let's not waste any time so I'll start with ram the good news is that Apple made this decision much easier with the M4 Mac Mini because it now starts at 16 GB of RAM instead of 8 GB the bad news is that you can't add more RAM in the future so you need to make the right choice at the purchase stage long story short though you're almost certainly not going to need more than 16 GB on the M4 Mac Mini I did an 8 versus 16 versus 24 GB Ram comparison video a while ago and found that while there is a noticeable difference between 8 and 16 gigabytes there isn't when you go from 16 to 24 gigabytes and these differences are only noticeable when you're doing something more intensive like you know exporting hundreds of Lightroom photos with other apps open in the background or extreme multitasking for example the only people that should consider more than 16 gbes are those who know they need it like frequently using an app that needs a lot of ram if if you're wondering whether you should pay extra as in the cost of another whole base model M4 Mac Mini extra and get the M4 Pro Mac Mini instead here's some straightforward reasoning you should only consider the M4 Pro if you're going to be frequently and heavily utilizing the CPU or the GPU or both if you look at both the M4 and M4 Pro Mac Mini base model configurations you'll immediately notice that the M4 pro has 8 GB of additional RAM and double the SSD capacity but it also has double the amount of CPU performance cores and six additional GPU cores which is a 60% increase over the M4 and in CPU or GPU heavy workflows this often translates into significant performance increases but again you're only going to notice this if you're frequently doing intense stuff and the M4 chip can still do those things it just takes longer and is less efficient also if you're one of the three people in the world who own a Thunderbolt 5 accessory the M4 Pro is the only version that comes equipped with the Thunderbolt 5 ports now this isn't really important right now but you might want to future prooof because there will be more Thunderbolt 5 devices coming out eventually including possibly updated Apple monitors with 5K resolution and a 120 HZ refresh rate speaking of monitors if you're looking to pick one up to use with your new Mac Mini check out LG's brand new 34in my view smart Monitor and big thanks to LG for sponsoring this section of the video the LG 34 sr60 QC is perfect for productivity with its curved 21 by9 aspect ratio wqhd ultrawide display in fact it's a 34% wider view than a traditional 16x9 aspect ratio monitor now this 21 by9 aspect ratio also allows fullcreen playback for an immersive viewing experience when watching many movies or TV shows it also has has a 100 HZ refresh rate for smooth scrolling and also a bit of gaming and has multiple ports on the back for increased connectivity it also comes with LG's web OS so you can easily access streaming services like Netflix or Prime video and it has AirPlay 2 screen sharing Bluetooth and it even comes with a Magic Remote so check out the link in the description and don't miss the Black Friday deals on the LG my view smart monitor moving on to the SSD is the 256 GB SSD enough fun fact only 215 GB out of the 256 are usable after you take into consideration the Mac OS operating system and other system files and that's also after deleting unnecessary apps you won't use like iMovie or garage band and this is where it gets complicated for the M4 Mac Mini because you have two options pay Apple's insane upgrade price or provide your own storage in the form of an external drive the simple answer is don't give Apple any more of your hard-earned money the 256 GB SSD is usually enough to install your apps to and then you can just you know move certain folders and files to an external SSD and obviously store all of your big stuff like movies videos and photos there too you can even remap your entire home folder to an external SSD just beware because this process is a little complicated so I don't usually recommend it to most people Pro tip in the App Store settings if you you have an external drive attached to your Mac Mini you can select download and install large apps to a separate disk and select your external drive so any new apps you install larger than 1 GB in size will just go straight to your external drive now putting most of your data on an external SSD works really well I'd say like 98% of the time but it's not entirely Flawless some applications either need to save data to your internal SSD or don't like to be installed on an external drive and may give you errors also if you're thinking of installing Mac OS to an external drive and booting the Mac Mini from it and completely bypassing the internal drive just be aware there may be some compatibility issues for example some users have experienced problems with Mac OS features like apple intelligence not being available when booting from an external drive so if you think you might run into any of those issues I mentioned uh for example if you're a developer and you have large xcode libr or apps that need to be on the internal SSD in that situation you might consider upgrading the SSD uh even though it is still a complete ripoff side note the 512 GB SSD is noticeably faster than the 256 GB SSD I should also mention here that teardowns have shown that the SSD drive inside the M4 and M4 Pro Mac Mini is removable so technically it can be replaced or upgraded the reality is that currently it's a very complicated process involving resoldering new flash memory modules onto the SSD now there may be third- party options in the future from companies like OWC for example that are more plug and play but at the time of this video they're not available and may never be now unless you are an absolute baller and fored out an extra $400 to $800 for more storage uh you will need some kind of external storage device now there are a few options out there a cheap but slow spinning hard disk or entry-level ssds like the trusty Samsung T5 none of these will get you anywhere close to the speed of the internal ssds that Apple uses in the M4 Mac Mini and if you've got a lot of apps running on your external SSD that's not ideal and it is actually going to impact everyday performance here's my solution a highquality thunderbolt 3 Drive enclosure with a fast nvme SSD inside it's amazing fast very similar speeds to the internal SSD and only cost me around $200 for 2 TB of storage about 120 bucks for the enclosure and 90 bucks for the 2 TB SSD much better than what apple offers for the same $200 and if the SSD fails or if I want to upgrade to you know 4 terabytes or even 8 terabytes in the future uh I can just replace the SSD drive let me know in the comments if you want a full video on this for now I'm just going to link all the components I used in the description okay let's talk about the power button the location on the button is just plain dumb I don't care what anyone says it is uh because you can't even slip your finger underneath the Mac Mini you have to physically lift up the entire Mac just to access the button there's also no way to turn the Mac Mini on once you shut it down without pressing the power button I tried with the Apple keyboard a Bluetooth mouse and even a wired keyboard uh nothing worked you have to press that button and look if the Mac is just sitting on your desk out in the open it's not a massive deal I mean it's pretty easy to get to the button in that situation but it's a massive pain in the ass if your Mac Mini is located somewhere tight like uh under a desk shelf for example where you can't easily lift up the entire Mac and get your finger back there to access that button the good news is that there's no need to frequently press this button because the mini is designed to just be put to sleep rather than shut down every day and sleep mode the Mac uses almost zero power just 1.4 WS so theoretically if your Mac was asleep uh you know 24 hours a day every day for a whole year it's only going to cost you about $3 in electricity just beware that if you're setting up a touch ID capable keyboard you'll need to double press the power button to complete setup now the Mac Mini is a desktop Mac obviously uh but it also doesn't come with any accessories for the mouse I recommend either the extremely popular popular MX Master 3s for around 90 bucks or for less than half that price I've been really happy with the Logitech signature m650 the m650 is Bluetooth uh comes with a USB receiver has a removable and replaceable battery thank you for that Logitech that lasts up to 2 years and you can configure it with either a left or right-handed version and a small/medium or large size to suit your particular hand for keyboard if you want touchup functionality unfortunately your only choice is the overpriced Apple magic keyboard uh the keyboard I'm using right now though is the newy a75 V2 it's keys are mechanical so the typing experience feels great uh it connects via Bluetooth and it's designed specifically for Mac OS as you can see with the icons on the key caps I'll link all of those in the description but if you want to check out my full review of the a75 V2 I'll make that available right here for you to watch