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Goodbye MacMini M1. We need a MacCube M3

T

TheRealAlex

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Sep 2, 2015
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Apple is in full production of the M2 chip (that was fast) Apple is on pace to release an M3 Chip by Jan 2022. So I’m gonna buy an M3 Mac Mini. Also getting an XDR iPad Pro I already get Mac Mini level Performance with an M1 Chip. So there’s no need for two M1 devices.

I do look forward to a M3 Mac or an M3X level MacPro something that’s Not a Mac Mini but not a $8,000 tower. Maybe an M3X with a dedicated AMD GPU for $2,500 that has some legit gaming beef.

My MacMini or MacCube Specs

#1. M3 or M3X CPU
#2. 16GB LPDDR5 RAM (my Note 20 Ultra 5G has 12GB LPDDR5 already)
#3. AMD PCI Express 4.0 16GB RAM 6800XT (or something similar)
#4. 4 dedicated Thunderbolt 40GB ports
#5. Certified HDMI 2.1 out
#6. New Cube design with MacPro vents and 1 Free PCI 4.0 Express port
#7. User upgradable RAM
#8. User upgradable GPU slot
#9. User Upgradable NVME M.2 port
#10. 2 colors Space Grey and Matte Black

People would go crazy for this.
 
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TheRealAlex said:
Apple is in full production of the M2 chip (that was fast) Apple is on pace to release an M3 Chip by Jan 2022. So I’m gonna buy an M3 Mac Mini. Also getting an XDR iPad Pro I already get Mac Mini level Performance with an M1 Chip. So there’s no need for two M1 devices.

I do look forward to a M3 Mac or an M3X level MacPro something that’s Not a Mac Mini but not a $8,000 tower. Maybe an M3X with a dedicated AMD GPU for $2,500 that has some legit gaming beef.

My MacMini or MacCube Specs

#1. M3 or M3X CPU
#2. 16GB LPDDR5 RAM (my Note 20 Ultra 5G has 12GB LPDDR5 already)
#3. AMD PCI Express 4.0 16GB RAM 6800XT (or something similar)
#4. 4 dedicated Thunderbolt 40GB ports
#5. Certified HDMI 2.1 out
#6. New Cube design with MacPro vents and 1 Free PCI 4.0 Express port
#7. User upgradable RAM
#8. User upgradable GPU slot
#9. User Upgradable NVME M.2 port
#10. 2 colors Space Grey and Matte Black

People would go crazy for this.
Click to expand...
I totally agree. This is very "Back To The Future", I miss my Macs that weren't considered "Pro", but could be user upgraded to the level needed over time.
 
A Pro-but-not-too-Pro? More power, but not too much expense? A Pro that won't be Pro enough for "real pros?"

There may be some people who will go crazy for this, whatever "this" happens to be - it's a big world, so just about any component/spec/configuration you can put into a blender will be imagined by someone and appeal to some portion of the population. The question will always be whether Apple believes it's a market worth addressing.
 
Don't really see the Mac Mini changing much if at all in the next few years. It's a popular option hence it is still getting some love from Apple. The kind of spec you are listing in the opening thread is only going to come from the rumoured Mac Pro Mini.
 
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LeeW said:
Don't really see the Mac Mini changing much if at all in the next few years. It's a popular option hence it is still getting some love from Apple. The kind of spec you are listing in the opening thread is only going to come from the rumoured Mac Pro Mini.
Click to expand...
Yes I agree but from a marketing standpoint we can’t call it “Mini” aka Mac Pro Cube.
 
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TheRealAlex said:
Apple is in full production of the M2 chip (that was fast) Apple is on pace to release an M3 Chip by Jan 2022. So I’m gonna buy an M3 Mac Mini. Also getting an XDR iPad Pro I already get Mac Mini level Performance with an M1 Chip. So there’s no need for two M1 devices.

I do look forward to a M3 Mac or an M3X level MacPro something that’s Not a Mac Mini but not a $8,000 tower. Maybe an M3X with a dedicated AMD GPU for $2,500 that has some legit gaming beef.

My MacMini or MacCube Specs

#1. M3 or M3X CPU
#2. 16GB LPDDR5 RAM (my Note 20 Ultra 5G has 12GB LPDDR5 already)
#3. AMD PCI Express 4.0 16GB RAM 6800XT (or something similar)
#4. 4 dedicated Thunderbolt 40GB ports
#5. Certified HDMI 2.1 out
#6. New Cube design with MacPro vents and 1 Free PCI 4.0 Express port
#7. User upgradable RAM
#8. User upgradable GPU slot
#9. User Upgradable NVME M.2 port
#10. 2 colors Space Grey and Matte Black

People would go crazy for this.
Click to expand...
Looks like you desire a Mac Pro, which will likely be coming sooner or later, at a price. But don't dream of user upgradeable this and that with the arrival of the M "system on a chip", which is the way going forward. Get what you need at the outset, and plug any extra storage etc into ports, of which a pro level machine is likely to have more than a consumer level machine.

The Mac Mini is back to where it started, as a consumer level computer albeit useful to pros in some situations, after flirting with being a pro machine, at a pro price for the 2018 iteration.
 
TheRealAlex said:
Apple is in full production of the M2 chip (that was fast) Apple is on pace to release an M3 Chip by Jan 2022. So I’m gonna buy an M3 Mac Mini. Also getting an XDR iPad Pro I already get Mac Mini level Performance with an M1 Chip. So there’s no need for two M1 devices.

I do look forward to a M3 Mac or an M3X level MacPro something that’s Not a Mac Mini but not a $8,000 tower. Maybe an M3X with a dedicated AMD GPU for $2,500 that has some legit gaming beef.

My MacMini or MacCube Specs

#1. M3 or M3X CPU
#2. 16GB LPDDR5 RAM (my Note 20 Ultra 5G has 12GB LPDDR5 already)
#3. AMD PCI Express 4.0 16GB RAM 6800XT (or something similar)
#4. 4 dedicated Thunderbolt 40GB ports
#5. Certified HDMI 2.1 out
#6. New Cube design with MacPro vents and 1 Free PCI 4.0 Express port
#7. User upgradable RAM
#8. User upgradable GPU slot
#9. User Upgradable NVME M.2 port
#10. 2 colors Space Grey and Matte Black

People would go crazy for this.
Click to expand...
Low powered ram is only supplied for soldering. There’s no way you’ll get ram sockets with low power ram modules.

At the moment discrete gpus go against the architecture of the M chips.
so you’re not going to get #3,7,8,9
 
Gaming on a mac, hahaha. Love it when people say that.

Just build a gaming rig? I did recently and have no regrets.
 
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Dates for the M3 release? There's lots of speculation in this thread. 😄 I personally don't see Apple needing to rebrand the Mini or even redesign the case in the higher tier. They'll want to keep things simple, and I feel that they may have learned some things from the Imac Pro.

In any case, there will most certainly be a product aimed at the current market that the intel i5/i7 mini was aimed at. I imagine that they'd still like to have something between the base Mini and the Mac Pro line (sub $3,000 computers). We just don't know the details.
 
The best thing I did for my gaming was getting a console + a Mac for work/hobbies.
I notice myself thinking a lot less about DPC latency, GPU drivers and graphical settings and spending overall less money on hardware.
Granted, I still enjoy an occasional game on my Mac (and I will eventually build a gaming PC to mod some older games since that's a hobby of mine), but I think that sometimes having separate machines that do separate things great instead of having just one that does a little bit of everything can be beneficial if you want to get the results you need with as little compromise as possible.
Not saying that wishing for a more powerful Mac is a bad thing, obviously - an AS-based Mac Pro with discrete GPU support would be great for some people surely.
 
I do like the idea of a desktop Mac between the Mini and Pro that doesn’t have the built-in screen of the iMac. It seems I’m not the only one, and the OP specs are along those lines. We don’t know everything Apple Silicon will bring, but I hope this is included. Although I do think it is premature for something called M3.
 
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