The new M4 Mac Mini - Best value Mac on the market
I've been using my M1 Mac Mini as a home server for the past three years, and it's been a rock-solid performer. I've had it running various services like hosting next.js projects and Docker containers. Despite being a relatively low-powered device, it's handled everything I've thrown at it.
One of the things that impressed me about the M1 Mac Mini was its power efficiency. I've had it running 24/7 for the past three years, and my electricity bill hasn't taken much of a hit. (just remembering the old Ethereum mining days, those electricity bills were insane). It's also been incredibly quiet, which is a must for a device that's running in my living room.
Now lets talk about the new M4 Mac Mini. From what I've seen, it seems like Apple has made some significant improvements. The new M4 chip provides a nice boost in performance, and the addition of more ports is a welcome change. I've often found myself wishing for more USB ports on my M1 Mac Mini, so it's great to see that Apple has addressed this issue. Not to mention the base model now comes with 16GB RAM.
Another thing that's worth noting is the price. The M4 Mac Mini starts at $599, which is a bit more than the M1 Mac Mini when it was first released. However, considering the improvements that Apple has made, I think it's a fair price, which even beats out the windows-based competition at this price point which Mac's were never quite able to do until now.
One area where Apple still falls short, however, is in the cost of upgrades. While the base model now comes with 16GB of RAM, which is a step in the right direction, the cost of upgrading the SSD is still prohibitively expensive. For example, upgrading the SSD to 512GB adds a whopping $200 to the price tag. This makes the device far too expensive for many users.
Overall, I'm impressed with what I've learned about the M4 Mac Mini. As someone who's had a great experience with the M1 Mac Mini, I'm excited to see how the new model performs in real-world use. If you're in the market for a new Mac Mini, I'd definitely recommend checking out the M4 model.
As for me, I'm considering getting one just for fun and run a few nodes for a few blockchain projects. The only issue will be storage upgrade cost which is still a huge let down in terms of the pricing. For that SSD price, it feels much better to be a getting a second M4 Mac Mini instead.