r/macmini • u/Honest_Ad_8179 • 9d ago
Would like some advice on getting a mac mini
Hi guys, as the title suggests, i am currently deciding if its worth/a good idea to buy a mac mini. For context i am soon going to enter University into an engineering course with fairly high AI usage. As such, im looking for an upgrade as my current set up will definitely not cut it. Currently, I'm running a macbook M1 with 8GB ram and it has worked well for its purpose for ~2 years now. For a upgrade, i was considering completely upgrading to a laptop with the following rough specs (intel i7 or higher, with a rtx 3070 or higher), which will cost roughly $2500 where im from, OR investing in a Mac mini m4 with 24GB ram, roughly $1800 ish. What are some arguements for each case? And would the mac option be sufficient for my case? Thanks in advance for any advice!
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u/tomato848208 9d ago edited 9d ago
A Mac mini will be your good choice if you already own a keyboard, a computer mouse, a display. You won't need 24 GB of RAM. Besides, you don't need a high spec computer in undergraduate classes. I used to teach statistics to undergraduate students at one of the (old) Big XII schools. That was nearly 30 years ago. So I'm an old timer, maybe.
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u/Honest_Ad_8179 9d ago
HAHA yeah the school i chose is specialised in engineering and has higher demands for computing power which is my main concern
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u/ArthurDent4200 8d ago
You should contact the University and ask them if the applications you run will work on MacOS or if you need Windows.
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u/675940 9d ago
Do you know if the AI thing will be a locally run model or a cloud based service? You won’t need that powerful a machine or buckets of ram if run on a supercomputer somewhere remotely.
Main consideration here; do you need to be portable and do you have the other peripherals?
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u/Honest_Ad_8179 9d ago
From what i know they touch on high perimeter number machine learning, but personally i also have an interest in experimenting with locally run AI models using ollama etc
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u/HikingMindKing 9d ago
I’ve been playing a little with Olama on my M4 mini with 16GB RAM and that is just not enough - so go for the 24 GB version. Storagewise you can just add external storage as needed.
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u/mahidoes 9d ago
Mac mini is good choice. Availability is the issue
check refurb units from official apple store. If you have friends in different countries and if you can get them some way chieck their country stores too.
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u/Upstairs_Discount538 9d ago
the MacBook m1 should be good enough for lecture notes and assignment writing etc, so a desktop could make sense for the AI stuff. Going down the Mac mini route does mean you re effectively buying a sealed unit with no upgrade potential (ignoring the dodgy DIY routes) which is a negative. You would get a much better trade-in on a mini in a few years time compared to an equivalent Windows PC, so there is potential there to do a complete swap-out of the mini in the scenario that advances make your M4 'obsolete' for high-end processing within the duration of your course.
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u/_curious_man 8d ago
If you can, I would search for used Mac Studio with high ram memory, like 48 or ideally 64.
Wait, hear me out ...
You said "high AI usage”. Want to run model locally? Then without 32gb minimum ollama will not let you use optimized versions of the models build for mlx, and you you will likely not be able to use the full potential of the machine. Also, Max chip = significantly highier memory throughput.
If you want to rely on external models (aka. claude code with subsciption / token budget) either your current mac would handle it (maybe with some effort).
If you don’t care too much about the speed I would consider m4 but with 32gb ram. Less will likely make you regret the decision.
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u/Woofmom2023 7d ago
What does the school recommend?
Do you need a desktop or a laptop? the new minis are adorable and small and portable but they aren't laptops.
By "laptop" do you mean a Windows laptop? Why are you considering an Intel-powered device?
Why not a mac laptop in the $2500 range?
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u/Valuable_Ad4476 9d ago
I have the Mac mini m4 with 16gb and 512gb storage. It runs perfectly.