2012 Mac Mini vs 2018 Mac Mini..Which should i get?

[Danielp416]

I’ve been looking for a mac mini and Ive been stuck on weather on getting a 2012 mac mini with the quad core i7 and upgrading the ram to 16gb or getting a 2018 mac mini with the i5 or an i7 and upgrading the ram to 32gb

For my purposes I would need something powerful enough to run multiple apps. I also use a lot of heavy using cpu apps and would need something powerful enough to run them and not have any issues.

I know the m1 mac mini is better but the only reason I don’t want to get it is because some of the apps I use don’t support m1 macs and big sur yet and probably wont support them for a while.

 

[wibbless]

2012 minis are already not able to run the latest OS so definitely get a 2018 if you care about ongoing support and patches

 

[frou]

Even the i3 version of the 2018 is faster than the i7 version of the 2012. I would forget about the 2012.

Only downer with the 2018 is that while it's still possible to upgrade the RAM yourself, it's not trivial. Quite fiddly.

 

[Amethyst1]

For my purposes I would need something powerful enough to run multiple apps. I also use a lot of heavy using cpu apps and would need something powerful enough to run them and not have any issues.

I'd get the 2018 with the 6-core/12-thread i7 with lots of RAM then.

 

[Boyd01]

I have both. No contest, you want the 2018.

 

[opeter]

Another vote for the 2018 models.
If you can, get the the middle (i5), or high tier (i7) models, but even an i3 with four cores is solid.

Oh, and I wouldn't buy the M1 model of the MM. The first generation of Apple Silicon has still issues.

 

[Boyd01]

Keep in mind that Apple's support is based on the date a product was discontinued, not the model year. The i3 version was dropped when the M1 Mini was released but the i5 and i7 models are still being sold. So (presumably) the i5 and i7 models will be supported for longer.

 

[Fishrrman]

There's no contest here.
Get the 2018.

 

[opeter]

Keep in mind that Apple's support is based on the date a product was discontinued, not the model year. The i3 version was dropped when the M1 Mini was released but the i5 and i7 models are still being sold. So (presumably) the i5 and i7 models will be supported for longer.

Thanks for this information, didn't know that.