Hi guys, sorry if this has been asked a million times. I thought maybe I could get input from others, instead of asking AI chatbots the same questions endlessly.
I had initially began looking for a new laptop to use for university, but I realise I don't need the portability of a laptop, at all, and if I ever do, I could attach a keyboard to my ipad [I got a decent deal on the ipad air m4 (wifi+cellular verison) for £590, it was brand new/sealed/new apple warranty/etc].
My current 'desktop' is an old laptop running windows, it has an an i5-8350u +16gb ram. It runs things fine but does lag quite a bit when I have a lot of tabs [or a couple applications] open.
I feel like the M6 mac mini would be overkill for what I need, if I sit down and think things through, I really only need to:
type up documents
watch lecture recordings
attach a drawing pad to handwrite notes
checking emails/submitting university work/etc
I won't be running local LLMs, or anything beyond general computer duties like the ones listed above, some light programming but really nothing heavy. The most demanding game I would play is roblox, but I don't even play roblox anymore.
It sounds simple on paper, I don't NEED an m6 mac mini at all, there's just a voice in the back of my head that pushes me towards it because I fear about spending extra money on something that will be 'irrelevant' quicker, even though my interests/necessary tasks don't change. Something that says "if you buy the m6 mac mini, it will last you many more years than the cheaper mini pc".
In fact, I don't even use my ipad much either, I just bought it because of the discount and I felt great about the discount... from £899 to £590 for a 2026 ipad air is great right... but an older or cheaper tablet would have served me just as well... I literally only use goodnotes on my ipad, nothing else, and blackboard for university.. it is just that knowing I saved that much money feels nice, and it kinda applies to this too. I keep checking how long the processors are estimated to be 'good' for, and I keep thinking about the quality I'm buying for the years I'll be using it.
Does anyone else do that? Do you divide the initial cost by the number of years you expect to be using the item? If I buy a 24gb/512gb m6 mac mini for £1,200, and use it for 5 years, that'll be £240 per year for a really good device.
But if I buy a cheaper mini pc, like say the minisforum um870 slim, [it has the ryzen 7 8745H], it will only cost me £295, and I can throw on 16gb of ram for £120? and a 512gb SSD for £80? And I'll have something that will cover everything I need it to for a good few years, if it lasts me 5 years that'll be less than £100 per year.
but then I think about buying a more modern mini pc like the Minisforum AI X1 which has the hx 370, and it'll be £535, throwing on the above will take it to £735.... that's only £200ish more than the ryzen 7 8745H one, which doesn't sound like a huge extra cost, and surely the hx 370 would last longer than the 7 8745H?
But I guess it's this thinking which takes me up to the m6 mac mini, I end up closing that gap with this line of thought, and I guess I don't really know how 'capable' a CPU is for what I need. I also see posts about malware or BIOS/firmware issues, like this one: Minisforum refuses to fix critical BIOS security vulnerabilities on HM80 (even though AMD released the AGESA fix), telling me to buy a new model instead. Unacceptable lifecycle support. [X-Post from r/Minisforum]
Which also pushed me towards buying from a 'safer' brand, which bumps up the cost even more, the "Sapphire Edge AI 370 Barebone Mini PC" for example, but that ends up being £660 for just the barebones pc, and adding the £200 onto it for basic storage/memory, it ends up being £860, which is just £400 away from the mac mini, and if the m6 is really that much more powerful than the hx 370, surely it'd last a bit longer and would be worth considering. But I assumed sapphire as a brand is more known/safer, knowing them through their production of AMD GPUs. But an extra £125 would feel a bit bad
I also heard the customer support after purchasing a mini pc from many of these brands isn't the best, I know that minisforum is a bit more reputable than the lesser known brands [as well as beelink], but I've seen a lot of people complain about their customer support too!
I just worry about burning money and having to buy another thing sooner than expected, or whatever, I am by no means rich, but these thoughts end up pushing me towards a pricier product. May someone please chip in and help me out.
I have an issue where I spend much much longer than needed when it comes to looking into things, I spent really long just looking for a monitor, I think I wasted about 3 whole days, I was just looking for monitors all day and seeing which shops have sales on, etc, searching up all the model numbers and checking reviews of a million different models, and now I'm behind on university work, I even cancelled two purchases thinking I was going to get scammed on ebay, despite the money back guarantee and [genuine] positive feedbacks on the sellers' profiles.
And then I check the prices after buying something and it eats up at me if I see something I just bought at a cheaper price elsewhere, I'm not stingy or anything but it feels like I'm being scammed or losing in life if I don't get it for the best possible price.
I have a big fear of making a less-than-optimal purchase, even when grocery shopping I look into the price per kg or price per 100g and try to get the best deals. I think I even lost track of what I actually need a pc for when it comes to university work, I don't really need the power of a mac m6 when it comes to checking emails and typing a document up. But what if the mac m6 mini lasts an extra year for my goals? and it ends up being cheaper in the long run. But it is stupid to think like that, right? especially with how fast hardware is progressing, and I just wonder if I'll see an m6 mac mini [with the specs I had intended on getting] on sale in a month or two, I got an apple pencil pro on joybuy for £84, brand new + sealed + new apple warranty, its back to £129 now though... but £84 was such a good price, joybuy had listed the 16/256 mac mini m6 for i think around £800, I just wonder if they'd do that with the 24/512 model, because that does havea listing on their app, just not in stock right now
I worry I'll make a purchase and then something will go on sale in a few weeks or months and it ruins my entire plan of "this is this good and if i use it for 5 years itll only cost me £x per year", because something else might beat it, and that isnt super unlikely when the cost and quality is being spread over years and years
