HACKER Q&A
📣 neya

Confused Between M1 Mac Mini and Mac Studio


Hi HN, After about 10 years, my old 2012 Mac Mini is slowing down. I’d like to invest into another small package like the Mac Mini to continue my daily work - usually programming 80%, Content creation (Affinity Photo, GarageBand, etc.) 10% and games (CS:GO, Hitman) 10%.

I feel the M1 Mac mini will get the job done, but it’s about 2 years old now. Whereas the Mac Studio just launched and has all the power I will need for the next 5 years at least, but then, it costs twice as much as the M1 Mac mini where I live.

Would love to hear your thoughts and advice. Thank you.


  👤 999900000999 Accepted Answer ✓
I have an m1 Mac Mini and I love it.

Gaming on a Mac is sort of a losing battle, but from a strict economic sense, say you buy a M1 Mini.

It's good for 2 years, then the M2 Mac Mini comes out, you can buy that one if you need more speed. More speed. You're still coming out ahead versus buying a Mac Studio.

In fact, Apple tends to be very good about trade-in values, so you might be able to trade in the Mac Mini. I use Logic and I love it. You can always buy the m1 Mini, stress test it and if it's not enough take it back

Also, this is a much different question depending on how much you make. If you make say $60,000 a year, $600 is plenty for computer. If you make 400K a year, go ahead and treat yourself