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Is 2012 new mac mini coming?
- Thread starter stvchu
- Start date
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The mixed feelings in this thread show where my concerns are. I have came to see that Apple have a pattern when releasing products, they add a few features, remove a few features and forget a few features.
Now certain specifications will be irrelevant to myself,and others I will be holding out for.
I need an ethernet port for example, but could happily omit the firewire port. I will get one, I just hope it does more or less what I need out of the box.
What? There are people here who seriously think that the new Mini might not have an ethernet port?
I could see them dropping Firewire, but if they did that, it wouldn't likely mean one less port. Instead, what used to be a Firewire port would either be an extra USB 3 port, or an extra Thunderbolt port (I'd bet on the latter, since then you could buy their Thunderbolt-to-Firewire dongle).
I certainly wouldn't mind if the base configuration had 4GB of RAM, an SSD, and no dedicated GPU, at the same price as the old base model. For my needs, I'm using my big Tower running Windows 7 Media Center to record TV shows as well as to act as a media server for all of my movies (which are stored on multiple small external drives connected via USB). I'd kind of like to replace this with a Mini. It would still be a bit "messy" (due to all of the external drives), but would be a huge space saver compared to the tower I've currently got.
I could see them dropping Firewire, but if they did that, it wouldn't likely mean one less port. Instead, what used to be a Firewire port would either be an extra USB 3 port, or an extra Thunderbolt port (I'd bet on the latter, since then you could buy their Thunderbolt-to-Firewire dongle).
I certainly wouldn't mind if the base configuration had 4GB of RAM, an SSD, and no dedicated GPU, at the same price as the old base model. For my needs, I'm using my big Tower running Windows 7 Media Center to record TV shows as well as to act as a media server for all of my movies (which are stored on multiple small external drives connected via USB). I'd kind of like to replace this with a Mini. It would still be a bit "messy" (due to all of the external drives), but would be a huge space saver compared to the tower I've currently got.
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The current mini is still profitable at the current price. All we're talking about is replacing the CPU with a newer one int he same price range, increasing memory to new memory that's cheaper than the old memory was with the old model came out, etc. Any cost cutting they save is just increasing their profits to make a crappier product which is exactly my point. This is Timmy's Apple. Dump the cheapest low-quality crap they can on the fanatics while banking on the Apple name. Except that only lasts for so long before the whole company is in the toilet.
I haven't bought a mini since they had DVD drives and I'm still not willing to. The product is DOA to me without one. You take a huge performance hit to have such a tiny machine so to add an external drive cluttering up your desk is total stupidity.
You honestly think thunderbolt means you don't need USB3? First from a technical standpoint they're not the same technology, thunderbolt uses PCI-E laneways to be an external local bus access. If you really think it's smart to connect mass storage that way, you don't know computers.
Second I can 2TB WD Passport USB 3 for $140. The 3TB mybook is even cheaper. Can you find me a thunderbolt HD with the same size and performance that's not at least double that (including cables)? Thunderbolt is a dead technology. The only people who would have found it useful are the mac pro users except the pro doesn't have thunderbolt.
I've never used a thunderbolt port, I'd trade it for another USB2 in a heartbeat. I'd trade my thunderbolt port for a 25 cent discount on the cost of the computer except that buying a computer without USB3 is a dealbreaker in 2012.
Lurker who simply had to say something ....
^^^ Is this FACT or simply your OPINIONS ? Either way, you definitely have a lot of pent up aggression regarding the mac mini. I would suggest for your own mental stability, and for the safety of those around you, that you steer well clear of the "mac-mini" sub forum in future. This move, in my very humble opinion, will definitely help you move on with your life
^^^ Is this FACT or simply your OPINIONS ? Either way, you definitely have a lot of pent up aggression regarding the mac mini. I would suggest for your own mental stability, and for the safety of those around you, that you steer well clear of the "mac-mini" sub forum in future. This move, in my very humble opinion, will definitely help you move on with your life
The mini is the same price as iMac once you make them comparable.
With the mini you still need the keyboard and input device included with the iMac: (just for fair comparison)
Keyboard +60
Mouse or trackpad +69
So add $129. Already you are at $729 and you still need a monitor.
Add $300 for 23" Dell IPS and you are $150 below the cost of a low end iMac but you have Intel graphics and a slower proc. (also DC, not QC like the iMac).
Obviously if you have a keyboard, input, and monitor hanging around you don't need to buy so your out of pocket expense is less, but part for part, if a buyer is starting from scratch, they are effectively the same price. The entry mini is a tad less b/c it has a slower dual-core proc to the iMacs faster quad, and also lacks the dedicated GPU of the iMac.
I love the mini and hope Apple continues to beef it up w/ a QC proc and better video at least as CTO options. I'm not an iMac fan b/c I like to do my own repairs and upgrades and it's a PITA w/ the iMac. I think the current price points are no bargain, but I don't think Apple is going to make the line regressive and strip it down. That would be a disaster for the line.
They are NOT going to drop the ethernet port!
They can't sell something as a "server" if it only has WiFi built in.
They can't sell something as a "server" if it only has WiFi built in.
A couple of articles about the new Mac Minis.
http://9to5mac.com/2012/10/18/apple...gurations-for-new-mac-minis-and-likely-imacs/
http://9to5mac.com/2012/10/18/new-m...ar-pricing-to-current-models-retina-unlikely/
Basically saying, Apple is doubling the amount of RAM you can get in a BTO Mac Mini and that the pricing is to stay the same.
http://9to5mac.com/2012/10/18/apple...gurations-for-new-mac-minis-and-likely-imacs/
http://9to5mac.com/2012/10/18/new-m...ar-pricing-to-current-models-retina-unlikely/
Basically saying, Apple is doubling the amount of RAM you can get in a BTO Mac Mini and that the pricing is to stay the same.
Yeah, but without a dedicated graphics card - so it's basically worthless for every demanding home user. Back then in the Sandy Bridge age there were no 35W Quad-Core CPUs, so Apple didn't have a choice. They have now.
No, that's definitely not the only use for modern GPUs. Applications like FCP X or Aperture profit enormous from a dedicated GPU. And no, its not only a measurable difference, if you load for example RAW files from a D800E, its feel able.
Oh yeah, and a game now and then isn't too bad either.
If they shrink the Mini, it may be in the same fashion as the Airs and Retina.
SSD ala Retina/Air
Soldered on RAM
Does the Mini need to be thin? Not really but it may be thinner if said items were applied.
I think it would be weird to remove Ethernet but Apple does whatever they want. I can see Firewire disappearing. It already did on the Retina. Apple can make money selling dongles. USB3 definitely possible or expected.
I bought the Mini last year to hold out for a new Mac Pro. Photo work but have been taking on more simple video projects. It's been a year now...
Quadcore with discreet would be make it a solid buy. I do feel the Mini is a good investment. Not as featured as an iMac or Laptop. Not having a screen, keyboard and etc perhaps makes it more valuable. Fewer things to worry about breaking down. Certainly not as cheap when they were first announced. It holds value fairly well, at least what I see online.
It may never be as powerful as a base iMac because of (85w?) power constraints. Someone else (Poki) said it earlier that Quad Sandy drew too much power for a discreet and quad processor option.
Chances are Apple doesn't want the Mini too powerful. The iMacs, Retinas are attractive and the Mac Pros are overkill for some. Again, Apple does what they believe is right for their customers...and board.
If the Mini can't support an Ivy quad with discreet then at least upgrade the vram on the Dual models.
SSD ala Retina/Air
Soldered on RAM
Does the Mini need to be thin? Not really but it may be thinner if said items were applied.
I think it would be weird to remove Ethernet but Apple does whatever they want. I can see Firewire disappearing. It already did on the Retina. Apple can make money selling dongles. USB3 definitely possible or expected.
I bought the Mini last year to hold out for a new Mac Pro. Photo work but have been taking on more simple video projects. It's been a year now...
Quadcore with discreet would be make it a solid buy. I do feel the Mini is a good investment. Not as featured as an iMac or Laptop. Not having a screen, keyboard and etc perhaps makes it more valuable. Fewer things to worry about breaking down. Certainly not as cheap when they were first announced. It holds value fairly well, at least what I see online.
It may never be as powerful as a base iMac because of (85w?) power constraints. Someone else (Poki) said it earlier that Quad Sandy drew too much power for a discreet and quad processor option.
Chances are Apple doesn't want the Mini too powerful. The iMacs, Retinas are attractive and the Mac Pros are overkill for some. Again, Apple does what they believe is right for their customers...and board.
If the Mini can't support an Ivy quad with discreet then at least upgrade the vram on the Dual models.
So for the Minis, does this mean that the new standard is 4GB RAM, and you can upgrade to 8GB, or that the new standard is now 8GB and you can upgrade to 16GB?
Either a GT 640M LE or a GT 640M with GDDR5 memory. Telling from the current power draw, they probably stick with the LE version, although I personally think it is possible to use the regular version when using an SSD and a slightly more powerful AC adapter.
So if they come out with 8gb sticks of ram and say you can add a max of 16gb, is there any reason someone couldn't find a third party making 16gb sticks and put in a total of 32gb of ram? I'm more so curious about my mbp and an older mini that apple says you can only put 8gb (2x4) in them and whether I could get 16 or maybe even 32 in them.
Most Ivy Bridge chips support 32GB of RAM, even if there are only 2 slots, so yeah, it won't be long. However, the prices are gonna be extremely high in the beginning, like with 8 GB sticks a year ago.
Don't think so,these are Fermi aren't they?
I saw new Keplers from Nvidia,
the 625m
http://www.geforce.com/hardware/notebook-gpus/geforce-gt-625m
and the 645m
http://www.geforce.com/hardware/notebook-gpus/geforce-gt-645m
my fears is to see this
mini dual core /Hd4000
mini dual core /625m
mini quad core server/Hd4000
while i'd prefer to see this
mini server quad core/Hd 4000
mini quad L/625 m
mini quad H/645m
Bto/670mx
No, the 640M is available with either Kepler or Fermi. The 625M is not enough of an upgrade over the HD4000, and the 645M uses a bit more energy while not being much faster than a 640M with GDDR5 RAM.
Ok,so 640 is the winner
but if this was already available by long timewhy not to release Mini before?Does this mean something?
I mean were they waiting for a 35w Ivy Bridge Quad core?because a "mini"
640,645 with Quadcore would be "mine" in a zap!
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Because of late, Apple seems to have made some baffling design decisions simply for the sake of showing that they can squeeze everything into as compact and as efficient a package as possible. Or at least, that's the impression I get from their iphone and Rmbp keynotes where they keep waxing lyrical about all the engineering breakthroughs they made in slimming down their offerings.
It's like for your lecture notes, you choose to cram 6 slides onto 1 page and omit enough slides to make the final quantity a neat multiple of 12, just so you can boast to your friends "Look, I managed to save all this paper by squeezing my notes into these single piece of double-sided printout, all while squinting really hard to read all those minuscule text.
Same thing with the mac mini. I can see them asking themselves "What can we take away to still make the mini useable (barely), while making it smaller and thinner? I personally admit that there is something hypnotically attractive about a small, magic black box that turns a screen into a desktop when plugged in, even if it is just a glorified netbook sans screen.
That said, I believe the ethernet port will remain, if for the simple reason the Apple Tv has it. It practically takes up next to zero space, so there's nothing to gain by taking it out. I also believe they will keep the HDD, because quite a few people evidently use it as an Apple Tv on steroids, and in this aspect, quantity is better than quality. I still like to think that Apple will include a small SSD cache for fast booting purposes, though they will probably make the SSD option all-or-nothing for profit's sake.
Firewire hasn't really caught on, so I think it will get the boot. The 2011 mac mini had quite a fair bit of empty space (where the optical drive used to be), so I can see it going away. Not many people actually had use for the space, and adding your own drive was risky.
I doubt we will see quad-core processors, as Apple probably wants to sufficiently differentiate the imac from the mac mini. I hope for a dedicated graphic card, and at least let us upgrade the ram on our own.
In short, don't get your hopes up too high.
I don't think Firewire will be removed. There will always be some sort of option / converter to allow the connection.
It was removed in 2009 from macbook pros and was quickly put back on in the next refresh after there was a lot of complaints.
All the best quality external sound cards use Firewire and some digital cameras. Macs are known in the audio world to be a good system, and Apple knows this, so why would it be dropped?
It was removed in 2009 from macbook pros and was quickly put back on in the next refresh after there was a lot of complaints.
All the best quality external sound cards use Firewire and some digital cameras. Macs are known in the audio world to be a good system, and Apple knows this, so why would it be dropped?
Right, some of us use it for video editing, which many apps require a decent dedicated GPU for SFX rendering.