FelixDerKater
macrumors 68040
Mac Mini Pro Max?
Imagined Mac Mini Redesign Argues Apple Should Borrow From Mac Studio
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atomic.flip
macrumors 6502a
The studio can do that because of the processor not just the design. The ports on the front would ruin the design aesthetic of the Mac Pro 6,1. But I do get how for convenience sake it can be desireable.
If you were using cheap in a different manner from the post you were quoting, you probably should have specified.
Either way, my point remains that it makes no sense to make the least costly mac more costly by adopting this case design.
The logic board is the size of an iPhone (photo pulled from Ifixit), it's the power supply and oversized fan that use the available room in there for a snug fit.
It's worth remembering this case was designed over a decade ago for a set of user-upgradeable parts and drives, there's definitely room for optimization.
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I have a M2 Pro Mac mini, and its design does not seem to hinder it at all. I have never felt heat when putting my hand on it, never heard the fans kick on even when I tried to push it. I don't see the sense in this design other than the front facing ports. But even that is a "first world problem" in my opinion. The ports are all aligned horizontally across the back; it is so easy to plug something in just by reaching behind, don't need to pull it out and turn it around to fully see the ports when plugging in.
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atomic.flip
macrumors 6502a
I kinda like your design better. Except for the USC type A ports. Always a convenience to have them but would Apple really reintroduce them at this point?
Rickroller
macrumors regular
Maybe the reason the farms were the biggest buyers was because the Intel Mini sucked…remember the charts comparing the M1 to the entry level model…?
The M2 Pro Mini is more powerful than the top of the line 2020 iMac in CPU and GPU.
phrehdd
Contributor
I can see where the Studio is more likely to be a better fit for systems that run hotter. We already see that in some instances the Mini outperforms similar Apple laptop counterparts that have passive cooling.
One thought is that unless Apple finds a way to add more items into the M world for a Mac Pro, the Studio could morph into something more powerful as it has the physical space to do it while the Mini does not.
I have had always a love for the Mini and consider the Studio to be a mini on steroids and not much more. However, let's see what Apple does (or does not do) for a Mac Pro.
Personally, I would love to see the "Pro" get a change in the board setup to allow for arbitrating io from nonboard devices such as audio and video cards and additional SSD. Who knows. maybe a revisit to the notion of "pc express cards" is in order that may do as said - video, audio, or storage as an example. The latter could make a system really shine with that type of customization.
Rickroller
macrumors regular
Nothing stopping Apple from down streaming the older gen chip generation to the old design as cheap entry point options.
Rickroller
macrumors regular
Ha!
I can assure you I am NOT that guy. I think it’s a nice design, but maybe I need to explain my reasoning better.
As an industrial designer I have to always consider cost and rationalizing parts and materials in the BOM of making a product.
The design I made is the cheapest way to build on an existing design and therefore adding marginal cost overall to maximize difference while maximizing profit$$$$$$$$
Nothing stopping Apple from simply NOT making the “mini” bigger and more expensive.
It’s a nice looking render that fails to capture what the mini actually embodies. That’s all.
Apple Knowledge Navigator
macrumors 68040
If you see how the M2 Pro runs in real testing, Apple has set the fan curve so that the heatsink fills very quickly. It's clear that it, if anything, it could benefit from a larger heatsink to slow down the rate that it heats up.
The price difference between the top Mini and the Studio is already pretty slim, so this seems like an odd product position. I'd much rather see a Mac Studio with extra (and easily swappable) hard drive slots—such that all but those needing massive storage can have zero extra crap on their desk.
Apple Knowledge Navigator
macrumors 68040
I think my point was more to do with the form of the devices.
A cylinder is not a practical use of volume in electronics, since the primary hardware consists of flat boards. The only reason 5,1 is a cylinder is because of an ill-conceived attempt to create an aesthetically pleasing product that also happened to be funnel.
But the problem that should have been obvious before it was even released is that the single aluminium heatsink - which is a triad, further reducing the available volume - was sharing its cooling capacity between the power supply, two GPUs, a CPU and other daughter components. All for the sake of 'design', as Macrumors members like to put it...
Compare this to something like the Xbox Series X games console, which uses almost the same concept but instead has a cuboid enclosure. The components can sit where appropriate and the heat is distributed carefully through well-considered design.
zorinlynx
macrumors G3
I don't get why people are so desperate for Apple to redesign the Mac Mini. What is wrong with the current design?
It's timeless, efficient, and has an INTERNAL POWER SUPPLY. Any design change they make will likely move to an external power supply like the M1 iMacs, and trust me we don't want that.
It's timeless, efficient, and has an INTERNAL POWER SUPPLY. Any design change they make will likely move to an external power supply like the M1 iMacs, and trust me we don't want that.
Rickroller
macrumors regular
MacBook Air makes Apple a hell of a lot more money than the 14 and 16 Pros…There is a much bigger pool of possible consumers at lower prices.
Rickroller
macrumors regular
I really think this is great option as well. The ports of this design make less sense for base M chip.
Correct. Apple has a 50k+ BTO configuration Mac Pro but they make far more money from any other Mac product than the Mac Pro.
Apple is incorrectly billed as company that only has overpriced high margin products. That's not true. They have high volume products with lower margins (iPad, MacBook Air) and low volume products with higher margins (Mac Studio, Mac Pro, Apple Studio Display, Pro Display XDR).
I wonder how Apple manages the M2 Pro and Max chips in the latest MBPs then..
Not saying I have the solution, but what works for notebooks should be easier to achieve in a small desktop case.
felineBeing
macrumors newbie
My honest preference for Mac Mini would be cheaper/smaller with front ports. Imagine an AppleTV sized computer that could be tucked away behind a monitor.
TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️
Suspended
It looks great and all but it does seem like it was put together last minute. The design aesthetic is lagging. The industrial design is just not that appealing to me honestly. All the internal components are very nice. Apple gets 10/10 for that. They nailed it but the overall exterior design does not look that appealing. Perhaps, if the overall design was a disk or a circular shape ⭕ Now, that would have been cool. For now, it just looks like an aluminum tin box. All you are getting is pure performance. That's it.
Apple Knowledge Navigator
macrumors 68040
Well that’s easy - they let them run to almost 110 degrees! Haha.
R2DHue
macrumors 6502
With the Mac mini's current design dating back over a decade, one MacRumors forums user has imagined what a redesign could look like if Apple was to take hints from the Mac Studio.
The idea mainly comes from MacRumors forums user "Rickroller," who shared basic images of the concept earlier today. They suggest that a Mac Studio-like design could bring significant thermal improvements to the Mac mini to enable better performance, and even add some simple quality-of-life enhancements such as front-facing USB-C ports and an SDXC card reader.
Leaker Jon Prosser shared renders of a complete redesign for the Mac mini in early 2021, thought to be destined for an M1 Pro or M2-series model. The design depicted a smaller chassis with a "plexiglass-like" top, but did not emerge with the latest M2 and M2 Pro Mac mini models last year.
The unibody design of the Mac mini, 2010-present.
In 2022, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo warned that the next Mac mini models would have the same design as prior models. Looking to the future, Kuo again believes that the new Mac mini models in 2024 will have the exact same design as their predecessors.
The Mac mini currently features a silver aluminum unibody design that Apple introduced in 2010. It has used this design for every Mac mini, other than offering a Space Gray colorway in 2018. By the time the next-generation Mac mini models launch in 2024, this design will be 14 years old – becoming the longest continuously used Apple design in the company's history.
Proposed Mac mini redesign, rear.
Bloomberg's Mark Gurman recently suggested that Apple has no plans to update the Mac Studio with the M2 Max and M2 Ultra chips in the near future. The main reason for the decision seems to be the change in direction of the Apple silicon Mac Pro, which will now have the M2 Ultra chip as a top-tier option and offer limited modularity. Apple may leave the Mac Studio without a hardware refresh for some time and could even discontinue the product line, similar to 2017's iMac Pro, which served as a stop-gap device until the release of the 2019 Mac Pro.
The M2 Pro Mac mini's rear and selection of ports.
If the Mac Studio is indeed discontinued sometime in the next several years, a post-2024 Mac mini may be even more likely to adopt a Mac Studio-like design, since there would no longer be a risk of further cannibalizing the Mac Studio with a similar design. Apple often introduces new designs and features on its high-end devices before slowly trickling them down to other products in the lineup, such as the squared-off industrial design of the 2018 iPad Pro, which finally came to dominate the whole latest-generation iPad lineup upon the release of the 10th-generation iPad last year.
What is in store for the Mac mini's design after 2024 is unclear and likely has not even have been firmly decided upon by Apple yet, but considering how long the company has stuck with the aluminum unibody design, a redesign sometime in 2025 or beyond is highly plausible.
Article Link: Imagined Mac Mini Redesign Argues Apple Should Borrow From Mac Studio
Ditch USB-A.
No more USB Style A ports. Thunderbolt 4 ports only — and each port with its own controller for consistent speeds across each port.
USB-A will be with us forever if Apple and others continue to support this legacy connector forever.
And, as usual, Apple has to lead the way for the entire industry. They won’t act until Apple does first — every time!
Also, no USB-C 4-only ports; ALL Thunderbolt 4/USB-C 4 ports instead.
Thunderbolt 4 is compatible with USB-C 4. USB-C 4, however, is not compatible with Thunderbolt 4.
So, all such ports should obviously be Thunderbolt — then you can use them all — and all the same way (a simplified, traditionally “Apple-y” thing to do). (Remember “Plug-n-Play”?)
Yes, people will b***h and moan about adapters or dongles or hubs for a while, but their complaints will ultimately motivate the industry to finally and completely deprecate Legacy USB type A style ports for all peripherals. Otherwise, it will never happen!
(After all this time, are there ANY TVs that include even one USB type C port?!)
P.S. If Apple can include support for DisplayPort 2.1 signals in Thunderbolt, then Apple can include support for Superspeed Ethernet 25 or 40Gbit/s protocols in Thunderbolt (5?). (Or faster. It would require fiber optics, but, oh, well…)
People/corporations/institutions could connect multiple Macs together via Ethernet, running in parallel, and make a SUPERCOMPUTER out of them. Just like “System X” ("System Ten") by Virginia Tech.
Rickroller
macrumors regular
The MacBook Pro limitations are the thin portability factor. They really are being pushed thermally inside the smaller enclosures.