Mac mini M4 redesign: smaller body, bigger questions

The Mac mini M4 launched October 2024 in a redesigned chassis. 12.7cm square. 5cm tall. Roughly an Apple TV with a Mac inside.

What is in it

M4 base: 10-core CPU, 10-core GPU, 16GB unified memory (up from 8GB). M4 Pro option: 14-core CPU, 20-core GPU, up to 64GB.

128GB SSD start, upgradable. Two USB-C 10Gbps on the front (the new redesign added these), three USB-C 40Gbps on the back, HDMI 2.1, Gigabit Ethernet (or 10Gbps Ethernet upgrade).

Two internal fans. Audible only under sustained load.

What was cut

USB-A. There are zero USB-A ports anywhere. If you have a wired keyboard or mouse from before 2018, you need a dongle.

No Wi-Fi 7. Apple stuck with Wi-Fi 6E. Surprising for the M4 generation.

No SD card slot. Mac mini has never had one; not new news, but worth noting.

What I use mine for

Home lab server. Three Docker containers (Plex, Home Assistant, a private Git server). 24/7. Idle power draw is around 7W. The whole machine pays for itself in electricity savings versus the old Intel mini I retired.

Running local LLMs via Ollama. M4 Pro with 24GB handles Llama 3.3 8B comfortably. The 70B does not fit in 24GB; I have a separate machine for that.

Occasional Final Cut Pro work. Smooth.

Should you buy one

If you have an Intel Mac: yes, immediately, the performance gap is enormous.

If you have an M1 Mac mini: not yet. The M1 still flies for most work.

If you are building a home lab and want a quiet, low-power machine that runs full macOS: yes, this is the best version of that there has ever been.

The DigitalOcean alternative still makes sense for things that need to be reachable from the public internet. They give new accounts £200 of credit for 60 days [via this link](https://m.do.co/c/3389d86ebe0c).