Should I get M2Mini w/ 8 or 16 GB RAM?

If your current iMac is the 2019 21.5-inch model with a mechanical hard drive, that is why it is slow. You could install all the RAM you can afford and not see a perceptible difference at the keyboard.

From 2012 though 2019, Apple used slow and down-specced laptop-class 2.5-inch hard drives as entry-level storage in 21.5-inch iMacs. That was the reason for slow. I have data showing that those drives were up to 30% SLOWER than the entry-level mech drives in 2011 iMacs. Bad.

However, the fast entry-level SSDs in m3 iMac is not going to be much good if you go for the base 256GB storage option. We are already seeing reports here from people who cannot upgrade their OS because they cannot make enough free space on a 256GB drive. Consider the 512GB option the minimum for modern macOS versions.

If you

• Do anything other than light work,
• Plan to keep the new Mac a number of years before replacing it, or
• Plan to run applications whose "Recommended" (not "Minimum") system requirements call for more than 8 GB of RAM (such as Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom, or Lightroom Classic)

then it would be a good idea to get 16 GB or more. You can't expand RAM on any Apple Silicon Mac after purchase.

I would guess that the sweet spot for most people is 16 GB – 32 GB of RAM. I would think that for the things which you mention, 16 GB would be fine.

NOTE: I've seen some people say that Chrome is a bit of a memory hog. Another Web browser like Safari or Firefox might be more parsimonious with RAM, if you tend to keep your browser running for a long time, or to have lots and lots of tabs and windows open.

You can add external storage. Provided that the internal drive has enough room for the things that must live on the startup volume, what to do about storage is largely a question of speed, cost, and convenience.

Some points to consider:

• Using Migration Assistant becomes more of a challenge if the new drive does not have enough room to hold all of the old drive's data. Since you only have 90 GB of stuff and a new Mac would have at least a 256 GB drive, you would not run into this problem.

• If you are using iCloud Photos, you might want to keep the system Photo Library on the internal drive – or on an external drive that will be available when the Mac is turned on. (The Mac needs opportunities to update it.)

• If you were buying a laptop, carrying around external drives could be a bit inconvenient. Since you are buying a desktop, that's not quite as much of an issue.

• On M2 Macs, the 256 GB SSDs are reportedly slower than the 512+ GB ones. The reason: the use of a single, high-density 256 GB flash chip (which eliminates the possibility of accessing two chips at the same time). The "slow" SSD is still faster than any USB 3 / SATA SSD on the market, so this might not matter to you.

The 2019 Intel CPU iMac has a video card GPU with its own dedicated memory, was available in different configurations from the typical 2GB or even up to 8GB itself!

The new Macs have "unified" memory, that uses the RAM for both CPU and GPU. There is no dedicated graphics memory like the older Intel Macs had. So, maybe plan for adding a bit more of the new "unified" memory than what you have been accustomed to, to account for the portion of the unified memory that is shared for graphics.

If you are really using only 90GB, and don't foresee getting into a hobby that sucks disk space like video or photography, then the 512GB should be enough, but believe me you are the rare case of someone who can survive easily with *less* diskspace on a new computer.

Most folks get the 512GB model when they are using 750GB on their existing 1 TB, and find out too late that they made a bad mistake.

Yeah,👍 pretty much for what everyone posted here, only thing to remember is that the new Macs( Apple silicon) are built to order so that the RAM/memory is not upgradeable after you bought it… with your 2019 iMac, the RAM is upgradeable, up to 64 GB, but it’s not something the average user could do, not at all, I’d recommend letting an AASP

( apple authorized service provider) do that…

Macsales.com says that much RAM would cost you about $163 USD , roughly…

John b

IMHO you should be set for quite some time, spencerfromlamy. I don’t really like or “Dig” Dell monitors, not because they are “bad” or are of lousy/poor quality—- far from it… I don’t like them /dig them because they used to/ do have a reputation as being Mac-unfriendly, eg they don’t really play nicely/well with Macs as a general rule, however, my last Dell monitor I used was 12 years ago so things may have improved a bit since then, hopefully… as an alternative , you can get an HDMi 2.0 + HDCP 2.2 equipped “smart”tv and use that as a monitor super easily, for me it’s almost a “no-brainer” ( but not quite ) … all you’d need is an Appropriate hdmi cable ( hdmi 2.0 with HDCP

2.2 support, also called super/high speed HDMI) of whatever length you needed, plus the tv set, and your new M2 Mac Mini… and you could be rocking and rolling , ready to go , all set up, within, say, 45 minutes…

i used to have a 43” 4K LG business class commercial monitor, but sadly, i had an accident with it, got a little dumb , careless and foolish, and…D’OH !!!! … so I bought an LG 32”

4k monitor as I couldn’t afford to get the 43” LG monitor repaired and was cheaper to buy a new/refurbished/open box monitor Then to try to gee it repaired… I had a big sad on that day but it’s all long gone now, besides, who really needs 3 DisplayPort inputs on one monitor anyways ?

John B

Yeah, you make some excellent points, spencerfromlamy, Dell may play nicer with Macs these days… so either would be fine IMO, even “scam-sung” 🤣.. and I agree with you, 32” is just about the right size for a monitor for me… I went with LG for both my Mac monitor and living room 4K tv and haven’t regretted it one bit ever, both have been good + reliable since Day 1… both working like champions… and that was 5 years ago.. maybe u can find a good deal on an “open box” monitor or refurbished one ??? I paid $780 for the 43” LG + shipping+ taxes, and I thought at the time, it was a great deal.. can’t be buying another one of those any time soon… 💵 🤯🤣

Yes, absolutely 16 GB. f\Also get the largest SSD drive your budget can afford, at least 500 GB and preferably 1TB.

If you got the money, I would do it., the more RAM the better in my opinion

8 GB isn't really feasible on any computer nowadays. Unless, that is, all you plan on doing with it is browsing the web, reading/sending emails and messages, and playing Solitaire.