Hello tzzsmk, I have a question, I only have a Windows PC and an operating system with which I do everything - watching TV, listening to music, Internet, why does Mac have so many systems and why do Mac users have multiple devices for different things? How did you get that on Mac or, in other words, what is the magic of the Mac? greeting

 

If you don't have any use of that mini, sell it. It's too old. I think you will be fine with macbook pro.

Waiting for next gen apple silicon isn't that close. Building a more powerful arm processor than m1 isn't that easy. Even if they release a m1x , i think for music production m1 will be fine.

If you need a laptop skip the air it's fanless. You have to go with pro.

Btw mac mini is also amazing for it's price. If you want a budget option definitely go for it. You won't regret.

But keeping that 2012 mac mini will do nothing if it doesn't work the way you want.

 

Yeah, tried that and I am getting

Error: 0x8000000000000003, Cannot Load 'EFI/Drivers/TestSupport.efi
Status:" 0x00000003

 

MacBook Pro 2013 - cannot load Apple Hardware Test
https://de.ifixit.com/Antworten/Ansehen/568059/MacBook+Pro+2013+-+cannot+load+Apple+Hardware+Test

Yes! This is an issue with in Apples newer MacOS EFI/SMC updates.
Go to an Apple Store to have them run the in store version and speak up!

 

Is there no way of fixing it myself with apple support on chat?

 

Get yourself into VEP or the free Audiogridder

 

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...un-this-on-early-2011-el-capitan-mbp.2131455/

https://github.com/upekkha/AppleHardwareTest

I read this ? Don't know...!
You cannot fix it. Apple has broken Diagnostic mode on some systems with the newer firmware updates on the older systems.

 

that's a very fair question and I'll try to answer briefly, without bloating this thread too much,

I'm a lazy person so I prefer to have multiple devices I don't need to carry around, and with big-enough screen and appropriate monitors/speakers (gosh I hate headphones) - one computer in recording studio, one computer under my TV, one main computer I use for mixing, playing games etc..,
especially since I got Synology NAS(es) to centralize the storage, I basically have nothing in my computers and I don't need to trouble myself with copying/searching/missing my data - definitely I recommend having own local storage, independent from computer - and platform-agnostic - so it doesn't matter if I access it from MacOS, Windows, iOS or Android - everything works

now about the "magic of Mac", there are few things which are simply not happening with Windows:
1) it doesn't slow down - I couldn't believe it myself, but 8 years old MacOS device performs without any hiccups (assuming it runs reasonable MacOS version) while Windows 10 device starts to struggle within 6 months (unless heavily tweaked, completely offline, with updates disabled)
2) it's not as much targeted by malware and by design it doesn't let user fuck things up unless typing admin password at every popup - compared to Windows 10 which by design can't even run admin-privileged processes while another user is using a computer, and being major vulnerable threat without using anti-virus
3) it's designed for creative purposes, and includes far more sophisticated tools out of the box without need of third-party utilities - wanna open word, excel documents, pdf files, or event print to pdf? you can, no need to buy MS Office like you have to in Windows 10; wanna send MIDI over network? just do it, no need to install some third party utility like RTPmidi for Windows; wanna run low-latency audio? just do it, no need to buy dedicated ASIO-accelerated audio interface or bother with workaround like ASIO4ALL for Windows
4) it's designed for users with specific needs, intuitively - wanna sort contents of folder by name, creation date, modified date etc..., mixing files and folders together? impossible in Windows; wanna paste item (while removing it from original location) after you copied it? just press cmd+alt+V....impossible in Windows; want to use your Phone as hotspot? no need to be online to install dependency components as in Windows

sure those aren't "deal-breakers" but Microsoft decided to make Windows complicated (yet rather open...and vulnerable) and although I'm skilled IT guy, I'm getting tired of that bullshit, so I keep Windows 10 only as my gaming PC system, nothing else anymore - because most software I use is multiplatform already, so I'm neither held by Windows or MacOS to do what I need

 

Great statement and well explained. I've just learned a lot ...! And my tolerance for Mac users has increased a lot.

 

My tolerance for this Mac mini has decreased a lot

 

how many times have you changed thermal paste on your 2012 MacMini?
I did about year ago on my 2012 MBP 13" and temps dropped by 20°C in workloads, which imo isn't shabby at all,
also I use TG Pro app to automatically boost fan speed curve to prevent excessive overheating,
and no, I'm not using BigSur there, just High Sierra, because Reaper, RME and Fabfilter all work fine there

 

I haven't changed it since I got it 2nd hand. So no idea when or if the thermal paste was changed.