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Mac Mini 2012

theRAMman said:
well, since the VERY FIRST POST on this thread was about the base model, i thought that it would be the trend :D And about your "mac are so obsessed with smallness" just look at the chromebox, the minis only rival. That is even smaller and, has worse specs. The mini is marketed as the MINI for a reason. Im not saying that i wouldnt mind it getting a bit bigger, but asking it to be a full blown desktop is like asking a lawn mower to be a combine harvester, its not its job! I think that the mini furfills its job of being a super small slimline very well indeed and that it is by far the best computer of its size and power on the market.:p rant over ;)
Click to expand...

Fair enough.

Please don't misunderstand. I love the Mini. I just wish it had a bit more oomph, that's all. The Mini is pretty useless for HD video transcoding. But the Pro is far too expensive with outdated hardware. And the iMac has a screen that I don't want or need.

What I'd really really really like is for Apple to continue with the current Mini design as is, but to introduce a new Apple Maxi. Basically a larger Mini with something like iMac specs, but no screen and a few upgradeable parts, like user-removable disks.

I would buy one in a heartbeat.
 
Chippy99 said:
Fair enough.

Please don't misunderstand. I love the Mini. I just wish it had a bit more oomph, that's all.

What I'd really really really like is for Apple to continue with the current Mini design as is, but to introduce a new Apple Maxi. Basically a larger Mini with something like iMac specs, but no screen and a few upgradeable parts, like user-removable disks.

I would buy one in a heartbeat.
Click to expand...

the long awaited Xmac :D That would be awsome though, an average sized desktop which is completly user compatible! not soldered processers so you can upgrade yourself and easily customisable innards :D Styled like a mini Mac Pro and priced around £600-£800. It would be a revelation!

*i wake up from my dream to find im not in heaven* prehaps not then..

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oh, and chippy, do you own a mini?
 
Chippy99 said:
Fair enough.

Please don't misunderstand. I love the Mini. I just wish it had a bit more oomph, that's all. The Mini is pretty useless for HD video transcoding. But the Pro is far too expensive with outdated hardware. And the iMac has a screen that I don't want or need.

What I'd really really really like is for Apple to continue with the current Mini design as is, but to introduce a new Apple Maxi. Basically a larger Mini with something like iMac specs, but no screen and a few upgradeable parts, like user-removable disks.

I would buy one in a heartbeat.
Click to expand...

So would I... But I think it will not happen... Sadly...
To tell you the truth, I have the Mid Mac Mini with the dedicated graphics card, and it is not that bad at HD video transcoding (I do that a lot).
It handles some transcoding jobs faster than my PC that has a six core processor and an AMD 6850HD graphics card...
I don't know if that is due to the better software or something else but I am not complaining...
 
Chippy99 said:
Who said anything about base models?

It would just be nice to have a high-end i7 option. But we can't. Because Apple is obsessed with smallness and neatness to the detriment of functionality. And the Mini is so small and so neat that you can't fit a 100W TDP processor inside because there's no way to dissipate that amount of heat in such a small case.

I wouldn't mind if the Mini was just one product offering, satisfying a particular niche. But it isn't. If you don't want an All-in-One (especially one that can't be used as a monitor!) and you can't afford a Pro... then the Mini is your ONLY option. And then you find the hardware is so severely limited because of this stupid obsession with tiny-ness.

I love OS X and would dearly love to stay with Apple and ditch Windows. But Apple's ludicrously limited hardware choices try my patience to the limits.
Click to expand...

I built a diy pc for your very reasons.

I am debating if i will turn it into a hack - in - tosh.

Right now I would need to find use a mac pro with a hex w3680 and a hd5870 gpu
in order to have a more powerful setup then the pc I built. cost of 3k vs the 1.2k i spent
 
philipma1957 said:
I am debating if i will turn it into a hack - in - tosh.
Click to expand...
With the absence of new Mac Pros, and the new Gigabyte Z77 boards, this is a pretty good time to be H-Toshing.

My mini, which overheats and spins the fan like a mad woman, is going on eBay. The temptation is to go Z77.
 
theRAMman said:
the long awaited Xmac :D That would be awsome though, an average sized desktop which is completly user compatible! not soldered processers so you can upgrade yourself and easily customisable innards :D Styled like a mini Mac Pro and priced around £600-£800. It would be a revelation!

*i wake up from my dream to find im not in heaven* prehaps not then..

----------

oh, and chippy, do you own a mini?
Click to expand...

Yes, only a base model (I bought it to use as a media player for the lounge and nothing else, but have started using it as my computer over recent months).

I have since tricked it up with internal SSD and 16GB of ram, so it's actually really nice to use for general stuff - very quick to open programs and documents etc.

But utterly useless as a games platform and pretty useless at any sort of transcoding etc.

I love the OS (which is new to me, but I really like it) and the quietness of the box compared to my PC. But certain things do my head in. Putting USB2 on a 2011 device was a disgrace imho, when USB chipsets were available for around $1 ~ $2. And then there's the un-upgradability we have been discussing.
 
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Chippy99 said:
Yes, only a base model (I bought it to use as a media player for the lounge and nothing else, but have started using it as my computer over recent months).

I have since tricked it up with internal SSD and 16GB of ram, so it's actually really nice to use for general stuff - very quick to open programs and documents etc.

But utterly useless as a games platform and pretty useless at any sort of transcoding etc.

I love the OS (which is new to me, but I really like it) and the quietness of the box compared to my PC. But certain things do my head in. Putting USB2 on a 2011 device was a disgrace imho, when USB chipsets were available for around $1 ~ $2. And then there's the un-upgradability we have been discussing.
Click to expand...

It is useless as a gaming platform, but it was never intended to be one.
The truth is, if you want gaming, Mac is not first choice.
You could build a PC for gaming for a lot less, not even iMacs are that great for
gaming, and MacPros have the processor power but even their graphics cards are nowadays outdated.
Mac was never easy to upgrade, compared to the PC, and it will never be...
That is just the Apple way.
 
borostef said:
It is useless as a gaming platform, but it was never intended to be one.
The truth is, if you want gaming, Mac is not first choice.
You could build a PC for gaming for a lot less, not even iMacs are that great for
gaming, and MacPros have the processor power but even their graphics cards are nowadays outdated.
Mac was never easy to upgrade, compared to the PC, and it will never be...
That is just the Apple way.
Click to expand...

Understood. I pretty much resigned myself to PS3 for gaming when I decided to ditch my PC for the Mini. But faster processors, better graphics options would still be nice, without having to buy an iMac with a screen I don't want or need.
 
Chippy99 said:
Who said anything about base models?

It would just be nice to have a high-end i7 option. But we can't. Because Apple is obsessed with smallness and neatness to the detriment of functionality. And the Mini is so small and so neat that you can't fit a 100W TDP processor inside because there's no way to dissipate that amount of heat in such a small case.

I wouldn't mind if the Mini was just one product offering, satisfying a particular niche. But it isn't. If you don't want an All-in-One (especially one that can't be used as a monitor!) and you can't afford a Pro... then the Mini is your ONLY option. And then you find the hardware is so severely limited because of this stupid obsession with tiny-ness.

I love OS X and would dearly love to stay with Apple and ditch Windows. But Apple's ludicrously limited hardware choices try my patience to the limits.
Click to expand...

Hey, the 27 inch iMac CAN be used as a monitor for any displayport graphics card, in case you didn't know.
 
Chippy99 said:
Understood. I pretty much resigned myself to PS3 for gaming when I decided to ditch my PC for the Mini. But faster processors, better graphics options would still be nice, without having to buy an iMac with a screen I don't want or need.
Click to expand...

I do agree with that, although I don't think you could put some beast of a graphics card into Minis small housing, but let us say... Four cores in the processor, and a good mobile graphics card with 512 MB of DDR5 RAM...
That would do me...
 
Is it possible to the Mac Mini came up with the same GPU as MacBook Pro Retina? Man... Its going to be a dream if the mini came up with the 650m.
What you guys think about it?
 
bf2008 said:
Hey, the 27 inch iMac CAN be used as a monitor for any displayport graphics card, in case you didn't know.
Click to expand...

Are you sure? I think they dropped that capability with the 2011 iMac. In fact I am sure they did. You could do it with the 2010.

----------
borostef said:
I do agree with that, although I don't think you could put some beast of a graphics card into Minis small housing, but let us say... Four cores in the processor, and a good mobile graphics card with 512 MB of DDR5 RAM...
That would do me...
Click to expand...

I guess you missed some earlier posts, but basically I was saying why the obsession with the small housing. I'd far rather they "got it right" with the component choices and then worked out how big the box needs to be to fit them in. Rather than start with a target housing and try to shoehorn things into it as best they can. Seems arse about face to me.

I am not talking about turning it into an Alienware full tower, just an extra couple of inches to allow for decent cooling and some higher rated components. That's all.
 
Chippy99 said:
... and pretty useless at any sort of transcoding etc.
Click to expand...
Really? My 2011 Mini Server is as fast as my 2009 Mac Pro 2.66 quad for HandBrake conversions.

Edit: Oops, I missed that you're referring specifically to your base model.
 
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im waiting for the new update with bated breath. I have been saving up for one all year so im just hoping they dont go up in price much!
 
I'm interested in getting a new Mac Mini but, I don't think I will. I'm considering waiting for the price drop of the 2011 models (server mostly). I want to put my 2009 Mac Mini in my room and put the new one (2011/2012) in my home office.

I can get about 100 off the current Mac Mini through work. We are an authorized reseller. (Work gets their money back at +1% and shipping.) So I'm not sure. If there isn't a big update, I'll just get the 2011 server Mac Mini.

I'll be using it for Handbrake. I want to get my two boys DVDs onto our iPad and maybe two iPod touches for them. (So I can have my iPhone for myself.) They are 2 and 5 years old. So, we'll see.
 
FredT2 said:
Really? My 2011 Mini Server is as fast as my 2009 Mac Pro 2.66 quad for HandBrake conversions.

Edit: Oops, I missed that you're referring specifically to your base model.
Click to expand...

No, I mean useless compared to my ancient PC with a 3.6GHz quad core. And then with my even more ancient GTX 465 and CUDA encoding, the gap is even more embarrassing. It's about 10x faster than the Mini, and bear in mind that's the old knackered PC that I am replacing because it's so old and knackered. God knows how much faster a new i7 with a modern graphics card would be.
 
Chippy99 said:
No, I mean useless compared to my ancient PC with a 3.6GHz quad core. And then with my even more ancient GTX 465 and CUDA encoding, the gap is even more embarrassing. It's about 10x faster than the Mini, and bear in mind that's the old knackered PC that I am replacing because it's so old and knackered. God knows how much faster a new i7 with a modern graphics card would be.
Click to expand...

Well, in theory, a new Mac Mini with the 3612qm (2.0 GHz Quad-Core) and GT640M should be a little bit faster than you PC. But anyways, if you're looking for more power than your HUGE PC tower, buy something as big and you'll get it. Don't you think it's amazing you get all the power you got some years back in a huge package now in such a small thing for probably less money?
 
n0cus said:
This may be crazy, but does anyone see apple killing off the Mac mini?
Click to expand...

Eventually? Yes
Soon? No...well I guess that depends on your measure of soon.

They don't sell a ton I'm sure, but its not like they are spending much on advertising, or R&D. It also acts as a gateway mac. People buy it for HTPCs, or something relatively cheap to try OSX.

It'll be around until desktops fully go the way of the dodo.
 
If that's the case then the modern desktop will go away when the modern laptop goes away, no?
 
Poki said:
Well, in theory, a new Mac Mini with the 3612qm (2.0 GHz Quad-Core) and GT640M should be a little bit faster than you PC.
Click to expand...

Don't know how you figure that out. Anyway, it isn't. Not even close.

Poki said:
Don't you think it's amazing you get all the power you got some years back in a huge package now in such a small thing for probably less money?
Click to expand...

Yes, it's great. But it could be SO much better. Some people are never satisfied I guess.

And, no, I don't want an enormous tower and I am not suggesting Apple turn the Mini into one. We have the Pro for that.
 
sixteen12 said:
Eventually? Yes
Soon? No...well I guess that depends on your measure of soon.

They don't sell a ton I'm sure, but its not like they are spending much on advertising, or R&D. It also acts as a gateway mac. People buy it for HTPCs, or something relatively cheap to try OSX.

It'll be around until desktops fully go the way of the dodo.
Click to expand...

All right that is what I figured.
 
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