What You Need to Know

The M4 Mac mini may only have been with us for a little over a week – but in those 7 days, it has caused quite a stir.

The Mac mini was crying out for some love – its last overhaul was way back in 2010 and its previous chip upgrade was in January 2023. The mini has always been a very niche machine and almost one of their best-kept secrets.

For many, it has been their entry Mac but the tiny footprint it has occupied has, to the uninitiated at least, always underplayed quite how competent the Mac mini has always been.

Well, now, the Mac that has adorned many a server centre has just shaken things up a bit! I’d go so far as to say that not since Apple silicon burst onto the scene have I felt or witnessed as much positivity and energy.

No one seems to have a bad word to say about the mighty mini.

I’m about to find out how good they are – I have a very well spec’d one on order which I’ll talk about later, but while I wait for that one, I’m going to collect a base-level mini just so I can test the water.

As with everything Apple though, things can start to get very expensive, very quickly! So in this piece, I thought I’d make some suggestions as to which boxes to tick – and why!

M4 Mac mini – storage

The M4 Mac mini can represent brilliant value for money but don’t be fooled by the cheapest mini.

Yes, you can pick one up for £599 and while I don’t think you’d be disappointed by it, it’s the 256GB of SSD storage that concerns me.

From Apple’s perspective that ticket price is marketing heaven! Look at us giving you something almost for nothing – it’s a tremendous headline, but I reckon you’d regret it pretty quickly. As with the memory, the SSD on these things is locked in – after you make your choices and checkout there is no going back.

You may have seen some stories saying that the storage is swappable on these latest M4 Mac minis – but don’t be fooled. Technically it can be done, but they are not designed to be opened up. I’ve seen people try and in every instance, the Macs have been damaged in some way.

So with that in mind, I’d always suggest at least 512GB or possibly 1TB of storage. I know the upgrades don’t come cheap with Apple – with each step up costing £200. Now, I can hear the shouts of ‘just use cheaper external SSDs’ which of course you could.

After all, there are plenty of great I/O – 2 USBC-3 ports on the front with another 3 on the back. Those – the ones on the back are Thunderbolt 4 o(r 5 on the M4 Pro Mac minis) and are quick. Much will depend on how you are going to use your external SSD. If it is just for storage then it’s certainly an option. But if you are going to read and write to and from them regularly, or intend to work from them then I’d think twice.

Internal storage is not only neater but quicker too. The 120GB/s transfer speeds that Apple was quoting only come into play for displays. Data transfer is going to be around 80GB/s – and that is if you have the correct Thunderbolt 5 cable (a £70 option from Apple) and if you can even find a Thunderbolt 5 SSD. After Apple’s announcement last week, you can bet that it won’t be long until we see more of them, but right now, they are pretty thin on the ground.

As to how much storage you’ll need my best advice is to let history be your teacher. Look at the Mac you’ll be trading up from and see how much storage you are using now. Give yourself some headroom – and there is your answer.

And for those of you shouting at me saying ‘hold on didn’t you just say you were going to buy one with only 256GB storage’ – yes, guilty as charged… I’ll explain all in a bit.

M4 or M4 Pro

Here the answer is easy – for nearly everyone the M4 chip will be more than quick enough.

Tests have shown the M4 base testing as fast as the M3 Pro chip which had a 12-core CPU and 18-core GPU. Bear in mind the name M4 only has a 10-core CPU and 10-core GPU, that’s how good this new chip looks to be.

The M4 Pro starts with a 12-core CPU and 16-core GPU which is configurable to 14 and 16 cores respectively – but ticking that box doesn’t come cheap. There is a massive £800 jump between the base M4 and M4 Pro Macs.

Here, you’ll know if you need those extra cores and power. If you do, it still looks not bad value for money, but for most of us, the bog-standard M4 Mac mini will be more than enough.

Memory

Unless my grey matter is playing tricks with me, a few months back Apple was telling us 8GB of memory would be the basic requirement to get the most out of Apple Intelligence.

Now though they seem to have changed track – last week saw all Macs getting 16GB of memory as standard – even the M2 & M3 MacBook Airs. That makes me suspicious – has Apple found that AI is more processor-hungry than they had first thought? Why else the sudden change of heart then?

And if that is the case – bearing in mind all Macs, including the M4 Mac mini are built from the ground up for Apple Intelligence, then buying a Mac with only 16GB may not be the smartest move from a future-proofing point of view.

Let’s say you are the kind of person that doesn’t have the best tab management and you have 15, 20 or 30 Chrome tabs open at any time or have loads of power-hungry apps open at the same time – well with 16GB you won’t have much wiggle-room.

So for those reasons, I’d say go with 24GB of unified memory. I know it will cost another £200 but in the long run, it will be so worth it – particularly as we don’t know how Apple Intelligence will work in real life yet.

The only other tickbox is the 10GB Ethernet port. Although not for everyone, to my way of thinking for only £100 it’s not a bad option. I have added that to the specs of my customer-built M4 Mac mini as eventually, I may go with a Synology set-up in the studio and that would need that 10GB port. Also, if you are one of the lucky sods to have gigabit ethernet then with this port you’ll be able to better utilise it.

My Mac mini

I thought about the specs I wanted for my mini long and hard. I have reservations that a Pro chip can be better than a Max chip – but something in my water tells me that M4 silicon is going to be something pretty special.

My workhorse over the past 3 years has been an M1 Max MacBook Pro with 4TB of SSD storage and 32GB of memory. But I am starting to wonder if the M4 Pro chip won’t give it a run for its money. I know the M4 Pro only has a single Media decoder engine – and that might be a drawback for me, but I’m starting to wonder if I couldn’t use the M4 Mac mini as my main rig. Mad? We’ll soon find out.

So with all that in mind, the spec I went for was;

• M4 Pro upgraded to the 14-core CPU & 20-core GPU chip
• 1TB SSD storage
• 48GB of unified memory
• 10GB Ethernet
  

That Mac will take 2-3 weeks to build and will cost me £2200. The specs reflect not only what I do with my Mac – Lightroom, Photoshop, Audition and Final Cut Pro but also the role I can see it playing down the line.

The base model I spoke about – flying in the face of everything I’ve said is just so I can get a feel of the new Mac mini and write about it. It is very much a stop-gap machine.

The sweet spot

So, if you are looking to get yourself an M4 Mac mini or maybe buy one as a gift for someone this Christmas – here is what I consider to be the best value for money mini – taking into consideration performance, longevity and usability:

• M4 chip
• 512GB SSD storage
• 24GB unified memory
• 10GB Ethernet
  

That Mac would cost £1000 and assuming you have the peripherals sounds like a pretty amazing Mac at a more than reasonable price.

While there are a few unanswered questions about the thermals and the annoying fact there is no SSD card slot, the buzz about M4 in general and the M4 Mac mini in particular is undeniable.

Apple changed everything once before with Apple silicon. Are they about to rewrite the books again with the M4 chip? Soon we’ll all know…