M4 Mac Mini (Base Model) Stress Test 🥵 Blender, Logic Pro, Llama, and More!

[@AlexGTech]

Thank you all so much for your help in making this video possible! I ran out of power way before the mini did 😅 Let me know what else you'd like me to try for the next review! 👇🏼 This video has no sponsors, but your support in liking, sharing and interacting here means a lot to me 🙏🏼 Have a lovely day!

[@reyals66]

I'm looking forward to the M4 Max Ultra tests, as I own the M1 Max MacBook Pro and work as a professional editor.

[@Studio_4to1]

We need the in depth of the M4 Pro Mac Mini. Compared to the Studio Max M2

[@naveenkumar-ue3ik]

can we connect two HDMI monitors instead of thunderbolt? is it possible to make an video of this

[@Brdrswrld]

Thanks for the great video walkthrough.

[@DiogoPessoadsp]

Thanks for this video Alex! 1st video I see of your channel, and congratulations, very good content! I just will launch you a small challenge: why don't you compare your MacBook Pro M1 Max (just like I have) and make a comparison with the same tasks e running the same programs at the same time with this new Mac Mini M4 Pro? I would love to see that. Thanks once more! Best regards from Portugal 🇵🇹 😉

[@RichardServello]

What's crazy is, I dropped a TB4 NVMe as my storage on the base model and I'm getting faster Read/Write on the external drive! Over 3000MB/s. So base model plus external is VERY viable!

[@chhotabheem-if8cf]

purchase link please ?

[@thinkdifferent92]

Which ssd is that?

[@neevar1027]

Which drive external drive are you using?

[@stuarthepburn6508]

I've got an M1 Mac Mini 512GB - I'm hooked it ub via thunderbolt to a Firecuda dock with 4TB Nvme and I get 30% better speeds running my OS off the Nvme

[@LDRep]

you can run MacOS from external ssd?? so if it plugged out, macOS will stop running?

[@roberto19801909]

As a photographer. I got the m4 pro default. Ot comes with 24gb ram and half tb is the best machine I've ever owned. Such a small and tiny machine can do so much. Photoshop runs like butter. Specially camera raw when applying filters. Extremely happy.

[@AlexGTech]

Totally agree! I got the Pro for a comparison but not even sure I need that. I am considering getting a 24GB upgrade though and return the 16GB, and then I can really push it when needed. Don’t often say this, but Apple nailed it this time!

[@macrijo17]

hi Roberto I would like to ask you a favor, would you be so kind to record a video showing how smooth do you move from one picture to the next slow and fast please . I have a Mac mini m2 pro and its really slow doing that

[@ArunPanchal007]

@@AlexGTech Hey Alex, can I get your 16GB mac mini? It would help me kick boost my startup that I am working upon on low budget.

[@glaucyaoliveira974]

Hi, also a photographer her i’m looking for a upgrade, do you think the mini version with 512gb would be enough for photoshop and Lightroom settings? I know he showed that but i want a point of view from a person who actually uses that kinda apps every day. Thanks for your comment

[@roberto19801909]

@@macrijo17 sorry for the late reply my friend. what did you mean exactly. can you explain the moving from one picture to another.

[@Qamar92]

Finally , a person that think outside of scope of video production and photography (and flashy unboxing videos) and focusing on base model. Not everyone lives in good economy.

[@AlexGTech]

Thank you 🥰 Glad you liked this approach! More to come 🙏🏼

[@brunoleitemilkie]

Finally! Someone showing the M4 Mac Mini in real-world use! Everyone else is just running benchmarks, but that alone doesn’t say much. I was looking for someone actually using programs like Illustrator, Photoshop, or other graphic design software. The llama was a nice touch, too! It would be great to see some open-source AI image generator in action. I tried using my 2017 MacBook Pro with 16GB of RAM, and it’s just impossible. You know what would be even better? Trying the same thing with the Mac Mini M4 Pro version. Thank you so much for the vid. You got a new subscriber!

[@clumsyclown]

Nice to finally see audio production in these reviews. However, usually computers with 16 RAM handle well lots of tracks and playback. What really tells me how well the computer performs is the real time recording of a virtual instrument or a track with lots of active effects while having those tracks playing back. That’s a more real scenario that will tell me how well it handles recording without pre-rendering or disabling other tracks. Great vid! Thanks for this review, it was very informative!

[@AlexGTech]

Thank you! I quickly got HOOKED on Logic! I used Ableton many years ago but things seem to have moved on considerably. Will definitely get better at this and improve the tests for the Pro version!

[@TheJonHolstein]

@@AlexGTech There is a synth called Diva, by U-he, it has a high quality mode, stacking tracks with that is a good way to see how the CPU performs with virtual instruments. VPS avenger seems to be a CPU hog as well. And I think Arturia Pigments is as well. The other thing to test is symphonic instruments, as they are typically RAM-heavy. I can't remember if East West has a trial period. Spitfire audio typically has a lot of microphone options, so you can load a lot in to RAM.

[@kongwee1978]

@@TheJonHolstein I have Serum. Serum is heavy for complex filter and effect. I can easily run 16 tracks with full chords. That is very enough power for my M1. I don't run heavy symphonic instruments. I used less than 1gig ram as I can unload unused sample and default cache setting. The only heavy stuff I tried in using Dolby Atoms in real time composing. It is super heavy. It is best to compose in usual multiple track multi channel first.

[@DavidMateos56]

Agreed, real time performance and latency is the most crucial performance metric for a "music computer". For playback you can always use larger buffer sizes to stress less your CPU. Almost every reviewer is only talking from the producer POV. In my case I'm more interested in this device's capabilities as a live performance machine. Large project files with different songs in it (let's say at least four), each song with ~10 or so MIDI tracks and half a dozen audio tracks, everything with high quality sounds and high quality effects, with BPM changes along the project that have to be tight, and many many parameters everywhere being modifiable live via MIDI messages, all while keeping the latency at its lowest, as close to real time as possible, without any cracks in the audio and without hiccups. It has to work smooth and tight in this scenario for a few hours. I'm not exactly confident.

[@Bek-bl2ed]

Looking to buy the base m4 mini, using an UAD Octo Satellite so I’m not too worried about much but not sure if I should just go for the $600 mini or get something else. I had to sswitch to pc for work and I hate all audio programs on pc and want to go back but can’t spent a ton

[@infopoolbd]

Finally a real-time productivity test video! Thank you.

[@marciobarbato]

Thanks for this review ! I guess you were one of the first tech youtubers to remember that not everyone is a video/photo editor ! Subscribed

[@rayriggz16]

Why does it say mac mini m1 2020?

[@Ownstyle_Music]

I want to thank you for your video! The incorporation of music production in this review is great! Not a lot of reviewers do this on the base model. It's especially good to know how well the M4 chip holds up. I use an M1 base model Mac for music production, but I'm considering buying the M4 Mac mini. An M1 Mac is sufficient with some workarounds, but an upgraded Mac Mini M4 would deem these workarounds unnecessary. Rather than learning how to produce music yourself, I could create a realistic Logic project that you can use for your future reviews. When you use Logic without external plugins, it's easy to share and play projects from others.

[@AlexGTech]

Oh man thank you so much! That would be amazing 🥰 if you could send me a link via my business email (About tab here on my channel page) I can give that a go. That’s very kind of you!

[@jcpuga]

Subbingd for this 😂 🔔 👍🏽

[@Ownstyle_Music]

@@AlexGTech Of course, I really appreciate the video. I've just sent you the final project. I believe this project to be a good representation of the average production.

[@RichardServello]

Watching from an M4 Mac mini and it's a BEAST.

[@bryans8656]

Me too, and I agree.

[@Cryptoairdrops1-w3l]

Can I have your previous device 😢?

[@NeeteshPathak]

my recording devices are, 4k dslr n iphn 15 pro max please suggest is base model 16gb is enough for my 4 years need ?

[@Frogger1400]

⁠​⁠@@Cryptoairdrops1-w3lare you an adult? (You need to be to responsibly send your location) If you are, you can send your location privately to the person (ask about it privately again first) or set up a meeting at an airport at your country (privately to the person) (note : if he/she aren’t in your country, then you can pay extra or sum idk, just give up and ask someone else)

[@Frogger1400]

⁠@@NeeteshPathakbase model = NO If you want the most powerful device, wait for Mac Studio M4 Pro/ultra Or if you need one now, definitely get a base model Mac Mini Pro M4.

[@felipexakal]

Honestly, this is the type of review that we need.

[@AlexGTech]

Thank you so much!!!

[@LucasIsgoofy]

Completely Agree

[@thierrymotomungu3401]

I could not agree more

[@ThierryC-te3rx]

I think You're the only one int the world testing the speaker ! And wow, that one sounds pretty good even I never planned to use it on any mac mini I had. Apple was really thinking low budget family with that Mac mini.

[@Hayden_Ha]

Thanks for the video, Alex. I was originally considering the 32GB/1024GB model, but given my basic needs (office work and light gaming), I’ve decided to opt for the 16GB/512GB model and use the extra funds for an external NVMe Gen 4SSD. I believe this is a more cost-effective approach, as it offers better futureproofing. I can resell or trade in the base model in 4-5 years for a decent price, and the external SSD will be compatible with future Macs

[@harvester71]

I was thinking the same thing, although I was gonna just get more ram 24gb and 256 SSD as I would just load all the apps on the external storage then you have more RAM , still having a think! 🤔

[@Hayden_Ha]

@harvester71 After watching a lot of videos, unless your work need alot of ram otherwise 16 is plenty. Better to check your current ram usage.

[@harvester71]

@@Hayden_Ha Hey thanks for that just checked using about 28GB of Ram, a lot graphics stuff, Adobe software, so maybe need the Ram, I guess if it runs out it uses the swap SSD for Ram? Might just get a Pro base one.

[@ashneedham]

It's refreshing to see real world reviews of products... benchmarks are great for comparing on paper but to end users that doesn't really matter. Although I still can't decide whether to get the base + RAM upgrade 😖 Mostly I do web dev as a profession using VMs with some video editing as a hobby, this video makes me feel like I'll be fine.

[@TechwithTonyUK]

Absolutely amazing video!! I too have been loving mine so far, had no problems with anything I have thrown at it!! Keep up the great work! Thanks

[@AlexGTech]

Great to hear man, thank you so much! Legitimately impressed by this

[@TechwithTonyUK]

@ Yeah me too! I have the M3 Pro and the M4 runs a lot cooler than my MBP for sure, about 20 degrees cooler doing the same tasks!

[@lonerandy]

I have M4 Mac mini (24gb ram, 256gb ssd) and I am currently using OWC 1m2 enclosure with 2TB Samsung 990 pro and I'm getting 3,180MB/s read and write. I have been running every program, game from external SSD with no issues. Love this Mac! Just don't pay Apple for storage

[@AlexGTech]

Right!? Love OWC stuff by the way, they're great!

[@HotelPools]

Appreciate it! For a professional using logic this test isn’t going to cut it. Using all stock plugin instruments and effects are way easier on the system

[@AlexGTech]

Yeah someone is sending me a more ‘professional’ test for Logic 👊🏼

[@kwameryan]

Great that you're catering to music pros as well! Subbed to see what results you get with a more representative 😊test!

[@mojojojo1529]

What would be great is if you could add VST tracks to Logic and see what's the limit on how many VST instruments you can run in parallel (that should be CPU intensive).

[@jeremy_woods]

Yeah same - i run a lot of Kontakt instances on heavy orchestral cues. Very curious on this as well

[@ARELBEATS]

Best Mac Mini Review for Workers. Absolutely awesome! Can't wait to see the M4 Pro review. I'm a Windows user and very interested in switching to Mac now

[@AlexGTech]

Thank you! Honestly, Apple nailed it with this one (I don't say this often 😅)

[@chrisbogart687]

You were definitely sadistic with those tests and this little beast of a machine ate them alive without blinking. I traded in my M1 MacBook Pro in for the M4 mini Pro since I also had the keyboard, monitors, mouse, fast external SSDs, and I know it is a performance powerhouse. I do a lot of video and photo work. I saw that the new AI functions were slogging down the M1 and knowing this little beast is optimized for AI is helping to future proof me. Your comments were spot on.

[@HugoStiglitz48]

Thank you Alex, I went for the base M4 with 512 GB Storage, this device is just fantastic.

[@AlexGTech]

Great move!! Lovely isn’t it!?

[@mhmssk4349]

واخيرا وجدت شخصا يجرب الاداء الفعلي للجهاز شكرا لك العالم ذاهب للهاوية كلهم يجربون فتح الصندوق الخاص بجهاز MAC شكرا شكرا لك

[@Frogger1400]

8:24 YOU have serious potential! Editing is great, and it’s down to earth alright! Great one, earned a well deserved sub!

[@AlexGTech]

Much appreciated! With support like this, we can go far for sure 🙏🏼 have a good one and welcome to the channel!!

[@jain_mayank_]

Nice video Alex, telling everything to the point and not that "everyone knows these" things. If possible, I would like you create videos on : 1. detailed comparison between M4 and M4 Pro Mac Minis for video/photo editors (like more bulky formats, render, scrub, heat, noise, perf etc.) ; 2. What is the future for thunderbolt5? ; 3. Best configuration for Mac Minis as per user segments (like editors, AI enthusiasts etc.). Thanks for this video!!

[@AlexGTech]

Thank you so much, the Pro comparison is definitely coming 🙏🏼 Thanks for the sugestions too, this really helps!

[@NirHason]

@@AlexGTech It would be awesome if you could add a comparison of the fan noise between the base and the pro models. That way, we can easily see how much louder the Mac mini gets when we use it on our desk. Thanks a bunch!

[@alijaber1111]

This is the only video I needed to make me pull the trigger on the standard Mac mini! Thank you for being straight and respectful to the point 👍🏼🙏🏼🙌

[@AlexGTech]

My absolute pleasure!!

[@mantseakai]

man learning new things just to test things out for the audience. we appreciate the dedication 😅❤

[@AlexGTech]

Always! I love making videos that help you 👊🏼 need to get better at some of those things but hopefully I have enough time before the Pro comparison! Have a good one 🙏🏼

[@sachchidanandyadav2949]

​@@AlexGTechWhich model should I take, Mac Mini M4 or Mac Mini M4 Pro for Logic Pro? And how much RAM should I have? 

[@AlexGTech]

I think you will like my next video! I am testing exactly that!

[@sonuniigam]

I have ordered with 24 GB RAM with 512 GB SSD🤞

[@thierrymotomungu3401]

Please update us how it fares . I was considering that too

[@liamwilson847]

What will you use it for?

[@Yannis-f3d]

That’s what I ordered, being delivered today

[@timradtke2412]

love the indepth reviewing here, haven't seen these real world use scenarios in many reviews. Super informative to the decision making process. Thank you!!!

[@AlexGTech]

Glad you enjoyed it! Another video with improved tests coming up this weekend 🙏🏼

[@lguerreromx]

Dude, I'm glad your channel is growing, you totally deserve it, your videos have nice quality and great content, please keep going like this.

[@techwithbenefits]

Now THIS is what makes you an incredible KZbinr. The hard work to bring everyone authentic information as well as an engaged audience. Not dropping $10k on "promoting" videos and buying subs. Love it Alex

[@FOM_extras]

oh I hope someone plays Baldur's Gate 3 on it with all the settings turned up etc

[@josepenaloza7776]

I just discovered your channel and your reviews. Thanks for your time of doing these type of videos that contributes to make a good decision purchase. Keep doing it, you deserve lot of sponsorships!

[@AlexGTech]

Thank you so much, that’s a lovely compliment 🙏🏼 much more to come and welcome to the channel!!

[@Seraph137]

Good video, nice to see a review like this. Like the modesty and honesty. To help give you a reference, even my M1 Pro can handle hundreds of tracks in Logic. For an audio test, I understand what you were trying to do with a "real world". I think an easier and more streamlined methodology would be to take one track with some type of load (Virtual Instrument, Wave file, etc), throw on an eq, compressor, then duplicate that track over and over. Then take and run the same test on different M series and Ram setups. So, same type test for M1, M1 Pro, M1 Max, M2, etc... to create a data spreadsheet for comparison between models. with the number of tracks (before logic says enough). Ie, say an M1 got 345 tracks, the M1 Pro got 423 tracks, M4 got 784 tracks.

[@gigy2014]

Thank you for your really worthy video !! May you give me an idea how loud the fan, during your tests was?

[@AlexGTech]

Thank you! The fans did reach 3,000 RPM when I was rendering that Blender scene. Funny thing is I recorded the audio and my reaction to it, but completely forgot to add it in the final edit 🙈 It's a gentle hum, way quieter than my M1 Max MBP. But you can definitely feel the hot air coming out and the sensors showed a quick cooldown from 95C to about 65C in less than a minute. Impressive!

[@gigy2014]

thanks for your quick answer 😊 Ìm not sure how loud 3.000 RPM are, but I am little bit afraid that is compare to my intel macbook 16 from 2020. because this sound freaking me out. 😂

[@techtrx]

I love it. Im in the process of testing mine against my m1 max 16” macbook pro as well. This is very reassuring

[@AlexGTech]

I just did a quick Blender test, out of curiosity on my maxed out M1 Max MacBook Pro with 64GB of RAM. I can't believe what I am seeing. But that same model I rendered for this video, is actually 30 mins SLOWER on my MacBook Pro 😭

[@orlandomiranda5011]

Thank you for your review it gave us good perspective of how far the base M4 Mac mini can be pushed. I am looking forward to your future M4 Mac mini pro review.

[@AlexGTech]

My absolute pleasure! (I need some sleep now 😅)

[@elyt]

You are one hell of a reviewer, sir. Liked and subscribed! Loved it that you tried running Cyberpunk 2077 with it. Your dedication to your viewers and hard work is almost unmeasurable. Thank you very much for making this video as it also helps me decide what to upgrade! Love from the Philippines 🇵🇭 🙌👏⚡️

[@AlexGTech]

maraming salamat po! That's very kind of you 🥰

[@DUDEiTHINKIMNUDE]

GREAT OVERVIEW! I CANCLED MY FULLY SPECED OUT MAC MINI M4 PRO AND GOT THE BASE MODEL! I CAN STREAM ANY GAME I WANT NOW AND ALL MY SOFTWARE TOOLS I USE RUN THROUGH SERVERS. I CAN SEE MOST COMPUTERS BEING JUST A STANDARD DISPLAY WITH EVERYTHING JUST BEING STREAMED BY DATA CENTERS!

[@AlexGTech]

Thank you so much! So glad my videos are helping!

[@LucasIsgoofy]

Yo thank you for making this video I've been thinking about getting the M4 Mac Mini for Music Production, Editing, and some Graphic Design work, but I couldn't find any videos about if the base model is good enough for those tasks so thank you for this benchmark, I will be buying a M4 Mac Mini Base Model!

[@KomischerMensch]

Audio guy here: Use one audio sample and add heavy processing on it and count of often you can copy everything. Same with a drummachine - copy and count how often you can replicate that before the system says it cant no more ^^

[@AlexGTech]

Oh thank you so much!! This sounds way easier than what I was trying to do 😂 will definitely try this for the next one 👊🏼

[@damia499]

I am a windows user and works with amd ryzen machine.this one is my dream machine for now.the review is great and helpful to me.its touches real world scenarios than benchmark stuffs. Thanks for this. Liked and subscribed ❤

[@AlexGTech]

My absolute pleasure! Thank you so much

[@Deessmaws]

Yup im getting one. Thank you for the review.

[@AlexGTech]

No problem 👍 glad this was useful 👊🏼

[@GrahamThomson502]

I was thinking of getting the pro, but the base model looks really good. For the level of work I do it seems like the base model could handle it. However, it’s the future proofing I worry about. But this is great video with lots of good information. I look forward to the other tests 😊

[@AlexGTech]

Thanks Graham! Yeah I think a bit more RAM wouldn't hurt on this model - the Pro will be great for some heavy workloads like rendering, exporting large videos, etc. The M4 is insanely good. out of curiosity today I went to render that same Blender scene on my M1 Max MacBook Pro with 64GB of RAM and it was 30 mins SLOWER than the base model M4 Mac Mini 🤯

[@GrahamThomson502]

@@AlexGTech Wow! That is a big time difference, wonder what the same scenario would be like on my M2 Mac Mini?

[@syndromatic.design]

would love to see a test between the M4 Pro Mac Mini and the M2 Ultra Mac Studio!

[@joeygigahertz]

Another great review Alex 👍🏼 you did a lot of legwork and I personally appreciate all the details that you put into this. I was curious if it could handle basic video editing. I'm currently using an M3 MacBook Air. Most of my projects are still just 1080. I still question if some of my projects require 4K, but to me, it's not worth the extra memory. It eats up and longer rendering. What do you think the memory sweet spot is currently I'm using 16 on my MacBook Air. Another awesome job buddy. Thank you.

[@AlexGTech]

My pleasure and I think you’re gonna love my video today! I did a few more video editing tests and compared it with the M4 Pro

[@sitebuilders9314]

Respect you for learning new software and doing all that to bring us an awesome review!

[@AlexGTech]

Thanks so much! I really enjoyed 'geeking out' on some of this stuff, love learning new things!

[@emilsecker7881]

A great vid. I can’t wait to get my fully loaded M4 model next year!

[@Jim-BobWalton]

This is a GREAT video. It really answers the questions most people want, and shows that this is often all most people need. If I decide to upgrade, I’m now confident that this will serve me well, entirely 🥳 The M2 I bought has 16GB RAM (well worth it…and that’s default now) and an external thunderbolt 4 enclosure. I’ve moved my home folder to it and, so long as it’s APFS, it’s a very stable connection. This frees up storage for apps, etc.).

[@AlexGTech]

Thanks so much, I am so glad it worked. I've done a few of these videos before but never sure what KZbin does with it 😅 I think this will be a super popular machine. Whether as a first Mac for someone just discovering the Apple ecosystem or even for Pros out there, with a bit extra RAM and some fast external SSDs, this could easily be a 'studio' like machine.

[@Sam-nb1rm]

Just when I was searching for the information, you released this video! ❤

[@morgan8937]

TY for going above and beyond with the testing- awesome vid! 👍

[@AlexGTech]

Thanks so much, this video nearly killed me 😅 But I am proud of it and can already think of many other ideas on how to improve it for the next one

[@tyr10n1]

I got the 14 core pro with 1tb ssd and 24gb ram so I’m happy that I’ll have even better performance than the base mini. Looking forward to your mini pro testing.

[@IqraaFamilyProduction]

Thanks Alex, please do a full real project editing test on premier pro, also Aftereffects performance on this machine. Not everyone here is editing with final cut. 🥂 Cheers

[@AndyFirebladeMuza]

Looking at getting one of these purely for music production using Logic Pro as well as other DAWs so this video of yours has persuaded to take the plunge and buy my first mac in about 15 years. Thanks for the video.

[@AlexGTech]

Glad I could help! I need to learn a few more 3rd part effects to really push it but hopefully this was a good indication 👊🏼

[@GuilDormeus]

Thanks for making this stress test video! I really enjoyed it. I am so happy for creators who are just starting out! They can't lose. I personally think for me it's more than enough but I would like to see what a M4 Max would be like. I do a lot of video podcast production for clients and KZbin video editing.

[@AlexGTech]

Right!? It's the PERFECT machine for starting out creators/music producers/LLM AI workers. Thanks for the visit, man!

[@jrvinwav]

Thank you so much for this Alex! First time viewer of your channel and you already have me subbed. Really weighing my options here as a student on a very tight budget and this video just made me decide on my final choice. Buying my first Mac ever and I hope it will not disappoint me.

[@AlexGTech]

Welcome aboard!! This is a perfect machine to have as a first Mac! Wow, I am so impressed. I just tried to render that same model on my maxed out M1 Max MacBook Pro with 64GB of RAM.... The Mac Mini is doing that 30 mins faster!

[@alexsece]

Wow! You really spent a lot of time doing these tests. Congrats 🎉

[@robbrigham1125]

Best video I have seen on the m4 Mac mini! Good job.

[@AlexGTech]

Glad you liked it! Thanks so much 👊🏼

[@lightconstruct]

Anyone who is interested using the M4 Mac mini for music production, as I hear this is faster than the M1 Pro in all major benchmarks. I have an M1 Pro with 16GB rams, in a normal project I use 30+ tracks with lot's of modern synth plugins + audio tracks with a bunch of effects on them. And it deals with everything easily. So an M4 Mac mini has to be even better and so a good choice for music production.

[@AlexGTech]

Right!? It's insanely good. Out of curiosity I just tried to render the same Blender scene I tried for this video, but using my maxed out M1 Max MacBook Pro with 64GB of RAM! It was 30 mins slower than the base Model Mac Mini. That is insane!

[@lightconstruct]

​@@AlexGTech I don't need one at rhe moment, but probably gonna buy one. Someone eventually going to need it in the family.

[@driftthekaliyuga7502]

I'm gonna make the switch to logic pro. I was looking at a PC stand alone for music production but Logic Pro is priced right and the M4 Mac mini makes it a no brainer.

[@akash-kumar737]

Thanks a lot. Eagerly waiting for this video. Love you Alex ❤

[@AlexGTech]

Thank you so much 🥰

[@morrigansraven61]

Thanks for all the work stress testing the Mini! I always enjoy your reviews and trust your work!

[@usman7207]

Love your Vibe & Love your Intro ❤

[@AlexGTech]

thank you so much! I had fun with this 🥰

[@vincentmamotos9937]

This is definetely a good starting point if you're new to editing and want to build a social media platform.

[@John-S-01]

The best review ever man

[@AlexGTech]

Thank you so much!!

[@JedEckert]

I upgraded the RAM to 24gb on my M4 Mac Mini during pre-order. Hoping to future proof it a little.

[@deepakjain4481]

i think 16 gb will be standard ram for 6-8 years from now on

[@KelhamJack]

What I think is underrated about the Mac Minis is that you can trade them in, I think the M1 Mac Mini trade in is like £200 or so meaning you could upgrade your 4 year old PC for this one for only £400 which is great

[@KelhamJack]

think you could probably sell a base M1 Mac Mini yourself for £300 or so still too

[@martin5697]

​@@KelhamJackyou should be easily able to sell it in a week for 300-350 bucks. Apple Trade-In was always a comfort option or for broken and really outdated devices

[@brackpersian]

You basically paid 40% of the price of a Mac mini just for 8gb of ram lol

[@lchanceiv]

I am so happy I have found your channel. Since I am on a budget and I definitely will be purchasing the base model of the machine. I really would love to see you tested with an external SSD as the Boot drive and see if there’s a huge performance hit. I have a 2 TB nome drive and I’m hoping to use this as the boot drive

[@51249ca]

Well my late 2012 mac mini can handle 5 browser windows with 15 tabs each without an issue. 16/512 upgraded. Not fast, but super stable.

[@AlexGTech]

wow, 75 tabs!! That's not bad at all! I found some tabs take more memory than others and used websites that are varied enough, here is a list of some of them, may be worth seeing how many of these you can have as part of those 75 you have opened. I did have some hefty apps open like I said, Blender and Parallels with a Windows 11 VM running on it at the same time. So you can definitely have a lot more tabs than 40, but I thought 40 is a good number to still be able to work with 2-3 other apps. Here is the list of sites and how I used them: KZbin - Stream a video for continuous load. Netflix - Open to a show or movie for a similar load. Spotify - Stream music or a podcast. Amazon - Browse products. Apple News - Keep up with news headlines. Gmail - Open an email account. Twitter/X - Scroll through trending topics. Facebook - Open the home feed. LinkedIn - Open to your feed or profile. Google Docs - Have a document open for editing. Slack Web App - Join a workspace. WhatsApp Web - Open a chat for messages. Trello - View a project board. Asana - Have a project open for task management. Google Calendar - Open to your calendar view. Microsoft OneNote Web - Open a notebook. Reddit - Browse a high-activity subreddit. Quora - Read a trending question. TechCrunch - Open an article for tech news. Medium - Open an article on a relevant topic. New York Times - Check world news. Bloomberg - Monitor financial markets. CNBC - Open to current events. GitHub - Open a repository or project page. Udemy - Browse a course page. Coursera - Open to a course or lesson. Wikipedia - Open to a long article (e.g., “History of AI”). Stack Overflow - Open to a coding question. Notion Web - Open a workspace or document. Pinterest - Browse or view a board. 10 Additional Websites: Hacker News - Check top tech and startup news. BBC News - Open to global news coverage. Instagram Web - Scroll through your feed. Discord Web - Join a channel for community chat. Google Sheets - Open a spreadsheet for data editing. Imgur - Browse trending images. Google Maps - Search for a location and explore the map. Flipboard - Personalized news feed. Kickstarter - Browse trending projects. Dropbox Web - Open a folder with files.

[@DarkDezhel]

Cyberpunk on a ARM chip, running macOS, emulating an intensive x86 game, even at 30 fps, it’s impressive

[@AlexGTech]

That's what I thought! The hoops I had to go through to get it working weren't fun, but it's impressive really! Never used Crossover before, but wish I found it before spending money on Parallels 😅

[@mpaessler]

Awesome review thanks! What are you using to show the CPU/RAM etc. ? Not talking about Activity Monitor but the other app.

[@AlexGTech]

I was using something called Sensei. It's not the most complete solution, but I wanted something visually appealing for the video. I also use iStats which is pretty good too

[@carlospioroda]

Thank you for actually exporting an intensely edited video - that was my gripe with other reviews.

[@AlexGTech]

Thanks Carlos, yeah me too! I see the same thing all the time. Like... come on! A single 5 minute 4K layer and some music? Literally Pentium123 might be ok with that 😅

[@carlospioroda]

@AlexGTech 😂🙌🏼

[@nick-dogg]

One of the greatest designs ever for the Mac mini except for the color. I wish they would bring space grey or space black to the Mac minis

[@LeanScaleup]

Great stuff! How were the fans doing under the workloads?

[@AlexGTech]

The fans did reach 3,000 RPM when I was rendering that Blender scene. Funny thing is I recorded the audio and my reaction to it, but completely forgot to add it in the final edit 🙈 It's a gentle hum, way quieter than my M1 Max MBP. But you can definitely feel the hot air coming out and the sensors showed a quick cooldown from 95C to about 65C in less than a minute. Impressive!

[@donster28]

Great experiment and thank you! What monitor is that?

[@pablodtto]

Hello, great review ! After testing it, if you have to decide to put more Ram or more SSD disk? What is the most profitable?

[@LouisFernando09]

Thanks for putting in the effort in showing what the Mac mini can do.

[@sep5439]

Great thorough review! Much better than the bigger youtubers who are getting lazy! Subscribed!

[@romayojr]

so far i'm impressed how well llama3.2 runs on the base model. can you also test these models? qwen2.5, gemma, phi3.5 and llama3.2 vision? are you able to generate the stats of each prompt? i'm interested in seeing the prompt evaluation, eval count, eval duration, response token/s, prompt token/s and prompt eval duration for example. i know open webui can provide you these stats, im not sure if anythingllm has the same features. thank you!

[@wolfwoof2000]

Thank you very much for the multiples tests, especially for gaming ! I may plan to change to Mac Mini for everything including gaming in the future, it looks promising. I too, find myself less and less using my laptop and just letting it setting around most of the time. But I need to bring it around often. Mac Mini + Ipad may be my next setup in the future, I love my Ipad but I would love to have a powerful machine that can do it all too.

[@Dhiiraj0408]

Great video, something new from other tech reviewers, I am glad I watched the video, and I did subscribe.

[@AlexGTech]

Thanks so much for the sub! Welcome aboard 🥰

[@r.s.w.k4569]

Great video. Would be cool to see you continue doing specific tests of base model Maybe using compressed 10 bit high quality 4K hevc clips and seeing how this renders and exports such difficult files. Or testing its ability to do 3D animation in blender instead of photos. Thanks again

[@SkeeterMelody]

Hi Alex, very impressive machine! Excellent video Alex!🙏🙏

[@AlexGTech]

Thanks so much Don! Really incredible considering how tiny this thing is!

[@FuZZbaLLbee]

Nice quick overview, but to get a good indication on how fast it is, we need numbers Games: run a benchmark like 3D Mark Blender: use one of the downloadable benchmark scenes LLM: post used model and tokens per second Etc..

[@AlexGTech]

Thank you and noted. ✅ For the LLM details: Llama 3.2 3B and 4096 token size. ✅ The Blender model I used, (705MB): blendswap.com/blend/29264. I just tried that same scene on my M1 Max MBP with 64GB RAM. It's half an hour quicker on the Mac Mini 🤯

[@PathfinderARA]

I just ran across your video. Thank you for producing such an informative presentation! I had difficulty determining which model to get; therefore, my machine will arrive later this week. I'm excited to see various reviews.

[@AlexGTech]

You're very welcome! Exciting times, the Mac Mini is such a great product. Could be even better of course but for 600, this is great value, I think

[@PathfinderARA]

​@@AlexGTech I started using Apple products nearly 40 years ago, and what they have accomplished is simply incredible. I may not need this upgrade, but I'm fascinated. However, I don't have other hobbies I can easily do with a physical disability.

[@gves2]

Hello, new subscriber to your channel as of today. Thank you for a very detailed review. What application are you using to monitor the system performance GPU, CPU, Memory etc?

[@hiteshseth]

Thanks Alex. Loved how you tried various sort of tests for all audience. For AI/ML, can you do a more in depth review mentioning what model you ran and what token/second speed you achieved. For example, you can do ollama and run llama3.2:latest. Use /set verbose to get these stats.

[@stephanmarques2140]

Great video Alex! Now I fell more confident on use Mac mini in everyday use!

[@AlexGTech]

Happy to help! I’m so impressed by this! External storage much needed though!

[@andy0245]

Gotta say this answered a lot of my questions Would love to see a bit of After Effects testing in there too _ for good measure! Great video dude 😊

[@AlexGTech]

Thank you! I can certainly try! Is there a tutorial or a project I can download to mess around with? I used it before to do 3D tracking on my videos, for a 10-15 sec clip, but not sure that’d be good enough as a test

[@MrOrtmeier]

Great tests Alex. I’m amazed at how capable the base model is. It’s really great value for money all things considered. And so small….

[@AlexGTech]

Right? Thanks so much for your suggestions too! Those ideas really help make these videos a bit more meaningful. Have a good one!

[@MrOrtmeier]

@@AlexGTech My pleasure. If you think about it Apple now actually offers the best value for money pc on the market. There’s nothing to touch it at this price and if you find anything at this price, it way underpowered in comparison. Did you ever think you’d see the day when a Mac was the cheapest best value PC????? Not in my wildest dreams…lol Btw we share the same surname. My name is Daniel Gomes. Portuguese father, German mother. Hence the German username. Like Senna used his mothers maiden name I use my moms maiden name for my username.

[@Tsebish]

Excited to see your coverage on the M4 Pro model. and can you answer us is it really that good or should we try to buy two of those to work in multiple setups

[@AlexGTech]

I can definitely see a use case for that. Honestly if the Pro is able to perform as well as my M1 Max, maybe my next upgrade is not another MacBook Pro!

[@WXyzaa]

I was glad to hear about the speakers since i have been wanting to know about the speakers

[@AlexGTech]

It’s way better than the previous mini which were unusable really

[@oleonardodemacedo]

I knew you work here on KZbin on your Portuguese channel focused on Brazilian people, when I was looking about more details about Samsung S23 Ultra, and see a video that you were comparing S23 Ultra and an Iphone Ultra (Don't remember if 14 pro max or 15 pro max)... From there, I subscribed in the Portuguese and English channel, one of my favorite tech content creators in YT! Keep the good work and congratulations! Sorry for possible English mistakes, trying to improve little by little hahaha! Regards, Léo.

[@AlexGTech]

Valeu Léo!! Thanks so much, man! Yeah that S23U vs 15PM video did incredible in Brazil! Até em breve 👊🏼

[@AlexGTech]

Also… your English sounds perfect!

[@nthd08]

Greatest product in the last 5 years to me ❤❤❤

[@AlexGTech]

Agree, this is insanely good!

[@daniloshinya3193]

Thanks. Nice review. I´m looking forward to see the comparison with Mac Mini Pro.

[@AlexGTech]

Can't wait to share more on that! Thank you 🙏🏼

[@marymadigan9707]

Nice video Alex I think the base model is good enough for most people 😊

[@vincentlam0516]

Thank dude, your review is amazing!

[@AlexGTech]

Thank you so much!!

[@pnutonium]

render time on blender seems great but i’m kind of skeptical because by default blender will use your cpu to render using software only, if you go to edit > preferences > system you can choose apple’s graphics api called metal and see if there any difference in render

[@AlexGTech]

Great suggestion I will give that a go and see if I can include that in another video

[@mario.crn_]

Hey I like the video! I was just wondering how did you managed to use Windows 11 ? By emulating it ? And with wich app ? Maybe you can link a video on how to do it ?! Anyway thanks for the content!

[@AlexGTech]

Thank you!! I used Parallels for most windows things, but had to also use Crossover for Cyberpunk

[@JarradShaw]

This video was amazing!!! Thank you so much❤

[@ngajianakkampung]

Halo, saya dari indonesia. Senang menonton video anda. Saya penikmat perkembangan teknologi Apple sekalipun belum pernah beli perangkat Apple yang mutakhir. Namun, ini tetap menjadi mimpi saya. Terima kasih untuk pembuat video ini. Teruslah berkarya.

[@AlexGTech]

Komentar yang sangat baik, terima kasih! Saya rasa ini adalah Mac pertama yang sempurna, sejujurnya Mac ini dapat melakukan banyak hal dan akan bertahan lama. Semoga berhasil dengan semuanya dan terima kasih sekali lagi atas komentar yang menyenangkan!

[@ticketless_applause7234]

This is great, thanks for making the video. I would use logic in the same manner as you. I might use a few 3rd party plug ins that might add to the stress on the machine but I can’t imagine it would be detrimental to the M4. Thanks again for making the video!

[@AlexGTech]

Glad it helped! I will also be adding some plugins from 3rd party for the next videos, I agree they will stress it a bit more but feels like it can handle it