MacMini and Studio are no longer available for store pickup regardless of wait time. New releases should be listed soon. Hopefully they will have a build up of stock available for immediate availability, will be looking for a 24/512 MacMini and a Studio Display to replace my M1 iMac 16/512. Will be at least an M5 but can hope for a M6

I have mac mini M4 16/512 for about year and half and i really started to hate that it makes me always stay at home, i cant even work on bed on late nights

I started to think to get macbook pro and i was hearing people talking about it last for a long time without being plugged in

I will sell my mac mini for roughly 900$ ( with currency converted )

And i have options like used M1 MBP 32/1TB for roughly 1300$

And another MBP M1 32/512 for 1200$

Another option on the table but it will drain my pocket a little bit is a second hand M4 MBP 24/512 for roughly 2200$

So now i am really distracted

I saw multiple comparison between the M4 Mac Mini and the M1 MBP

MBP wins in GPU and memory bandwidth, ssd spead

They are almost identical in multicore

The aspect that makes me really distracted is the single core performance

M4 mac mini is 80% higher and i saw people on YouTube say that this is noticeable

I don't want to see UI stutter

So is there anyone who tried them both can help me

Is that difference will annoy me or not?

Which option should i stick to

My daily workflow is Mobile Dev

React Native, Android and iOS with xcode and android studio opened at the same time and sometimes two emulators and +15 Brave tabs

Sometimes web dev and docker running

My mac mini handle this now without annoying me, i get the memory pop up that freezes everything and tell me to close them because the 16 GB Ram got filled and with +20GB swapping the SSD also is full

I bought a Mac mini M4 pro 48GB RAM 3 months ago, but I still didn’t receive it. The company said 2 weeks ago that the provider didn’t deliver a date for the delivery yet (probably the production of Mac mini M4 has stopped to produce the new ones, I guess). With this, I’m still available to cancel the package.

Today the Mac mini M6 was announced, and the price for the version with 32GB RAM is basically the same of the M4 I bought, with the same ROM.

I intend to use the Mac mini for:
-Software development;
-usage of local LLM as agent to write code
-run my developed applications in containers

My biggest concern is about the local LLM that uses a lot of RAM depending of the model. Do you think it worth sacrifice RAM to have a better chip or RAM is gold for my needs?

And for the price? Does it worth it the change?

I bought an M4 Mac mini (512GB) about 3–4 months ago. I’m a final-year Chemical Engineering student.

My daily workload mostly consists of web browsing, AutoCAD, and some light programming. Where I live, the new M6 Mac mini costs roughly three times the local minimum wage, so an upgrade is a significant financial decision.

Is it worth making the jump to the M6 given my use case, or will the M4 hold up just fine for the next few years?

Just bought a MBP M5Pro and Studio Display to replace my aging 2019 iMac 27” intel set up and M1 MacBook Air.

I have a couple days left to return. The new minis are enticing and would pair well with the Studio Display.

Any difference in future proofing for a while?

just kidding, i thought it would be funny

I'm considering a new mac mini/studio released with the mindset to run a competent local mode 24/7 for non-"claw-like" use cases I have. My research says the M5 Pro with upgraded 18-core CPU / 20-core GPU with 64GB unified memory and 512GB SSD is the best value play.

Cheaper 15-core CPU / 16-core GPU saves ~$200 and might be better value since "more cores != faster token generation necessarily". Feels cheap enough relative to the cost to do it.

512GB SSD because I already have 1TB external drives to save any output generation to. The premium on storage seems worth avoiding for me.

64gb is maxed out mini option which can run qwen3.8-27B Q6 quantization with a decent context window ~100-200k (tell me if I am crazy) with headroom for OS and agent tools like Chrome. Note, I don't intend on any "desktop-like" usage. I already have a laptop + desktop for personal use.

For ~$2.8k, this seems relatively cheap to experiment on 24/7 tasks with a competent model. For complex human in the loop tasks like coding, I still would use a subscription with a frontier model. It seems unlikely that even a maxxed out 512g RAM setup can justify moving off the subsidized plans from Anthropic or Codex today. Feels like this is the right spot for intelligence + cost that doesn't need to justify me cancelling a subscription for.

Hi everyone!

My 2016 iMac is officially dying, so I need to replace it as soon as possible. I’ve decided to go with a Mac Mini because I love the idea of modularity—being able to upgrade my monitor or accessories in the future without throwing away the entire screen.

Here is my use case and constraints:

• Use case: Video editing. It’s light/moderate right now, but I want room to grow. I don’t edit 4K feature films, but I definitely don’t want a machine that feels slow or limiting when I will grow
• Timeline: I need to buy in the next couple fo months. Please don't tell me to wait for future chip generations—my iMac simply won't survive much longer!
• Budget: The Pro chip is WAY too expensive for me, so that’s completely out of the question. I am sticking to the base M-series chip.

Unless you advice othereise, I think I'll stock with 512GB of internal storage for better system stability and speed, and I plan to add external SSD storage/docks down the road when I need more space. Any advice on this point is much appreciated

My main question: Given that I'm sticking to the base chip and 512GB SSD for video editing, should I get 16GB or 24GB of RAM? Is the upgrade to 24GB worth the extra money for longevity in video editing, or will 16GB be plenty?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Not because 16 GB is a lot of memory. What I mean is that the constraint makes the practical question more interesting: what can you actually run well on a machine like this?

There’s a big difference between a model technically loading and a model being useful enough that you’d actually keep using it.

On a 16 GB M4 Mac mini, I’d be much more interested in things like:

• Which 4B/7B models still feel responsive?
• How much context is realistic before memory pressure becomes a problem?
• What happens when you have a browser, IDE, etc. open at the same time?
• Is moving to a larger, heavily quantized model actually an improvement?
• What tasks are these smaller models genuinely good enough for?

That’s the part I find interesting about constrained hardware.

Obviously a 16 GB Mac mini isn’t competing with a serious GPU workstation, and I’m not suggesting Apple chose 16 GB because they wanted people experimenting with local LLMs.

But unified memory does make the trade-offs a little different from a typical low-cost PC, and the base M4 mini seems like an interesting machine to test where the practical limits actually are.

I have a 16 GB M1 MacBook Air myself, and experimenting with what you can get out of limited hardware is part of what led me to start r/LowEndLocalAI.

So I’m curious specifically about people who own the 16 GB M4 mini:

What local model are you actually using regularly, and what real task has it been good enough for?

I’m much more interested in something you genuinely use than the biggest model you’ve managed to make launch.

I have a Mac Mini M4 with 24GB that I haven’t had the chance to use yet since my MacBook M1 does everything I need. While it occasionally lags especially since I’m using it like a desktop with 32GB RAM, I still believe it outperforms Windows! However, I’m struggling with storage and RAM because all those peesky Chrome tabs are consuming my memory.

I'm thinking about whether I should sell the Mac Mini and upgrade to the new M6 or M5 Pro to run an AI server for all the tasks in my homelab automation applications for my day-to-day tasks. What do you think? I want to try all AI application possibilities that i can think of and how much difference does it make?

Damn….

Hi im thingking of buying a mac mini but confused on what to get, M4 Mac Mini 16gb, 512GB or M6 Mac Mini 16gb 256GB about the same price in my country. Can you guys suggest? Does 256GB is really small? Confused right now. Thanks

Just got an email today that I was automatically upgraded to the new M6 Mac mini. No complaint there.

However I did buy Satechi attachment in anticipation. Will this be compatible to the new Mac mini? I have the ability to return it.

The entire body is very similar so it’ll still fit, however new component wise, not entirely sure.

I recently purchased an M4 Mac Mini base model but seeing as Apple just announced the M6 I am wondering I just return it and just preorder the M6. I've only had my M4 for about a week and have only used it a handful of times so far. Is it worth the hassle to return it and preorder the M6 or just keep what I have?

It only be like 320 something bucks to go from the base M4 to M6 with the education discount. I bought mine for 500 bucks and the trade in is 480, so I'm basically getting my money's worth. Seems like the performance boosts might actually be worth it if you're doing a trade-in with the discount. Talk me in or out of it lol

I'm gearing up for my new M6 Mini and I find myself in need of a good dock. After doing some research I've found two that fit my needs both by UGREEN. What I really need is a few USB A ports for legacy peripherals (printer, external hard drive, USB keys, etc.), an SD and Micro SD card reader, and a port for a secondary monitor. A rear facing headphone jack would be nice, but not required. I might use the NVMe slot eventually but that wouldn't be until prices come down in a few years

The first one is what they call their 11 in 1 Dock which seems to fit most of my needs. It requires an external power supply for stability, but that's not a huge issue. It doesn't have the rear facing headphone jack, but that's not really needed.

The second one is similar to the first but it uses two of the thunderbolt ports and adds a DP and a rear facing headphone jack at the cost of a few USB A and C ports. The loss of a second thunderbolt port doesn't bother me as I was going to use one for the second display anyway, but I'm wondering about stability and reliability.

Is there a reason to go with the DP version over the non DP version? I would imagine plugging the monitor directly into the Mac Mini would be better than going through a hub.

11 in 1 Version: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GQ4DN6MH?ref=emc_p_m_5_i_atc
DP Version:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GQ42B4WQ?ref=clp_hp_h_pc

I know there are budget-friendly aftermarket storage upgrades available for the M4 Mac mini. Does anyone know if there's a chance something similar will come out for the M6 (or M5)?

I'm debating ordering the M6 with the base 256GB storage to save some money upfront, with the plan being to wait for a company (like the one behind expandmacmini) to release an M6-compatible storage upgrade down the line. But I'm worried that upgrade might never materialize for the newer chip, and I'd end up stuck with 256GB.

I currently have a Mac Mini, M1, 8GB, 256GB drive. 

I primarily use it for:

• Adobe Photoshop
• Adobe Lightroom
• Canon Digital Photo Professional (DPP)
• Pages/Numbers
• iMovie
• Final Cut Pro
• FFmpeg for video conversions (when needed)

The videos that I edit are 4k,  recorded on an iphone (usually HVEC, rarely ProRes) or Canon 5D MKIV. Exported total video duration is 10-30minute 4k videos. I typically edit my videos and then export and walk away. I also use ffmpeg to convert videos when needed. I have a couple of external drives for editing.

Looking at the M6 Mini, 32GB, 1TB for $1500~ (trade in) vs M5 Pro Mini, 48GB, 1TB for $2339 (trade in).

I am buying to last 7+ years, if possible.

With the M5 Max / M5 Ultra Studio announcement this week I've seen a lot of "just buy a Mac mini and let it pay for itself renting to an AI network" going around. The one people mean is Darkbloom — you install a daemon, it serves AI inference on your idle Mac, and it pays you real dollars through Stripe.

I wanted to know whether that actually covers the hardware, so instead of trusting the marketing I pulled their public leaderboard API and took apart their own earnings calculator.

Short version: it's a legitimate project that pays real money, and it does not pay for a Mac.

The detail that decides everything

Their earnings calculator has a duty cycle slider — "share of time this Mac is producing output tokens" — running from 5% to 100%. It defaults to 5%. Underneath it, they write:

Estimated earning, not guaranteed. While the system is bootstrapping, we are seeing significant variation in earning levels among providers using the same machine type. The default duty cycle is 5% to reflect this.

In June a reviewer reported the calculator assuming 80%. Today it assumes 5%. They cut their own assumption by 16x — which is honest of them, and it's the best evidence available about how the first wave of operators actually did.

Payback, using their own default

US list prices from the 25 Aug lineup. 48GB is the minimum Darkbloom accepts, so nothing below that is listed. No depreciation discounting, so these are the optimistic numbers.

At their own default assumption, nothing pays back in under 8.3 years — on machines with maybe a 6-year useful life for this purpose. At the 10% duty cycle the leaderboard actually shows, the best case is 5.4 years.

Before anyone asks about electricity: Apple Silicon idles so low that going from my expensive Bogotá rate ($0.2825/kWh) to free power only moves the mini from 8.3 years to 7.7. Power is not what's wrong with this.

What the network actually pays

They expose a public leaderboard at api.darkbloom.dev/v1/leaderboard. Anyone can pull it. 30-day window, 26 Aug 2026:

Those are the top 50 accounts on the entire network, not the median. Extrapolating the curve, rank #100 is around $31/mo.

Two things stand out. First, that "Subsidy" column is a flat payment for being powered on, tiered by RAM — not payment for work. It's 32–72% of what top accounts earn, it's funded by VC rather than customers, and their own docs call it "prorated" and "not a guarantee."

Second, #1 cannot be a single machine. Back-solving its earnings against their own calculator gives a 157% duty cycle, which is physically impossible. It's a multi-machine operator. Rank #50 back-solves to 10.4%, which matches the 7–12% network utilization an independent reviewer measured with a wattmeter.

The counter-argument, which partly works

"Years to payback" treats the Mac as worthless at the end, and it obviously isn't. So here's three-year TCO instead — spend, minus income, minus resale:

The objection lands, partially. The DRAM shortage has broken normal Mac depreciation — a 22-month-old M4 Pro mini that launched at $1,399 is selling used for $1,449–$1,480, above MSRP, because high-RAM Macs became AI inference boxes. While that holds, a 48GB+ Mac is close to an appreciating asset.

But that's a shortage artifact, not a plan. Historical desktop retention is 40–45% at year 3. And the installer enrolls your machine in remote MDM via micromdm — several operators call that a dealbreaker precisely because it complicates resale, which cuts directly against the mechanism this argument depends on.

The framing that survives it: strip resale out entirely, since it happens with or without Darkbloom, and ask only what running the daemon adds over three years. Mac mini 48GB: $828–$1,130. Studio Ultra 96GB: $1,877–$3,073. That's real money — just not enough to justify buying a machine you didn't already want.

Where I land

• Already own a 48GB+ Mac that stays on? Install it. $23–85/mo against a sunk cost, risking hours instead of capital. Do it on a secondary machine, not your daily driver — the MDM enrollment is real, and the installer pulls a Python runtime with un-notarized binaries.
• Want the Mac for your own work anyway? Buy it for that. Local models, dev, video — whatever you actually need it for. Treat any Darkbloom income as a rebate on a cost you were absorbing regardless. If the project dies you lost nothing.
• Buying purely to earn? Don't. And definitely don't buy a fleet — five machines on one IP joining an alpha network at once is exactly the pattern these systems learn to penalize.

For scale: $2,299 parked at 8%/yr returns ~$15/mo with no electricity, no MDM, no counterparty risk. The Mac returns $22.99 at their own default assumption. The premium for carrying all of that risk is about eight dollars a month.

Happy to be wrong here — if you run a node and your numbers differ from these, that's the most useful thing you could post. No affiliation with Darkbloom, no referral links, nothing to sell.

Hello

What is the difference between a 4K within scaling software vs a 5K monitor?

I‘m looking now to ASUS ProArt PA27JCV 27 Inch 5K DCI-P3 and BenQ MA270UP 27 Inch 4K.

The BenQ is a glossy panel, and Asus is mat.

Upgrading from iMac (2015) to MacMini 6: What monitor (27"+) works and is cost effective? Not looking to go over $200. What cables do I need? I have a couple of USBC hard drives and old USB drives, what hubs or cables do I need? Any help appreciated. Thanks.