Mac Mini to replace classic Mac Pro?

[watakoola]

I have this for my USB 3.0 needs:

USB 3.0 7-Port Hub with 2 Charging Ports

The USB Port Hub, UH720, makes it easier to access additional ports without switching devices. Its extra 2 USB ports supporting 2.4A outputs are designed for ultra-fast charging.

www.tp-link.com



It works great.
The price was 37 €.

I have the Caldigit TS3, but still not enough USB ports, so I have resurrected my Orico Hub, works well:

USB3.0 Hub with 10 Type-A ports - BC1.2 - 5Gbps - Incl. Data cable & Power adapter - on / off switch - 30W - Black

Never again a type-A port too little by using this Orico USB 3.0 hub with 10 ports. Achieve transfer rates up to 5Gbps!

www.orico.shop

Thanks to both opeter and ibarnett for their kind suggestions.

Both of these look great - it spurred me to think of more than 4 ports! I ended up ordering the Orico version with a total of 12 ports.

 

[Toonartist]

Just spotted this so hopefully not to late to be of help.

I replaced my Mac Pro Late 2013 Dec last year with the Mac mini 2018 i7. I bought it with minimum spec in terms of Ram and SSD then did the following. The Mac Pro I had was the 6 core 2x d500 graphics card one.

- Upgraded to 32gb Ram. Crucial were selling 2x16 gb for £82 over Christmas, not sure if this is still the case.
- Bought the Sonnet Echo Express SEL, added a m.2 NVME pcie card and stuck a 1tb Samsung 970 EVO in it.
- Bought the Razer Core X and added a Powercolor Red Dragon Vega 56 8gb card to it.

Monitors used
Cintiq 27QHD via the HDMI cable straight from the mini
Eizo Coloredge CG2730 27 inch monitor Display Port from the eGPU.

At the moment Apple have broken the eGPU FW so you need one of your monitors connected via HDMI from the mini. This should make little difference to performance and hopefully that will be sorted soon. If you connect both to the eGPU then you get a black screen on boot and it doesn't start properly.

Findings.

- The system is a lot faster than the Mac Pro I had. It handles Motion 5 Nodes3 motion graphics with ease (60fps). Rendering times greatly improved. FCP X is very fast in terms of use and rendering.
- Moving the SSD to an external TB3 pcie enclosure takes a lot of the heat generating from the smaller box and places it in a unit that has its own fan. It can be daisy chained with up to 5 other TB3 devices. Makes drive space upgrades very easy.
- I have the eGPU away from the desk so while it is large, it doesn't get in the way. Still able to keep to the 1m cable.
- Capture 1 Pro and Photoshop 2019 work with ease, nice and fast. Not using PS 2020 as it is bug ridden at the moment and is poor compared to 2019.
- Use the internal SSD as a test SSD when new updates are released. Avoids screwing up the main SSD.
- CPU temperatures rise to 95-100c under heavy load. Apparently this is normal but I have been playing around with cooling solutions to maximise output power. Autopano Giga has been the most cpu draining of the apps I use but even this works well with minimal throttling due to heat.

All in all I've been very happy with the setup and feel it is far more upgradable than the Mac Pro 2013 I had... certainly a lot faster. Hope this helps.

EDIT... About the black screen issue. The system worked flawlessly until the 10.15.2 update. They mucked around with something in the boot drivers that broke it. No big issue, just use an HDMI from the mini to one monitor and a Display Port or what ever from the eGPU. I've found the HDMI monitor doesn't even need to be on.

Be sure to right click on each app that needs the eGPU and select, "Get Info", then tick, "Prefer external ePGU".

 

[Spectrum]

I've found the HDMI monitor doesn't even need to be on.

Nice writeup. Just wondering: Does plugging in just a cable (or dongle) also work?

 

[bsbeamer]

Nice writeup. Just wondering: Does plugging in just a cable (or dongle) also work?

Do not believe so, but reports of booting with an HDMI headless adapter does appear to solve the issue.

 

[Toonartist]

Do not believe so, but reports of booting with an HDMI headless adapter does appear to solve the issue.

Really? As in, and HDMI to DisplayPort adapter but nothing plugged in to the DP end? I might see if I have one and give it a test!

 

[bsbeamer]

Really? As in, and HDMI to DisplayPort adapter but nothing plugged in to the DP end? I might see if I have one and give it a test!

No, a true headless adapter that registers as a display. Search for them and tons show up. Most under $10 with shipping. Sometimes called dummy plugs or display emulators.

 

[iAssimilated]

Really? As in, and HDMI to DisplayPort adapter but nothing plugged in to the DP end? I might see if I have one and give it a test!

Something like this:

Corn Electronics Display Emulator Plug Headless Ghost Emulator Dummy Display(Fit Headless-1920x1080-3840x2160 @60Hz)For BTC Mining Great Mining Helper - Newegg.com

Buy Corn Electronics Display Emulator Plug Headless Ghost Emulator Dummy Display(Fit Headless-1920x1080-3840x2160 @60Hz)For BTC Mining Great Mining Helper with fast shipping and top-rated customer service. Once you know, you Newegg!

www.newegg.com

 

[Toonartist]

Something like this:

Corn Electronics Display Emulator Plug Headless Ghost Emulator Dummy Display(Fit Headless-1920x1080-3840x2160 @60Hz)For BTC Mining Great Mining Helper - Newegg.com

Buy Corn Electronics Display Emulator Plug Headless Ghost Emulator Dummy Display(Fit Headless-1920x1080-3840x2160 @60Hz)For BTC Mining Great Mining Helper with fast shipping and top-rated customer service. Once you know, you Newegg!

www.newegg.com

Spooky... just ordered that one from Amazon!

 

[MevetS]

Something like this:

Corn Electronics Display Emulator Plug Headless Ghost Emulator Dummy Display(Fit Headless-1920x1080-3840x2160 @60Hz)For BTC Mining Great Mining Helper - Newegg.com

Buy Corn Electronics Display Emulator Plug Headless Ghost Emulator Dummy Display(Fit Headless-1920x1080-3840x2160 @60Hz)For BTC Mining Great Mining Helper with fast shipping and top-rated customer service. Once you know, you Newegg!

www.newegg.com

I ordered one from Amazon and it arrived today.

And it solved my problem.

My set up, a 2018 Mac mini i7, 500 GB, 32 GB RAM. I have a Razor Core X eGPU with a Sapphire Pulse RX 580 GPU that I took out of my 2010 MacPro when I transitioned to the Mini. I have two ancient Apple monitors, a Cinema Display and a Cinema Display HD (I said they were ancient) connected to the RX 580.

When I first hooked everything up I had the black screen issue. I solved it by using a Luna Display with my old iPad Air. Sort of. I did not have to connect a monitor directly to the Mini, but I had to boot up with the eGPU turned off. And once the Mac desktop appeared on the iPad I could turn the eGPU on. Better than plugging-unplugging cables, but still non-optimal.

With the display emulator plug I can leave the eGPU plugged in and turned on. And the monitors come on when the Mini boots up. Yes I agree I shouldn't have to do this. But as another member says, use what works. And for $7 US I'll take it.

There was a bit of configuration I needed to do to make things work. When I first booted up the plug was seen as the main monitor. And I had no menu bar or dock. I fixed that by hot removing the plug, setting each "Displays have separate Spaces" to checked in the Mission Control system preference panel, which gives a menu bar and dock on each monitor. I plugged the plug back in and rebooted (the preference change requires a log out). Once rebooted I set the monitor arrangement in the Displays system preference panel such that the plug 'monitor' was monitor # 3. I then turned off "Displays have separate space" setting and rebooted. And so far it 'just works'.

 

[watakoola]

Sigmadog, now that I’ve used this little beast for a few days I can offer a few observations –

1. Yes, it’s quick – glad I opted for the speediest CPU option! Far faster than my Mac Pro 5.1 (single processor 3.2GHz Quad-Core)
2. I’ve already become accustomed to having external HDDs and eGPU, but it’s annoying how many power points are required for so many ‘external’ items. Still, for future upgrades all I would have to do is upgrade the computer. It’s really now a mindset of leaving the Mac Pro behind and focusing on the positives of the mini.
3. I detest Apple’s flawed implementation of the eGPU and trust (hope?) they will issue updates to make it just damn work properly when a user starts their computer!
   (And, yes, I’m excitedly waiting for a Display Emulator Plug to arrive, especially after reading MevetS’ post!)
4. It’s well publicised the eGPU is not as fast/efficient an internal GPU, but…..
   I’m using the same two monitors and same Sapphire RX 580 card as I used with my Mac Pro, yet I perceptually note the displays appear faster and I appear to be getting ‘crisper’ images on screen. Perhaps the Mac Pro wasn’t rendering at full “1920 x 1080 (1080p FHD - Full High Definition)” – who knows?
5. Catalina’s ‘Energy Saver’ doesn’t have a have a separate Computer Sleep setting. If I use the manual “Sleep” command the mini + eGPU and HDD enclosure ALL go to sleep. I have ‘Turn Display off after’ set to 5 minutes but then (of course) the eGPU and HDD enclosure keep running. Sigh. I’m accustomed to walking away from my computer and ‘knowing’ it will go to sleep if I stay away from it longer than expected.
   Any utilities out there to restore the ability to set a Computer Sleep time setting?
6. System Report/Logs/Power Management logs is showing a red bar down both sides of the report so there’s obviously something amiss. I’ll see if reading through all of it reveals anything. Anyone else seeing red bars?
   
   
   
   
   
7. Since yesterday the fans on the eGPU and the RX580 are ramping up and down. A lot. This can occur when performing minimal tasks such as reading a web page. Odd. It is slightly hotter here today, so I turned the AC on, and it seems to have settled.
8. Speaking of temperature…
   The mini’s temps have noticeably lessened, so I’m wondering if it was a heap of background tasks such as iCloud pushing images back/syncing to Photos, Mail re-downloading tons of emails via IMAP, etc.
9. I’m using TG Pro to customise fan settings and noticed whenever the fans ramp up it also adjusts the HDD enclosure fans (OWC ThunderBay 4 RAID Ready (JBOD) 4-Bay External Storage Enclosure). Nice.
   
   So, sigmadog, I reckon you'll be happy once you take the leap.

 

[bsbeamer]

@MevetS Try setting it to mirror the display on “both” monitors and it should make your life easier. May need to adjust resolution on the one. Use the gather displays to adjust settings.

 

[sigmadog]

Sigmadog, now that I’ve used this little beast for a few days I can offer a few observations –

1. Yes, it’s quick – glad I opted for the speediest CPU option! Far faster than my Mac Pro 5.1 (single processor 3.2GHz Quad-Core)
2. I’ve already become accustomed to having external HDDs and eGPU, but it’s annoying how many power points are required for so many ‘external’ items. Still, for future upgrades all I would have to do is upgrade the computer. It’s really now a mindset of leaving the Mac Pro behind and focusing on the positives of the mini.
3. I detest Apple’s flawed implementation of the eGPU and trust (hope?) they will issue updates to make it just damn work properly when a user starts their computer!
   (And, yes, I’m excitedly waiting for a Display Emulator Plug to arrive, especially after reading MevetS’ post!)
4. It’s well publicised the eGPU is not as fast/efficient an internal GPU, but…..
   I’m using the same two monitors and same Sapphire RX 580 card as I used with my Mac Pro, yet I perceptually note the displays appear faster and I appear to be getting ‘crisper’ images on screen. Perhaps the Mac Pro wasn’t rendering at full “1920 x 1080 (1080p FHD - Full High Definition)” – who knows?
5. Catalina’s ‘Energy Saver’ doesn’t have a have a separate Computer Sleep setting. If I use the manual “Sleep” command the mini + eGPU and HDD enclosure ALL go to sleep. I have ‘Turn Display off after’ set to 5 minutes but then (of course) the eGPU and HDD enclosure keep running. Sigh. I’m accustomed to walking away from my computer and ‘knowing’ it will go to sleep if I stay away from it longer than expected.
   Any utilities out there to restore the ability to set a Computer Sleep time setting?
6. System Report/Logs/Power Management logs is showing a red bar down both sides of the report so there’s obviously something amiss. I’ll see if reading through all of it reveals anything. Anyone else seeing red bars?
   
   View attachment 893102
   
7. Since yesterday the fans on the eGPU and the RX580 are ramping up and down. A lot. This can occur when performing minimal tasks such as reading a web page. Odd. It is slightly hotter here today, so I turned the AC on, and it seems to have settled.
8. Speaking of temperature…
   The mini’s temps have noticeably lessened, so I’m wondering if it was a heap of background tasks such as iCloud pushing images back/syncing to Photos, Mail re-downloading tons of emails via IMAP, etc.
9. I’m using TG Pro to customise fan settings and noticed whenever the fans ramp up it also adjusts the HDD enclosure fans (OWC ThunderBay 4 RAID Ready (JBOD) 4-Bay External Storage Enclosure). Nice.
   
   So, sigmadog, I reckon you'll be happy once you take the leap.

Wow! Thanks for the in-depth review. It should help me avoid lots of issues (or at least offer clues on fixing them if they rear their heads). It's surprising how similar our setups are, which gives me hope.

Sadly, I have to defer my purchase for a couple months as finances have suddenly tightened up significantly (I just spent $4200 for ACL surgery on my dog – he'll be recovered by May. My wallet may not recover until June). But I will keep this information bookmarked.

Please let me know of any further issues that crop up. Or post how much you love your mini and I'll live vicariously through your experiences.

P.S. I love my DAS Keyboard. The keys feel so much better than standard thin little Apple keyboards. It was money well spent.

 

[Easttime]

That's my impression as well, especially if you want to keep your monitors separate from the computer as I do.

The iMacs are great if you can accept an all-in-one solution, but my experience with the Mac Pro leads me to prefer a more modular approach, which the mini seems to provide. At least that's my impression from what I've read (my Mini purchase is still a few weeks away).

Thats my experience. I had 2 all in one Macs at first, now on my second mini and much prefer it.

 

[Toonartist]

I ordered one from Amazon and it arrived today.

And it solved my problem.

My set up, a 2018 Mac mini i7, 500 GB, 32 GB RAM. I have a Razor Core X eGPU with a Sapphire Pulse RX 580 GPU that I took out of my 2010 MacPro when I transitioned to the Mini. I have two ancient Apple monitors, a Cinema Display and a Cinema Display HD (I said they were ancient) connected to the RX 580.

When I first hooked everything up I had the black screen issue. I solved it by using a Luna Display with my old iPad Air. Sort of. I did not have to connect a monitor directly to the Mini, but I had to boot up with the eGPU turned off. And once the Mac desktop appeared on the iPad I could turn the eGPU on. Better than plugging-unplugging cables, but still non-optimal.

With the display emulator plug I can leave the eGPU plugged in and turned on. And the monitors come on when the Mini boots up. Yes I agree I shouldn't have to do this. But as another member says, use what works. And for $7 US I'll take it.

There was a bit of configuration I needed to do to make things work. When I first booted up the plug was seen as the main monitor. And I had no menu bar or dock. I fixed that by hot removing the plug, setting each "Displays have separate Spaces" to checked in the Mission Control system preference panel, which gives a menu bar and dock on each monitor. I plugged the plug back in and rebooted (the preference change requires a log out). Once rebooted I set the monitor arrangement in the Displays system preference panel such that the plug 'monitor' was monitor # 3. I then turned off "Displays have separate space" setting and rebooted. And so far it 'just works'.

Mine arrived today and it also sorted it out. The two monitors don't switch on straight away but do come on when the login screen is ready for the password. I'll take this over having to power the Cintiq via the HDMI cable from the mini while the other screen comes from the eGPU.

Of course, the best thing would be for Apple to fix the Bl**dy fault 😂

 

[MevetS]

@MevetS Try setting it to mirror the display on “both” monitors and it should make your life easier. May need to adjust resolution on the one. Use the gather displays to adjust settings.

Thanks, I had not thought of that. It does help.

 

[watakoola]

Wow! Thanks for the in-depth review. It should help me avoid lots of issues (or at least offer clues on fixing them if they rear their heads). It's surprising how similar our setups are, which gives me hope.

No problem! The folk on this forum have been quite good to me with assistance and advice so happy to pay back in kind.

Our setups are similar as I'm an ex-graphic designer and print production manager.

Where we differ is that I'm a cat man - but certainly hope your doggie gets back to full health!

 

[watakoola]

Amazon delivered some items today…

Display Emulator Plug – opened it up and discovered it had a dent in the outer 'gold' metal that pushed the connector inwards. Sigh. Gotta return it for a replacement.

Oh, well. Let’s open the other item in the package: Orico 12-port USB3.0 Hub.

Hooked it up and… it’s only recognised as a USB 2.0 device! What the…?
Shut down. Restart. Tried both mini USB 3.0 ports. Nope. Only USB 2.0. Hooked my old D-Link 4-port back up and got USB 3.0 as expected. Weird.

So, the Orico goes back as well! I’ll probably replace it with the tp-link 7-port hub as suggested by opeter.

 

[sigmadog]

Amazon delivered some items today…

Display Emulator Plug – opened it up and discovered it had a dent in the outer 'gold' metal that pushed the connector inwards. Sigh. Gotta return it for a replacement.

Oh, well. Let’s open the other item in the package: Orico 12-port USB3.0 Hub.

Hooked it up and… it’s only recognised as a USB 2.0 device! What the…?
Shut down. Restart. Tried both mini USB 3.0 ports. Nope. Only USB 2.0. Hooked my old D-Link 4-port back up and got USB 3.0 as expected. Weird.

So, the Orico goes back as well! I’ll probably replace it with the tp-link 7-port hub as suggested by opeter.

In other words… Monday.

Hope you have better luck the second time around.

I'm interested in how that emulator works because I'd rather not plug any monitors into the mini's hdmi port. I'd prefer the eGPU handle all three.

 

[bsbeamer]

Unsure how the "mirror display" trick would work with three monitors on eGPU and one on MacMini, or if you could bypass in some way to only mirror one monitor. Might want to look into some display tools to see if there are options through SwitchResX or similar to figure that out. Mirror has always put the same "video" on each monitor in the past.

 

[MevetS]

Unsure how the "mirror display" trick would work with three monitors on eGPU and one on MacMini, or if you could bypass in some way to only mirror one monitor. Might want to look into some display tools to see if there are options through SwitchResX or similar to figure that out. Mirror has always put the same "video" on each monitor in the past.

It worked fine with two displays via eGPU and the HDMI plug in the Mini. I opened the Displays system preference, selected the arrangement tab, and dragged the virtual display onto a real display to mirror.

 

[sigmadog]

Unsure how the "mirror display" trick would work with three monitors on eGPU and one on MacMini, or if you could bypass in some way to only mirror one monitor. Might want to look into some display tools to see if there are options through SwitchResX or similar to figure that out. Mirror has always put the same "video" on each monitor in the past.

I forgot about the "mirroring" part. Yeah, you're right, that may not work for me.

 

[bsbeamer]

@MevetS With your eGPU setup, ONE SINGLE MONITOR can be set to MIRROR while another monitor (or monitors) can be set to EXTENDED? macOS has not behaved that way in the past and has required some sort of trick approach to achieve reliably.

 

[Spectrum]

@MevetS With your eGPU setup, ONE SINGLE MONITOR can be set to MIRROR while another monitor (or monitors) can be set to EXTENDED? macOS has not behaved that way in the past and has required some sort of trick approach to achieve reliably.

It sounds like if you set up mirroring by drag and drop (which I've never tried...) this works.

 

[bsbeamer]

Must be "new" to one of the more recent OS versions, maybe new to Catalina. Will have to give this a shot with eGPU if I get a chance.

 

[MevetS]

@MevetS With your eGPU setup, ONE SINGLE MONITOR can be set to MIRROR while another monitor (or monitors) can be set to EXTENDED? macOS has not behaved that way in the past and has required some sort of trick approach to achieve reliably.

Yes, that is correct.



More info here: https://create.pro/blog/how-to-mirr...-not-all-of-your-monitors-on-an-apple-system/


Note that it says to hold the 'alt' (read "option") key when dragging. I don't remember doing that, but I probably did.

[automerge]1581378591[/automerge]

Must be "new" to one of the more recent OS versions, maybe new to Catalina. Will have to give this a shot with eGPU if I get a chance.

The site I linked to above is from 2015. So not too recent.