I’m going to write a series of posts describing my current technology stack and my reasoning behind these technology choices.
I spend about 99% of my working time at my desk. I used to use a MacBook Pro but last year I switched to a Mac mini.
It’s a 2018 model powered by a 6-core Intel i7 CPU at 3.2Ghz with 64 GB memory and 1 TB storage.
It’s a VERY fast machine, and I have no complaints.
I got tired of my 13″ 2018 MacBook Pro. I was working on a Vue/Node project that was just crawling on that machine. My MacBook’s fan would basically run almost 24/7 which is quite the contrast to my Mac mini whose fan runs very infrequently, even with a similar workload.
The only disadvantage of my Mac mini is portability but like I said, I am at my desk 99% of the time. On the rare occasion I actually need to work remotely I just use my MacBook Pro to remotely connect to my Mac mini via Anydesk or do a remote coding session using Jetbrains’ Code With Me plugin.
My Mac mini only has Intel Graphics but it powers my 2 x 4K displays adequately at 60Hz and it is powerful enough to play the latest reboots of classic Starcraft and Icewind Dale perfectly fine.
When purchasing my Mac mini back in 2020, I refused to pay the $1,200.00 CAD upgrade cost to go from 8 GB memory to 64 GB. Instead, I spent around $400.00 CAD on Amazon for a compatible 64 GB kit and did the upgrade myself. The RAM installation was not trivial, but it was simple enough if you can follow iFixit’s detail instructions.
I am looking forward to possibly upgrading my mini to an M1X (or whatever Apple decides to call their next generation M1 processor). I had no interest in the M1 as I am too comfortable with my 64 GB of memory and have no desire to return to 16 GB.
Unless my need for working remotely increases, I can’t see myself ever going back to a MacBook Pro as my primary development machine. If my current MacBook dies I will be replacing it with the lowest priced MacBook Apple offers, likely the MacBook Air. Any MacBook should be able to handle a remote connection to my Mac mini which is really all I need.