There are big issues on how to get it to work with APFS. Flash drives and spinners store information in different ways which is why High Sierra does not currently support fusion.
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The new Mac mini is almost certainly coming
- Thread starter GabrieleR
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My argument has already been posted: "The incremental cost of a 500GB SSD over a 500GB HDD is continuing to decline. If you bundled in a 250GB SSD Apple could offer it at the same $499 target price."
Besides, think of all the R&D they saved BY NOT UPDATING FOR GOING ON FOUR YEARS!
High Sierra does "support" fusion drives... it's the APFS that does not "support" (read: work with/on) fusion drives.
Not currently, but probably will in the coming months. Certainly before the point at which it makes sense to go all SSD on all machines (prices are currently going up not down)...
Yes, but all the same there's little reason not to have at least a 250GB SSD for the OS and some critical apps, even you use a spinner for additional storage. Regardless of what Apple charges for it, I'm sure it doesn't even cost them $50. It may not yet make sense to go ALL SSD if you need terabytes of data storage, but for sure a small partition containing the OS should be on SSD. There's no excuse for running the OS on a spinner these days. The difference in system performance in my 2012 Mini between running the OS on an internal spinner and an external SSD is ridiculous.
Hmm. They could also offer the existing low-end mini at $300. Or, they could just make the smallest mini a well-equipped $999 machine, the way they do with the Air.
Apple's pricing scheme is only vaguely related to the actual value of the hardware components. You pay instead for the level of ability you want, with an increasing premium going straight to Apple's bottom line for each level you ascend.
Well yes, as per my earlier post I agree, though 128GB SSD is probably more realistic (that in itself is about as costly as a 1TB HDD):
In Apple's world, you can get the high end 2014 Mini with either a 1TB fusion drive or a 256gb SSD for the same price. I think the current Mini would be much more compelling if they just got rid of the 1.4ghz model and made 2.6ghz/8gb the new base model with your choice of a 1TB fusion or 256gb SSD for $500. This would be similar to what they did a couple years ago on the MacBook Air and all that would be involved is making a few changes on their website.
You know, the existing mid or top range Mac Mini with an SSD would be fine with me, except for one thing: It won't drive a 4k display @ 60hz. That's really all I'm waiting for .. and maybe some TB3 ports. It's astonishing to me that Apple let three years - 3!! - go by without even a small refresh. Sad!
Sad but true. But then also look at the progress of CPUs over the past 6 years. Up to and including Sandy Bridge, every generation yielded big gains. Now? Kaby Lake is maybe 20-25% faster than a 6 year old CPU (overclocked to same speed). Very incremental.
Big gains from SATA to 4x PCIe SSDs, but at some point it will also become incremental.
Video is an area which continues to improve, but the Mini has an iGPU nowadays.
Then there’s the software side. Aside from processing 4K video, most professional apps aren’t radically more demanding than what they were 5 years ago. It’s not like Word 2016 needs 2x more CPU than Word 2011.
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A reasonable idea. I paid $400 new for my 1.4, and repurposed a 250GB SSD, and it does what I need now fine; the spinner is now my CCC clone in a $10 external enclosure. But I wouldn’t turn my nose up with more RAM and faster CPU for $100 more.In Apple's world, you can get the high end 2014 Mini with either a 1TB fusion drive or a 256gb SSD for the same price. I think the current Mini would be much more compelling if they just got rid of the 1.4ghz model and made 2.6ghz/8gb the new base model with your choice of a 1TB fusion or 256gb SSD for $500. This would be similar to what they did a couple years ago on the MacBook Air and all that would be involved is making a few changes on their website.
This is true, but TB3-based eGPU solutions to provide external, discrete GPU power to Macs with crippled integrated graphics are becoming a thing, so the GPU bottleneck won't be as showstopping as it has been historically.
The larger iGPUs should be able to power 3 4k displays - provided enough ports are provided.
But my GPU needs are basically 2d only.
And as Lenovo has shown, you can pack a discrete GPU in the form-factor.
But my GPU needs are basically 2d only.
And as Lenovo has shown, you can pack a discrete GPU in the form-factor.
I find this very interesting. http://www.fudzilla.com/news/processors/44816-amd-officially-launches-mobile-ryzen-zen-meets-vega
I wonder if one of them will find its way on a future mini, and/or laptop by Apple.
I wonder if one of them will find its way on a future mini, and/or laptop by Apple.
Again, not seeing this happening.
Previous Apple-AMD talks reportedly fizzled-out because of AMDs inability to quickly ramp-up volume. Or to give some sort of shipping volume guarantee.
Things may have changed, so I'd like to be proven wrong. Though I suspect any potential savings will be just gobbled-up by Apple and distributed to the shareholders ;-)
Also, nobody knows what kind of deal Apple really gets from Intel. From all what we know about Steve Jobs, he probably made a damn good deal for Apple - and thus, the price difference between Intel and AMD may not be as much as list-prices may suggest.
Previous Apple-AMD talks reportedly fizzled-out because of AMDs inability to quickly ramp-up volume. Or to give some sort of shipping volume guarantee.
Things may have changed, so I'd like to be proven wrong. Though I suspect any potential savings will be just gobbled-up by Apple and distributed to the shareholders ;-)
Also, nobody knows what kind of deal Apple really gets from Intel. From all what we know about Steve Jobs, he probably made a damn good deal for Apple - and thus, the price difference between Intel and AMD may not be as much as list-prices may suggest.
I put a 1TB SSD in my 2012 Mini, living as a fusion drive alongside the old original 1TB 5400 slow disk. After this, I wouldn't buy a fusion drive at only 128GB, let alone one of the awful 32GB ones.
I'm sure Apple make a lot of profit from their memory and SSD markup, but it puts people off too. There needs to be a decent SSD offering that doesn't charge the earth for it. Upgradable would be nice, too (upgrading the disks in the 2012 Mini was not a very pleasant process) but as this is Apple we can't expect too much.
I'm sure Apple make a lot of profit from their memory and SSD markup, but it puts people off too. There needs to be a decent SSD offering that doesn't charge the earth for it. Upgradable would be nice, too (upgrading the disks in the 2012 Mini was not a very pleasant process) but as this is Apple we can't expect too much.
Trouble is, this could mean that it is important because it will be the next computer to be dropped entirely from the lineupBut but but ...
...Tim said the Mac Mini was important
Ohhhh...it will probably show up at the mighty iMac Pro cluster f....appliance.... makes its appearance , because it's important.....
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...as a paperweight. He was going to use it as a doorstop but the aluminum scratched the floor.But but but ...
...Tim said the Mac Mini was important
Well Apple seems to love AMD GPU's (even the iMac Pro is going Vega) so I could see them going for an APU with an AMD Vega GPU built right on it. But I guess we will just have to wait and see.
Based on available information so far, the Ryzen 7 2700U and Ryzen 5 2500U would certainly make an excellent choice for a Mac Mini upgrade, that is if one was to arrive in the near future. Sadly, this is very unlikely to happen given the ongoing lack of interest from Apple.
The more I think about it, the more likely it seems that Ryzen altogether is going to end up being just another missed opportunity for Apple to bring their Mac lineup up to date.
I believe the last time Apple seriously considered using AMD APUs was with Llano and the plan was to use them in Macbook Air. That was six years ago (as were any deals or negotiations in which Jobs might have had any part in). While I'm not 100% sure on AMDs current supply volumes, I'd say things most certainly have changed since then. On another hand, Mini is a way lower volume product compared to what Air was in 2011. I doubt this would be an issue.
But if we go hypothetical for a moment, in theory Apple does have at least two options:
One, to make the best possible Mini and go for the Ryzen mobile chips. Users would be delighted, sales (of a relative low volume product) woud spike and no doubt manufacturing costs would probably go slightly up compared to continue using three yeard old Haswell chips.
Or two, do what they have historically done for quite number of years by now; optimize for the product margins and aim to use the same chips across all the low-end products waiting to be obsoleted; Mini, Air, maybe even the lowest end iMac. Even better if the chips are so old that you can get them dirt cheap. Part of this scenario is that by agreeing to stay Intel-only for CPUs, Apple might be able to squeeze a better overall deal from Intel. And from Intel's point of view, having Apple use only Intel chips is excellent PR and they no doubt are doing their best to keep it that way.
So if you had to guess... which of these seems the more likely thing to happen?
[doublepost=1509122879][/doublepost]Btw, it just occured to me while reading the news about the 3rd gen iPad being obsoleted that this may be exacly where we are heading with the current Mac Pro and Mini; in a few years we may actually see the first Apple products to reach the 5 year "obsolete" milestone while still in production!