Apple still has Intel Mac Minis for sale on their website? Is Apple still making them or is that just the remaining stock they have.
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Is Apple still making Intel Mac Minis?
- Thread starter crowe-t
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While Apple is still apparently manufacturing the Intel Mac mini, its days are numbered, because Intel discontinued the Coffee Lake CPUs that are used inside of it. There has been some speculation that, given the price point of the Intel minis, that Apple may replace it with an M2 Pro model, which has some rumors behind it.
Apple typically doesn't keep much stock around, so it's highly likely the Intel Mac minis are still being manufactured, if the demand is there that is and if it's not going to be discontinued by next month. (I don't think it will be discontinued until June at the earliest.)
Remember, Tim Cook's claim to fame prior to becoming Apple's CEO is as a supply-chain guru, perfecting Apple's just-in-time manufacturing model. It's been said that his goal was to keep general inventory levels to a less than a week's worth. (Things are often different at the initial launch of a product though of course.)
Note that Intel will make and sell their customers CPUs that other customers can't get if it makes financial sense to do so. For example, in the past, Apple has sold Macs with semi-custom Intel chips.
But yeah, the Intel Mac mini's days are numbered.
I was considering an Intel Mini but if they are about to be discontinued than I'll go for an M1 Mini.
I'm waiting for a M2 or M1 Pro or M2 Pro Mac mini. However, I'm prepared to wait many months. While it's possible a new Mac mini will be released 6 weeks from now at WWDC, I'm not counting on it. I wouldn't be surprised if it's not released until fall, 6 months from now. However, the point is WWDC remains a possibility.
In your shoes, in the very least I'd wait until WWDC, then decide.
That's absolutely true. I believe the i9 in the 2020 iMacs was tweaked to fit the thermal limitations of the old iMac enclosure. Intel has done this for Apple in the past. However, I seriously doubt that Intel is going to put any additional effort into accommodating Apple, since they are now directly aligned against their platform.
As far as the Intel Mac mini is concerned, my base model uses a bog standard i3-8100B that all other PC makers had access to. Even though those models were discontinued, I'm sure Tim Cook would have no problem sourcing those parts from distributors, assuming Apple didn't already stockpile them ahead of time, since they have been planning the transition for years. The Intel Mac mini can't be a high-volume product, at this point.
As stated by others, I'd wait for the M2 Mac minis, since they will likely arrive later this year. There is a chance that Apple will put an M2 Pro inside a high-end mini to replace the Intel model, since that price point is otherwise unoccupied between the Mac Studio and the standard M1 Mac mini.
That product notice only affects retail boxed versions of Coffee Lake. Tray versions of the processor for OEMs continue to be made as long as there is demand.
100% they’re still being made. If you order a custom Mac mini, it won’t deliver until early May, which means it’s coming direct from China instead of some Apple distribution center.
Keep in mind software developers still need to test their work on a real Intel-based machine. If their current Intel-based Mac dies, Apple doesn’t expect developers to scour eBay or Craigslist for a replacement machine.
OP:
"I was considering an Intel Mini but if they are about to be discontinued than I'll go for an M1 Mini."
I would advise AGAINST this.
Buy an m1 Mini NOW, and by the end of the year you may be very disappointed with having done so.
There will likely be a 2022 Mini with a much-improved CPU before the year is over.
If you "need Intel", or need 32 bit compatibility (some of us still do), I'd suggest an Apple-refurbished 2018 Mini.
"I was considering an Intel Mini but if they are about to be discontinued than I'll go for an M1 Mini."
I would advise AGAINST this.
Buy an m1 Mini NOW, and by the end of the year you may be very disappointed with having done so.
There will likely be a 2022 Mini with a much-improved CPU before the year is over.
If you "need Intel", or need 32 bit compatibility (some of us still do), I'd suggest an Apple-refurbished 2018 Mini.
FWIW, I suspect the current Mac mini will remain on the refurb store (on and off) for a year or two after it is discontinued.
Of note though is that Apple's vintage/obsolete countdown doesn't start until it is discontinued. If it gets discontinued this year, it will likely have full OS support until about 2027, and then a couple of years of security updates after that.
That's plenty of time for customers to adjust, and two years longer than if Apple had discontinued all Intel Mac minis back in 2020.
This is very wise advice.
Those M1 Minis are not going to age well, especially the 8GB ones. The next model will likely have a new form factor, fix the horrible Bluetooth/WiFi reception issues, twice the cores and 32GB Ram as a possibility.
I agree, but for different reasons.
I suspect the 8 GB ones will continue to be very popular on the used market. They will be cheap, but they perform very well for up to moderate usage.
I am hopeful for all of that, but after thinking more upon it for the last several weeks, I'm not optimistic for any of that.
1. The Mac Studio has adopted the current Mac mini's design language. The base dimensions are identical to the Mac mini. The main difference is the venting design, with intake vents on the base. That made me wonder: If the Mac mini is going to be redesigned, why would they design the Mac Studio to look like the existing Mac mini with the same exact base dimensions? Mind you, there's still the possibility they could keep the base design while changing other aspects. Or else the Mac Studio was just a fake-out and they'll change the Mac mini anyway.
2. The Bluetooth/WiFi reception issues have existed long before the M1 Mac mini, but they never fixed it back then either. (Luckily for me though, Bluetooth reception is OK with my Intel Mac mini, so I'm hopeful it would be OK with an Apple Silicon Mac mini too, even if they don't redesign it.)
3. M2 won't have twice the CPU cores. Neither would a hypothetical M1 Pro / M2 Pro model. Or you talking about GPU cores? M2 won't have twice the GPU cores either, but the Pro models will have lots.
4. There's probably nothing architecturally stopping M2 from supporting 32 GB, but I'm guessing Apple may continue to use LPDDR4X with 2 memory chips for M2. That can theoretically support 32 GB, but my understanding that from a supply chain and cost perspective, 32 GB is not practical. 32 GB is easily supported with LPDDR5, but I am thinking for this generation Apple will again limit LPDDR5 to the Pro/Max/Ultra models.
I guess I'll wait and see if there's any announcement for an M2 or newer design Mac Mini. I can't wait too long. My current Mac is a 2009 Mac Mini. It's getting old.
Hey's it's already 13 years old. What's another few months?
That's impressive you've held onto it that long though. I retired my 2009 MacBook Pro 2.26 GHz Core 2 Duo in 2017 (SSD + 8 GB RAM). In the last couple of years my grade school daughter was using it for her basic school work, but even just Google's educational applications were really slow on it. So last year I upgraded her to a 2015 MacBook Pro 2.7 GHz Core i5. That thing flies in comparison.
This is incorrect. Intel canceled both boxed and tray versions of Coffee Lake (and its refresh) concurrently. This is from Intel's official PCN:
While Apple may be able to source CPUs for the Mac mini from third-party distributors, or stockpiled them after forecasting demand for this specific legacy product, they aren't getting them directly from Intel. Intel isn't going to provide processors in perpetuity when they can use their limited fab capacity for newer products.
Intel will sell to anyone that will pay for them, even if the chips are not available to anyone else. Intel has done limited runs for Apple alone before. However, I suspect Apple will not pay for them this time around.
Actually, if Apple really wanted to keep the Intel Mac mini going, and didn't want to pay for that old discontinued chip, they could even just refresh it with a new Intel CPU, but they likely won't do that either because they will likely discontinue this Mac mini relatively soon, as in within in a couple of months.
While it's possible that Intel carved out a specific SKU as a continued allotment for Apple, there's no public evidence to point to this, and is otherwise baseless speculation. That is unlike when Apple announced the end of the PowerPC line, in which they filed with the SEC that they had reached a deal with Freescale (previously Motorola's semiconductor division) to continue to provide legacy chips for use in PowerPC Macs.
I don't think we'll ever have hard evidence one way or another.
But if we look at what Apple offers today, which is their iMac with 7th Gen Kaby Lake, Intel had discontinued and stopped shipping that 2.3 GHz processor nearly two years ago. It seems unlikely Apple would able to stockpile those chips but not for other products like MacBook Air or Pro.
Apple didn't announce any new Mini's this week. I'll most likely buy a new Mini within a week or so. I don't want to keep waiting. If I wait until the Fall and they don't announce a new Mini then I'd have wasted even more time. My old 2009 Mini is slow and I need an upgrade.Hey's it's already 13 years old. What's another few months?
That's impressive you've held onto it that long though. I retired my 2009 MacBook Pro 2.26 GHz Core 2 Duo in 2017 (SSD + 8 GB RAM). In the last couple of years my grade school daughter was using it for her basic school work, but even just Google's educational applications were really slow on it. So last year I upgraded her to a 2015 MacBook Pro 2.7 GHz Core i5. That thing flies in comparison.
Sounds reasonable. Plus some of the pundits are now forecasting 2023 for the new Mac minis. I hope but I personally can wait.
Correct.
I was wrong on this one, and I am pleased.
They went with LPDDR5, up to 24 GB on the MacBook Air, with 2 chips of memory per machine.
With regards to the 24 GB vs. 32 GB, I see now some reports that the first ramp of memory production included chips with up to 12 GB, with 16 GB only coming later and in lower volumes. 32 GB is probably overkill for the MBA product line anyway, so 2 x 12 GB = 24 GB makes a lot of sense in retrospect.
The good news is that the 8 GB upgrade from 16 to 24 is exactly half the price of the 16 GB upgrade from 16 to 32. In this context, instead of the 16 GB Mac mini I was originally considering, I may instead get a 24 GB M2 Mac mini when it finally does arrive.
They are usually cheaper either on ebay or amazon (refreshed / refurb). At this point if you're getting an intel mac mini there's little reason to buy one new.