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How long will a 2018 mac mini last?

U

urbantea

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 12, 2012
141
6
Looking to pick up a mac mini. I see a refurbished 2018 one for about $350-400. But I am wondering, how long will it last before it gets laggy and has performance issues? 2-3 years? This would be for general office use, email, booking appts, spotify, sonos. New mac mini is $699, but I can get it discounted at $599.

I have a 2017 macbook air and it's started to get laggy...so I wonder if this 2018 mac mini would be a bad buy.
 
For general use, the more pressing uncertainty is probably around getting dropped from MacOS support rather than feeling slow. In terms of performance, the 2018 Mini is known for having a pretty strong CPU and a weak GPU.
 
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I'm still using a late 2013 iMac (although I will replace it sometime soon), so a machine that's 5 years newer should still have some life in it.

The way I'd look at it is... having the performance and capabilities of an M1 mini is worth at least $200 to me. Not having to migrate data in another 2-4 years is easily worth $150 in convenience. Plus a new mini would have a full warranty and is eligible for AppleCare.

Hands down, I'd go for a new mini unless the price for that 2018 was much lower. Others may put different price tags on these various items and could come to different conclusions. There's no one correct answer.
 
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Still delighted with mine after two years and I push it hard, processing terabytes of GIS data in a Windows 10 virtual machine plus Mac apps, audio/video editing and web development. But I have the top-spec i7 model with 64gb RAM. I really need the Intel version for Windows, if you don't (and don't need more than 16gb or more ports) then perhaps the M1 is a better choice.
 
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I'm very happy with my 2018 mini (with an i7 CPU) and I use it as my primary desktop. I upgraded the RAM to 64GB and also have an external SSD for additional storage.

As frou stated above, the 2018 mini might not be supported by any future macOS release, so it's possible it will stop receiving security updates in 2025 (at most 2026–2027, but I wouldn't count on this).

Your needs sound fairly modest and it might be a good buy for you. If your Macbook Air feels laggy, I would try to find the source of that bottleneck (the Activity Monitor app can provide some clues about CPU and RAM usage) and then figure out if the mini would have enough headroom in that area for you to operate lag free.
 
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My 2007 Mac Mini went belly up in 2015. Some weird hardware issue.
It was a pretty lame machine since day 1 (slow) so I was kinda glad to see it die.
I think everyone (PC & Mac) is relieved to see an ancient old slow computer finally die after 8 years. Good riddance.
 
urbantea said:
Looking to pick up a mac mini. I see a refurbished 2018 one for about $350-400. But I am wondering, how long will it last before it gets laggy and has performance issues? 2-3 years? This would be for general office use, email, booking appts, spotify, sonos. New mac mini is $699, but I can get it discounted at $599.

I have a 2017 macbook air and it's started to get laggy...so I wonder if this 2018 mac mini would be a bad buy.
Click to expand...
According to your daily schedule, you will never have any performance issue and you can choose any 2018 version (even i3).
About longevity, you need to check the storage because it's soldered onboard and you can't replace it.
You can check storage status (lifespan etc.) with apps like DriveDx.
If you think to purchase from Apple store, don't worry.
If you think to purchase from third-party suppliers, ask for a DriveDx report.
 
10+ years - much longer than the maxed out MacOS (once the discontinue supporting it) installed will be supported by the software… basically meaning you could run it, but won’t be getting any security updates or software updates… and some will stop working all together if they rely upon the cloud or web based operation.
 
Generally speaking, you will get around 10 years of supported software updates for your Mac - which should be your main concern for security purposes.

As for performance, it all depends what you do with it of course, but for general use the main thing is an SSD drive. Got my mum a 2012 Mac mini new in 2012, upgraded it to an SSD drive around 2016, still performs well enough for her today.

Her Mac will be dropped from software support later this year though, so she’ll be getting a new one in a few months time. 10 year usable lifespan makes a new Mac mini very good value, especially when you take resale into account.
 
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Boyd01 said:
The 2018 Mini is still being sold new and Apple is supposed to support Macs for a minimum of 5 years after they have been discontinued, so that countdown has not even started yet. :)
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Is that 5 years of OS support or 5 yrs security updates once it is discontinued?
 
Heat_Fan89 said:
Is that 5 years of OS support or 5 yrs security updates once it is discontinued?
Click to expand...

It is 5 years of hardware support. Not sure if there is a policy on software support, I think it just depends on which version of MacOS it will support. The 2014 Mini was discontinued in 2018 and it supports Monterey but apparently not Ventura. As I understand, MacOS Catalina is the oldest version currently supported with security updates but they are expected to end this fall, so that would be 3 years of support (2022 - 2019 = 3).

IMO, that suggests that the 2014 Mini will get Monterey security updates until 2024 (2021 + 3 = 2024) which would be 6 years after it was discontinued). If that pattern continues, the 2018 Mini would be supported until at least 2025 but possibly as long as 2028. Of course, I could be wrong. :)
 
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Boyd01 said:
The 2018 Mini is still being sold new and Apple is supposed to support Macs for a minimum of 5 years after they have been discontinued, so that countdown has not even started yet. :)
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The 2014 mac mini stopped selling in 2018. but is being axed from Ventura, the 2013 mac pro trash can stopped selling in 2019 and is also getting axed in Ventura. So the 5 years logic doesn't work anymore.
 
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Kaida said:
The 2014 mac mini stopped selling in 2018. but is being axed from Ventura, the 2013 mac pro trash can stopped selling in 2019 and is also getting axed in Ventura. So the 5 years logic doesn't work anymore.
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Maybe I don't understand? I believe recent versions of MacOS get security updates for 3 years, so if Monterey continues that pattern it will be supported until 2024. If the "trash can" was discontinued in 2019, then that would be 5 years of support, which would also match 5 years of hardware support after discontinuation.

I think the "5 years logic" is that a machine can still run a supported version of MacOS and not that it will support every new version of MacOS during that period.
 
ApfelKuchen said:
I'm still using a late 2013 iMac (although I will replace it sometime soon), so a machine that's 5 years newer should still have some life in it.

The way I'd look at it is... having the performance and capabilities of an M1 mini is worth at least $200 to me. Not having to migrate data in another 2-4 years is easily worth $150 in convenience. Plus a new mini would have a full warranty and is eligible for AppleCare.

Hands down, I'd go for a new mini unless the price for that 2018 was much lower. Others may put different price tags on these various items and could come to different conclusions. There's no one correct answer.
Click to expand...

Substitute your own numbers for the ones above and see how the math comes out for you— you may reach a different conclusion than @ApfelKuchen— but this a really good way of weighing the decision.
 
While the 2018 one should be fine for office use, I think I’d go for the M1 for future support - and for how quiet and cool it runs. That’s not something Intel CPUs are known for, I guess xD
 
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Might try to score yourself a good deal on a 2019 16" i9 MacBook Pro.

Better and more powerful machine with portability to boot.

Whatever the machine, get at least 16GB of ram. Preferably 32Gb.
 
Boyd01 said:
Maybe I don't understand? I believe recent versions of MacOS get security updates for 3 years, so if Monterey continues that pattern it will be supported until 2024. If the "trash can" was discontinued in 2019, then that would be 5 years of support, which would also match 5 years of hardware support after discontinuation.

I think the "5 years logic" is that a machine can still run a supported version of MacOS and not that it will support every new version of MacOS during that period.
Click to expand...
For context, my 2011 Mac Mini (Sierra) was getting security updates until quite recently. In fact, I had a Device Support Update on June 22nd (2022), some 11 years after its release date. I use it as a secondary device (apart from work) such as a Plex server, download platform, music centre, etc, audio encoding, and it is totally up to the challenge. Heck whilst I recently relocated, it was actually my main machine with 3 VM's (in tandem with my iPad Pro) whilst I waited for my primary devices to ship overseas. Slow, but sturdy.

YMMV, and whilst purchasing older hardware always has certain caveats such as new feature support, I'd happily recommend an older device. For the right price, and with a reasonable monitor, a 2018 Mac mini would be very decent.
 
DoFoT9 said:
For context, my 2011 Mac Mini (Sierra) was getting security updates until quite recently. In fact, I had a Device Support Update on June 22nd (2022), some 11 years after its release date. I use it as a secondary device (apart from work) such as a Plex server, download platform, music centre, etc, audio encoding, and it is totally up to the challenge. Heck whilst I recently relocated, it was actually my main machine with 3 VM's (in tandem with my iPad Pro) whilst I waited for my primary devices to ship overseas. Slow, but sturdy.

YMMV, and whilst purchasing older hardware always has certain caveats such as new feature support, I'd happily recommend an older device. For the right price, and with a reasonable monitor, a 2018 Mac mini would be very decent.
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Are you getting Safari updates as well on that 2011 Mini?
 
DoFoT9 said:
In fact, I had a Device Support Update on June 22nd (2022), some 11 years after its release date.
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Device Supports Updates are, as far as I know, updates to communicate (sync/restore) newer iOS/iPadOS updates. In other words: They don't support the old Mac mini but newer iOS devices.

You could say they're less testament to longevity of support for older devices - but more to encourage sales of newer (mobile) devices ;)
 
I am still using a 2011 MacMini that is in my condo in the U.S. It only get's used a couple of months a year but doesn't give me any trouble at all. Back in 2012 I modified it to add a 96Gb SSD for boot and run the MacOS, left the 500Gb spinner installed for all the media chores.

In 2018 my 2012 iMac died at my other condo in Thailand, so I replaced it with a 2018 Mini which is my everyday machine. As I am now retired it suits all my purposes, the only thing I needed to add was a Seagate 512Gb FastSSD (EXT) which I offloaded all the media files from the mini to, keeps the main unit fresh and quick.
 
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