I think it will support a second hard drive, but that is, IIRC, based on OWC info. Why not go with an SSD, that's what I did to my 2011 mine and it made it fly.
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The new Mac mini is almost certainly coming
- Thread starter GabrieleR
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It should be thinner, lighter, and aluminum!
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In the era of 14nm chipsets (and shrinking), SSDs, high res TV screens, fanless tablets, and cloud computing, a computer in a keyboard is not such an impractical or limiting idea as it might once have been.
Couple it with either an eGPU, or a monitor that contains its own GPU. Plus make sure its internals can be easily transferred to a new keyboard container when the old one wears out. It could work.
(I suspect that the IT world has yet to fully grasp the implications of eGPU capability being integrated into an OS.)
More than year in and I continue to be very happy with the “temporary” refurb 2014 Mac Mini I bought in a compromise crisis when my old iMac and old MacBook died simultaneously at a bad time in their upgrade cycles. It has only dual core, 8 gb Ram and 1 tb fusion but handles latest High Sierra and latest software just fine. This economical little Mini has been completely reliable for my business and family needs with ample speed for my daily “professional” MS Office work, book-keeping, Internet, email, graphics, iTunes running music, multiple apps open on various virtual desktops, driving two large external monitors, a USB hub and three backup hard drives. Syncs my iDevices and new MacBook Pro. I’m amazed. Doesn’t take a lot of horsepower to get a LOT done. I thought I would have to upgrade when new iMacs came out, but no need. Love the peripheral hardware flexibility, easy access ports and small footprint. Hope they keep the line going.
I think if you look over in the PC realm for really high quality case components and power supplies, if Windows 10 or a flavour of Linux was what you wanted to use, you could easily spend Mac money on such a set-up. It's just that cheapskate PC builders just choose mediocre kit and try and compare that to Apple gear.
Software being 'free' as long as you buy a genuine Mac to run it on is fine by me, I always took the price of Mac hardware as part of the cost of running macOS. In a way, it's like rolling the OS into the price of the machine itself rather. More on that later.
I just don't agree with how Apple is offering outdated zombie hardware just to push people up the range to the more lucrative but 'current' Macs. The current MBA (which has its basis in 2015 hardware), the 2013 Mac Pro, and to a lesser extent the base model 2015 MacBook Pro are other examples of machines in the range that are popular because they hit a price point. The 2014 Mac Mini is not alone in being outdated.
People may or may not agree with what Apple are doing but there are those of us who don't want 'old' hardware when Apple make 'new' hardware available at a higher price point.
Paying '$1000 extra' for the OS is quite an emotive thing to say, but the other thing Apple don't do is drop prices points. On the one hand, alongside relative rarity and that Apple halo, it keeps used values high. On the other hand, Dell and HP *will* drop prices on old kit to clear stocks. This is something that would have helped with the long-lived Mac Pro 2013 and Mac Minis. It's a lot easier to accept buying a 2014 Mini if the price drops at stages or if the standard specs increase at regular intervals.
Again, we see this with the price of Dell or HP machines over time on a weekly basis.
Even Apple appear to be doing this with some iOS devices when they didn't bump the SoC but instead doubled the storage for a small increase in price.
At least if the 2014 Mini had storage bumps over time it wouldn't have been seen as an abandoned device and while the 2013 Mac Pro has remained out of my price range (and equally never got a price or spec bump to look better value) the value of the the desktop hardware has also decreased to me.
I'd actually prefer if the Mac Mini was taken off sale (and the Mac Pro started a bit lower down) - there will be a few people here waiting around for a decent replacement who could actually have moved on the MacBook Pro (keyboard and Touch bar issues aside) or iMac long ago because of lingering hopes for a Mac Mini they'd want to buy. This doesn't include those of us who left the macOS platform long ago because no other option looked decent value.
There must also be a point when a future MacBook Pro could be better value for money purely because it'll have the most up to date components due to several generations of improvements over the 2014 Mini. Do we want that?
This is not so true anymore. There is some very good quality stuff out there for WAY cheaper than a Mac. New Haydes NUC is just one example.
I think the guy nailed it. People are paying top dollar for outdated hardware and an outdated, almost forgotten OS with a truly antiquated UI, at least as it relates to the mini.
Problem is it's difficult to compare like for like as far as Apple is concerned.
Hades Canyon benchmarks aren't commonplace but I wonder how noisy they are when you hit them up for a bit video rendering exercise over a number of hours? I understand the previous Skull Canyon wasn't exactly quiet under sustained load either. These are quality of life benchmarks which get ignored because one person's unacceptably noisy is another's absolutely fine.
Obviously the cooling profile would be set for performance on these machines whereas if Apple had cooling profiles on vanilla hardware they'd be set for quiet.
I'm not disagreeing about about the outdated hardware - I don't like it either - and I hope I'm not giving the impression of handing Apple a free pass over this but I think official refurbs are a better way of having entry level prices on up to date hardware if Apple want to use old hardware to protect a lower price point.
Let's remember that Apple's iPhone line-up is full of older products - but it's more acceptable for me that they are price reduced accordingly following the introduction of new phones. For the last few generations now it's been relatively predictable what happens next and easy to plan. If I wanted an iPhone 7, I could be relatively confident that I could have one for the price of a 6s in October this year. If that doesn't happen then the existing 7 might get storage doubled for roughly the same money if they reorganise the line differently.
Why has nothing of the sort happened with the Mac lines? Specially the Mini but also the Pro.
1. No successive models with better internals/connectivity even on a 2-year update scheme.
2. If no successive model then not even a storage bump like iOS devices got.
3. If nothing else changes then not even a price drop.
If Apple wanted to push USB-C so hard then why are some of their most popular models still rocking the old ports (on account of the fact that they are the old models)?
This is the cause of the discomfort for me going forward.
I so agree with this. See my sig
A quiet computer is a way better quality of life item. I sampled the earlier Skull Canyon. Prob OK for most, but too loud for me. I sold it. So if I try the new Haydes, it had better have a "quiet mode" or something I so agree with this. See my sig
I have my doubts over that. The case doesn't look like it has enough volume for heat sink and if they use cheap fans there's going to be a problem. Apple were on the right road with the Mac Pro - they just gambled on dual GPU to spread the workload when everyone was going single GPU to work better with more apps without rewrites.
If properly constructed Apple's Mac Pro solution should use good air flow with large diameter fans and decently sized heat sinks to maximise quiet time. Smaller fans make more noise, and while asymmetric designs have apparently reduced noise in MacBook Pros and has apparently been carried over to the 2014 model if they were intending the Mini to be a practical workhorse it does need to be bigger.
Silence is a quality of life bonus that Mac users just don't recognise - they are all too busy asking for 95w desktop class CPUs for more grunt (and heat and noise). I don't mind a solid cooling solution making the case heavier and bigger - if there's a noticeable benefit in terms of noise it'll be something the nickel and dimers who compare Macs unfavourably with off the shelf PCs on price can't evaluate.
For me there's now a great value in a Mac being quiet and unobtrusive even under sustained load.
Quiet Mode would be to be throttle settings slowing the processor down. Something like SMC fan control.
And for me a desktop monster Mac should have a good heat sink to delay the start of fans as long as reasonable.
Apple gambled on GPU cards shrinking in size and everything evolving into external thunderbolt 2 enclosures you plug into your computer. Neither of those things really took off like Apple thought - kinda like the world not turning USB-C overnight.
The quote is :
"...we do plan for mac mini to be an important part of our product line going forward."
I don't think that statement can be read to mean; "we don't intend to ever release another Mac Mini." If he is referring to the old Mac Mini from 2014 as "an important part of our product line going forward" I would say that is a highly deceptive use of words.
Apple have a history of being evasive and secretive but when they do make statements about future products they tend to be accurate.
At the same time, he didn't imply that the new Mac Mini (if it ever sees the light of day) would be any more powerful than the current one. Nor did he imply that it would necessarily use an intel chip, or anything other than a 5400 rpm spinning hard drive in the base model...
That being said, if they do come up with some "experiment", I would at least give it a hard look.
I took Tim's statement to be bland enough to include only the fact that they will continue selling the existing 2014 model as it is now. They may have a plan for it after the Modular Mac Pro comes along but that's clearly something for later down the line.
On a very basic level Apple sees it's customer-base as "consumers" when instead the various customer segments should be viewed as "business partners" whose value translates to market needs and thus market share. As business partners we have a need and a vision that Apple should coach and lead in lock-step with technological advancement.
Inclusion could be fruitful and a published plan would be respectful!
Bland. Yes, the word I was looking for. Not much on this planet is blander than Tim's statement. It is like I started falling asleep at the beginning of the "statement", and was snoring like a buffalo by the end. B l a n d
Cook’s email basically said we have plans for the mini, but you’re going to have to wait for a future announcement. Any attempts to read more or less into it may be chalked up to wishful thinking.
It doesn’t mean the quad core will be back, and it also doesn’t mean there will never be a refresh of the 2014 lineup.
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Yeah, the plan is to continue to sell mac minis as is, until saps stop buying them
That is the ONLY plan they have been executing on for the last 4 years
We should be asking ourselves - "how do you build a mMacPro?" If Apple delivers on this then a major re-tooling is underway perhaps back to a rectangular (square) form-factor - a top-tier desktop in "modular" design begs many questions. This re-tooling may cast a big shadow over any "Mini" to the point of non-existence perhaps.
Perhaps the Mini becomes completely sealed as a "plate" like an iPhone. Perhaps "we" all get bumped into the low-tier mMacPro clearing our pockets of at least $1500 - $2500 to play in the "open-box and upgrade" playground.
A modular series in 3 versions would be sweet - very sweet and very pricey!
Perhaps the Mini becomes completely sealed as a "plate" like an iPhone. Perhaps "we" all get bumped into the low-tier mMacPro clearing our pockets of at least $1500 - $2500 to play in the "open-box and upgrade" playground.
A modular series in 3 versions would be sweet - very sweet and very pricey!
I’m sure the current models will be available until the refresh. I wouldn’t expect Mac mini to be updated every year like MBP or iMac, probably every other year would be sufficient, given Intel’s relatively small year-to-year improvements (typically).
So at 3 years 3 months, the mini is at least a year overdue for a refresh, and performance of the dual core at the top end could be 50% faster using a i7-7567U.
Personally, I hope the delay is because they’re waiting for the 28W quad core CPUs, but it could just be due to inattention to a low volume product line.
That's exactly how I took it. Basically "We will continue to sell the current model for a while. Beyond that, nothing is guaranteed."
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Not paying anywhere close to $1500 for a desktop without a screen in this day and age. Horrid value proposition for the average Mac user. The percentage of people who would actually benefit from such a costly machine over, say, a more affordable and portable Macbook Pro, is infinitely small.
Anything over $800 for base-level and we are no longer in Mac Mini territory. We are talking a completely different product line aimed at a completely different type of consumer.
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BS
Upgraded USB an Upgraded thunderbolt. The richest company in the world, run by the supply chain master himself, can't manage two configurations to allow for a quad core CPU?
It's a lack of caring about their most loyal customers that has gotten us to where we are today. No amount of "the mac mini is important to us" throw away lines matter, when the product hasn't been updated in 4 years. And when the last revision occurred, it was a pathetic downgrade to NOT have the mini steal sales from the higher margin Apple products.
It's just an unbelievably sad state.
I wouldn't pay $1500 to be permanently attached to a screen either ... that's the point for us infinitely small percentages who make the things large percentages enjoy!
Like it or not, the 2014 mini is built on the 13” MBP platform. That means 28W processors. Anemic sales of the Server SKUs doomed the quad core mini; the Mac Pro Server SKU had already been dumped in 2013. Apple re-targeted the mini to the lower-end requirements of home consumers.
Due to slips in Intel’s roadmap, 28W quad cores weren’t available last year, and they’re still not available. Rumor has it they’ll be released in the April-June quarter. So Apple could release a quad core mini, just like they may release a quad core 13” MBP. But that may or may not be why the mini hasn’t been updated in three years.
Not sure which higher-margin product you think a quad core mini, or any mini for that matter, would cannibalize. 80% of sales are laptops, and the mini isn’t a substitute. Apple sets prices to maintain their gross margin, and they do/would price any mini accordingly.
I’m also not sure why you would classify mini users as Apple’s most loyal customers. It was targeted at switchers, who more likely would be new customers.
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It is way more complicated than that. As many have said hundreds of pages ago, each one of US HERE is more than likely responsible for RECOMMENDING Mac mini or another Apple product to 10 or 20 or more other customers. And the fact that we like the Mini should be enough for Apple to do what is really a minuscule update each and every year to make us happy. End of story.
They lost me long ago. I stay here simply because I enjoy the people and the fact that this may be the longest and longest running thread about anything on the entire Interwebs. To get me back they would have to come up with something so awesome. But really, that is not gonna happen. See my sig. Sure, it is a little bigger than a mini, but it is 100% quieter (and the mini was darn quiet) and like 8 times faster. Oh yeah, upgradeable too.