SOLVED Mac mini M4 base config and external drive for Home folder

[Tks]

Good day everyone,

I keep getting across these videos or feeds about using an external drive on which to put the Home folder all the while buying the base model of mac mini M4, or else others who would recommend to get 512Gb storage in the first place for 'modest' users.
Are there any pros and cons to either choice?
My mac mini will never move from its place anyway, so I don't mind even a few wires here and there if I can install a few big games or too or have my whole photo and music library in the home folder.
Thanks or your insights.

 

[Lufbrarunner]

I recently got an M4 Mini for my wife, we went with a 512gb drive but still added an external 1tb NVMe.
I could not see the point in getting the 256gb model and I am sure that people who do go for this configuration, regret soon after.
512gb should be the base model.
Just my thoughts, others may disagree.

 

[Tks]

I recently got an M4 Mini for my wife, we went with a 512gb drive but still added an external 1tb NVMe.
I could not see the point in getting the 256gb model and I am sure that people who do go for this configuration, regret soon after.
512gb should be the base model.
Just my thoughts, others may disagree.

Thank you for your quick reply.
I'm asking because I'm still using my old iMac 2010 with a 256 SSD and I took care never to have more than 200ish Gb on it. The rest was on the internal HDD drive, including all music, photos, video files + Final Cut Pro and After Effects files.
As it still works like magic despite its age, I'm wondering why spend $200 more for a tiny bit of extra storage. Not that money is a problem here, I was thinking about buying a mac mini pro for long term purposes.

 

[TonyAguila]

With all that power in the Mac mini M4, you might soon find more ambitious projects to work with beyond your present plans. The only problem with the base model is the default storage Apple sells, mostly to attract newcomers to the “cheap” cost. I would heed Lufbrarunner’s choice of the 512 gigabyte internal drive and external SSD. I have two 4-terabyte external NVMe SSDs attached to my Studio, and eight large SCSI drives in a pair of Thunderbolt external cases.

By the way, I came across a new NVMe from Western Digital, the 4-terabyte WD Blue SN5000 that’s more affordable than the WD_BLACK 4TB SN850X that I have. $200 vs $280, but slightly slower—5500/5000 MB/s read/write vs 7300/6300 MB/s for the Black. You choose, wisely I suggest, but you don’t want to outfit your sports car with cheap tires, do you?

 

[Tks]

With all that power in the Mac mini M4, you might soon find more ambitious projects to work with beyond your present plans. The only problem with the base model is the default storage Apple sells, mostly to attract newcomers to the “cheap” cost. I would heed Lufbrarunner’s choice of the 512 gigabyte internal drive and external SSD. I have two 4-terabyte external NVMe SSDs attached to my Studio, and eight large SCSI drives in a pair of Thunderbolt external cases.

By the way, I came across a new NVMe from Western Digital, the 4-terabyte WD Blue SN5000 that’s more affordable than the WD_BLACK 4TB SN850X that I have. $200 vs $280, but slightly slower—5500/5000 MB/s read/write vs 7300/6300 MB/s for the Black. You choose, wisely I suggest, but you don’t want to outfit your sports car with cheap tires, do you?

Thank you Tony,
The thing is, I just realised there was a 20% discount on electronics where I live, so I went and got myself a base mini pro (24 ram 512 storage). Everything works great, but not unexpected as I don't use that much horsepower. I'll report on another post on the fact that the display is a 2010 mac.