Mac Mini M buying guide for 2025

The easiest decision you can make for your new computer

This is how Apple killed an entire Mini PC market, by releasing a powerful machine for the absurd price of $599. I had minor expectations for the new Mac Mini M4, but they delivered and then some.

The preliminary benchmarks that put the little box above the Ryzen AI HX 370 and Core Ultra 9 288V looked too good to be true, but they were. The fun part is how it kills its competitors: it just blows out all flagship Mini PC on the market!

In other words, the Mini PC market is dead, and the only survivors are machines below $400. After that you’re so close to the Mac Mini M4 that is impossible to justify any alternative.

On the desktop side, heavy multicore workloads —we’re talking about professional-grade software your employer pays — will work better on CPUs like the Ryzen 7 9900X and Intel Core i9 14900HX, but most consumer software will really shine on the Apple M4, which has the fastest CPU cores in the market.

Even if the Mac Mini M4 looks like *THE* desktop computer to get at its price point, at the same time it fixes some drawbacks from previous generations, it still shares some of the same problems of its predecessors.

After evaluating the Mac Mini M4 configurations, and how stupidly expensive are Apple’s upgrades for the device, I found out some sweet spots you should take into account if you want a next generation machine, and some accesories if you’re new to the Mac world.

• Mac Mini M4 16GB / 256GB ($599)
• Mac Mini M4 32GB / 256GB ($999)
• Mac Mini M4 Pro 24GB / 512GB ($1,399)

The best deal: Mac Mini M4 16GB/256GB ($599)

The Mac that killed a whole market. I’m not even joking.

The best deal on the PC desktop space is this small device. Not only is most efficient computing device for most tasks, but also the most performant computer on the market below the $1,000 price point. Better if you can grab it with student discount at $499. It’s insane.

As I said on a prior article, this model is perfect for home or office tasks, but now that you have 16GB of RAM, you can also do some light video and photo edition, music recording, or some small programming tasks.

The storage is a problem that shares with all previous models. Entry level professional workloads won’t require too much storage space, but beyond that you’re not going to do much with 256GB.

The best alternative to expand your Mac Mini storage is to plug an external drive instead of paying Apple. For $200 you can buy a respectable 2TB NVMe drive with an USB-C enclosure, or a 10TB external hard disk if you want to trade speed for space.

The hard worker: Mac Mini M4 32GB/256GB ($999)

If you’re a content creator, a graphic designer, a software developer with large projects, or even a starting game developer, odds are you’re dealing with software that will benefit from memory rather than processing power. RAM will help you a lot here, so make it your top priority.

Having 32GB of RAM will benefit your device greatly for software that likes to load huge datasets into it, especially if you’re a heavy multitasker — shifting between multiple apps running at the same time. It may sound overkill, but it’s better to overshoot than to fall short, so be cautious if you plan to go for 24GB of RAM just to save a few bucks, because you won’t be able to upgrade the memory after the checkout.

Since it’s a machine with only 256GB of storage, you should buy an external drive if you need space, which you will surely need along the way.

Theoretically, most workloads will be fine given the performance of the base Apple M4 chip. The RAM is the biggest stop gap. Once there is no memory, the SSD starts to become the “Plan B” for the system and you may be victim of hiccups and stuttering on your apps depending on how demanding the software is.

If you need more processing power than memory, then the next obvious jump is the M4 Pro, which will cost you more pennies but should be worth the price tag.

The workstation: Mac Mini M4 Pro 24GB/512GB ($1,399)

Here lies the device for people who hammer their processor with a lot of intensive computing tasks. This machine isn’t something that requires a nuclear plant to work, and given the performance by the price, it’s the best you can get without spending substantially more.

The deal here is the CPU, which goes from 10 cores to 12 cores, plus 60% more GPU power. While it doesn’t sound like much, note that the performance cores are doubled, a configuration that goes from 4p/6e to 8p/4e. Sacrificing 2 efficiency (weaker) cores for more performance cores adds more computing power, which is great for software that requires it constantly as you drift between applications.

Depending on the workload, paying a total of $1,599 for an upgraded CPU (10p/4e/20c) may be worth for some people, but consider that the performance gains are debatible. Should you pay that amount of money, consider it the limit.

Don’t fall for the 48GB RAM upgrade at $400. If you do, you will be very close of the eventual Mac Studio M4 refresh at $1,999. It’s supposed to have an M4 Max (10p/4e/32c) and at least 36GB of RAM, which should be plenty for (almost) anyone looking for professional workloads, the kind of work that brings paychecks.

This machine comes with 512GB of storage, an amount that will be fine for everyone except for those who juggle with big pieces of data on business days. Again, those people are encouraged to find an external drive, being a hard drive with a lot of space or a fast NVMe.

Monitors

The rules to find a Monitor for a Mac Mini still apply for this version, except for the specific monitor models which should be superseded by newer, better products.

• Any 1080p monitor over 20-inch will be fine.
  Check RTINGS best 1080p monitors.
• Any 1080p Ultra-Wide (21:9) 26-inch monitor will be excellent.
• Any 1440p 27-inch monitor will be excellent.
  Check RTING’s best 1440p 27-inch monitors.
• Any 2560p/4K 27-inch monitor will be mostly fine, except for serious graphic work.

If you need more insight on what monitor to pick, check my article about finding a good monitor for your Mac.

I don’t believe you should get an Apple Display if you’re not aiming a pricier Mac Studio or being bought by your company, given their price. You will be fine with third party monitors that abide to the aforementioned rules.

Some last generation monitors may be on discount, and current ones may incorporate better features like higher refresh rate, certified HDR, higher brightness or even color accuracy. Keep an eye on deals and sales.

Storage and peripherals

The same accesories recommendations for the previous Mac Mini apply for the Mac Mini M4, except for the price variations due to inflation and supply.

• If you’re on the cheap for a keyboard and mouse, the Logitech K380 keyboard with the M350 Pebble Mouse is still a great deal for around $70.
• If you can’t live without Touch ID, which is rare, find a second-hand Apple Keyboard instead of paying full price. Apple’s Magic Mouse is a guaranteed hit on braindead people.
• If you’re looking for sound you may check Amazon’s Best Sellers or narrow your search with a list of the best headphones and speakers.

The most notable price adjustment are the 40Gbps NVMe enclosures, now selling below $80 or even less, depending on the time of the year and the discounts going around. This is great if you want to pair them with a decent 2TB NVMe drive with max speed of 2800MB/s, for a total of around $200.

I’ll also leave a great video from Lance of Mac Sound Solutions about how to move your Home folder to an external drive, and keep your Mac Mini with space to space.

Odds are that you will need to bring dongles or (preferably) new cables for your old USB-A devices, as the Mac Mini only includes USB-C ports. Docks will come pricier (above $50) but you will never have a port problem. Wait some weeks or months for the manufacturers to create new docking stations to fit the new form factor, like Satechi, Qwiizlab, Hagibis, and many others.

Don’t buy a Mac Mini for this

The Mac Mini M4 will be perfect for almost anyone and run almost any workload. I wrote “almost” because there are still some important caveats you should take into account before pulling the trigger.

Don’t upgrade the memory and storage of the Mac Mini, as Apple still charges ludicrous prices for them. A $650 computer in PCPartPicker will offer more capacity than the base Mac Mini, while sacrificing CPU performance and efficiency. The rest of non-professionals mortals will be fine with the base Mac Mini M4 either way.

On the 3D-side-of-things, rendering is still a dilemma. The base Mac Mini M4 is great for rendering compared to other similarly priced computers, but the price of the Mac Mini M4 Pro doesn’t make sense for this workload. Extrapolating Tech Notice great video, the M4 Pro should perform much worse than a similarly priced PC with an RTX, something that Dimitris Katsafouros usually points out.

Windows 11 is still the place for videogames, especially competitive titles with kernel-level anti-cheat. You can play some AAA games with some tricks and tradeoffs, but the convenience of gaming is still “not there” despite Apple’s ongoing efforts. Instead, look for a Steam Deck, a gaming console, or just a laptop or desktop PC with an RTX.

Apart from those three points, the situation has become better compared to prior years:

• Virtualization and Docker shenanigans have been mostly fixed, as almost all (important) toolchains have an aarch64 or arm64 version available around, otherwise emulated.
• Multi-monitor support is also good since now the base model supports up to three monitors out of the box, as long the second and third monitor are connected via USB-C.
• The base model is a compelling case for AI/ML development on the cheap, but as your budget goes up, a PC with an RTX will prove more performant.

Compared to 2020, the new Apple Silicon was too new to be recommendable apart from some “basic usage”. The SoC was yet to prove itself in the long term, especially software support. Plus, the lackluster 8GB RAM made any other Laptop and Mini PC a better option.

Fast forward 4 years, and the Mac Mini has become the perfect upgrade for any device, and the best starting point for anyone who needs a desktop computer.

It’s great to see technology being pushed forwards, because it moves the market and makes the consumers the overall winners. What is rare is that Apple is the one doing this, with a machine so great it has killed an entire Mini PC market.

The Mac Mini just had its iPhone 4 moment.