First Mini specs recommendation

Hey everyone!

I’m considering a Mac Mini setup, aiming for something that will last a few years. My usage seems pretty light, so I thought the base Mini might be enough, but I’d love your input to ensure I get a good setup without overspending.

My Usage:

Work: • Office 365 and Microsoft Teams are my primary tools. • General web browsing and some online study platforms. • I do handle some pretty heavy Excel spreadsheets and occasionally run Power BI for data processing.

Personal: • Mainly web browsing, but I’m interested in learning light coding to automate a few work processes. • I’d like to start using Photoshop for editing family photos, though I’m a beginner here.

Additional Plans: • I’d like to set up an external drive to store a collection of movies and host my own media server with Plex or Jellyfin. My goal is to stream this media to my Apple TV, so I’m exploring how to use the Mac Mini as a virtual machine to handle that.

Current Setup:

I’m coming from a Dell XPS with: • Intel Core Ultra i7 (16 cores, up to 4.8 GHz) • 32GB RAM • Intel Arc Graphics • 512GB SSD

I’m already into the Apple ecosystem, so a Mac Mini would fit well. My thoughts are to go with the Mac Mini M4, 16GB RAM, and 256GB SSD, but I want to make sure this wouldn’t feel like a downgrade. My internet connection is 1.5gbs but connection would be mainly WiFi.

Would this setup handle my needs comfortably? Or is there another configuration that might give me better value and results.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!