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The new Mac mini is almost certainly coming
- Thread starter GabrieleR
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Very nice indeed. that's the sonnet tech one right?
i'm thinking of buying one of these myself
Okay, I've reached the point where I can't wait any longer (my Mac Pro's hard resets are getting more frequent, and it's just not worth getting it fixed), so I've ordered the parts that I need to build myself a Hack Mini. This almost certainly means that a Mac Mini update is guaranteed to arrive within a month!
You can make a guide and take videos/photos while doing it. It could be a nice project. Please share your results with us.
I'm mostly just following the guide from TonyMacx86.com, I think the hardest part is getting known compatible components. For a Hack Mini that's a bit easier if you're fine with just slapping in an Intel processor with integrated graphics; in my case I'm pairing an i7-4790T (4 cores, 8 threads, 2.7ghz, 3.9ghz turbo, 45W and HD 4600 graphics) with an Akasa Euler case, since that way it's passively cooled and not much bigger than the current mini, actually it's a bit smaller in footprint but a bit taller, but then it has external power. Coupled with a 500gb Samsung EVO 840 and 16gb of RAM, and it should finish at under £750 in all, plus some extra bits and pieces (a short HDMI cable, VESA adaptor bracket and some others I can't remember).
I'll try and remember to take some pictures and do a post about it; I was supposed to be doing that for my home-made DAS RAID enclosure, but I completely forgot until after I'd built it and loaded with 10 drives, by which point I didn't want to take it apart again (as the cable routing was very fiddly!). Might try and do them both at the same time, since my whole reason for the DAS was so I could move my drives out of my Mac Pro in preparation for switching to either a new Mac Pro or a Mac Mini, but I gave up on the Mac Pro as it's just far too expensive for my actual needs, as much as I would want one
I'm mostly just following the guide from TonyMacx86.com, I think the hardest part is getting known compatible components. For a Hack Mini that's a bit easier if you're fine with just slapping in an Intel processor with integrated graphics; in my case I'm pairing an i7-4790T (4 cores, 8 threads, 2.7ghz, 3.9ghz turbo, 45W and HD 4600 graphics) with an Akasa Euler case, since that way it's passively cooled and not much bigger than the current mini, actually it's a bit smaller in footprint but a bit taller, but then it has external power. Coupled with a 500gb Samsung EVO 840 and 16gb of RAM, and it should finish at under £750 in all, plus some extra bits and pieces (a short HDMI cable, VESA adaptor bracket and some others I can't remember).
I'll try and remember to take some pictures and do a post about it; I was supposed to be doing that for my home-made DAS RAID enclosure, but I completely forgot until after I'd built it and loaded with 10 drives, by which point I didn't want to take it apart again (as the cable routing was very fiddly!). Might try and do them both at the same time, since my whole reason for the DAS was so I could move my drives out of my Mac Pro in preparation for switching to either a new Mac Pro or a Mac Mini, but I gave up on the Mac Pro as it's just far too expensive for my actual needs, as much as I would want one
nice case! What mainboard are you using? I would hate to have to build a hackintosh becasue I hear they are very unreliable and never update well. But, the idea of using a quality mainboard with a good CPU is tempting.
You just did - and if you hadn't - I was going to. <checks store, store up>.
I guess taking the store down to refresh the mini in the middle of buy-iphone season isn't likely.
.. there's always next week ...
More unlikely it is that they make a small silent spec update after waiting so long. It deserves a 5 minute in any keynote i think and as the waiting time goes my expectations became more radical. I expect similar to nMp redesign or death to the mini. It seems we are very away from small spec bump period. (As i write this a small price cut possibility also crossed my mind. Do they close the store when they make small price cuts?)
The main downside to the case is that it limits the choice of motherboard since there aren't a lot of Thin Mini-ITX options out there (not good ones anyway). But I'm opting for the Gigabyte GA-Q87TN; it has two gigabit ethernet ports, four USB 3, HDMI and display port, plus headers for more USB. It also has four SATA 6gbps ports, which is overkill for just the one internal drive in that case, but I have an eSATA adaptor bracket in my current Mac Pro and the ports are just screwed on, so I'm thinking of making a couple of holes in the I/O shield (there should be enough free space) and screwing them on for a bonus pair of eSATA ports
I went for Gigabyte because their boards are better known for Hackintosh compatibility, as otherwise there's an almost identical Q87T board from Asus which is black, which I think would look nicer, but the better potential compatibility and a slight price difference won out in the end!
Not sure about Hackintoshes being unreliable, I think you just have to take care choosing your components (as there's limited driver support for things like WiFi cards, so it's best to go for something with the same hardware to what Apple uses), and don't rush your updates until after some people have checked out any new drivers from Apple for compatibility issues. Of course I'd rather not have to build my own OS X machine, but I just can't justify either an increasingly outdated Mac Mini or an overly expensive (for my needs) Mac Pro, and an iMac or Macbook Pro isn't an option thanks to the huge overhead of the integrated screen (and portability in the Macbook Pro's case).
I was in an Apple Store yesterday, trying to buy an iPhone 6 (i was repulsed, but that's another story), and was stuck there trying to resolve an issue for a long time. I was joking around with the Apple Store employee I was working with, but when I said if I had to wait much longer, the new mac mini might come out, she froze an did not respond. This must be significant (almost certainly)! The new mac mini is almost certainly coming, one of these days!
I would expect it to align with the current rMBP. Haswell with Iris graphics. 8GB RAM minimum. Not sure if SSD would become standard due to cost and smaller capacities, so I woud expect to see 1TB hard drives on all models, similar to the iMac.
Maybe she only heard "mini" and thought you were offering your gentlemen's sausage
Maybe she only heard "mini" and thought you were offering your gentlemen's sausage
That has an unfortunate ring of truth. Or maybe it means that the form of the new mac mini will be sausage-like, just long enough for the wifi antennas.
That has an unfortunate ring of truth. Or maybe it means that the form of the new mac mini will be sausage-like, just long enough for the wifi antennas.
That's it! Like a skinny Mac Pro laying on its side.
I expect it to be HUGE like the new iPhones.