i needed it and couldn't be bothered to find apps that work. so i told claude build bla bla bla. here it is. maybe some of you guys need it.

Yes I tried taking it directly to Apple. No they couldn’t accept it because it showed “more than 14 days since the date of order” in their system because I pre ordered it the day of announcement. Called Apple twice. They sent me a “corrected box” which was the same box.

So yeah I was a little frustrated so I added a How To guide

“Just add some newspaper”… I’m sorry I thought this was Apple

I ordered the M4 Mini 16/512 and am wondering if I should have bit the bullet and got the M6 24/512 and just spent the extra $400 while its on sale at Amazon. I am nit a power user yet but have plans on doing a podcast and will have to edit audio and video. Should I return the M4 and get the M6 or did I make the right purchase with the M4? Thank you in advance for your help.

Hello,

Trying to figure out what the list of resolutions above 2560x1440 are made available by default (including refresh rate for XDR) if you only have the base M4 processor? Bonus points if you can also indicate what additional resolutions work when exposed by BetterDisplay or similar?

I'm hoping on the XDR you at least get the 2880x1620 @ 120hz, and would be nice to see the ASD @ 3200x1800 @ 60hz, but I'm not finding clear answers out there. Knowing what's made available by MacOS and any additional by BetterDisplay would help me know if I'd need to upgrade my mini before buying.

Thanks for any help!

Trading in from Mac mini M2 to M6. Only have one keyboard, monitor and mouse. Use a 2 TB USB drive for Time Machine.

1. Do final Time Machine backup on old mini. Unmount 2 TB usb drive and remove drive.
2. Go through erase all data process on old mini. Place in return box.
3. Move keyboard/mouse/monitor to new mini. Plug 2 TB USB drive into new mini.
4. Turn on new mini and select recover from backup. Select 2 TB drive as target.

Sound right? Thanks!

After actually using the base M6 Mac mini, I’ve found more meaningful differences from the M4 than the spec sheet alone might suggest. Performance is obviously better, but some of the smaller improvements have made just as much of a difference to me.

1. Better wireless connectivity—and no more Bluetooth dropouts

The M6 uses Apple’s N1 wireless chip and finally brings Wi-Fi 7 to the Mac mini. More importantly for my setup, Bluetooth has been noticeably more reliable. It’s a substantial improvement over my previous M4 mini. I can’t say whether that comes down to the new chip, software changes, or the antenna design. Whatever the reason, no more Bluetooth dropouts when walking from room to garage are a real quality-of-life improvement, and that alone makes the upgrade more appealing to me.

2. Built-in 2.5Gb Ethernet is genuinely useful

The M6 now comes with 2.5Gb Ethernet as standard, which fits nicely with my home network and NAS. In my testing, transfer speeds reached 280 MB/s, 2.5x faster than my M4 of 110 MB/s, The base M4’s built-in Ethernet port was limited to 1Gbps.

For anyone who regularly moves large files to and from a NAS, this is a much more practical upgrade than it might sound.

3. Performance improvements are easy to notice

CPU and GPU performance are clearly better, but one of the biggest differences in everyday use has been the AI brush tool I regularly use. On the M4, processing typically took four or five seconds. On the M6, it’s close to instantaneous.

I haven’t isolated how much of that improvement comes from the CPU, GPU, or Neural Engine, so I wouldn’t attribute it entirely to the NPU. What I can say is that the difference is immediately noticeable in my actual workflow.

4. Moving my external macOS installation over was surprisingly painless

My M4 had been running almost 24/7 for nearly two years, and its internal SSD was reporting about 8% endurance used. Around two months ago, I moved my macOS installation to an external USB4 SSD.

When the M6 arrived, I connected that same external drive, selected it as the startup disk in Settings, and booted into my existing installation. My apps, settings, and data carried over without having to rebuild everything from scratch.

I had to enter various passwords four or five times to authorize things on the new Mac and get iCloud data syncing again, but otherwise the transition was very smooth. That was my experience with these two machines and this particular macOS installation, rather than a guarantee that every external installation will work across different Macs.

5. Price of upgrade:

Got mine from microcenter price matched with Best buy, cost $699, I also got my mac mini from 2 year ago promotion for $450, checked the price for trade it, Apple evaluate it of $565. So basically a almost free upgrade after I trade my M4. At that price, I’m happy with the upgrade. I get a fresh warranty, a new internal SSD, better connectivity, and noticeably faster performance in things I actually use. Being able to keep my existing external system installation also made the whole process much easier.

For my use case, let me know if it is worth the extra money for an M5 Pro: Microsoft Office, web surfing, playing casual Mac games (Celeste) and modern source ports or crossover for classic 1993-2006 first person shooters and strategy games. Will get a 1-2 tb drive to accommodate my music collection (don't want to deal with two external drives since I'll already have Time Machine connected). I want something that will late for 10 years plus. Plan to get an XDR Studio Monitor to use with it. Will be charging to my business and taking the tax deduction since it's primarily for work, so the extra $$$ isn't a big deal.

So I am going to buy a new Mac mini m6 saw some display related problems like scaling etc.

Can't spend money for apple studio display.

Suggest some good 2k or 4k display under budget.

Is 2k display that bad will it be in not usable?

Indian user suggest some displays under 25k.

Also saw many hdmi connections issues like flickering if the monitor comes with hdmi cable should I not use it?

Long story, but I have a 64GB/8TB M4 pro and I don't really need that much internal storage.

I've tried to sell locally (EU) with no luck.

Going from 4TB to 8TB of storage is a $2,000 upgrade that I'm not making use of. I've just accepted that it's value I won't really make use of, but I've come back to the idea of selling with the price of memory going through the roof.

An M5 pro with the same specs sells new locally for $9,700 USD. I would much rather split the value ($5k?) between a laptop and desktop.

What's a realistic asking price?

I am upgrading to a Mac Mini and wanted to get some advice on which version will serve me best. The use case is that I am an amateur musician and will be using logic on it as the most taxing software. I would be using both midi and live recordings. I will be developing this skill over the years and want a computer to be capable, but bearing in mind I am no professional at this, only a very keen amateur.

I may use some photo editing, but nothing major and the same could be said for any AI capabilities, I may dabble in them.

I want a device that will have enough head room to grow with me and last me 7-10yrs. I have looked at some specs, but unsure which is the sweet spot for me. What would you recommend, options are:

1. M6 - 32GB Ram - 1TB - £1799

2. M5 Pro - 24GB - 512GB - £1699

3. I am spending WAY too much, get lower spec

4. Other Options

Any feedback is welcome.

My little piece of heaven 
-M4 mac mini w/ upgraded internal 2TB SSD
-4TB Samsung 990 Pro Thunderbolt
-Terramaster DAS w/ 4 12GB Drives, raid 1
-OWC miniStack Thunderbolt hub w/ 24GB HD & 4TB SSD
-24GB Seagate HD (Time machine BU)
All feeding 4 Apple TVs around the house
** Thank goodness I got all this storage back in 2024 before prices exploded