Mac mini M1 Thoughts

[Tin Can]

I will need a new computer next year or as soon as my 6 year old Win tower dies

The only heavy lifting I do is simple PS images

I don't want another laptop, I have 2 fried ones, high end HP and 2010 Air, both failed during upgrades! years ago

I also don't want another tower

I have wanted a Mini for years, and they are finally upgrading them

MI seems like a good idea

Thoughts?

[Michael R]

I will likely be buying the new Mac Mini. I don’t need portability (I use an iPad for that), need a larger/better screen, and prefer a full size keyboard so I think it is the best option for me overall versus a new Mac Book Air (same processing/memory specs).

The M1 is apparently terrific in terms of performance. People who are more (much more) tech-savvy than me might be reticent to buy something with a new type of and/or first generation chip in it, so that might be something to consider. I’m ok with it.

[Alan9940]

With the success already of the M1 chip, I can't help but think: How far away is the M1X? For me, I'd be concerned about the 16GB ram limit.

[Ken Lee]

From what I've read the performance gain is only at the low end, when only one internal core is used. Once multiple cores are used, the M1 is not so hot. See https://wccftech.com/why-apple-m1-single-core-comparisons-are-fundamentally-flawed-with-benchmarks/ (https://wccftech.com/why-apple-m1-single-core-comparisons-are-fundamentally-flawed-with-benchmarks/). There are many other comparisons which reach the same conclusion. It's hard for consumers to see through the marketing efforts of a large gang, err I mean religion, err I mean corporation.

As with so many things Apple these days, I'd wait for them to roll out the rest of their product roadmap. Perhaps they were rushing to meet the Holiday season with an affordable gift that keeps on giving... to their investors. After my experience with bugs and surveillance software builtin to macOS 11 Big Sur, I wonder if their priorities haven't really slipped and they are losing sight of their original aspiration. With effective marketing, why make a superior product when you can be playing golf ?

[CreationBear]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0XuKORufGk

OTOH, speaking of the other (Scot?) Evil Empire, it could be that Adobe plays especially well with Apple's new architecture. More benchmarks for specific programs might be interesting.

[mmerig]

If simple PS stuff is the heaviest lift, why do you need a new computer? I have a Windows-based tower, a used server with 2 Xeon chips I bought several years ago, I think circa 2005 for about $125. Still going strong, and plenty fast for me. I recently replaced the CRT monitor with a flat screen, which is very nice.

[jmdavis]

I have used Macs (and Windows and Linux along with virtually every chip) since 1984. I'm not sure that the M1 is the droid that you are looking for, nor that the mini is your best solution. Those uncertainties may change in a year or they may not. Macs work well for many things. I just wish that GIMP had advanced more than it has. If it had I could use linux and the AMD Rizen chips. But it may be that Windows and the Rizen in a small form factor tower with fans and the ability to upgrade graphics cards is your best bet for a while.

[domaz]

The Mac Mini M1 should do quite well for a standard photo editing workflow and the performance has been impressive so far in all the benchmarks I've seen.

However, if you ever plan to print digital negatives using a custom RIP like QuadTone RIP (or even Gutenprint) I would perhaps pause before buying it. It may be a while before QTR works on it, and no idea if the Intel emulation Mac minis have would work on the lower level printing code that QTR uses. This applies to any other "non-standard" software you might be using, especially if it's not big named software, scanner software comes to mind as another one that may be problematic..

[jp]

Minis have been decent values for a couple of years... The new chip has a lot of hype and fans. It may push down the price of recently made Intel ones.

I only see 8GB ram as the only option and it's not expandable because that's what's built onto the chip. That's fine for what normal people do with their computer. It's shortsighted to buy a computer with that much memory for editing and managing photos.

I'd be inclined to wait and see what other memory options become available over time if photo editing is the goal. Surely Apple has plenty of eager customers that want more memory than the minimum.

The last two versions of macos (Catalina and Big Sur) are fairly restrictive about running odd software.. I'd investigate software compatibility before purchasing.

[jp]

If you like the mac-mini size and want to stay with Windows, try something like a Lenovo ThinkCentre M75q-1 11A4001WUS with SSD (add a ddr4 laptop ram chip of the appropriate size for photo editing)
The ryzen 5 CPUs are pretty quick and power efficient. Unlike a mac-mini, they are VERY easy to open up and upgrade.
I use an older Intel powered one for my desktop machine at work.

[Ari]

I use a 2009 Mini as a back-up. It got upgraded to 8Gb RAM and a 250Gb SSD, works like a charm.
There are later Minis that will accept more RAM. For instance, the 2012 i7 models would be a great fit for your purposes and are under $500.
Maybe the latest Minis aren't necessarily the best option.
Or consider the all-in-one iMac, very powerful and a 2012 model is easily upgraded if you want.

I use PS and LR quite a lot with large scanned images, and I'm running a 2011 iMac as my main computer.

[Richard Wasserman]

I use a 2018 Mac Mini in which I installed 16Gb of RAM for photo processing and it works great. I don't know enough to have an opinion on the new model.

[CreationBear]

As I mentioned in a different thread, I've been pondering much the same as the OP--as you might expect, the topic is coming up a lot over at Fred Miranda's joint, e.g.

https://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1677155

One issue that was raised in that thread was the M1 Mac Minis connectivity options with other devices--the new ones might not have the number/kinds of ports you need. (Apple giveth and Apple taketh away.:))

[Tin Can]

Good points all

I have LR but really dislike it and don't use it, I use PS daily

I am going to wait for my Win 10 tower with SSD and 32 Ram to fail