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Hands-On With Apple's New 2018 Mac Mini
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Right, because professional use automatically equates to GPU performance. I had an Aorus DT-X7 sitting here, 8GB GTX-1080, 32GB, etc., for my current and future professional use cases (personal computing for that matter ...), it wasn't being utilized (actually sold it as I have a closeted desktop I can fire back up if I have the need). Even for certain applications I'm involved with that necessitate significant compute power, it's not being done locally.
Just to be clear, you're talking to a dev/architect/writer who's been a known quantity in the industry for ~30 years, so it's not like I'm saying these things without notable experience and subject matter expertise.
I should have said graphics pro. Apologies.
With all the custom parts that have gone into my 2008 Mac Pro over they years, not once did I call Apple Support to get them to work. I went to other enthusiast forums and discussion groups. Just like virtually everyone else who custom kitted their Macs. We are well aware when we go "after market" additions, the support responsibility is on us.
The only thing I ever dragged my tower down to an Apple store for was when the shipped GPU started dying. Those busted NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTs. I had two of them die on me, the first under Apple Care, the second just after. Did an after market replacement with an "official" ATI Radeon HD 5870, and later with unofficial GTX 980. It would still be in active service today if CPU-A wasn't starting to fail. At some point I plan to pull it and replace it with an aftermarket Xeon upgrade compatible with the board/socket, as others have done. And fully move it to a Windows/Linux server.
ALL WITHOUT BOTHERING APPLE SUPPORT!
Which is the difference between Apple 10 years ago, and Apple today. The fact that I can repair and upgrade an other wise perfectly serviceable machine instead of tossing it in the e-waste dumpster.
Such as offering alternative form factors which do not force users to rely on external connectivity.
I like the new mac mini and its design.
Storage is easily expandable through thunderbolt3, and apple uses ridiculously fast, high-end PCIe drives so I am okay with the soldering. However it really should have started at 256 not 128gb.
RAM is not expandable through thunderbolt so I am glad apple made it upgrade-ready.
However, at the moment I am sticking to my 2012 MacMini with user-upgraded dual SATA drives and user-upgraded ram, not to mention it has thunderbolt and usb3. I don't have enough money to buy a 4K display so really there is nothing I need that my old 2012 machine can't do.
Storage is easily expandable through thunderbolt3, and apple uses ridiculously fast, high-end PCIe drives so I am okay with the soldering. However it really should have started at 256 not 128gb.
RAM is not expandable through thunderbolt so I am glad apple made it upgrade-ready.
However, at the moment I am sticking to my 2012 MacMini with user-upgraded dual SATA drives and user-upgraded ram, not to mention it has thunderbolt and usb3. I don't have enough money to buy a 4K display so really there is nothing I need that my old 2012 machine can't do.
It is probably advisable to turn on external booting when you first get the machine (I think it is off by default) in case you can’t enable it after a flash drive failure.
Wait for the Mac Pro. That's not the Mac mini.
Apple has been headed this direction, right or wrong, for a long time. I am not thrilled with it, but it's their choice.
He did not say he picked the computer based on the color. Try reading more carefully.
When you buy a new car, do you tell the salesman to give you any color he prefers (because you don’t pick a car based on its color)...?
It does start at 256GB, for the $1099 i5 model. I really think that's the consumer version. The i3 (only upgradable to i7) is targeted for hosting and cluster building.
Not Apple, the industry. From my Z620 systems 512GB Z-Turbo drive:
sudo hdparm -t /dev/nvme0n1p1
/dev/nvme0n1p1:
Timing buffered disk reads: 7352 MB in 3.00 seconds = 2450.53 MB/sec
[doublepost=1542221253][/doublepost]
I understand this. However I was responding to your post where you were asking someone to point you to an alternative to the Mini which offers four Thunderbolt ports.
I want to like the Hades Canyon NUC and have reviewed everything I can find online regarding it. The power supply is so darn large. I still might get it though for a decently powerful rig to use at home.
Guess what? A lot of Apple users (especially Pros) got tired of waiting for Apple to put a decent computer.
SO they are either updating their old Mac Towers or building Hackintosh.
It is really sad, that Apple is turning dead ears on its customers.
And as you said it is Apple's ball, though you can see that they are not playing it that smart since last quarter they sold less iphones and computers and the stock price is plummeting. I guess customers are also speaking with their pockets since many are not upgrading as often as they use to due to high prices and bad entry specs.
Selling way less computer at higher prices it goes against its own services business interest, since the more users they have the more they will earn from Services. But I guess greed is more powerful.
Four Thunderbolt ports in a SFF system is not what I would consider innovation but rather necessity resulting from Apple's product decisions.
My counterpoint to the Hades Canyon would be that the only reason Intel was able to cram that many ports in that size box is because they moved the PSU external, which is nearly as big as the NUC itself...and jeez, having carried around a Thunderbolt Dock or two with a laptop in my day, they are a pain in the @$$ to have and please make sure you don't forget it or you are in trouble.
With the mini, as long as that Figure 8 is not proprietary, you could buy a second one for an alternate location and place the mini in a Messenger bag if you prefer not to roll with a MBP or an iPad just won't cut it.
I like the Hades Canyon, but they do not come cheap, especially since Intel really doesn't sell computers, like Dell or HP and NUC tend to turn up for sale with all kinds of stuff preconfigured.
On SimplyNUC, the 8809 G (GH GPU) is $948, barebones and the GL is $719.98 barebones - https://simplynuc.com/hades-canyon/ - Adding 32GB is $300 and a decent 970 Pro NVMe 512GB is another $200, so I am at $1220 or $1448 without Windows 10.
The equivalent Mac mini 3.2GHz i7, 32GB/512GB is $2099, so I get it...I can drop $300 back to $1799 with third party RAM. I don't mind the premium on the price, I know I don't get Vega. For now, I would not need it and I would rather wait for Vega Instinct 7nm consumer GPUs next year. I get a 6c/12t CPU now, so that is a point or the mini over the Hades Canyon. I could choose the i5 on the mini, save another $200 and still out run the Hades Canyon on CPU, if not GPU.
All those ports are nice, though, but I suspect the PCH could be a bit overloaded. I also heard the GH version ran pretty hot as well, but I have not seen proof, just conjecture.
The mini is still where I would want to be...my most recent experience with Windows 10 was clearing out a particularly nasty trojan that could survive reboots, manually editing the registry to remove the startup routines, evaded MS Defender and had me turning on Services manually to fix the infamous Airplane Mode issue that once fixed, still prevented Wi-Fi from working. It took me an entire Saturday that was better spent doing something else. FYI - It was not my computer, but a relatives.
So, yeah, I will pay the extra for the mini and macOS.
I have one and it's pretty great. I have 32GB ram and a 1TB WD Black NVMe SSD. It's a great Windows machine. I haven't used it for gaming because I don't game as much on my PC anymore.
The price for my configuration was about $1700 when I bought it. I then had to add an OS and no option for a warranty. If I bought it preconfigured it would have been more expensive. This is a machine comparable to a Mac mini and the cost is very close.
I did have one problem with the first one. The metal catch memory slot would not engage the top DIMM. I returned it and the second one had no such problem.
Oh yeah, then I totally agree
, you know, in terms of some industry/areas and their GPU requirements, like I said, our AR/VR machines were these beastly notebooks with 1080s in them Which configuration Mac Mini includes any GPU configuration other than the Intel UHD Graphics 630?
This sounds like my visits to in-laws. Walk in door and "oh good you're here, can you have a look at the computer that is in the study..."
Any, with an eGPU connected using TB3.
Yes, there will be a performance penalty compared to a full PCIe 3x16 slot.
Nothing too special, LG 34UC80-B. Fit my needs and price point. They have newer/better resolution models, but with that so goes the price in an upward fashion. But looks great for what I need.
https://www.lg.com/us/monitors/lg-34UC80-B-ultrawide-monitor