Active Military/Vets: Apple Mac Mini w/ M2 Chip, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD

genax

Feb 25, 2023 07:11 PM

629 Posts

Joined Jun 2009

genaxFeb 25, 2023 07:11 PM

629 Posts

So if i wasnt 16gb i need to pay 700 dollars more hmm.

How much faster is the pro compared to this version

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YouDontNeedIt

Feb 25, 2023 07:15 PM

823 Posts

Joined Jul 2021

YouDontNeedItFeb 25, 2023 07:15 PM

823 Posts

Our community has rated this post as helpful. If you agree, why not thank YouDontNeedIt

Quote from MrWheelNDeal

:

Keep in mind these take a HUGE hit on ssd speeds with the 256GB version because apple nerfed these by putting in one 256 stick instead of two 128s.

The minis with larger ssds use two sticks running in raid 0 which essentially doubles their speeds, meaning 2x faster transfer speeds, loading content, and more.

Probably not a big deal though if you're mainly browsing the internet and for general productivity.

It's certainly not "running in raid 0".

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Jimmdean

Feb 25, 2023 07:46 PM

738 Posts

Joined Mar 2007

JimmdeanFeb 25, 2023 07:46 PM

738 Posts

Quote from YouDontNeedIt

:

It's certainly not "running in raid 0".

Well speed wise that is not incorrect. just not quite the right terminology... benchmarking has shown the 2-NAND variant at exactly double the speed of the single-NAND. But that is not unexpected - that is just the way SSDs work. The fastest SSDs available use multiple smaller-NAND chips running data concurrently to achieve their maximum speed.

Last edited by Jimmdean February 25, 2023 at 12:51 PM.

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Jimmdean

Feb 25, 2023 07:49 PM

738 Posts

Joined Mar 2007

JimmdeanFeb 25, 2023 07:49 PM

738 Posts

Quote from genax

:

So if i wasnt 16gb i need to pay 700 dollars more hmm.

How much faster is the pro compared to this version

depends what you're doing obviously, but for most things none at all. The memory is all working at the same speed until you eat it all up (which most normal users don't) and the single-core performance is the same on all M2-variant CPUs, so you'd only notice a difference in multi-core tasks, which again most people don't really have.

Last edited by Jimmdean February 25, 2023 at 01:02 PM.

astro26

Feb 25, 2023 07:50 PM

568 Posts

Joined Dec 2010

astro26Feb 25, 2023 07:50 PM

568 Posts

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Quote from MrWheelNDeal

:

Keep in mind these take a HUGE hit on ssd speeds with the 256GB version because apple nerfed these by putting in one 256 stick instead of two 128s.

The minis with larger ssds use two sticks running in raid 0 which essentially doubles their speeds, meaning 2x faster transfer speeds, loading content, and more.

Probably not a big deal though if you're mainly browsing the internet and for general productivity.

A lot of misinformation on this. Lots of clickbait making people pay for for stuff they don't need.
Did you see the videos on real world usage? 99% of the people can barely tell the m2 256 has a slower drive. It only shows up if you regularly move 50gb files daily. This guy shows it from a graphics design or photography perspective.

If you do regular dev builds as a programmer then you aren't using macOS, Linux instead and a have a different setup so you don't have macOS overhead. Alex zeskind.

https://youtu.be/_rgeCXm5uwY

Of course there are many other YT influencers showing artificial benchmarks. But very few day in the life of videos which show the real difference.

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JustinS6323

Feb 25, 2023 07:54 PM

1,207 Posts

Joined May 2013

JustinS6323Feb 25, 2023 07:54 PM

1,207 Posts

Also something to consider, if you have a 144hz monitor, you have to get the "pro" chip to maximize the capabilities of the monitor.

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PurpleNest2305

Feb 25, 2023 08:02 PM

479 Posts

Joined Dec 2018

PurpleNest2305Feb 25, 2023 08:02 PM

479 Posts

Quote from astro26

:

A lot of misinformation on this. Lots of clickbait making people pay for for stuff they don't need.
Did you see the videos on real world usage? 99% of the people can barely tell the m2 256 has a slower drive. It only shows up if you regularly move 50gb files daily. This guy shows it from a graphics design or photography perspective.

If you do regular dev builds as a programmer then you aren't using macOS, Linux instead and a have a different setup so you don't have macOS overhead. Alex zeskind.

https://youtu.be/_rgeCXm5uwY

Of course there are many other YT influencers showing artificial benchmarks. But very few day in the life of videos which show the real difference.

I have the base model as my home media server and remote box, and it works great. Plenty fast, no issues because of the SSD. The overlap between people who buy a base model Mac mini and those who would be performing tasks that would push the drive enough to make that limitation apparent is pretty much nonexistent.

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eemee

Feb 25, 2023 08:09 PM

48 Posts

Joined Mar 2015

eemeeFeb 25, 2023 08:09 PM

48 Posts

Our community has rated this post as helpful. If you agree, why not thank eemee

Quote from MrWheelNDeal

:

Keep in mind these take a HUGE hit on ssd speeds with the 256GB version because apple nerfed these by putting in one 256 stick instead of two 128s.

The minis with larger ssds use two sticks running in raid 0 which essentially doubles their speeds, meaning 2x faster transfer speeds, loading content, and more.

Probably not a big deal though if you're mainly browsing the internet and for general productivity.

Even the slowest of these is 3x the speed of sata ssd. They're fine.

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Jimmdean

Feb 25, 2023 08:23 PM

738 Posts

Joined Mar 2007

JimmdeanFeb 25, 2023 08:23 PM

738 Posts

The SSD speed is hardly an issue next to the fact that it's only 256GB of storage in the first place. Users may never need more than 8GB of RAM and may never use more than than 1 or 2 cores of the m2, but it's hard to imagine any computer user not running out of disk space on this. I wish Apple had used some of the cost savings they must have gotten on halving the number of NAND chips to bump the starting storage capacity.

Last edited by Jimmdean February 25, 2023 at 01:26 PM.

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daveangel

Feb 25, 2023 09:17 PM

1,882 Posts

Joined Jun 2011

daveangelFeb 25, 2023 09:17 PM

1,882 Posts

Quote from wangcho78

:

Just curious but does anyone use cloud desktop. I use gitpod.io for $10 a month and didnt much have a reason to buy new computer.

otherwise, i definitely get 16g ram with 1t sdd.

Yeah but nothing to do if cloud goes down only reason I can think LOL.
Also, if cloud gets hacked could lose all data then again same could happen to home PC if u don't backup!

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TowHead

Feb 25, 2023 09:38 PM

5,363 Posts

Joined Mar 2005

TowHeadFeb 25, 2023 09:38 PM

5,363 Posts

Quote from jwr28s

:

Would you mind sharing links (or explaining in more detail) how the single stick versus a split into two 128s impacts performance? Would like to learn more and I'm not coming up with much on my own Google searches.

Flash chips take time to latch (absorb) data that is written to them. By spreading the tasks across multiple chips, the duties can be more efficiently managed (write on one while waiting for the other). If a bit in a sector is to be changed from 0 to 1, the whole sector has to be erased, merged, and rewritten - erases take the longest - but this is the duty of leveling algorithms, to avoid reusing sectors until it can't be avoided. Bottom line, it's pretty much being able to dither the tasks around onto two/more chips without having to wait the longest all the time.

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Active Military/Vets: Apple Mac Mini w/ M2 Chip, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD

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