New Mac Mini for Recording?

[Mike Vee]

oh, that;s interesting - what's the manufacturer and model number?

just google theres a billion of them

 

[Mike Vee]

There are many ways to not overload the DAW, e.g. bounce track and turn off the plugins, freeze the track, use stock plugins, plugins that consume less processing power etc.

Which is exactly what I aim to avoid when purchasing a new computer. There's no need for any of this in 2025.

 

[Brian Patterson]

I have a Mac Mini with 16gb of RAM - for audio it is sufficient but I would get the 24gb of RAM if I had known.

 

[lamarjones]

I think a lot of people here aren't familiar with how RAM interacts with the M series chips. They aren't upgradable cause they integrated with the chip way more than the traditional setup and it absolutely reflects in the performance. 16 should be fine.

 

[FretRiff]

I have a Mac Mini with 16gb of RAM - for audio it is sufficient but I would get the 24gb of RAM if I had known.

There might not have been. If you bought an M1 Mac Mini 16Gb RAM was the max configurable. 24Gb (and then more, later) only became an option starting with the M2 mini in 2023.

 

[AK Bass Guy]

oh, that;s interesting - what's the manufacturer and model number?

That’s just a random pic from Amazon.
Best Buy and Target also have them. I would do some site searching to find what will work for you best. They come with a wide variety of port choices and baud rates.
Just don’t buy the cheapest one you find because the cheap ones aren’t very robust and can break with more than moderate plugging and unplugging of peripherals.

 

[monsterthompson]

For 16 gig to 24 gig the price is $200. The base Mini is $599, so adding 1/3 of the cost feels like a lot. On the other hand, if you bought the prior machine new, that would be a $200 difference over 10+ years, which doesn't seem bad when looked at as a per-year cost for better performance and "future-proof" life extension.

Based on my 2021 MBP with a M1 and 16GB & 1TB - 16GB is good. I'm not sure how much better 24 would really be. I'm glad I got 1TB as I'm up to about 500GB of usage (though a lot of that is stuff I could offload or delete). I think I'd prioritize getting 1TB of storage then going for the 24GB upgrade if the budget allows. Although, 512 GB of storage is probably enough for system and application needs if you are good about managing files on external device, and external storage is much cheaper.

 

[fokof]

FWIW
I just changed my 2010 MacPro for the basic M4 MacStudio
It's Night and day

5 times faster
Haven't been able to top it off in plugins count

The MacPro has been an incredible workhorse , well worth the high price
Would have kept it if software would have followed
( Bye Bye SpectraFoo )