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Mac Mini to replace classic Mac Pro?

watakoola said:
So, the Orico goes back as well! I’ll probably replace it with the tp-link 7-port hub as suggested by opeter.
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I can report the TP-Link USB 3.0 7-Port Hub with 2 Charging Ports is absolutely plug’n’play.

Except of course when the user forgets to turn the power switch to ‘on’…

The trick here is the hub’s power indicator lights up even if power is switched off, so the indicator switch must be getting power via the USB bus. D’ouh!
 
I'm looking at the 2018 MacMini to augment a 13" 2016 MBP w/ eGPU and LG5K+LGUW. I'm a completely 'work' and consumption use case, no pic/vid/audio creation. For me it's all business apps but they max out the dual i7 cores I have now and the external monitors crush the internal MBP GPU (hence the eGPU). I'd keep the MBP for portability and drop the MacMini on my desk in place of the MBP as my 'desktop'. If the Mac Pro was cheaper or less "pro" oriented I'd go with it but it's just too expensive and audio/video production oriented for me. I get that an iMac may be faster but since I have the monitors, eGPU and peripherals, I just can't look past the MacMini. It's the cheapest good desktop replacement for me (must be macOS, no hackintosh). I'm a little concerned about the external monitor issue but have a display emulator plug for a headless 2011 MacMini I'm running on my network (for...well no good reason really, other than the fact that I have it and it's still working. I'm open to recommendations.), so I can just plug that in if I have a problem.

Great stuff from watakoola and sigmadog, thank you guys for posting. I'm just chiming in to keep this thread alive and am interested in any additional info you may provide.
 
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WP31 said:
I'm looking at the 2018 MacMini to augment a 13" 2016 MBP w/ eGPU and LG5K+LGUW. I'm a completely 'work' and consumption use case, no pic/vid/audio creation. For me it's all business apps but they max out the dual i7 cores I have now and the external monitors crush the internal MBP GPU (hence the eGPU). I'd keep the MBP for portability and drop the MacMini on my desk in place of the MBP as my 'desktop'. If the Mac Pro was cheaper or less "pro" oriented I'd go with it but it's just too expensive and audio/video production oriented for me. I get that an iMac may be faster but since I have the monitors, eGPU and peripherals, I just can't look past the MacMini. It's the cheapest good desktop replacement for me (must be macOS, no hackintosh). I'm a little concerned about the external monitor issue but have a display emulator plug for a headless 2011 MacMini I'm running on my network (for...well no good reason really, other than the fact that I have it and it's still working. I'm open to recommendations.), so I can just plug that in if I have a problem.

Great stuff from watakoola and sigmadog, thank you guys for posting. I'm just chiming in to keep this thread alive and am interested in any additional info you may provide.
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Depending on your budget, any one of the 2018 minis sound like they would be an ideal choice. If you don't mind a small internal volume (for boot only), and put any large media on TB3 drive, then the i7 / 256 GB is probably the best option. Or save some $$$ and get the i7/128GB. Upgrade RAM to 32GB afterwards. Follow iFixit. It's not too tricky. just take your time.
 
Spectrum said:
Depending on your budget, any one of the 2018 minis sound like they would be an ideal choice. If you don't mind a small internal volume (for boot only), and put any large media on TB3 drive, then the i7 / 256 GB is probably the best option. Or save some $$$ and get the i7/128GB. Upgrade RAM to 32GB afterwards. Follow iFixit. It's not too tricky. just take your time.
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I'm not convinced that the i7 is good value for money for the extra performance that it offers at Apple's prices. For sheer convenience factor I'd go for more internal storage. If resale value came into it then a more balanced config would matter - i5/256 or even i5/512 for example. RAM is upgradable, of course, with patience.
 
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sublunar said:
I'm not convinced that the i7 is good value for money for the extra performance that it offers at Apple's prices. For sheer convenience factor I'd go for more internal storage. If resale value came into it then a more balanced config would matter - i5/256 or even i5/512 for example. RAM is upgradable, of course, with patience.
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I can't really disagree with this advice...but Apple really do charge a lot for their internal storage upgrades...
 
sublunar said:
I'm not convinced that the i7 is good value for money for the extra performance that it offers at Apple's prices. For sheer convenience factor I'd go for more internal storage. If resale value came into it then a more balanced config would matter - i5/256 or even i5/512 for example. RAM is upgradable, of course, with patience.
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I suppose the decision of storage vs processor size depends on the individual's situation. In my case it made sense to go with the biggest possible processor (which thankfully came with 256Gb storage) to stave off potential obsolescence in a few years’ time. My Mac Pro was ofttimes struggling with the advances in recent software so I'm attempting to future-proof my purchase, if that's possible.

As I also purchased an external HDD enclosure and I run my User Folder off an external drive the inbuilt SSD size isn’t that great a problem to me. But, as I said above, I was lucky the model I went for had the bigger SSD in it. A 128Gb SSD would not have been enough.
 
watakoola said:
I suppose the decision of storage vs processor size depends on the individual's situation. In my case it made sense to go with the biggest possible processor (which thankfully came with 256Gb storage) to stave off potential obsolescence in a few years’ time. My Mac Pro was ofttimes struggling with the advances in recent software so I'm attempting to future-proof my purchase, if that's possible.

As I also purchased an external HDD enclosure and I run my User Folder off an external drive the inbuilt SSD size isn’t that great a problem to me. But, as I said above, I was lucky the model I went for had the bigger SSD in it. A 128Gb SSD would not have been enough.
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Just curious: If your User folder is external, what drives your need for >128 GB internal? Lots of software?
 
Spectrum said:
Just curious: If your User folder is external, what drives your need for >128 GB internal? Lots of software?
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Good question. Again, I'm looking to future-proof as much as possible. I never filled my 128Gb SSD on the Mac Pro but thought the next size up would be prudent as the OS and software seem to bloat with every new version/update.

Also, the bigger the SSD the faster it is, so that also came into play.
 
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watakoola said:
Good question. Again, I'm looking to future-proof as much as possible. I never filled my 128Gb SSD on the Mac Pro but thought the next size up would be prudent as the OS and software seem to bloat with every new version/update.

Also, the bigger the SSD the faster it is, so that also came into play.
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Good points. I agree that for most people i5/256 or i7/256 GB is probably the best longish-term choice (if either very little media, or it is held on an external).

Regarding speed of the internal drive: I'm not sure if random read speed (important for a boot drive) is any different across the different capacity drives. Perhaps it has been tested somewhere. The sequential read/write speeds of the larger drives sound impressive on paper, but are probably more important for large media files.

I went for i7/1TB internal (for simplicity), but it is probable that I may still end up needing to manage media files onto an external at some point in this machine's life, which is far from ideal...Unfortunately, the 2TB model just seemed too ridiculously overpriced in Dec 2018 when I may not need that much space until 2021-2022.
 
Great points all. Price is not out the window but it's so easy to self-justify a slightly higher MacMini cost for processor and internal storage when it all adds up to less than a MBP or iMac. I know it's not apples to apples but it's so easy to say "it's less than I would spend on a MBP or iMAC so I might as well go for the 17+1TB" or whatever. I'm definitely looking hard at the i7 and will upgrade the memory myself so for me it's really down to how much internal storage do I need. I'm leaning toward 'simplicity' like Spectrum but also have a handful of TB3 and USB-C external drives I could use so I'm still up in the air about it (2TB price is ridiculous tho). I do keep a fair amount of data but it's all docs and pics so it's not like I need multiple TBs of space.
 
I've got a lot of software to load, so I'm thinking the 500Gb or 1Tb is my best option for the long-term. It will also allow me to postpone purchasing an external Thunderbolt SSD for a while to determine if I really need it. As I will be adding third-party RAM, I won't mind sinking a bit more into internal storage. I'm with everyone on the crazy cost of the 2Tb storage. That's nuts!

I'd love to see a price drop on storage, but since it's Apple, I'm not holding my breath.
 
Personally would not buy anything less than 1TB for internal non-removable storage for OS & applications moving forward, regardless of MBP, MP, Mini, iMac, etc.

It's best to leave ~25% capacity as headroom just for operating. Add in the snapshots and APFS data that collects (before purgeable) and the OS and applications alone can easily eat 500GB+. Even more if there are large libraries, plugins, effects, etc.

If you're also using this as a personal machine, consider either offloading everything to external, boot from external (ignoring the internal SSD), or boost your initial capacity.

Apple should not be selling 128GB machines in 2020, it's absurd.
 
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bsbeamer said:
Personally would not buy anything less than 1TB for internal non-removable storage for OS & applications moving forward, regardless of MBP, MP, Mini, iMac, etc.

It's best to leave ~25% capacity as headroom just for operating. Add in the snapshots and APFS data that collects (before purgeable) and the OS and applications alone can easily eat 500GB+. Even more if there are large libraries, plugins, effects, etc.

If you're also using this as a personal machine, consider either offloading everything to external, boot from external (ignoring the internal SSD), or boost your initial capacity.

Apple should not be selling 128GB machines in 2020, it's absurd.
Click to expand...
 
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sigmadog said:
I've got a lot of software to load, so I'm thinking the 500Gb or 1Tb is my best option for the long-term. It will also allow me to postpone purchasing an external Thunderbolt SSD for a while to determine if I really need it. As I will be adding third-party RAM, I won't mind sinking a bit more into internal storage. I'm with everyone on the crazy cost of the 2Tb storage. That's nuts!

I'd love to see a price drop on storage, but since it's Apple, I'm not holding my breath.
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Yeah, sounds like 500Gb is the sweet sport for you, sigmadog.

It's a change of mindset once the mini is sitting on your desk as a replacement for a Mac Pro...

I was grumpy as hell with having to purchase external this and external that after so many years of merely opening the Mac Pro's cover and throwing more bits into it.

Now, after a few weeks, I’m very comfortable with the 4-Bay external HDD enclosure, and accept the non-intrusive eGPU. Actually, it’s surprising how quickly my mind changed on this, but I suppose it helps that the mini is a very competent, fast unit with gobs of (ahem, external) expandability.
 
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MevetS said:
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]


The site I linked to above is from 2015. So not too recent. :)
Click to expand...

My replacement Display Emulator Plug arrived, so I tested it by plugging it into the mini’s HDMI port and performing a restart.

No boot screen, or login screen – just both displays with the Catalina image on them.

I ‘blindly’ hit the correct keyboard letter to select the required user account and typed my password. In a few seconds the screens flash and I get normal desktops and menu bars. Yah!

I also attempted the how-to-mirror-specific-displays suggested by MevetS but after a few test reboots still get neither a boot screen nor a login window.

Also, on a whim, I changed my DVI to HDMI and DVI to DVI cables to a pair of DVI to DisplayPort cables, but the boot sequence is unchanged. Some reports suggest DisplayPort is better than HDMI, but I'm also aware some folk have experienced problems with DisplayPort on their 2018 Mac minis. We shall see...

Still, I can live with this boot sequence until Apple finally(?) sorts it out.
 
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If you can, use an SSD externally on a TB3 enclosure with pcie card that allows daisy chaining.

1. Easy to upgrade.
2. Moves a lot of heat away from the small Mac mini enclosure. The i7 already produces a lot of heat, especially if you're not using an eGPU.
3. The internal drive then is used as a backup, test drive for the latest OS releases.

I'm running a Samsung 970 Evo that benchmarks faster than the 256gb internal drive.
 
Toonartist said:
If you can, use an SSD externally on a TB3 enclosure with pcie card that allows daisy chaining.

1. Easy to upgrade.
2. Moves a lot of heat away from the small Mac mini enclosure. The i7 already produces a lot of heat, especially if you're not using an eGPU.
3. The internal drive then is used as a backup, test drive for the latest OS releases.

I'm running a Samsung 970 Evo that benchmarks faster than the 256gb internal drive.
Click to expand...

Can you use the external drive as the boot drive? I thought I read there were problems attempting that.
 
sigmadog said:
Can you use the external drive as the boot drive? I thought I read there were problems attempting that.
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Yes. Very easy to do. You change the settings for T2 to allow booting for external drives and that's it. I've seen no change in the way it works compared to the normal internal one.

Edit....

You also change the priority in System Preferences to which drive to boot from (startup disk).

This is the page I used to change the settings to allow external boot drive
 
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Toonartist said:
Yes. Very easy to do. You change the settings for T2 to allow booting for external drives and that's it. I've seen no change in the way it works compared to the normal internal one.

Edit....

You also change the priority in System Preferences to which drive to boot from (startup disk).

This is the page I used to change the settings to allow external boot drive
Click to expand...
Wonderful! That opens up a lot of possibilities. Thanks!
 
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I recently replaced my dependable, classic, "early 2009" Mac Pro 8 core (4.1>5.1) with a refurb mini I saw listed on the store over Christmas (i7, 1TB, 8GB, 10Gbit networking). I increased the RAM to 64GB and bought a Razer core X to house the RX580 I pulled from the MP while I wait for an excuse to get an RX5700XT.

I have this hooked up to 2x LG 24UD58-B cheap as chips monitors which I run over display port from the card in "Default for display" mode which is 200% scaling, looks like 1080P. I work from home quite a bit and also use 1 or both screens for remote desktop to my work laptop which doesn't natively have the grunt to drive multiple 4K monitors and doesn't support thunderbolt 3. The scaling all works perfectly for crisp text in OSX or my windows RDP sessions.

In terms of power and speed this mini runs rings around my old faithful mac pro but chances are it won't have the same 10 year lifespan, not that I ever expected it to last that long. The only thing I'm annoyed about is the idle noise of the Razer core X. I think I made a mistake here, since I don't need the power delivery to charge a laptop I could have bought a quieter egpu case instead. I'm considering swapping the PSU in it to one of the corsair SF models.
 
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sporadic said:
... snip ...

The only thing I'm annoyed about is the idle noise of the Razer core X. I think I made a mistake here, since I don't need the power delivery to charge a laptop I could have bought a quieter egpu case instead. I'm considering swapping the PSU in it to one of the corsair SF models.
Click to expand...

I too moved from a MacPro, a 2010, and pulled my RX 580 and installed it in a Razor Core X.

Because of the ‘black monitors’ issue I have the eGPU on my desk, next to the Mini, so I could easily turn it on and off. It takes up quite a bit of space, so now that the issue is sorted I’ll be moving it below the desk.

But not because of any noise issues. The thing is silent.

Do you have the Chroma version? I ask because mine has no ports other than the one thunderbolt port to connect to the Mini. Perhaps that is the difference.
 
MevetS said:
Do you have the Chroma version? I ask because mine has no ports other than the one thunderbolt port to connect to the Mini. Perhaps that is the difference.
Click to expand...

No, same as yours, just the TB3 port. It is the little 80mm fan in the PSU that makes all the noise. My office is otherwise silent and the GPU fans are inaudible unless I start some game or heavy GPU process so it is very noticeable to me.

The black screen thing is an annoyance. I connect the HDMI from the mini to one of the monitors and unplug the eGPU before a reboot. Most of the time it just sleeps, I very rarely shut it down but I’d still like apple to fix this. Does it happen on newer cards too?
 
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