New 2014 Mac Mini Has Soldered RAM, Not User Replaceable

[Renzatic]

Or you could just pay $200 and not care?

Poor people problems.

Funny thing that. Every single wealthy person I know understands the value of a dollar. They won't spend a penny more than they have to unless there's good reason for it.

...that's why they're wealthy.

On the flipside of that, most of the people who aren't rich, but like to present the image of being such, tend to waste money on whatever, and say...well...stuff like what you're saying now.

So tell me this, Moz. Are you actually moneyed, or is your neverending disdain just empty posturing for us bunch of random strangers on the internet?

edit: Plus, weren't you just earlier claiming that it'd be money better spent on clothes? You're contradicting yourself here.

 

[RockSpider]

While not surprising at all an unsettling trend IMO.

They did the same with the iMac, very unsettling.

 

[weckart]

It's always a consideration. Thing is, Hackintoshes are kinda flaky when it comes to updating, aren't they?

Nowhere near as flakey as Apple hardware. I mean, they just updated the Mac Mini and now you cannot even alter the RAM once bought.

 

[thekev]

Or you could just pay $200 and not care?

Poor people problems.

If cost was a non-issue, would they purchasing a mini? It's the cheapest option in Apple's lineup, so of course $200 is a significant adjustment. Your comment is the dumbest thing I have read today.

Well it IS $100.00 less..... #silverlining

That's not even really true. The configuration that is $100 less didn't exist in the 2012 lineup. The $700 one is basically the successor to the $600 2012 model. It's just that the retina macbook pro is replacing the 13" cmbp, so the mini received the more expensive 13" rmbp processor. They raised the price to compensate, then added in the new base model.

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

Did you watch the Apple keynote? Mac's are up 18% year over year and PC's are down 1% YoY.

So lets see...Macs are 5% of the market so up 18% makes them now 5.9% of the market, and PC's are 95% down 1% so now they are a little over 94%.

So what really changed there? Nothing.

 

[BCWorld]

YAY! I waited 2 years for a Mac Mini Air!!!

 

[Bodie CI5]

So why buy an Apple at all? I could get a Mac Mini equivalent for under $200 if I went with a different brand. Wouldn't that extra $300 I saved be better spent on food and clothes, rather than an entry level computer with an aluminum shell. Hey, if 4GB is good enough for everyone, so's plastic, right?

Hell, why'd I buy an iPad? I don't need it! I could've bought a Nexus 7, and saved $300! That's like two weeks worth of groceries!

I COULD'VE SAVED $600 BY NOT BUYING APPLE! OH GOD! WHAT HAVE I BEEN DOING WITH MY LIFE! THERE ARE KIDS STARVING OUT THERE, AND I'M BUYING FASHIONABLE COMPUTERS! I HATE MYSELF AND I WANNA DDDIIIIEEE!

I lol'd - especially at the last sentence

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One question, please: would the base version serve well as a full-time internet TV streamer? Or would you need to go the next step higher model with higher ram?

I know that on my MBA there have been a couple of times when watching a youtube video the fan has come on (not often, but it has happened).

 

[Renzatic]

Nowhere near as flakey as Apple hardware. I mean, they just updated the Mac Mini and now you cannot even alter the RAM once bought.

Well yeah, but the gimped Mini won't sneak up on you and break the computer your using now just because you hit the OK button when you weren't supposed to.

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I lol'd - especially at the last sentence

I am to please.

One question, please: would the base version serve well as a full-time internet TV streamer? Or would you need to go the next step higher model with higher ram?

4GB is plenty for the average, every day stuff. Surfing the internet, typing up documents, and yeah, streaming TV. Truth be told, the base Mini is actually overpowered if that's all you're planning on doing with it.

The only thing I'd recommend upgrading is your storage, and that's only if you're planning on recording movies to the thing, and don't want to use a NAS or something similar.

 

[Oracle1729]

Well yeah, but the gimped Mini won't sneak up on you and break the computer your using now just because you hit the OK button when you weren't supposed to.

Hey, remember that iTunes update that erased everyone's hard drive if they had more than one partition in it? A little Apple bug that would delete all the partitions, make one new partition, and then format it?

Or that iOS 8 iPhone update that make the iPhones stop working as phones?

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Where have you been? Only the 27" can have the ram upgraded. Ive has put form over function for years now - at the consumers expense. I wish he was shown the door at this rate.

I've been enjoying my 2011 MBP with 16 gigs of ram. I think I'm going to have it until it breaks and buy a windows laptop. And this is already the longest I've ever owned a computer. I would love to buy a new mac but none of the crap they sell now is worth getting. I'd have to have an external hard drive and ethernet dongle just to have the functionality I need.

 

[prowlmedia]

Have you looked at what's available from Google's Chrome site? I have. The selection is huge and is growing all the time. And then there's that little thing about running nearly any Android application.

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/category/apps

For anyone who says otherwise, I invite them to point out a specific deficiency among the Chrome application offerings while keeping in mind the needs of the typical user.

Sure... as I said limiting. They are not desktop apps. Pure and simple. That may change int he future of course. All these things are getting faster.

The point is the OP's comment comparing Chromebooks to Air / iMacs is not valid.

 

[Bodie CI5]

Well yeah, but the gimped Mini won't sneak up on you and break the computer your using now just because you hit the OK button when you weren't supposed to.

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I am to please.



4GB is plenty for the average, every day stuff. Surfing the internet, typing up documents, and yeah, streaming TV. Truth be told, the base Mini is actually overpowered if that's all you're planning on doing with it.

The only thing I'd recommend upgrading is your storage, and that's only if you're planning on recording movies to the thing, and don't want to use a NAS or something similar.

haha! That was a great post

Thanks for the heads up on the Mini. I'm coming over from Windows, so part from my MBA, I don't have much of an idea how well a Mini would hold up in terms of heavy, all-day streaming.

Yes, I would plan on purchasing next year two of them for IPTV streaming (one on each TV). Nothing else. We have a NAS setup here already with Plex. I've got two PCs currently doing the same thing here, but, seriously, they're overkill for the task. I have a PS3 for my blu-ray needs to one of the TVs.

Thanks again for your reply! Truly appreciate the advice

 

[mozumder]

no judgement either way, but that's the definition of the "apple tax"... before the last couple years of soldering and (now) downgrades, i'd tend to dispute that really existing in any pertinent way. now i'm not so sure.

i'm not poor, but i don't just throw money into sewer drains. and this whole mini deal is definitely a POS

One thing is that aftermarket RAM is generally unreliable. They're the ones that fail faster than Apple ram.

I've had more failures with aftermarket RAM than Apple RAM, so there's probably a reason they're more expensive in the first place.

(I'm never going to buy OWC memory anymore...)

 

[fa8362]

One thing is that aftermarket RAM is generally unreliable. They're the ones that fail faster than Apple ram.

I've had more failures with aftermarket RAM than Apple RAM, so there's probably a reason they're more expensive in the first place.

(I'm never going to buy OWC memory anymore...)

Apple doesn't manufacture RAM, so your "Apple RAM" is another vendor's RAM anyway.

 

[bvz]

I'm amazed at the number of people having such a big problem with non-upgradable RAM. If you're looking for performance, the Mac Mini is not what you want. I applaud Apple's choice for doing everything to keep power consumption low for these things. Not really because of the energy cost, but because less energy consumption means the thing doesn't get as hot. The Mac Mini sits on your desk or under the TV where fan noise just sucks.

I do however think that 4GB is not enough nowadays, especially if there's no SSD in it which makes swapping much faster. I like my hard drives to be accessible just because they sometimes die on me and I like to be able to just throw a new one in there.

So if I am looking for performance, which machine AM I looking for?

Is it the Mac Pro that starts at $3K? Or is it an iMac 27" with a quad core i7 for $2750 ($2200 if you get the non-retina display)?

The problem is that there is a big hole in there. The $1400 top of the line Mac Mini is just way too slow and expensive to be a performance machine. The $2200 iMac is too expensive for its performance envelope. Apple makes some amazing machinery and an awesome OS. But they are not addressing the market that most of us here are in. There is a real desire for a $1500 - $2000 mac with decent specs (quad core i7, 16-32 GB ram). But no such thing exists. Over on the PC/Linux side that kind of machine is very common. Most of us prefer OSX though, which is why so many are upset. We are forced to either:

Pay a lot more money
Put up with less performance
Leave the OSX ecosystem

 

[AppleScruff1]

People already have. They have stopped buying all apples computers somewhat. That is why apple says things like the ipad is their best selling device. Yeah because that is the only device they update properly. They slack on their computers and have for a long while. They confuse slow sales with lack of demand but people aren't entirely stupid. They are waiting for the headless imac, a real mac that will never materialize because apple has had its head stuck so far up its arse for so long. Plus their plan to make everything they sell disposable is sickening. Once the imacs couldn't be upgraded I had enough. The mac mini was the last system that was worth buying. They can take all their computers now and shove them.

It is sad that the computer side of the business doesn't get as much attention as the iDevices, but even now they basically stuck it to their customers with the new Mini iPad that only adds Touch ID. The iPad Air was a nice upgrade though. Now it's profit above all, and there are plenty of people here who defend them to the max no matter what they do. Apple won't be concerned until sales begin to slump with their core products, the iPhone and iPad. But there is such a devout following with the iPhone, it's not going to happen. Perhaps tablet sales will stagnate a bit, we'll see in due time.

If the watch sales are mediocre, maybe they will sit back and take a look at where they are going in the future, but knowing the Apple faithful, they will buy it in droves. The brand name sells regardless of what they take away or lock down.

 

[ptero1]

Headless plex/ATV Server

So I have been waiting for a refresh for a while so I could get a new mini to act as a headless server for Plex serving and ATV Home sharing. With the models that just came out...it seems to me like I should have not waited. since I don't need graphic performance...it seems like a 2012 i7 2.3 for $799 makes the most sense (and I can drop in any RAM I need).

Thoughts? Thanks in advance for advice...

-Ptero

 

[prowlmedia]

Apple is resting on their laurels way too much for my taste now.

The best thing about the surface is that Microsoft have finally made a machine themselves. So the hardware and software are actually in sync. No driver issues. Updates will be swift and actually not break the machine. I do like the surface. It is a usable machine. I can't stand windows - not because of the interface, which is fine it's the Backend clusterf*&K that is the windows registry that I hate.

Apple have always said that a desktop OS and a tablet OS are different beasts and I don't see them changing that in the future.

Windows had RT and binned it because it was just confusing... Looked like windows - couldn't run anything.

 

[bvz]

Ok there appear to be two kinds of people on this thread:

1) What's the problem? These things are cheap appliances that will do whatever is expected of them. Nobody normal needs more. You guys are all whiners.

2) These machines are totally gimped compared to what they used to be/could have been. Apple sux and is going down in flames.


You guys are talking past each other. You are also both (generally) correct.

These are low end machines and as such we shouldn't expect too much from them. Apple will sell them by the truck load.

But

There used to be a way to option them up to be fairly substantial machines for the majority of us who cannot afford the overpriced/overspec'ed pro. That option is gone and there is nothing left in Apple's lineup that can fill that role.


So the arguments and flame wars are moot because both of these things can be true.

 

[macaron95]

ram is soldered, not a real issue, but if the HDD is replaceable, it's great

 

[prowlmedia]

So I have been waiting for a refresh for a while so I could get a new mini to act as a headless server for Plex serving and ATV Home sharing. With the models that just came out...it seems to me like I should have not waited. since I don't need graphic performance...it seems like a 2012 i7 2.3 for $799 makes the most sense (and I can drop in any RAM I need).

Thoughts? Thanks in advance for advice...

-Ptero

Get a Synology as a plex server. I've got an 1813+ with the added 5 drive chassis - it's hitting 14tb at the moment. Ram is not massively important but you can upgrade that too In the.

Also acts as a time machine drive and can do all sorts of other things.

 

[fa8362]

So I have been waiting for a refresh for a while so I could get a new mini to act as a headless server for Plex serving and ATV Home sharing. With the models that just came out...it seems to me like I should have not waited. since I don't need graphic performance...it seems like a 2012 i7 2.3 for $799 makes the most sense (and I can drop in any RAM I need).

Thoughts? Thanks in advance for advice...

-Ptero

If that's all you're going to use it for, you don't need a quad core.

 

[Renzatic]

Hey, remember that iTunes update that erased everyone's hard drive if they had more than one partition in it? A little Apple bug that would delete all the partitions, make one new partition, and then format it?

Or that iOS 8 iPhone update that make the iPhones stop working as phones?

I've been using Windows for almost two decades now, Linux for the last few years, and I've been getting more and more into Macs as time goes on. In all that time, I've come to one conclusion:

Computers are stupid.

It doesn't matter what you buy or use, at some point, something terrible will happen, and your house will probably catch fire.

Though the thing with Hackintoshes (from what I hear) is that you have a much higher than usual chance of it breaking on even the smallest OS updates. There's too much potential for risk to safely use one as your every day machine.

 

[tonydickinson]

MacMini refresh.

4GB is plenty for the average, every day stuff. Surfing the internet, typing up documents, and yeah, streaming TV. Truth be told, the base Mini is actually overpowered if that's all you're planning on doing with it.

The only thing I'd recommend upgrading is your storage, and that's only if you're planning on recording movies to the thing, and don't want to use a NAS or something similar.

True the commenters fail to appreciate that the earlier MacMinis were a source of revenue for other companies that provided tools and wherewithall to upgrade the minis storage, often requiring removal of the motherboard and potential damage to the tiny connectors. An Apple engineer told me that 90% of Mac mini faults were due to the DIYers and much disagreement when disks were changed, and voided warranty issues.

People should be happy that at least with Yosemite Apple have not disabled the kext-dev-mode=1 so that hackers are still able to mod kexts, I can understand that the likes of OWC will be sore, about this new trend, but those in support will be happy.

 

[Renzatic]

Apple doesn't manufacture RAM, so your "Apple RAM" is another vendor's RAM anyway.

Yup. They used to use Crucial, but I think recently they've been using...*gasp*...Samsung for their ram.

And in all the years I've been building my own computers, slapping all kinds and brands of rams in and out of the things, I've only ever had one stick go bad on me. Unless you're buying cheap, no name stuff, ram is about the most reliable thing you have in your computer.

 

[Naimfan]

I've had Macs come with Micron, Samsung, and a couple of other manufacturers. Never seen Crucial from the factory.