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So is it worth getting a 2012 i5 Mac mini at this point?
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Yes, a quad Broadwell Mini is a future possibility and ray of hope on the horizon.
So is it worth getting a 2012 i5 Mac mini at this point?
I'm taking the plunge and buying a new 2012 Mac Mini i5. The SSD options from companies like Crucial and Samsung are very affordable and the ram upgrades will give me way more bang for the buck than any of the 2014 Mini offerings. I'm slightly concerned about the graphics but I have a feeling that will be all for nothing. I'm sure the random game I get here and there will work just fine. The upside potential is just too good to overlook on the 2012 model.
I think overall I'm going to be very pleased.
What I am concerned about is the overall direction Apple is going with their desktops across the board. It's as if we are going to have an entire lineup consisting of MacBook Air innards. At least it's beginning to look that way.
I also agree with the sentiment of some here that any future updates will feel like lateral moves. We already went downward and hit bottom so lateral will be the name of the game with improvements to the GPU to say they did something to make it the best Mini ever.
I do also think this is a stopgap Mini update to save face and that the long term plans may indeed be to transform it into some sort of media center where it becomes an Apple TV on steroids but a very lackluster desktop. They will likely want to push everyone to the low end iMac which is becoming more and more MacBook Air like from the inside and not expandable at all.
While I enjoyed my 08 iMac it's not the answer for everyone and Apple is really doing a disservice to Mini users to potential and current Mac users on a budget. It's a real shame and I see them making more bad moves like this across the lineup for some time to come.
I'm taking the plunge and buying a new 2012 Mac Mini i5. The SSD options from companies like Crucial and Samsung are very affordable and the ram upgrades will give me way more bang for the buck than any of the 2014 Mini offerings. I'm slightly concerned about the graphics but I have a feeling that will be all for nothing. I'm sure the random game I get here and there will work just fine. The upside potential is just too good to overlook on the 2012 model.
I think overall I'm going to be very pleased.
What I am concerned about is the overall direction Apple is going with their desktops across the board. It's as if we are going to have an entire lineup consisting of MacBook Air innards. At least it's beginning to look that way.
I also agree with the sentiment of some here that any future updates will feel like lateral moves. We already went downward and hit bottom so lateral will be the name of the game with improvements to the GPU to say they did something to make it the best Mini ever.
I do also think this is a stopgap Mini update to save face and that the long term plans may indeed be to transform it into some sort of media center where it becomes an Apple TV on steroids but a very lackluster desktop. They will likely want to push everyone to the low end iMac which is becoming more and more MacBook Air like from the inside and not expandable at all.
While I enjoyed my 08 iMac it's not the answer for everyone and Apple is really doing a disservice to Mini users to potential and current Mac users on a budget. It's a real shame and I see them making more bad moves like this across the lineup for some time to come.
Says a lot about what apple thinks of its new minis when they price the two year old models the same.
2012 i5/i7 model on Apple store at my place is discounted by $100 so it's not the same.
Congrats. Free shipping and no tax at B&H. So only about $50 more for new compared to a refurb at Apple Store which charges tax.
The new minis are disappointing in lack of quad core and soldered RAM, but otherwise I would imagine that they are nice computers for most people who buy them. This is just my speculation, I have no data to back it up, and of course could be wrong, but I would imagine that most people who buy the mini aren't really upgrading the internals anyway. I would also guess that Apple did at least some market research, which led to their decision.
As for the 2012 base i5, if you can get a good deal on it go for it. I'm very happy I didn't wait and got a base i5 refurb from Apple back in August. Added an 128GB SSD and 8GB of RAM for minimal cost and this machine flies for what I use it for. I might increase the storage/RAM in the future, and even though it's older tech I have no problems or regrets getting it. I still have a decently powerful machine and upgrade options for the future.
As for the 2012 base i5, if you can get a good deal on it go for it. I'm very happy I didn't wait and got a base i5 refurb from Apple back in August. Added an 128GB SSD and 8GB of RAM for minimal cost and this machine flies for what I use it for. I might increase the storage/RAM in the future, and even though it's older tech I have no problems or regrets getting it. I still have a decently powerful machine and upgrade options for the future.
The thing is that two years is not that big of a difference in CPU speed advancement these days. The only major thing that has happened in terms of performance in the recent years are affordable SSDs.
Connectivity wise it's fairly future proof with both USB3 and TB1. The only thing that is not so future proof might be the GPU with the advance of higher resolution displays.
I picked up a Mac Mini 2012 i5 2.5Ghz on the Apple refurbished site for £339 on the weekend, it's due to be delivered tomorrow. I currently use my Macbook Pro 2009 2.26 GHz Core 2 Duo as my main machine, it doesn't leave the house anymore and have it hooked up to a 27" 2560x1440 panel. The onboard graphics really struggle with the resolution of the monitor in terms of smoothness, Yosemite transparencies and redraws but I do have an SSD and 8GB RAM which I will switch over to the Mac Mini when I get it and perhaps look out for 16GB RAM for the Mini and put the 8GB back in the MBP and delegate it as a dedicated portable computer.
I'm a bit anxious whether I should have waited for the 2.3Ghz i7 which goes for £479 on the refurb store, it may never show up and the Mac Mini which I did manage to order ran out of stock pretty fast (<2 minutes, limited supplies naturally). To be honest, although I view myself as proficient, and a power user, my needs aren't actually that high. Most of what I do revolves around the browser, with a few miscellaneous apps which don't really need that much power. Occasionally I use Photoshop as I do some web design/general design work now and again and I do use Lightroom semi-regularly. But in terms of future proofing the computer as I'd like to use it for a considerable time and the i7 seems to provide considerable clout over i5, of course the latter being a capable chip indeed. On the other hand, with 16GB RAM and an SSD (perhaps 2xSSDs in RAID 0, very likely overkill), the i5 Mini is a solid little machine. Realistically, I'd like it to tide me over for two years till I think about 5k screens and such.
I'm a bit anxious whether I should have waited for the 2.3Ghz i7 which goes for £479 on the refurb store, it may never show up and the Mac Mini which I did manage to order ran out of stock pretty fast (<2 minutes, limited supplies naturally). To be honest, although I view myself as proficient, and a power user, my needs aren't actually that high. Most of what I do revolves around the browser, with a few miscellaneous apps which don't really need that much power. Occasionally I use Photoshop as I do some web design/general design work now and again and I do use Lightroom semi-regularly. But in terms of future proofing the computer as I'd like to use it for a considerable time and the i7 seems to provide considerable clout over i5, of course the latter being a capable chip indeed. On the other hand, with 16GB RAM and an SSD (perhaps 2xSSDs in RAID 0, very likely overkill), the i5 Mini is a solid little machine. Realistically, I'd like it to tide me over for two years till I think about 5k screens and such.
Yeah, I'm starting to regret not going for a used 2.3GHz i7 instead of a new 2.5GHz i5. I missed the boat on the new ones.
I could sure use the extra power, but having a quiet computer is very important to me as well. And as far as I can tell the quad gets pretty noisy when you start to push it.
So I figured I'd get the 2.5GHz now, and hopefully they will update the Minis with some more powerful and energy efficient CPUs in the future.
£339 is a great price! I wish there was a refurb store here in Sweden.
I nabbed one of those for my boyfriend! They really didn't hang around for long, did they?! I'm so glad I managed to get one, it's such a good deal. The benchmarks show very little difference between the 2012 i5 and the cheapest 2014 mini, with the 2012 actually showing better multi-core performance. Plus, and the RAM in the 2012 can be manually upgraded which is a huge bonus. If you're only planning on keeping it for a couple of years then I wouldn't really worry at all.
You have 14 days to return it - why not watch the refurb store until then? If one shows up, one shows up. If one doesn't, you've still got yourself an awesome little machine.
I nabbed one of those for my boyfriend! They really didn't hang around for long, did they?! I'm so glad I managed to get one, it's such a good deal. The benchmarks show very little difference between the 2012 i5 and the cheapest 2014 mini, with the 2012 actually showing better multi-core performance. Plus, and the RAM in the 2012 can be manually upgraded which is a huge bonus. If you're only planning on keeping it for a couple of years then I wouldn't really worry at all.
You have 14 days to return it - why not watch the refurb store until then? If one shows up, one shows up. If one doesn't, you've still got yourself an awesome little machine.
Haha! It really did not hang about at all, the 2012 gen of these computers is almost turning into a commodity. I have taken that into consideration and I have prepared my trigger finger in anticipation of one of those showing up but also at £140 more I do not think I will get my monies worth from the quad core CPU. I can put that money towards a replacement SSD as I have realised my current one has quite a slow write speed and the 16GB SODIMMs, also the disk bay doubler kit.
You're not kidding about them becoming a commodity. I went to PC Richard and Son which is a decent electronics/home appliance store chain here in New York and I stopped by to play around with the 2012 i5 Mini they had on display and as I was there a guy frantically ran up to the salesman and asked,"These! Do you still have these?!?" And the salesman said yes and motioned to the i5 I was playing around with and the guy shook his head no and pointed to the i7 listing on the display sign next to me and said, "These! This one! Do you have this one?!? I need it now!" The store salesman was a little bewildered by his urgency and and said he will check and the guy was like, "YES, please check....NOW!" He then began pacing frantically as he waited.
Yes, for some it's a life and death thing at for them. It was as if he was running into the emergency room to find out if his loved one survived a horrible accident. Lol!
Apple has created a desperate urgency to return to the year 2012. The i5 mini I got at B&H is now gone. I'm glad I ordered when I did.
As for playing around with the Mini, I rebooted the machine to see how fast the i5 loads and it was a bit pokey but it was running Yosemite with only 4 gigs or ram on the Apple Cinema Display. They display wasn't the issue but the ram certainly was. So I'm sure the 8 gig upgrade I purchased will help. But I'm absolutely throwing in an SSD pronto regardless of the performance boost that comes with that ram.
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It feels great to know its on its way. I put together an entire system for a mere 756.00. That includes an 8 gig upgrade and a refurbished 24 inch Asus monitor. They threw in Parallels software for free but I don't think I'll ever use that. I'm more than happy with my purchase.
BUT, I live in NYC and B&H will slam you with sales tax if you order from there. It hurts but only when I think about it. I went from almost buying on second hand to missing the boat at the Apple online store because they sold so quickly to finding a great deal with B&H and at least I got free shipping. 756 total is not a bad deal at all and I'm going to count my blessings on this one.
You're not missing much with the 2014 as Intel gimped the Hd5000/iris to only be able to show 4K at only 30hz (5K?! Forget about it!) yes, thunderbolt 2 can handle the bandwidth but the Intel gpus can't.
So in reality a 2014 mini isn't going to work with a 5K display anytime soon. I know AMD/Nvidia/dell are working on bonding 2 displayports to get this to work, but so far not a peep from Apple or Intel.
The 2014 edition can run two 30" displays at full resolution, because it has two Thunderbolt2 ports.
The late 2012 model can only run one 30" from the TB/DB connector and a 24" from the HDMI port.
That's it.
Maybe Apple could continue to produce the 2012 models alongside the 2014 models, as they do with iPhones and iPads?
;-)
The late 2012 model can only run one 30" from the TB/DB connector and a 24" from the HDMI port.
That's it.
Maybe Apple could continue to produce the 2012 models alongside the 2014 models, as they do with iPhones and iPads?
;-)
Exactly. I paid $739 for my 2.3 i7 last spring and $839 for a 2.6 i7 last week, very reasonable prices to me. The old-school Crucial 960GB M500 SSDs that I bought before they were "old-school" are $409.99.
I really don't think I am. You're absolutely right,mother just hobbled everything on the new model including the GPU despite it appearing much better on paper. I'm more concerned with real world results.
Just finished installing a new Crucial MX100 SSD as my startup disk and 16 gigs of ram and fired up Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare and cranked all the settings up and there was not so much as a stutter in frame rates. An older game, yes, but a demanding one in its day. I'm quite sure some more recent games will run just fine and everything looks great on my Asus 24 inch LED monitor and the fact that the new model can only do 4k at 30hz is abysmal.
I intend to hold onto this mini for a very long time if these "upgrades" to the mini line keep heading in this direction. I hope the new ones flop and the listen to feedback and get the mini line back in order.
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They should. Like they do with the non retina MacBook. I do t need two displays but I know many out there do. For that, the newer model makes sense in some ways. But they are still sacrificing so much ability to upgrade the other parts of the mini that it might not be worth it for many. Time will tell.
Got my 2.6ghz quad mini the other day. Just finished handbraking 3 movies. Temps never went over 75c and fans never went above the idle 1800rpms. Very impressed, and oh so fast. Have it hooked up via displayport on my Dell 29" monitor and it is smooth, no stuttering. The HD 4000 handles nicely.
Congrats on the new purchase. I just put in a 1 TB drive in addition to an SSD and I'm flying along with work very nicely. Did some hand break encoded also and while mine is not the quad, it handled it pretty well. Loving the mini more and more each day.
my 2014 MM was on its way when suddenly the first reviews came out and i had my order cancelled this morning
also ordered a 2012 Mac Mini on Amazon
i'm not a gamer so having an Intel 4000 instead of the Iris graphics won't make any difference
moreover, my newest screen just arrived and it works well with an older Mac Mini (2011) so i assume it will be ok with the 2012 model
so i ended it ordering a 2012 Mac Mini with a SATA cable, 16 Gb of RAM and 2 SSD to have a RAID 0 bomb running at 1 Tb/s (according to some tests)
it would have not been possible with a 2014 Mac Mini
Apple just killed the newest Mac Mini in the name of profitability... :roll eyes:
so my 2 cents, if you can find an unused 2012 Mac Mini, go for it, you will be able to upgrade it yourself
also ordered a 2012 Mac Mini on Amazon
i'm not a gamer so having an Intel 4000 instead of the Iris graphics won't make any difference
moreover, my newest screen just arrived and it works well with an older Mac Mini (2011) so i assume it will be ok with the 2012 model
so i ended it ordering a 2012 Mac Mini with a SATA cable, 16 Gb of RAM and 2 SSD to have a RAID 0 bomb running at 1 Tb/s (according to some tests)
it would have not been possible with a 2014 Mac Mini
Apple just killed the newest Mac Mini in the name of profitability... :roll eyes:
so my 2 cents, if you can find an unused 2012 Mac Mini, go for it, you will be able to upgrade it yourself
It will get pretty loud depending on ambient temperature, location and workload. But it is a very capable little machine.
The funny thing is the criticisms that people had against the 2011 but particularly the 2012 Mini's was pretty fervent against the i7 quad: people scared of "overheating" and such. I bought 2 immediately and have enjoyed them with no issues whatsoever.
I have hack i7 with HD4600 and it plays HL2 at 2560x1440 with default settings. Just checked my 2012 i5 mini and it plays HL2 on 1920x1200 (monitor native resolution) with default settings. Both play HL2 well. I was thinking on getting 2012 i7 model, but for light gaming i5 is better as it has higher clock speed (2.5) vs. i7 (2.3) and it does matter in the games. Besides, i7 is still commands almost >50% premium vs. i5 bargain.
i7 would help with video encoding, but I feel it is not really designed to take such abuse on regular basis. Some video takes 10hrs to encode (I am referring to really high quality encode with x264). I want mini for myself, not for prolonged metal grinding tasks. I use older Windows i7 box overlocked to 4GHz in the basement for this tasks, it also keeps place worm. For quick encode cores may not even be needed as intel could encode in real time with quick sync hardware encoder (one used by AirPlay).
i7 minis are the crown jewels for serious musicians for sure, for the rest of us i5 is more then enough.
i7 would help with video encoding, but I feel it is not really designed to take such abuse on regular basis. Some video takes 10hrs to encode (I am referring to really high quality encode with x264). I want mini for myself, not for prolonged metal grinding tasks. I use older Windows i7 box overlocked to 4GHz in the basement for this tasks, it also keeps place worm. For quick encode cores may not even be needed as intel could encode in real time with quick sync hardware encoder (one used by AirPlay).
i7 minis are the crown jewels for serious musicians for sure, for the rest of us i5 is more then enough.
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2012 i5 rocks
just upgraded my 2010 mini to a refurb 2012 i5- paid 399 for apple store refurb, got 8gb ram, put in a 750gb wd black 7200 rpm hd- OMG!!!! this should work nicely until apple makes a mini that can be upgraded this easily and affordably (if ever)
just upgraded my 2010 mini to a refurb 2012 i5- paid 399 for apple store refurb, got 8gb ram, put in a 750gb wd black 7200 rpm hd- OMG!!!! this should work nicely until apple makes a mini that can be upgraded this easily and affordably (if ever)