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Apple Mac Mini: M1, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD (Late 2020 Model) Expired
$550
$699.99
+ Free Store Pickup
Microcenter has Apple Mac Mini Compact Computer w/ Apple M1 Chip (Late 2020 Model, MGNR3LL/A) on sale for $549.99. Click the Reserve Now button on the product page and pick up at your local store.
Thanks to Community Member warpshield for finding this deal.
Specs:
Thanks to Community Member warpshield for finding this deal.
Specs:
- Apple M1 Octa-Core Processor (4x high-performance + 4x high-efficiency)
- 8-Core Integrated GPU
- 8GB RAM (onboard)
- 256GB Integrated NVMe PCIe Solid State Drive
- 802.11ax WiFi 6 / Bluetooth 5.0
- Ports:
- 2x USB Type-A (USB 3.1 / USB 3.2 Gen 1)
- 2x Thunderbolt 3 USB Type C (supports DisplayPort / HDMI / VGA & Power Delivery)
- 1x HDMI 2.0 (output)
- 1x 3.5 mm Headphone
- 1x Ethernet
Original Post
Written by
Edited August 22, 2022
at 03:44 AM
Microcenter deal is live again:
Apple M1 8-Core CPU
8GB Unified Memory
256GB Solid State Drive
8-Core GPU/16-Core Neural Engine
macOS
10/100/1000 LAN + WiFi 6 WLAN
$549
https://www.microcenter
Apple M1 8-Core CPU
8GB Unified Memory
256GB Solid State Drive
8-Core GPU/16-Core Neural Engine
macOS
10/100/1000 LAN + WiFi 6 WLAN
$549
https://www.microcenter
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My swap (with 48 days of uptime) is 3-4GB. Just because it's in swap doesn't mean it's actively writing/reading from the swap.
Here's a graph of my swap over time, and ALSO how much swap reads and writes over the course of an hour.
https://imgur.com/a/AOK9lFg
Memory swap isn't bad.. It's like a tiered memory storage... It's only bad if it's actively trying to utilize the swap with read/writes, but it takes a lot of those to hurt the ssd.
This is with discord + vscode + spotify + chrome + occasional FT. 8gb M1 256gb.
https://www.costco.com/mac-mini-%...94159.html
8GB on an M1 is not a problem at all, it is much more memory efficient than Windows PCs with 16GB+.
M2, based on how they are pricing the M2 MBAs are going to be $200 more. Not worth it for that minor bump.
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Then I was getting a lot of hangups. It wasn't the wonderful miracle machine people had been waxing eloquent about online for months. Learned to check out Activity Monitor application. Almost always yellow, sometimes red. Apples support says when it spends a lot of time in the yellow range, you need more memory.
I run nothing too fancy. Quicken file is always up, few tabs in Safari, messages, mail, calendar, FaceTime. Apple Support said just to continually close what I am not using. That is really annoying what was a $1000 machine in 2022. I do use Teams for work rarely as well, that turned the Activity Monitor yellow on its own with nothing else open.
But I'm not sure for your use case.
My swap (with 48 days of uptime) is 3-4GB. Just because it's in swap doesn't mean it's actively writing/reading from the swap.
Here's a graph of my swap over time, and ALSO how much swap reads and writes over the course of an hour.
https://imgur.com/a/AOK9lFg
Memory swap isn't bad.. It's like a tiered memory storage... It's only bad if it's actively trying to utilize the swap with read/writes, but it takes a lot of those to hurt the ssd.
This is with discord + vscode + spotify + chrome + occasional FT. 8gb M1 256gb.
My swap (with 48 days of uptime) is 3-4GB. Just because it's in swap doesn't mean it's actively writing/reading from the swap.
Here's a graph of my swap over time, and ALSO how much swap reads and writes over the course of an hour.
https://imgur.com/a/AOK9lFg
Memory swap isn't bad.. It's like a tiered memory storage... It's only bad if it's actively trying to utilize the swap with read/writes, but it takes a lot of those to hurt the ssd.
This is with discord + vscode + spotify + chrome + occasional FT. 8gb M1 256gb.
When not in use, are you turning off Mac or sending to sleep? Sounds like, it's in sleep.
How's power consumption in sleep and what is impact on memory and cpu of heat?
How's power consumption in sleep and what is impact on memory and cpu of heat?
CPU goes to 33C in use and 22C at night when in idle, I've never heard the fans spin up.
Here are charts of fan speeds and cpu temps https://imgur.com/a/5sofOFz
I don't have metrics of power consumption though sorry.
Some people may not actually use more than 8GB but it is the same amount of bits no matter what. There is no magic that makes this 8GB "equivalent" to 16GB or more on some other platform.
500hp in one car won't necessarily be as fast/quick/spirited as 500hp in another car. One may be heavier, one may have different gearing, one may have a different power band/torque curve, etc.
while 8gb of ram is still 8gb of ram whether on mac or windows, macs have always done a better job managing memory than windows, at least since OSX initially came out. and the apple silicon managed to take it even further.
Would I upgrade to 16gb? Absolutely, because I have a need for it. But if you don't (like my wife who has an m1 air with 8gb of ram) then you'll never notice an issue. She hasn't, and has programs running left and right on it.
My swap (with 48 days of uptime) is 3-4GB. Just because it's in swap doesn't mean it's actively writing/reading from the swap.
Here's a graph of my swap over time, and ALSO how much swap reads and writes over the course of an hour.
https://imgur.com/a/AOK9lFg
Memory swap isn't bad.. It's like a tiered memory storage... It's only bad if it's actively trying to utilize the swap with read/writes, but it takes a lot of those to hurt the ssd.
This is with discord + vscode + spotify + chrome + occasional FT. 8gb M1 256gb.
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It is a fast CPU and the memory is on the same chip reducing latency significantly for access.
But there is NOTHING that makes it use less memory for the same applications on an Intel machine. In fact, the available memory is less since the same memory is shared between video, neural engine, etc. All that makes for a very powerful processing power but if an application uses a lot of memory or you multi-task between apps, it will suffer the same swap delays that comes from less memory.
The reason this BS exists other than Apple shills is that the newer Minis have a much faster SSD than previous Intel models so the swapping in and out is a little faster.
The 8GB is the minimum that Apple could get away with.
I had posted a head to head comparison between an M1 and an Intel i5 equivalent in SSD speed using exact same OS snapshot and applications. M1 does very well in benchmarks and does slightly faster Xcode compilations. But video processing using Handbrake was actually a bit slower on the M1. The M1 is actually much more powerful than what is required for use on this mini and so the far superior processing brings very little benefit.
Applications are becoming much more memory hogs than before, so do yourself a favor and skip the 8GB version unless you use it for about the same level of use as an iPad. You will find future OS upgrades and apps suffering from swapping delays very soon requiring an upgrade as Apple intends.
while 8gb of ram is still 8gb of ram whether on mac or windows, macs have always done a better job managing memory than windows, at least since OSX initially came out. and the apple silicon managed to take it even further.
On Windows when you display the simple HW monitor it will show almost all memory occupied and this is where the myth comes from. Windows kernel doesn't mark a memory page as free even when it has been moved to disk and the page is not dirty or the application has been terminated. It keeps it around just in case the same page is needed. But it doesn't need to swap that out if more memory is needed. It will use it just as if it was free. So, memory usage always seems to be at the edge of overflowing in Windows.
OS X on intel didn't do anything significantly better in this regard. The access latency has improved significantly in Apple silicon but memory usage hasn't changed. In fact, the same memory has to be shared between CPU, Graphics and the neural engine.
It's a Mac and it will get updates for at least 7 more years. 8 might be good for today, but it will reduce the useful lifespan of the device. 16 is your minimum and that still may not hold for as long as "mom & dad" will use it because they aren't going to want to pay to upgrade until it's EOL/not getting any more updates.
Yes, more RAM would be better...that'd also no longer be a $550 machine.
For the price (and if you're not trying to use this for high end/business purposes), this is a steal...I'd love to see the list of equiv. machines (capability, utility, and power consumption-wise) at this price point.
Get Mom one, attach one to the TV, put one in the kitchen, etc. Plenty of solid uses for this machine
My work machine is an M1 Pro/16Gb.
If you're planning on using this machine long term for development/professional work then yeah, you should spend a bit more for the 16gb or even wait for the m2. But as a general purpose, web dev machine this is fine.
Also, 16gb is $200 more...
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500hp in one car won't necessarily be as fast/quick/spirited as 500hp in another car. One may be heavier, one may have different gearing, one may have a different power band/torque curve, etc.
while 8gb of ram is still 8gb of ram whether on mac or windows, macs have always done a better job managing memory than windows, at least since OSX initially came out. and the apple silicon managed to take it even further.
Would I upgrade to 16gb? Absolutely, because I have a need for it. But if you don't (like my wife who has an m1 air with 8gb of ram) then you'll never notice an issue. She hasn't, and has programs running left and right on it.
What you will find is that any given app occupies roughly the same amount of memory on both platforms.