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The new M1 Mac mini

Studying the rear of the new M1 Mini the port connectivity looks rather meagre compared to my 2010 Mini. I have a few questions:

- I use the combined analogue/optical 3.5mm audio input on my Mini to record audio from my TV. As far as I can tell the new M1 Mini no longer has a 3.5mm input, is that correct or does it now share the 3.5mm output?

- I use a dummy dongle in the miniDisplay port on my Mini to trick the GPU into action so that I can access the Mini's full list of screen resolutions when I'm in another room and am using the Screen Sharing app on my MacBook. Does the M1 Mini still require a dummy dongle for this? If it does then this immediately reduces the number of thunderbolt/USB4 ports.

- £699 seems a great price, but you only get 8GB RAM. The 16GB RAM model is an extra £200, which is quite a price jump. Is 8GB RAM still adequate in 2020? (My 2010 Mini and 2015 MacBook Pro have 8GB).
 
Studying the rear of the new M1 Mini the port connectivity looks rather meagre compared to my 2010 Mini. I have a few questions:

- I use the combined analogue/optical 3.5mm audio input on my Mini to record audio from my TV. As far as I can tell the new M1 Mini no longer has a 3.5mm input, is that correct or does it now share the 3.5mm output?

- I use a dummy dongle in the miniDisplay port on my Mini to trick the GPU into action so that I can access the Mini's full list of screen resolutions when I'm in another room and am using the Screen Sharing app on my MacBook. Does the M1 Mini still require a dummy dongle for this? If it does then this immediately reduces the number of thunderbolt/USB4 ports.

- £699 seems a great price, but you only get 8GB RAM. The 16GB RAM model is an extra £200, which is quite a price jump. Is 8GB RAM still adequate in 2020? (My 2010 Mini and 2015 MacBook Pro have 8GB).
AFAIK there is no Audio Input on the 3.5mm

Dummy dongle - guessing you probably will need to and maybe then have to buy a Video Expander/Dock or USB Vid Card

Looks like M1 rewrites the rules on CPU/RAM so I reckon 8GB is gonna do a lot more for you here
 
Studying the rear of the new M1 Mini the port connectivity looks rather meagre compared to my 2010 Mini. I have a few questions:

- I use the combined analogue/optical 3.5mm audio input on my Mini to record audio from my TV. As far as I can tell the new M1 Mini no longer has a 3.5mm input, is that correct or does it now share the 3.5mm output?

- I use a dummy dongle in the miniDisplay port on my Mini to trick the GPU into action so that I can access the Mini's full list of screen resolutions when I'm in another room and am using the Screen Sharing app on my MacBook. Does the M1 Mini still require a dummy dongle for this? If it does then this immediately reduces the number of thunderbolt/USB4 ports.

- £699 seems a great price, but you only get 8GB RAM. The 16GB RAM model is an extra £200, which is quite a price jump. Is 8GB RAM still adequate in 2020? (My 2010 Mini and 2015 MacBook Pro have 8GB).

8GB is the minimum RAM you should have in 2021. Fine for light home movies / streaming / browsing, editing or office use as long as you don't have too many apps open. The sweet spot is 16GB RAM. However, typing on this laptop at the moment I'm already using 14GB of my available 32GB, so if RAM is available, your system will scale to use it & will generally be more snappy and responsive, with less hanging of windows, or in my case, I can work with extremely large data files without crashing my software.
 
Looks like M1 rewrites the rules on CPU/RAM so I reckon 8GB is gonna do a lot more for you here

I think you're talking about the Unified Memory Architecture, which will indeed speed up memory performance. However, if you are doing video editing, music production, heavy multitasking, huge data files, you're still going to be bottlenecked by 8GB, and would need to move up to 16GB+.

Like the Americans say: 'there's no replacement for displacement.' :p
 
i just watched the video @mikebirtill posted and the 8GB M1 in that appears to be able to handle a crazy amount of tracks and plug-ins in Logic without breaking a sweat. Not sure how that translates to other tasks such as video editing etc but it seems very impressive.
 
I think you're talking about the Unified Memory Architecture, which will indeed speed up memory performance. However, if you are doing video editing, music production, heavy multitasking, you're still going to be bottlenecked by 8GB, and would need to move up to 16GB+
The Mini isn't aimed at Pro's making a living doing Vid Ed, Graphics, 3D etc. though - different horses and all that
 
As AA said above, RAM requirements with these new Macs seem to be different. There are YouTube videos of folks running video editing software on HD files and trying to overload it and not managing.

The general consensus from what I've seen is that for day to day stuff 8GB is likely sufficient. That's what I'll be going for when I pick one up in a few weeks.
 
i just watched the video @mikebirtill posted and the 8GB M1 in that appears to be able to handle a crazy amount of tracks and plug-ins in Logic without breaking a sweat. Not sure how that translates to other tasks such as video editing etc but it seems very impressive.

That is very impressive indeed, Logic is pretty efficient when it comes to RAM, with a 4GB min requirement. As Amber Audio says, if you're doing something like using Pro Tools, with a 16GB min / 32GB recommended requirement, you aren't going to be using it on a Mac Mini.
 
Its a different architecture than x86. Im very impressed with the new mac mini, and im a logic rather than a tools user. But i've still got that x86 memory nag in the back of my head, so ill be waiting for a 32gb (M2?) mini, and then stick it in a rack unit with thunderbolt drives. Can't wait, but it does depend on when every other plug in and app manufacturer goes to apple silicon.
 
Actually I know loads of people using a mac min with pro tools quite happily
Yeah but Apple don’t aim it at that market segment, Apple Pro models are what they want to shift in that space, whether they work really well is a different thing. If the M1 computers are as quick as this I’m really looking forward to the M2 models for sure.
 
I guess so, but a great deal of users are totally fed up with the whole PT thing and moving to Reaper or those with UAD hardware to Luna. I've been logic for about 20 years now but also use Reason and Ableton. Looking forward to them being on a new machine at some point
 
My M1 mini is silent in operation. Runs handbrake and file format converters at a rate of knots. Still some issues with sleep mode and also BT devices which hopefully the next patch will sort.
 
I have an m1 MacBook Air which replaced a 2012 Mac mini. Streaming Tidal through audiovarna to a modest zen dac and it sounds better than the old Mac mini. If funds allow I’ll be getting a new mini for music only duties.
 
I have an m1 MacBook Air which replaced a 2012 Mac mini. Streaming Tidal through audiovarna to a modest zen dac and it sounds better than the old Mac mini. If funds allow I’ll be getting a new mini for music only duties.

Cool. Have you tried the headphone out? Curious if the Zen is better or worse. I have an iFi Zen Blue and the Mini sounds better comparing analogue out of both.
 
Cool. Have you tried the headphone out? Curious if the Zen is better or worse. I have an iFi Zen Blue and the Mini sounds better comparing analogue out of both.
The zen's is definitely better than the Mac's using HD650's
I don't often use headphones though, the Zen is used to listen to my system nac82-nap250-sbl's
 


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