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Apple Mac Mini M2 8/256 $897, 8/512 $1167, MacBook Air M1 8/256 $1277, Air M2 $1617 + Delivery ($0 Metro/ $0 C&C) @ Officeworks

390

10% off Apple Mac at The Good Guys which has been matched by Officeworks. Best for if you have any 15% off Ultimate gift cards.

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  • +7
    • +1

      This guy buys.

  • -4

    The 8gb ram is a joke. Minimum 16 should be 32gb.

    Reminds me of iPhones with no storage

    • +11

      Please don't don't start this pointless, ill-informed argument every time.
      Many of us use 8GB of memory in a professional programming and education capacity, and it is more than adequate, and blindingly fast.
      Take off your Intel and Windows blinkers.

      • genuine question: my pc (8th gen i3, I know it's old) was struggling with web browsing since most of the applications I used were web-based. will this run fine with 8gb of ram?

        • +3

          Yes, this flies through anything web related unless you are pushing 100+ tabs on chrome or something.

        • +7

          stop using chrome- has always been crap on Macs.

          • +3

            @derdew: also crap on windows …. Chrome tabs eats RAM, on windows I now use Edge, it's Chromium based but MS have tweaked how memory is used.

      • +6

        It's a bit much to call it a "joke" but it's not a pointless argument either. 8gb is only really appropriate for basic office tasks at most. Even as I type this on a 16gb M1 Macbook Pro, with only a browser and Slack open, I'm using 12gb of my 16gb of ram. I believe the only reason Apple still offers 8gb is to keep prices more appealing, with the assumption that you'd upgrade to 16gb. I've recently had to replace two of our 8gb M1 company laptops because their memory limitations were becoming a serious problem and now we only buy 16gb laptops or higher.

        I would highly recommend upgrading to 16gb of ram, and if not, then buy a used mac. 8gb is the absolute bare minimum and you'll end up spending more money later down the line when you inevitably have to upgrade too soon to a new machine just because the 8gb one is too limited.

        • +7

          It's a pointless argument to make each time because it is demonstrably false. Many software developers work quite comfortably with 8GB.

          Perennial statements like "I'm using 12gb of my 16gb of ram" simply demonstrate a misunderstanding of the relationship between virtual memory and resident set sizes. If I were using a computer with 16GB of RAM, then I'd want the OS to keep as much of that 16GB in use as possible, at all times. If I had purchased 16GB and the OS only enabled used of 2GB for a browser and Slack, then I'd question why I purchased 16GB in the first instance, or believed that I had a shitty OS.

          Yes, purchase more than 8GB of RAM if you know you'll need it, or if worried about future uses, but don't assume that those who currently use 8GB of RAM on a daily basis don't know what they're doing.

          • +4

            @chrism238: This is a good point you've made, though I more meant that just because someone says "I have 8gb of ram and it's fine" that it shouldn't mean it'll be fine for everyone else. I've found that 8gb hasn't been enough for our company, but we're doing a bit more than the basics and it became a problem for us. YMMV of course

          • +1

            @chrism238: Start running a VM in UTM and the 8GB dries up quickly. Are M1/2 devices punching above their weight on 8GB? Yes.
            Are they better on 16GB for longivity? Yes.
            As they can't be upgraded later it makes sense to get to 16GB in most cases.

            • +1

              @OzzyBrak: That's a good summary and yes, I agree. The fact that Mac RAM isn't user-upgradable (assuming that's still the case) makes 16gb a safer choice.

              • @Demarque: I’m still running a 2013 MBP 256GB 8GB and after 10 years, it’s just starting to slow down (has had 2 batteries). Run things like VM’s, streaming, basic server stuff etc. 8GB has been absolutely fine IMO, if it wasn’t for the processor slowing, probably would use it for another 10 years with 8GB ;)

                • +2

                  @BatmanAU: The 2013 MBP came with 4GB RAM standard, so yours with 8GB was an upgrade - presumably for an anticipated need, or perhaps with some hope of ensuring some longevity of its useful life.

                  Like the 2013 MBP, the current Mac devices RAM cannot be upgraded after purchase, so perhaps buyers in 2023 should consider whether 8GB is likely going to be enough for them for the foreseeable time they might want to use their device - just like you, or whomever purchased your computer, did back in 2013.

            • @OzzyBrak: If you need to run a VM locally on a daily basis wtf are you doing with a MacBook Air ?

              • @ctan7: UTM/qemu running arm64 VMs is a breeze, memory is the limiting factor as I pointed out.

          • +1

            @chrism238: Windows 10 and Office365 inc visio opened is just under 5GB on my PC ….. I could pile on more on more open apps but most of my day is Office 365 (powerpoint, word, outlook, teams, excel and visio).

            Depends what you do, like people needing 8GB of RAM on a phone and others seems ok with 4GB ????

      • Genuine question: would it be better to have 16GB ram to work comfortably in any situation? My previous mac mini 2015 with 4GB was painful.

        • i guess it's two fold:

          yes having 16GB now would make current workloads more comfortable where 8GB would suffice, but also that in 3-5 yr time when 8GB might not be sufficient you'll wish you'd had sprung for the 16GB that might eek out another 2-3 yr from the computer and the relatively powerful CPU. especially pertinent on a device where RAM is not user upgradeable.

      • +1

        It really depends on what you're doing. I've run out on RAM on my 8GB Macbook Air when stacking astronomical images in 32-bit mode within Siril. Affinity can also have problems when working with large-resolution images when too many layers are active (I'm often working with 104MP images in 32-bit mode).

        Of course, these are extreme cases. But the amazing thing is that the CPU and GPU of the M1 can keep up with the above workloads without skipping a beat. It's just the system's RAM that is the limiting factor when dealing with large image processing tasks.

      • +2

        Take off your Intel and Windows blinkers.

        Sighs, and you should take off your Apple blinkers.

        Whether you personally need more than 8GB of RAM is irrelevant. What is unquestionable is Apple are charging way too much for RAM upgrades - $270 for an additional 8GB of RAM? That's nuts.

        I'm impartial - I use both Windows and Apple, but I am pro-consumer, and for lower prices. Apple should be including more and making upgrades cheaper. You're not arguing for higher prices and less inclusions now are you?

        • Yeah, it's a farce, they get away with it because they can.

          I cannot wait until Qualcomm have caught up and push Intel to shift to ARM too. I have been using a Snapdragon 7c in a chromebook for a while now for basic stuff while travelling, the battery life is awesome and performance is ok. The Linux VM just needs a little more grunt to make it really usable…

          Apple need some competition, their move to their own silicon was genius, but consumer's pockets suffer because of it.

    • -2

      Found the person who exclusively uses Androoooid and Windoooows and needs 64gb of RAM to open Youtube on their poorly optimised machines.

      • +8

        Apple or ARM does not provide much of the magic here, if a task requires 32GB or 64GB of RAM it would struggle on the machine with 8GB or 16GB, regardless of OS or platform.

        8GB M1 was not a very pleasant experience personally for me, 16GB was much better.

      • +4

        try to load a 64 GB data matrix to RAM, it will take 64 GB no matter what platform or architecture.

        • Dork!

        • +2

          swap

        • Says captain hack lol

        • I'm sure people who need to load a "64GB data matrix to RAM" know their specs/requirements and how much RAM they need.

          So they don't need the outraged comments pointing out what hardware is suitable or not.

          • +2

            @pizzaguy: if I was working with 64GB of data I wouldnt't use a laptop with associated CPU and colling issues for a start …..

  • +2

    This is going pear-shaped.

    • +3

      Its going Apple shaped.

  • Judging by the comments, Apple is such a divisive company.

    • Thank you, cap.

    • well, you can't be both the biggest company in the world and universally loved by everyone.

  • The question "why 8GB Mac Mini" has been asked many times. Just look up "chip binning" and answer it yourself.

  • almost 2024, 8gb is "No bueno"

  • I have Mac Mini M1 8GB, works OK. No memory issues.

  • Use case is important, these days most of the work gets done on mobile devices, so :
    1) browser, MS office apps go with 8GB, mostly for mum, dad and students with not too heavy use, write a document, use excel/sheets, social media (not sure who still uses laptop for it), some web browser games (is it Roblox?)
    2) IT folks or photo/video editing go with 16GB min, this is recommended and does provide longevity for machine.
    3) Not sure about gaming, M1 Chip with 16GB RAM was able to handle games quite well, I have not done any geek benchmarks so just my opinion.
    4) Serious IT folks with any app server setup, heavy data analytics or serious professional video editing. I don't need to tell you what to use, you know better.

    Side note: I try to go for max memory all the time, still using old machines with upgraded SSD/Memory (2008 Unibody MacBook, 2010 MacBook mini, 2011 iMac 27 and 2016 iMac 27)

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