Amazon and ebay are not the place to buy genuine stuff imho. Usually it's flooded with bogus parts... As you said, not just fake ones, but really crappy fake ones that might even blow up (power supplies). IMHO at least Amazon should ban sellers that sell "genuine" fake stuff and have their stock confiscated by customs. Often these don't even fullfill FCC and CE requirements in first place, thus should have never passed the border.
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Enthusiasts Detail RAM Upgrade Process for the 2018 Mac mini
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Thanks - so converting this to my own currency (UK £)
Apple is charging £1,260 for the inbuilt 2TB SSD option (which I can get down to £1184.40 with my EPP discount )
And the cheapest place online, I can see the Samsung External 2TB SSD, is £1,198.99
https://www.scan.co.uk/products/2tb...0mefNvIXRacPNP_lKvXEwz6WhuCbzC8YaAuNYEALw_wcB
So yes - these drives are super expensive, but Apple is hardly over charging. Cheaper external drives are available, but I've not seen anything that matches the same performance as Apple's internal SSDs, for any significant cost saving.
This “new” mini is obviously a last-minute revision of the 2012 design, an attempt to stop the (valid) complaints that Apple was selling four-year-old hardware. Minimal engineering effort involved.
On the UK site, a base 128GB -> 2TB SSD upgrade is £1440.
My quick search showed you can buy a 2TB PCI-e drive for £380 - https://www.scan.co.uk/products/2tb...qlc-3d-nand-1800mb-s-read-1800mb-s-write-220k - or a Samsung 970 for £517 - https://www.scan.co.uk/products/2tb...-mlc-v-nand-3500mb-s-read-2500mb-s-write-500k
Since Apple mainly use Samsung drives - I'll use that to be fair. That's nearly a 180% markup.
Apples to oranges as those are bare drives with no TB3 controller or enclosure. The true comparison is the listed Samsung TB3 drive and it is even the same manufacture as the comparison drives.
It is a lot like automobiles. How fast do you want to go?= how much are you willing to spend.
According to an update, not the case.
“Update: it appears that we have two different logicboards. Mine (internal one) includes sockets for RAM, CPU, SSD and WiFi/Bluetooth modules but end-user hardware not!
P.s. I will no longer be able to comment on the matter (I am a software engineer. Not a hardware engineer).“
translation “I know nothing about standard hardware development practices!”
Hope he’s still working there in another year or so
Where do you see a defense of Apple? It’s reality—deal with it. No one’s forcing you to buy Apple’s products. Simply pointing out you’re approximately the one millionth person to complain about it. If you feel chastised, so be it.
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Your quick search didn't include a comparison like for like performance wise. Saying Apple mainly use Samsung drives doesn't prove anything - they do a range of different drives, that vary in both price and performance. The drive you linked to (going on the advertised specs) is a slower drive.
I must be looking at a different Mac Mini config, because my option definitely says £1,260 for the 2TB SSD.
What is the Pentalobe P5 for? A number of the people who have already done this say that they did not use a Pentalobe P5.
Google found a "Samsung Portable SSD T5 2TB" for £568. But then how fast do you need?
(Micron is soon starting to ship an SSD drive to replace 10K enterprise drives. Slooow compared to most SSD drives, but same price, same capacity, and much more speed then 10K spinning drives).
This pic needs pulled from the article & first post, it is an older mini...
GLWT...
No, that is truly coming in 2020 when Apple transitions to their own silicon...
The original mini was also taller & had an external power brick...
"That photo" is from an earlier mini model, it should be removed from the article & first post...
He updated his statement...
Update: it appears that we have two different logic boards. Mine (internal one) includes sockets for RAM, CPU, SSD and WiFi/Bluetooth modules but end-user hardware not!
I think the options are pricey, but it is a pretty sweet machine, with the option for some real power under the hood...
The thing that kills it, if one want an eGPU, one gets a huge box on the desktop...
A MXM-format GPU card (RX580 or Vega 56) in a matching (probably taller) TB3 chassis would be the best way to go, here is hoping some ambitious third-party comes along to fill this niche...
As to the couple of references towards the G4 Cube, look to the latest keynote for a clue onstage...
There it is, a larger than life mockup of the new modular Mac Pro...
Modular means socketed CPU, RAM slots, M.2 slots for SSDs, & GPU in the MXM format...
We will know more next year...! ;^p
That's because you're on the higher model, which comes with 256GB by default. The entry only has 128GB and the upgrade is more expensive.
As for performance, it's right in line with the 970 evo:
https://marco.org/2018/11/06/mac-mini-2018-review
R,W:
Mac mini: 2.6,2.7GB/s
970 Evo: 3.5,2.5GB/s
In Apple's defense (which is very rare for me) it looks like there's no way to get those two big ram DIMMS within easy reach of the opening (like the 2010 Mac minis) with that big new fan.
That big honkin fan takes up the whole space. No room for ram at the top.
I'm sure the engineers and marketing dept hemmed & hawed over this for quite a while, seeing if they could make the ram easily accessible like in the past— but that big fan I bet was the killjoy to put an end to that idea. So they just said **ck it, stick the ram where it will fit.
The problem with the mini is its asinine design from the start with that small porthole opening.
That big honkin fan takes up the whole space. No room for ram at the top.
I'm sure the engineers and marketing dept hemmed & hawed over this for quite a while, seeing if they could make the ram easily accessible like in the past— but that big fan I bet was the killjoy to put an end to that idea. So they just said **ck it, stick the ram where it will fit.
The problem with the mini is its asinine design from the start with that small porthole opening.
Apple is apparently fine with the quantity of products they’re selling. With capitalism, prices are set at what the market will bear. If Apple sells fewer units than they expect, they’ll have to lower prices. If enough people are willing to pay more, perhaps they’ll raise them. It’s simple economics, no need to be angry.
Google also found that that drive 'transfers data at 540 MB/s'.
These are the read/write speeds I've seen for the Mac Mini 2018 SSD, which are significantly faster. (Admittedly, there is still limited info on SSD performance, until more benchmarks become available).
don't understand why anyone would annoy themselves with this when they can build a hackintsosh for a fraction of the price with way better specs. I like apple but with the way they're going with non-friendly upgrades on components that are supposed to be easily upgradeable so they charge up the A for extra RAM is something im not going to support anymore.
Way to go of twisting stories of my original post just so you feel good and Apple do no wrong. That story might be true but that's only one part of many cases and some are targeted individual and it is scary. Knowing that Apple knows what he bought online then they go after that person using their influence is a scary thought. Obviously if they are targeting certain smugglers buying bulk and sell them off to the public that's a different story.
I have seriously considered this. But I've yet to see anyone build a Hackintosh (or PC config for that matter) with FOUR Thunderbolt 3 ports, that also work 100% reliably (including hot swap).
IANAL, but I don't believe it void's the US warranty either. All Apple can does is (1) require you to reinstall the Apple memory prior to repair, and/or (2) charge you a service fee if they find out that the problem was caused by you.
Probably because Apple got famous for an easy, plug and play, seamless experience, and hackintosh is the polar opposite of that.
It's super simple. Just buy a new logic board!
Many Macs are purchased by pros/business/enterprise and they usually don’t steal the tools they use in their business. Even in the home/consumer market, most users don’t want the hassle; that’s why they don’t use PCs in the first place.
As a hackintosh owner and tinkerer, I really want this mac mini. I want easy upgrades when OS changes happen, I want to know the hardware I am using now wont stop working when a new OS comes out (hello NVidia webdrivers). I agree a full tower desktop is easier to work on and easier to upgrade but its also a lout louder (unless you spend a lot of money on cooling), its a LOT bigger, and it does take work to get it running and keep it running over the years. As things stand right now I am either saving for a new Mac Mini and keeping my PC for gaming but getting rid of the hackintosh side of things, or I am going to begrudgingly sell my 1070ti for a crappier graphics card from AMD so I can keep my hackintosh up to date on the software side.
Hackintoshes are great but they are full of trade offs and I don't think they're worth it over this mini for the majority of people. I am willing to bet less than 10% of users and probably even a lot less than that ever upgrade the ram in their computers. Even fewer replace other parts. The storage is probably the most commonly replaced and I am also willing to bet with the use of SSDs that has decreased too.
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