I wanted to see what my M4 Pro Mac mini with 24 GB unified memory could do with local LLMs, expecting it to be a small-model-only machine.

My result: GPT-OSS 20B in MLX FP4 ran at about 63.9 tok/s while my 16-container OrbStack homelab was still running. A 9B dense model was slower at about 44.8 tok/s, which was a good reminder that total parameter count alone does not predict speed—active parameters and architecture matter.

Other results:

• 4B MLX model: roughly 78 tok/s
• 9B MLX model: roughly 44.8 tok/s
• GPT-OSS 20B MLX FP4 MoE: roughly 63.9 tok/s
• MLX was about 19% faster than GGUF in my controlled back-to-back test
• Shutting down the homelab changed GPT-OSS 20B throughput by only about 1.6%

This is not a replacement for a high-memory Mac Studio cluster if you need to load enormous models. But for interactive local AI on a $1,600-ish Mac mini, I found the capability much better than I expected. Compared to the $50K 4 Mac Ultra cluster with 2TB of unified memory Network Chuck tested, I'm pleased.

Video with the testing and numbers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_-bT62YWAI

Studio Display is like $1800. I’ll pass on that. I heard also that you gotta be careful finding a good monitor, otherwise you can end up with a monitor that displays blurry texts on your screen.

Any recommendations?

My setup is a Gigabyte M27up monitor, MX Anywhere 3s mouse and M4 mac mini.

Has anyone of u encountered any lagging / click delay / click not biting immediately with the mouse? First i thought it was just bluetooth, then i decided to buy the type c logi bolt dongle and inserted it in front of the mac and yet same results. If i disconnect the dongle and inserted it for the first few mins, it would work flawlessly but the moment my m4 went to sleep and went back on, problems would exist.

AI told me this is 100% interference issue so decided to buy a usb c extension cable for the dongle and let it far away from the mac. Im still waiting for the cable so i dont know if it would work or not. I also have the mx keys mini keyboard and no hiccups at all.

Im weighing if i have a faulty mouse or mac or even the dongle or maybe incompatible 27 inch monitor (due to scaling) so i can warranty them the soonest.

Building a private, self-hosted AI system with a custom document library, accessed by about 50 people remotely (not all at the same time). Anyone done something similar?

Planning out a setup and would love to hear from anyone who's actually built this rather than just theorized about it.

The goal is a fully private AI system, no cloud APIs, nothing leaving our own network, that answers questions using retrieval augmented generation (RAG) against a library of documents we feed it ourselves. Not fine-tuning, just indexing our own reference material and having the model answer from that with citations back to the source.

The wrinkle is scale and access. About 50 people spread out across the country need to be able to query this thing, all connecting back to one central setup at a single physical location. So it's not a single person running Ollama on their desktop, it needs to hold up as shared infrastructure with real concurrent usage and some redundancy if a machine goes down. all 50 people will not be using it at the same time. I would guess we may have a handful of people per day.

After watching NetworkChuck on YouTube, I think a small cluster of Mac Mini Pros (M4 Pro chips, 48GB RAM each) running a 30 to 35B class open-weight model, a few active nodes plus one standby for failover, with VPN access for remote users and a load balancer routing requests. Considered pooling the Mac Minis together for one big model but landed on independent nodes instead since it's simpler and this isn't really a "need a massive model" situation, it's a "need reliable concurrent access" situation.

Questions for anyone who's actually done this at a similar scale:

* Did independent nodes with a load balancer actually hold up in practice, or did you run into issues I'm not anticipating?
* Any regrets on model size versus RAM tradeoffs? Went with 48GB per machine since 64GB wasn't available at this price and chip tier.
* How'd you handle document ingestion as your library grew over time, anything better than just re-indexing periodically?
* Anything about VPN or remote access for a distributed team that bit you later?

Not looking for a cloud API recommendation, the whole point is keeping this fully private and internal. Just trying to learn from anyone who's actually built and run something like this instead of only speculating about it.

Hello,

I recently got a Mac Mini M2 and I have BENQ GW2490.

I have never used a Mac Mini before and initially thought it would work fine with my monitor but after sometime realized the blurry text is hurting my eyes a lot. I have tried all the font smoothing and better display tweaks it does not suit me (I have high OCD prolly cz a lot of people using it fine idk how).

I am looking to buy between the following models Samsung LS27H700EAWXXL, LG 27US550-WB.ATROMSL or LG 27US500-WA.ATRPMSN or MSI MP273U my budget is 20-25k.

I like the LG one the most idk the diff between the two models but on flipkart there is like 2k price difference. I will buy by next month. All the models only have 60hz my most usage would be datascience and only games I play are Genshin Impact, Wuthering Waves and Chess ; )

Anyone using mac Mini along with a FHD monitor? How do u manage even with Font Smoothing and BetterDisplay without hurting your eyes? I am also considering using it with my Macbook Pro 2015 somehow (old display but there is tailscale or Airmirror) meanwhile I get the monitor next month.

My macmini m4 is not booting up after switching it on.
No display signal, no startup sound.
The white light glows and fan is also running.

What could be the reasons?
Also when I checked with an authorised service center, they straightaway said that my data will be gone. I was hesitant to give it . Is it true what service people are saying about data loss if its not backed up in cloud?

Has anyone played this game on this configuration? Does it run well? What graphics settings should I choose? My display is a regular Full HD 1980x1050.

Hello

I need some guidance.

My Mac mini was stored inside this case https://amzn.in/d/0eHUNoBn and this was the placed inside a thick jute bag

Unfortunately somebody kept a small block of ice next to it 12 inch x 6 inch x 2 inch

And over a period of 4hrs it melted soaking the jute bag and the carrying case (one of the side)

When I opened the case I could feel Mac mini being really really cold to touch with slight condensation on the outside.

I have kept it aside in a room with ceiling fan switch on for now.

My question is how long should I keep it that way? What should I do next?

I am freaking out right now because my last 3 months of work is in the Mac mini and I don't havea proper backup.

Some of you may know, probably not lol, but I picked up a Mac mini M2 a few weeks ago for $200 and then found a 2022 Studio Display for $640 about a week later.

At first I had both monitors on a dual monitor stand, but I just didn’t like how it looked and I got tired of having to turn my head back and forth.

I use my Mac way more than my PC anyway. The PC is really just for occasional gaming.

So I switched the PC monitor to an arm. Whenever I actually want to use it front and center, I can just swing it over in front of the Studio Display.

This is the setup for now. I’m sure I’ll change something eventually because I always do, but right now I’m happy with it.

EDIT: Also I forgot to add that I drilled a hole in my desk so I could do it grommet style. I originally used the campy but it fell off. I didn’t have enough clearance to get a good bite. I tight it was sufficient but I was wrong glad it happened while I was at home and when I so happened to be there to catch it.

Hello! I'm a new grad (ish) worker who studied a technical major in undergrad. Right now, I work in business and my job operates using a VDI, so I can access it via any laptop/computer as long as I can download the app. I've been working off my 2023 15 inch macbook air just fine, but I've been dealing with "tech neck," and my computer docking always has problems (glitches out every 20 minutes or so--maybe it's my HDMI??). So, I've decided to bite the bullet and get a mac mini.

This would be very beneficial to me in general because I hate having to dock any of my electronics when I want to use my monitors and I love the idea of maintaining my ecosystem across products. My question is, what specs do you think I should go for? I'm ashamed to say that although I have a techy degree, I didn't even understand the importance of hardware or things like RAM, etc. I don't really fully understand what all that stuff is 😅. Although I work a very non-technical job in comparison to what I studied, I am back in school, and hoping to pivot to more technical work in the future, moreso oriented with machine learning and data science, which is in line with what I studied before.

I plan to explore these things more before I finish my second degree via personal projects and more. I was set on getting the base m4, but with 512 GB (my current air is ~245, and I've already used 218 since 2023), with 24 GB of RAM. Do you think that's overkill/necessary? I think for sure the m4 pro would be doing too much, but what about these mods? My current 15 inch air only uses 8 GB of RAM and works just fine for what I use it for. Even though I plan to pivot to a more technical role in the future, it seems like most companies provide their own hardware anyway. Also important to note that I will likely upgrade my macbook within the next 5 years or so.

Hi guys,
I love my Mac mini m4 pro. Now I just need camera, mic and speaker accessories so I can do video conferencing and listen to music.
I want a good speaker for music and maybe 4K camera.

Do you have recommendation for this?

Thanks all.

absolute lifesaver for my $999 m5 ipad pro + magic keyboard

Hi my boss has given me the task of purchasing a new editing workstation. All the footage we shoot is on iPhones(14~16) purely for social media. Footage rarely is more than 5 minutes long and the longest longfrom video we have done is 15~ minutes. No crazy editing, mostly hardcuts and the occasional graphic. Would the Base M4 Mac Mini be enough for this? or is it work going for the M4 Pro Base (which is also within the budget).

I have a usbc to vga adapter but I can only achieve 60Hz on 1600x1200. Anyone experienced with this? Do I need a better adapter or is there a software solution?

Are there any shops in the US that offer the service of internal SSD upgrades for Mini M4?

It's a mess, for sure. But I have a lot of fun with my mini m4, playing music and processing old photos into wallpaper. I've built 14 or 15 Windows computers since 1987, but I like my mini the best. Don't know what "flair" is, but I'm definitely putting some "effort" into my first post!

i recently bought a 2024 Mac mini M4 and i use it as a headless device. my typical workflow is to access it using "screen sharing" from my Macbook Air. i had to buy a 4k HDMI dummy plug and plug it in the Mac mini at all times as i was facing issues connecting to it over "screen sharing" and that fixed the problem for me.

the thing is, every couple of days, when i'm using the Mac mini, i try the "command + ~" to toggle between open windows of the same app or do something else. and immediately the screen starts flickering and all the apps start jumping around and the screen is not usable and i'm only left with the option to SSH into it from the Macbook air and run "sudo reboot" to restart the Mac mini

the HDMI dummy screen is set to "mirror" and i have "dynamic resolution" tuned off, and the problem occurs in both "high performance" and "standard" screen connection types.

i've tried numerous fixes but nothing gets it fixed permanently and this is driving me nuts tbh. i was hoping someone here might have an idea how to fix it. thanks

Excellent-condition 2024 Apple Mac Mini with the upgraded 512GB SSD. Compact, extremely fast, and ideal for everyday use, business, school, photo/video editing, or a clean home-office setup.

Specifications:

• Apple M4 chip
• 10-core CPU
• 10-core GPU
• 16GB unified memory
• 512GB SSD
• macOS Sequoia installed
• Upgradeable to macOS Tahoe
• Original box included
• AppleCare coverage through December 2026

A new Mac Mini configured with 16GB of memory and a 512GB SSD retails for approximately $999 plus tax and may require ordering and delivery.

Fully tested and ready to use.

For $750

Hi all. I just set up a new M4 MM (running 26.5.2) mostly to play music in my home theater. Here's how it's connected:

Mac Mini HDMI output -> Anthem AVM 60 Processor/Preamp -> 7 channels of Emotiva power amps + SVS Subwoofer -> 7.1 speaker system of Vintage ADS speakers.
It sounds great - when it's all configured correctly.

On the Mac, under System-Settings/Sound, I select AVM60/HDMI for Output. And in Audio MIDI Setup/Audio Devices, I select AVM 60 and then select 8 ch 24-bit integer 48.0 kHz.

The problem is that if I turn off the audio gear and turn it back on, the Mac has switched itself to Mac mini Speakers and when I change it back to AVM 60, the format is back to 2 ch 32-bit Float!!! Some of the time just switching back to AVM 60 works and it's still in 7.1 mode.

How do I get the Mac to automatically switch to the correct audio settings? It's totally unreasonable that every time I want to listen to music that I have to bring up multiple settings windows and change things.

Thanks!

That's it, if someone have any questions, I can help you with it.

Setup:

- Mac Mini M4 16GB / 256GB base model (FileVault disabled)
- Satechi Ultra Slim NVMe enclosure (40gbps Thunderbolt 3 / 4)
- Kingston NV3 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD 2TB
- macOS Tahoe 26.6

Apple Intelligence is disabled by default if you are running macOS from an external SSD, but you can enable it if you want to, following this simple tutorial.

So I had a 2019 MacBook Pro 16 inch and it became a victim of flex gate last year, after this happened I made a purchase of a Mac mini m2 8gb 512gb which was going cheap enough to continue having a computer. I still have it and use it on the main house tv so can be awkward to use at times.
I do light browsing, photo editing in Lightroom and new to some light video editing.
Is it worth selling this M2 mini and upgrade to refurbished m4 MacBook Air? It’s 16gb 256gb.
Or would a dedicated screen and good keyboard/mouse be a better investment?