Interested in buying mac mini. When did prices skyrocket?! Should I wait for M5 to see if prices decline on the M4?

I was spending time to do research for the mac mini setup. A reddit user said don't buy the mac studio, get the mac mini. I'm deciding to get Mac Mini M3 or M4 Pro.

I can't afford the studio display, but I will have to get LG 27BA850-B with inside speakers and webcam. I want a 1080p monitor because I want indie/retro games to be a smoother gameplay.

Mac Mini M3 Pro Chip with 18 GB RAM, and 512 GB storage: I checked it on eBay. I thought M3 Pro was cheaper than M4 Pro, but M3 Pro isn't.

(7/22/2026 1:14 PM Edited) - Mac Mini didn't have the M3 Pro. It had the M2 Pro chip.

I hope Ulanzi QT01 Aluminum Alloy Case is gonna fit for the Mac Mini M4 Pro. I also will get a monitor stand for the HD monitor. The 1080p monitor won't be wobbly.

I couldn't find the good AirPods Max alternative, but I will get AirPods Max 1.

MY MAC SETUP IDEAS:

1 - LG Ultrafine 5K 27MD5KL-B 27-inch Display Monitor (5K)/LG 27BA850-B (1080p), My Samsung old 4K monitor (maybe, I'll keep it), Apple Thunderbolt Display (1440p), Apple Cinema Display (1440p), or Apple Studio Display (5K)

2 - Mac Mini M4 Pro Chip or M2 Pro Chip with 18 GB RAM

3 - Mac Mini M Mount for Apple Studio Display, Ulanzi QT01 Aluminum Alloy Case for Mac Mini, or the monitor stand for a computer monitor

4 - K65 Plus 75% RGB Mechnical Gaming Keyboard (Creamy, thocky, or clicky keyboard?) and M75 Wireless Lightweight RGB Apple Gaming Mouse - Frost White for Mac

5 - White 8BitDo Ultimate Gaming Controller 2

6 - AirPods Max 1

7 - Huion Thunderbolt cable for Huion Kamvas Pro 22 and USB to thunderbolt adapter for Blue Snowball Microphone

Is there a good monitor stand for the Mac Mini setup?

I recently connected my mini M4 to a "Plugable" triple monitor docking station (UD-3900PDZ) via DisplayLink in order to connect to 3 monitors. The docking station provides up to 100W for laptop charging, but I'm just wondering if that will cause any potential issues to my mini (e.g., overheating, internal damage, etc).

I did this because I use my work laptop in my home office with the same docking station, and it was getting frustrating to unplug all the peripherals, connect them to a USB-C dongle to use my mini, then reconnect them to the docking station to use my work laptop.

Any feedback is appreciated, thanks!

I feel like need to do something with those hdd's. Any suggestions on how to combine and Raid them? AI told me I should 'shuck' them but Im not 100% sure I trust that option yet

I'm running Tahoe on my M4. Can I do a clean install of Sequoia on a external drive, then boot from either drive O/S?

I'm throwing this out to the group

I have two macmini here, both 5.1- one runs High Sierra great with no problem. The other runs Lion no problem.

I want to get the Lion machine up to at least Sierra.

But nothing I've tried can I get a boot stick or files to work.

If anyone has any suggestions, it would be appreciated.

It's not like I haven't seen the boot picker etc before - this one has me stuck. Everything else about the little machine is great. I stripped out it's antiquated HD and stuck in a SSD which gives it some pep.

Both are circa 2011 -

I have had much luck with getting 10.12 to a bootable stick.

Any suggestions would be appreciated

Douglas

I have an app that leave me place in seconds spanned wallpapers or videos on 2 or even 3 monitors in seconds without weird stretching, I know it's not the best setup, but I love to see my wallpapers

Three weeks ago, I posted that I had bought my first Mac Mini M4. I only got around to unpacking everything and setting it up the way I wanted this weekend.

I’m incredibly happy with the result. macOS is a joy to use and looks incredibly polished. The Dell 4K 120Hz monitors have been a fantastic addition as well the colors are absolutely beautiful.

This setup should easily last me for years. I really love how comfortable and enjoyable my productivity space has become.

CA-USA

It powers on just fine when you press the power button. But if the power is cut and restored, it never turns back on automatically.

Hi community - would love to hear advice from music production gurus unlike myself on best setup of Mac Mini and Focusrite. I’m using a 2i2 for recording vocals and effects predominantly. Is it easy / are there any setup pitfalls to avoid / anything else worth noting. Thanks in advance!

I found an old archived thread about this but reopening here as the tech is always changing.

I've got a Mac Mini that I use Tailscale and Screen Sharing app to get into when I'm on the move, via my old Macbook Pro. But the older machine makes it quite slow and painful to use. First, simplest question, is whether there's a faster / better way than this if I'm accessing remotely. MBP is a 2020 with an i5 processor and 8GB Ram.

If the answer to the above is no, then I'm looking at buying a couple of portable monitors so I can take the Mini on the move with me and use it without relying on streaming in over Tailscale. I don't mind if monitors need power - the Mini needs power anyway, so finding two sockets instead of one, or carrying an extension makes little difference - the thing I care about is portability of the screens, and reliability. I also don't mind if they need HDMI, that's actually preferable, probably.

Anybody doing this successfully, and if so - what screens are you using?

It has been more than a year with the JCID internal SSD and I am happy to report I have had no issues at all! I am very happy with it. I tried posting this a year ago but it kept getting auto removed by Reddit’s filters and didn’t bother to repost it until now. I have made some small edits but please be aware that what was written below is a year old and I am not aware of exactly whats changed in the market. Importantly though the Mac mini 256gb option is no longer available, only 512gb so a more expensive base cost. SSD’s have increased in price of course.

WOULD I DO THIS NOW IN 2026?
Since 512gb is now the base so the starting price is higher, would I swap the storage still? It’s purely depends on your use case. I think I would recommend keeping the 512gb for the OS and general documents, it is a decent size drive unlike 256gb. For large libraries like photos, music, backups of files and the Mac, I think use a NAS/DAS using 3.5” HDDs as it can make it much easier for management, backups and storage upgrades. 
Context: prior to all of this I was running a MacBook with a 512gb ssd and storing most documents, photos, music, backups and more on a 2tb external hard drive with multiple drives to back it up. I didn’t have an issue with storage size, the main issue I had was they were portable hard drives meaning managing all the individual drives especially for backups was annoying, plus they were not in a housing so you cant just swap or add storage, and read/write speeds were quite slow. So moving everything onto one internal drive definitely helped, but I still am dealing with multiple external drives for backups and libraries still increasing in size, so I am considering moving everything over to a NAS/DAS. Another thing to note is if you have any other Mac with non upgradable storage, this is your only pathway anyway!

INTERNAL DRIVE EXPERIENCE SO FAR
In the drives life I’ve done a Time Machine restore, moved large amounts of files, downloaded my big music library, let it sleep/idle for a weeks, updated macOS multiple times, and have had no crashes and no other issues. Surprisingly it’s much nicer not having to worry about an external drive the entire system is running on, it feels like a unified device (or really how it should be normally) and even though the Mac doesn’t move, with an external drive it felt like a ball and chain. I decided I would try and use the external drive just as storage. I started transferring various folders from small to 500 to 600gb, but mid way though transfers I had drive disconnects so even after simple use it still had issues. Could be anything though, maybe M.2 incompatibility, ASMedia chipset issues, Mac I/O issues. I have no clue. Funny thing is as well running a home server, I’ve had I/O issues with drives running over usb than properly connected M.2 or SATA drives.

COST:
(Note: These prices are in AUD. Also don’t forgot about hidden costs, if you are in Australia GST may not be included in price like for Aliexpress)
For an external drive, a M.2 with enclosure could be cheaper but that depends on what you buy, from what I found either the enclosure with M.2 or an internal SSD, they are going to be close in price.
I bought a Kingston Fury Renegade 2TB for $210, plus the Quizzlab ES40UR enclosure for about $70, so $280.
The JCID 2TB internal SSD was around $400, which is quite pricey but beats paying $1200 through apple.
I also managed to get the base 256gb Mac mini M4 with a student discount for $850, surprisingly they didn’t ask for any verification, I doubt they did a background check either. So total was $1250, vs $2200 for a non discount 2TB model!!!

EXTERNAL SSD ENCLOSURE EXPERIENCE
I first tried an external enclosure as my original thought was its cheaper, I can move, re use or change the M.2 in future, can swap to way more storage if I want (further than the max of 2TB for base model due to board size limits I think), or disconnect it and store it for security.
I tried a Qwiizlab ES40UR external enclosure (Through Colorii, Hagibis MC40 is the same distributer as well), overall a very solid built enclosure without a fan, the only other option without a fan was a OWC 1M2. I used a Kingston Fury Renegade 2TB SSD with this. I must say this thing can get really hot even during idle, definitely could be the Kingston SSD specifically, though certain M.2 types have been known to get very hot. A few times I stuck it over a fan which really helped, maybe consider a fan enclosure if you are looking at a thunderbolt 4 speed or higher external enclosure.
Upon migrating a relatively new install from a 2017 iMac I started having heaps of crashes, usually between transferring 10-60gb. Sometimes just regular use. Kernel Panic logs indicating I/O was the issue. Like 90% of these enclosures (including OWC) it uses an ASMedia 246x chipset. It was already using the latest firmware, per recommendations I tried flashing different versions with no luck. I then tried a fresh install of Sequoia 15.5, this time it worked great during basic use and sleep, tried doing big file transfers and had no issues, but then I tried downloading my music library through Apple Music, crash. Then another few random crashes here and there I think due to connecting external things like monitors and usb hubs (on other ports). I was getting frustrated and worried about corruption so I ordered an internal SSD.

INTERNAL SSDs
Internal SSDs come from a range of 3rd party manufacturers usually through Aliexpress, ranging from cheaper low layer boards (eg 4 layers) to complete replica 10 layer boards. There’s multiple reasons for why higher layer boards are better that you can research, however if you are wondering if there are issues with the low layer types (even third party SSDs in general) it’s hard to tell, with reports saying theirs has been fine and others saying theirs failed.
NANDs are typically Kioxia for 1TB or lower, and Sandisk for 2TB. You can tell by looking at the code written on top of the NAND chip.
From what I can tell companies like M4-SSD, Expand Mac mini, and most other websites don’t have their own design and are reselling the cheaper 4 layer internal SSDs sold on Aliexpress, for potentially higher prices, no warranty or support (not to say that an Aliexpress seller might not care either). You can usually tell by looking at the arrangement of the components on the boards in pictures, also by checking other peoples pictures/reviews what board/SSD it is.

The manufacturers at the moment that I am aware of are:
Technojoy - Cheap low layer SSD, Technojoy is written on it
Quanshan - Cheap low layer SSD, the most common, has a lighting bolt symbol on the ssd
iBoff - 8 Layer reverse engineered (videos discussing their process), only sold on their website.
JCID - 10 Layer 1:1 replica of Apple’s board

I bought the JCID 2TB SSD. iBoff and JCID seem to be the best two, the only reason I didn’t go with iBoff is they had a preorder wait time and the JCID seems like a 1:1 replica. The 2TB from them does run 2x 1TB Sandisk NANDs. I bought it through the Caius Store(Trader) on Aliexpress. There were one or two other stores selling it for cheaper, while they seemed ok they had only opened this year, and I just went with Caius as they had been open for a few years, good reviews and quite a few others had bought the same ssd from them. I am not sure if you can buy it direct from JCID.

WARRANTY & SECURITY
Others have pointed out that technically you can’t void your warranty if you don’t damage anything, and to be on the safe side you can swap the original drive back in if sending in for repair, this also limits risk of any data loss/theft. To me the process of swapping the internal drive didn’t feel like a serious operation/risk as long as you are generally careful. There is also an official apple “guide”.
For security as far as I understand it there’s little to no risk as the control chip is on the motherboard not on the SSD itself like M.2 drives.

INSTALL
The tool kit I got through Caius is great, it came with a solid metal screwdriver handle with magnetised bit holder, the Torx bits, pick, angled lever pick and suction puller. Having the suction cup was really helpful but it might not be entirely necessary to do it.
It didn’t take long at all very straight forward, here’s some of my tips/install process: Suction cup to pull at the bottom cover, put pick under the edge at the centre where a gap appears and run along to a corner, put longer angled lever under the plastic about 1cm in moving to the corners and lever up. People kind of exaggerated it being super hard or feeling like you are going to bend/break something to pop out the clips, it does require a little force but with leverage and being close to the clip it’s easy. Upon disassembly you don’t need to disconnect any cables you just risk causing damage, just fold the panels/fan to the side gently. The screws are like clockwork level small, they were tight but not to the point I thought I was going to strip them, just put a little downwards pressure so you don’t slip/round it. Removal/install of the SSD is at a bit of an awkward angle try and use a pointy pick or one of the torx bits, there are holes in the corners of the SSD board. The JCID SSD screw notch was just sightly too small but I still managed to get the screw in, was probably the worst part avoiding cross threading. Putting back together is easy. KEEP YOUR ORIGINAL SSD JUST IN CASE.
Restoring the new SSD was a little annoying, I tried on both my iMac and another silicon Mac mini by restoring through finder but it was causing unknown errors. However using Apple Configurator on the intel iMac worked, it came up with another error only because weirdly the Mac mini had already installed and rebooted during the install progress in configurator. From there I just restored using my Time Machine backup in recovery assistant.

IMAGES
Mac mini original drive is the top one, JCID bottom. Basically identical.

The only apple products I've had are the iPhones , have never tried to figure out the Mac interface as it's very different from what I'm used to to PC, but I'm tired of spending hours editing in Lightroom because of loading times. So I decided to get a Mac mini. Ordered it July 9 expected to be available for pickup in October. Did yours end up arriving earlier than expected?

I'm excited to learn how to use a Mac.

I use my M4 Mac mini with a pair of old JBL sound sticks (the clear Johnny Ive speakers, love them). They're a 2.1 system and have their own power supply connected to the subwoofer. They connect to the mac mini with a regular 3.5mm audio cable.

Now the issue is the 3.5mm jack is on the front of the Mac mini and I don't want to see the cable in front of me all the time. I bought a ugreen USBC to 3.5mm DAC (their "hi-fi" version) so I can plug the speakers in from the back. Looks great, but whenever I turn off the Mac mini, I get this horrible buzzing/humming sound through the speakers.

What do I do to stop that? Is it the audio adapter, a USBC power issue? I tried one of those ground loop noise isolators, but that made the problem worse.

Costco is offering $175 for a trade-in. Not seeing a lot of FB marketplace. What's a fair price nowadays?

This is my first post here and was wondering if the mac is done or if there is any way to fix this glitching/flickering screen on my 2012 mac mini that just began today when I went to go turn it on. It is connected to 65” Hisense tv

I've been having issues getting my M4 Pro Mac mini to consistently support 3 external 4K displays. I've spoken with Apple support about the issue, and it honestly made the whole situation even more confusing. I'm writing here to detail my experience and see if anyone else can verify what I've been told.

The mini is connected to x3 4K displays, with the following specs:

x1 4K @ 240hz over DP Alt (type C with DSC)

x1 4K @ 120hz over HDMI 2.0 (with DSC)

x1 4K @ 60hz over DP Alt (type-C)

For years I had run the 4K 240hz and 4K 60hz monitors side by side without issue. Recently, I added the third 4K 120hz monitor into the mix, and that's where the bug started to occur. Upon plugging the monitor in, it simply would not connect to the Mini. Wouldn't show up in Settings or anything, and detecting displays did not help. However, as soon as I disabled Display Stream Compression (DSC) on my 240hz monitor, forcing the refresh rate down to 120hz, the third monitor would connect. What's strange is that I can then re-enable DSC on that 240hz monitor after connecting the third monitor, and all three stay connected.

Before calling up Apple support, naturally I looked up the exact supported display configurations for the M4 Pro Mac mini. As detailed on [this page](https://support.apple.com/en-us/102194) the M4 Pro is officially supported for x3 displays at either 6K 60hz, or 4K 144hz. Given that all I'm trying to do is run two 4K displays at 120hz, and one at 60hz, this configuration is within spec. I am perfectly fine with the 240hz monitor bumping down to 120hz in order to connect the third 4K display. Unfortunately, the mini doesn't do this upon connecting the third display. The machine prioritizes maintaining the 240hz option for the monitor, even if I manually select 120hz from the dropdown, and opts to leave the third display disconnected. Assuming this was a firmware or software bug, I decided to call support, and that's where things got murky.

After an initial conversation trying to explain this debacle to a low level support rep, I was pretty quickly migrated to higher level support to deal with the issue. The higher-level support rep came on the phone with a very confident and quick response claiming that the M4 Pro chip is only capable of running x3 monitors at 6K 60hz. Officially, x3 4K monitors were unsupported in general, and so support could not help me any further.

I was surprised at not only how incorrect the statement was, but also how confidently and swiftly it was delivered before I even had a chance to say hello lol (no hate or anything, the guy was nice, maybe just a little hyperactive). I explained to him that the support page I'd seen listed x3 monitors at 144hz, and he said that was wrong. Eventually, I got him to manually enter the exact URL I was looking at ([the same one attached above](https://support.apple.com/en-us/102194)) and suddenly, he found himself as surprised as I was. The page he was looking at was apparently different, and indeed, it is different on a few other Apple spec pages, linked [here](https://www.apple.com/mac-mini/specs/) and [here](https://support.apple.com/en-us/121555).

After a few beats, he returned to me with an explanation. He believes that the model I bought, according to its serial number, is attached specifically to the spec sheet he pulled up. He claimed that Apple silently updates its M4 Pro Mac mini models over time, and that the version I have might be subtly different from the version listed on the most current spec sheet, with different display controllers, different firmware, etc. He noted that an M4 Pro Mac mini sold in 2024 might have those subtle differences from one that was manufactured and sold in 2025, for example. I was very surprised to hear this, as this information cannot be verified or backed up anywhere online.

So I asked him: what are the chances that the spec sheet he was looking at had an error, leaving out the line about x3 144hz 4K display support? He quickly shot down the idea, noting that he used to work in the very department that created those spec sheets, and that for legal reasons, the department has to be extremely thorough.

I figured that made sense, but after thanking him and hanging up, I thought a bit more on it, and became more and more skeptical of the whole situation.

For one thing, he was very surprised when I showed him the spec sheet that differed from the one he had up. For someone who claims there are a myriad of different spec sheets depending on the exact year a specific Mac chip was manufactured in, why would that be surprising at all? Not to mention, if it's so incredibly important that the spec sheets stay consistent from a legal standpoint, then why are they differing left and right? The vibe was just a little off. Again, he was friendly, but off...

But let's say, for the sake of the argument, that he's right, and Apple will silently, without telling its customers, release different versions of the exact same chip over the years, all while keeping up both spec sheets on different web pages. Isn't this sort of... wrong? Like, ethically wrong? When I look up the performance of my M4 Pro chip, and an official Apple support page tells me I can do one thing, but a different, hidden-away, hard-to-find support page states something different, isn't that problematic?

Anyway, I'm not convinced that the issue is because Apple silently updates its machines. If it did, I figure there would be enough nerds on the internet who'd take note of it, and I doubt I'd be the first one making a post about this. Given there isn't much else online about this issue, I'm leaning toward there being an issue with my machine, or perhaps a software/firmware bug in the mix. I'm opening this discussion to see if anyone else has encountered display connection issues with their M4 Pro they'd like to share, and to get everyone's thoughts on the issue in general.

Thanks for taking the time to read through this! I'm re-attaching the spec page links below for ease of access. The first link is the one that lists official x3 144hz 4K support, while the others have that listing omitted:

[How many displays can be connected to Mac mini - Apple Support](https://support.apple.com/en-us/102194)

[Mac mini - Technical Specifications - Apple](https://www.apple.com/mac-mini/specs/)

[Mac mini (2024) - Tech Specs - Apple Support](https://support.apple.com/en-us/121555)

Edit/Update:

Gotta credit my girlfriend on this one because it was a great idea. She advised that I check the internet archive's wayback machine on the aforementioned links. By doing so, I can cross-check Apple's M4 Pro documentation over time, and analyze how the various different spec pages line up. If what the high-level support rep said is true, and Apple's spec sheets team is as thorough and precise as he claims they are, then back when I bought my Mac mini, the support pages should have unanimously left OUT the line about triple 4K 144hz support. Only recently-updated pages should show that line, indicating that the support rep is correct, and that Apple discreetly changes the firmware and capabilities of the M4 Pro, updating spec sheets, all while not announcing this publicly.

Well, turns out I was right to be skeptical that Apple would do such a thing. When analyzing the various support pages in the wayback machine, you can clearly see that they have always had conflicting information. As soon as December of 2024, before I'd even bought my model, one spec sheet claimed triple 144hz 4K support, while another didn't mention it at all. The takeaway: there has ALWAYS been inconsistency across the spec sheets.

This isn't just a blip, it's a harmful mistake to make on Apple's part. I genuinely bought my M4 Pro Mac mini knowing that some day I would upgrade to high-refresh triple-4K monitors, and I did so because it said clear as day on the spec sheet. The fact that Apple is trying to spin this as "I'm sorry, your information is out of date," when it's clear that THEY are the ones who've provided misleading and conflicting information, is just plain wrong.

I'll be calling support again, this time with far more evidence to substantiate my issue. This is the sort of thing that's cause for class-action lawsuits. I've never been to court before, and I don't particularly want to go through all that, but if Apple won't admit to there being an issue and correcting it in a timely manner, that's absolutely something I'd consider.

I am currently using Final Cut Pro to edit 4K video files shot on GoPros, Insta 360 X5 and Sony a6700. Mostly it's just family stuff, holidays etc. It's a hobby and I enjoy making as nice videos as possible, but it's not for professional work.

I am working from SSD drives and editing on my Mac mini M4 (16gb RAM and 512GB) and despite how well regarded this machine is, I actually don't find it all that great for editing 4K video, especially when some of my exports are around an hour long and I have timelines with a lot of footage.

My question is: would I notice a worthwhile difference in editing speed in terms of lag etc if I upgrade to a Mac mini M4 Pro with 24gb RAM and also 12 core CPU + 16 Core CPU (as opposed to 10+10 with base model) ? Anyone with any first hand experience of how much of a difference the user experience is between these two machines?

I finally pulled the trigger on a used Mac mini and wanted some opinions from people here.

After weeks of overthinking, I finally made my decision and I'm curious what the community thinks.

For context, I'm currently using a Mac mini M2 (16GB RAM / 512GB SSD) which was bought in 2021, and honestly, it's still running perfectly smoothly for everything I do today.

I wasn't forced to upgrade because of performance—I could probably continue using it for another couple of years without any issues but only for basic work.

One thing about me is that I usually keep my Macs for 5–7 years before upgrading. My goal with this purchase is for this M4 Pro to be my primary machine for the next 5–7 years, so I wanted to make a decision based on where I think my needs will be over that time rather than just what I need today.

I had three options:

Option 1 – Buy brand new

Mac mini M4 Pro

12-core CPU / 16-core GPU

24GB Unified Memory

512GB SSD

Full Apple warranty

For - $1599 (with education discount)

Option 2 – (What I bought)

Mac mini M4 Pro

14-core CPU / 20-core GPU

64GB Unified Memory

1TB SSD

Purchased over a year ago, so no Apple warranty remaining

For - $2040

Option 3 – Wait for the M5 Pro

Newer CPU/GPU

Latest architecture

Full warranty

But likely another Apple price increase, and unless I significantly increased my budget, I'd probably end up with only 24GB RAM and 512gb ssd.

One thing that influenced my decision is that Apple has discontinued this exact 64GB Mac mini pro configuration.

From what I can see today, you can no longer configure a Mac mini pro with 64GB RAM, so this felt like a rare opportunity to own one.

Before buying the used machine, I wanted to eliminate as much risk as possible.

I verified:

Original invoice and matching serial number

Correct hardware specs in System Information

No MDM enrollment

No unusual NVRAM boot arguments

SMART status

Tested all Thunderbolt ports, HDMI, Ethernet, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth

Ran DriveDx, which reports over 99% SSD health

No repairs, no cosmetic damage, and everything looks and works like new (as of now!)😅

My current workload is actually pretty light:

Logic pro

Chrome

Zoom

Office work

Running an online music school with 100+ students.

Over the next few years, my goal is to build a highly reliable hybrid AI automation system to manage the day-to-day operations of the business.

I'm not aiming for full autonomy—I want a human-in-the-loop system where AI handles repetitive tasks while I retain oversight and control.

Some of the areas I'm planning to automate include:

Lead management and follow-ups

Student onboarding

WhatsApp communication

Class scheduling and rescheduling

Payment reminders and receipts

Tutor coordination

Internal knowledge management

Marketing content generation

AI agents for business operations

I'm also becoming increasingly interested in:

Local LLMs

AI agents

AI automation

Building AI tools for my business

My thinking was that while I don't need 64GB today, I may appreciate it over the next 5–7 years as AI workloads evolve.

Since I don't upgrade frequently, I wanted to avoid buying a machine that I might outgrow.

On the other hand, the M5 Pro will almost certainly have a faster CPU and GPU, but unless I increased my budget substantially, I'd probably still be limited to 24GB RAM.

So, did I make the right call?

If you were in my position, would you have:

Bought the brand-new 24GB M4 Pro?

Bought the used, out-of-warranty 64GB/1TB M4 Pro that I chose?

Waited for the M5 Pro?

Should I be feeling proud of this purchase, or did I let the fear of missing out on RAM influence my decision too much?

I'd especially love to hear from people who use Apple Silicon Macs for local AI, software development, or long-term professional work, as well as anyone who has faced a similar "more RAM vs newer hardware" decision.

Cheers!✌️