Hi there,
I know there are many videos out there reviewing this device but I’d like to get your opinion in a particular question. I’ll buy a Mac Mini 4 soon.
Base version has the best bang for buck.
It has a gigabit port but they ask for £100 to upgrade it to 10Gbps port. I have 1.2 Gbps internet package with Yayzi. Do you think spending £100 is really worth it?
To be honest 24Gb ram (£200) , 512Gb SSD (£200) with 10 GBPs Ethernet port (£100) is the best option for me but price jumps from £599 to £1099.
I’ll use this pc for daily PC requirements but if I open a YouTube channel this year, I’d like to learn video editing as well. What could be the best option and combination for me?
I’d like to hear your valuable opinions.
Get the 16gb base model. This should be more then enough for day to use.
You can always add external storage, NVME based external USB4 disk. Which is a lot cheaper
USB C to 2.5GB network adaptor is <£30
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Simplest question: How long do you plan on keeping it?
Mac hardware usually has a pretty long lifespan and can be a bugger to upgrade after purchase.
Are you going to get to the point where you’re regularly manipulating remote content (i.e. via the internet, or on a NAS in your own home) and now the bottleneck is the network card?
(Yayzi can already offer you 2.5x what the current card will do)
Storage you can add cheaply externally; NAS or USB NVME disks, so you only need enough in the machine to manipulate the video.
If you’re accepting you’re going to spend £1099, I’d keep the base 256GB storage, bump yourself up to 32GB memory, and add the 10G card.
The memory is the one thing you can’t upgrade by any other means, and it’s not going to hurt to have the 10Gb network connection to access external/remote storage if you get serious about the video.
If I were buying an M4 Mac mini, the £100 10 gig upgrade would be a no brainer. With the life span that Mac is gonna have, at some point down the line and likely within its lifetime you’ll probably move to at least 5gig ethernet and then you don’t need any adapters.
If you get 1 gig now, you’ll need to buy a 2.5gig adapter which uses one of the few USB C ports, then if you want 5 gig, that’s another adapter. Then same if you wanted to go 10 gig and those adapters are pretty damn expensive right now.
I’ve just put a few of these out, added the 10G as the site has a full 10G network so a requirement.
Went with the 24GB Memory and 1TB as got a deal on them.
Some compatibility issues with non Apple 5K screens which is well documented
@quackers Thanks much, good advice.
@PrinterElf i’m not planning to get a NAS atm. In the future I can buy NAS but not at the moment. Additionally, if u buy a NAS, I would connect it to router not MAC.
No idea what you meant with this: (Yayzi can already offer you 2.5x what the current card will do)
@PrinterElf The reason I thought to upgrade internal SSD from 256 to 512 is that 512 Gb SSD is faster than 256. I thought it would be better for system to function better. But this is just a silly opinion, not sure at all.
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@Arthanex thanks much. 10Gbps Ethernet port then way to go 
If you buy a NAS, either now or in the future, it’s going to be connected to the Mac via ethernet (either directly or via switch/hub/router/etc…). The faster the ethernet connection you have available to support that, the better.
You have the 1.2Gb service from Yayzi which is already faster than the default card inside the Mac mini.
They also offer a 2.3Gb service, which is [near-as-dammit] 2.5x the speed of the current 1Gb card.
Well I already fell in Apple Upgrade Trap:)
I wanted to buy with 16Gb ram but then I’m scared if Apple says we need 24Gb ram at least with AI integration 
I think 27 inch monitor is fine for me. Any recommendations under £250?
Thanks. The only thing I don’t understand is why you say I need to connect NAS to MAC.
My router has 2.5Gbps ports. By connecting the NAS to my router, we can access it from any device on our network, including smartphones, tablets etc. Am I missing something here?
I wouldn’t expect there to be any speed difference between the 256GB SSD and the 512GB SSD.
For a little more than Apple want to charge you for a 256GB upgrade, you can get an external 1TB upgrade if you need: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CPRHVLFQ
Where you will see a greater benefit in the life of the computer over the time you have it is in the memory (16/24/32GB). That is the one thing on the spec sheet that you cannot upgrade or supplement some other way, so if you’re going to spend money anywhere, make it memory.
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I didn’t say you’d need to connect the NAS directly to the Mac Mini, just that it would be connected somehow.
Equally, you could be uploading content to YouTube or a cloud service and the default network card in the Mac Mini is already slower than your broadband, let alone in a few years time.
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@PrinterElf Fantastic recommendations, thanks m8.
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I would be looking at 2.5Gb USB options if price is a concern, sadly apple are notorious for penny-pinching, just look at the minimum RAM finally getting a bump after years.
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@Avalon Thanks much. Honestly after considering all ram and SSD options etc, I start to think about Mac Mini Pro which gives me all I want from a desktop. If I manage to arrange that budget, I can get that.
Nah, by the time you’ve spent £30 on an adapter and then also had to give up a USB-C port, you’re better of just spending the extra bit of $ to have 10gig built right in.
It’s a steal at £100, especially if you start looking at 10gig Thunderbolt adapters which seem to all be round £300.
Plus bulky dongle hanging out back is ugllyyyyyyy.
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So an extra £400 at least, and still you have to pay another £100 for a 10GbE because it doesn’t come built in even on the Pro model.
You’d likely get a more appropriate spec for less outlay by pimping the base non-Pro model with the 10GbE card and 32GB memory.
Any other upgrade (storage) can be done almost as effectively without Apple’s obscene mark-up.
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