When the M4 Mac Mini was released, I absolutely jumped at the chance of upgrading not just my work setup, but my home setup and my teams setup.
So I bought 3 of them. One base M4, and two M4 Pro’s.
And so in this post, I wanted to give you a bit of an update, 3 months later as to what that experience has been like and answer some of your questions.
I also want to cover some of the positives, some of the issues, and also an update on what my own desk setup looks like, now that I’ve had a little chance to really bed the Mac Mini into my workflow.
So why 3 Mac Minis? The first was the Base M4, which I’ve dedicated as my Home Mac Mini. This was replacing my older generation M1 Mac Mini, and is there to run my home automation platform, Home Assistant, so it stays on 24x7.
It also acts as a media server for my Plex Library and so is there to decode various file types to play on the 3 Apple TV’s we have around the house.
I also use the Mac Mini when working from home, which is all pretty basic word processing, web browsing, emails, video calls - nothing strenuous.
And my kids also now use it to do their homework and practice their touch typing.
The second was my own M4 Pro Mac Mini, which stays in my office, and that covers all of my creative work on YouTube. So a lot of day to day productivity apps, but also more intensive tasks such as Lightroom, Davinci Resolve, I’ve also started playing around with using it as a live stream setup.
And the third one is actually the most powerful one that I bought, it’s another M4 Pro but with upgraded memory, and this serves a dual purpose, both for my videographer who shoots and edits some of my videos, but also it was intended for my remote editor to jump on remotely and save me having to upload all of the footage we shoot to Google Drive.
So those 3 specs were the Base M4 Mac Mini at £599
My M4 Pro with upgraded 1TB SSD and 10Gb Ethernet at £1,699
Then my teams M4 Pro with upgraded 1TB SSD, 10Gb Ethernet, 48GB of Memory and the upgraded 14-core CPU, 20-core GPU and 16-Core Neural Engine at £2,299.
Design
Now, generally speaking, the upgrade has been overall positive, for all of us.
The smaller size and shape of the Mac Mini is kind of a nothing burger over time. I mean, it’s very impressive. But kind of like my Gaming PC that’s slung under my desk, once it’s there - it’s just, there, and you don’t really think about it.
I love how it’s small enough to slot into much smaller spaces, and I’ve even considered packing this in a bag and taking it with me to somewhere like CES in Vegas and kind of using it as an excuse to buy a Vision Pro - just to sit there and look like a plank, with a M4 Pro Mac Mini on the table, hooked up to a Vision Pro.
But then I came to my senses and realised that would be a total waste of money, and that I don’t need a vision pro. I don’t need a vision pro. I don’t need a vision pro.
The power button being underneath - again, is a non issue. I’ve pressed it maybe, 5 times since owning it. Although, it’s not as easy as if it was on the front or back. But it is what it is.
What I will say here is that depending on your use, you might struggle with the number of ports on the back.
I’m about to start working on comparing a bunch of different SSD’s and since the M4 Pro mac Mini supports Thunderbolt 5, I realised that I needed an external hub of some form.
So far, I’ve been using the Caldigit TS4+ it has an SD Card slot, which is useful for offloading our video files, and also it adds a tonne of extra USB Ports which I need to hook in all of these devices.
But the problem is, it doesn’t support the latest Thunderbolt 5 speeds, which the M4 Pro Mac Mini is capable of - and by the way, that’s only from the REAR ports on the Mac Mini. The front ports are much slower.
So recently OWC sent out their Thunderbolt 5 Hubs to try out, which gives you an additional 3 Thunderbolt 5 Ports. And I’ve started testing out an acasis SSD enclosure with a Samsung 990 Pro M.2 SSD too, which actually runs faster than the internal storage on the Mac Mini.
But I’ve kind of been waiting for the Caldigit or UGreen thunderbolt 5 all-in-one hubs which are currently yet to be seen but would hopefully allow me to clean up my desk a little as it’s getting pretty busy.
Network
One thing I am very glad about when I upgraded was that I went with the 10Gb Ethernet upgrade on both of the M4 Pro Mac Mini’s which makes transferring our sometimes hundreds of gigs worth of video files to the Synology NAS, flawless since making this change.
At times, it’s not fast enough to edit directly off the NAS though, but the issue we currently have with our remote editor means that as soon as we dump the footage onto the NAS, it starts uploading those clips to Google Drive and also backs the footage up to Synology C2 Storage. At which point the NAS then struggles to both upload footage to Google Drive AND let us work directly off the NAS.
But the simple workaround for this is to just edit our video footage using smaller proxy files, which live locally on the machines, and then when we render our videos, it uses the full quality files from the NAS. So that works without consuming a huge amount of local storage space.
Performance
So far, even my own lower spec M4 Mac Pro has been able to handle everything I’ve thrown at it.
Now I know that’s not running LLM’s or doing any form of really intensive workloads outside of video and audio editing, but from having a gazillion tabs open, whilst video editing, whilst listening to music, and having a video call running, using an external camera connected via my Atem Mini Pro video interface, and it doesn't even struggle.
I have had some issues with my home mac when trying to do all of this, whilst Home Assistant is running, because that’s always consuming a small amount of memory at all times, and maybe if the kids are watching something on plex AND I’m sat there with ALL my tabs open, then that can SOMETIMES struggle.
But I would say, for a machine that cost me £599, that’s still pretty damn impressive.
Even playing games on the M4 Pro Mac Mini has been a great experience.The classic Counterstrike 2, and did you know that Black Ops III is on there too? I know, not the latest and greatest games, but they play surprisingly smoothly, for a Mac.
The only regret I currently have is not upgrading the storage on the base spec M4 Mini, just because I didn’t want to pay the absolute rip off prices that Apple charge to upgrade the storage.
The combination of my Home Assistant Server, which runs inside of VMWare, which also then generates backup files, is already starting to almost completely fill up the on-board SSD. And I can’t see any way to move the backup location to an external SSD.
BUT, I have just purchased a third-party SSD Upgrade that had only JUST come out when I posted my last post on the M4 Mac Mini, that costs just a fraction of what Apple charge.
And it’s got great reviews.
But, it only works for the M4 Mac Mini, not the M4 Pro Model, but I’ve bought it anyway, currently waiting for delivery and I’ll post on this channel to show the upgrade process to help others upgrade the storage in their own Mac Mini’s without paying the extortionate rates that Apple have always charged.
Now, I do have some concerns over whether Apple will just apply an update which then breaks a third party drive from working, so it’s always worth considering that might happen. But all the same, I’m going to give it a try, and just make sure I keep a regular backup of my Mac Mini in case something does happen.
But so far, they haven’t - and it’s been out for a few weeks, maybe even a couple of months by now - and there’s no sign as of yet of them blocking anything. But who knows, that could all change.
Desk Setup
So people have asked me a few questions, including my desk setup too so I want to just give you a run down on what I’ve settled on, at least for now.
So like I said, I’m running the M4 Pro Mac Mini, with upgraded 1TB Storage, and 10Gb Ethernet. But no other upgrades.
Next to that, I actually have an Anker Charging hub - it’s not connected to the Mac in any way, it just provides fast charging to any device I happen to be using and sometimes reviewing whilst sat at my desk. And that is also permanently connected to this ESR magsafe 3-in-1 charging stand that again, charges whichever phone I’m reviewing at the time, along with my Apple Watch that has basically stayed there since I started reviewing the Garmin Fenix 8.
But there’s also a place underneath for some earbuds. On the otherside, I’m using the OWC Thunderbolt 5 Hub, like I mentioned earlier.
Next to that is the Focusrite Scarlette Solo interface, which is connected to both my Mic of choice for video calls, which is the Shure SM7B, which sounds fantastic, and it’s also connected to a pair of Edifier MR4 Studio Monitors, which honestly have sounded great for the years I’ve now been using them.
I’m actually in the process of saving up for a really nice pair of KEF speakers, so I know they’re not angled up at all, it’s actually a really bad position, I need to get some stands to angle the speakers up, but equally, I kind of want to upgrade them so don’t want to buy stands.
And some of those stands will actually raise the speakers behind the 57” Samsung G9 Ultrawide monitor that has also been on my desk for over a year.
I’ve actually been pretty happy with this screen overall, but seeing the new generation of LG UltraGear monitors which have improved resolution over last years models, is really making me think about swapping this screen out for one, or maybe even 2 LG 45” UltraGears when they come out later this year… and then actually the speakers will have more space on the desk again, so…yeah, time will tell.
I know this screen goes brighter than OLED’s, but for the type of work I do and the games I play, I just can’t get past how beautiful OLED displays look, especially the newest generation. So I’m definitely going to play around when that comes out.
On top of that I’ve got the Insta360 Link which is a 4K webcam for when I don’t need by big camera rig, which I’ll get to in just a moment.
But not everybody needs a 4K Webcam, or wants to spend more money to get 4K with all of the latest features.
Now, I really like my webcam from Obsbot, with their Tiny SE, which is almost half the price of the Insta360 Link 2.
The Tiny SE is a full AI-Powered, 2-axis PTZ Webcam with features such as AI Auto-tracking with auto-zoom which can track your hands, a specific zone and even specific body parts! There’s also gesture control and preset modes.
It features a 1080p resolution which goes up to 100FPS and is compatible with all major live streaming and online meeting services.
This Tiny SE camera, has a feature normally seen in higher end cameras, called Dual Native ISO, along with a 1 over 2.8 inch cmos sensor with an F1.8 aperture, which basically means that it can automatically adjust itself based on the lighting conditions to give you great image quality in both Dim and Bright environments.
And all of this is managed via the OBSBOT Center application. So you can control everything, from additional features like video recording, beauty mode, and switching the preset setups. And it can even control up to 4 OBSBOT Webcams, so if you’re an online gamer or a streamer, you can run all of this via the Obsbot application.
The Tiny SE retails for just $99 in the US and $129 outside of the US, and you can pick one up using the link down below. .
Now, having said that, at the total opposite end of the scale, underneath that and on my desk, I also have the Atem Mini Pro, now this thing allows me to hook in my professional camera if I want to do a podcast, or an interview or even a video call where I want to have the absolutely best picture quality possible. I’ve been using Riverside FM as a way to record my Aspiring Creator podcast which I’ve put on hold for now just whilst some changes are happening. But it’s a solid 4-way HDMI switcher, that also lets you stream to various online services too.
The desk itself, is something that I didn’t want, or need, but I’m totally converted.
What I wanted, was a monitor arm that could take the weight of the 57” Samsung G9, and I saw that Secretlab had just launched one, so I asked if I could get one for review, and they sent me an arm, which is fantastic. They also sent another arm, which I use to hold up my laptop.
But they also sent me an entire desk setup.
And this isn’t sponsored by them in any way, other than the fact they sent me about £2,000 worth of desk about 8 to 12 months ago. But it’s been incredible. From the way they package everything that’s reminiscent of unboxing an Apple product, to the way they use magnets to keep various parts of the desk looking neat and tidy, to simple things like the fact the sit stand controls are built into the desk AND have an off switch, so you don’t accidentally bump into and trigger them, which sounds silly, but it happens ALL the time on the other desks we have in the studio.
It has fantastic cable management, and right now I have a TONNE of cables that need hiding away, so that works great, the desktop and shelf are finished in metal, which means you can use their clever little cable management magnets to secure various cables around the desk, and even my favourite magnetic phone cases stick to the desk, so doesn’t accidentally get knocked off.
Just small things, like integrated power, so you plug the desk in at the bottom, and then it runs up inside the legs through to the cable management tray. There’s a snap-on ethernet version too to hardwire my Mac. There’s a magnetic LED strip that’s designed for the desk also, oh, and a magnetic headphone holder.
It’s just, such a clever, well designed product, and I absolutely love it.
I’ve actually asked them if we could get a white version so we can have a sort of light mode and dark mode set here for shooting videos.
But that, at least for now, is the desk setup…
Thanks for reading, and I’ll catch you in the next one.
