Officeworks are selling Mac mini 8-Core M1 Chip 8GB/256GB on Officeworks website for $497
Purchased the last remaining one in stock from Chadstone store myself early today
As of 2pm 9 Dec - according to "Officeworks, you in stock" the following stores have stock :
Store : Quantity
Maribyrnong (VIC) : 4
Fairy Meadow (NSW) : 3
Penrith (NSW) : 2 1
Camberwell (VIC) : 1 0
Russell St (VIC) : 1
Midland (WA) : 1
Looking forward to the obligatory 8gb RAM is/isn't enough debate
8gb ram is 2023 !!
Might as well chuck in a 256gb ssd too while your at it
Don't laugh, this is what we use at work
Someone at my work has a PC with a core 2 duo. So could be worse.
I am still using a core duo as my Linux machine, I think it has 2gb. It's fine unless you want to stream hd video or it gets too hot
Doing what at work?
I use it for work as well, but it's 16gb and Pro model. (I am a developer)
You got dumped for saying that. I won’t weigh in because I don’t have any history with iOS. But I’ve run Linux since 1998 and a current windows manager (GNOME /KDE) doesn’t have anywhere near the same level of RAM utilisation than modern Windows. Probably due to all the crap running in the background (Windows update, Defender/antivirus, telemetry, search indexing, defrag, etc). In this case, an 8GB Linux desktop would easily be comparable with a 16 or even 32GB Windows desktop.
Maybe since iOS is based on FreeBSD (similar to Linux (I may get beaten for saying that but I run it at home too)), and doesn’t have the same services running in the background, I’d say you’re close to the mark.
Doesn’t bother me was trying to be honest.
Not saying you are wrong but the key reason historically is the OSX active memory compression. In fairness Windows also has this but it’s not enabled by default and nowhere near as effective.
Second reason is Apple have the ssd tightly coupled with the cpu, meaning their is next to no performance trade off when paging. But big downside is it’s friggin soldered on the motherboard and like all flash storage has finite writes.
Ubuntu server is my favourite, but even that is bloated. With what I need to do I have to use windows, osx and Linux, horses for courses.
@UltimateAI: RAM is RAM, there isn't much an OS can do. Virtual memory, even via SSD is slow and noticeable on Mac OS. That is evident on my Mac M1 Pro with 16GB RAM when I actually do some heavy programming with multiple projects opened. It is very noticeable and I have to close programs. I generally avoid running docker on my M1 Pro unless I really have to (otherwise there is insufficient RAM for me to do heavy tasks).
next to no performance trade off when paging
That's wrong. RAM has 1000 times better latency than SSD. There is nothing SSD can do overcome that. Otherwise, why don't Apple release a 2GB RAM machine and just throw in Intel Optane (even Intel Optane is no match to RAM in terms of latency).
ssd tightly coupled with the cpu
That's not true either. On M1 (non Pro/Max/Ultra), it is at best PCIe gen 3 x4. When you actually run benchmark software on a PC running a PCIe gen 4 x4 SSD connected to the m.2 slot wired to the CPU lanes directly, its results out perform Mac M1 Pro / Max / Ultra. M2's infamous 256GB SSD performance issue due to not having enough NAND flash chips clearly shows hardware limitations apply to all machines, including Macs. Apple still uses 3rd party SSD controller chips.
OSX active memory compression
I question OSX actually does it on M1 because such technique's usefulness is limited. It doesn't make sense unless the machine really lacks RAM. Not everything can be compressed effectively. There is no such thing as guaranteed 50% compression. If such thing is possible, we can keep on compressing a file multiple times. There is no such thing as compressing a zip file 5 times to make the size 1/10. M3 introduces smarter dynamic memory management, but I'm sure Apple is smart enough not to actively compress RAM data.
M1 8GB RAM being enough is okay for light work. Apple cannot make something that has 1000 times higher latency runs 1000 times faster through OS. That's just dreaming or misinformation. Some of the youTubers don't have proper tech background.
@netsurfer: 100% agree, perhaps you misread, I never claimed ssd was/is faster than a model with sufficient ram, just that 8GB on an M1 is plenty. Try running 4K video editing on a PC with 16GB ram you notice the paging, with the M1 most users won’t know it’s even swapping out to disk
@UltimateAI: As a M1 Pro user, it is very noticeable when M1 Pro is using swapfile / virtual memory. It is annoying enough that I always close apps which are eating RAM.
If I don't close the apps, some basic operations can take several seconds. Also, this every Mac app is great in memory handling is also incorrect. There are Mac apps which are very inefficient in memory management. To be fair, the Windows versions of those apps are also in the same boat.
It's a hardware limitation, not a software limitation so it is not something a software can fix. Sequential read/write cannot overcome 1000x slower in latency. I have friends with 64GB RAM Mac M1 Max and M2 Max. There are a couple of lousy apps which we need to run on occasion which memory leak like crazy. If we don't stop them and restart them, even M1/M2 Max with 64GB RAM can be unbearably slow when those misbehaving Mac apps eat up all the RAM.
@netsurfer: Mate be realistic we are talking about a 8 GB machine here, expecting it to be on par or perform the same workloads as a 64GB machine of the same calibre is not realistic. All I was calling out is that for most people the 8GB MAC equates to a 16GB windows machine. Yeah people can disagree, that's fine. Windows pro's know how to enable windows memory compression, but 99% of the population don't know how.
Probably due to all the crap running in the background (Windows update, Defender/antivirus, telemetry, search indexing, defrag, etc).
defragmentation in Windows has always been disabled for SSDs - both, purposeless and detrimental.
This is a meme, right?
On MacOS? It’ll be fine.
It is, every Mac I've had has 8gb of ram. Runs smoother than a babies bottom and comparing that to a work supplied laptop that was wiped many times for personal use, you can't even run YouTube in 1080 without it heating up and lagging so badly.
it is more than enough for basic and beyond use on m1 chips.
source: i've been daily-ing an m1 macbook air for ~18 months with zero issues.
I know - the people complaining probably haven’t used a M1 with 8gb RAM. It handles office stuff easily and web browsing. Not saying for stuff like video editing… but general usage is fine
It's actually surprisingly capable for video editing. I'm an editor by trade and whilst I wouldn't use it as a daily work machine, it's definitely capable of doing basic consumer grade editing jobs.
I was watching Sam from Apple on YouTube. He says 8GB on the mac is equivalent to 16GB.
As a M1 mac user over 3 years, can honestly say 8GB is enough for web browsing + youtube streaming
but once getting into some programming work, 8GB* still runs out pretty quickly
Here's my Mac Studio current memory usage (M1 max, 32GB ram)
(I originally used the Mac Mini M1 8GB as my work station, then upgraded to Mac Studio)
Google chrome - 7.25GB
Visual studio code - 4.39GB
Visual studio - 4.31GB
Stocks - 1.93GB <-a bit suprise
Safari - 1.76GB
*note that while 8GB ram used up fast
It is very different from out of memory experience like windows machine
rarely see any app or OS crashing / hanging due to out of memory
probably because MacOS has much better memory optimisation
and the SSD is fast enough as an efficient SWAP memory
My 8GB Mac Mini M1 (same as this deal)
now used as a build agent for React JS projects
its pretty solid and fast compare to the hosted Build agent from Microsoft DevOps
the build time has improved over 2 times since moving over to the Mac Mini
I still think there is a bit of double standard there.
When a program throws an out of memory error, even on a Mac, it is still unrecoverable. If Mac is so magically on out of memory recovery, then let's just write programs in Mac and forget about memory leaks or memory management.
When virtual memory is being use on a Mac heavily, it is quite noticeable and unbearable (just like in other OS and other machines).
Don't make it sound like Windows 10/11 has zero memory management capability and just keeps on eating memory and falls of a cliff. In situations where large amount of memory needs to be used, a Windows machine with more RAM still outshines a Mac with lack of RAM. Also, comparison needs to be made with recent enough PCs (i.e. at least 11th gen Intel, preferably 12th gen or better (to be fair) or AMD Ryzen 5xxx or 7xxx).
It's so common to hear Apple users saying 8GB RAM is fine, but I am using a Mac machine with more RAM now. I really wish my Mac has 32GB of RAM (can't afford it so I guess I have to live with insufficient RAM from time to time).
SSD is fast enough as an efficient SWAP memory
Only if you are working on tasks which aren't really memory heavy. SSD's latency is 1000 times slower AND my current M1 Pro has the worst SSD write cycles / highest TBW of ALL my computer SSDs. Its SSD health percentage is also the worst. My Mac has 16GB RAM. Apple's "great" memory management is a double edge sword. You have very limited control and if Mac OS elects to burn the SSD and jump into virtual memory too often, your SSD will suffer.
what are you on about? every computer under this roof has 8GB RAM or less, they work for basic use and don't "freeze" like some comments are suggesting.
$hit windows use to say 😂
Spoken like a true Windoze user.
There’s no way you’ve ever used Apple silicon if you think this isn’t enough for basic use.
Looking forward to the obligatory 8gb RAM is/isn't enough debate
How about not any stock debate!
Bought 1 1 left in Penrith
thanks apple for making it easy to avoid this by keeping the ram low
And out will also come those with "8GB of RAM is enough" to justify their purchase LoL
This is low in RAM & low in storage. Hard pass.
This isn’t Windows, 8gb will be perfectly fine for many use cases
I use plenty of Macs in my job and those on 8GB are noticeably slow (to an irritating point), so I don't buy that argument.
I wouldn't personally buy a MAC or Windows device with less than 16GB of RAM nowadays.
are they on the new chip architecture?
Even on windows 11 8gb is slow.
I had to ask work for an extra stick the other day. 95 - 100% all the frigging time.
I have a MacPro 2020 with 32GB RAM, Intel i7 for work (mostly Chrome/Teams), and a Lenovo ThinkPad X1 with Intel i5 gen8 (2018?) and 8GB RAM for personal use. The Windows one is more usable
This is not Intel, the M1 is a different experience entirely.
By many use cases you mean web browsing and youtube? presumably yes, but why would you buy a new computer to do just that when your old one is more than capable?
Writing documents, light coding, hosting web services or using as a NAS would be fine on this.
@Randolph Duke: Because it will be 2024 in 20 days, 8GB does not belong to 2023 let alone 2024. and many people who are looking to buy a new computer do not want to remain stuck with 8GB forever with no possibility to upgrade later should their use cases change.
@OzHan: 8gb is fine for MacOS for many use cases and for many people, and will continue to be fine. If you want to purchase specs for stuff you might do in the future, go for it.
Ram very low
No worries. I'll fill it up at the next service.
I don't understand 8gb nOt eNoUgH wingers.. it is plenty for study / web development , just do not use crap apps created with chatgpt…
I have over 200 tabs open right now
Chrome? Wrong browser.
How did you know my chatgpt made app was crap? 😂
8gb wouldn't be enough for web development imo (unless you're just editing plain html/js pages and only have a few browser tabs open), for apps where you've got your react dev server and running your backend services locally/docker, and 100 tabs open, it struggles.
I struggled with 16gb and was constantly on high memory pressure and relying on swap memory which slowed things to a crawl. Now I'm on 64gb and it works real nice.
That being said I would've still got this if I had some in stock nearby. I'd install macOS Server on it so I can get network Time Machine working, and the update caching for all the Apple devices in the household would been nice too.
RAM very low, this will freeze my 37 open Le Reddit tabs on Google Chrome on Windooooows.
Bill said 640KB should be enough for every body. So 8GB on this is 12x more than enough… ✌️
Missing an order of magnitude there!
Holy crap 12000x. Super computer it is.
Except he never said this. Just a made up quote that's been floating around for a long time.
This will be perfect for pi-hole server :)
I think this might be a lil overkill
Not enough ram /s :P
Do you like abusing nice things?
NIL stock in store in VIC.
Amazing price but no stock.
Great price. I'd buy one if it was near me, but it's a shame stock is so limited.
Apple TV alternative?
Don't think it can run the apple tv OS?
Remember when Macs had Front Row and an IR receiver??
Not really. Apple TV has mature apps that are married closely to the hardware, there’s no real replacement for it even with the most powerful Mac.
Good price without any stock
was 4 in Highpoint, 1 in City and 1 in Camberwell.
Only got 1.
I think this is an amazing price. I have had this model, with slightly more storage (512GB), since it was released and it’s been fast for everything I’ve thrown at it, including Xcode, VS Code, Lightroom and (albeit very basic use of) Davinci Resolve.
For comparison, I came from a 16GB Surface Laptop 3 and it was night and day difference. For portability I also have a Macbook Air that I use to take to the office, etc and it’s also just base M1 spec with 256GB and 8GB RAM and handles work stuff (Confluence, Jira, Figma, Zoom, Slack, etc) without breaking a sweat.
I don’t get the hate for the 8GB tbh - performance is what matters, not numbers surely?
People are automatically drawn to higher numbers = better.
I'm running W11 on a old desktop that's not even compliant, 3570k 8GB RAM, GTX 970 and it works fine
Limited if you're using adobe. The upgrade is well worth it for 16GB, it's almost like a different machine imo.
But still well ahead of competitors.
I can get this - if you need the extra ram then sure get one with extra ram.
My point was that a lot of people don’t need it - I certainly don’t and I’m not alone. I reckon Apple is catering the majority of standard users for the base model and if your use case is more demanding, they’ve got upgrade options for you for the standard Apple tax rates.
I don’t get the hate for the 8GB tbh - performance is what matters, not numbers surely?
There's two ways of looking at this.
Firstly, DRAM is a traded commodity, you can look up how much 8GB of DDR4 chips are traded for (see: https://www.dramexchange.com/). You can see that the price of 8GB of DDR4 is literally around $1.50 USD. Apple charges $300 AUD to upgrade from 8GB to 16GB. The margins that Apple are charging on upgrades are anti-consumer, and are all a part of Apple's pricing strategy - to equip devices with the lowest possible, minimum spec, and overcharge for upgrades that should be basic spec.
If you look at all of Apple's competitors, Apple is skimping on the specs - the base spec of all of the MBA competitors (e.g. X1 Carbon, XPS 13…etc.) are all 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD. This is not limited to laptops, the 128GB iPhone 15 Pro Max is another example - no other competitor ships a 128GB storage option (e.g. the Galaxy S23 Ultra starts at 256GB).
Secondly, I agree performance is what matters, and you're extrapolating from your (relatively simple) use case of light, efficient apps to everyone else. I own a lot of M1 devices, including one with 16GB RAM, and one with 8GB RAM. I regularly work with datasets that are 8GB+ in size, and the performance between the devices with 16GB RAM and with 8GB RAM are significant. There are plenty of other similar use cases.
The reason why people keep "hating" on 8GB is because when any other manufacturer does anything remotely as anti-consumer, people are up in arms about it.
You want my opinion? I want people to have better devices and for them to last longer (to prevent e-waste and save people money). Every "premium" laptop should be shipping with 32GB RAM, and 1TB SSD (and before anyone cries about how this would be so much more expensive, 32GB of DRAM costs $7 vs. $1.50 for 8GB, and 1TB of NAND costs $40 vs. 256GB for $22). If cost is a concern, just bump up prices $20.
(Edit - just to be clear, I'm not saying that 8GB RAM is unacceptable in a $497 Mac Mini, I'm specifically referring to the broader family of M1/2/3 devices that are shipping with 8GB RAM today).
Thanks for this reply. I genuinely appreciate the argument you’ve made and the way you communicated your thoughts.
Maybe we’re saying similar things from slightly different perspectives? I also agree that a lot of people will have needs where 16GB (or more) is considered a must.
And you’re entirely right about Apple’s pricing strategy being anti consumer. A lot of what Apple does is anti consumer and often it feels like their purpose in the world is to extract as much money as possible from every customer they come across.
The thing is my - yes, simple - use cases, while not applying to everyone else, does apply to a lot of people. For us, the 8GB is enough and were Apple to make 16GB the default, they’d likely also push up the base price to offset their losses (which is exactly what they did for the iPhone Pro Max when it went from 128GB to 256GB in storage for the base model). So I’d rather get 8GB at the current price. Would I scoff at 16GB at the current price? Not at all, but it wouldn’t make my simple workflows go faster either.
While bumping prices by nominal amounts to offset costs would be the most consumer friendly path, its impact on profits would mean that Apple going that direction is highly unlikely. Maybe I’m cynical, but I believe that they exist to make their shareholders money, not to save consumers money. Why make a base model with 16GB when the folk that do need it are paying extra for the upgrade?
I’m not really sure about the e-waste side of the debate. Apple products have generally been built with longevity in mind, but the M series is only a few years old now so I guess time will tell.
Damn, would've seriously considered picking one up for that price.
You can sti consider it. You just won't get one.
not a bad price to try out mac
I have a Mac studio, would've used it as either as a secondary machine and/or a server for time machine/files.
Expensive pi?
don't know how to use mac so not buying but 8GB is fine for me on windows. (under this roof the highest RAM a computer has is 8GB)
honestly 48 gb ram is still low
no it really isn’t
how did you arrive at 48GB?
usually it's 8/16/32/64. sometimes 12 but if you add 12 to 32 it's 46?
12 + 32 = 44 right not 46 or Apple calculated differently than windows? Also no single 12GB RAM, 48 will be a combination 32 + 16
32GB + 16GB RAM?
oh didn't think of that one. I wasn't even sure if you could combine two different RAM sticks of different size. 😅
but still never seen a computer at a store with advertised 48GB RAM. almost always 32GB.
24/48gb ddr5 is pretty common right now
Damn thats Cheap!
I just sold that exact model used last month for more than that price!
I was considering selling mine but I wouldn't want to compete with that price second hand!
Gone so fast
called one store straight away which had 1 (dont remember which exactly) and they told me the one that shows in stock was returned for a fault and it is undecided if apple would replace it. Which I call BS on
I don't get it. they are avoiding honoring their own prices?? lol.
It's great machine, i'm using it to edit 4K videos as well, runs like a cyber truck.
Good deal!
punchbowl has 0 now