M1 MacMini or High Spec Intel Mac Mini?

[Kerochan]

What would be best for Pro Tools, an M1 mac Mini with 16gb RAM or Intel Mac Mini with 64gb RAM?

[junkgear]

In my opinion, I would go with Apple silicon. All new Macs going forward are using the new chips, there are already OS features that only work on Apple Silicon and support for Intel will slowly go away.

As for which is best for you? What is your typical session like? The extra memory will help you out if you are a heavy sample based VI user, but even at that, how stressed is your current system? If your details are correct, you currently have a system with 64GB of RAM. So, if you look at your usage, and you are below 1/4 of the memory, then 16 would work just fine for your needs.

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by Kerochan

What would be best for Pro Tools, an M1 mac Mini with 16gb RAM or Intel Mac Mini with 64gb RAM?

There's two maxims in life: you can never be too rich and you can never have too much ram. If you use a lot of samples then go with the Intel Mac and 64 GB ram.

[Dale-c]

There's two maxims in life: you can never be too rich and you can never have too much ram. If you use a lot of samples then go with the Intel Mac and 64 GB ram.

You can't have too much RAM, but you can have more than you need. Excess RAM is no benefit whatsoever. 16 GB is probably enough for most uses but who knows.

THe thing is, for most things, either setup would be fine.
I think the Intel is better for now because I don't think PT is AS native just yet, even though it is supported.

THe 2018 Minis were no slouch so to me it comes down to whether 16 GB of RAM is enough or not.

[Ben Jenssen]

I7 minis can get very noisy, while the M1s are dead silent.

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by Dale-c

You can't have too much RAM, but you can have more than you need. Excess RAM is no benefit whatsoever. 16 GB is probably enough for most uses but who knows.

THe thing is, for most things, either setup would be fine.
I think the Intel is better for now because I don't think PT is AS native just yet, even though it is supported.

THe 2018 Minis were no slouch so to me it comes down to whether 16 GB of RAM is enough or not.

You can never have more than you need. Who's to say what is excess ram? If you deal in samplers you need all the ram you can get your hands on. I don't like having to stream off of disk. And if you use more than the stock cache in PT you'll surely want/need all that ram. 16 gig won't cut it - no how no way.


Example: I use Superior Drummer 3 and I like to load everything in a kit into ram. Now I don't have the surround files installed but there's one kit I use that's 13+ gig all in ram. That alone would make 16 gig inadequate. Combine that with other samplers I use and session size and I'm thankful for that 48 gig I have. That you got on with just 16 gig is just your case. Most people here would consider 16 gig a bare minimum.

[albee1952]

Originally Posted by musicman691

Most people here would consider 16 gig a bare minimum.

This^^^. As for intel vs M1, it seems a shame to invest in outgoing tech