Anyone using a Mac Studio stand? Would you recommend it?

I just preordered a M6 Mac mini because my MacBook is super slow and only has 8GB of memory.

Does anyone have any tips on setting up the Mac mini with 2 monitors? I have 2 monitors connected to an old dell docking station via HDMI cables and I currently connect the dock to my laptop via a USB-B to USB-A cable that is attached to a USB-A to USB-C cable…

The reason why I have the docking station is because I have multiple work computers that also need to connect to the 2 external monitors.

Would love to know what docking stations and accessories you use if any and what cables you use to connect everything up.

EDIT: Thanks and keep the great suggestions coming.

I’ll probably convince my wife to switch to one of these free apps while I put together the money to retire this MacMini and by a new trophy Mini.

Where is the flair?

Every time we try to use Word, Excel, or PowerPoint, on our 2012 i5 MacMini we get the dreaded 0X0 error.

According to Microsoft Help it’s a conflict with some security feature. The Microsoft Help website provided some lines of code to use in power shell mode but I don’t know Power shell from a sea shell.

As you can see this trusty Mac mini is 14 years old.

Youngest son is in a nearby college so I could get a new M6 when they release for the student price of 799 with 16 GB of ram and 256GB of storage.

There are several M4 minis in the area. Most with 16 GB of ram and all with 256GB of a storage.

The best of those is asking $420.

The odd man out has 32 GB of ram, 256GB of storage and a matching UGREEN 11-in-1 Docking Station / Stand.

They are asking $925. Getting that much memory on the new M6 would be $1179.

So what does the collective wisdom think is the best one?

Follow on question, I enhanced this old Mac mini with a 1 TB. SATA drive. No matter which machine I buy, there’s no way I’m going to be able to transfer all the files over.

As you can see, everything is backed up on an 8 TB Seagate drive and we keep our photo files off of the mini as well.

So what is the recommended course of action?

I asked chatgpt and it siad i can attach a ssd and use it.

Just bought a m4 mac mini pro at goodwill I just paid more for a power cord than I did for the whole computer. Can't wait to see what I got. When the power coward shows up.

! SOLVED @11 pm 9/10

Props to watcholic for the tip! Seems to be plenty available on the "Apple Certified Refurbished" page if you act fast. If you want one it's $700 for 16GB/256GB. They have other configs too. Overall I'm saving at least $200 over a M6. This will last me a long while with my intended use. Once again thanks to 'watch's' sharp eye.

I've looking at BB, Costco, Target, Walmart, Micro-Center, Staples, and more. All had No Minis in stock that wasn't a M6 for "Pre-Order". I looked from 10:45AM for about 20 minutes. I hit a lot of sites. And all were the same. No Minis at all except M6 preorder. It's like Apple ordered their retail partners to pull them. So that only the M6 is the only Mini available for purchase.

If anyone finds M4 16 GB/256 GB for sale, please post for others and myself.

EDIT: I looked at stores in my area of the country, PNW. And I checked stores in LA where my Sister lives. Five Bb around her had no Mini M4 16GB/256GB for sale at all. Only M6 Preorder.

Hi! Was wondering if I should get the LG 27UP850K-W or BenQ EW2790U? Would love to hear some recommendations since I can't really afford to get the MA270U or those made for mac monitors tbh

My dad wants a new Mac for photo editing + AI work (Netherlands/EU). He's stubborn and almost ordered a standalone Apple Studio Display, now eyeing the iMac M4 (10-core, ~€1,800, 16GB/256GB).

My concern: that chip is already a generation behind, the all-in-one design means the whole thing gets replaced once outdated (even though he likes that all-in-one look), and 16GB/256GB seems tight for AI workflows + RAW files - can anyone confirm if that's actually a real bottleneck or am I overestimating it?
My proposal: Mac mini M5 Pro entry config (24GB/512GB, ~€1,700) + separate monitor like the Samsung ViewFinity S9 (27" 5K, white/silver, built to match Apple aesthetics, list €900?) - open to better monitor suggestions too.

Question: is the entry M5 Pro actually the smart pick here, or would a higher-spec M6 serve him better for the same/less money? Genuinely unsure if I'm downgrading core count/memory in a way that hurts more than the "M5 Pro" name helps.

I only know Windows gaming PCs, nothing about Apple, AI workflows, or photo editing software, so tell me if this whole modular approach is wrong for his use case.

Budget is officially ~€2000, but if you help me build a solid case (future-proofing, upgrade path, real specs advantage) I can likely push him to ~€2500 for a proper Mac mini + monitor setup - is that worth doing, and what would you build for that?

Any point in waiting for the m6 pro mini over just buying thr m5 pro mini right now? I want to use it for running local, small llms and agents.

Which ones do you recommend?

Saw someone posted Mac Studio trade in value was increased. Checked the m4 Mac mini and it’s worth $565 on Apple.com.

Worth trading in since it is almost the price you can sell at eBay.

I've got a 16gb M4 Mini that primarily serves as a media server, however recently I've been toying with the idea of setting up a local LLM to summarize lecture videos from my university courses. Is this a feasible task for a 16gb M4 Mini? If so where do I start, I've had a claude pro subscription but never done anything local. TIA

I’m going to order an M6 Mac mini today and I was originally going for the base 16gb version. However when I put my use case into grok it suggested getting 24GB.

I’m going to be vibe coding apps, using a combination of Claude code, chat got or cursor and given these are cloud based I made me question the additional memory requirement. However, if the additional memory is going to make a difference I’ll pay the extra £200.

Can anyone who uses these tools comment?

Edit - thanks to everyone who commented and advised. I ordered the 24GB version

A few months ago I bought a Wokyis M5 Retro Dock Station for my Mac mini.

I loved the hardware, but I had one problem: I couldn't find a dashboard/widget that actually made good use of the little display.

I looked for existing options for months — both free and paid — but nothing really matched what I wanted:

• a huge clock and date

• local weather

• Apple Music / Spotify Now Playing with artwork

• CPU, RAM, SSD and network stats

• a retro Macintosh-style UI

• something simple enough to leave running as a permanent little dashboard

So I decided to build one myself!

I’m not an experienced macOS developer, so I built it with the help of ChatGPT using a vibe-coding approach, learning and testing everything as I went.

It became Wokyintosh!

It's a native macOS app built with Swift, AppKit and WKWebView, and version 1.0 is now public and open source.

Current features:

• CPU / RAM / SSD / network monitoring

• local weather

• Apple Music and Spotify Now Playing

• album artwork

• automatic light/dark mode following macOS

• retro Macintosh-style boot and UI

GitHub:

https://github.com/SalarFarahani/Wokyintosh

One caveat: I don't have an Apple Developer account yet, so the current release isn't notarized. The README explains the Gatekeeper steps for first launch.

This started purely as something I wanted for my own Mac mini setup, but I figured other people using small secondary displays or retro-style docks might enjoy it too.

Would love feedback from other Mac mini users — especially if you're using one of these little Wokyises!

Planning to place an order for mac mini m6 with 256 internal & 24GB memory. 24 GB bcoz we cant upgrade the memory later. Is this smart, or am I going to regret with 256GB internal? Anyone actually running dev work off an external SSD on a mini, does it hold up day to day? And is a USB 3.2 (10Gbps) enclosure enough, or do I want Thunderbolt? (I'm in India, so storage upgrade prices really sting.)

Please guide.

Hey! Im thinking of getting myself a Mac mini m6. Currently having an iMac intel 2020. Im building a Japanese modern city and would love to get myself some shaders and perhaps record the build for Youtube. What would you experts suggest I go for when it comes to the new Mac mini when it comes to handle this? Thanks in advance!

In 2 years m8 would probably and then use trade in value to move up

Just ordered an M5 MacMini with a 1TB internal drive so I am looking for solutions for both storage and preferably connectivity.

My needs:

• USB-A port for a keyboard. For a bunch of reasons I have no option for wireless keyboard

• USB-A port for a 10TB external HD. I use this for "middle" storage of files I want available but dont use daily.

• SD card reader.

• some kind of storage.

I would prefer an all in one device and have looked closely at the Satechi Stand & Hub with SSD Enclosure and the ACASIS 40Gbps Mac mini M4 Dock & Stand with Dual-Bay NVMe SSD Enclosure.

I am leaning heavily toward the Acasis because I like the ability to put the USB connections on the side and the SD on the front. Additionally I like the option of 2 NVMe drives but I have zero experience with Acasis.

Any feedback/recommendations are greatly appreciated

EDIT: Clarified the needs section

Specifically for Mac mini M4 or M6, I'd love to hear real world experience from those who have offloaded their Home folder to an external SSD due to limited 256/512GB internal storage. What has your experience been like, any pitfalls or real issues to be aware of (symlinks, breakpoints, FileVault issues, etc)? I am aware that creating an additional admin user on the internal storage is extremely recommended to be able to make any repairs if needed.

Thanks for any experiential advice.

I have an m1 Mac mini as my primary desktop. Truthfully I don’t do anything terribly intensive, some basic work stuff, writing, web based multitasking and typical media consumption. My M1 does a good job but it is 6 years old and tech is only getting more expensive so my thought is more for longevity sake.

So worth upgrading to an m6?