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Hands-On With Apple's New 2018 Mac Mini
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Apple's burden to get it right only extends as far as the warranty period - either 1 year or 3 with Apple Care.
As for esoteric upgrade issues, I have had no issues upgrading ram and disk in two Mac minis ('09, '12), 1 Mac Pro ('09) and 1 mbp ('08) all of which are still in service today. If everything had been soldered in in those machines only one would still be in service today and I would be poorer for it.
I can build a Hackintosh for the same price that will do circles around the Mac mini. And it would include a dedicated GPU. Which means it could also perform real GPU-accelerated tasks. Something that the Mac mini is going to seriously suffer.
No problem! For the record, I still use Synergy 1. I heard Synergy 2 has fewer of the features that Synergy 1 has and is still a work in progress. I have no problems with S1, but not sure if it will lose support some day.
Agreed with most of this, save one thing.
SSD.
SSDs are more reliable and robust, and certainly FASTER than HDDs were, but even with TRIM support, there is possibility of drive failure, and that increases with write cycles and age.
I know Apple wants to sell new computers when AppleCare expires, but a computer like this should be viable well after 3 years, if spec'd correctly... and not being able to service the SSD means that it becomes a paperweight without an external drive, if the internal drive were to fail even if the RAM and CPU still function... or somehow becomes a zero-client interface host.
CPU, I can live with buying that up-front, for the reasons previously mentioned in terms of MLB, bus, memory and other architectural considerations that go with the CPU. But a socketed blade SSD would have been nice, along with the DIMMs being replaceable.
That being said... it seems like MacMini's new role appears to be a central processing hub between external components, not really much of an entry-level computer anymore.
An entry level computer now, BTW... is a 400$ iPad, not a desktop anything. Step-up is iPad Pro, MacBook Air, up-level MacMini, or entry iMac for full MacOS functionality... each hovering around ~1000$.
The entry level MacMini looks like a server cluster machine, or a MacOS host for the most basic functions, or the furthest from a power user possible, almost like a Kiosk installation.
up-level MacMini is workable for something the iMac, and iMac Pro can't quite as well... integrate into a multi-monitor workstation... and the MacMini is just the HUB of that wheel.
Multiple 4K monitors, possible upgrade to an external GPU and even better monitors is purpose driven.
OS, Application hosting, and optional scratch-disk use in the SSD is do-able... but archival storage should be on a desktop RAID at a minimum, anyway, and off-site backed up preferable, with business-class multi-Terabyte redundant, hot-swappable storage, if not a thunderbolt-connected NAS or 10Gig-Ethernet connected SERVER-hosted SAN, if it really becomes an issue in a professional production environment. On-computer storage is more of a problem than a solution in this day and age.
Arguably, the next step beyond that becomes network access to virtual machines, rendering farms, cloud servers, and other infrastructure-as-a-service computing... where even the processing is off-loaded into a server rack in an environmentally controlled and secured location, and doesn't happen directly on the workstation as much. (sure there are still examples of isolated field work where local processing is important), but there again, the MacMini becomes an interface window on a larger computing world, not a computing sphere unto itself... and theoretically doesn't need to have the heat, power draw, or largely un-tapped reserve processing power on every workstation desk.
Combining the video needs, and off-loaded storage needs and higher-level processing power functions, with other thunderbolt peripherals, and USB-connected interface devices creates a workspace environment where components can be changed out, which is where iMac doesn't quite suit as well, with fewer ports, and an integrated screen that doesn't match with a pair, triple, or quad monitor workstation.
You have just won a prize for being the 1,000,000th person to say that on these forums. Your prize. A free membership to the hackintosh forums, just over there --->
I am beginning to hope the T2 chip shuts down the option to Hackintosh so the "I can build it cheaper moaning" ends.
Apple seems lax on enforcing the licensing of their OS. Maybe they should throw some resources that way and charge less for upgrades.
I've considered building a PC slave for CPU bound network rendering - a Ryzen 2700x. I can build a pretty small one, but it's going to draw more power, make more noise, put out more heat, require a dedicated GPU. And while I can build it small, will not be truly backpack portable like a mini.
It is, however, going to be much faster, easier to service or expand, and a decent amount cheaper. And windows, so I've had a couple of issues with windows machines not being visible for network rendering after I throw a couple of test jobs at it.
Sounds like your decision might be like mine. Do you want speed and savings? Or quietness, efficiency, familiarity and convenience?
Currently mine is right next to my right hand on my desk, and running a ton of virtual machines - one of which now and again is flat out converting videos. When that happens the fans do spin up, but I wouldn't say it's noisy as such, certainly no louder than my Macbook pro when that gets going.
I'll try and video it at full chat for you.
Soldering an SSD to a motherboard just seems stupid. What do you do in a few years when your Apple Care runs out and your SSD decides to sh*t the bed?
I already build Hackintoshes. Had the Mac mini been even ⅓ less than what it costs... I'd probably go that route. But as it is, it's very overpriced.
Two of my 2014 Mac Mini's have not been updated for around 2 years because they are running flawlessly as headless units. They reboot once a week for self maintenance. They aren't Internet facing which is an important consideration, but it's a real credit to MacOS to be so stable (like Linux) and also proof that you don't need to update your system every couple of weeks for point upgrades once things 'just work'. It's just a pity really that the 2018 price is so steep but hey, I am sure Apple will get someone's money just not mine.
Well... There is an upside with Apple not going with a standard connector-ed SSD card, and using NAND flash chips soldered to the motherboard interfaced by Apple's T2 controller which handles on-the-fly encryption/decryption and other security features. In the past that's lead to class-leading performance.
I haven't seen any numbers yet, but I wouldn't be surprised if that'll be the same with the Mini.
I have been using my new Mac mini for a few days now, and I have to say, it's a great machine. I'm super impressed with the speed and the connectivity options.
I've been waiting to upgrade from my mostly docked MacBook Air for years now, but Apple never had anything worth buying (crappy keyboards, dumb Touch Bar, an old Mac mini that made the wrong compromises, an unaffordable Mac Pro). This machine, however, is great: Apple picked a good CPU over a good GPU because it's possible to add an external GPU if needed. Upgrading memory is possible, which is good, because I expect DDR4 prices to go down a lot in the coming year. Storage unfortunately isn't upgradable because Apple chose security over list price; but this isn't a big deal because with four Thunderbolt 3 ports you can add all the storage you want, and adding M.2 at Thunderbolt 3 speeds is currently about as expensive as the storage upgrades from Apple.
Price-wise it's not the cheapest but I expect to be using this machine for 4-5 years.
Having sung the hardware's praises, I have to say that the upgrade experience with Migration Assistant was abysmal. I had to spend over half an hour on the phone with Apple tech support before we could narrow down and work around the software bug that kept iMessages from working. Keychain migration remains close to impossible, especially if you have a lot of saved password entries and WiFi passwords accumulated over years of use. I'm glad I don't fully trust Apple to keep my secrets for me. Chrome also lost all its settings, cookies, saved passwords, themes and extensions but I can hardly blame Apple for that. Mojave requiring hackery to enable subpixel rendering for non-retina quality displays was a nasty surprise as well.
I've been waiting to upgrade from my mostly docked MacBook Air for years now, but Apple never had anything worth buying (crappy keyboards, dumb Touch Bar, an old Mac mini that made the wrong compromises, an unaffordable Mac Pro). This machine, however, is great: Apple picked a good CPU over a good GPU because it's possible to add an external GPU if needed. Upgrading memory is possible, which is good, because I expect DDR4 prices to go down a lot in the coming year. Storage unfortunately isn't upgradable because Apple chose security over list price; but this isn't a big deal because with four Thunderbolt 3 ports you can add all the storage you want, and adding M.2 at Thunderbolt 3 speeds is currently about as expensive as the storage upgrades from Apple.
Price-wise it's not the cheapest but I expect to be using this machine for 4-5 years.
Having sung the hardware's praises, I have to say that the upgrade experience with Migration Assistant was abysmal. I had to spend over half an hour on the phone with Apple tech support before we could narrow down and work around the software bug that kept iMessages from working. Keychain migration remains close to impossible, especially if you have a lot of saved password entries and WiFi passwords accumulated over years of use. I'm glad I don't fully trust Apple to keep my secrets for me. Chrome also lost all its settings, cookies, saved passwords, themes and extensions but I can hardly blame Apple for that. Mojave requiring hackery to enable subpixel rendering for non-retina quality displays was a nasty surprise as well.
Bare feats just posted a test of the mac mini and finds that the flash storage has poor write speed performance. So much for the "class-leading performance."
http://barefeats.com/mac-mini-2018-versus-other-macs.html
It is in the linked review (3031 MB/s). Maybe this is normal performance for a 256GB flash drive?
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For those of you talking about fan noise, I've posted a follow up video around the fan noise. It's fairly hard to record and demonstrate tbh, but it may give you an idea. It's currently on my desk right next to my keyboard, and spends most of the working day fairly busy .... and the fan noise hasn't bothered me. I can hear the Macbook Pro i9 about a meter to my left more than I can this one for example. Anyway, you may/may not find this useful:
For what it's worth my Time Machine external disk has been way louder than any of my Macs for the past 10 years or so.
Would a m.2 NVME not be able to be encrypted? I don’t see any real benefit to soldered storage. It is such a garbage move by Apple... there has to be a benefit (other than Apple’s crazy profit margin).
My head exploded when I saw the prices in order to get a good speed for this thing compared to my late 2012
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