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Early Impressions and Benchmarks on Apple's 2012 Mac Mini
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I've been buying Macs for over a decade, I've also been buying PCs.
Looks are 100% irrelevant. And are meaningless to system performance and longevitiy.
Thats the issue with Apple these days, they sacrifice hardware health for form factors.
Why not make the mini slightly bigger and put real hardware in it? I'd have to see how hot this one gets, if my Imac is any indication.
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Hey, at least it can be upgraded easily.....so can the ram....and the video card....and the hard drive....in a Mac Mini, not so much the case.
I'll never understand the appeal of the Mac Mini, such a horrid little machine. If your gonna go Mac, work harder and buy a iMac. Or a MBA
But then it wouldn't be mini anymore. And to be honest, can't Apple use lower specs since they have their own OS vs Windows?
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I think the appeal is the price. IMacs start @ $999. I think Minis are great for App developers who want to work on iOS without spending a fortune.
The small size can also be an advantage depending on how you look at it. This is cute: http://porn.serverbear.com/post/31535202179/a-row-of-mac-mini-servers-neatly-lined-up-at
Beefed up mini is no mac pro
I bought a early 2009 Mac Pro 2.66 8 core today and it spanks that mac mini still. I compared it to a 2011 macbook air and memory bandwidth is slower on the mac pro compared to the macbook air.
The Mac Pro great for Handbrake conversions, a speed demon. On the other hand I'm keeping my 2011 mac mini with AMD radeon HD 6630M. It will last me into the future GPU wise. All I will have to do is up the memory to 16GB and maybe a SSD in the future.
I bought a early 2009 Mac Pro 2.66 8 core today and it spanks that mac mini still. I compared it to a 2011 macbook air and memory bandwidth is slower on the mac pro compared to the macbook air.
The Mac Pro great for Handbrake conversions, a speed demon. On the other hand I'm keeping my 2011 mac mini with AMD radeon HD 6630M. It will last me into the future GPU wise. All I will have to do is up the memory to 16GB and maybe a SSD in the future.
It could still be ' mini ', just make it a little bit thicker and put some real hardware.
And no, as far as I know, OSX isn't any less resource intensive than Windows 7 or 8.
Ehhh, just work harder
I think making it around the size of an HP slimline wouldn't be all that bad. We have one of those desks that are built into the wall in our kitchen with cabinets over the top so it's a tight space and that machine sits there just fine and has a small footprint. It's plastic though
O my god!! been working great for five years now though. I like the mini, but honestly PC makers tried those types of PC's and they failed, AIO's didn't do well either. Only Apple can sell those types of machines. I would be ecstatic if they had a tower like the XPS 8500. Guessing they would have to go belly up and OSX or whatever it is years from now would have to be set free, of course then it probably would lose it's appeal to a degree.
A company right in between what Apple,MS, and Dell does would be near perfect IMO. Make a lot of solid hardware for every section they could get in and selectively license out the OS maybe for hardware they don't make, like servers or something. I am not versed well on license stuff for an OS though so no clue on if that is possible.
I would dig it though.
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It could still be ' mini ', just make it a little bit thicker and put some real hardware.
And no, as far as I know, OSX isn't any less resource intensive than Windows 7 or 8.
Ehhh, just work harder
Damn it! I'm in school fulltime and work fulltime. I don't think I can go much harder without a heart attack!
If you do regret it, just buy one of these and put a high-end graphics card in it:
http://www.sonnettech.com/product/echoexpresschassis.html
or
http://www.magma.com/thunderbolt
Sure, they're pricey right now, but by the time you absolutely need the graphics capability, I'm sure external Thunderbolt graphics cards will be a commodity item.
Damn it! I'm in school fulltime and work fulltime. I don't think I can go much harder without a heart attack!
Pfftt, when I started college I bought a G4 tower and a Pismo....and a Dell Optiplex Tower.....so many hours+studying lol. I feel your pain
I think making it around the size of an HP slimline wouldn't be all that bad. We have one of those desks that are built into the wall in our kitchen with cabinets over the top so it's a tight space and that machine sits there just fine and has a small footprint. It's plastic though
I like the mini, but honestly PC makers tried those types of PC's and they failed, AIO's didn't do well either. Only Apple can sell those types of machines. I would be ecstatic if they had a tower like the XPS 8500.
I would dig it though.
Something like this?
http://www.dell.com/us/p/alienware-x51/pd.aspx
Super powerful for its size, upgradeable, real video card, which is also upgradeable, its all easily upgradeable, and STILL maintains a tiny footprint.
I'd be more attracted to the mini if it was something along those lines.
Yup that would be perfect IMO. Desktop CPU as well at the same price point of 799. And a 660m and more RAM. 7200 RPM hard drive as well. Only issue they have Mass Effect 3 showing there....that ending
ugh! hahaADD: Mini does have the i7 over it, but it is mobile so they probably are pretty even on CPU's.
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Nothing Mini There
Apparently, there's nothing mini about these Mac Minis. Awesome specs aboard.. the Ivy Bridget i7 and 1600MHz DDR3 will blow you away if you know what I mean.
Apparently, there's nothing mini about these Mac Minis. Awesome specs aboard.. the Ivy Bridget i7 and 1600MHz DDR3 will blow you away if you know what I mean.
Approaching a MP until you throw a task at it that requires a real GPU and a lot of RAM.
Can I get a free lobotomy with that? ;-) I love my late 2009 mini with integrated graphics despite its deficiencies. Three years old and still working like a dream - well, after upgrade from 2GB to 8GB. mini is not just about specs, it's also about performance relative to size and aesthetics.
Sweet little machines. I run a Mac Mini server 2.0 quad core at home and another at my office. I don't use them as actual servers, but they sure make great little desktops with such a small footprint. I am going to skip this upgrade, because I don't think I'd see that much of a boost over the model I have since I did go server the last time. I also wanted dual hard drives which the primary drive was replaced with SSD's so these babies are fast.
I am glad to see the mid level model now is quad core too. The dedicated AMD graphics on the previous model really wasn't that great, so I think Apple made the right move. I don't play games on mine, but for the intensive graphics work that I do I've never had an issue with the intel graphics.
I am glad to see the mid level model now is quad core too. The dedicated AMD graphics on the previous model really wasn't that great, so I think Apple made the right move. I don't play games on mine, but for the intensive graphics work that I do I've never had an issue with the intel graphics.
No dedicated GPU? Intel has made great advices in graphics, but I think Apple is being overly optimistic by not offering a dedicated GPU in the mini.
These used to be great HTPCs.
These used to be great HTPCs.
Did they at least use a quieter fan on this one, like they did with the retina MBP? My mini is LOUD!
EDIT: Now that I think about it, the thermals in the 2011 mini were pretty much at their limit. Ivy Bridge chips run hotter than Sandy Bridge. It was probably more practical to cool a quad ivy than a dual ivy + discreet GPU.
EDIT: Now that I think about it, the thermals in the 2011 mini were pretty much at their limit. Ivy Bridge chips run hotter than Sandy Bridge. It was probably more practical to cool a quad ivy than a dual ivy + discreet GPU.
Unless you want USB 3 or the hybrid drive, it isn't that big. I guess that means we will be more impressed next time.
Unless you want USB 3 or the hybrid drive, it isn't that big. I guess that means we will be more impressed next time.
Well by buying it I finally converted them to MAC... they're pretty impressed enough without usb 3 or hybrid
Agreed.
I don't really understand what they're thinking. Even a low- to mid-range graphics card would be preferable to what they have now and it couldn't affect the price that much. Hell, offer a low-end Mini with Intel graphics and a mid-range with a graphics card like they did with the last generation. I was hoping my next Mac would be a Mini but I wouldn't consider any of the new ones for the lack of a graphics card. The last generation seemed like it was finally getting into some interesting territory. As nice as I'm sure the new Minis are, the lack of graphics power seems like a significant step backward.
The idea of Thunderbolt is that performance-oriented GPUs will become a peripheral item, swappable and upgradeable like any other external device. We're not quite there yet, with an external graphics chassis costing as much as the Mac mini itself, but within a year, prices will have dropped significantly.
I'm struggling to think how a dedicated GPU would improve HTPC performance. These will handle any video format available without missing a beat.