8gb vs 16gb memory in Mac mini 2020

With successive OS upgrades, system RAM usage has actually decreased. It’s Apple keeping good on its promise of better memory management, something Apple‘s Craig Fedrighi highlighted when the 2018 was first introduced and was the reason I limited my purchase to 8GB.

The logic of buying more memory just-in-case is, imo, old world thinking. The only solid reason I can think of is if you have many user accounts logged in. For everything else, there’s no incentive to buy more and every incentive to save the $ and put it on SSD.

I would recommend going with 16GB of RAM from the get go. Adding memory to the mini is not particularly difficult, but anytime you or anyone else has to go inside, you stand the chance that something can go wrong.

However, if you do opt to add third-party memory later, Apple typically will still honor your AppleCare+ plan. However, they will not service the third-party memory or any related issues using them. You would have to replace the original memory. Really not worth the trouble or effort in the long run.

FWIW, I have the 2018 model (actually the 2020 is the exact same one). I got it with the 1 TB SSD and 16 GBs of RAM. No regrets with my decision and can run just about any app I can throw at it without any issues. I've been using minis since 2008 and these latest models are amazing.

Apple’s memory management has measurably improved with successive OS updates so absolutely no regrets with my 8 GB. You’ll have no problems running mail, spreadsheets, browsing, video’ing etc. Skip and save yourself $$$. By the way, i7 is overkill too, i3 will do it all.

After a time and another macOS upgrade, you may wish that you had 16GB or more and that’s normal. The nice thing about the NEW Late 2018 Mac Mini, is that you have the option to order or upgrade the RAM later. If you are going to add third party app’s and have the bank, then it would might be best to order the Mac Mini with 16GB. If you are handy and/or are on a tight budget, then you can upgrade the RAM at a later time for less than what Apple charges.

see > https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/mac-mini

FWIW, seeing some of your description, it looks like you will have a lot of apps open

at any given point in time. Some of them could be memory hungry and some

will make use as much RAM as you can give them, and if there is enough, will

operate much more slowly. You could get away with 8GB IF you limit yourself

to the number of open apps in use at any given time. While the OS "may" be

getting compacted, applications tend to get more and more bloated and

need more RAM.

So, unless all I was doing was reading emails, web surfing, and watching the

occasional video, I would definitely opt for 16B out of the gate.

Also, in terms of internal storage, these days I don't consider it to be a

real issue since you can always add external storage and the cost of

external SSD storage is coming down all the time and huge external

HDD storage is getting really cheap.

depending on how many apps one at the same time and how many tabs one has open in the browser I would go for 16

people who work differently could manage with 8

Note: It's "GB," not, "gb." The letter's case makes a difference.

G = giga

B = Byte

b = bit

g = gram or the acceleration of gravity

You sure about that? I vaguely remember the Apple sales guy counting 8 bits and weighing them before ringing up the sale 😂