Don't confuse unified memory (The way the CPU reacts with the ram) with normal memory you get in a standard PC, as due to the way it works it allows for less to perform better than what it should. (You don't need quite as much)
You will regret it if you go with 25GB of Ram, even if you transfer the complete OS to an external drive. (Go for 512GB either from Apple or 3rd party suppliers like in the Mac Studio)
Shop around, you can get a just as good enclosure for a lot less than the one you posted. (Should be about a $20 saving)
When moving critical files to an external drive, pay a bit extra and go for recognised brand name rather than trying to save a few $. (Alternative backup the cheaper drive manually on a separate drive hourly rather than daily)
Most of the You Tube videos you see are by users, not computer techs, so don't take everything they say as gospel.

Bill

Personally, I’d be utterly amazed if anyone on this forum could do anything that would tax this new base Mini..!

Who buys a car that does 200mph+ if you never go over 70mph?! Yes, Apple make an M4Pro chip. You can get Windows PC’s with $2000+ video cards. But do you NEED one?

Let’s not confuse ‘specs’ for ‘capability’. For what WE do, this is likely to be the last computer we ever buy. Nobody’s scoring for Hollywood, we aren’t running TB sized orchestral libraries (that cost $1000’s) and editing multiple 8K video streams in Dolby Atmos. In OUR lives, it’s doubtful anyone’s even doing 24 track audio production using stock plugins and maybe editing a 1080p YouTube video. Russ is possibly the only member here doing anything more than that…

No need to spend more than the base M4 Mini. It’s tiny, it’s whisper quiet (useful in a studio!), elegant and secure. Ticks all MY boxes for sure!

Yes, but just like larger roads to reduce congestion just leads to more cars, more powerful computers mean software manufactures will make programs even bigger, that tax even the M4, thats just how computers go. (If it didn't everything would still be running on a Commodore 64)

Bill

Look, if you NEVER bought a computer because sometime down the road there’d be some software it can’t run, you’d never have bought a computer!

Take the absolute fastest, most expensive computer currently available… your argument is equally valid for THAT! Sooner or later, someone is going to come up with something it can’t run. So don’t get that either… wait a while. Rinse and repeat.

In the meantime, everybody that bought a computer that worked well NOW got all the work, made all the music, made all the videos, and you’re sitting in an empty room going ‘maybe it won’t run next year’s programs’.

What I look for in tech is a generational move forward, not an incremental one. I’ve done it with arrangers, with software, with everything I can. The M4 Mini is generational. It outperforms previous TOTL models from only two or three years ago, at close to a tenth of the price. The M2 and M3’s were incremental models. Performance jumps of 10-20%. M4 is benchmarking at 50-80% increase at creative tasks (audio track counts, render speeds for 3D, compiling code etc). Apple generally has two or three models before the next big jump. And usually introduced the big jump on their TOTL high dollar computers first.

This is the first time for over a decade that the leap forward got introduced in its BOTL range first. Now’s the time, especially with Trump’s threatened trade war with everywhere that makes the stuff we use! That $500 M4 might be $650 next year… 🤬