Certainly performance is not among Apple's motivations for switching to directly attached DRAM. Improved reliability and fewer repairs under warranty, lower design, validation, and production costs, higher average selling price, and a faster replacement cycle all lead to increased profit margins.
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New 2014 Mac Mini Has Soldered RAM, Not User Replaceable
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Certainly performance is not among Apple's motivations for switching to directly attached DRAM. Improved reliability and fewer repairs under warranty, lower design, validation, and production costs, higher average selling price, and a faster replacement cycle all lead to increased profit margins.
I think you're old Prescott might be faster than this little runt. Better check it out carefully before throwing away your money, I've got last years Core i7 2.5GHZ and it's not that fast, these aren't PCs.
You know that these things are ever evolving. In the 1980's you could change all sorts of chips and boards in a PC. The Controllers were separate. ben now the system architectures are head towards Systems on a chip resulting in much fast systems that will last longer, but ironically will become obsolete anyway.
It wasn't long ago that WiFI, Bluetooth, Sound, Hard drive controllers, Ethernet were all removable and now they soldered to the motherboard.
It's partly down to efficiency. It's very true that to achieve the best Speeds, Interconnects should be removed. DIMMs do slow things down and can cause problems. Most of the time when a DIMM fails it's due to heat generated at the gold connectors burning out.
I do agree it's a shame they are not expandable, but the way I see it I have the first macbook air 2008 and still runs like new still with 4gb ram and I've just installed Yosemite and it's fine.
The most Ram Hungry App I know is After effects and with 16gb in a mini you have 4gb per virtual Proc which is way more that the recommend 2gb.
I've owned, recommended to friends/relatives, and purchased for relatives a lot of Apple computers over the years. After this mess of 'the greatest product pipeline' I won't be doing as much of any of those any more. Paris Hilton will just have to pick up the slack for the loss of my business. Apparently it's what Apple wants.
They might get forgiven were they not scalping customers on the RAM prices.
Price for 8GB of RAM for the old Mac mini from Crucial : £63
Price to upgrade from 4GB to 8GB at point of manufacture from Apple : £80
Factor in the 4GB they get back (worth £80 presumably) and Apple are charging nearly three times the retail price for RAM.
Quite simply put, the days where performance was a selling point for Apple is way over.
(a 'blast' from the past): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYuCNv1-80Y
We're talking about things the consumer can see as major selling points - thinness to products, a 5K display and anything to do with iOS integration. Oh, and that
logo has worldwide credibility so ANYTHING with the logo slapped on it is already desirable, regardless of any drawbacks it may have.
(a 'blast' from the past): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYuCNv1-80Y
We're talking about things the consumer can see as major selling points - thinness to products, a 5K display and anything to do with iOS integration. Oh, and that
logo has worldwide credibility so ANYTHING with the logo slapped on it is already desirable, regardless of any drawbacks it may have.Good luck getting £80 on the used market for the DRAM you take out. I'll be impressed if you can get £30 for it.
One cannot reasonably expect Apple to sell DRAM at their marginal cost. Just to cover their fixed costs, assembly, validation, engineering, etc., Apple have to charge at least double the wholesale price before they make any profit on DRAM upgrades.
+1
I'm currently using a Mid 2010 MBP (in which I personally maxed out the RAM and installed an SSD). I also use a Mid 2010 iMac 27" (max RAM and SSD), and an iPhone 4S. I haven't been tempted to upgrade to anything that Apple have released since.
The new iMac design is a joke - they taper the edges so they can take a carefully-angled photo that makes the whole thing appear wafer thin at the expense of ease of maintenance. Is anybody here making good use of that thin wedge of extra airspace above their desk?
The lifespan of the variety of components in an all-in-one like the iMac will vary so much that it is particularly important for such machines to be easily opened and maintained.
As for the Mac Mini - my main beef against soldered RAM is Apple's ridiculous pricing structure. And if we can't replace the hard drive (which is likely to be the first component to fail), then it will be the hard drive that determines the lifespan of the product.
That's exactly my point - it's not worth £80!
The 4Gb to 8Gb cost on the Mac mini should be under £35.
Oh and FYI, I got £45 for the 8GB Crucial kit that came out of my 2011 MBP a couple of months ago. I'd have managed £50+, but I only paid £45 for it in the first place back in 2011 so it was only fair!
If the desktop isn't important to Apple then let them produce their glossy video marketing crap on one of their watches.
LMAO - I cannot think of a better description of the new base Mac Mini than 'little runt' - that really sums it up.
guys, is PCMag reputable? They have an article on the new mac release and there's one part about the mini that got me my attention.
"Flip the Mac mini over and twist open the tool-free access panel on the bottom of the chassis, and you'll spot a few internal differences. The new model is upgraded to a fourth-generation Intel Core i5 processor, a step up from the third-generation (Ivy Bridge) CPU seen in the previous iteration, but the clock speeds are different. The older model boasted a 2.3GHz dual-core CPU while the new base model is just 1.4GHz. Despite the difference in clock speed, I'd still expect better general performance out of the newer processor. The new CPU also bumps up the integrated graphics solution to Intel HD Graphics 5000, an incremental upgrade from the Intel HD Graphics 4000 used in the previous model."
So if the base plate could be taken apart, then there might be hope that the ram is user serviceable.
Apple's New Mac Mini: Should You Upgrade? -- PCMag
"Flip the Mac mini over and twist open the tool-free access panel on the bottom of the chassis, and you'll spot a few internal differences. The new model is upgraded to a fourth-generation Intel Core i5 processor, a step up from the third-generation (Ivy Bridge) CPU seen in the previous iteration, but the clock speeds are different. The older model boasted a 2.3GHz dual-core CPU while the new base model is just 1.4GHz. Despite the difference in clock speed, I'd still expect better general performance out of the newer processor. The new CPU also bumps up the integrated graphics solution to Intel HD Graphics 5000, an incremental upgrade from the Intel HD Graphics 4000 used in the previous model."
So if the base plate could be taken apart, then there might be hope that the ram is user serviceable.
Apple's New Mac Mini: Should You Upgrade? -- PCMag
depressing
as a mac rumours old timer this thread reminds me of the good (bad ?? ) old days of long long complaint threads... (powerbook G5 anyone ?? ) good to see the feeling is still strong in the mac community.
Although it is verging on youtube comment territory from some people - keep it classy !!!
as a mac rumours old timer this thread reminds me of the good (bad ?? ) old days of long long complaint threads... (powerbook G5 anyone ?? ) good to see the feeling is still strong in the mac community.
Although it is verging on youtube comment territory from some people - keep it classy !!!
Thats why they have the geniuses, they can swap the memory out for you in 5 mins
You forgot to mention that in addition good design is about sustainability. When my RAM fails I have to relegate my old new Mini to landfill. This is great for the environment of course.
This fits in very well with TC harping on ad nauseum about how they are building sustainable data centres to have a smaller adverse effect on mother nature.
Get the soldering irons heated up..........
You won't be able to use a soldering iron, it will probably be surface mounted
spot the dot on the base plate? If thats the case, yes i knew there's no dot on the 2014 machines but you never know. ifixit please quickly do a tear down asap!!
I've worked in IT for longer than 15 years and I care
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Exactly right
Or no more the text "removable panel". Of course the new panel CAN be opened, but I don't think PCMag opened it.
Since they've effectively told all business users to take a flying leap a while ago, it's not really surprising they stopped caring about scalability.
