Are you generally happy with your Mac Mini 2018?

[LiE_]

I have the i7 / 16GB / 256GB connected to the 23.7" LG UltraFine 4K monitor, which is hooked into the Blackmagic eGPU. It's a lovely quiet setup with plenty of power. The GPU performance is pretty underwhelming, which is why I picked up a mint condition Blackmagic eGPU for photo editing. I like the modular aspect of the Mini setup - I was worried with an iMac I'd have all my eggs in one basket and if I wanted to upgrade any aspect of it then it's a completely new machine even if the rest of it is perfectly fine.

 

[stillcrazyman]

I am generally content with my 2018 mini - i7/32GB/1TB. I'm having a few issues with an eGpu, but they might be cable related. I ordered some new cables to solve it - we shall see.

Other than that, no issues with the mini. Running Catalina 10.15.2 is not problematic. I'm no power user. I don't game or anything, so my needs are simple. I just edit photos along with the usual day to day uses.

 

[joevt]

I bought the cheapest Mac mini 2018 just to have a modern Mac around with Thunderbolt 3. The Mac mini with i3 processor is faster in single and multi core tests than my Mac Pro 2008.

It's got four Thunderbolt 3 ports and two USB 3.0 ports. That's a lot of useful connectivity: 2700 MB/s Thunderbolt drives, eGPUs, 980 MB/s USB 3.1 gen 2 drives, USB-C, Thunderbolt 3, or HDMI 2.0 displays (3 max), etc.

I upgraded it to 64 GB of RAM which is way more than I need. My Mac Pro 2008 also has 64 GB of RAM (but requires setting maxmem nvram boot-arg to 62 GB - or any number less than 64 GB for full performance).

 

[bigfatipod]

I keep hearing a few people here using external gpu. Can anyone offer a comparison on the 2012 i7 mini’s gpu compared to the 2018? I’m still happy with my 2012, but I would assume/hope the 2018’s is even better?

 

[D.T.]

Love mine, it has been solid as a rock (though I have not upgraded to Catalina, currently on 10.14.6).

i7/32GB/512GB (all OEM), running two Dell U2518 displays (25" QHD), keep a ton of services running, lots of dev tools, general computing apps, a Win10 VM (Parallels), running a bunch of USB devices (Anker and hubs in the displays), external TB3 1TB drive, driving a DAC/Amp, using a wired Das keyboard, and a Logitech MX with the supplied dongle (no disconnects like an Apple BT mouse).

 

[satchmo]

I am generally content with my 2018 mini - i7/32GB/1TB. I'm having a few issues with an eGpu, but they might be cable related. I ordered some new cables to solve it - we shall see.

Other than that, no issues with the mini. Running Catalina 10.15.2 is not problematic. I'm no power user. I don't game or anything, so my needs are simple. I just edit photos along with the usual day to day uses.

What monitor is that. It looks very nice.

 

[stillcrazyman]

What monitor is that. It looks very nice.

ViewSonic 32” 4K.

 

[inmnbob]

I got mine at launch i7,32gb, 2Tb. Had to replace the first none because it kept crashing and also had a bad BM eGPU. After replacing both I have a stable system that meets all my needs for music and video production.

I have an external NVMe 2TB drive my EastWest, BIAB and Native sound libraries. I also have a 2Tb T5 SSD for mobile content usage. All is backed up to AirPort Extreme.

I really like being able to use the 34” wide screen display compared to the iMac.

The only problem I have is that then Bluetooth sometimes still disconnects and my screen flashes black after it wakes up

 

[stillcrazyman]

Oh yeah. The random Bluetooth disconnects on my magic keyboard and trackpad are annoying. Seems to happen more when the battery is low.

 

[harriska2]

Over a year now with 2 2018 minis. One is i5/1tb/32gb, the other is i5/512/16gb. We are both on Mojave and we use usb trackpad and keyboards. Although my husband does use a first gen Magic Mouse without issue. Both 4k monitors. Not planning on upgrading to Catalina for a while. Mine has 2 external USB 3, powered 10tb harddrives. I use one for data only and the other for Time Machine. No problems.

 

[gigatoaster]

Hello there

I bought the i5 in 2018 and I’m keeping Mojave on it. It is connected to my TV & speakers.

I would say I’m satisfied at 90%. I use it for Roon and to download torrents. I don’t use it to watch torrent, instead I use an Apple TV 4K.

As many here I have Bluetooth interferences because of unshielded USB port. I actually found out it was the Philips Hue bridge, I moved it a bit and now it seems to work OK.

I’ll buy one for my Mom when they move house at the end of the year.

 

[phoenix-mac-user]

I love my Mac Mini. Work from home and require a KVM to switch between my work and home so the Mac mini is the only Apple desktop that will work for me.

I am a little (moving toward very) miffed that they still have not fixed the issue with eGPU that causes a white screen in Catalina. I currently have to keep a second monitor plugged in so I can reboot my computer.

 

[Erehy Dobon]

.

 

[iAssimilated]

I absolutely love my 8,1 Mac mini! It has been rock solid for the past thirteen months and has handled everything I throw at it with ease.

 

[!!!]

Since I just got mine a few weeks ago and it's spent most of that time at the Apple Store for repair, no, not really. First it was the T2 chip basically bricking the machine, now it's kernel panics any time I put load on it, then it stopped booting up at all (I assume it immediacy kernel panics).

 

[Reflej0]

Normal, in my case I did not buy it to depend exclusively on it, but to demonstrate what is the experience that Apple offers to users looking for a desktop solution for the usual tasks (and in my case of development in Swift).
I play only CS GO and it's a shame poor performance, I know it's not a PC for games but it's a game for over 8 years, I'm sure that on an iMac with a Radeon card runs great.
My base experience is a 7/10 is a very fast device, maybe the score increases with time since I am a rookie user of OS X.

 

[bigfatipod]

Normal, in my case I did not buy it to depend exclusively on it, but to demonstrate what is the experience that Apple offers to users looking for a desktop solution for the usual tasks (and in my case of development in Swift).
I play only CS GO and it's a shame poor performance, I know it's not a PC for games but it's a game for over 8 years, I'm sure that on an iMac with a Radeon card runs great.
My base experience is a 7/10 is a very fast device, maybe the score increases with time since I am a rookie user of OS X.

Which model and specs did you go with?

 

[Reflej0]

Which model and specs did you go with?

The model that has I5 256GB 8GB

 

[pdxplm]

Love the new mini's but holding out til the last minute that my 2012 dies. Hopefully by then, the mini will be updated with a few of the shortcomings of the current model fixed. Definitely would like easier access to the memory and also maybe the SSD replaceable.

 

[Machspeed007]

Buying an egpu for my mac mini completely changed the usability for me. I have a 5k2k lg monitor and it was sluggish with the integrated intel 630 card. With an egpu it's a completely different feeling, smooth and snappy. Love it.

 

[Ploki]

Yes very. Will eventually upgrade to eGPU, but it's the heart of my audio studio now and its been working superbly for a year.

 

[richmlow]

Yes, my (Late 2018) Mac mini has been rock-solid. I mainly use it for web-surfing, word-processing, running Mathematica (for math research), scientific computing, and typesetting journal articles. For games, I use a Windows machine.

 

[satchmo]

Original poster here. It’s great hearing mostly positive feedback.

I’m curious if any here had a difficult decision (as I’m having) between a Mac mini and an iMac?

With the knowledge that the Mac mini has a weak GPU, the added cost of an eGPU, and possibly a display(if you didn’t already have one), why did you not opt for a 5K iMac?

 

[Machspeed007]

I've opted for the mini because when I'm buying another mac I can always use the mini as headless server. It's compact and silent. For me it's a more flexible solution.

 

[Wolf1701]

If you want a retina display the mini will cost you more than one iMac. The mini make sense if you want to use a non retina monitor (or if you already have one), if you want less noise (without egpu), as a server or if you simply hate AIOs.

In my case one iMac 2019 as replacement of my old iMac 2014 (main computer) and a Mac Mini 2018 as replacement of my old Mac Mini 2012 (server).