M4 Mac mini...what to buy?!

[Big Scottish Bloke]

Hi all! Hope yer all well...

I know theres similar posts elsewhere but my particular situation might be slightly different..( I have posted this over on the Cubase forums too so apologies for overlaps!)

I'm a pro composer/ arranger using Cubase 13 pro, and have loads of VSTs, including east west opus, play, Spectrasonics, etc etc and I want to improve the speed that these load at (esp Opus) and improve speed of rendering and mix down etc..

I like the look of the new m4 Mac mini, and am thinking of replacing my iMac (2020) 3.8 GHz 8-Core Intel Core i7 with 64gb memory with one of these impressive looking wee beasties...

So where do I spend the money?

Do I need loads of memory? I currently have 64gb but to get this on the new m4 Mac mini I'd need the M4 pro and pay £600!! Eek!

So with the new M4 processors, how much memory do I need to improve the speeds I mentioned?

I guess my options are:
* Apple M4 chip with 10‑core CPU, 10‑core GPU, 16‑core Neural Engine
* 32GB unified memory
* 512GB SSD storage
OR
* Apple M4 Pro chip with 12‑core CPU, 16‑core GPU, 16‑core Neural Engine
* 24GB unified memory. (or upgrade to 48 gb?Extra £400! but if its worth it..)
* 512GB SSD storage

Also planning to get a fast external drive for samples, maybe 4 gb Crucial X9 pro which should help loading times...

Don't have bottomless pockets so would prefer not to have to spend more than £1500, but if it was really gonna make a difference, well.....

Thanks in advance folks!
BSB

[OneWorld]

Well they say you can never have enough memory, and you can never have enough money.

I'd be inclined to go for the extra, I always factor in the fact that a decent setup will serve you well over a considerable number of years, and over that period of time the cost seems more reasonable, that's how I justify the cost, for what it's worth

[BigRedX]

Given that memory usage in the M-series Macs is supposed to be almost twice as efficient as Intel based ones, I opted to get the same amount as before in both of my Macs when I upgraded (from a 2010 MacPro and a 2012 MacBook Pro) last month which in theory should give me at least 50% more efficiency, and should see me through the increasing bloat-ware of the next 5-10 years.

If possible I wouldn't go below 75% of RAM from your previous Mac.

[tea for two]

Hi there.

* Apple M4 chip with 10‑core CPU, 10‑core GPU, 16‑core Neural Engine
* 32GB unified memory
* 512GB SSD storage
OR
* Apple M4 Pro chip with 12‑core CPU, 16‑core GPU, 16‑core Neural Engine
* 24GB unified memory. (or upgrade to 48 gb?Extra £400! but if its worth it..)
* 512GB SSD storage

M4 10core cpu still only has 4 Performance cores.
M4 Pro 12core cpu has 8 Performance cores.

M4 Pro + 48GB RAM more suited for your requirements.

have loads of VSTs, including east west opus, play, Spectrasonics, etc etc and I want to improve the speed that these load at (esp Opus) and improve speed of rendering and mix down etc..

::

replacing my iMac (2020) 3.8 GHz 8-Core Intel Core i7 with 64gb memory

would prefer not to have to spend more than £1500, but if it was really gonna make a difference, well.....

Are you keeping your 2020 imac. Else selling it to fund 48GB RAM on M4 Pro mini. Spending more on suitable specs for you requirements, instead of later wishing you had.

::

Also planning to get a fast external drive for samples, maybe 4 gb Crucial X9 pro which should help loading times...

That's the way to do it. Else you will be spending money for nothing lol on internal ssd, when you can get external fast ssd for nearly free as it were.

[ConcertinaChap]

Don't have bottomless pockets so would prefer not to have to spend more than £1500, but if it was really gonna make a difference, well.....

If you can hold off for a little while until they start appearing on the Apple Refurb page on the website you might save yourself a few bob or (better) get a better machine for the same money. Most of the machines I've bought over the years have been Apple refurbs and they always been very good buys.

CC

[BigRedX]

If you can hold off for a little while until they start appearing on the Apple Refurb page on the website you might save yourself a few bob or (better) get a better machine for the same money. Most of the machines I've bought over the years have been Apple refurbs and they always been very good buys.

CC

But only if you can get the specification you want. When it was possible to add RAM and a bigger/faster internal drive at a later date the only thing that you needed to worry about was the processor type and speed. Now that there are no user upgradable parts it's not so easy. I'd been waiting for a refurb Mac Studio with my preferred specification for 6 months now, but the only ones offering a significant saving for me were the base models with insufficient RAM. Anything with enough RAM also had much faster processors than I need and a significant corresponding price increase to go with that. I'm sure if I waited long enough one might have come along and I might have saved a couple of hundred pounds, but I ran out of time and for me it was ultimately cheaper to get a new Mac Studio with the right specs for me.

[ConcertinaChap]

But only if you can get the specification you want.

Agreed. You have to be patient, admittedly. I'm waiting for the right Macbook Air to come along. It will come and I'm in no hurry.

CC

[Sam Spoons]

Hoxton Macs do refurbished Macs for very decent prices compared to Apple, and Apple don't sell refurbs of models more than a year or so old (no M1 Macs available on the Apple refurb store anymore).

[mountain lion]

Surely the base m4 processor must be a lot better than my quadcore 2015.

[johnny h]

Surely the base m4 processor must be a lot better than my quadcore 2015.

Yes, it'll absolutely demolish it. Unless you're doing extreme sample rates or absolutely gigantic sounds banks it will be plenty fast enough.

[ConcertinaChap]

But only if you can get the specification you want.

Agreed. You have to be patient, admittedly. I'm waiting for the right Macbook Air to come along. It will come and I'm in no hurry.

CC

And it just has. An M3 13" Macbook Air with 24 GB RAM and 1TB SSD for £230 less than the new equivalent. It'll arrive tomorrow

CC

[dj-congress_bill-of-rights]

I have some suggestions..

1. get as much on device hard drive space as possible. after about 1-2 years of constant use on your mac, you might have up to 50% (!!) of hard drive space used up on the system files it caches on the main disk, and the only way to fix it is to reinstall the operating system
2. you'll need a good external hard drive/s and a file system scheme, (ie /Volume/8tb/name/music/daw /Volume/4tb/name/music/backup, etc) I suggest a 8tb-20tb external usb3.0 (don't store vsts here, its slow. use this for a main backup repo or stuff like games, movies, and music) and a 4-8tb nvme m2 external drive for fast stuff, such as vsts, sound files, and a secondary storage. its not as quick as the main drive, theres about a 20-25% increase on loading times when using a m2 on thunderbolt for large vsts. shouldn't cost more then 300$ all together I think, 150 for the 8tb, 200 for the m2 4tb
3. backup often, including your songs in raw daw format, and try to store various backups on your icloud (ie backup.nov25.zip backup.dec.05.zip). if you want to use apple's Time Machine, you should also invest in a good thunderbolt hub and possibly invest in another hard drive because Time Machine requires either an on device hard drive or an entire external disk (I think). you can additionally use unix's crontab and issue a create zip command every night and store it on all external drives. Time Machine can seriously save your day if you use it right.
4. you can hook up a 5.1 receiver to your Mac, and go 5.1 for various reasons, including making 5.1 audio. you'll need either a soundblaster x4 external usb or you'll need to find a 5.1 audio receiver that works with the hdmi out on Macs
5. try to get as much ram as you can afford
6. try to stockpile Mac keyboards/mice so when something happens to them, you don't have to run to the store
7. if you're really paranoid about network security, try looking into encryption and shutting down your Mac at night

hope this helped

dj congress

[ConcertinaChap]

1. get as much on device hard drive space as possible. after about 1-2 years of constant use on your mac, you might have up to 50% (!!) of hard drive space used up on the system files it caches on the main disk, and the only way to fix it is to reinstall the operating system

Que? In 13 years and 8 different Macs I've never seen anything even remotely like this.

Agree about Time Machine, though. A well thought out backup option.

CC