M1 Mac Mini - mistake ?

JMP

Adept
Covid-19 effects compounded by fab shortages has sent prices of desktop component through the roof, vendors are now saying stock levels are not expected to settle down till May/June, got tired of waiting and ordered a M1 Mac Mini scheduled to be delivered a week later. A bit worried now if I did a stupid thing and should cancel the order. Has anybody here bought the M1 Mac Mini, could you share some insights on its performance ? It probably makes a lot of sense as a laptop, but in a desktop world of 10 - 12 cores, does it perform reasonably well ?
 
Why are you comparing normal desktop with Mac Mini? What is your intended use of the machine.. definitely not gaming I intend.
 
I don't know what your baseline/reference for comparison is so not sure if this would help..

I got a MBA M1 to replace a laptop
Found the performance to be far (and by a wide margin) better than my i5 8th Gen/ RX560/ 16GB desktop
Sold the desktop (not the monitor/peripherals) and brought a docking hub instead..
The mini should surely perform better than a docked MBA

Having said that, I do not have any dependency on any windows only apps in my workflow nor did I run games on the desktop..
Also other Than MS team, all the apps I use are available as native binaries for the M1
 
Covid-19 effects compounded by fab shortages has sent prices of desktop component through the roof, vendors are now saying stock levels are not expected to settle down till May/June, got tired of waiting and ordered a M1 Mac Mini scheduled to be delivered a week later. A bit worried now if I did a stupid thing and should cancel the order. Has anybody here bought the M1 Mac Mini, could you share some insights on its performance ? It probably makes a lot of sense as a laptop, but in a desktop world of 10 - 12 cores, does it perform reasonably well ?
what basically are you using it for ? like what technology :angelic:
 
Software Development primarily & some general use.
Not the Mac Mini, but to give an idea. Even under software development, it depends on the language and tools. Not sure which tools will have native M1 support as Rosetta 2 will certainly be slower.
 
I don't know what your baseline/reference for comparison is so not sure if this would help..
Thanks @superczar, that did give me some insights.

what components were you going to upgrade to? that should give more context.
I need a machine for personal use - primarily software development, day to day use - browsing movies etc, gaming would be a nice to have but not necessary, haven't played games in a long time.

The plan was to get a 5900x + good GPU and build a dev server also capable of helping me move to ML over time. But other than ram and storage, everything is pricey beyond reason right now. Getting a 30 series graphics card in May / June did not make sense with newer generation GPUs on chiplet architecture coming out in October. But I need a new machine as my current aging desktop is failing quickly.

Got a discount on M1 Mac Mini so ordered it thinking I can sell it once price of desktop components regain normalcy and build my dev server in late / end 2021. It was never a long term solution.

Now I am concerned if this was a mistake as I don't know if the M1 Mac Mini will hold its value over next 2 - 8 months / worst case - if it doesn't suit my purpose at all and I have to sell it immediately. The other option is to settle for a 3900x + GT 710 now and upgrade GPU later.
 
Thanks @superczar, that did give me some insights.


I need a machine for personal use - primarily software development, day to day use - browsing movies etc, gaming would be a nice to have but not necessary, haven't played games in a long time.

The plan was to get a 5900x + good GPU and build a dev server also capable of helping me move to ML over time. But other than ram and storage, everything is pricey beyond reason right now. Getting a 30 series graphics card in May / June did not make sense with newer generation GPUs on chiplet architecture coming out in October. But I need a new machine as my current aging desktop is failing quickly.

Got a discount on M1 Mac Mini so ordered it thinking I can sell it once price of desktop components regain normalcy and build my dev server in late / end 2021. It was never a long term solution.

Now I am concerned if this was a mistake as I don't know if the M1 Mac Mini will hold its value over next 2 - 8 months / worst case - if it doesn't suit my purpose at all and I have to sell it immediately. The other option is to settle for a 3900x + GT 710 now and upgrade GPU later.
certainly the m1 is not even comparable to a 5900x with a gpu. however i feel you’ll be happy with the M1 for your requirements. myself have an m1 air it’s fantastic. better to try out a new system and eat the depreciation a little bit rather than spending on highly inflated prices. m1 mac mini will definitely hold its value until the next iteration arrive which is at least 8 months away. you have enough time to switch for a really small loss in case it doesn’t work out well.
 
Comparing the 5900x to this is , well, unusual for the lack of a better word.
It can however work pretty well for the rest of your non Dev use cases.


I think the possible problem you will run into is availability of your preferred SDKs as native binaries.
While I am not a developer so not much clue how resource intensive your platforms are but Rosetta apps perform at par with I don't know, let's say a 8th gen i5
Which will surely end up being a little underwhelming based onthe baseline config you have in mind..

On the positive side, you can expect it to hold value pretty well so if it doesn't work out (or when prices for components come down) you should be able to dispose it for a fairly small depreciation
 
Enterprise Java, Rust and Android for now. Want to pick up DS & ML primarily, iOS would be a added nice to have.
Sdk would be issues. as of now atleast. but 6 month down the line things can change. rest its a better deal in everyother expect. less power hungery. more efficient in terms of productivity. but yea gaming will be an issue if you into it.
 
Enterprise Java, Rust and Android for now. Want to pick up DS & ML primarily, iOS would be a added nice to have.
Did you get 8gb or 16gb one? I feel that 16gb would be better off for you since you intend on doing java and ML work. I am using for JS Dev and 8gb seems fine but when I run Android studio+IOS emulator+few terminals+loads of Chrome/Safari tabs it's then it seems 16gb would be better but for lighter use 8gb is good
 
For your use case, I would say go for the normal PC setup that you had planned.
My brother still has a 4790k as his developer rig and he has same plans as yours to upgrade to 5900x/5950x in the next six months. He is going to hang on to his 1080ti because it is enough for his gaming needs for now and will upgrade GPU and monitors next year.
 
Did you get 8gb or 16gb one?
Didn't make sense to spend 20K additional for 8 GB RAM on a stop gap machine, so ordered the 8 GB variant.

For your use case, I would say go for the normal PC setup that you had planned.
I agree with you but need a stop gap machine till I can build the dev server. Price of Ryzen 5900x on 1st of Feb is 63000, insane considering MSRP is 49K, which itself is slightly inflated. Buying a 3900x with 25% inferior single thread performance at its launch price 42K feels like a waste of money.
 
Didn't make sense to spend 20K additional for 8 GB RAM on a stop gap machine, so ordered the 8 GB variant.


I agree with you but need a stop gap machine till I can build the dev server. Price of Ryzen 5900x on 1st of Feb is 63000, insane considering MSRP is 49K, which itself is slightly inflated. Buying a 3900x with 25% inferior single thread performance at its launch price 42K feels like a waste of money.

Dubai jaake leke aao trip bhi ho jaayegi and value bhi :tonguewink:
 
Didn't make sense to spend 20K additional for 8 GB RAM on a stop gap machine, so ordered the 8 GB variant.


I agree with you but need a stop gap machine till I can build the dev server. Price of Ryzen 5900x on 1st of Feb is 63000, insane considering MSRP is 49K, which itself is slightly inflated. Buying a 3900x with 25% inferior single thread performance at its launch price 42K feels like a waste of money.
Should have gone with a 16gb version of M1 Mac mini. Lots of reviews on youtube have suggested that
 
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