New macs

[Guy Rowland]

I quite like this hoopla-reduced one new product a day thing.

SO far we've had new iMacs, new Mac Minis and new MacBook Pros. Anyone tempted by any of these? Not me, but they seem pretty damn desirable.

I guess the Mac Minis are MacBook Airs in a tiny tin. Nice idea. I bet they'd perform great for a modest composing rig. 32GB RAM limit is the thing, but that would likely be okay for the way I work.

Also I may be imagining it, but I thiiink the prices may have dropped a little.

[Luciano Storti]

Somewhat tempted. Though I'd also like to know what's happening with the next iteration of the Mac Studio. Looking good across the line though, especially the upgraded RAM minimum on some, as well as pricing on the Mini in particular By the way, with the Pro CPU version you can get 64Gb of RAM on the Mini. Sounded real tempting until I checked my RAM usage just now: 89Gb.

[GR Baumann]

I want to see real comparisons between M4 and M2, and I wonder about the Mac Mini Airflow. I mean it's o.k. if you are in a low to zero dust situation, otherwise this vortex sucks in a lot to my imagination. Perhaps some sort of gaze around the hoover part might help if it does not hinder air flow?

10/4 core M4 512/24 vs.
12/8 core Pro 512/24
is 500 euro more here.

[Guy Rowland]

Somewhat tempted. Though I'd also like to know what's happening with the next iteration of the Mac Studio. Looking good across the line though, especially the upgraded RAM minimum on some, as well as pricing on the Mini in particular By the way, with the Pro CPU version you can get 64Gb of RAM on the Mini. Sounded real tempting until I checked my RAM usage just now: 89Gb.

Oh I didn't notice the different processor tab! Lovely.

I went down the disabled VE Pro template use, so my RAM use never gets anywhere near 64GB. I'd be fine with 48GB on the main rig, 32GB would be occasionally pushing it.

Georg, good thought on dust... do they not have a fancy fine mesh for this though?

[GR Baumann]

Spigen LD 202 for Mac Studio currently, perhaps they will make a Mini Version too.

[GR Baumann]

On another thought, yeah, Apple should provide one Intake condome that slips over it and can be exchanged every few months once clogged up. Material cost 2.5 pence, retail 20 USD, but it comes in a a box then with Apple logo.

[Guy Rowland]

It looks like there's a three display limit across the mini range which is a bit of a shame - I have three across the front and a fourth video monitor up and behind. I guess a third party bodge may be possible.

What am I doing? I'm not buying this!

Actually it is that disabled template that keeps me from doing anything crazy. When I looked into it earlier this year, swapping to a new PC was relatively trivial to migrate from my old machine. But switching to a mac would have meant a ground-up redo as the mac doesn't use drive letters, and my samples are across 4 drives.

It's probably all for the best....

[GR Baumann]

Turns out Spigen LD203 is compatible with Mini M1and M2, I guess we will see one for the new form factor as well.

[Lawrence]

My pre M series 2019 iMac still does the job for me. I have an OWC dock and a ridiculous amount of drives. Of course I do have the regret of pulling the trigger early, but for a relatively fast i9 Intel with 128gb of RAM I’m not suffering.

The various little clunks of VEP/Cubase (most of them self inflicted I suspect) have led me away from using the Big Template recently, but I also find I’m writing smaller pieces recently.

What I wonder is-will I finally be tempted by the Next Big Thing whether I need it or not? Probably-eventually the Intel chip may not support ANYTHING new, and there will be something I Must Have.

Meanwhile, chips get faster and computers get cheaper. Yay for leapfrogging!

[GR Baumann]

I remember when you bought that jaw dropping i9 with RAM to the brim, seems like yesterday really.

[mickeyl]

FWIW, in contrast to previous launches, this time the Apple pricing increase has been very moderate. The new Mac mini w/ 64GB of RAM should be good for a lot of audio software and is almost a bargain.

[Guy Rowland]

FWIW, in contrast to previous launches, this time the Apple pricing increase has been very moderate. The new Mac mini w/ 64GB of RAM should be good for a lot of audio software and is almost a bargain.

Yes, thought the same.

I got a Ryzen 9 7900, this year, which is absolutely fantastic. Handles everything without complaint, a first for me. Its more powerful cousin, the 7900x Geekbench 6 scores are 2956 single and 17961 multi. The Mini M4 Pro scores are 3546 single, 21866 multi.

A moment to appreciate how astonishing that is from a 5" square box. The heatsink alone from my rig is probably bigger than that.

The 64GB RAM limit will count it out for some. But anyone using a disabled template (or no template at all) will be fine. It genuinely is good value.

[tack]

The base Mac mini actually looks like incredible value to me. For many casual users, it's very impressive what you're getting for $600 USD.

Beyond that is where Apple loses me. The upgrade prices are ridiculous. From the base model, $400 extra for an additional 16GB, when a 64GB DDR5 kit costs less than 200 bucks? $800 extra to go from 256GB SSD to 2TB when a 2TB Samsung 990 PRO is also under $200?

The base model is pretty extraordinary for that price, at least on specs. I'd have no hesitation in recommending it to someone for whom those specs would satisfy their needs. But once you start expanding it, the Apple tax is shockingly steep. I mean, I know it always has been with Apple, but it just seems even steeper than I remember. mickeyl says it's improved, so I'll take his word for it, but even still the value falls off a cliff once you start selecting upgrade options.

That $600 model though, I have to say I'm almost tempted just to have a Mac for testing/development purposes.

[Lawrence]

Even when I bought my iMac 2019 and I KNEW I’d regret getting the one terabyte internal SSD instead of the two terabyte, I could NOT force myself to pay an extra $400 for a terabyte. It’s where they getcha.

Thankfully, in a moment of grace, they allowed me to buy my own dram, which allowed me to fill it up at 128 GB for a very reasonable price.

[Guy Rowland]

The hard drive issue is a much bigger problem on the laptops than the mini. You can easily plug in very good external NVMes for samples there. But it's a PITA on a laptop.

[Lawrence]

Right, but over a period of years there are plenty of apps that want a boot drive, unless I misunderstand things.

[Geoff Grace]

I’ve forced myself to get by with a 500 GB boot drive for years for that very reason, but there’s a cost in time and options to have to periodically remove software you rarely use in order to stay under your limit. For instance, I finally had to give Logic and Reason the boot because I rarely use them and I needed the space. I mostly used them for their VIs, and I have more than enough options without them now; but I’ll certainly get a larger drive in my next Mac and may install them again at that point.

Anyone tempted by any of these?

I am, mostly because my last desktop was purchased as a stop gap to wait out the Intel to silicon transition and my MacBook Pro is the 2014 model. I’m not quite ready to take the plunge, but I probably will be next year; so these may be the models I choose from.

Best,

Geoff

[Luciano Storti]

I like having 1TB as a system size. 500GB was a tough, time-consuming balancing act at times, as per Geoff. 1TB is the sweet spot for me. Enough space to not worry about juggling, yet small enough that I have to keep a clean house, which in turn means a smoothly running machine. My next Mac will be equipped with that same size, unless I decide to put samples on a 4/8TB internal. But I *think* with the new OWC Envoy and TB5, having a smaller system drive and streaming samples from one external won't see much of a bottleneck.

[GR Baumann]

Also a 1TB chap here, I prefer to run my spectrasonics STEAM folder from internal SSD, which already is about 206 GB, and will grow further. Samples on NVME via Caldigit TB4.

TB5 is fantastic of course.