[eightamrock]

Originally Posted by makeller

So... no new Mac Mini M1 Pro or M1 Max. Now the question is do I drop:

$2400 on a 14" MacBook Pro, M1 Pro 10 core CPU, 14 core GPU, 16MB RAM
$2500 on a 16" MacBook Pro, M1 Pro 10 core CPU, 16 core GPU, 16MB RAM
or
$1250 on a Mac Mini, M1 8 core, 8 GPU, 16MB RAM

Connectivity on M1 Pro MacBooks is 3 USB4 Thunderbolt ports, no Ethernet port
Connectivity on M1 Mac Mini 2 USB-A, 2 Thunderbolt 4, Ethernet Port

For the Carbon, on a new MacBook Pro, I'd have to burn 1 Thunderbolt port for my AVB connection, 1 Thunderbolt port for a DisplayPort adapter, and 1 Thunderbolt port for a hub for wired keyboard, wired mouse, ILok, external drives.

Question... Might it make sense to get the M1 MacMini? If I'm not doing heavy duty PT sessions with tons of plugins, will I see a significant enough difference in PT to justify paying double for a Mac to use with my Carbon (which is still inside the box!). I can always trade it in later and buy the 2nd Gen Mac Mini when it comes out.

BTW, the way Apple has their pricing laid out, it looks like a no brainer to pick up the 16" MacBook Pro, which does look like a thing of beauty.

I have the M1 mac mini with 16GB unified memory and a 2TB SSD. I track to an external SSD over thunderbolt. I have been doing some heavy lifting with multiple instrument tracks and many plugins, it hasn't skipped a beat. This is only for home/project studio stuff, but having owned a studio with a full PT setup on a high powered custom PC before, I wouldn't hesitate at all to switch to the M1 mac to run it. For most things the new chips have really outpaced the demand for audio. If you are doing video editing thats another story, but basic recording at 48k. The M1 mini will do a symphony. No problems.