Thank you. Note I said it's the best for most users but if you are a power user get the ram you know you need. I should do testing on a few more in the future.
My humble opinion 24gb+256gb is better option for future proofing a bit as ram cannot be upgraded later, also new macos allows app install and home dir move to external ssd, so storage is less critical than ram.
That's the reason why I bought the M4 Pro. Now I'm more or less safe for the future. I also have an external 1TB external drive. That should be enough for now.
Future proofing doesn’t seem economically feasible with the year over year improvements. I’d rather get the base model and then get a new base model in 4 years instead of upgrading big now and holding on for 10 years.
@@Samuel-hj9ty I like future proofing. Mainly I have issues with the amount of waste and exploitation in the production of tech. I wish everything was easily upgradable by everyday folk.
That extra storage was very tempting, but for my modest use case the external storage was the best way to go. I have a 2TB external drive based on the recommendations of one of your past videos.
Please compare the performance of OWC to Qwizlab enclosures, both are heatsink type design will be interesting to see which one cools better, but OWC is quite a bit expensive and haven't seen in a sale yet so not sure if the extra cost is truly worth it.
Good timing! I was just watching your older videos then I saw this video pop up from your channel. Definitely going to watch this one! So far so good! Good choice on the Mac Mini with base + 512gb. I was thinking of going this route but with 24gb. That's literally the only thing my M1 Pro is kind of stopping me at. I do have an Intel 2020 iMac that has 64gb ram but man..I do love Apple Silicon. It's just so snappy. I have no problems at all in Logic Pro vs what I would have on my i7 2020 iMac.
I hope 512 is good enough for you. I’m one of those people who don’t like external drives sitting around. But I know many people like em to keep the cost down. ✌🏻
£200 for add a 2TB external drive or pay Apple £600 to upgrade the internal drive from 512Gb to 2TB - so only an increase of 1.5TB. It’s a no brainer. I spent the money on getting the Pro with extra ram.
I plan on getting the M4pro and 48 Gb. It’s not about what it can do now it’s more about what it will still be able to handle 5 years from now. I usually have several programs open at once and multiple drives connected. A maximum of 32Gb doesn’t interest me.
If you know you need it then get it. My video is about the average user and not somebody who might need 48 GB of ram. I would say that is very limited but some might need it and they already know that.
I don't care much about the ssd or ram speed as they are already fast enough for me. Is there anyway to get a DDR4/5 stick, put it in some closure, plug it to the thunderbolt 4 port and make the MacOS use it as additional ram?
My plan is to go base model and set the home and application folder up on my external. This is replacing my PC, so I already have all the accessories I need. I already have a MacBook M1, but I want to use that more as a media/document writing device, and do everything else on my M4 Mini. The original plan was to update to a MacBook Pro and skip out on the desktop, but now I think I'm going to hold off on that plan until a later gen (maybe 2027) - and just stick with the way cheaper combo of Mac mini M4 and MacBook Air M1.
Can you do a video on the speed difference of Mac mini base model using an external SSD and without the external SSD? I’m wondering if there’s different in terms of apps and videos editing or data transfer? Thanks
The set up seems good ....but......how do you do regular backups of the files stored on your external SSD? Is there a simple way to back up the files on the SSD automatically or is the only alternative to back up manually?
You can use Time Machine to backup multiple different drives. You can also make it back things TO multiple different drives too, which is handy if you want to have a copy that's taken off site.
Awesome review and advice. What made you choose the Samsung 990 Evo Plus? I’ve read that some people had issues with the firmware on the 990 Pro. Not sure if that carries over to the Evo too, so I was leaning towards the WD SN850X. Thanks
I got an M4 mini with 24GB memory and 1TB SSD. The writing speed is about 3060 MB/s and the reading speed is about 2943 MB/s when tested with Blackmagic Disk Speed Test. With AmorphousDisk test, both speeds are a little bit higher, 3260 MB/s and 3172MB/s, respectively.
@@craigneidel Looks to me Apple puts gen 3 spec SSDs in the mini and air with the base processor and gen 4 spec SSD‘s for the pro processors and higher.
I'm seeing very similar speeds on my M4 Mini with 32GB RAM and 512GB SSD. Write/read are always right around 3000. Now I'm wondering why I'm not seeing the higher write speed of ~4000.
I love this new Mac mini M4. Off-topic question: Can I use an Ethernet cable Cat. 8 on the new Mac mini M4? Thank you in advance (I have 1Gigabit, I know a Cat. 6a cable would be enough but usually newer is better and has lower or no interferences (EMI, Electromagnetic interferences))
I create music mainly, using GarageBand on an iPad Pro M1. I have conducted extensive tests, and I need 75Gb of free SSD space, to run GB safely without any issues crippling my music production. I see many reviews on the App Store, which I strongly suspect are the same symptoms as I got, when my free SSD space dropped below 50Gb, the absolute floor. After that point, GarageBand lets its ‘optimisation’ be known and it cuts the quality of sound in half or worse. Pretty hideous, it doesn’t even advise you of how bad it’s become - your expected 44.1kHz sound samples end up at 11kHz. Confirmed by a developer. There’s no reason a Mac would be any different. I would ‘write off’ 256Gb as being necessary for applications and that vital 75Gb of free SSD space to let them work. So I would buy either the 512Gb SSD or the 1Tb SSD, only because the M4 is too new for me to afford the 2Tb SSD my bought-used M1 iPad Pro has. So, for me, only my use, my opinion, I’d say my base Mac Mini would be an M4 with 512Gb SSD and 24Gb Unified memory. However, in practice I’d be awfully tempted to go up to 1Tb, as a former IT man. Now, by the time I get there, I am prepared to consider the following: I will put this on a credit card. Is it worth it to me, to borrow for twice as long, to get an M4 Pro with 1Tb SSD and 24Gb or even 48Gb memory, given the long-term use I’d get out of this serious investment in computing power? IE for me it would mean paying it back over 24 months not just 12 months. I think, both make a very good deal. The IT man in me, will always veer towards the top spec, I never regret buying a better spec of anything. And if I kept the M4 Pro machine for say 5 years as my ‘daily driver’, the difference I paid in purchase price even with interest, melts away. And I can do everything else, as well ! If we MUST live in an age of silicon, and soft synths having now for me overtaken hardware quality, then it is a no-brainer. In order to ensure the soft synths work, without glitching, I would go for the top spec I mentioned above, without blinking. Some people buy a flash car. I don’t! Take care all, there’s no losing-out here. Whichever spec you choose, you will get a very potent machine. The smartest move Apple ever made, was focusing on SSD, then on low power consumption. Heck, I swapped out my Lenovo tower’s HDD for a memory-chip based one 8 years ago, and now being SSD-based, the machine is still useful. I protect it with trusted anti-spyware, I pay for every six months, that really works. I bought it, in 2008. It’s useless for music making, but everything else, it does well. Take care all, and thanks for the vid and investigation.
Nice post and good luck with everything and for watching the channel. I think you are making a good decision on the spec and you will be comfortable with that M4 model.
great video. question. for logic audio and some video work. Apple Mac Studio M1 Max 10-Core CPU, 64GB RAM, 1TB SSD, 24-Core GPU, brand new for $1499 or should i just look more into a M4 mac mini pro 12 core 24ram 1tb??
Thanks. The reason I might not do the M1 is because of OS support and how that will be 4 years ago so the support won't last nearly as long. I might look at Mac mini.
Love the Qwiizlab enclosure, unfortunately can't get hold of one in the UK. Nobody has any. Amazon out of stock saying they do not know when it will be back. Which usualy means never with them.
Couldn’t bring myself to spend $200 for a 256gb upgrade. Since the memory is removable I’ll wait to upgrade later. There are 3rd party companies working on that. For now running off an external 2TB drive.
Can. you do a walkthru on how to set up a external SSD drive to edit off of, i seen other videos but they talk about how you move your home folder files to it and then set it to it etc? All i would like to do is how to set it up for editing and thats it.
I’m coming from a pc. This will be my first Mac. I’m a basic user but I do get into some heavy excel files that can bog down my PC with 32gb ram, cpu speed of 3.6ghz . I’m considering the base m4. What are your thoughts. Would be 512 be better? Side note; I plan to add a 2TB ssd tb4 to use as my home folder. Does that make a difference?
That seems good but maybe go with the 512 GB as you will be happier in the long run since some things will need to run on that and you don't want to push it. I would look for some sales. I heard Costco has that version for under $700 now on sale.
@@craigneidelwell, I ended up getting the 512 with 24Gb ram using Apple discount program 100 off. I received a gift card in the mail today that I used to bring my total down to 650 out of pocket. Maybe I won’t need the extra ram, this being my first Mac I was unsure of 16gb. All my pcs have had so much more than that.
I just picked up the M4 Mac mini 512GB SSD model that you just received, because the entry level 256GB SSD model was too limiting for me. The Apple store carried that 512GB M4 model in stock, unlike many of the Build To Order models with long wait times. My Write Speed on my 512GB model is only about 3,000 MB/sec with the same Read speed as yours on Blackmagic. I guess it depends on which particular RAM supplier Apple uses when they made your particular 512GB model.
Yeah, I'm not sure and I thought it was unusual on the speed of the disk but I have not tested it many times and it still comes back that fast. But, at the end of the day most won't notice a difference between these speeds.
Ordered 24g and 1tb storage plus I have 12tb ssd external (3-4tb) for photo storage which not near as fast as yours but lot faster than I have now with HDD 8 tb WD.
I’m surprised nobody has done a test in the Apple storage read/writes on 256, 512, 1TB, 2TB, 4TB, 8TB. It looks like the more you have, the faster they are.
@@craigneidel Thank you! I do real estate videography and photography so sometimes I do stress my current machine (i9, 2TB, 32gb) but I've been hearing so many good things about this new Mini M4 that I'd like to use it as my "work horse" and leave the current Linux Mint 20 machine to handle everything else. While I do have it set up to dual boot into a separate Win10 drive, I'd rather just leave the Linux and Mac running and switch from one computer to the other using the same display but two different keyboards with either a trackball or track pad built in. When I think about the $900 I paid for the Nvidia GPU a few years ago, it kinda makes me sick when this Apple Mini M4 with better computing power is now available for less than I paid for that graphics card. I did buy during the chip shortage but I needed it so of course I paid a premium at the time. I find it amazing that this M4 is so much faster with just a 512gb drive vs the 256gb.
@@craigneidel Ordered the base model with the 512 nvme through Amazon. I guess they are flying off the shelves because my delivery time is Dec. 10-20. For anyone reading this in the future, today is 11.20.24 so up to a month to get it.
Black Friday sales (or if you are just a Best Buy Member)... you can get the Base M4 Mini for $550. so $744 is still almost $200 more if you are comparing "Apples to Apples" (see what I did there?)
I went with M4 Pro fully maxed out CPU 2TB storage and 24GB of memory and upgraded Ethernet port….hoping 24GB of memory is enough. No way I would ever do less than 2TB of internal storage ever but that’s me.
@@craigneidel I know and I hate spending money...maybe I should have snort more conservative but then I thought about the thunderbolt 5 ports too being a good thing.
There was a RUclipsr by the name of David Lewis that recommended the $1,299 configuration of the Mac Mini with the standard M4 chip, 24GB of RAM, 1TB SSD, and the 10 gigabit ethernet port as the perfect sweet spot for almost all users. I wonder what your thoughts on that would be.
Yeah, but for most users that is another $400 bucks and then you are in the M4 Pro space. People that need 24 GB usually know they do but for the 90 percent who do normal computer tasks I think the 16 is fine. I mean I can even 4K edit just fine.
Its fast if you have enough memory for your task depending on your use case otherwise your SSD will be used for swap slowing the cpu gpu npu osx apps data multitasking down
Could someone please reconfirm that the mini M4 base model with 256GB SSD is about half so fast in terms of disk write/read speed than a 512GB SSD version. I thought that was the case only for the previous models. Another question. Is it a good and safe idea to save on staying with the base 256GB SSD, that is theoretically upgradeable (sometime maybe with a third party PCB module), or can be mitigated with an external SSD drive. and put that money rather into more RAM that can never be updated or circumvented ?
Go search for SSD speeds on RUclips and look at values. They are different but I know for sure the 256 is like 2100 at best and 2800 at best RW. But the 512 I have here and that is what I'm getting.
oh now I know, Mac Mini also means slow and mini disk performance. My 6 years old PC has Samsung M2 SSD with 3400 MB/s and Mac Mini Standard has SSD with 2000 MB/s. That's the reason I would never change my old PC for a new Mac Mini. With my Intel I5 CPU I have all the CPU power that I need for my programs.
Then use windows. Nobody is making you switch but trust me if you did you would love the mini. So snappy on everything it's a pleasure to use even 599 version.
ive seen reviews where people say that this time the 515gb version is not faster then the 256gb one like ot was the case with the older macmini. So what now ? :D
Iv seen another video where they used an external for the home folder so basically running all the apps off an SSD by thunderbolt 4. May try this I have the basic model I got for £400 😊
Apple Math has nothing to do with the costs, their formula just maxes out the money that they lure out from the people: the most from people in all levels of financial position.
Another great video Craig, is 16 gb ram and 512 gb storage good enough to run Adobe Lightroom Classic and Photoshop effectively as well as running DaVinci Resolve. Right now I have the 2021 M1 MacBook Pro with 32 gb of ram and 1 TB or storage. Thanks for any info. you can provide!
You may not be most people if you are running all that. So for you maybe 24 GB but I think that would be fine for your case. I mean you can use 16 fine but if you are running 32 now you may want at least 24 would be my guess if you are doing more powerful work like that. This video is about most people and most don't do all that.
Yes, but I know if you fill up that 256 GB where you only have like 50 GB left you can get some slowdowns. But, I do agree that is an option and a good one for some if they don't do this.
How about booting from an external drive? I boot from an external drive on my Mac Mini M1 and get close to the speeds from the internal...using the 990 might match the internal speeds of the M4....plus you are saving the internal from wear...
I heard that boot from externals on the M4 could hurt the ai stuff but I may do some testing. Maybe just making your external your home directly (right when you get Mac before you install anything) is another option.
@ yes, been following you and some others quite intensely regarding the new Mac Mini and it does seem that moving your home folder to the external drive right at the initial start up is the best and most trouble free way to go. I must say Craig is that I find your reviews and tests are to me most helpful. Not filled with meaningless theoretical benchmarks that others use but you concentrate on the real world and how 95% of use our computers and advise what will suit our computing.
Thanks Glenn. Appreciate that. I try my best. It's so hard to come out with videos on a daily basis with all the competition out there but I do my best to try and help people.
I don't think that much since most of Apples ai stuff you need to ask for like completing a email or creating an image. I mean during that time it would be using the memory for a short period.
Any feedback would be appreciated. I’m thinking of picking up the Mac Mini with 256 GB internal storage. I’m not a video editor nor do I need super high performance as I am now retired and most of my work is spreadsheets, watching RUclips, having multiple Safari tabs open simultaneously, etc. I’m trying to understand the advantage of adding an external SSD and placing my home folder and/or apps there. Also, if I add the OS to the external SSD what purpose does internal drive serve at that point?
If you make your home folder the external drive your OS stays on your internal drive. That is really want you want and you really don't want to boot off the external in 2024 otherwise I think things like ai won't work etc. So I just wanted to clarify that changing your home directory to the external doesn't mean your OS is there. Only you can answer the question if 256 is enough space. The OS will use 35 GB and then programs and data.
@@craigneidel thát isn’t the point The point is that people don’t need crazy read and write speeds to do basic tasks. Lame ass RUclipsrs and reviewers are just reaching for a reason to complain.
I'm guessing you don't watch my channel. I regularly say that people are fine with 1000 MB/s. But calling people Lame is not a great start and everybody is a bit different. Anyhow the Mac will slow down if you only have like 50 GB on it and with the 512 GB, even with external storage, I like to have it. Yes, the difference is speed most might now use but it's a added benefit you might as well know about - hence the video.
Has anyone found the speed figures for the M4 Mini Base Chip with 1 TB or 2 TB internal storage (are they the same like the 512 GB or is there an additional uplift)? So the smart config seems to be 24/512/10 Gig as the 10G capability is dirtcheap compared to other upgrades at apple (if i allready pay 200 or 400$ premium i should pay the 100$ for the faster network anyway even if morelikely you won't have a 10 Gig Ethernet at home but probably a 2,5 Gig Ethernet. But you convinced me to add at least the 200$ for the storage. And just recognized completely fall into the apple trapanother additional 200 and i have the Mac Mini M4 Pro, so i keep my M1 MBA 16/512 and wait until apple release a base model without crippled storage.
New sub here. Great channel. Would you be so kind as to answer a few questions. I mostly use Final Cut Pro & Photoshop to create videos on my Billy Luna Crime Stories YT channel. I am working in 1080p, but plan to start working in 4k. Currently I am Using a Sandisk Extreme Pro SSD (2TB & 4TB) to edit off whilst using FCP. I like to use Final Cut Pro, Photoshop and 40 web browser tabs open simultaneously. 1) For my needs, which exact configuration of the new M4 Mac Mini should I get? (Pro or no, RAM, SSD) These are the two configurations that I have been mulling: $1,079.00 Apple M4 chip with 10‑core CPU, 10‑core GPU, 16‑core Neural Engine 32GB unified memory Or $1,799.00 512GB SSD storage Apple M4 Pro chip with 12‑core CPU, 16‑core GPU, 16‑core Neural Engine 48GB unified memory 512GB SSD storage 2) Is there any speed or performance advantage in going with a 1 TB SSD vs 512? 3) Do I need to worry about fan noise when I’m recording on camera video or voice over?
Thanks for the feedback. I think the first option is plenty for that especially with the $650 savings. I assume on the first one you are getting 1 TB with the price. I have not heard my fan yet but I heard that the fan on the M4 Pro model is louder when at load as it has more performance cores.
At 7:10 How is it that the writing speed is 50% faster than the reading speed? Shouldn't it be the opposite? And the reading speed of the 512 GB is 3,000GB/s, which is NOT "double" than the 256 GB, but exactly the same.
Getting double the sequential write speed on the internal SSD is almost irrelevant for day to day performance. You won’t video edit from the internal SSD and even if you do, you don’t have a CPU that can process and write over 2GB of video data a second.
In Europe, depending on the country, you end up paying $250-350 for upgrading your storage to 512GB! No thanks 😅 I will get the base model, use external storage... and hope that we will have the option to replace storage DIY.
@craigneidel Since I'm Polish-American, I sometimes ask my family in the US to buy me Apple stuff 😆 However, base Mac Mini is only $60 more in Poland, so it's not worth the hassle... and I prefer to have the local warranty (just in case). The problem starts once you decide to make any upgrades 😅 Horrible value 😬
Disagree. 256 GB is plenty of space for an average consumer. And if anyone needs more, they can always use something like a SSD. I consider myself a power user. I have been using the base mini for more than a week now and the storage filled is only 100 GB. If anything, people should upgrade RAM before storage.
IMO the name of the game here is seek times and latency. Raw read and write performance just doesn't matter for something like this. And if you are one of the few people on the planet working with THAT much data, then you aren't buying a mac mini anyways. Here is the trick. If a thunderbolt 4 external device shows significantly higher latency than the internal drive, go for the 1TB ssd. If the latency of thunderbolt 4 is within 10% of the internal drive, screw it. Go for the cheapest SSD option, save your money, and buy the best external drive you can afford. If that latency is low enough, then just point final cut to your external drive and don't worry about moving files on and off your boot drive.
Yes, you should not really boot off these as then things like the Ai won't work. But I can edit just fine off this setup and it's has no hiccups at all on my side.
That is what you should be getting on a T9. I think that is 10 Gbps enclosure and not a 40 Gbps enclosure so you should get somewhere around 1,000 on that. Macs don't support 2x2 also or 20 Gbps so this is exactly what you should be getting on that enclosure.
I just ordered my M4 Pro Mac Mini 14 core CPU (10P+4E), 20 core GPU, 16 core NE, with 48GB unified RAM and 1TB internal SSD storage option. I believe after 1TB, the gain in internal SSD's R/W bandwidth is "marginal". , so the sweetspot for internal SSD might be actually the 1TB option. Does anyone have R/W bandwidth metrics for that ? I believe 1TB internal SSD is much faster than the 512GB internal SSD . My friend who has already received an exactly same configuration Mac mini M4 Pro , was mentioning 6140 MB/s read , 5860 MB/s write speeds, but I am yet to confirm myself . What's the product with the fastest PCI-e NVMe external SSD R/W bandwidth ? I am looking at 4TB external SSD drive with R/W bandwidths close to M4 Pro Mac Mini's 1TB internal SSD speeds.
Even for power users that do heavy 4K video editing, 24+ track 24 bit audio recording, very large photo editing + topaz AI photo upscaling the difference in speed of the internal hard drive between the 256 version vs. the 512 version wouldn't be noticeable at all or only very minimally noticeable when you're actually using it--its only on paper that the speed difference looks significant. Plus if you get an external Thunderbolt 4 nvme SSD and save all your work to that drive only applications would be running on the internal drive so in this case there would be ZERO difference in speed. Spending your money on the 24 or 32 GB of RAM would be the upgrade to get for power users or if you're just using everyday apps then just the base model with no upgrades would be the way to go. I do power user work so I got the base model with the 32GB RAM upgrade + the OWC Thunderbolt 4 drive mated with a 4TB Crucial P4 nVME SSD.
apple has become so expensive since the transition to the apple chip I remember the macbook air 2020 intel you have a basic core I3 for $50 more you have an i5 for $100 more you have an i7 same in the ram 8gb basic ram for $100 you have 16 gb ram "it's more energy efficient" m1 max consumes 45w at most the M4 max consumes 90 w if apple continues like that the M8 max will consume so much which will be like laptops by removing all possibilities to upgrade the ram and the cpu we have finally gained nothing with also the loss of eGPU support, boot camp and support for all games
The mac mini is still a fraction of the Macs user base like a few percent of Macs. Plus Hackers target MacOS and not individual systems like Mac minis.
The M4 Mac Mini is me its not powerful enough for me as 4 performance cores compared to 10 performance cores is a huge difference and logic only reads the performance cores and not the efficiency cores and my current mac has 6 cores and they are all performance as it is the highest Mac Mini from 2018 and i also have 64GB on it so the M4 version won't do everything for me at all
There’s a big issue with Black Magic’s speed test: It’s only for sequential reads/writes, not for random reads/writes, which is more important for daily system usage. For example, WD SN570 is way faster than KIOXIA G2 on sequentials, but G2 absolutely demolished SN570 in real usage because its randoms are faster. I don’t know about Mac mini M4’s drives’ randoms, but because the SSD controllers’ are the same M4 chip, the randoms might not be too different. This is why I use Amorphous Disk Mark instead of the Black Magic test, because
Black Magic is a camera company, they don’t care about random reads/writes.
Thank you, now I don't have to say it. And along with that, aren't these reads and writes relatively short and greatly affected by the cache size on the SSD.
It's been fairly accurate over the years when I compare to data tests. I have like 30 videos where I compare both.
Thank you for mentioning this. I often wondered why amorphous always shows much slower random 4K single writes and reads as compared to crystal mark.
This is why CrystalDiskMark is a good tool on the Windows side. It breaks things down a lot more than the Black Magic tool, which makes sense as its testing for how well it performs with video file formats.
I saw youtube videos where the M4 base model with 256gb was only getting 1700 speed test on write. I just bought mine 2 days ago at the Apple Store here in Illinois and bought the 512 gb like you did. I did it because I realized a couple of days ago that the hard drive on the 256 gb is actually two 128 gb on a board. One 128 on one side and 1 128 gb on the other side of a circuit board. With that being said it isnt one solid 256 gb drive...so it's going to slow down a little bit. My traded in M1 Mac mini that I had was 256 gb on board was faster than the M4 256 gb in regards to hard drive speed. I was getting 2100 write on my M1 and when I bought my M1 I had it configured with 16GB memory. I have always believed and you probably as well believe that you are as fast as your slowest component. I realized when buying the M4 with 512 gb that the hard drive board will get two 256 gb chips onto one board. I am getting with the 512gb on Blackmagic 4200 to 4500 write at time. So with knowing that - it's way faster than my old machine. I do believe the small slow down on the base model with 256 gb is because it's using 2 128 GB chips - and not a solid 256gb chip. I also came to the conclusion - when trying to decide if I should get the M4 pro (since its comes with 512 and the hard drive speeds look amazing) or get the M4 with 512. The memory I know for a fact has served me well for 4 years on my M1 and I never complained about 16Gb memory. So jumping higher to 24Gb was a waste for me. The M4 pro is more for CAD or 3D modeling
Yes, I think you described it well and it's good system for most. I'm not saying everybody as some need more but for most it's a great system.
Just to challenge your logic, why was the M1 256gb that used 2 128gb chips faster than the M2 that came with one 256 gb chip ? The rumor was that Apple changed to one module to save money, but the 2 module design was inherently faster. The solution to better speeds on the M2's involved either getting a machine with 16gb of ram vs 8gb, or upgrading the drive to 512gb which used 2 256gb modules. Apple has now reverted back to using dual chips on the base models because of the prior problem with the M2 series base model sluggishness.
One other note, the storage on the M4 Mac Mini is on a removable chip and there are people that have already tested swapping modules and building custom upgrade solutions for the SSD.
@@ericjohnson829yea I saw that when the M2 came out that my M1 was faster than the m2 on HD speed. I sorta chuckled at that back then. Yes I’m not really 100% sure the whole reasoning or logic to why this is happening. Maybe three is something going on with bus speeds. I joked to the store rep about the M4 base model 256gb running on a RUclips @1700 write speeds and said what is apple doing - putting in used hard drive chips and claiming new chips. I said that jokingly. Again I’m not sure what’s really going on with these ssd drives.
@@ericjohnson829 I like that they finally listened to the customer- we wanted that option. To replace if needed or upgrade the SSD. It’s very nice they did that.
These are EXACTLY the speed statistics I was looking for! Between the time the M4 came out and THIS video, I learned how to migrate my working apps and data to an external Thunderbolt drive. In essence, the machine largely boots off my external Thunderbolt box.
In my case, I use an old Qwiizlab Thunderbolt 3 enclosure with 512GB NVME (I pulled this NVME out of an old Acer desktop that was my main Linux experimentation machine...) attached to my tried-and-true 8GB/256GB M1 Mac Mini.
Just as you demonstrate...I simply do NOT have to worry anymore about the storage speed on my M1.
So...yeah...for me a "base" M4 and a Thunderbolt 5 drive with up to 4TB of storage WILL be my next Mac! Mahalo for this timely advice! Aloha!
Base M4 only supports TB4.
@@jdevoz Ah...forgot that point! Mahalo. Looks like I'll STILL have to splash out on an M4 Pro if I want the TB5 ports. Aloha!
Glad the video helped you out and thanks for watching the channel.
Should boot from your nand drives just on first boot after buy move your home folder to external drive
@@passportmarc Indeed, this is what I've done. My M1 has been with me for a fair bit of time.
I got the idea of doing this from all the cool, new videos that people are making about using Thunderbolt 5 drives with M4 Mac Pros.
I thought I would first practice by using a Thunder bolt 3 enclosure, an old NVME drive, and one of my existing M1 Macs.
As you've seen elsewhere on RUclips, I, too, migrated my home folder, apps and date to the external. The system has to start from the internal drive. The modified parameters then tell it to seek out and find the rest of the bootup routine, the home folder and the other stuff from the external drive.
It works very nicely with my crummy, old 512GB NVME so I'll then move on to replacing the 512GB NVME with a nice 4TB NVME in the near future.
After I use this for a good, long while, I'll be comfortable to move on to an M4 Pro with a newer Thunderbolt 5 enclosure...possibly one with a pair of NVME drives in a RAID configuration.
Sounds like a fun thing to do.
I did the 512gb, M4 pro with 24gb memory, incredibly happy with it, traded in my M1 mac mini.
I picked up the same and traded in a 2020 intel iMac 27"
Went for the same.
Dude, EXACTLY the same here ... Mine will be delivered in 2 weeks . OH I went with 10Gb network NIC as well !
That will be a great system. The video is more about the average user but if you know you will do any heavy lifting the Pro is the way to go.
@@NicolasMichel_CCIE_29410 Why does it takes 2 weeks to deliver it to you?
Subscribed. Been researching on reddit and watched a bunch of videos about the M4 vs M4 Pro mostly care about the ram. Then I found your video. I went with Costco config M4 512GB/24GB Ram for $800 something after discount. Mostly use it for basic 4K editing with Final Cut. Hope it will last 5 years then I can upgrade. Buying the base M4 Pro seems great with the same Ram and SSD but it’s too powerful which I do not need. It’s $1400 too where I can save almost $400 just going with the standard M4. Thank you!
You got it and good luck with the new mini. Also thanks for the sub.
I like your practical presentation. It’s nice to explain what people really need (vs. hype upgrading). Thanks.
Thank you for watching and the feedback on that.
The 24GB RAM upgrade is the first thing you should consider. It allows you to run an 8GB Windows virtual machine while still having enough RAM for Mac apps.
If you need to run Windows then yes but most here normally only macos
Windows, yeah no thank you 😂
@@harrirauhanummiI mean it wouldn't be necessary if Mac actually cared about gaming.
@michaelcorcoran8768 well, more and more big titles comes to Mac, so they just growing slowly.. this M4 gen should give a big push for the game devs too. Ray Tracing support just arrived in the M3 series, and with M3+M4 Macbook+Mac their nimbers just growing really fast, they can reach about the same amount of active reacheable users like Steam, or if you also add the M1 and M2 to that and even the iPad and iPhone as a gaming tool since they use the same cores, just in different amount, than already nearly 1 billion gaming ready devices on the market, what is 8x more like the Steam can offer with 120 million or Playstation can offer with 116 million active users, also the Apple store is the most profitable store on the planet, and the store renevue is actually the cut off from the spent amount of money.. so if the Apple store earns $80billion while the Steam store earns $10billion, then the devs in Apple store are also earned 8x more.. guess which company can inore the more potential profit.. because Apple already have 1,5billion of active users, and about half of them already have an A14/M1 or better chip, but they are selling about 350million gaming ready device each year, which is more what Steam+Playstation together can offer.. (250 million iPhones, and at least 100 million combined sales for iPad+Macbook+Mac)
In Canada, the base model is $899. Your upgrade is $1099, i believe . For $1299, you get 24 gb, 512 ssd, this is what i opted for. The m4 pro is $1899, i hope i made the right decision, but i figured $600 extra was a bit steep ... I will mostly just use it for recording and mixing music, Harrison mixbus user here 👍
Wow I knew Canada was more but that is so much more. That is a good configuration also. Good luck.
Base model is $799 in Canada.
I plan to go for the same config. I was initially going to go with 16gb RAM but 24gb might give me a little more headroom if I decide to leverage Apple Intelligence features in the future. Unless you are planning to do heavy video editing, complex music production or a lot of gaming on it then I think you made the right decision as the M4 non-pro should be more than enough.
@@Harvey-1980 i stand corrected 👍
@@ancayman As @coltjustice45 mentioned above, here in Canada it's $600 more for the M4 Pro model over the M4 with 24gb/512. It's a much bigger jump to the M4 Pro here unfortunately :(
I’m still using a 3.46ghz 12-core 2012 Mac Pro for DAW software (Pro Tools, Reason, Waves and isotope plugins). The base model will smoke my setup easily and despite currently having 96GB, I’ve yet to see it use much over 24-30GB. I also use an external 10Gbit USB-C enclosure as my recording drive and as storage for my Steam library.
I am thinking of jumping to silicon for S1 Pro and possibly Logic Pro, but am curious about simultaneous multi-channel recording latency (28+ tracks), at 24-bit 48K. I wish I could see more demos of this type of tracking. Most focus on mixing and plug-ins.
Yes, if you get the M4 with 24 GB you will be more than fine.
No need to upgrade the the SSD to 512 GB for a ridiculous £200. Simply buy a Crucial P3 1 TB NVMe for £60 and a Thunderbolt enclosure for £70 - £100, install the OS and all your apps on it and run the M4 from that. That way the tiny SSD gets absolutely no wear and tear and the whole caboodle will run faster than using the internal. I have been using a 1 TB USB 3.0 SSD on the basic M2 mini (8 GB RAM, 256 GB SSD) for the past year and despite the slow speed of the USB drive, it was only 1% slower in Geekbench scores. Rendering and exporting FCP and Resolve projects took 4% longer which was negligible. No need to upgrade RAM. A lot of people misunderstand RAM. The Mac is designed to use most of its RAM whatever it is doing. So your computer may be idling and yet it appears to be using 75% of its RAM and you mistakenly think you need more RAM. WRONG! The computer is working just as it should. You could put in 64 GB RAM and it would still show most of it being used whilst doing simple tasks.
Yes I have the external in my video where I get over 3100 MB/s. Some people also change home folder to point to external.
@@craigneidel Sorry, I must have missed that. I don't bother with the Home Folder on the mini, I just create a new one together with all my apps on the external. As mentioned, even using a terribly slow USB SSD (c. 360 MB/s) there was no noticeable reduction in performance using FCP and Resolve etc. The only thing that was slower was straight copying of huge files which obviously would take around 5x longer but that is something i rarely ever do. My overall discovery was that the speed of a drive has almost no effect on everyday computing tasks as that is determined mainly by the CPU/GPU.
No problem at all. Thanks for the info too.
Finally, your Mac Mini has arrived. I’ll be following your videos closely to decide which version to buy.
Thank you. Being a smaller channel I can't get all of them but I'm hoping to get the Pro model soon. But the M4 is crazy fast for what it is.
The best configuration for most is the base configuration. Anything above that is not worth it, the upgrades are priced unbelievably above market prices. Use an external SSD instead of upgrading. For the price of an upgrade to 512GB with Apple, you can buy an external Thunderbolt 2TB drive that is _faster_ than the internal one.
Yes, but with sales I think the 512 GB version is the best to get longer term. Even 512 GB is low and you can still use external storage and you won't have slowdowns when you fill up your primary drive.
@@craigneidel For me, It's about the value proposition, really. I do not disagree that a larger internal drive is better, but the $200 that it costs is a substantial amount of money compared to the cost of the base model (especially if you buy it at a discount, as you said). And if you buy say an external 2TB Thunderbolt drive, that's yet another $200 or so, and we are in $1000 territory. It's still a good computer at a good price, but the incredible value that you have with the base model is lost. At this price, you have options. And I believe that what makes the M4 Mac Mini special, is that you can have a top-of-the-line computer for a price at which there is nothing remotely comparable. You do not see this from Apple often (if ever.) A good computer at a normal price is not so jaw dropping. And if you use an external drive anyway, the size of the internal drive just does not matter, as long as it can hold the OS comfortably (and 256GB is plenty for that).
@@mojojojo1529 you are totally right, thats why i went for the base m4 mini + 2 tb thunderbolt drive
But if you make that in 1 job to buy a $2500 Mini M4 Pro which many do it’s really not a huge deal or concern. No need to cut corners when it’s your livelihood. I remember the days spending $15k on a Mac Tower with far less potential and $5k on a shi$$y monitor that really sucked back in the day!
@@AtortAerials If it's your livelihood, for $2500 you can buy a more performant computer for most use cases. Otherwise it's just a matter of luxury, and there is no way to argue with that. If you dearly desire the $10,000 golden Apple watch and you have the disposable income for it, what argument could possibly deter you? But this is not what we are talking about when discussing value.
Totally getting the 12 core, 24gb RAM, and 512gb SSD, hard to get more computer for that kind of money!
They are nice computers for sure.
@@craigneidel I see it as a better longterm investment for my needs, setting up a music composition workstation with orchestral libraries etc. Will require a bunch of external drives as well, but that's always how I set these things up anyway.
C9 -
You putting it to the tech bloggers again... Great stuff.
Thanks!
👍🏾🇬🇧
Thank you.
Great video
A real reason to order the 512 GB model
Yes, it's quite a bit faster in my testing which was surprising (SSD I mean).
Did you use the thunderbolt port in your external SSD test? Do you get the same results using one of the non-thunderbolt USB-C ports? I’m considering the studio display and would need to use the thunderbolt port for that full time. Thanks for the review!
Yes, the Thunderbolt port is needed.
I’ve been waiting for this video! ❤ I love hearing your opinions! Thank you
Thank you. Note I said it's the best for most users but if you are a power user get the ram you know you need. I should do testing on a few more in the future.
My humble opinion 24gb+256gb is better option for future proofing a bit as ram cannot be upgraded later, also new macos allows app install and home dir move to external ssd, so storage is less critical than ram.
That's the reason why I bought the M4 Pro. Now I'm more or less safe for the future. I also have an external 1TB external drive. That should be enough for now.
My thinking also. I think this is the better option & what I will be buying. Give it 12 months & there will be plenty of 1TB swappable SSDs.
That's fine but for this video I'm saying for most users and not everyone. People that get 24 GB usually know they need it.
Future proofing doesn’t seem economically feasible with the year over year improvements. I’d rather get the base model and then get a new base model in 4 years instead of upgrading big now and holding on for 10 years.
@@Samuel-hj9ty I like future proofing. Mainly I have issues with the amount of waste and exploitation in the production of tech. I wish everything was easily upgradable by everyday folk.
That extra storage was very tempting, but for my modest use case the external storage was the best way to go. I have a 2TB external drive based on the recommendations of one of your past videos.
Yes, no problem with that.
Please compare the performance of OWC to Qwizlab enclosures, both are heatsink type design will be interesting to see which one cools better, but OWC is quite a bit expensive and haven't seen in a sale yet so not sure if the extra cost is truly worth it.
I don't have the OWC one yet.
Good timing! I was just watching your older videos then I saw this video pop up from your channel. Definitely going to watch this one! So far so good!
Good choice on the Mac Mini with base + 512gb. I was thinking of going this route but with 24gb. That's literally the only thing my M1 Pro is kind of stopping me at. I do have an Intel 2020 iMac that has 64gb ram but man..I do love Apple Silicon. It's just so snappy. I have no problems at all in Logic Pro vs what I would have on my i7 2020 iMac.
Yeah this one is for the everyday users but 24 GB might be a good upgrade for some. But very fast even with this configuration.
I hope 512 is good enough for you. I’m one of those people who don’t like external drives sitting around.
But I know many people like em to keep the cost down. ✌🏻
What configuration u get
Yeah, we are all different but $200 for 256GB is hard to swallow.
@@craigneidel 😭
£200 for add a 2TB external drive or pay Apple £600 to upgrade the internal drive from 512Gb to 2TB - so only an increase of 1.5TB. It’s a no brainer.
I spent the money on getting the Pro with extra ram.
I plan on getting the M4pro and 48 Gb. It’s not about what it can do now it’s more about what it will still be able to handle 5 years from now. I usually have several programs open at once and multiple drives connected. A maximum of 32Gb doesn’t interest me.
If you know you need it then get it. My video is about the average user and not somebody who might need 48 GB of ram. I would say that is very limited but some might need it and they already know that.
I don't care much about the ssd or ram speed as they are already fast enough for me. Is there anyway to get a DDR4/5 stick, put it in some closure, plug it to the thunderbolt 4 port and make the MacOS use it as additional ram?
Thanks for the info Craig. Can I use my old logic tech keyboard and mouse with the mini m4?
Thanks
if it has bluetooth or a wifi dongle I don't see why not but you might need a converter if usb-A.
My plan is to go base model and set the home and application folder up on my external.
This is replacing my PC, so I already have all the accessories I need.
I already have a MacBook M1, but I want to use that more as a media/document writing device, and do everything else on my M4 Mini. The original plan was to update to a MacBook Pro and skip out on the desktop, but now I think I'm going to hold off on that plan until a later gen (maybe 2027) - and just stick with the way cheaper combo of Mac mini M4 and MacBook Air M1.
Yes, that is all you really need.
Can you do a video on the speed difference of Mac mini base model using an external SSD and without the external SSD? I’m wondering if there’s different in terms of apps and videos editing or data transfer? Thanks
I can see what I can do on that in the coming weeks. Thanks for watching.
I did the same(512), pretty happy with it. Great video, do one with what to do on a fresh machine , any tips / tricks?
I have a few video ideas lined up but that could be a good one for sure.
The set up seems good ....but......how do you do regular backups of the files stored on your external SSD? Is there a simple way to back up the files on the SSD automatically or is the only alternative to back up manually?
You can use Time Machine to backup multiple different drives. You can also make it back things TO multiple different drives too, which is handy if you want to have a copy that's taken off site.
Yes time machine
Awesome review and advice. What made you choose the Samsung 990 Evo Plus? I’ve read that some people had issues with the firmware on the 990 Pro. Not sure if that carries over to the Evo too, so I was leaning towards the WD SN850X. Thanks
850x or WD SN770 is perfect too. All are high quality drives that should not have issues long term.
I got an M4 mini with 24GB memory and 1TB SSD. The writing speed is about 3060 MB/s and the reading speed is about 2943 MB/s when tested with Blackmagic Disk Speed Test. With AmorphousDisk test, both speeds are a little bit higher, 3260 MB/s and 3172MB/s, respectively.
That seems too slow for the 1 tb version. I have seen many other people getting more so not sure why you are getting only 3k
@@craigneidel Looks to me Apple puts gen 3 spec SSDs in the mini and air with the base processor and gen 4 spec SSD‘s for the pro processors and higher.
Maybe, but they tier them for sure as part of their ladder approach.
I'm seeing very similar speeds on my M4 Mini with 32GB RAM and 512GB SSD. Write/read are always right around 3000. Now I'm wondering why I'm not seeing the higher write speed of ~4000.
Tempted i have mac studio m1 with 2tb, just needed a portable laptop for travel might have to wait for macbook air m4
M4 air will be a great laptop.
Great comparaison
Thank you for watching.
I love this new Mac mini M4. Off-topic question: Can I use an Ethernet cable Cat. 8 on the new Mac mini M4? Thank you in advance (I have 1Gigabit, I know a Cat. 6a cable would be enough but usually newer is better and has lower or no interferences (EMI, Electromagnetic interferences))
I think that should work but I have only tested Cat 6. But don't see why not.
CAT 5E can easily handle 1 Gb. CAT6A and CAT7 can do 10Gb. CAT8 is complete overkill for 1Gb. Just buy a shielded CAT 6 and you are good.
I create music mainly, using GarageBand on an iPad Pro M1. I have conducted extensive tests, and I need 75Gb of free SSD space, to run GB safely without any issues crippling my music production. I see many reviews on the App Store, which I strongly suspect are the same symptoms as I got, when my free SSD space dropped below 50Gb, the absolute floor. After that point, GarageBand lets its ‘optimisation’ be known and it cuts the quality of sound in half or worse. Pretty hideous, it doesn’t even advise you of how bad it’s become - your expected 44.1kHz sound samples end up at 11kHz. Confirmed by a developer.
There’s no reason a Mac would be any different. I would ‘write off’ 256Gb as being necessary for applications and that vital 75Gb of free SSD space to let them work. So I would buy either the 512Gb SSD or the 1Tb SSD, only because the M4 is too new for me to afford the 2Tb SSD my bought-used M1 iPad Pro has. So, for me, only my use, my opinion, I’d say my base Mac Mini would be an M4 with 512Gb SSD and 24Gb Unified memory. However, in practice I’d be awfully tempted to go up to 1Tb, as a former IT man.
Now, by the time I get there, I am prepared to consider the following: I will put this on a credit card. Is it worth it to me, to borrow for twice as long, to get an M4 Pro with 1Tb SSD and 24Gb or even 48Gb memory, given the long-term use I’d get out of this serious investment in computing power? IE for me it would mean paying it back over 24 months not just 12 months. I think, both make a very good deal. The IT man in me, will always veer towards the top spec, I never regret buying a better spec of anything. And if I kept the M4 Pro machine for say 5 years as my ‘daily driver’, the difference I paid in purchase price even with interest, melts away.
And I can do everything else, as well ! If we MUST live in an age of silicon, and soft synths having now for me overtaken hardware quality, then it is a no-brainer. In order to ensure the soft synths work, without glitching, I would go for the top spec I mentioned above, without blinking. Some people buy a flash car. I don’t! Take care all, there’s no losing-out here. Whichever spec you choose, you will get a very potent machine. The smartest move Apple ever made, was focusing on SSD, then on low power consumption. Heck, I swapped out my Lenovo tower’s HDD for a memory-chip based one 8 years ago, and now being SSD-based, the machine is still useful. I protect it with trusted anti-spyware, I pay for every six months, that really works. I bought it, in 2008. It’s useless for music making, but everything else, it does well. Take care all, and thanks for the vid and investigation.
Nice post and good luck with everything and for watching the channel. I think you are making a good decision on the spec and you will be comfortable with that M4 model.
great video. question. for logic audio and some video work. Apple Mac Studio M1 Max 10-Core CPU, 64GB RAM, 1TB SSD, 24-Core GPU, brand new for $1499 or should i just look more into a M4 mac mini pro 12 core 24ram 1tb??
Thanks. The reason I might not do the M1 is because of OS support and how that will be 4 years ago so the support won't last nearly as long. I might look at Mac mini.
@@craigneidel makes a lot of sense. i will take your advice. thank you sir :}
Thanks and good luck.
Love the Qwiizlab enclosure, unfortunately can't get hold of one in the UK. Nobody has any. Amazon out of stock saying they do not know when it will be back. Which usualy means never with them.
I posted link to alternate that is the same.
your scores are well better than mine i am only getting 3500 at best with the 512gb ssd
Yeah, I ran it a number of times. It was higher than I expected for sure. But even at 3500 MB/s that is quite a bit more than the 256 GB version.
Couldn’t bring myself to spend $200 for a 256gb upgrade. Since the memory is removable I’ll wait to upgrade later. There are 3rd party companies working on that. For now running off an external 2TB drive.
That is still a very fast system so no worries. So the memory is removable or SSDs?
Yes but first party locked
Only way to hack now is solder nand chips on the removàble ssd card slot
It’s got thunderbolt. Just get an external. It’ll easy give 5000 read and write. More than the internal can.
Ok, thanks. I won't mess with that until it's perfected.
The SSD speed thing was also true on the M2 minis. Its the only reason I did 512 on my M2 model.
It's nice to have the headroom also.
Can. you do a walkthru on how to set up a external SSD drive to edit off of, i seen other videos but they talk about how you move your home folder files to it and then set it to it etc? All i would like to do is how to set it up for editing and thats it.
I'll see what I can do but all editing software is completely different. I would search for it on RUclips as I'm sure those videos are out there.
I’m coming from a pc. This will be my first Mac. I’m a basic user but I do get into some heavy excel files that can bog down my PC with 32gb ram, cpu speed of 3.6ghz . I’m considering the base m4. What are your thoughts. Would be 512 be better?
Side note; I plan to add a 2TB ssd tb4 to use as my home folder. Does that make a difference?
That seems good but maybe go with the 512 GB as you will be happier in the long run since some things will need to run on that and you don't want to push it. I would look for some sales. I heard Costco has that version for under $700 now on sale.
@@craigneidelwell, I ended up getting the 512 with 24Gb ram using Apple discount program 100 off. I received a gift card in the mail today that I used to bring my total down to 650 out of pocket. Maybe I won’t need the extra ram, this being my first Mac I was unsure of 16gb. All my pcs have had so much more than that.
@@howellcpcan you please tell how did you get this whole discount and gift card?
@@bilalafridi324my wife is an educator (not that Apple verified), the gift card was just a good timing. It had nothing to do with Apple.
Nice work on that.
Hibernate Mode with an external ssd works well?thank you for your answer.
Thank you.
@@craigneidelYou didn’t answer him 😊😅
@@NirHason oh I didn't know he was asking and thought he was staying. Yes works fine for me
@ lol. thx for confirming (:
For sure.
Good info!
Thank you.
I got (well not delivered yet) the 512GB SSD und 32GB Ram, I think that will work verry well for my needs.
Yes it's all you will need
I just picked up the M4 Mac mini 512GB SSD model that you just received, because the entry level 256GB SSD model was too limiting for me. The Apple store carried that 512GB M4 model in stock, unlike many of the Build To Order models with long wait times. My Write Speed on my 512GB model is only about 3,000 MB/sec with the same Read speed as yours on Blackmagic. I guess it depends on which particular RAM supplier Apple uses when they made your particular 512GB model.
Yeah, I'm not sure and I thought it was unusual on the speed of the disk but I have not tested it many times and it still comes back that fast. But, at the end of the day most won't notice a difference between these speeds.
I get a 2800 MB/s on 2TB external NVME SSD for the Mac Mini that's plenty fast for me.
Yes, that is more than fine.
Ordered 24g and 1tb storage plus I have 12tb ssd external (3-4tb) for photo storage which not near as fast as yours but lot faster than I have now with HDD 8 tb WD.
You should be all set and good luck.
1GB or 5GB speed test?
I’m surprised nobody has done a test in the Apple storage read/writes on 256, 512, 1TB, 2TB, 4TB, 8TB. It looks like the more you have, the faster they are.
Yes that's what I did kind of. I just can't afford to buy all of them or I would need to remortgage my house.
Mine is arriving today! ❤
Nice, and good luck with everything.
@ thanks!
@@craigneidelIt just walked through the door! This thing has some weight to it! Nicely built too!
@@craigneidel This thing hauls!!! Everything is way faster!!! I use my Apple Watch to open it and it's instant!!!
Yes, they are quick for sure and I'm loving mine.
this is the perfect test for me Craig thanks man!
You got it thanks.
How much storage space does the OS and addons take up when the Mac Mini M4 is new? My plan is to use an external drive as my Home folder.
I have a screenshot on video for exact value but it is only like 35 GB. I had like 480 left.
@@craigneidel Thank you! I do real estate videography and photography so sometimes I do stress my current machine (i9, 2TB, 32gb) but I've been hearing so many good things about this new Mini M4 that I'd like to use it as my "work horse" and leave the current Linux Mint 20 machine to handle everything else. While I do have it set up to dual boot into a separate Win10 drive, I'd rather just leave the Linux and Mac running and switch from one computer to the other using the same display but two different keyboards with either a trackball or track pad built in. When I think about the $900 I paid for the Nvidia GPU a few years ago, it kinda makes me sick when this Apple Mini M4 with better computing power is now available for less than I paid for that graphics card. I did buy during the chip shortage but I needed it so of course I paid a premium at the time. I find it amazing that this M4 is so much faster with just a 512gb drive vs the 256gb.
yes, once you get it I'm sure you will love the mini. I call Apple out where I need to but they nailed it here (except storage upgrade pricing).
@@craigneidel Ordered the base model with the 512 nvme through Amazon. I guess they are flying off the shelves because my delivery time is Dec. 10-20. For anyone reading this in the future, today is 11.20.24 so up to a month to get it.
I ordered from Apple and will be here two weeks plus I like their zero percent interest rate for 12 months.
Black Friday sales (or if you are just a Best Buy Member)... you can get the Base M4 Mini for $550. so $744 is still almost $200 more if you are comparing "Apples to Apples" (see what I did there?)
Both are discounted which is fine.
I went with M4 Pro fully maxed out CPU 2TB storage and 24GB of memory and upgraded Ethernet port….hoping 24GB of memory is enough. No way I would ever do less than 2TB of internal storage ever but that’s me.
Yeah, but that cost more than the rest of the Mac mini to add that so it's just so expensive.
@@craigneidel I know and I hate spending money...maybe I should have snort more conservative but then I thought about the thunderbolt 5 ports too being a good thing.
will buy the ultrafast 3rd party ssd in 2 months from now for a quarter of the price :)
Ok, let me know when you do that.
There was a RUclipsr by the name of David Lewis that recommended the $1,299 configuration of the Mac Mini with the standard M4 chip, 24GB of RAM, 1TB SSD, and the 10 gigabit ethernet port as the perfect sweet spot for almost all users. I wonder what your thoughts on that would be.
Yeah, but for most users that is another $400 bucks and then you are in the M4 Pro space. People that need 24 GB usually know they do but for the 90 percent who do normal computer tasks I think the 16 is fine. I mean I can even 4K edit just fine.
Its fast if you have enough memory for your task depending on your use case otherwise your SSD will be used for swap slowing the cpu gpu npu osx apps data multitasking down
Yes, but again this video is for most users out there not power users.
Could someone please reconfirm that the mini M4 base model with 256GB SSD is about half so fast in terms of disk write/read speed than a 512GB SSD version. I thought that was the case only for the previous models.
Another question. Is it a good and safe idea to save on staying with the base 256GB SSD, that is theoretically upgradeable (sometime maybe with a third party PCB module), or can be mitigated with an external SSD drive. and put that money rather into more RAM that can never be updated or circumvented ?
Go search for SSD speeds on RUclips and look at values. They are different but I know for sure the 256 is like 2100 at best and 2800 at best RW. But the 512 I have here and that is what I'm getting.
Good job PCIe Gen 4 on PCIe Gen 3 test
?? Explain
Yeah please provide more info
please test some slower external ssds like 5000mb/s, this samsung one might be overkill ?
I'll try but they will be about the same. I have experience testing thunderbolt 4 on my channel.
@@craigneidel thanks for reply , so you agree 7000mbps is overkill and waste of money. Which speed you suggest 5000mbps or less ?
oh now I know, Mac Mini also means slow and mini disk performance. My 6 years old PC has Samsung M2 SSD with 3400 MB/s and Mac Mini Standard has SSD with 2000 MB/s. That's the reason I would never change my old PC for a new Mac Mini. With my Intel I5 CPU I have all the CPU power that I need for my programs.
Then use windows. Nobody is making you switch but trust me if you did you would love the mini. So snappy on everything it's a pleasure to use even 599 version.
ive seen reviews where people say that this time the 515gb version is not faster then the 256gb one like ot was the case with the older macmini. So what now ? :D
All I can do is report what mine is doing here. I have tested it a number of times.
Iv seen another video where they used an external for the home folder so basically running all the apps off an SSD by thunderbolt 4. May try this I have the basic model I got for £400 😊
Yes I could do a video on that.
@ that would be amazing !!
Thanks.
Yes ! The Best !!
They are great systems.
Sensible stuff 👍
Thank you
$200 for an extra 256gb, another $200 for an extra 512gb.
Apple Maths at his finest.
Apple Math has nothing to do with the costs, their formula just maxes out the money that they lure out from the people: the most from people in all levels of financial position.
yeah, it hurts sometimes but external storage is less.
To me it's either the base model, or the 24g/512g .... if you going to spend $800 might as well spend $1000 and get the extra RAM for future proofing.
Yeah, it comes down to how long you plan to keep them I guess.
Another great video Craig, is 16 gb ram and 512 gb storage good enough to run Adobe Lightroom Classic and Photoshop effectively as well as running DaVinci Resolve. Right now I have the 2021 M1 MacBook Pro with 32 gb of ram and 1 TB or storage. Thanks for any info. you can provide!
You may not be most people if you are running all that. So for you maybe 24 GB but I think that would be fine for your case. I mean you can use 16 fine but if you are running 32 now you may want at least 24 would be my guess if you are doing more powerful work like that. This video is about most people and most don't do all that.
If you can't increase the budget, consider getting 24 GB RAM and 256 GB of storage, and an external enclose with 4TB drive.
Yes, but I know if you fill up that 256 GB where you only have like 50 GB left you can get some slowdowns. But, I do agree that is an option and a good one for some if they don't do this.
How about booting from an external drive? I boot from an external drive on my Mac Mini M1 and get close to the speeds from the internal...using the 990 might match the internal speeds of the M4....plus you are saving the internal from wear...
I think you need to boot off the internal drive to able to use AI, not a biggie if you have no interest in AI though.
I heard that boot from externals on the M4 could hurt the ai stuff but I may do some testing. Maybe just making your external your home directly (right when you get Mac before you install anything) is another option.
@ yes, been following you and some others quite intensely regarding the new Mac Mini and it does seem that moving your home folder to the external drive right at the initial start up is the best and most trouble free way to go. I must say Craig is that I find your reviews and tests are to me most helpful. Not filled with meaningless theoretical benchmarks that others use but you concentrate on the real world and how 95% of use our computers and advise what will suit our computing.
Thanks Glenn. Appreciate that. I try my best. It's so hard to come out with videos on a daily basis with all the competition out there but I do my best to try and help people.
Why not get 256 model plus that external SSD + enclosure? The stock 256 SSD is plenty fast enough for most things.
For sure but if you run out of space then things slow down. So I like to have headroom and 512 is still pretty small. But 256 can work for some.
The thing that concerns me is whether the AI stuff that is coming will eat the extra RAM and leave us right back where we started.
I don't think that much since most of Apples ai stuff you need to ask for like completing a email or creating an image. I mean during that time it would be using the memory for a short period.
Any feedback would be appreciated. I’m thinking of picking up the Mac Mini with 256 GB internal storage. I’m not a video editor nor do I need super high performance as I am now retired and most of my work is spreadsheets, watching RUclips, having multiple Safari tabs open simultaneously, etc. I’m trying to understand the advantage of adding an external SSD and placing my home folder and/or apps there. Also, if I add the OS to the external SSD what purpose does internal drive serve at that point?
If you make your home folder the external drive your OS stays on your internal drive. That is really want you want and you really don't want to boot off the external in 2024 otherwise I think things like ai won't work etc. So I just wanted to clarify that changing your home directory to the external doesn't mean your OS is there. Only you can answer the question if 256 is enough space. The OS will use 35 GB and then programs and data.
@ Thanks a bunch! Makes sense. I’d rather keep my OS on the Mac Mini hard drive and data on an external drive.
Ah yes, the SSD speed for 256 GB again. People don't need 4000+ MB to browse the web, send email, and create documents.
True but they do need space and 256 is tight.
@@craigneidel thát isn’t the point The point is that people don’t need crazy read and write speeds to do basic tasks. Lame ass RUclipsrs and reviewers are just reaching for a reason to complain.
I'm guessing you don't watch my channel. I regularly say that people are fine with 1000 MB/s. But calling people Lame is not a great start and everybody is a bit different. Anyhow the Mac will slow down if you only have like 50 GB on it and with the 512 GB, even with external storage, I like to have it. Yes, the difference is speed most might now use but it's a added benefit you might as well know about - hence the video.
Has anyone found the speed figures for the M4 Mini Base Chip with 1 TB or 2 TB internal storage (are they the same like the 512 GB or is there an additional uplift)? So the smart config seems to be 24/512/10 Gig as the 10G capability is dirtcheap compared to other upgrades at apple (if i allready pay 200 or 400$ premium i should pay the 100$ for the faster network anyway even if morelikely you won't have a 10 Gig Ethernet at home but probably a 2,5 Gig Ethernet. But you convinced me to add at least the 200$ for the storage.
And just recognized completely fall into the apple trapanother additional 200 and i have the Mac Mini M4 Pro, so i keep my M1 MBA 16/512 and wait until apple release a base model without crippled storage.
They should be faster for sure. Like 4 or 5K read and rights I think I saw.
Do you guys get the regular Ethernet here or 10 Giga Ethernet?
I got regular but I'm not doing heavy networking.
Basically it seems to come down to: if you aren't sure if you need the Pro, you don't. If you need the Pro, you will already know. So...
Yeah, Pro users will know it.
New sub here. Great channel. Would you be so kind as to answer a few questions. I mostly use Final Cut Pro & Photoshop to create videos on my Billy Luna Crime Stories YT channel. I am working in 1080p, but plan to start working in 4k. Currently I am Using a Sandisk Extreme Pro SSD (2TB & 4TB) to edit off whilst using FCP. I like to use Final Cut Pro, Photoshop and 40 web browser tabs open simultaneously.
1) For my needs, which exact configuration of the new M4 Mac Mini should I get? (Pro or no, RAM, SSD) These are the two configurations that I have been mulling:
$1,079.00
Apple M4 chip with 10‑core CPU, 10‑core GPU, 16‑core Neural Engine
32GB unified memory
Or
$1,799.00
512GB SSD storage
Apple M4 Pro chip with 12‑core CPU, 16‑core GPU, 16‑core Neural Engine
48GB unified memory
512GB SSD storage
2) Is there any speed or performance advantage in going with a 1 TB SSD vs 512?
3) Do I need to worry about fan noise when I’m recording on camera video or voice over?
Thanks for the feedback. I think the first option is plenty for that especially with the $650 savings. I assume on the first one you are getting 1 TB with the price. I have not heard my fan yet but I heard that the fan on the M4 Pro model is louder when at load as it has more performance cores.
Education store discount, they don’t even require an email address. $499
Nice....
My M4 Pro 14/20 Core 1TB 24GB disk speeds are 6221.4 WRITE and 5173.3 READ
1tb is faster for sure
At 7:10 How is it that the writing speed is 50% faster than the reading speed? Shouldn't it be the opposite?
And the reading speed of the 512 GB is 3,000GB/s, which is NOT "double" than the 256 GB, but exactly the same.
Yeah.. I said that. It was like 100 faster on the one. Not sure but tested 20 times and my drive is performing this way.
I would buy a new iMac this minute, if still available in 27", or even faster if 32"or bigger!
I think a lot of people would. But, I just don't see it coming any time soon and if it does it will be like $3,500 min is my guess.
Getting double the sequential write speed on the internal SSD is almost irrelevant for day to day performance. You won’t video edit from the internal SSD and even if you do, you don’t have a CPU that can process and write over 2GB of video data a second.
I'm just reporting what I see . Some may use it depending on what they do so figured it was important to know.
$689.00 at Costco online right now!
Nice
Costco has the base model for $500 WSL...
Nice
In Europe, depending on the country, you end up paying $250-350 for upgrading your storage to 512GB! No thanks 😅
I will get the base model, use external storage... and hope that we will have the option to replace storage DIY.
Yeah I was just in Europe a few days ago and prices are high.
@craigneidel
Since I'm Polish-American, I sometimes ask my family in the US to buy me Apple stuff 😆
However, base Mac Mini is only $60 more in Poland, so it's not worth the hassle... and I prefer to have the local warranty (just in case).
The problem starts once you decide to make any upgrades 😅 Horrible value 😬
I'm half Polish as well. Nice.
@@craigneidel
That’s so cool man 😎 I currently live in Southern Poland next to Tatra Mountains. My family still lives in Chicago. What about you?
What are scenarios where a "90% user" would notice the difference in speed between the 256gb model and the 512gb?
Not sure much the speed but if you run out of space you will notice it or if you saturate the 256 it could slow down the computer.
Disagree.
256 GB is plenty of space for an average consumer. And if anyone needs more, they can always use something like a SSD.
I consider myself a power user. I have been using the base mini for more than a week now and the storage filled is only 100 GB.
If anything, people should upgrade RAM before storage.
Maybe but I think the point of the video is a normal user and they will run out of space before ram IMO.
Maybe 1TB storage is faster than 512MB? Can You check it?
It is like 5000 I think.
IMO the name of the game here is seek times and latency. Raw read and write performance just doesn't matter for something like this. And if you are one of the few people on the planet working with THAT much data, then you aren't buying a mac mini anyways. Here is the trick. If a thunderbolt 4 external device shows significantly higher latency than the internal drive, go for the 1TB ssd. If the latency of thunderbolt 4 is within 10% of the internal drive, screw it. Go for the cheapest SSD option, save your money, and buy the best external drive you can afford. If that latency is low enough, then just point final cut to your external drive and don't worry about moving files on and off your boot drive.
Yes, you should not really boot off these as then things like the Ai won't work. But I can edit just fine off this setup and it's has no hiccups at all on my side.
I am using Samsung T9 I get just 950 m any reason ?
That is what you should be getting on a T9. I think that is 10 Gbps enclosure and not a 40 Gbps enclosure so you should get somewhere around 1,000 on that. Macs don't support 2x2 also or 20 Gbps so this is exactly what you should be getting on that enclosure.
Went for a Base mini with an external TB4 2TB SSD. 512GB SSD upgrade from Apple isn’t worth it.
If it works for you then it's the right choice
Should we wait for Black Friday? Should we wait for Thunderbolt 5?
@@mjmtaiwan no need to wait for thunderbolt 5. 4 is fast enough.
I just ordered my M4 Pro Mac Mini 14 core CPU (10P+4E), 20 core GPU, 16 core NE, with 48GB unified RAM and 1TB internal SSD storage option.
I believe after 1TB, the gain in internal SSD's R/W bandwidth is "marginal". , so the sweetspot for internal SSD might be actually the 1TB option.
Does anyone have R/W bandwidth metrics for that ? I believe 1TB internal SSD is much faster than the 512GB internal SSD .
My friend who has already received an exactly same configuration Mac mini M4 Pro , was mentioning 6140 MB/s read , 5860 MB/s write speeds, but I am yet to confirm myself .
What's the product with the fastest PCI-e NVMe external SSD R/W bandwidth ?
I am looking at 4TB external SSD drive with R/W bandwidths close to M4 Pro Mac Mini's 1TB internal SSD speeds.
I have seen around 5500 to 6300 MB/s for the 1 tb for a few people but have not tested myself.
Why I am not getting result around 4000 on black magic I have m4 32gb 512
Not sure. Mine seems to be running quick but I have tested it many times now with same results.
0:47 😎👍🏼
head to head
Even for power users that do heavy 4K video editing, 24+ track 24 bit audio recording, very large photo editing + topaz AI photo upscaling the difference in speed of the internal hard drive between the 256 version vs. the 512 version wouldn't be noticeable at all or only very minimally noticeable when you're actually using it--its only on paper that the speed difference looks significant. Plus if you get an external Thunderbolt 4 nvme SSD and save all your work to that drive only applications would be running on the internal drive so in this case there would be ZERO difference in speed. Spending your money on the 24 or 32 GB of RAM would be the upgrade to get for power users or if you're just using everyday apps then just the base model with no upgrades would be the way to go.
I do power user work so I got the base model with the 32GB RAM upgrade + the OWC Thunderbolt 4 drive mated with a 4TB Crucial P4 nVME SSD.
Yes, for the average user 16 is fine but if you do what you describe more ram is the way to go.
apple has become so expensive since the transition to the apple chip I remember the macbook air 2020 intel you have a basic core I3 for $50 more you have an i5 for $100 more you have an i7 same in the ram 8gb basic ram for $100 you have 16 gb ram "it's more energy efficient" m1 max consumes 45w at most the M4 max consumes 90 w if apple continues like that the M8 max will consume so much which will be like laptops by removing all possibilities to upgrade the ram and the cpu we have finally gained nothing with also the loss of eGPU support, boot camp and support for all games
Not really but the space is an issue for sure. But the $599 machine is the best computer desktop in the world right now for that inexpensive cost.
It's the one I got! Glad I didn't stick to the 256Gb. I also got the $40 savings from MSRP.
Nice and good luck.
The Mac Mini is so popular it will attract hackers. Do you recommend buying third party anti virus software, for Apple computers?
The mac mini is still a fraction of the Macs user base like a few percent of Macs. Plus Hackers target MacOS and not individual systems like Mac minis.
The M4 Mac Mini is me its not powerful enough for me as 4 performance cores compared to 10 performance cores is a huge difference and logic only reads the performance cores and not the efficiency cores and my current mac has 6 cores and they are all performance as it is the highest Mac Mini from 2018 and i also have 64GB on it so the M4 version won't do everything for me at all
Yeah you should try it. It will be all you need.