I'm about to have a Mac Mini 2018 that I should know?

[Reflej0]

Hello, as the title says I am about to have a Mac Mini I5 3Ghz 256GB 8GB 2018 in an exchange for my iPad Pro 2017 10.5 256GB + 50k AR$ (650 USD) just to contextualize.
Previously I had a Mac Mini I5 2014 1TB HDD 8GB and although I used it only to develop in Swift for iOS, it worked quite slowly due to HDD.
I also used a Macbook Air (I don't remember the year) and although it had 4GB Ram, it had 128GB SSD and it worked fast.
I am frequently using Desktop PC and the acquisition is also in the form of investment (at least here in Argentina it is useful to buy Apple equipment to invest).
Any comments I should know (I haven't bought it yet)? I use the PC to develop, browse the internet, watch videos, edit (cut and resize) videos and to play CS GO (which I know I will not be able to match the performance of my current PC).
Currently the PC I have is Ryzen 1700 - 256GB NVME - 16GB 2666Mhz RX 580 8GB.
Thanks since now !
Greetings.

 

[getrealbro]

Be prepared to be pleasantly surprised

I struggled with a 2014 2.6 Ghz I5 Mini w/ 8GB RAM and a 1TB HDD for a year. Booting from an external Samsung T5 helped. But in the end it was the non-upgradable 8GB RAM that relagated my 2014 Mini to being a headless file/music server. My 2018 i7 Mini with 256GB SSD and 32GB RAM was an amazing breath of fresh air.

The one thing I’d do immediately to any 2018 8GB Mini is add some RAM — 16GB is enough, 32GB is better. After a year of watching the Activity Monitor's Memory graph go red and.having to close apps to unload RAM, I no longer even think about it

GetRealBro

 

[Reflej0]

The one thing I’d do immediately to any 2018 8GB Mini is add some RAM — 16GB is enough, 32GB is better. After a year of watching the Activity Monitor's Memory graph go red and.having to close apps to unload RAM, I no longer even think about it

I currently believe that desirable ram memory today is 16GB for normal use, 8GB as the minimum floor, at least on the latest Windows and Linux systems.
Maybe in OS X this is also the case but at the moment I can only afford the 8GB model I know that a future update is possible.
A specific question Airdrop works from an iPhone to the Mac Mini?

 

[Erehy Dobon]

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[Reflej0]

Computers are expenses. It's a tool, like a hammer, vacuum cleaner or calculator. They depreciate quickly.

It is true, any electronic device that I bought or that anyone buys loses value with respect to the time of purchase.
But at least in Argentina, with Apple products this devaluation occurs more slowly compared to any other brand, it is some exceptional cases, it happens that a product after a year may be worth a little more than its original value.

 

[Erehy Dobon]

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[iAssimilated]

What you should know is you are getting a great Mac mini compared to the 2014 model. Enjoy!

You will be able to add performance easily by upgrading the RAM and adding an eGPU (if needed).

 

[getrealbro]

I currently believe that desirable ram memory today is 16GB for normal use, 8GB as the minimum floor...

I agree.

FWIW 0ut of habit, I’ve been watching the Activity Monitor Memory graph. And I smile each time I see how low the green graph is with 32GB of RAM. But I've also noticed that the “Memory Used” is rarely above 16GB, even when I have lots of apps running, including Google earth using 4.26GB of Real Memory” all by its lonesome.

GetRealBro

 

[Treq]

The main issues I have with mine are the bluetooth reception and the non-upgradable internal storage. The latter is fixed somewhat with an external drive, but the bluetooth is a real pain. I have had to hardwire my wireless trackpad because it just cuts in and out so often. The keyboard is unwired and is frustrating to use and neither is further away than 7 feet with clear line of sight. Totally maddening.

 

[opeter]

You can try bypass the bluetooth problems with buying/using an external bluetooth USB stick/adapter, that has drivers for macOS.

Does the wireless trackpad need BT 5.0 or is 4.0 enough? What about the keyboard?

 

[Reflej0]

Hi, I was already using the Mac Mini and I am happy with its performance. It's true, I suffer problems with Bluetooth, only with the mouse, not with the keyboard and headphones.
In the same way I have wired keyboard and mouse but for my configuration at the moment I prefer to use the wireless ones.

I am obsessive with the temperatures (of any device) and set the RPM of the FAN to 4000 and the temperatures remain at 40 ° ~ 50 ° a relief for me.

And with respect to space is not a problem for me, but I will buy a USB C adapter to Sata as soon as I can.
I would like to be able to play the only non-demanding game that I play the CS GO but it works fatal x.x, I think I could later try an iMac with dedicated GPU. In fact I am only using Windows (on another PC) to play.

And the last question, is there any kind of visual scaling? That is to say in 1440p resolution I see everything very small (In Safari it can be adjusted), then the solution is to set the configuration to 1080p at 144Hz.

 

[Treq]

You can try bypass the bluetooth problems with buying/using an external bluetooth USB stick/adapter, that has drivers for macOS.

Does the wireless trackpad need BT 5.0 or is 4.0 enough? What about the keyboard?

I think you were replying to my comment. The track pad is an Apple trackpad and the keyboard is a Logitech k810. I'm pretty sure neither requires 5.0. I did discover that hardwiring the trackpad into the Mac bypasses the bluetooth, which is handy but having a cord across the floor in the living room is not preferred. Do you know a model of bluetooth dongle that works for the Mac? Pain in the butt to have to buy something for a computer that is supposed to have it out of the box. Also will it default to that dongle and shut down the onboard BT or will both be active? Don't want to lose other functionality like unlocking with my Apple Watch or air drop and such.

 

[D.T.]

I think you were replying to my comment. The track pad is an Apple trackpad and the keyboard is a Logitech k810. I'm pretty sure neither requires 5.0. I did discover that hardwiring the trackpad into the Mac bypasses the bluetooth, which is handy but having a cord across the floor in the living room is not preferred. Do you know a model of bluetooth dongle that works for the Mac? Pain in the butt to have to buy something for a computer that is supposed to have it out of the box. Also will it default to that dongle and shut down the onboard BT or will both be active? Don't want to lose other functionality like unlocking with my Apple Watch or air drop and such.

I've posted about this in a few threads, I'm using a Logitech Anywhere MX mouse, and it uses one of the Logitech Unifying receivers, it's a _tiny_ little USB dongle, it's 2.4GHz, a single one supports multi devices, works great on MacOS, has support utils, and run side-by-side with BT.

Of course, it necessitates, using Logitech mice (or keyboards), but they've got a nice wide range of products

(FWIW, I use a wired Das Pro 4 Mac keyboard ...)

 

[mr_hyde]

Does the wireless trackpad need BT 5.0 or is 4.0 enough? What about the keyboard?

With my mini 2018 I use the same trackpad (I guess the first version? ID are 0x3, 0x31C) I used with previous Late 2009 Mac Mini, this one for sure is not bluetooth 5.0, according to wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Trackpad_2) the more recent trackpad ver. 2 uses bluetooth v. 3.0, do not know if very recent models are different.

Usually I have no issues, I observe problems only when:
- battery level is lowe
- (sometimes) if I use aslo a USB 3.x SSD connected to the USB-A port (the same HD connected through a USB-C adapter have no issues)

Consider also that I use an old USB Apple keyboard (so not wireless) and sometimes also an old bluetooth Magic Mouse (also this one coming from the old Late 2009 mini) or a bluetooth Logitech MX Anywhere 2; also a USB 2.0 (connected through USB-A ports) currently did not cause problems.

According to other posts in MacRumors forum one of the best method to avoid bluetooth problems is to use, for USB-A devices, a HUB (connected via USB-C), better if it has a cable long enough to let you to place it not too close to the mini (the bluetooth problems seem related to interferences with USB 3.x, as happens also for other computers).


Bye,
Mr Hyde

 

[Treq]

I've posted about this in a few threads, I'm using a Logitech Anywhere MX mouse, and it uses one of the Logitech Unifying receivers, it's a _tiny_ little USB dongle, it's 2.4GHz, a single one supports multi devices, works great on MacOS, has support utils, and run side-by-side with BT.

Of course, it necessitates, using Logitech mice (or keyboards), but they've got a nice wide range of products

(FWIW, I use a wired Das Pro 4 Mac keyboard ...)

Well, I prefer to use the Apple trackpad because it simply is the best pointing device I have ever used and has the best gesture control. The keyboard I use is also the only one I can find that fits my requirements of having a backlit keyboard and 3 selectable paired devices. I use it to control the Mac mini, A Gaming PC, and a raspberry Pi running linux. Would that dongle work with those or is I only for specific Logitech devices?

 

[D.T.]

Well, I prefer to use the Apple trackpad because it simply is the best pointing device I have ever used and has the best gesture control. The keyboard I use is also the only one I can find that fits my requirements of having a backlit keyboard and 3 selectable paired devices. I use it to control the Mac mini, A Gaming PC, and a raspberry Pi running linux. Would that dongle work with those or is I only for specific Logitech devices?

Ahh yeah, the Apple track pad is really outstanding (I have one sitting here somewhere), I'm just more of a mouse guy Yeah, it's a proprietary receiver (well, it's based on a known wireless spec), but that does mean Logitech peripherals.
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According to other posts in MacRumors forum one of the best method to avoid bluetooth problems is to use, for USB-A devices, a HUB (connected via USB-C), better if it has a cable long enough to let you to place it not too close to the mini (the bluetooth problems seem related to interferences with USB 3.x, as happens also for other computers).

Yeah, I had planned on getting a USB-C hub to move all the USB-A devices away from the Mini, never did since I wound up solving it with this Anywhere MX mouse (which I +think+ I like a little better vs. a MM).

Initially my MM seemed fine, but it may have been a result of slowing adding additional peripherals to my Mini, some being USB-A, and at some point, it started introducing interference.