Pretty dismal that you have such little control over a desktop computer in terms of both hardware and software.
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Hands-On With Apple's New 2018 Mac Mini
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Pretty dismal that you have such little control over a desktop computer in terms of both hardware and software.
Or if the SSD had been Socket based. With soldered in SSD the long term value of the 2018 Mini gets reduced. Not as much as soldered in RAM, as its easier to run the Mini's OS from an External Drive than to work around un-upgrable RAM.
As it stands the 2018 Mini is a meh, that's nice but you were rather slow about this Apple. Knock off $100 USD and maybe we'll talk.
You'll be looking at better CPU performance from the i5 mini, but worse GPU performance without an eGPU.
Mad Mac Maniac
macrumors 601
Whenever Apple updates their lower-end computers, I always think to myself "Self, would now be a good time to upgrade my age 70's parents from their old windows 7 machines?" And the answer is always a resounding "No." For the price and elimination of features they use (like the optical disc drive), not to mention the Mac learning curve, it's just never worth the hassle. I'm not sure Apple will ever release a Mac for my parents. Maybe when the old windows machines completely die, I'll transition them to purely iPad's, but right now it just doesn't make sense with their workflow.
meh! You are forgetting that Intel was basically not upgrading their CPUs for 4 years. With coffee lake their is a big performance boost, finally! A legitimate complaint is the lack of a quad core CPU in the Mac mini. I used to run a Mac mini server, but switched to a MBP when I needed to get one, other than that, I loved the Mac mini. In all honesty, I don't need quad core, but I want it!
You also downplay the T2 chip handing video transcoding (up to 30 times faster than CPU, not too mention the crazy fast SSDs resulting from the T2 as well), and the fact that the Mac mini now goes from about 14000-28000 on Geekbench. Oh and Thunderbolt 3, any machine without it, not worth talking about.
I did some comparative pricing, not too bad at all. Usual complaints - SSD upgrades are pricey, but fast (hard to compare to the slower OEM SSds like Dell uses) - Ram is pricey, but it can be done later now.
So it would be nice to get more frequent updates, but you need better chips to do that.
I mostly use Remote Desktop, Excel, Chrome, and Mail... so I'm not exactly a power user graphically.
Things ARE significantly faster than my 2014 5k iMac (all SSD)
That is really funny. Thanks. Can't teach old people new tricks! hahaha
Now as someone who is closer to 70, and technically astute, you might be better served to rip all those old optical drives onto a server. However, if their old stuff is working, why change it? You can always get them a cheap Windows craptop, but no one does optical disks anymore, or floppies, or VGA, god I miss the old days!
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or it wouldn't be spec increases? And unless you don't have a job, computers are cheap. Of course, I remember paying $3000 for a 32 MHz beast.
They do offer the i5 and 256GB standard, it costs $1099.
I am thinking the i3 is targeted at the rack mount/server/automation market. It's the "fleet" version of the Mac, bare bones functionality and no more.
The true consumer entry point is now the $1099 i5/256GB model.
ASCII stupid question, get a stupid answer
I don't really mean that but my computer science teacher used to write really corny jokes on the whiteboard
I don't really mean that but my computer science teacher used to write really corny jokes on the whiteboard
You're not missing anything. People just love to complain.
I used my MBP 2014 for a similar use, it works fine. Not a gamer! I upgraded to Numbers from Excel, Some would argue, but the multiple table vs. one big honking table/sheet is worth it. and for big stuff I go with a database (lots of good free ones), tired of crashing Excel (running n windows, strange you would think MS would get that right).
Intel has released three products between Haswell (the processor used in the 2014 Mini) and Coffee Lake. Individually they may not have been monumental gains but taken together it adds up.
Again the benefit of using current technology shows the progress made over the years. NVMe drives, as used in the 2018 Mini, are nothing new. Other manufacturers have been offering this technology for years. It's only Apple's lack of updates which make it such an amazing advance.
That's what it feels like. But I'm debating if the i7 upgrade of the i3 model would be better in the long run. The extra 128 GB in the SSD just doesn't seem like enough space for the extra $300. Assuming the i7 can run at full power without thermal/power issues that would end up begin the better long-term workhorse. The RAM can be upgraded later, and an External drive can partly make up for the dinky internal drive (treating the internal as a kinda expensive recovery drive).
You then make your own little Mini-Tower stack with the Mini, an eGPU, and external Drive. Pretending ThunderBolt3 is actually PCIe expansion slot lanes.
128GB SSD is criminal in a $799 computer.
I am thinking that businesses like Mac Stadium and such will buy lots of the base model, upgrade to i7 and 10GB Ethernet and rack mount large clusters of powerful Mac minis. It seems like a great solution for a render or build farm. That's the "Pro" aspect of the Mac mini. It's why I think the i3 is not really targeted for consumers. Sure it's a capable machine for many scenarios, but the consumer is probably best off starting with the $1099 model.
Apple’s SSD prices are highway robbery. To add further insult to injury, they handicap you with a base SSD size that is barely appropriate for the given machine you’re buying, whether that’s a Mac mini (128GB), iPad Pro (64GB), etc. Then they offer $200 increments.
NAND is dirt cheap right now and has been for awhile. Gotta make those margins somehow I guess.
$1,099 is a very high point of entry for a Core i5 + integrated graphics. So you know there will be consumers who opt for the $799 price point, as that seems like a more reasonable point of entry considering it doesn't include a display, keyboard, mouse, or dedicated graphics card.
If Apple wants to provide a high-value Mac mini without a display, keyboard, mouse, or dedicated graphics card, the two standard configurations need to look like this:
- $799: Core i5 (6 cores) + 256 GB SSD + 8 GB RAM
- $1,099: Core i7 (6 cores) + 512 GB SSD + 8 GB RAM
I always heard this one as "ASCII stupid question, get a stupid ANSI."
Did you make this up? I have see nothing about throttling. if you check ARK https://ark.intel.com/products/134905/Intel-Core-i7-8700B-Processor-12M-Cache-up-to-4-60-GHz- These are 65w TDP processors. I had a 2011 Mac mini server, it never throttled.
Are you whining about the software glitch on the i9 MBP (if you didn't check, that was fixed within 1 week, bad file signature, damn that security!)
Unless, I see more about throttling, I will chalk this complaint up to a bit of uninformed trolling.
When my grandfather was 68, I convinced him to buy a refurb late 2009 iMac, switching him from a long line of Windows PCs going back to 3.1.1. He loved it, and took to macOS quite easily - remember, this was in the days of Snow Leopard, before Launchpad and other tools which make macOS more accessible to Windows users. I installed Windows 7 on it at the time in case he ever wanted to switch, and he booted into it a grand total of 1 time over the seven years he owned it. For his 75th last year I bought him a 5K retina iMac, and he was adamant about not installing Windows on that machine. He used to burn and use quite a bit of DVDs, but he hasn't missed the lack of a disc drive in the new iMac.
My point is that you might be pleasantly surprised with how easily your parents take to the Mac. A external disc drive is about $20 if they need DVD support after all, and supporting macOS is easily worth the slight premium of a Mac...
No.
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"I got the impression from the website that I could power my old 27" Thunderbolt display and 34" LG 4k display from the TB3 (with adapter) plus a third display from the HDMI port without additional graphics card."
I think this is correct. Would work.
maybe, but that is a super fast SSD, video transcoding from the T2, and an i3 with a geekbench >14000. That is pretty decent specs for $800. 256 for the SSD sounds better, but with TB3, you could always get a super fast external like the Samsung X5 (700 for 1 TB), or archive on a slower external. You only need fast storage on what you are actually working on.
I almost always got for a middle of the pack build myself, what is the i5? oh yah, geekbench of 22000. http://browser.geekbench.com/v4/cpu/10797048. I have seen benchmark's that say the write speed of the SSDs gets a lot faster with larger sizes (I think jury is still out on how much).