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Not being able to upgrade the RAM is a negative, my 2009 Mini had 2GB
and it if wasn't upgradable the machine would be unusable now whereas it's happily still in use every day running the latest software.

Mine came with only 1GB and and it runs great on Yosemite!!!;). I wish this mini had soldered in RAM because if I don't need more RAM no one does!!!! The 120 GB hard drive is also just as fast as an ssd. I Hope the hard drives get locked in too!!

The only real regret with the 2009 mini is that apple did not reduce the performance 50% from the 2008 model. That would have been great, but I found software to disable one of the cores. Now it is a real successor to the 2008 mini!!
 
Mine came with only 1GB and and it runs great on Yosemite!!!;). I wish this mini had soldered in RAM because if I don't need more RAM no one does!!!! The 120 GB hard drive is also just as fast as an ssd. I Hope the hard drives get locked in too!!

The only real regret with the 2009 mini is that apple did not reduce the performance 50% from the 2008 model. That would have been great, but I found software to disable one of the cores. Now it is a real successor to the 2008 mini!!

You're still missing one piece of the upgrade... you need software to introduce wait states so you can artificially decrease the clock speed of the CPU.

Then you'll be all set with a complete upgrade :D
 
Well, after all the reviews and tear-downs I'm hoping my ageing mini lasts until after the next generation.

You'll know the one, it will be powered by an abacus with the beads soldered in place:D

Don't forget the sealed aluminum enclosure to keep you from daring to touch the beads... I'm hopeful that someone will at least put a window in so I can see the beads.

Sorry; forgot thin and flat - the beads will actually be tiles (makes them easier to solder as well;))

Window was to be sapphire but after recent events thats now on the back-burner.
 
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Here comes the "Pro's" complaining how stupid it is that Apple soldered the RAM so the .01% of people who open up and upgrade their components can't.

How dare this $500 box not be comparable to a $2,500 Mac Pro!

How do you know that only 0.1% of mac-mini purchasers upgraded their RAM, have you interviewed every person to ever buy an :apple: mac mini?

What is intriguing is apple drive for greed, has led to an unnecessary butchering of a classic. There was no need to solder the ram, and the choice of the logic board with a dual-coreCPU was also questionable. They could of easily made 2 logic boards, and offered a quad core model as a mac-min [pro] at a higher cost.

Apple is making the mistake a number of dictators have made: becoming complacent, and deluded into thinking their current monopolisation is static and perpetual. With cash revenues over $100bn and a massive public demand for their products, they feel justified in this recent behaviour of: cannibalistic 'biting' the hand that feeds them. The most obvious reason for this farce is a ravenous and gluttonous lust for cash; which is absolutely fine as a large global commercial entity - but this was not the original :apple: ethos - under the helm of the late Jobs. The market that apple has worked so hard to capitalise, at the increasing expense of their loyal 'pro' customers, may come at a cost, and manifest in their demise: a nexus; like a sudden change in the wind, the fickle fashion-fascists will drop their idevices for the newest and 'baddest' next thing.

I think apple can can have it both ways - appeal to the masses and their die hard, prosumer / fanboi market.
 
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Old apple, (pre 2011), amazing systems, easy to maintain yourself (Ram upgrades and HDD upgrade/replacements, nothing any PC users doesn't need to do at somepoint)

New Apple (post 2011) systems designed to last no more than 2-3 years, at which point, landfill them and buy a new one to keep the $$$$ flowing in.


I prefer old apple, other than my phone, i don't think ill be buying apple again now, im not going to be held ransom to their product cycle when a PC can be upgrade and its life span extended for a fraction the price, and the only reason apples systems cant, is because apple have decided they would rather you buy new than upgrade..

From a business perspective, its genius, from a consumer perspective, its EVIL

Fixed memory and none user replaceable HDDs are like Ford saying once your tyres wear out, or you get a flat, buy a new car.
 
Sorry; forgot thin and flat - the beads will actually be tiles (makes them easier to solder as well;))

Window was to be sapphire but after recent events thats now on the back-burner.

lol... now you got it :) I'll be right there waiting in line for a week to get my hands on that one... hmm... realizing now that I only need to be there 30 seconds early, I'll still be first in line :D
 
I won't mind the soldered ram actually that much... but only:
If I could have the option to 16GB of it AND an i7 quad core cpu. I would even have paid the premium price for it.

Now I can configure a machine that cost me around €1500 and have an equal maybe slightly slower machine than the early 2011 MBP I am typing on now.

That doesn't feel like an upgrade, rather a change of looks.
 
Old apple, (pre 2011), amazing systems, easy to maintain yourself (Ram upgrades and HDD upgrade/replacements, nothing any PC users doesn't need to do at somepoint)

New Apple (post 2011) systems designed to last no more than 2-3 years, at which point, landfill them and buy a new one to keep the $$$$ flowing in.


I prefer old apple, other than my phone, i don't think ill be buying apple again now, im not going to be held ransom to their product cycle when a PC can be upgrade and its life span extended for a fraction the price, and the only reason apples systems cant, is because apple have decided they would rather you buy new than upgrade..

From a business perspective, its genius, from a consumer perspective, its EVIL

Fixed memory and none user replaceable HDDs are like Ford saying once your tyres wear out, or you get a flat, buy a new car.

Exactly
 
What stuns me more than anything is that Apple would waste their own design and engineers time making something worse than before.

You can imagine sitting round a table with a term you want to spend weeks/months on making it worse, saying, ok, people, we need to redesign all the parts that are perfectly fine now, and pay you to make them worse for the customer.

Simply amazing this is the best Apple can think to do with their staff.
 
There is NO reason why the user shouldn't be able to easily upgrade RAM and Hard Drive...

There are two very good reasons:
  1. Apple wants to make a profit by selling RAM and hard-drive upgrades on Build-To-Order Mac Minis. They don't want you buying a base mac Mini and then giving OWC, Newegg, etc. all the profits on upgrades.
  2. Apple would rather you replace your Mac Mini with a newer Mac than to be able to upgrade it and extend its useful lifespan.
This isn't about Apple being "nice" or "mean." Nor is it about what you "should" have or what you feel entitled to. It's a business decision by a for-profit, publicly traded company.
 
As a mid-2011 Mini owner who has upgraded to 16GB RAM and a 256GB SSD+1TB HDD, I have come to love the power and fun (yes, for some people, tinkering is fun!) of that little machine. I am disappointed by the downdate to the Mini. My interest in moving to the '14 model is zero.

I am eager to see real benchmarks to get an idea of memory performance with large swap. Part of me wonders if the PCI SSDs are getting so fast that the machines are going to act like "fusion RAM." Yes, I know that virtual memory is an old idea, but since disks were so slow, performance really suffered. Are we approaching the time when physical RAM isn't nearly as important as we have come to believe, and a fast mass storage device can compensate?

So, if anybody out there can arrange this, seeing how long an 8GB '14 mini and 16GB '14 mini take do the same real-world tasks using totals of 16GB and 24GB of memory would be really interesting, at least to me.

I'm not trying to excuse the soldered-in nastiness, just trying to make lemonade.
 
There are two very good reasons:
  1. Apple wants to make a profit by selling RAM and hard-drive upgrades on Build-To-Order Mac Minis. They don't want you buying a base mac Mini and then giving OWC, Newegg, etc. all the profits on upgrades..



  1. wrong.


    The MINI does not fit into Apple DREAM of its future.

    Apple does NOT want to keep building the Mini.

    85% of Apples GREEN is Phones and Ipads and a bit more.


    Apple wants to build---
    Macbook Air
    Imac
    Iphones
    Ipads


    Apple barely cares about the Mac Pro and it comprises almost NOTHING in its profit margin
    NOTHING.

    The Mini is not much better in their eyes or future.


    The macbook Pro will be ENDED within 2 years.


    The Air and macbook Pro are already almost identical.



    The MAC PRO has only 2 purposes for Apple


    Be a portal for HIGH END software app breadth

    be a platform for PRO use OSX full spectrum business exposure / use
 
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Torx T6 Security, really ????

This teardown just confirms what we already suspected.

I will stay away from this update.

Bad, Bad, Bad :apple:
 
Apple used to advertise how accessible their machines were (the G3, G4, and G5 towers in particular). It's one thing to make a machine more closed off, such as the portables, if it allows more room for a bigger battery or a thinner machine, but has anyone ever complained that a Mac mini was too big or too expandable?

Nope, just like no one ever complained about the iMac being to thick! But Apples new mo seems to be thinner designs across the product range no matter what, no user serviceable parts, and throw away electronics...
 
IMO I think Apple is moving their desktop computers to resemble their mobile device lineup. In that you cannot upgrade your mobile device to add more memory or storage unless you buy a whole new model. Want a faster CPU, wait till next year for the announcement.

Its one way of upping their revenues and profits. Rather than they miss out on money you spend buy buying different (and cheaper) parts (RAM, HDD) they want that money all to themselves. I can see it that they will make less and less user upgradable options. The new 21" iMac you can't upgrade the RAM. I am sure in a couple of years we will see a resigned iMac at 27" and 21" (and what ever other " they decide to do!) with no replaceable parts, and tout thinness, beauty, design blah blah.

So that 256GB SSD iMac you bought? Na sorry, you need a brand new one with a 1TB Fusion Drive. Want more RAM because you have progressed from web browsing to video editing full time? New machine.

It sucks for us. But as with all big companies, they just want to keep profit margins high, keep raking in the money. While we continue to buy, they will continue to do.

Excuse me while I check on my iPad Mini 3... :)
 
Point me toward the quad core, retina air. Not even close.

read next time


I said:

The macbook Pro will be ENDED within 2 years.
The Air and macbook Pro are already almost identical.



There will be an Air and an "Air pro"


3 or 4 machines


SAME as the 2012 Mini....dual core and quad core models spread over 4 machines.


4 versions of the Air, one singular chassis.
 
How do you know that only 0.1% of mac-mini purchasers upgraded their RAM, have you interviewed every person to ever buy an :apple: mac mini?

What is intriguing is apple drive for greed, has led to an unnecessary butchering of a classic. There was no need to solder the ram, and the choice of the logic board with a dual-coreCPU was also questionable. They could of easily made 2 logic boards, and offered a quad core model as a mac-min [pro] at a higher cost.

Apple is making the mistake a number of dictators have made: becoming complacent, and deluded into thinking their current monopolisation is static and perpetual. With cash revenues over $100bn and a massive public demand for their products, they feel justified in this recent behaviour of: cannibalistic 'biting' the hand that feeds them. The most obvious reason for this farce is a ravenous and gluttonous lust for cash; which is absolutely fine as a large global commercial entity - but this was not the original :apple: ethos - under the helm of the late Jobs. The market that apple has worked so hard to capitalise, at the increasing expense of their loyal 'pro' customers, may come at a cost, and manifest in their demise: a nexus; like a sudden change in the wind, the fickle fashion-fascists will drop their idevices for the newest and 'baddest' next thing.

I think apple can can have it both ways - appeal to the masses and their die hard, prosumer / fanboi market.

Of all the people that bought them, I would be surprised if even 0.1% upgraded them. Macrumors != the average population. Most normal people couldn't care less how much RAM their computer has.

The mac mini is a small seller. For every Mac Mini they sell, they probably sell 1,000, if not more, MacBooks. If they were really that greedy they wouldn't have dropped the price and given people the option of an entry level one - they'd have forced people to buy more expensive ones.

And you are only seeing a lack of reasons from a consumer point of view. From a logistics point of view, the entry level Mac Mini, entry level iMac and MacBook Air all share the same hardware. That is a massive optimisation of their supply line. It means they can reduce costs (Apple is a business, after all) through simpler tooling, less components, and larger-volume contracts with suppliers.


----------

I'd question this statement, since 2014 mini has the same PSU as 2011 and 2012.


Just because it has the same PSU doesn't mean it draws the same power. The PSU will have a maximum rated wattage, but the computer will only draw from that what it needs.
 
Some people really need to stop trying to conserve technology products for ages and get a new device when the time comes, just like the rest of us. In 2014 tech products are designed to be easy to manufacture & be thrown away when their time comes. Deal with it :cool:

Thrown away? Don't be daft. Whatever computer you own that you are not happy with and can't upgrade, there is someone on eBay who will gladly pay you money for it and continue using it. In October 2017, you will have no problem selling one of these Mac Minis on eBay.
 
This 100%. There is NO reason why the user shouldn't be able to easily upgrade RAM and Hard Drive...

Agreed, but welcome to Tim's new $$$ driven Apple here. You will either settle for the base $500 Mac Mini, or due to its locked down nature, be coerced into making a much more expensive Mac model purchase than intended. To me at least, this is a little sleazy on Apple's part to drive more sales. I guess many companies in different industries do this, it's just Apple comes from a more 'open' history, and it's hard for many of us to accept this type of sales practice going forward. It's the new Apple, and I'm afraid that it'll only get worse.
 
If you want upgradability don't buy a Mac. Apple have been working towards totally sealed units for years and I don't see them changing that policy.
 
Wait - you consider yourself a "techie" because you can install a stick of RAM or hook up a new HDD or SSD??

He's easily in the top 10 percent with that.
If you _know_ someone who can install RAM or add a new drive you are in the top 20%.
 
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