it begins... the switch to Mac Mini

[@jjpp1993]

first time mac mini user here after 4 macbooks through 15 years. So far so good

[@amirtorhan2762]

The Mac mini is portsble in that you can easily carry it in a bag, but afterall it's still a desktop computer which requires power from the wall and peripherals to be useful. Anyone that is actually planning on moving their computer more than once a week should probably just get a MacBook.

[@DanielHarrisCodes]

Yeah the Mac Mini would probably be fine if you had it in your office Mon-Fri and then brough it home at the weekend. If you regularly had to work from home in the evenings taking it back and forth I'd rather have the MBP (unless tools are ARM native and cross platform like mine, in which case I'd have the Surface Pro 11 and Mac Mini)

[@mctrials23]

Exactly. I have replaced my macbook m1 pro with an m4 pro mini but I am under no illusions that its now a static desktop. Saw a video of someone with a portable mac mini setup and it was silly. Keyboard, mouse, screen, power bank and mac mini. If you need to work on the go with it, buy a MBP.

[@mooninthewater3705]

The mini is incredibly portable. At work, I can have a monitor, HDMI cable, keyboard, mouse, and a mini power cord. At home, I can set up a separate identical system. There are also affordable cases available for transporting the mini.

[@ScottLahteine]

Note that Ollama limits models to a tiny 2K context window unless you specify a larger one, either when invoking the model, or by using `ollama create` using a custom model parameters file. Increasing the context window will potentially slow the model, but some models do much better with the extra history.

[@digitalhen]

I’m running a Mini base model as a server. I’ve got it sitting next to my NAS with a 14TB external drive. It’s a plex server, it’s backing up the NAS, and it’s also backing up to backblaze. Oh and it handles all my file downloads and Google Takeout storage too. It’s been working hard!

[@velociraptor5962]

I love that 3d graph at the end as it really gives a great idea of the price and specs etc. like seriously. very cool.

[@olbu]

Thanks for your great content! I’m new to Mac and LLMs. I bought a Mac Mini with 64 GB of RAM to use as my home server (for virtual machines via UTM, Docker, etc.) and also for running LLMs that I want to access via API. Is there a significant performance difference between running LLMs directly with Open Web UI, or under Docker, or with LLM Studio?

[@AZisk]

thanks a lot! i haven’t done these comparisons (yet), but they would be interesting i think

[@flasharry08]

Every time I watch your videos, I feel like time flies by seamlessly. I am truly pleased with your content knowledge and how well you retain your audience. You are my favorite creator on KZbin. Well done! 🎉

[@AZisk]

that's very kind of you to say. i appreciate the support

[@Cooper3312000]

I returned my MacBook Pro M4 Max 16" and got the Asus Zephyrus G16 again with RTX4090 and 16TB of NVMe two 8TB WD Black drives all for the same price with a superior 240hz OLED screen. Maybe not as good on battery and not as quiet but it is better for my use case.

[@patrick-zeitz]

I changed yesterday from "16 M1 Pro 16GB" to the "M4 Pro 48GB" Mac Mini. I was a Macbook Pro guy since 2011 but the Mini is really powerful for that (Apple) price!

[@jonbig04]

Great vid, first I’ve seen that really covers the mini’s portability. Sure if you’re setting up in a dozen different places throughout the week a laptop is best, but if you’re traveling every once in a while the mini is a no brainer. Not like I can get anything done using just a single laptop screen anyway, so I’m always bringing extra monitors and peripherals. At home, I can just bring my iPad around and it’s basically the same as having a laptop.

[@Visdemhvemduer]

I’ve been waiting since the release of Mac mini m4 for this video. Finally 🎉❤

[@shubhamcweb]

Personally, I think it’s never a question between a laptop and a desktop. If you can only have one, laptop. ALWAYS. So far, happy with my M1 Pro MBP 16”. In future, I’m gonna get whatever the Pro laptop is at that time. Portability is a MUST, and it’s plenty of power still. When I have a LOT of money to spend, WAAAY down the road, I’d add an Ultra Studio for the desktop.

[@agb5003]

I definitely agree, but this is really only true for macs, and apple silicon macs, to be specific. In x86 land, the choice between the two is much harder. With laptops you basically have to choose between performance, battery life and reasonable pricing, and most of the time you can't have all three. Desktops, though, I just built a 5800x3d 3080ti machine for less than $1200. It's crazy how much more performance you can get with a desktop for the same price.

[@shubhamcweb]

@ Fair enough. But I’m curious, even then in the case of windows, I’d assume a person would want to be able to take their computer with them everywhere (with a charger ofc), right? As a CS student, and soon to be software engineer, I can’t imagine having ONLY a desktop machine. And as you said, if one’s comfortable with both, I think an Arm based laptop and a PC desktop would give someone the most bang for their buck. Even then I believe for someone like me, a Mac Studio Ultra at home (and I always buy used/refurbed) would fare better because of some of the software applications and also the fact that even with 4090 you can have only 24gb of vRAM while an Apple machine (even the laptops) can go much higher. For me, a Pro chip laptop and an Ultra desktop would be a dream. But honestly, just the Pro laptop alone would suffice too.

[@RomPereira]

Tend not to agree. I am a desktop guy. I truly dislike to position the macbook to connect in a desktop mode. Those supports are not good and my macbook looks like a spider with all those ports connected. Mac minis looks just sexy standing there with all those cable running in the back. So, no.

[@andyH_England]

Cool video! Pro users must consider many things. I expect most of them to know their needs: portable vs. static, more cores, extra RAM, a mini or a MacBook, 16-inch versus 14-inch, and Studio vs. mini. I choose portable over static as my workflow is light, so I can work wherever I lay my hat. Then I decide whether to buy the extra luxuries of the Pro over the Air. The base M4 is overkill for me but is slick and fast for my stuff.

[@alexmid]

Curious, how is it going to work on new 64 gb mac mini via sharing screen from old mac book pro? so, you just buy macMini and work on it using you old mac book as terminal. I just curious, how handy is it

[@RomPereira]

works flawlessly.

[@Traumatree]

The M4 MacMini Studio will be a real beast with its Max and Ultra variants.

[@TheMrApocalips]

Will you test new Nvidia Jetson products? Maybe even some combo with Mac mini? Compare pure and mixed clusters?

[@AZisk]

🤔 maybe

[@1bhitte]

@@AZisk they are pretty cool

[@theperfguy]

swapping consumes CPU cycles, as the operating system needs to perform calculations to identify which pages to move between RAM and the hard disk when a page fault occurs, requiring processing power to manage the data transfer process. I think the memory pressure on the Mac laptop with 24G memory caused the OS to do swapping to disk. Can you please check the disk activity during the time you were seeing high CPU utilization? Update: Look at the video around 16:10, you can easily see that Swap used is going crazy.

[@brennonjacobson6262]

I’d be interested in your thoughts on a set up with an M4 Pro Mac Mini as a desktop/developer box and an 11in M4 iPad Pro for portability. Wondering what the experience would be there with a combination of remote access tools to get the portability and tablet functionality of an iPad with being able to connect to a machine that can actually compile code.

[@petrzurek5713]

This is exactly what I am contemplating…

[@ed14n]

That's more expensive than a MacBook Pro, would definitely go with a MacBook Pro, both for environmental purposes (1 machine is less waste of resources) as for your own convenience :).

[@michaelking3629]

@@brennonjacobson6262 A good question and something I was wondering.

[@vladislav148]

But iPadOS is vendorlocked OS (compared to MacOS) without ability to install anything you want... and as for the convenience of portable mode - usual laptop looks more sturdy than construction of iPad+magic_keyboard (especially when it is on your laps)) As for remote access tools for development, which are usefull on iPad - CodeServer comes to mind; it is a headless VSCode service which you start on your Mac Mini/Home server/Office workstation, and just access it using web browser (with public IP on server side or using VPN, it is not something like Anydesk or Teamviewer which use some cloud relay)

[@marwanrabie888]

A lot of people have tried this, and they all end up selling them and opting for a Macbook because it is so inconvenient.

[@NilavraBhattacharya]

You are perhaps the first KZbinr who is reviewing Apple products using a self-made 3D plot! Loved the visualisations! Hoping to see these plots again if/when the M4 Macbook Airs come out in 2025.

[@RocktCityTim]

Any time I start to kvetch about ANY of my Mac speeds, I take a step back and remember 1987 and SCO XENIX running on my 10.2MHz 80286/80287 with an RLL Seagate 20MB disk drive over a 7.4MHz ISA bus. Perspective makes a big difference.

[@IsZomg]

I have an M4 Macbook Pro with 128GB of RAM so not sure what you're talking about at 0:30

[@zoomdiamondify]

@@IsZomg maybe you have to upgrade the processor too

[@RomPereira]

@@zoomdiamondify he is taking about the m4 pro lineup, you cannot do 128 with the pro. To have 128 GB of RAM you need the M4 Max. The Macbook Pro with the M4 Pro chip can only have up to 48 GB of RAM. The mac mini with the M4 Pro can have up to 64 Gb of RAM.

[@TomNook.]

I'm waiting for the Mac Studio

[@SPDTDL]

Base model studio is going to be the sweet spot for pros

[@june5646]

Its clear, the Macbooks costs more so the firmware told the software to speed it up or the stocks so go down lol or the cache/ swap in the ssd is the underlying factor because the macbooks may have slightly faster storage modules or larger modules where as the mini may not. I could be wrong. Or is another voltage change from the firmwares

[@SolGuy42]

For the test where MM is slower than exact build MBP, is the single fan (cooling system) holding the Mac Mini back when all else is the same? Fan/cooling slower to kick in? Not related to the test but seems the air in/out can also mix. The impact will be greater if the area around the MM base is not kept clear. M4 MM hub bases need to consider air flow and heat movement. I’ve seen one that will spread the heat to the intake.

[@TheDanEdwards]

For the Mac Minis, did you have the power mode set to "High" or "Automatic". Prior videos with your laptops you made a point that you normally do not use them in power-saver modes. Other testers I've seen have noted on the Minis that there is a small difference if you have them set to save energy.

[@christianbaer2897]

I am working on a MacBook Pro (M3 Pro) and yes, I do have an external audio interface at home, so I can use my SM 7 B knockoff and my DT770 Pro with my mac. If I am on the go, I will choose convenience over fidelity, so I use my Marshall Major V via Bluetooth. Also I need to share that audio setup with my Windows gaming PC. My audio interface is connected via USB to my display and this acts as a KVMC switch (Keyboard, Video, Mouse, Camera).

[@AZisk]

so what you’re saying is that you’re an audio nerd. 😂 i appreciate good audio

[@christianbaer2897]

@@AZisk This is exactly what I am saying. I have this kind of overkill home office setup, because we needed to be able to do band practice remotely and I got used to having a good mic and headphones ;-)

[@1234luf]

The mac mini does thermal throttle under certain loads. There have been a few other youtubers who manually crank the fan speed up to max and was able to get a little more performance. I don't think it's just Apple denying the max variants just for sales (though I do think that does play a part).

[@speedstyle.]

13:16 The on-screen correction is wrong lol, the laptop has 24GB but the AI model is 20GB as you said

[@navb3663]

I was surprised to see that the macbook with the lower ram crashed, i would have thought that it would be slow but not crashout, i hope apple fixes this issue.

[@sto3359]

I can pick up my MacBook Pro and go anywhere, it's not soo easy with the Mac Mini. I have both.

[@andrewsoh8592]

What's more important for running large LLMs - number of GPUs or RAM?

[@cubano100pct]

I got Mac Mini M4 Pro for my main home personal development, photo, video, and music editing and left my Windows 11 for gaming and got my work to get me MacBook Pro 16 M4 Max to replace my MacBook 16 Pro Intel (2019) laptop for development.

[@dtox316]

exactly the video i was looking for! Thanks

[@x5HighDesert]

You should make Docker videos with these M4 chips!

[@_jerieljan]

Honestly, I’d consider the Mac mini running at home and connecting to it with screen sharing on a secure VPN connection. It sips little power while being highly performant.

[@ottotimmons]

Great video! Last week, I brought my Mac Mini (plus keyboard, mouse, etc.) on a road trip and hooked it up to the hotel room's 4K 56" HDTV-it worked great! What 3D software did you use to create that excellent interactive graph?

[@niv8880]

I moved to the mini in 2023 due to poor batteries and keyboards. Not regretted it

[@VincentOrtegaJr]

Yeah I had to get the decked out m4 pro max it’s insane. Dream computer

[@garynagle3093]

I’ve been waiting for this com-Alison video. Thank you!

[@johnbertram]

If I recall rightly, the BlackBerry Passport had a so-called desktop mode when it was plugged in to a monitor (or something) that meant it was kind of a mini-pc device. I thought that was a neat concept, and kind of what you were saying at the end about a portable/pocketable device. PS: I really miss the Passport I had in the olden days!

[@kianb4990]

This is so timeley! I’be been sphaving a hard time deciding if I should return my macboom pro m4pro 14c/20c 24gb ram 1Tb, and get the mac mini version with the same spec. Then just buy a macbook Air m4 once released for on the go and remote screen.

[@SahilP2648]

The 120hz screen on the new macbook pros is just sublime. If you are not going to use its screen then just get a mac mini and wait for m4 macair.

[@kianb4990]

@ I actually really really loved the awesome screen. The problem is I tried coding with a 14 inch and it’s very much the same experience with my previous M2 Air - it’s hard. But, I cant imagine having a 16 inch laptop. I dont watch on laptops too cause I use my TV and iPad Mini for media consumption. I dont work with images and videos too. Im pretty contended with my IPS monitors with 240Hz refresh rate.

[@ZeerakImran]

@@kianb4990 my advice would be that you may want to drop the specs of the mac mini a bit to save money. And buy a really expensive monitor, because it’ll be worth it for coding. MacOS does not scale well at all with non native resolutions. You have to buy a 4k monitor to use it as a 1440p monitor. That’s how it works. Either that, or you have to buy the apple studio display which is expensive. If I was in your situation, I would buy a mac mini pro and lower the specs. Then buy a refurbished studio display (vesa mount one) and finally, buy a m1 macbook air second hand from ebay for £350 from a reputable person. Making sure that the laptop can be returned in 30 days and the battery health is above 90%. Also wanted to add that monitors in general suck. If you’re doing anything other than gaming or watching videos, monitors are truly an awful experience. It doesn’t matter how expensive or well reviewed they are. They have extremely limited contrast, brightness or ppi. Also as soon as that matt coating goes on the display, forget it. The macbook display will make any monitor one look disabled. That’s just the reality of the situation that the loud majority on KZbin don’t express. This is a lot of money. If its not worth it, I would recommend buying a second hand m1 pro macbook pro and a refurbished studio display (vesa) instead. And plugging the macbook into the display, when at home, via the thunderbolt 4 cable. You will be looking at around £2200 this way.

[@RomPereira]

Gran gran loves the mini even more now

[@fuzzycuffs]

Better idea for portability: don't bring your work with you when you're traveling

[@AZisk]

there is a very large group of people that travel for business that you’re forgetting

[@SebastianBeckerPhoto]

@@fuzzycuffs some people also have their own „for-fun“ projects they like to work on in their free time. On my last holiday I spent the evenings sitting in the hotel bar, working on my personal project.

[@CLNSL8]

Can't you just use the TV in your hotel room? Hooked up to a mac mini, just curious

[@20windfisch11]

@@CLNSL8Not all have the HDMI input available.

[@larsradtke4097]

I was in quarantine during Covid in China, I used the hotel TV got me an HDMI cable delivered, but the 1080 was not designed for monitor use. So most of the time hotel tv don’t work well. But portable Monitors do

[@HakimoCrays]

Can you make a video please, mac mini m4 as a NAS/server (with sdd/hdd enclosure something like that). synology is too expensive imo

[@DanielHarrisCodes]

If I didn't have any devices right now, I would get the M4 Mac Mini and a Surface Pro 11 as a mobile computer (I mostly develop using ARM native tools). Working on an iOS app right now so appreciating the M3 Pro MBP a lot but usually I don't use it on the go since it's heavier and larger than the SP11. Instead I have an M3 Pro MBP, Mini PC and SP11

[@steve4321able]

Any bluetooth problems with the mini? Thats my only concern right now.

[@paulantoine1696]

Did all these units have the same SSD specification? I ask because we know that the larger SSDs are a good bit faster than the smaller ones, so maybe in the builds this is significant?

[@amirtorhan2762]

Never seen anyone bring a Mac mini on the airplane 😂😂

[@Jorge-2.0]

I am using a base model mac mini right now. It is good enough for that work I use to do

[@coenttb]

Your content is fantastic! However, the floating camera is a bit hard for me to follow. Still, I’m excited to see more of your work.

[@mr.mike678]

I am a software engineer (not a data scientist or machine teacher), and I primarily work on my laptop. In addition to my work, I enjoy watching KZbin videos and movies on it. I also perform some server-related tasks, mostly using a web browser or terminal. Currently, I am considering purchasing a MacBook Pro. I have a option to buy Base model M4 Pro Macbook Pro (24RAM & 512 SSD) or Upgraded M4 Macbook Pro with 16 RAM, Nanotexture display and 1TB SSD They both are same price. What will you do?

[@Nik.leonard]

I'm waiting for the Macbook Air M4. If is considerably better than the M3, I'm going to switch.

[@PLANETWATERMELON]

I would imagine that Apple did not put a M4 max chip in a Mac mini because they probably would know that it doesn’t have a thermal system to keep the machine from throbbing and the fan‘s going crazy. The M4 Max chip already struggles in heat management and throttling issues in the MacBook 14 inchand in my opinion, I think the Mac mini would struggle even more.

[@andrewdunbar828]

"designing a fish 'n' chips' made me hungry!

[@ssoonngg]

pretty interesting! that pink flash was def GPU forgetting what day is it today haha i tried running a 3.3 70B on my 5900x CPU the other day (only place it could fit on my machine), it worked, around 1tok/sec. so your 6t/s+ is absolutely not too shabby macs becoming an affordable place to work with llms and ML in general - who woulda thunk

[@mdbk2770]

Hi Alex, I am thinking about to buy Base Mac mini with 32g. can you help to check how the llm performance on that machine and compare it with 4090? I do own 4090 but thinking to sell it before 5090 comes out.

[@108u9]

Hi Alex which is the video you mentioned about the Mac Mini’s form factor? Thank you!

[@mydayq]

I think mini can fall behind because of broken cooling system. Fans will not spin up before it gets hot, like real toasty, in the 100th. Maybe apple did it on purpose. But you can fix it with 3rd party apps.

[@andyH_England]

Yes, when you run intensive workloads, use a third-party app to ramp up the fan before you start. In most instances, that should prevent the initial slowdown due to thermal limitations. Apple tends to push the fans harder once you are throttling.

[@Tommy31416]

My M3Max throttles brutally on heavy ML workloads. And not even training, I mean at inference - just passing batches of files through an LLM for processing. Once it's 20 minutes in, it's toast, starts throttling terribly. I think even the old M2 Ultra Studio would still perform far better in real world tasks than even the M4Max MacBook.

[@neponel]

can you explore upgrading the base mac mini with 2tb and 128gb of ram through use of hardware modders/solder shops?

[@naeemulhoque1777]

Alex, new Jetson Nano came in, is it possible to run them in cluster and run bigger llm models than 8GB?

[@BrentSmithline]

So if you could only have one host system which way would you go?

[@jensche21]

Same here... Going from a Macbook Air to a Mac Mini M4 Pro.

[@ByronduBoisZA]

Why do you guys that do this tests. No use MacFan and have a base line fan speed instead of thinking the Mac is going to turn those fans on themselves. Because most of the time they don't turn on until they sitting in the 70 degree C range. Measuring a chassis temperature is very different to the actual temp. Face Palm man. Honestly.

[@AZisk]

i am measuring chassis temp because that’s the number that matters for usability. it doesn’t matter what the internal component temperature is because during heavy use, cpu core temps jump to 110 or around there. the only other thing that matters is throttling, but that’s a different test.

[@gadgetneck]

Idea… MBP in shell mode with external monitor or iPad & kb to avoid reclining chair in front of you and no need for external power. This could help avoid losing my temper when some reclines aggressively 😅

[@Momo.momo789]

It's not mac mini replace Macbook, two different kinds of use scenarios. But a reshuffle of current Mac price structure. Anything before M4 just quickly depreciate in reselling values. Cause even the most basic $499 m4 can beats M1 max - M3 Pro.

[@failedjokes5469]

For me my MB Pro is more mobile. I could easily hook it to my monitor at home with a USB C cable. Easily carry it around and all my work with me anywhere.

[@zappl1437]

Which one is the video 14 vs 16 Inch MacBook?

[@blubblurb]

For me it will always be a laptop. I like switching places, working on the couch, bed, or on screen. I also work on customer site etc. But otherwise Mac mini is now a really solid device.

[@ameentehseen6900]

Much needed video !

[@kane6106]

So Happy you dropped this video. This was literally my dilemma lol

[@andyabajo]

I've heard you can turn ON high power mode and efficiency mode in the M4 Pro mac minis. I think this might be the issue why pro minis are taking longer to export?

[@elihusolano5993]

Macmini m4 - DC mod + portable keyboard and screen/vr glasses

[@C.r.i.m.s.o.n]

DC mod?

[@jimgeo1000]

@@C.r.i.m.s.o.n DC so it can be used with a battery

[@ValentinoNicko]

MacBook with extra step

[@elihusolano5993]

@@ValentinoNicko CYBERDECK. not settling for laptop formfactor or macbook IO or macbook battery or screen size... no not macbook

[@jjpp1993]

correction to 1:55. If you really know what you need and are doing some AI work… you get an RTX 4090 desktop machine for a lower price and killer performance. AI work, real AI work, is not meant to be mobile

[@ZeerakImran]

I wouldn’t say not meant to be. It’s not ordained or inherent in nature. I would say not suitable given the current hardware. In fact, if you do real intense ai work, a gaming graphics card isn’t going to be suitable either. You will need expensive dedicated graphics cards (£30000+) or will need to rent expensive servers that have those specs.

[@subhamoymandal8560]

Aren't you pushing a larger external display unit with Mac Mini? That will take away some resources, I believe.

[@sbacon92]

IMO given the lack luster performance of thunderbolt 5, the M3 Max is the way to go.

[@PlayFloyd_IN]

Thanks for the video. 🙂🙏 Do you reckon it still makes sense to buy a used M1 Max MacBook Pro, 16 inch? I have a budget of about $1500, need something on which I can run local LLMs, and need portability.

[@johnw2799]

I have some spare keyboards and monitors and I dont like the notch so Mac mini m4 pro is good to go.

[@zeljkoacimovic]

It is not weird at all. Better cooling, better performance. More space, better heat disipation...

Well, you _can_ get a new mouse and a new keyboard for your MBP - and I guess most people just do so for their stationary setups.

[@differentmoves]

Nice video! Really well done. Kind of confirmed that my macbook air 15inch is still the ideal development machine lol.

[@alexh2665]

Alex do you have an M3 pro vs M4 pro Xcode test in the pipeline

[@karlspencer9995]

I have to say I’m a little underwhelmed with my M4 Max running Flux. I thought the 40 core GPU would be pretty zippy but not awesome. I feel like of going back to cloud GPU’s to do any Flux work. Can’t wait to see if Mac Studio comes out with an extreme or ultra chip.

[@AZisk]

did you try mflux?

[@andyH_England]

The Ultra was cancelled on the M4 due to architectural issues found during testing, maybe with M5.

[@AZisk]

@@andyH_Englandis this from Gurman or another source?

[@andyH_England]

@@AZisk Yes.

[@AIPapersDecodedPodcast]

I am Tester developer, AI enthusiastic, I will be good with M4 base with 16GB or should I try to get more RAM?

[@yippiecalle421]

This is why I hope Apple creates a first party Remote Desktop. What if with same tech as airdrop and nearby, your iPad Pro can easily can tell your near the Mac and you get notification on iPad. “Want to control your Mac?” and boom Mac on ipad.

[@peterbreis5407]

I am impressed by the M4 Mac mini but you don't save $800 because you still have to buy a display, keyboard, mouse, camera, microphone and speakers and advisedly additional storage. Which is then not mobile.

[@Bek-A]

I would consider the monitor to be the most expensive from this list and it’s something you buy regardless of using a Macbook or a mini. You simply don’t do productivity stuff on the laptop screen. The same goes for the mouse. So realistically you only need a keyboard, a webcam and a mic. You can use your iPhone as a camera (free), get the wired apple EarPods for $19 and whatever keyboard you like. That’s a lot of savings. Not mobile, but a lot of savings

[@peterbreis5407]

@@Bek-A That's a miscount. I have a Macbook Pro M1 Pro, my two external monitors give me *three displays,* one extremely high quality, plus one vertical for text and file viewing, and another landscape showing my work full screen with direct access to all other windows and desktops. I played with continuing with a mouse but just went back to using my trackpad which I would have wanted anyway in addition to the mouse. I do miss having a numeric keypad for styling shortcuts. What I really miss is my 27" iMac. But Apple... 🥺

[@JoseDiaz-qw7mg]

You have complete control of purchase of all of those components, and they can be bought for less than $200 for the whole package, while you’re stuck with what you got with the laptop

[@peterbreis5407]

@@JoseDiaz-qw7mg If you haven't tried the new Macbook Pros you may not appreciate what high quality all those components are. Despite I've had mine 2 years now, I am still gobsmacked how amazing the screen and speakers are. "Less than $200" (which I do not believe) will get the worst cheap rubbish which will probably have to be replaced and paid for again fairly quickly. In my experience I will be "stuck with what I've got" for probably a decade, and since it is a league ahead of the competition it will be better than what is available for most of that time.. My 2012 Macbook Pro 16" is still running fine and is still amazing and better (except for the CPU/GPU) than most PCs available today.

[@phatchiltran]

Well i think at least we can pass or reuse there monitor, keyboard,... When the mac mini broken so it will be save pretty much.

[@janhofmann3499]

I’m old school: desktop? Mini. Portable? Book. (I have both but if you can afford only one and really need mobility: book)

[@DarrinSmiddy]

Great video as always. I really like it since you brought up the XREAL AR Glasses. They have a new One version of the glasses X1 chip. I am going to try a M4 Pro Mac Mini & use a Virtual Display Only and my existing keyboard & mouse.

[@newQns]

I know this is not quite the suitable video, but I'm watching this right now and thought of it; so I just ask, since you are my favorite Mac-content-person right now: What do you think about the "vignetting-effect" of the mini-led displays on the MacBook Pros? I have a hard time getting used to it because it's so noticeable while coding and writing, especially since I'm absolutely not a dark-mode-person. Since you have so much experience with this mini-led MacBooks I'm very interested in your opinion. Like: Can you notice a difference between different units with the same mini-led-display? Does the shadow appear to you also kind of blue-ish sometimes? And I don't know, would be cool if you could share your thoughts over all on that topic. I wish you a merry Christmas and a lovely time with your loved ones during the holidays.

[@AZisk]

i never noticed vignetting on any of my MacBook screens.

[@newQns]

@@AZisk Ok, that's weird. I can even see it in your videos. Perhaps it's in my head though. Thanks for answering anyways.

[@robchr]

Was that a log plot to make the prices look linear?

[@shillowcollins6392]

Will be happy to get a reply from you Sir. I bought an M4 Max Macbook pro 16", heavily inspired by you, and I am planning to use it for locally hosting agentic AI and applications like that. I haven't started yet, but what I have noted is the RAM is always 30 Gig out of the 36 Gig even while doing very less intensive things like browsing the web, using the microsoft office apps and things like that.... Is that a normal thing or this is something to worry about? (I remember one software engineer told me Mac's Unix expand to use up all the RAM always, but wanted to confirm from you or any expert who will like to help in the comment section...)

[@AZisk]

it’s fine.

[@AZisk]

just let macos do macos

[@kamertonaudiophileplayer847]

You may laugh but Mac Mini is a perfect PC for grandma. So I bought one for my grandma for this Christmas.

[@AZisk]

what a nice grandkid

[@kamertonaudiophileplayer847]

@@AZisk 😀

[@landpro28]

Different OS versions 15/16 can make a difference

[@DarkP1]

bro you contradict yourself 6:20 on your videos a lot when you don't show numbers on screen, is this something intended? cuz it's not the first time I noticed it

[@AZisk]

can you be more specific?

[@DarkP1]

@ you said the macbook finished after the minis, and then you say that the MacBooks are faster than the minis

[@AZisk]

@@DarkP1ah i rewatched it and it does seem that way, but this was a weird editing mistake. the final numbers I reported were pretty much where they all landed with the MacBooks finishing before the minis. the part about mini finishing before was a mistake and shouldn’t have been in the video. i ran the test staggered and didn’t notice the first run. thanks for paying attention 😊

[@DarkP1]

@@AZisk no problem, I get it's exhausting editing these videos, the majority of the video is great. only that part confused me.

[@CitAllHearItAll]

More cores helps when you’re doing more than one thing at a time. I RDP into a VM, have OneNote, Teams up. Run R Studio and Azure Data Studio, a run a local LLM. The extra 2 performance cores help. Real world, extra cores are helpful for me.

[@JacobKelvin-z3j]

Need separate video on m4 mac mini base model alone

[@jamesdietsch7868]

Interesting thought - be interesting windows laptop / combined with mac mini m4 as a setup?

[@desmond-hawkins]

Ehh… you need to be clearing a lot of caches including the disk cache in order to do a serious comparison when opening XCode or equivalent. This is definitely not enough to give you a meaningful benchmark.

[@AZisk]

the idea here is not to have a scientific test but to show real world use in general