Mid-2014 Mini: What are we in for?

Oh heck, I'll vote for this;

Same case dimensions except 15mm higher for better cooling and HDD access.

Bigger PS allowing for more powerful CPU/GPU

Quad i7 and Iris Pro available of course.

An improved method of replacing SATA3 storage.

Two easily accessed RAM slots just like now.

Six USB ports, no SD slot (would rather use a USB3 multi-card reader).

One FW800 slot for backward compatibility.

Two HDMI ports, one above the other.

Two TB2 ports, one above the other.

The 15mm case should allow for the additional ports as well as a larger fan outlet. Offer me this and I'm ready to buy. Yeah I know, too much user upgrade-ability for Apple.

Just out of curiosity, could this be hacked to run OS X?

http://www.amazon.com/Asus-VivoPC-V...F8&qid=1407607682&sr=8-1&keywords=asus+vivopc

I had no idea other companies were selling Mini like PC's.

scottsjack said:

Oh heck, I'll vote for this;

Same case dimensions except 15mm higher for better cooling and HDD access.

Bigger PS allowing for more powerful CPU/GPU

Quad i7 and Iris Pro available of course.

An improved method of replacing SATA3 storage.

Two easily accessed RAM slots just like now.

Six USB ports, no SD slot (would rather use a USB3 multi-card reader).

One FW800 slot for backward compatibility.

Two HDMI ports, one above the other.

Two TB2 ports, one above the other.

The 15mm case should allow for the additional ports as well as a larger fan outlet. Offer me this and I'm ready to buy. Yeah I know, too much user upgrade-ability for Apple.

Click to expand...

You have this already, it's named the Mac Pro...

I bet (not the same I like) on an still minimalist design, with passive cooling (no fan) thermal core design, with either cylindrical or cubic stile, 2 TB2 ports, 4 USB3, 1 HDMI, 1 Gigabit Lan, NO SD, NO Firewire, Cpu/Gpu Same as on the Retina Macbook Pro 13/15, with 8/16 GB of SOLDERED RAM, latest WIFI 802.11AC, on storage single 2.5 hdd plus optional PCI-E SSD, storage from 128gb (ssd) to 1.5tb spinner HDD. And OSX Yosemite.

Base model 100$ cheaper, upto 1500$ or so for a loaded mini with 512gb ssd plus 16gb ram and i7 with iris pro 5200.

scottsjack said:

Oh heck, I'll vote for this;

Same case dimensions except 15mm higher for better cooling and HDD access.

Bigger PS allowing for more powerful CPU/GPU

Quad i7 and Iris Pro available of course.

An improved method of replacing SATA3 storage.

Two easily accessed RAM slots just like now.

Six USB ports, no SD slot (would rather use a USB3 multi-card reader).

One FW800 slot for backward compatibility.

Two HDMI ports, one above the other.

Two TB2 ports, one above the other.

The 15mm case should allow for the additional ports as well as a larger fan outlet. Offer me this and I'm ready to buy. Yeah I know, too much user upgrade-ability for Apple.

Click to expand...

Perfect!

I hope the entry-level iMac with its ULV mobile processor isn't what we're going to get when/if the mini gets updated.

I'd wager a mechanical HDD still because they're cheap and good-enough for an entry-level machine (look at the iMacs, even the more powerful ones), non-pro Iris Graphics (a decent bump over the HD4000), dual and quad core processors in the lower range (not as fast as the ones used in the newly updated rMBPs), etc. Fusion Drive and full-on SSDs remain as options, same for RAM, etc.

If they allow triple head graphics then I'll buy (e.g. 1 x HDMI + 2 x Thunderbolt). Put even a low end discreet GPU in (like with the Mid 2011 model) and a 4 core i7 and I'll buy in a heartbeat without question.

crsh1976 said:

I hope the entry-level iMac with its ULV mobile processor isn't what we're going to get when/if the mini gets updated.

I'd wager a mechanical HDD still because they're cheap and good-enough for an entry-level machine (look at the iMacs, even the more powerful ones), non-pro Iris Graphics (a decent bump over the HD4000), dual and quad core processors in the lower range (not as fast as the ones used in the newly updated rMBPs), etc. Fusion Drive and full-on SSDs remain as options, same for RAM, etc.

Click to expand...

If the new one comes with a crap ass spinner then no one will buy it and the whole update will have been in vain. Shut down the spinner factories and start making more Flash. This is 2014!

Cape Dave said:

If the new one comes with a crap ass spinner then no one will buy it and the whole update will have been in vain. Shut down the spinner factories and start making more Flash. This is 2014!

Click to expand...

It will occurs soon, since most people it's happy with 512 gb, ASAP 512GB SSD become cheap enough the spinner HDD will have its days counted (at least as integral part of the pc, external units and servers/Nas will use it for a long time maybe upto 10 year from now)

Mago said:

It will occurs soon, since most people it's happy with 512 gb, ASAP 512GB SSD become cheap enough the spinner HDD will have its days counted (at least as integral part of the pc, external units and servers/Nas will use it for a long time maybe upto 10 year from now)

Click to expand...

External is fine for spinner. Flash prices are coming down, just like spinner prices back in the day.

MarkusL said:

Because I have a NAS for all my media files. For me and many others 128 GB is plenty enough for the OS and all installed applications. It's a perfectly acceptable size for the Mini, as long as there are BTO options for those who have other needs.

The lack of storage options in the 2012 i5 Mini is a disgrace. "You want an SSD? Then pretend the CPU has anything to do with it and buy the i7 model instead". Yes, I know I can put an SSD in it myself, but I wouldn't feel good about buying an intentionally crippled machine so I have skipped the 2012 Mini.

Click to expand...

Can i ask what you use for your NAS? Is it a time capsule? I've played around with different USB routers and dd wrt but the read/writes have been REALLY terrible. From the benchmarks i've seen the time capsule is the only one worth a damn, especially if you have wireless AC.

For me I want at least a TB for my iPhoto library. I want to have photos and videos and keep it locally. Furthermore i have a couple VMs that i play with and those can take up gigs each. And i have blu ray rips.

From my experience I have wireless N in my place with a windows 7 desktop hard wired to the router. I have to use samba which can't keep up with streaming an uncompressed m2ts from the win7 desktop to my macbook pro. Its pathetic.

Ridley said:

Can i ask what you use for your NAS? Is it a time capsule? I've played around with different USB routers and dd wrt but the read/writes have been REALLY terrible. From the benchmarks i've seen the time capsule is the only one worth a damn, especially if you have wireless AC.

For me I want at least a TB for my iPhoto library. I want to have photos and videos and keep it locally. Furthermore i have a couple VMs that i play with and those can take up gigs each. And i have blu ray rips.

From my experience I have wireless N in my place with a windows 7 desktop hard wired to the router. I have to use samba which can't keep up with streaming an uncompressed m2ts from the win7 desktop to my macbook pro. Its pathetic.

Click to expand...

I have this one from Seagate. I'm not sure if it's always the best value for money, but I got a good deal on the 2x2 TB one. Now I see on their website they have some new models that were not there when I got mine, so maybe this one is on the way out?
http://www.seagate.com/gb/en/extern...-storage/business/business-storage-2-bay-nas/

I connect it with ethernet (via the wired connections on a TP-LINK WR1043ND) and access it using NFS. My house was built with cat6 to every room, so I have not needed to try it wirelessly. Some network planning is needed if you get one of these, it's noisy and you can't keep it powered on in the same room as e.g. your TV or your bed.

If I remember correctly I get 50MB/s reading and a little slower for writing. The write speed never bothered me because any time I am writing to it I am limited by the source such as my internet connection or my optical drive. I use it as a semi permanent storage for backups of all my blurays, DVDs and CDs. And then I have the usual hoard of backups of the hard drives of all my old computers... that I will go through some day to see what needs to be kept. For my use case the performance is more than enough, but I'm not sure how it would feel to e.g. run VMs off it or doing any kind of media editing where data needs to go back and forth.