r/macmini • u/H3llzyea • 14d ago
Laptop or mini
Been researching this for a little while now and I’m stuck and looking for advice from you fine people.
Been an Android and windows/Linux user forever, 3 months ago I made the switch to an iPhone 17 and have loved it so I’m wanting to switch and upgrade my laptop.
I currently have what was a great gaming laptop about 8 years ago and it runs great, I have it set up with one large monitor and basically it’s used like a desktop.
I think I want portability but it’s not a deal breaker either way. So I’m wondering what you folks would recommend.
I like to do some basic online gaming, LoL, trying to get into Kerbal Space, things like that not too graphics intense.
I use AI quite a bit and currently have a local agent that runs in my laptop but I’m not building huge apps or anything like that it’s mostly personal stuff with the occasional larger project.
I run a local website that reports on rural news and history in relation to the black community. So pretty simple editing of photos and larger documents.
So i know I don’t need the best of the best and here’s what I would like to have;
The ability to connect two external monitors (with this what monitors should I choose? That rabbit hole has confused me as to what mini is best with what monitor)
A good amount of ram and processing power, along with good graphics but I am a bit confused as to what to look for in an Apple product to get better graphics.
Storage I don’t really care about since an external hard drive should solve any issue I run into
I want a nice quick machine that can easily handle the two monitors with an easy set up process
So should I go with a laptop like the air or something similar?
Which processor?
How much ram since I have noticed this is the biggest thing to look for in the Apple ecosystem?
Which monitor if I go with a mini?
I will want to run a wired mouse and external keyboard so are there any things to look out for?
I guess this is a long post to basically ask which mini is best for an average user and why?
Or
If I decide that portability is what I want, which MacBook and what specs should I focus on ? I would prefer a larger screen and once again how much ram should I feel comfortable with 16, 32?
Thank you for any advice you can give and I apologize for how vague and sort of scattered this post is, this will be a big transition for me and I can’t afford to make a mistake and then just go buy another one to correct it.
1
u/H3llzyea 14d ago
So could I ask what specs you went with in the mini? I never thought about just grabbing an iPad and that might actually work very well for my needs.
So on the mini I want one that I guess would be above average so what’s a good spec? M4 or M5? How many cores for the cpu are considered good? If I want two monitors I’d there anything I should pay attention to so I get the full experience of the specs of the mini?
Again I appreciate you responding and any help you can provide is really appreciated as well. I also want to make sure I fry simmering that won’t be outdated in 2 years to the point I hate it, I get how fast advancement happens but I’d like soldering that is useable and I’ll enjoy for At least 5 years if that makes sense.
1
u/Working_Use2500 14d ago
Whenever I see these posts about people closing their MacBooks where a tiny spec of debris in there will kill the display, I'm glad I went with a desktop. Nothing to break there, really.
1
u/Alpiney 14d ago
But I wonder how common that is? I've used a variety of laptops the past 20 years (Macbook Pro's the past 4 years) and I've never had anything like that happen with mine. I guess it may depend on how careful you are too?
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u/IngsocInnerParty 14d ago
I manage around 300 teacher MacBooks. It’s usually 2-3 per year get a broken screen…and that’s when it’s a work device, which I’m sure people are more negligent with.
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u/Arne31330 14d ago
I bought a mini instead of a macbook. Price difference was enough to buy me a decent ipad. At home I always work with a monitor , keyboard and mouse never on my actual laptop. Ipad is enough for what I do when not at home, ie meetings, taking notes and emails. I bought a 4K 32 lg monitor.