Wait, was it confirmed storage is soldered on? I thought it was just locked down due to the T2 chip that prevented users using alternative drives, not that they physically can’t swap them.
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Apple Announces New Space Gray Mac mini With 4-Core or 6-Core Intel Processor and Up to 64GB RAM, Starting at $799
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Wait, was it confirmed storage is soldered on? I thought it was just locked down due to the T2 chip that prevented users using alternative drives, not that they physically can’t swap them.
They’re wrong. This has been confirmed many times in various threads here over the years. You can have Apple do it, an authorized service center, a mom and pop shop down the street, or do it yourself. It would be illegal for Apple to void warranties in that manner.
The storage is soldered down, there is a clear warning that you need to buy the storage you need upfront as it is not a user serviceable item.
The DRAM is replaceable and upgradeable, but how easy it is to do yourself is up for debate until someone tears it down and shows us.
Yes, the storage is definitely soldered. People need to stop thinking about Apple’s storage as a discrete SSD drive like an m.2 drive. Instead it’s NAND chips, soldered directly to the logic board, which interface to Apple’s T2 SoC. Among other functions the T2 provides a custom, high-performance SSD controller with line-speed AES encryption.
There are external Thunderbolt 3 enclosures available that allow users to add standard m.2 NVMe SSD drives if they want to save some money.
re: RAM, AppleInsider was told by Apple that it is upgradeable by users that have a “modicum of skill”. It doesn’t sound like it is a difficult upgrade.
Well, they're selling at retail, so retail upgrade price is the proper comparison. But even if not, you're saying the situation is even more extreme.
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Some people will splurge. But in reality, neither one of us can actually do the math, because we don't have the data on demand and manufacturing costs that Apple does.
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It's amazing what Apple gets away with, isn't it? Steve Job's RDF has got nothing on Tim Cook's margins.
The only clause in the Apple warranty that might cause people concern is: "This Warranty does not apply: ... (g) to an Apple Product that has been modified to alter functionality or capability without the written permission of Apple;" - however, written permission would include something like the online installation guides here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201191
Just ignore the person telling you that you can't do it. And if you're really worried they will try to deny service, just put the old RAM back in if you need a warranty repair.
You picked 750 watt power supply. And that motherboard is of much higher quality than one inside Mac Mini,
The Corsair RMX550x (2018) was $89, so I am not going to fret $10 for 200w more power, especially if I wanted to add a GPU later.
With all due respect, neither of us know the quality of the motherboard in the Mac mini, and $180 is a drop in the bucket for a decent motherboard. Not to mention it is pretty much the only motherboard in Mini-ITX with onboard Thunderbolt 3, which is a requirement to be able to compare prices between the Mac mini and a Windows PC.
I probably should not have opened Pandora's Box, but the incessant bleating about what an overpriced underspec'd, outdated computer the 2018 Mac mini is before it is even released needed a reality check.
The beauty of building your own PC is that you can spend as little or as much as you want. The curse is that what one person considers adequate, another may deem unusable. Apple builds to a certain standard, does its own thing and the Computer Shopper mentality that I read in some of the posts just is not realistic.
I hope I understood your reply and didn't blow it out of proportion.
Yes you have, and no, you have not.
Your politeness is quite extraordinary, such a rare thing to see on the Internet.
No. I didn't miss a paragraph. The whole point of BTO is so you DON'T have to build the exact same spec machine as another. You can build specifically to your needs. And if I can build a Mac Mini workstation for $2,250 that performs just as well as the $5,000 base iMac Pro for the specific tasks I'm going to be performing...
Then Why would I spend the extra $2,750 for the iMac Pro. That's a total waste of money. There's absolutely zero reason I need a 2TB NVMe drive in the Mac Mini. The 256GB is all I want, as I prefer to have my OS drive as clean as possible.
Going out of your way to build a Mac Mini that specifically matches the iMac Pro is only proving the Mac Mini is fantastically scalable. And better yet, Having the ability to add a GTX 1080ti to Mac Mini as an eGPU is a pretty sweet deal - so yeah. PC Partpicker is a dam great resource. ...or, if I don't need a Vega 56, I can get a $200 8GB MSI Radeon RX 580. The options are what makes the 2018 Mac Mini a fantastic little beastie.
I'm ecstatic they announced this machine.
The whole point of my comparison was to illustrate that the iMac Pro is actually a very good buy for those that need that sort of power in that type of package. I get that if you already have a monitor that you like, why be saddled with the Retina 5K display and my only retort to that is that if you actually need a Xeon W CPU with 8 cores or higher, that is your only choice as Apple dropped the ball on the Mac Pro and has yet to pick it up.
Yes, the mini is scalable and more robust than expected. I am looking forward to it getting a workout once it gets out in the field. I think a lot of people are going to be very happy. For me personally, should I get one, I would most likely end up with the 3.2GHz i7, 8GB DRAM , 1TB SSD. I have a BenQ SW271 that works great for me and I do not need a Xeon. I will, however, take 6c/12t any day of the week. I do not mind resorting to an eGPU as I would rather buy a robust chassis and an economical GPU until such time as I can justify a Radeon Vega Instinct or whatever comes down the road in the future. I do not fall into the NVIDIA camp, but I do wish there was a graceful way for Apple to support those who do need CUDA acceleration, etc. Sadly, that is probably not going to happen, but who knows.
Radeon RX580 prices are almost at the $200 level without a mail-in rebate. Saw an RX570 on New Egg for $169 after rebate, 8GB even. I am very thankful for the user-replaceable DRAM as 32GB of DDR4 is roughly half the cost of the Apple BTO. The 64 GB is around $1000-$1100, and so it is almost worth it to go Apple and get it covered under AppleCare for the 3 years, until you realize that almost all DRAM is covered under a lifetime warranty.
Po-tay-to, po-ta-toe.
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Thanks, it has been difficult this week with so much negativity about the pricing of the Mac mini. I think it is a great update, which should not have taken 4 years, but at least it's here now.
I am thankful for the upgradeable DRAM and even though the soldered NAND is expensive, I have actually found over the years that I do not need as much space as I thought. I can get by pretty well on 256GB, even if my mind tells me it's a bit claustrophobic.
Which is revelation after I went to the data hoarders sub-Reddit and realized that my problem wasn't as bad as I thought it was.
Thank you as well for your thoughtful debate.
Agreed. I just bought a very clean, used Mac Mini with an i5 chip, 16 GB, and a 128 GB SSD for 300 bucks. A similarly spec'ed new Mini is $1299, plus tax.
It’s not similarly specced at all. The new mini will have faster ram (with the ability to upgrade later to keep it running longer), a much faster processor (despite it being “only an i3”), much faster storage, more powerful onboard graphics, and thunderbolt 3 which crushes the I/O on an older mini. The bottom of the line mini today can crush the top of the line mini from 4 years ago. Having said that, for $300 you got a machine that still works great for most uses so it’s not a bad buy at all.
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I guess you got me, I had no idea a PC could be bought for only $349.
Still........
[doublepost=1541121683][/doublepost]Would anyone here get the Mini with the base 8Gb RAM? I upgraded my 2011 Mini from 4Gb to 8Gb and it made a huge difference.
All I do really is go online and use Pages here and there, also watch some video.
Is Mojave a RAM hog? I can't install it on my Mini so I have no idea.
I could spring for the 16Gb RAM but $200 is such a rip
8gigs is fine. You can very easily upgrade the ram later for cheaper than doing it now through Apple. When I buy mine I plan to buy the base 8gigs and upgrading to 16 or 32 myself when I need it.
The T2 settings allow you turn off the Secure Boot function and boot from any external drive. So a dead internal drive should not stop you being able to use the computer. You just need to have Secure Boot turned off, and boot externally.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208330
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Yeah, this is basically what I'm going to have to do, aside from buying an older mini. But it's sort of a work around as you have to buy a IR USB dongle then you need to get something like RemoteBuddy to get everything to work. I use Harmony, but then, as I said, this is the Harmony One, which is before their base station and other bluetooth options that they now have. And I can't stand their new remotes as they don't have any analog number buttons.
The four Thunderbolt ports are also USB-C compatible.
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Look again. There are two USB3.0 ports and four USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 ports.
Store pickup became available for me today so I bit the bullet:
Mac mini
With the following configuration:
3.2GHz 6‑core 8th‑generation Intel Core i7 (Turbo Boost up to 4.6GHz)
16GB 2666MHz DDR4
Intel UHD Graphics 630
1TB SSD storage
10 Gigabit Ethernet (Nbase-T Ethernet with support for 1Gb, 2.5Gb, 5Gb, and 10Gb Ethernet using RJ‑45 connector)
Accessory Kit
$2,199.00
10 gigabit Ethernet for future proofing. 16 GB for $200: honestly for me the convenience of having it installed and under AppleCare is worth the $40 or $50 I would save doing it myself. The rest: I keep them forever so I always buy as much computer as I can afford.
I’m replacing a late 2009 iMac with a HDD, so I would imagine this will be quite the shock for me. I think it’s amazing that it lasted for nine usable years, and that I could upgrade MacOS on it for that long. It still works fine, and will be donated locally.
I know there has been controversy regarding pricing, but for me the big picture is that every 7 or 8 years this is what I spend (or more), dating back to the days of the Apple IIe.
Thanks Apple for continually building quality computers that last me much longer than would most others.
Mac mini
With the following configuration:
3.2GHz 6‑core 8th‑generation Intel Core i7 (Turbo Boost up to 4.6GHz)
16GB 2666MHz DDR4
Intel UHD Graphics 630
1TB SSD storage
10 Gigabit Ethernet (Nbase-T Ethernet with support for 1Gb, 2.5Gb, 5Gb, and 10Gb Ethernet using RJ‑45 connector)
Accessory Kit
$2,199.00
10 gigabit Ethernet for future proofing. 16 GB for $200: honestly for me the convenience of having it installed and under AppleCare is worth the $40 or $50 I would save doing it myself. The rest: I keep them forever so I always buy as much computer as I can afford.
I’m replacing a late 2009 iMac with a HDD, so I would imagine this will be quite the shock for me. I think it’s amazing that it lasted for nine usable years, and that I could upgrade MacOS on it for that long. It still works fine, and will be donated locally.
I know there has been controversy regarding pricing, but for me the big picture is that every 7 or 8 years this is what I spend (or more), dating back to the days of the Apple IIe.
Thanks Apple for continually building quality computers that last me much longer than would most others.
We use FCPX, and premiere just for quick / little projects. And a little Divinci too. Also do lots of after effects.. we're a vacation company and do lots of animated travel map videos.. some can take 24-48 hours to render on our trashcan mac pro. I'm looking at this new Mini for my new home mac, and will have to do some work on it here and there so I want to make sure it will be up to the task when the time comes.
FinalCut Pro X should run just fine on this mini and probably a fair bit quicker than on the 2013 Mac Pro, depending on how many cores the Mac Pro is equipped. DaVinci Resolve is not optimized for iGPU, so you would want to download the most recent version (DaVinci Resolve v15) for free to try out and then you can decide if buying it is worth it.
Adobe Premiere updated recently (CC 2019) and is actually using the UHD 630 iGPU QuickSync hardware for exports, I think it may be worth your time. I cannot speak to After Effects though. You might want to look into Motion if you settle on a FinalCut Pro X workflow. You might also want to watch this video -
I think this Premiere update also applies to the macOS version, but someone using Premiere CC 2019 would have to speak to this.
I am pretty sure the render times are horrendous because Intel Xeon CPUs in your Late 2013 Mac Pro lacks QuickSync - https://ark.intel.com/products/134905/Intel-Core-i7-8700B-Processor-12M-Cache-up-to-4-60-GHz- - hardware rendering that is included onboard with the CPUs in the Mac mini/iMac and MacBook/MacBook Pros. If you are shooting mainly 1080p, you should be able to use a Mac mini just fine. The nice thing is that you can always add an eGPU in the future if the iGPU can no longer keep up with the work. You can get into it fairly cheap now (RX570, eGX350) for less than $400. If 4K is your main platform, then it would probably be with it to look at an iMac w/dGPU instead.
You always have 14 days after you purchase a Mac to evaluate it and return it if it is not going to work for you. Just remember to keep everything that comes with it and the receipt. I evaluated a BlackMagic eGPU and decided to return it for now.
Hope this helps.
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That may be. I only ask cause every Mini and MacBook Pro before this one has had it. So you are saying they got rid of Mini-TOSS LINK?