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It seems that the mini is really meant for those that need something inexpensive, potentially portable and functional. Honestly, I would love to see a mini or a mid range (mini -> mac pro is a big jump) that has quad core and a gpu. It is sad that they decided to go the other way for the mini but maybe... they may be thinking of a mid range entry into the line up? we can hope.
 
Apple doesn't want your business unless you're willing to go iMac or Mac Pro.

I've shown you guys a few options, like that Alienware Alpha. Go check it out.

I've only had a Dell a long time ago (like 11 years ago) but never an Alienware, so it would be my first if I considered it over building one myself from Newegg.

Before I went to Macs I had a lot of Dell's, as well as many friends and family had a lot of Dells. They all had hardware issues, dead motherboards, etc. I wonder if Alienware's quality has changed since Dell bought them. I don't know if Dell's current products are any higher quality than they used to be, just no experience with them, but they used to be awful.
 
There's a downside, of course. Most Haswell machines on the market draw 30W idle consumption or higher. At $0.38 per kWh (what I pay for additional consumption), assuming the machine runs 24 x 7, that translates to $67 per year more in your power bill, or a couple hundred bucks over a three-year product lifetime. Heck, the Alienware I looked at idles at 46W, or $120 per year more in power costs. That adds up rather quickly.

I'd *love* to find a PC that draws 10W or less when idle, with a desktop-class Haswell Core i7. In theory, I'm told that it is possible to build systems that are roughly in that ballpark, but most of the systems out there don't get close.

That's pretty high electricity rates. In any case, the Mini uses laptop-grade CPUs, so it isn't exactly a fair comparison. I do see what you mean, as electricity does cost money.

I'd argue that anyone conscious of that would sleep or shut down any computer they have, reducing the number of hours used in a day to around 8 (either at home, OR at work, but likely not both).

The difference becomes pretty minimal in the end, and as you'd expect the more powerful CPUs do need a little more power.

Those who care most about this could use the ultra efficient dual cores, while the people willing to pay more for a quad-core (laptop-class) can deal with the small bump in electricity.

For me, I'd like a powerful enough computer to do just about anything that I do -- except gaming -- for low operating costs.

My current rig is enough to heat the whole room... It's good for gaming, but otherwise....!

I just can't justify such a limited (while still expensive) computer with a short expected life (for me) as the current Mini.
 
So was Tim Cook and Apple's hype about Apple's product lineup this year justified? I think not.

We got larger phones with some potential durability issues and no significant advances in battery life (that just happen to have lost a lot of personality too in my opinion), a retina iMac but unimproved rest of the lineup, faster and thinner iPad but relatively unimproved iPad Mini(s), an unexciting Mac Mini update without case refresh considering the long wait for a new model, an announcement for a watch that isn't even released until next year, relatively minor MacBook (Pro) speed bumps and additions and an iPod lineup, AppleTV and Cinema Display that look all but abandon-ware.

Is Apple doing as well as it could or should or is it (in cahoots with Intel) deliberately slowing down its pace of development, releasing more minor updates less often than in the past and continuing to cripple its low-end products or offer ancient models (hello iPad) just to claim low entry price points. I argue the latter.

Apple no longer represents technophiles and readers of this site, nor are they interested in getting the best possible deal for consumers that can't afford the best models. They represent the technically illiterate and luddites that don't know an Intel Graphics from a GeForce GTX 980.

How much can we really expect from Apple when they're busy building an "actual size" Noah's ark in the middle of the deep south using all of their profits? Oh, wait. It's in California. And it's a ridiculously shaped flying saucer that won't fly. But it is pretty big, maybe big enough to hold a pair of every type of product they currently have in production.
 
I don't know if it was mentioned here. But the 2012 i7-quad 2.3 showed up for $589 on the apple refurb site. I got in and it should be here tomorrow. Out of stock for now, but keep an eye out here: http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/specialdeals/mac/mac_mini

Maybe write a cron job that checks for changes every 5 minutes with wget.

I just going throw in my DIY fusion drive and 1333-ddr 8x2 GB from my 2011 i5-Radeon 6630M and then throw the 4GB from the furb and 1TB from the refurb back into the 2011 and sell it on ebay.

Don't think it will be a loss of more than $200 and I get USB 3 and a nice quad core. I use VM's all day for work so it should be a nice upgrade.

A 2014-i7 Dual core+1TB fusion+16RAM would have cost $1399 and performed poorer with VMware than the 2012 Quad. I had no need for another thunderbolt and I seriously could give a rats...about power draw.

Ya, it sucks for today but I wouldn't put it past apple to release a quad core Skylake or CannonLake(10nm)
 
Sounds like Steve... I occasionally email Tim every now and then to let him know how I "feel" about something. But I must say, I've had 2-3 Apple issues where I needed to escalate something, and I'll be damned if I didn't get a call from Apple (Texas location) the next day asking questions and providing help.

So yeah, if not the man himself, someone is monitoring that address and you can use it to get some help. I try not to abuse it, but every now and then Apple does something so bad (or good) that I must let him know.
Hey I was trying to be helpful, I pointed out a bad benchmark, which he insisted was right. I had made a screen shot of it, which I later sent to him with a side by side comparison after it had mysteriously updated itself, to show the difference, and told him "no charge for the proof reading".
 
http://www.apple.com/feedback/macmini.html



Soldered ram?

No quad core option?

No discrete graphics option?


This is not the Mac I'm looking for...

Good idea. I clicked that link and gave them my feelings on what they've done. If enough users complain maybe, maybe, Apple won't do this nonsense in the future.

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I don't know if it was mentioned here. But the 2012 i7-quad 2.3 showed up for $589 on the apple refurb site. I got in and it should be here tomorrow. Out of stock for now, but keep an eye out here: http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/specialdeals/mac/mac_mini

Maybe write a cron job that checks for changes every 5 minutes with wget.

I just going throw in my DIY fusion drive and 1333-ddr 8x2 GB from my 2011 i5-Radeon 6630M and then throw the 4GB from the furb and 1TB from the refurb back into the 2011 and sell it on ebay.

Don't think it will be a loss of more than $200 and I get USB 3 and a nice quad core. I use VM's all day for work so it should be a nice upgrade.

A 2014-i7 Dual core+1TB fusion+16RAM would have cost $1399 and performed poorer with VMware than the 2012 Quad. I had no need for another thunderbolt and I seriously could give a rats...about power draw.

Ya, it sucks for today but I wouldn't put it past apple to release a quad core Skylake or CannonLake(10nm)


That's the 2012 mini I have, they are nice machines. I had a 2010, upgraded to 2011, then upgraded to 2012. Each version got better and better, imo. The 2014 version still has me shaking my head. It certainly does not live up to Apple's stated goal of making the best products in the world.
 
They've only just released the 5K iMac, and we're already hyped over the 512K Mac?

Rumors sure are fast around this website these days...

Lol.... As I said, for those unfamiliar, Google and wiki have the answer...

The Macintosh 512K was introduced in September 1984. Hence the joke.
 
I had a feeling this would happen. That's why I'm so glad I upgraded from a entry 2012 to a mid level 2012 model in April this year (Scored the mid for $200 off at BB) so it ended up costing me next to nothing as I swapped memory with the old one I sold which also covered the cost of the OWC kit and SSD. Now if I can resist the calling of the retina iMac. My Ivy Hackintosh with 650ti and cheap 4k Seiki 50" is great but having an AIO stable platform would be great if I were not just editing Gopro 4 Black videos.

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I don't know if it was mentioned here. But the 2012 i7-quad 2.3 showed up for $589 on the apple refurb site. I got in and it should be here tomorrow. Out of stock for now, but keep an eye out here: http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/specialdeals/mac/mac_mini

Maybe write a cron job that checks for changes every 5 minutes with wget.

I just going throw in my DIY fusion drive and 1333-ddr 8x2 GB from my 2011 i5-Radeon 6630M and then throw the 4GB from the furb and 1TB from the refurb back into the 2011 and sell it on ebay.

Don't think it will be a loss of more than $200 and I get USB 3 and a nice quad core. I use VM's all day for work so it should be a nice upgrade.

A 2014-i7 Dual core+1TB fusion+16RAM would have cost $1399 and performed poorer with VMware than the 2012 Quad. I had no need for another thunderbolt and I seriously could give a rats...about power draw.

Ya, it sucks for today but I wouldn't put it past apple to release a quad core Skylake or CannonLake(10nm)

Quad core will become the standard with SkyLake but who knows how long you have to wait. Power draw on the 2.3 quad 2012 mini is great. I also have a 5bay external that idles along with 2x 2bay SFF arrays and a LaCie LBD and the whole thing barely ever pulls past 130W. I have mine on all the time and I never see the cost on my energy bill (turn it off when on vacation, no difference)
 
Definitely seems a step backwards for the middle and upper price tier machines. Curious as to why they did it.
 
nice try.. you can try to change what i said all you wish but fortunately it's not a he-said-she-said situation.. it's real easy to go back and see what i wrote.

Here is what you wrote:

ok.. if you say so.

but you at least have to realize you're talking to people that also use computers.. for me personally, i use 3.. a 2core laptop, a quad, and a 6core computer.. and i'm telling you, there is no difference with those three when browsing email.

maybe i'm not power_using mail.app or something? i'm not a serious enough emailer to notice the effects of more cores?

So what are you using your 6 core computer for?

Look, if you don't notice a difference between multi-core you don't need it. Stick with your dual-core for facebook, email, etc.
 
Then an update came and killed my sound, had to wait for one of the extremely clever people in the community to modify the kext for my motherboard... Then another update came and I started grtting random freezes. Then I wiped the SSD clean and just put 8.1 on.

Hackintosh works... But it's messy and not for a primary machine, just for fun or messing around in OS X. I don't trust it for security or anything.

The first rule of Hackintoshing is that you never never never update until at least a few days after an OS X update drops. Then, before updating, check the Hackintosh forums for reports of any serious issues.

Also, always back up everything before updating so you can easily revert to your previous working installation in case you lose sound or whatever.

Second rule is to use exactly the recommended build parts recommended by the experts at Hackintosh sites. This will maximize your chances of everything working and enhances your ability to get help if something goes wrong (since other folks have probably encountered the same issue).

My primary machine at home has been a Hackintosh for about 4 years. Everything works... USB3, sound, iMessage, sleep, etc. With recent hardware upgrades my $500 Hack is about 2.5X faster than the fastest new Mac Mini.

FWIW I wouldn't recommend Hackintoshing for the casual Mac user, it's more for those who don't mind tinkering with stuff and who are fairly technical. It's not for early adopters either.
 
Actually provided feedback via the link.

This seems like a significant step backwards - no upgradability, dual core on middle and upper tiers, and only one usable drive bay (barring ordering it with a fusion drive).

Apple is starting to disgust me with consistent Mac "updates" that, as here, take a significant step backwards.
 
If it is true that Iris Pro and a quad core chip won't work inside the Mini, fine...at least offer a quad core with Iris graphics. Or offer a discrete graphics card or stick a quad i7 with only one graphics card inside the nMP cylinder. Or use your 100 billion in cash to figure something out. Pretty sure they could offer a quad core i7 cpu with decent (not top of the line, but decent) graphics in the $1000-2500 price range (allowing for a variety of memory, cpu, and storage options). Actually they do - the iMac, but not everyone wants that damn display.

That's my main issue with Apple computers. I don't want the display anymore and have been waiting around for a Mac Mini update. I currently own a late 2009 21 inch iMac (it's my first Apple computer), but will probably wait another year to upgrade. I have a 27 inch monitor that I would like to use for my next Mac.

I would be willing to get an iMac IF I could connect any device to it via HDMI and use the iMac as a monitor, but NO, Apple doesn't offer that feature anymore. If in another year there's still not a desirable headless Mac option, hello Windows 10.
 
Here is what you wrote:



So what are you using your 6 core computer for?

Look, if you don't notice a difference between multi-core you don't need it. Stick with your dual-core for facebook, email, etc.

the guy posted some screenshots of activity monitor while using safari and mail as a means to make some sort of point about multiple core advantages.

I was talking to him.. somehow you come along and tell me I need 2core for email and safari and imply I have no need for a 6core machine.

I'm either unclear on what your point is or assume you're just looking to battle over something you've made up.
 
the guy posted some screenshots of activity monitor while using safari and mail as a means to make some sort of point about multiple core advantages.

I was talking to him.. somehow you come along and tell me I need 2core for email and safari and imply I have no need for a 6core machine.

I'm either unclear on what your point is or assume you're just looking to battle over something you've made up.

The point he was making is that modern software is generally optimized to use multi-core, which he showed with his screenshots. I'm not sure why you have a problem with that?
 
What are the odds of that? At best, 50/50, I think. By my recollection:

Core Duo: Compatible.
Core 2 Duo: Same socket, but not compatible with early Core Duo chipsets.
Nehalem: New socket.
Westmere: Compatible.
Sandy Bridge: New socket.
Ivy Bridge: Compatible.
Haswell: New socket.
Haswell refresh: Compatible.
Broadwell: Same socket, but not compatible with early Haswell chipsets.

So basically, they're changing the socket with every non-minor-speed-bump release, and with some of the minor speed-bump releases. This translates to about a two-year incompatibility cycle. Most people don't upgrade their CPUs more often than that, so in practice, motherboards are now disposable even if you build a machine yourself. The only things you can usefully reuse are the case, the power supply, and mass storage devices.

IMO, the entire industry might as well switch to soldered-on CPUs. There's no real advantage to socketed CPUs at this point, given the relatively short upgrade window. Ditching sockets would halve the number of SKUs (no need to stock the CPU and motherboard separately), would reduce effort for system builders (both in choosing parts and in installation), and would improve reliability.




There's a downside, of course. Most Haswell machines on the market draw 30W idle consumption or higher. At $0.38 per kWh (what I pay for additional consumption), assuming the machine runs 24 x 7, that translates to $67 per year more in your power bill, or a couple hundred bucks over a three-year product lifetime. Heck, the Alienware I looked at idles at 46W, or $120 per year more in power costs. That adds up rather quickly.

I'd *love* to find a PC that draws 10W or less when idle, with a desktop-class Haswell Core i7. In theory, I'm told that it is possible to build systems that are roughly in that ballpark, but most of the systems out there don't get close.

Sure, $120 per year more, or if he could save time on the graphic rendering or processing, even by cutting it in half the time, he would be able to move onto more projects, and the return is that he would be able to make more money, or at least have more free time for himself.

I think there is a much higher and a longer term view than just number of dollars and wattage usage. In the end, it's all up to each person to decide what's more valuable.

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Before I went to Macs I had a lot of Dell's, as well as many friends and family had a lot of Dells. They all had hardware issues, dead motherboards, etc. I wonder if Alienware's quality has changed since Dell bought them. I don't know if Dell's current products are any higher quality than they used to be, just no experience with them, but they used to be awful.

I went thru the same issues with Dells too, and I would have said the same back then.

Like Apple, there was/were/is/will be a good time to buy it's product, and when to avoid it. No one is going to be perfect from day 1 and continue that way. That is why we have competition. If you don't get back on your feet, you're out of the game. Right now, I think Apple is just riding on their momentum and their reputation, particularly from Steve Jobs, and they're just taking it for granted. I hope I'm wrong.

That's why I may consider the option of building a machine myself. If a component fails, I know what it is as I diagnose it and return/exchange as needed.

The nice thing with Dell is that if I was to put together the parts for a machine similar to what Dell offers, Dell would win in the total cost, because they bought all the parts in bulk, no retail box, no extra cables, no extra printed materials, and in turn, passes the extra savings onto the buyer. Buying from Newegg is paying retail price, or they may discount it a bit to compete with other e-commerce, but I will always be paying slightly higher building it myself. Going with Dell/HP/etc. would be a good choice for those who are new to computers or aren't looking to hassle with putting parts together. And of course their warranty covers all parts of the computer. It's all a personal decision for everyone.

Just in case someone wants to delete my posts, how does all this relate to Mac mini? Well, you guys seem to really like your CPU performance, your RAM upgrade-ability, and your storage flexibility. Why not go PC?

This isn't about PC vs Mac. Unless there's something you can only do with Mac, fine, stick with it. Otherwise, you're better off going elsewhere if you need better performance.

Money flows to where it is most appreciated.
 
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This is all because the Quad Mini was too big of a competitor with Apple's more premium choices. You want 4+ cores? Apple wants you spending far more than ~ $650.
 
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