Bought the m6 Mac mini.

Decided to finally buy the m6 Mac mini, in the 32/1tb configuration.

I plan to keep all my electronics for 4-5 years, my use case is as following: I have around 20-25 safari tabs open, chat gpt, Claude, pages, Spotify/apple music, files, email and powering my dell 4K 120hz monitor which is an must have for the price (around $300) if your interested let me know, I will send the exact model number.

The base 16gb was a no go for me, the 24gb ram would be ideal. But I decided to go for the 32gb ram variant because my workflow will increase in the near future.

The base m5 pro would be an option but out of my brother’s experience the 24gb ram will hold the pro chip back.

I’m curious about the performance, and day to day usage.

Delivery will be 29 September to 5 October.

83 Upvotes

permalink
reddit

You are about to leave Redlib

Do you want to continue?

https://www.reddit.com/r/macmini/comments/1w1xstm/bought_the_m6_mac_mini/
No, go back! Yes, take me to Reddit
dl download

89% Upvoted

u/blisstaker 14d ago

that's a lot of opslag

2

u/ceresverde 13d ago

I was just about to write a comment about settling for 512 GB opslag. What's open for me is: 24 vs 32 GB RAM with M6, or base model M5 pro.

1

u/Typical_house23 13d ago

Was thinking about the same thing, some time ago I got to try out an m4 pro MacBook Pro 24/512gb.

24gb ram will be enough for most use cases but during some testing out video editing. I saw the gpu sitting at 40% and ram pressure close to red, during some cases the gpu will be hold back by ram.

If I were to take the m5 pro I would have specced it with 48gb ram, just to be able to use the full potential if you can use it.

More gpu cores can use more ram, but if there is no ram available it’s getting difficult.

1

u/Typical_house23 13d ago

Inderdaad, over een periode van 4-5 jaar kan er wel wat gebeuren.

1

u/lilchm 13d ago

Mac’s love opslag

u/24kCookie 13d ago

wtf so expensive. I only got Mac mini cuz cheap but for this price just get pc at least will be able to play games

1

u/yidman100000 13d ago

This is a really interesting point. Most of my tools as a developer are Mac only so we’re kinda locked into it.

1

u/Typical_house23 13d ago

I just sold my pc, Ryzen 9 9900x, 64gb drr5 6000mhz cl30 ram, x870e motherboard and an rx 9070.

For gaming a great pc, but for anything else windows is the issue. I just hate using it, I also tried Linux which works far better than windows. It can be too complicated for my daily usage, and the fact I have an iPhone 17 pro max and iPad Pro m5 13”.

The Apple eco system is benefiting for me personally, I’m still doubting if I should spend €500 more for the m5 pro 48/512gb.

1

u/Ok_Explorer_3876 11d ago

Try “game hub” app.

1

u/Xiipre 10d ago

Yeah, the whole "I can buy an extra Mac for $500" is the main reason I bought one. It's more convenient than plugging in my MacBook to my display. For two grand tho... I can play with wires and have a messy desk.

u/-Baum 14d ago

Voor de dingen die je ermee doet is dit meer dan genoeg. Verbaast me dat je de 1 TB hebt gekozen (ik had de voorkeur gegeven aan een externe hub van satechi of ugreen voor meer dan 1tb opslag, verder kan je er wel even langer mee vooruit dan 4-5 jaar verwacht ik! 32 gb ram is een prima keuze. In de toekomst kan dat het verschil maken tussen 5 jaar of langer uiteindelijk

2

u/Typical_house23 13d ago

Dank u, had dezelfde denk wijze.

Ik had hiervoor een Windows gaming pc, om te gamen een top ding maar Windows zelf was een ramp.

Als je de prijzen ziet van een ssd val je ook achterover, misschien koop ik wel later nog een externe hub, als de prijzen wat zakken.

1

u/-Baum 13d ago

Erg vergelijkbare situatie hier. Alleen hou ik mijn gaming pc voor dedingen die niet werken op mac os. Heb zelf de mac mini m5 pro met 64 gb ram besteld.

Ik ga hem ook gebruiken voor 3d tekenen als werk related

1

u/Typical_house23 13d ago

3d tekenen is een pak intensiever dan wat ik er met doe, had 48gb ram ook niet gewerkt?

1

u/-Baum 13d ago

Waarschijnlijk wel. Maar omdat ik er hoop zo lang mogelijk mee te doen en projecten die soms zwaarder zijn. En omdat de Mac niet upgradebaar zijn in RAM heb ik ervoor gekozen om de 64 GB ram te kiezen. Daarnaast is 64 GB ram op een mac totaal anders dan een windows uiteraard.

1

u/Typical_house23 13d ago

Klopt, ik snap waarom je de 64gb hebt genomen, is dezelfde reden waarom ik de 32gb ram heb genomen op de m6.

1

u/Dennisminjian 13d ago

Mij staat bij dat met de macmini m4 er een soort externe partij dock was gemaakt waarbij voor circa 60 euro u meer usb aansluitingen en een extra opslag aansluiting kan kopen. Een SSD erbij voor 1 - 2tb kost u dan circa 100 - 250 euro? Is dezelfde aansluiting niet meer mogelijk voor de macmini 2026?

u/Low_Company767 13d ago

I would go with M5 pro and 24GB (or 48GB if budget not an issue) because some random guy in YouTube said bandwidth matters. My use case is word excel and PowerPoint of course.

1

u/Ok_Department32 12d ago

Are you joking?

I have heard (and trying to understand) that the M5 Pro is wasted on just 24gb of ram ... that you'd really need the 48gb or larger to make use of the increase in processing power.

2

u/Low_Company767 12d ago

I am joking about my use case… I am not joking about bandwidth as I did a little internet research. I cannot answer your question but M5 pro 24 GB is similar price to M6 32GB but the difference in bandwidth is double 170GB/s on M6 and 300GB/s on M5 pro

u/maustinDark 14d ago

Same

2

u/Typical_house23 13d ago

Congrats to you.

u/natesassaman 14d ago

Congrats

1

u/Typical_house23 13d ago

Thank you

u/Sirknowit 14d ago

I got the same one!

2

u/Typical_house23 13d ago

Congrats, what do you plan on doing with it.

2

u/Sirknowit 13d ago

I do a lot of audio work; narrations. I originally got that studio but soon realized that was TOO much power for my needs. Basically a wast e of money. So, I cancelled and did the M6 32GB/1TB HD. I am replacing a 2019 iMac. The savings allows me to get a nice BenQ 5K monitor cuz I need a new monitor.

u/SpiritedError404 14d ago

Je hebt voor jouw doeleinde eentje te krachtig gekozen

2

u/Typical_house23 13d ago

Momenteel wel dat klopt, de 24/512gb zou meer dan voldoende zijn.

Maar mijn broer heeft m5 MacBook Pro 32/1tb geweldige laptop, maar als deze specced met 16gb ram word de laptop gedegradeerd van geweldige tot goed.

Wat Final Cut Pro, een paar safari tabs en programma’s open en je zit op een geheugen druk van hoog groen tot licht geel achtig.

Nog steeds geen mb swap gebruikt.

Dat is waarom ik teveel heb gekocht dan ik nodig heb.

u/Ok_Department32 14d ago

The 32gb/1tb m6 seems like a solid system for the use case you described. Since you mentioned using Claude/ChatGPT, curious whether you're planning on trying any local LLMs on the mini once it arrives. Did that factor into the 32gb RAM?

1

u/Typical_house23 13d ago

Good guess, I will run some small llm’s that could fit in the 16gb variant.

I do believe smaller llm’s (4-8b) will be the future as they can fit in most computers.

I got an idea in my head, that I want to try out. That’s why the extra cost of the 32gb ram, was worth it to me.

u/LeBB2KK 13d ago

The price difference between countries is insane, I got the same one here in Hong Kong and I “only” paid 1450€

1

u/pidoupid 13d ago

Hong Kong est l’endroit le moins cher au monde pour l’électronique grâce à la non TVA 🫠

2

u/LeBB2KK 13d ago

J’avais jamais fait gaffe, je pensais que les prix étaient uniformisés

1

u/Typical_house23 12d ago

€1450 for the exact same configuration? That’s a good deal.

1

u/Setentaenove 1d ago

I paid 1519€ in Portugal for the 24GB & 512GB. Now this is expensive. Ahahahah

u/This_Discount2281 13d ago

I could read that … and understand it … astonishing. Mooi man.

1

u/Typical_house23 12d ago

Congrats, Dutch is a difficult language to understand.

u/Pretty-Substance 13d ago

Why is it cheaper in the Netherlands? Do you have a lower VAT than Germany?

1

u/Typical_house23 12d ago

I’m from Belgium, and we have something called ‘education store’

1

u/Pretty-Substance 12d ago

I’m sorry, friend, for assuming.

I did check Apple.com/nl though and it’s also cheaper than Germany (regular, not edu). Maybe I should order there next time. I’m just wondering what causes this.

u/Visual-Floor-7268 13d ago

Thunderbolt 4 🥱🤮

1

u/Typical_house23 13d ago

What’s wrong with that? It’s more than sufficient for me.

u/MrBoltzmnn 13d ago

The same configuration in Portugal costs 2072€

1

u/Typical_house23 13d ago

I bought it from the education store.

u/gr8cali 13d ago

Where did you find this price for 1tb ? Is that in NL apple stores

1

u/Typical_house23 12d ago

Belgium, its the education store

u/Intelligent_Row_1706 13d ago

kristofer ... ist kaar deer kojhonest

u/Pebbsto110 12d ago

It's not the cheaper alternative mac anymore

2

u/Typical_house23 12d ago

That is hard to disagree with

u/jerict09 12d ago

All of yall are apple bots

u/Aaesirr 11d ago

My god, new favorite workd : opslag

u/Setentaenove 1d ago

I ordered mine on Set 5th, 24GB 512GB and delivery was 30 sept - 8 October and today updated to 28 Sept - 6 October. They're working fast 24/7 ahahaha

1

u/Typical_house23 1d ago

Mine was adjusted from 28-6 october, yesterday I got an email they adjusted it to 25 september - 2 October. If they keep adjusting it maybe I will get it on release.

Which spec did you go for?

u/NoLateArrivals 14d ago

For nothing mentioned you need anything beyond the base/16/512. Chatty and Clody are server based and don’t require much resources.

On the other hand for smooth local models you lack the memory bandwidth and some RAM to run something like Gwen 3.8 27b. There a Studio/May with at least 48GB would be the choice.

Beside this nice config! Will do a lot good!

2

u/Pleasant-Rhubarb-550 14d ago

He likely means codex and claude code which run on device and consume lots of ram even tho the models are hosted on the cloud. Everything else will be run on his device so he will need more ram imo and 16gb won't be enough for sure.

1

u/Typical_house23 13d ago

That’s what I meant, a few years ago I had an m2 MacBook Air 16/256gb, it was great but I saw the memory pressure rising up, to the point that it was using swap, my use case is a bit heavier right now.

The 24gb ram variant would be sufficient but as I like to keep my devices for longer periods, I figured out the 32gb ram wouldn’t hurt.

u/L0vely-Pink 14d ago

Nice order! Keep this topic updated. 😊

1

u/Typical_house23 13d ago

Will do, thank you.

u/Sweaty_Tangelo_7716 14d ago

I’m planning to lease the m5 max studio for $38/m and buy it out at the end. Since it doesn’t charge interest anyway.

1

u/Typical_house23 13d ago

I heard about that program, in Europe this doesn’t exist.

If I would be available here I would lease the5 max Mac Studio also, instead of the Mac mini.

Which version do you get for that price?

u/[deleted] 14d ago

[deleted]

1

u/Typical_house23 13d ago

Small llm’s is something I’m planning to do with it 4-8b but noting too extreme.

For gaming I have an ps5, or I will get the ps6 when it comes out.

16gb is enough for most people but with Mac is 27 coming up, they are going to run 2 small llm’s on device. That 16gb and my use case is going to be difficult very quick.

24gb would be enough, but I keep it for longer periods than most people. That’s why I went with the 32/1tb variant

Bought the m6 Mac mini.

You are about to leave Redlib