M1 MacMini 16 GB RAM, 512GB ot 1TB SSD?

[ymc226]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

I plan on getting the new M1 MacMini and the most significant use will be photo editing.  I use LR Classic (subscription), Capture One and several plug ins.  Photos and documents will be stored on an external hard drive via thunderbolt connection.  Will a 512GB internal SSD be enough for apps and whatever else the Mini needs or is the 1 TB model more appropriate ?

[Advertisement]

The Leica Q3 is available for pre-order at B&H Photo Video and Adorama

[prk60091]

most likely yes.  what are you coming from?

[Mute-on]

512 Gb will be more than sufficient. I just bought the same but 8 Gb of ram. I don’t anticipate any issues with the M1 configuration. 

Enjoy!

[Daniel81]

I'm about to buy the same thing - thanks for asking!  What monitor are you using for your photo editing.  I plan to buy and EIZO monitor but am wondering if it will have any 'issues' with the Apple M1 processor?  Any thoughts?

[ymc226]

7 minutes ago, Daniel81 said:

I'm about to buy the same thing - thanks for asking!  Wha monitor are you using for your photo editing.  I plan to buy and EIZO monitor but am wondering if it will have any 'issues' with the Apple M1 processor?  Any thoughts?

Thank you to all that have responded.  I will go with 512 GB and was about to order from Apple but just checked and NEC Spectraview II which I use for a calibrated process (using the PA 271W and PA241W) is not supported with Apple Silicon chips.  As such, I will continue with my late 2013 MacPro and wait until all programs and hardware are supported in my workflow.  Just got the Epson P900 but have not turned it on as I am waiting for ImagePrint Black to support it.  

In terms of EIZO, the company actually acknowledges that Apple chips do not support it presently but they are working on it;  the same cannot be said for NEC which recently merged with Sharp.  Hopefully, they are working on it as well.  

[Jeff S]

1 hour ago, ymc226 said:

 Just got the Epson P900 but have not turned it on as I am waiting for ImagePrint Black to support it.  

 

I'm surprised this has taken so long, as John P. (owner) told me that he was expecting his printer back in August.  I knew shipments were delayed, but that's a long wait, unless they've had problems on their own end with the support.  

My NEC is from 2009, as is my Mac Pro (since upgraded internally many times), so I need to start thinking about next iterations.  No complaints about my P800 and IP10, but I'll be curious about reports on the P900 running IP Black.

Jeff

 

[ymc226]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

42 minutes ago, Jeff S said:

I'm surprised this has taken so long, as John P. (owner) told me that he was expecting his printer back in August.  I knew shipments were delayed, but that's a long wait, unless they've had problems on their own end with the support.  

My NEC is from 2009, as is my Mac Pro (since upgraded internally many times), so I need to start thinking about next iterations.  No complaints about my P800 and IP10, but I'll be curious about reports on the P900 running IP Black.

Jeff

 

John responded to my recent email stating IP Black will work with Big Sur but I also need to ask if it will work with the M1 chip. I would still be using my 3880 if it did not arrive DOA after a years storage which was required on moving from NJ to CA

Edited January 31, 2021 by ymc226

[Jeff S]

31 minutes ago, ymc226 said:

John responded to my recent email stating IP Black will work with Big Sur but I also need to ask if it will work with the M1 chip. I would still be using my 3880 if it did not arrive DOA after a years storage which was required on moving from NJ to CA

My 3800 was still going strong after 7 years, but I donated it to a local school program when I decided to upgrade to the P800.  The only appeal of the P900 seems to be the black ink switching capability, but I rarely use matte papers.  I haven’t read any reviews citing noticeable increase in print quality, and I much prefer the larger inks of the P800.  But at some point I’ll probably give in, or possibly consider the Canon Pro 1000, which gets good press and also works with IP.  I’m still running Mojave and IP10 for now.

Jeff

[jaapv]

On 1/30/2021 at 3:40 AM, ymc226 said:

I plan on getting the new M1 MacMini and the most significant use will be photo editing.  I use LR Classic (subscription), Capture One and several plug ins.  Photos and documents will be stored on an external hard drive via thunderbolt connection.  Will a 512GB internal SSD be enough for apps and whatever else the Mini needs or is the 1 TB model more appropriate ?

I have the 16/512 and it is more than adequate. All data go onto external SSDs and the internal one only holds the system, apps and current data like the folder with raws from the last three months and to-be-printed images.

[jaapv]

10 hours ago, ymc226 said:

Thank you to all that have responded.  I will go with 512 GB and was about to order from Apple but just checked and NEC Spectraview II which I use for a calibrated process (using the PA 271W and PA241W) is not supported with Apple Silicon chips.  As such, I will continue with my late 2013 MacPro and wait until all programs and hardware are supported in my workflow.  Just got the Epson P900 but have not turned it on as I am waiting for ImagePrint Black to support it.  

In terms of EIZO, the company actually acknowledges that Apple chips do not support it presently but they are working on it;  the same cannot be said for NEC which recently merged with Sharp.  Hopefully, they are working on it as well.  

My old CE240W will work on the HDMI port through an Apple HDMI-DVI adapter; the only flaw is a one-pixel wide pink line along the left edge, which does not bother me. The second screen MUST be a native USB-C one. I cannot calibrate the Eizo as xRite is still working on an update. However, I am planning to replace the Eizo by a new one and do hardware calibration using the Eizo colorimeter, which, according to my dealer, works.

[verwackelt]

Am 30.1.2021 um 03:40 schrieb ymc226:

I plan on getting the new M1 MacMini and the most significant use will be photo editing.  I use LR Classic (subscription), Capture One and several plug ins.  Photos and documents will be stored on an external hard drive via thunderbolt connection.  Will a 512GB internal SSD be enough for apps and whatever else the Mini needs or is the 1 TB model more appropriate ?

Just for System and Apps it will be enough. But if you are a bit messy like me and start to store music, pictures and other kind of documents on your drive it will be not enough.
No one can answer that really for you. I have a 2TB SSD in my mac mini and i use 1TB of it.
Best is you look how much space you needed on your older mac/pc and double it for the new…

[ymc226]

4 hours ago, jaapv said:

My old CE240W will work on the HDMI port through an Apple HDMI-DVI adapter; the only flaw is a one-pixel wide pink line along the left edge, which does not bother me. The second screen MUST be a native USB-C one. I cannot calibrate the Eizo as xRite is still working on an update. However, I am planning to replace the Eizo by a new one and do hardware calibration using the Eizo colorimeter, which, according to my dealer, works.

Jaapv,  thanks for pointing out that one of the monitors must be a native USB-C.  I did not realize that as my older NEC PA monitors are DVI and I would want to use the 2 together (the 27" in landscape and the 24" in portrait mode) .  That puts another wrench in trying to update to the M1 Mac Mini.

[jaapv]

10 minutes ago, ymc226 said:

Jaapv,  thanks for pointing out that one of the monitors must be a native USB-C.  I did not realize that as my older NEC PA monitors are DVI and I would want to use the 2 together (the 27" in landscape and the 24" in portrait mode) .  That puts another wrench in trying to update to the M1 Mac Mini.

It took me about two weeks and a box full of cables and adapters to find this out - in the end I caved in and bought a Samsung secondary screen.

[stunsworth]

5 hours ago, jaapv said:

The second screen MUST be a native USB-C one. I cannot calibrate the Eizo as xRite is still working on an update. However, I am planning to replace the Eizo by a new one and do hardware calibration using the Eizo colorimeter, which, according to my dealer, works.

I believe the important thing is that it has a DisplayPort input (or I assume USB C). My second monitor is a few years old with both DVI and DisplayPort inputs. I bought a USB C to DisplayPort cable from Amazon and everything worked from switch on.

As for 512 gig being enough, I have Lightroom, Photoshop, MS Office and a few other large applications and my 512 gig hard drive is around 50% full. Like you data is kept on external drives.

For calibration I use a DataColor Spyder 5 and that works fine.

[jaapv]

Displayport might work. My screens were DVI. The i1Display works fine, but the xRite software does not see the screen.

[stunsworth]

19 minutes ago, jaapv said:

Displayport might work. My screens were DVI. The i1Display works fine, but the xRite software does not see the screen.

Your monitor issues were concerning, but when I turned my monitor around I saw there was a DisplayPort input. The official Apple line on the Mac Mini is...

“Simultaneously supports up to two displays:

One display with up to 6K resolution at 60Hz connected via Thunderbolt and one display with up to 4K resolution at 60Hz connected via HDMI 2.0

Thunderbolt 3 digital video output supports

Native DisplayPort output over USB‑C

Thunderbolt 2, DVI and VGA output supported using adapters (sold separately)

HDMI 2.0 display video output

Support for one display with up to 4K resolution at 60Hz

DVI output using HDMI to DVI Adapter (sold separately)”

 

Edited January 31, 2021 by stunsworth

[Dennis]

I'm using an iMac 5k 2017 as main computer. It has 512GB. In three weeks my Apple Care will expire, and I'll change the HD with a SSD of 2TB. It costs me around $350 at an Apple dealer.

I want to sync all my dropbox (1TB) and have at least 400-500GB free space on my computer. So when I need to download a 128GB cards for example, i can do it on my computer first, then culling and backup. My goal is another three years with the machine.

So, I suggest you to put 1TB. I think 512GB is a bit tight, and in the near future I'm sure we'll need more space for files, App always more demanding etc

[jaapv]

If I had to store all my data files on my internal SSD I would need 3-4 TB. So I need external disks anyway, not to mention backup. 512 GB is more than ample for OS, apps and current projects for the foreseeable future IMO. Especially if you use a 2TB or more iCloud Drive.

[Advertisement]

Hallo,

Look here: Interesting Leica gear

[Michael-IIIf]

On 1/30/2021 at 2:40 AM, ymc226 said:

Will a 512GB internal SSD be enough for apps and whatever else the Mini needs

My experience:

I decided to get the absolute minimum (256GB/8GB RAM) because it was on immediate delivery, and any increase in spec was on a longer lead-in and my home-schooling daughter urgently needed a machine. My thinking was influenced by one of the (countless) YouTube reviews I watched which reasoned the entry level model is so well priced that you can risk running it for a while and selling it used for a reasonable chunk of what you paid when you want to upgrade, plus you get the benefit of its warranty and then the warranty on the upgraded machine in the future. 

256GB is just about bearable.

There is enough space for the OS and all the apps etc but what I wasn't expecting was how big our home directories are WITHOUT data. I agonised about doing a clean build or using Migration Assistant and in the end opted for MA to ensure serial numbers and licences were copied across (they were), I left my DropBox files and my iCloud files in their respective clouds, photos and music are elsewhere, but I wasn't expecting my ~/Library/ folder copied across turned out to be 71GB, my daughter's 31GB and my wife's something similar. I have no idea what makes them so large but the problem with using Migration Assistant is it has doubtless pulled loads of redundant preference files which accumulated on my old iMac over the years. I tried doing a cull of the more obvious redundant ones but deleting stuff from the ~/Libarary/ folder is playing with fire.

In summary:-

• Do a clean install if you can.

• Avoid making it multi-user if you can.

• Go for the 512GB if you can.

[zeitz]

On 1/31/2021 at 11:26 AM, stunsworth said:

Thunderbolt 3 digital video output supports

Native DisplayPort output over USB‑C

Thunderbolt 2, DVI and VGA output supported using adapters (sold separately)

HDMI 2.0 display video output

Apple keeps upsetting me with its jargon.  No monitor that I know of has a "Thunderbolt 3 video" input to accept a "Thunderbolt 3 video output".  Even the XDR manual calls the monitor's input a USB-C port and I assume it uses USB-C protocol.  Nor was there ever a monitor with Thunderbolt 2 input; the monitor's input is DisplayPort.  By mixing up the physical connector and standard vs proprietary bus protocol descriptions, Apple makes it hard to understand how a monitor is to be connected.

If there are really monitors with Thunderbolt 3 and Thunderbolt 2 inputs, I sure would like to know.

I am hoping the new small Mac Pro will be available by June when the lease on my Intel Mac Mini expires.  The M1 Mac Mini seems too limited in its monitor connectivity.  And it won't allow an eGFX external video box.  I love my Sonnet eGFX 650 which I will have to throw away with the M1 chip set.