My "Pro" M2 Mac mini Setup!

foreign [Music] [Music] I first got my hands on the new M2 Pro Mac Mini I knew I was going to eventually do some sort of setup video not only because the Mac Mini doesn't come with any accessories so you really have to kind of deck everything out yourself but also because I think that this Mac is one of the best Macs when it comes to Performance per dollar and I know it's going to be a very popular option for people on a budget who are creative professionals so whether that's video editing photo editing or you know development there's so many different things that this Mac Mini is just a good computer for and I really wanted to kind of show you my setup on how I made this Mac Mini suit my needs better maybe that'll be helpful to you and then just also to show you some cool accessories that I've recently added to my desk so obviously this is an M2 Pro Mac Mini setup so the first thing with this setup is obviously the M2 Mac Mini now this is the base model M2 pro version of the Mac Mini so it has 512 gigabytes of storage 16 gigabytes of memory and the base level M2 Pro chip and that is just going to run you about thirteen hundred dollars and honestly with this base level uh Mac Mini it has been flying through my usual video editing workflows for everything I do for this channel before this Mac Mini was set up here I had a Mac Studio set up here and the fact that I was able to take a thirteen hundred dollar M2 Pro Mac Mini just put it on the desk and do my normal workflow without noticing like that much of a difference I think really speaks to The Testament of this new M2 Pro chip and just the value of this Mac Mini in general now I'm not saying that this is a better computer than the Mac Studio there are things I notice like maybe like render times are a little bit faster on my Mac Studio and stuff like that but just in you know the fact that it you know I really don't notice it too much the fact that I've been using it for three weeks without really any complaints about it yeah that's that's really amazing that this 1300 computer can like replace a five thousand dollar computer kind of just like that for me so that's the first thing I have to say about the Mac Mini I just love it it's a great computer it's flying through my workflows again probably one of the best performance machines for the money right now but you'll notice that my Mac Mini doesn't look like your Mac Mini if you own one or if you're planning on only one you're probably like did Apple send you like a prototype Mac Mini that's more suited for pros no I had to I had to take measures into my own hands because like I just said I am used to working on the Mac Studio and I have gotten used to the way that the Mac Studio works with the ports being in the front it has two USBC ports and an SD card slot right in the front and one of the most important things for me going to this new Mac Mini workflow was to kind of replicate that workflow that I have on the Mac Studio because I find it so easy that when I'm done recording a video I just pop out the SD card and I put it right in the front I don't have to deal with adapters or anything like that and then if I need to quickly attach like um like an accessory you know you have those two USBC ports right at the front so I wanted to find a solution for that with my Mac Mini thankfully there's a lot of hubs that uh people sell for the Mac Mini but I really like this one by sateki and or sateki satashi I think it's I think it's the teshi so I really like this one from Satoshi it's basically like a stand and hub all in one and it kind of color matches the Mac Mini with like a nice aluminum finish and everything so it looks like it's actually part of the machine but the Mac Mini is literally just sitting on top of this there's a USBC cable that comes out of the back and it plugs into the back of the Mac Mini and then what that does is it gives you more Port options right on the front so you get an SD card slot in the front you even get a Micro SD card slot a headphone jack three usba ports and then a USBC Port you can even add storage to this enclosure so it actually accepts M2 SATA drives now these aren't the fastest like they only run around like 500 read and write speed but I'm able to add like a terabyte to this enclosure really quickly for pretty cheap so when I'm dealing with the base model with my low storage that is actually pretty helpful as well but the one that negative I will say about this Hub is that none of the ports on it are really that fast like you're really dealing with just 3.0 speeds so usually when I'm video editing I like to use like external SSD drives that have like at least like a thousand reader write on them so if I am plugging in any external ssds that is going to be in the back of my Mac Mini still where you have the faster data ports but yeah this one accessory basically takes one of the things I loved about the Mac Studio and just brings that over to the Mac mini putting those ports on the front and it solves my biggest issue with the M2 Pro Mac Mini now you'll notice that the Mac Mini isn't sitting directly on top of the desk itself it's actually sitting on a desk shelf this one's made by grovemade and I really like it for the additional storage tray in the middle so one big problem that I have is that I am very messy I'm a very cluttered person and my desk is usually very cluttered with things thrown everywhere on top of it like it is a problem and when I have have a messy desk I find that my creativity kind of plummets I'm usually focused on the mess rather than on the work in front of me so if I go to like you know sit at my desk and I need to put like my laptop down or something else down on the desk well if there's a bunch of stuff there you got to clear it up you got to make space for like it's a problem right but with this desk shelf having those two different little storage tiers we have the shelf and then you have the storage on the bottom means that when I go to sit down on my desk I can you know put my phone in the middle tray put like uh SD cards there put external storage drives there and it's not taking space on my primary desk and then having the you know bottom shelf if I'm bringing in a laptop I can put that under there as well and I just find that that helps me really clear my mind just having a clean space for my desk now the desk itself is actually an Ikea desk this is their bamboo top and it's a very simple desk setup it's not complicated at all it's just that bamboo top it has an Alex jar which I think is in like every single Ikea desk setup up and then it just has two matching legs that were matched for that bamboo desktop so the desk isn't anything special it's very simple and then on the desk you'll notice that there's actually this wool felt which adds a layer of texture and Warmness to the desk and this is also from grovemade and I just think it looks really nice it doesn't really add functionality to the desk but it just gives it a better appearance I think I was kind of like you know I had this bamboo top for a while and even though I thought it looked nice I always felt like it looked like a little like kind of like washed out kind of boring and it didn't add like any complexity to my desk and just having this wool felt mat I just think adds a nice layer a nice touch the desk a nice a nice accent color that really makes it pop and then I really like how you could just kind of lay your keyboard and your mouse your trackpad right on the on the wool mat and it kind of looks very neat and organized and the Mac Mini is bring your own keyboard bring your own Mouse bring your own display right right so that's what's on the wolf felt desk now obviously you can pick any mouse or keyboard to go with your Mac Mini I'm pretty basic because I'm using official Apple accessories so this is the Apple extended keyboard uh with the silver and the black keycaps and the reason why I use a magic keyboard is number one I do like the typing experience on Magic keyboards I've never been a mechanical keyboard kind of guy I've never really thought like you know I need Clickety clackity keyboard all time I kind of find them really loud and kind of distracting even though they do feel nice to type on but the main reason why I still use an Apple keyboard is because of touch ID so all these new Apple silicon Macs work with these wireless keyboards with Touch ID in them and it's just very easy to log into the computer and it's kind of hard to go back to keyboards without Touch ID next to that is not a mouse it's actually Apple's magic Trackpad they actually sell this for their desktop and I really like it so one of the reasons why I use a trackpad instead of a mouse is because I find it way more intuitive to use and faster to use for my workflows so when I'm in Final Cut I really like scrubbing the timeline with the trackpad I think it's just the fastest way to do it to go back and forth between your edits and then instead of using like keyboard commands to like zoom in I just find it so much more natural to just pinch the trackpad and you can like zoom into your timeline again it's very fluid it's very intuitive I find it great and I also just like it for leisure stuff too so if I'm like in Safari you know the scrolling just feels like I'm using my phone again pinch to zoom on like websites I use it all the time and when you have a mouse you have to resort to keyboard commands and even though I know the keyboard commands I just feel like it's faster to do it right on the trackpad so I'm a fan of Apple's magic Trackpad of course on top of the desk shelf next to the Mac Mini is also Apple Studio display right you need a display for the Mac Mini it's not like Apple's laptops or an iMac where it comes with a display you need to get a display obviously you can use so many different types of displays the new Mac Mini has like an 8K HDMI port that can even do like 4K at 200 40 Hertz so you have a lot of options when it comes to displays but the Apple Studio display is still my favorite I know it faced a lot of flack when it first came out for being too expensive but I cannot find a display on the market that is as hassle free for Max where when you plug it into the Mac Mini with one cable you turn on your Mac Mini the display automatically turns on and like with third-party displays I always have to like press the power button to like turn them on and I always found that annoying and then just like the specs match for Mac right it has 5K native resolution which is native for Mac OS running on retina displays the viewing angles on this display are really good gets up to 600 nits of brightness which is pretty bright for this type of display and I just think it looks good right like the colors everything on this pops and they're very accurate too which is important for video editing workflows even though my color and my videos aren't that great so I guess it's not that big of a deal but I really like Studio display it looks nice and also lets me have a very clean desk setup because unlike a lot of other monitors where they come with really crappy speakers the studio display speakers are actually pretty decent they fill the room with sound and hey they sound pretty good for built-in monitor speakers now when I do want like better sound right because like again they're not like the best sound in the world when I do want better sound I also now have um a home pod in this desk setup now this is the new home pod too uh I used to have a homepod mini in the setup which sounded great but it like wasn't like a huge difference from like the studio display speakers in my ears so when I got the homepod 2 that was a big difference right it sounds a lot better it's it's richer has way more bass than the studio display and anytime I want to listen to music or uh play like a podcast I play on the homepod 2 and then also I can just AirPlay directly from my Mac if I need to on that speaker and it sounds it sounds good so homepod 2 really liking the sound signature of it so far and then when I really need to get tuned into the editing process or I'm really trying to pick out sound obviously I usually use headphones funds for my Mac so this is another Stand By grovemade and I really like this one not only because it just looks really cool has like leather and wood again it's a really nice accessory and having these nice accessories just makes me want to work at my desk and like use everything on it so that's that's part of the reason why it's nice to have like these really nice looking accessories to go along with your Mac Mini but also like the notches on the top of the headphone stand are really well thought out so you can kind of position your headphones in different ways and it's not going to slip off and the headphones that I usually use for my Mac Mini is either a wired pair of the master and Dynamics headphones these are really old headphones I don't even know if they really sell them anymore I'll leave a link if they do but then when I'm not using it wired when I'm using it wirelessly my go-to headphones are airpods Max I know pretty basic right there's a lot of Apple stuff in this setup but airpods Max to me sound really good I love how quickly they pair with my Mac and my iPhone and all my other Apple devices and I like the sound on them and they have noise cancellation so if I'm really trying to focus in on something uh I can turn on noise cancellation turn on some like Lo-Fi hip-hop and like edit a video all right but that's my setup I think it's very simple I think it's very clean much like the M2 Mac Mini itself it's a very simple and clean computer so why not do a simple desk setup to go along with it you know I found with my previous setup that I did with the empty MacBook Air it was just a little bit too clutter a little bit too jumbled I'm trying to make my mind less cluttered less jumbled I'm trying to focus more on my work I'm trying to get better right like this isn't the best setup video but I'm trying I'm trying to make videos that are good so hopefully this was kind of good if it was uh you know and you want to buy any of these accessories I put in my video I'll leave links in the description below to all them so you can find them pretty easily but yeah that's gonna be the video hopefully you liked it if you did give me a like if you want to see more get subscribed and I'll see you in the next one

Channel: GregsGadgets

Views: 76,117

Keywords: Mac mini, Mac mini m2, Mac mini m2 pro, Mac mini 2023, Mac mini 2023 review, Mac mini desk setup, Mac mini desk setup 2023, Mac mini m2 desk setup, best accessories for Mac mini, best keyboard for Mac mini, best display for Mac mini, Mac mini studio display setup, m2 Mac mini studio display setup, Mac mini 2023 accessories, Mac mini vs Mac Studio 2023, Mac mini m2 pro video editing setup, Mac mini m2 pro review, Mac mini m2 review, Mac mini desk accessories

Id: v9d886RpI1k

Length: 13min 10sec (790 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 11 2023