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Lenovo M900 Tiny or Mac Mini

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Miat

macrumors 6502a
Jul 13, 2012
851
805
La la la la la la la... I can't hear you all.

Begone, ye Sirens.

Osty said:
Quote for the repair is pretty close to the cost of the entry level 2014 mini.
Click to expand...
Yeah, funny that. You got to begrudgingly admire Apple's fiendishly integrated pricing policy. Probably half the reason for their commercial success.
 
Osty

Osty

macrumors 6502a
Jul 15, 2008
561
518
Melbourne, AU
Miat said:
La la la la la la la... I can't hear you all.

Begone, ye Sirens.


Yeah, funny that. You got to begrudgingly admire Apple's fiendishly integrated pricing policy. Probably half the reason for their commercial success.
Click to expand...

Well, I'm not in the mood to line up and kiss their arses after my $1000 computer went south 3 months after Apple care expired.

I'm still reliant enough on macOS for my daily driver that I'll keep my Macbook Air. My home server though is another matter. There are better value options out there hardware wise and macOS sucks as a server when compared to Linux.
 
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M

Miat

macrumors 6502a
Jul 13, 2012
851
805
Osty said:
I'm still reliant enough on macOS for my daily driver that I'll keep my Macbook Air. My home server though is another matter. There are better value options out there hardware wise and macOS sucks as a server when compared to Linux.
Click to expand...
Similar story here.

Will have a basic Apple laptop for the foreseeable future, but probably switch the desktop to a Linux box. Don't need anything special, a basic current quad i7 & iGPU in a smallish PC box is fine for me, and I have no expensive specialised proprietary software to buy, so I should be able to save quite a few of dollaroos, and still get a bunch more grunt than I could from an equivalent price Apple.

Both my comps are running well and I take care of them, so hopefully I have enough time on my side to see what Apple do over the next year or so before I decide.
 
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Lankyman

macrumors 68020
May 14, 2011
2,083
832
U.K.
I note the original poster put specs up that show an M.2 storage and a sata SSD. I have looked and looked on the Lenovo sight but I don't see a BTO option for both types of storage?
 
Osty

Osty

macrumors 6502a
Jul 15, 2008
561
518
Melbourne, AU
Just got a quote to replace the logic board on my 2011 Mac mini: $655AUD.

That's $120 less than a new (2014) entry Mac mini or...

$100 more than a Skylake i5 Nuc that's fully user serviceable and supports up to 32GB of RAM.

Gee, I dunno guys, this is a tough one /s
 
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Lankyman

macrumors 68020
May 14, 2011
2,083
832
U.K.
Osty said:
Just got a quote to replace the logic board on my 2011 Mac mini: $655AUD.

That's $120 less than a new (2014) entry Mac mini or...

$100 more than a Skylake i5 Nuc that's fully user serviceable and supports up to 32GB of RAM.

Gee, I dunno guys, this is a tough one /s
Click to expand...

I would say it's a no brainer. Windows 10 is every bit as good as MacOS. This is the avenue I will be pursuing when my iMac gives up the ghost.
 
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Osty

Osty

macrumors 6502a
Jul 15, 2008
561
518
Melbourne, AU
Lankyman said:
I would say it's a no brainer. Windows 10 is every bit as good as MacOS. This is the avenue I will be pursuing when my iMac gives up the ghost.
Click to expand...


It will be once I add the Ubuntu subsystem for Windows.

I was going to run Linux on it as its mostly serving the role of a home server, but it has occurred to me that if I run Windows 10, I can still use iTunes to feed my Apple TV and play my large library of gog.com games to boot. Hell, I can shove enough memory in there to run a bunch of VMs
 
Partron22

Partron22

macrumors 68030
Apr 13, 2011
2,655
808
Yes
I'm liking my Lenovo M900 more and more, despite having to read the "for dummies" book because I haven't done Windows much for 20+ years. It's running cool and quiet with an internal SSD. We'll see after I install another drive for Debian Linux. That should play well with Raspberry Pi's.
Windows 10 is still an unholy hodge-podge of weirdly placed utilities, and it's far too Microsoft-Gardeny, but OS X keeps getting hodge-podgier, and Apple pushes the walled garden at least as hard as Microsoft.
I hope Debian works out. It was pretty nice last year, and the new Pi 3's (Jessie Raspbian/Debian subset) are a big improvement over that.
 
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K

keeper

macrumors 6502a
Apr 23, 2008
513
302
Partron22 said:
I'm liking my Lenovo M900 more and more, despite having to read the "for dummies" book because I haven't done Windows much for 20+ years. It's running cool and quiet with an internal SSD. We'll see after I install another drive for Debian Linux. That should play well with Raspberry Pi's.
Windows 10 is still an unholy hodge-podge of weirdly placed utilities, and it's far too Microsoft-Gardeny, but OS X keeps getting hodge-podgier, and Apple pushes the walled garden at least as hard as Microsoft.
I hope Debian works out. It was pretty nice last year, and the new Pi 3's (Jessie Raspbian/Debian subset) are a big improvement over that.
Click to expand...

Yes been looking myself, may look at a custom build to add a large 3.5inch drive, although I have a large external I could continue to use as I do with the mini.

Will be interesting to see what additional software you buy, I know for my IP cameras I'd be looking at £50 for Blue Iris. Think that's it, plus iCloud for PC on to sync photos and iTunes.
 
L

Lankyman

macrumors 68020
May 14, 2011
2,083
832
U.K.
Partron22 said:
I'm liking my Lenovo M900 more and more, despite having to read the "for dummies" book because I haven't done Windows much for 20+ years. It's running cool and quiet with an internal SSD. We'll see after I install another drive for Debian Linux. That should play well with Raspberry Pi's.
Windows 10 is still an unholy hodge-podge of weirdly placed utilities, and it's far too Microsoft-Gardeny, but OS X keeps getting hodge-podgier, and Apple pushes the walled garden at least as hard as Microsoft.
I hope Debian works out. It was pretty nice last year, and the new Pi 3's (Jessie Raspbian/Debian subset) are a big improvement over that.
Click to expand...

Once you re-acquaint yourself fully with Windows, you will find Windows 10 very customisable and will be able to place all the programmes you have/want in just the right configuration to suit you. W10 is not an unholy hotchpotch, you just need more time to familiarise yourself with the OS.
 
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weckart

macrumors 603
Nov 7, 2004
5,835
3,514
Posting from my Thinkcentre M73. It was a freebie. Came with Windows 7. I treated it to an SSD and a WiFi card: Luckily, a Broadcom 43xx was on the whitelist, so now it is running El Capitan. If I weren't so busy, I would tweak it to have Sierra running but there isn't much point since I switch off Siri on all my Macs.

Nice little boxes. I also saved the earlier M72e from recycling. That one is staying on Windows/Linux. Linux is nicer than Win 10 on that one as the box is starting to show its age.
 
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wikge

macrumors newbie
Dec 13, 2016
5
1
I know it didn't affect these machines, but I can't bring myself to buy a Lenovo after the Superfish scandal. I just don't want to support them. I have my eye on the HP Z2 Mini.
 
L

Lankyman

macrumors 68020
May 14, 2011
2,083
832
U.K.
wikge said:
I know it didn't affect these machines, but I can't bring myself to buy a Lenovo after the Superfish scandal. I just don't want to support them. I have my eye on the HP Z2 Mini.
Click to expand...

If you took that approach across a whole range of consumer goods then your options would be pretty limited as none are without some pretty poor past practices.
 
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wikge

macrumors newbie
Dec 13, 2016
5
1
Lankyman said:
If you took that approach across a whole range of consumer goods then your options would be pretty limited as none are without some pretty poor past practices.
Click to expand...

Yeah, fair enough. I won't say I'm being completely rational here, hah. When the Z2 Mini is released I'll probably choose between that and a ThinkCentre.
 
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philipma1957

philipma1957

macrumors 603
Apr 13, 2010
6,367
251
Howell, New Jersey
Crosscreek said:
Just seen this at SlickDeals. Lenovo M700 Tiny. Seems like a reasonable price.

http://www.woot.com/offers/lenovo-m...846&siteID=lw9MynSeamY-sYhlzsuWKBUECCH9MhB.Qg

Also 10% off with this code: VALPAK2

So around $300 TOTAL.

Make for a nice Linux machine if you don't want windows.
Click to expand...


I have one of them.. 299 with an intel g4400t cpu.

I got a used intel i5 6400t inside it from ebay for 110 I got 2 sticks of 16 gb ram for 120 so 220 + 299 =

519 I then add a 128gb m2 pcie sata 35 bucks


full specs are

1 intel i5 6400t ----------------------------------120 ebay
1 samsung pcie m2 128gb------------------------35 ebay
2 sticks of 16gb crucial ram----------------------110 amazon
1 addon display port to hdmi adapter--------------20 amazon
--------total--------------------------------------- 285

1 samsung stock 128 gb 2.5 inch ssd-------------0
original unit with a keyboard and mouse --------299

just over 620 with tax.

I sold the g4400 cpu
I sold the stock ram got 65 bucks

so grand total of 555 net

win 10

and I may add a linux os down the road


the mini is dead for me.
 
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Crosscreek

Crosscreek

macrumors 68030
Nov 19, 2013
2,892
5,793
Margarittaville
keeper said:
Well just placed the order for my mini replacement as they had an offer on the UK site.

Lenovo M900 I5 , 8gig ram (may upgrade) 128gig SSD.
£538.55 delivered with 3 years on site, can't see Apple producing some thing like this.
Might get another drive and try this hackintosh
https://www.reddit.com/r/hackintosh...l_el_capitan_install/?st=izmzku36&sh=62f80b9a
Click to expand...
Pretty good guide for the hack. You may need to change a couple BIOS setting also. The post also gives you the Kext files you need.
Here is another installation guide that may help to study if you hackintosh.
https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/...ierra-on-any-supported-intel-based-pc.200564/
 
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