I'm considering adding a Windows system to my desktop and I have several choices but it's mainly between a 2018 base mini and an i7-10700 system with 128 GB of RAM. I would prefer something that uses a minimum of power. The main reason for wanting Windows is that the macOS version tends to corrupt itself on macOS Apple Silicon on a regular basis and it takes about two hours to completely reinstall it. The Windows version also only uses 1 GB of RAM while it uses 8 GB on Apple Silicon due to WINE and Rosetta 2.
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How well does a 2018 base mini (i3, 128 GB SSD, 8 GB RAM) run Windows?
- Thread starter pshufd
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macOS/Windows version of what?
An i7-10700 based PC will always run Windows better than an i3-8100B based Intel Mac mini, let alone one with only 8GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD.
Plus, Until Apple gets their heads out of their rear ends and enables TPM 2.0 support on these 8th through 10th Generation Intel CPUs used in later era Intel Macs, Windows 11 won't be officially supported on an Intel Mac, whereas you will be able to run Windows 11 on any i7-10700 system. With Windows 10 only having just under a year and three months left of support, this is a valid security concern.
I wanted to know which one will use less power.
I have run Windows 11 on my 2015 MacBook Pro with no problems so I don't think that the TPM stuff is a gating factor.
It's not a gating factor as to whether or not you can get the OS on there. It is, however, a gating factor if you want the OS to run on supported hardware and if you want viable drivers written for the OS you're using. Again, you can probably function without these things at a potential hit to stability down the road.
As for which one would use less power, the i3 will obviously use less power. But why does this matter? Is your electric bill so high or so sensitive that you can't run a standard desktop?
I like my systems to be efficient. I'm not actually sure which will use less power given that the i7 can spread the workload over more cores running at lower frequency.
I don't need to run on supported hardware.
I had a look at a few this morning and there was a fanless AMD system that looked interesting.
I'm going to boot the i7-10700 system up on a power meter, install the software and run it and see how much power it takes.
The mini is more work as I have to install Windows on it; I'd probably want to upgrade it to 32 GB of RAM too.
I have been running Windows 10 on my 2018 Mini for over 4 years now and very satisfied with it. However, not really what you're proposing. I have the top spec i7 hex-core with 64gb RAM and I run Windows under Parallels in a 32gb VM so that I can also work in MacOS at the same time.
No experience with the base i3 model, but can tell you that mine gets extremely hot, even when more or less idle. I guess running Windows under bootcamp might be less stressful than running it in a VM?
No experience with the base i3 model, but can tell you that mine gets extremely hot, even when more or less idle. I guess running Windows under bootcamp might be less stressful than running it in a VM?
That's always true running an operating system on top of an operating system.
I run Windows 11 ARM under UTM on my Mac Studio and M1 Pro MacBook Pro and performance is comparable to an i7-10700 but it would take a bigger performance hit because Windows has to do x86 to ARM translation, similar to Rosetta 2.
I'm a big fan of the Intel Mini's, still running a 2012 quad-core i7 as a file server and a 2014 dual i5 as a media server. The 2012 quad is basically idle most of the time, only gets used as a time machine destination now although it used to be my primary Mac before I got the 2018 Mini. The 2012 always ran very hot under MacOS, and even sitting there idle now it's quite warm to the touch. Not necessarily a bad thing - depending on your point of view however. 😺
But seriously, "efficient" isn't a word that immediately comes to mind when I think of the Intel Mini's. I love 'em, but they do run hot!
But seriously, "efficient" isn't a word that immediately comes to mind when I think of the Intel Mini's. I love 'em, but they do run hot!
I ran the test on my big Windows desktop and it uses 40 watts which is really not bad. The system was designed to run cool with the i7-10700 (not K), low power GPU, lots of fans. The program uses 1 GB of RAM on Windows, 5 GB of RAM on Intel Macs and 8 GB of RAM on Apple Silicon Macs. It's a Windows program written in a tool from the 1990s. It runs via WINE on Intel Macs and via WINE and Rosetta 2 on Apple Silicon Macs. It regularly crashes on macOS and sometimes it corrupts the profile and it takes over an hour to delete everything and reinstall it. A lot of that time is downloading multiple versions of .NET and installing them.
Most of the folks that I've talked to with 2018 minis state that the case gets pretty hot but it isn't a problem in practice. It's really compact and the fan has to work pretty hard. It probably would have run much cooler if it were in the Mac Studio case.
I opened up the mini and vacuumed it out today. The mini only has a 128 GB SSD so I'll install macOS on an external drive and start Boot Camp from there so that I can use the whole internal drive for Windows.
What software are you talking about here? Two hours to reinstall what? That seems like a long time for anything. Surely you could restore from TM much quicker.
Moving platform because some software isn't working properly seems extreme. What have the developers said when you've presented them with the info about this corruption?
Fidelity Active Trader Pro. The subreddit has tons of complaints about the software on macOS.
I actually have a setup where I save a good snapshot but restoring it didn't work yesterday. I had to wipe it and install it from scratch.
The moderators on the subreddit just say that they've forwarded the comments to their developers. But this has been a problem for decades.
Does no one actually contact the developers directly, rather than using reddit as an intermediary?
If your reason for using Windows is solely because of one app, I'd certainly look for alternatives that work well on Mac.
Just because they run hot doesn’t mean they’re not efficient! My 2014 runs around 4 watts, same as my M2. My 2011 and 2010 minis use a bit more power, closer to 10 watts but still on the very reasonable end of power consumption. Running all 4 minis uses less power than my 2013 MacBook Pro.
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1) Unless your'redoing IMAX-caliber video-production, 128gb of ram is massive overkill. (Am I the only person who still exits applications not in use?) Can't imagine a pair of 64gb DDR4s approaching cheap yet.
2) Mojave/HFS+ as main boot OS; disabling SIP, MRT, Notifications, Spotlight Indexing, and OS updates. Install Parallels for Mac, and run Windows10 or Tiny11 inside that. There will be no need for extra partitions or bootloaders.
Just ordered the fastest 2018 Intel Mini refurb with 64 gb of RAM and a 1 TB SSD.... Gonna be my final hurrah to Intel Macs and possible VMs......