Ok, so I have a half hour to kill, and recall that a few days ago I said I would describe how good a Mac Mini could be realistically made if I were in charge of the product. Given that tomorrow is WWDC, and we know that stands for "Wishing, Wondering, Disappointment, Crushed" when it comes to hardware, I will take a stab at what could be done, so we can measure just how far we failed to hit the mark should something actually be announced.
I really do want a modular, screenless option for Mac OS when my 2014 Mini dies though.
Totally agree there's a good market segment for Apple that the mini fills. I'd argue its actually growing. Nothing else Apple has works for HTPC.. sorry AppleTV.
Apple could make a killing with a new Mac Mini release considering how many Windows computers in the same price range are of questionable quality. In fact some may be inferior to earlier Mac Minis.
The problem is that some of those machines, and there are many more that get close in size, are of equal quality and deliver comparable or better capability for the same amount of money. Besides the ones you saw me post the picture of, there's a number out there I haven't even looked at ... like the HP Slice or HP Z2 Mini Workstation or any of the Gigabyte Brix offerings for example.
Here's the 2018 .. er .. 2019 .. er .. 2020 .. er .. 2021+ Mac Mini designed "My Way" (as Franky would sing).
"My Way" has two goals - make the Mini competitive, and try and deliberately add back some "Pizzazz" to make it stand out (The Mini used to be alone, and now it's in a crowded segment) and even provide a "Halo" model.
Ok, you guys ready to take a trip to Delusional Wishful Thinking Land(tm) ?
Exterior:
Starting with the case, I would leave the dimensions and shape alone for the most part, and continue with the aluminum unibody. A couple things the Mini's case has going for it include the integral power supply and compatibility with existing accessories, and they would be ready to go at MacMiniCoLo ( whom I'm pretty impressed with and will likely be deploying a server to this year ).
Color: A concession the Apple Marketing Gen^h^h^hIdiots - Space Grey in addition to classic silver. No Gold. No Rose Gold. End of Discussion.
Front: I mentioned this before, but to regain parity with the Intel NUCs and others, a small port panel should probably be added to the lower left of the front. On it would be 2 tiny microphones ports (~1mm) and in between them a USB 3.1 Type-A Charging Port (Yellow) and a 3.5mm Combo Audio Jack.
The microphones would let Apple promote that "Hey Siri" is coming to all their devices, not just laptops. Intel already has these on their NUCs.
The USB-A charging port and combo audio jack would be a way to acknowledge that Mini often lives on desktops and people don't need to going around back for things they are constantly inserting and removing... Like a lightning cable to charge their iPhone or iPad, and for USB thumb drives.
Apple would have to admit that USB-A ports aren't dying, and that might hard for them to do. The reason for the combo jack, and not just headphones is for gaming headsets and recording. The separate audio jacks on the back panel would remain. Yes, it would cost 40 cents more, but Apple could promote that the Mini is versatile and wherever you put it, it's easy to access.
Back: 2 Thunderbolt 3 USB-C ports are a given. But keep the 4 USB 3.0, or bump them to 3.1. Having to add an external USB hub via USB-C would be a massive design fail.
The HDMI port has to be HDMI 2.0 (or 2.1 if possible). Not up for discussion. Everyone will point and laugh if they don't.
The Gig-E RJ-45 port stays, as I don't think it's time to switch to a 10G Ethernet port yet. If you had to have one, it could connect via Thunderbolt 3.
The dual Audio jacks stay, but I am on the fence about the need to keep the SDXC card reader/slot. It could be sacrificed to the corporate bean counters if necessary.
Internals:
Memory: It's back! User upgradable DDR4 so-dimm memory. 32GB Max. Apple will happily sell you the upgrade at their prices if it's too scary to twist the base and push into the socket. Since everything else Skylake & later can support 32GB and the MacBoook Pro was ridiculed for not offering 32GB, they need to allow that much even if they are correct that 99% of users won't ever use it. They can say user serviceable memory is back by popular demand, and try and fool people into thinking they are actually listening.
Storage: Got to play catch up here.
ALL Mini's will come with a nVME M.2 (PCIe 3.0 x4) 2280 SSD OS Drive. No base model with a spinner. Apple's already onboard with this on the laptops and The 2014 Mini's SSD is connected via something like a PCI 2.0 x1 - barely faster than SATA III. Apple Friend/Enemy/which day of the week is it Samsung makes an economy SSD - the 970, that is over 5x faster than the SSD in the 2014 Mini. Embarrassing. And Apple needs to be all-in to transition to APFS. OS / M.2 drive sizes up to 2TB can configured as BTO (since it won't be soldered).
For additional storage, the space in the unibody that previously could hold 2x 9.5 mm 2.5" Hard Drives is shrunk slightly and aligned so it can hold a single drive, either 7mm, 9.5mm OR a 15MM drive, allowing for up to 5TB of cheap bulk storage. (5TB 2.5" HDD is $160 on Amazon). With the return of user serviceable RAM, storage upgrades go back to their 2010-2012 level difficulty. Apple gets in on the game by selling users overpriced HDD upgrades, installed at their genius bars. This includes the OS M.2 drives.
And that gets us down to the core of the matter, pun horribly intended... the
CPU and GPU.
Apple goes "all-in" with Intel's Coffee Lake mobile parts for the Mini, specifically the 28W TDP parts with Iris Plus, and uses their volume buying power. The current line up of these chips fits the typical Mini SKU range nicely.
This means Quad Cores are back, but there's a dual core "Entry Level" CPU. Tim needs to shout that up on stage .. "Quad Cores are BACK Baby!" . And every one of the CPUs in this range have Iris Plus 655 Graphics w/ 128 MB EDRAM, so Apple can get back to 2009 - 2012 where they were able to claim at least a doubling of GPU power with every revision.
Given that even the base Mini will expected to do flawless video playback at 4K 60hz, and be able to drive 3 Monitors at 4K - it's not so far out there to have the EDRAM to keep the frame buffers in. (I can digress as a game developer how even basic 4K 2D stuff uses serious video memory) With the latest version ( Skylake+) the EDRAM not used by the GPU winds up as extra CPU cache. This would let Apple claim a ~3x increase over the 2014 Mini in graphics, and actually be usable for mid-range gaming.
Edit: Forgot to mention
Memory: 8 GB is the new base. 4GB is a joke that's grown tired.
The SKUs and CPUs:
Base Mini: i3-8109U - 2/4 Cores/Threads, 3.0Ghz / 3.6Ghz Turbo, 4MB L3
Mid Range: i5-8259U - 4/8 Cores/Threads, 2.3Ghz / 3.8Ghz Turbo, 6MB L3
Mid Range+: i5-8359U - 4/8 Cores/Threads, 2.6Ghz / 4.2Ghz Turbo, 6MB L3 (Upgrade Pricing)
Top End: i7-8559U - 4/8 Cores/Threads, 2.7Ghz / 4.5Ghz Turbo, 8MB L3 (Top Upgrade Pricing)
Suggested Prices and Configurations:
$599 Base w/ 250GB SSD, 8GB Ram
+200 to upgrade to 16GB (Apple super high margins)
+100 to upgrade to 500GB SSD
+400 to upgrade to 1TB SSD (2TB not available on base SKU)
+100 to add 2TB bulk storage
$799 Quad Core i5 w/ 500GB SSD, 8GB Ram
+$100 to upgrade to 2.6 i5
+$200 to upgrade to 2.7 i7 (Hit the $999 magic price)
+200 to upgrade to 16GB
+500 to upgrade to 32GB
+$300 to upgrade to 1TB SSD (Apple tax pricing)
+$800 to upgrade to 2TB SSD
+100 to add 2TB bulk storage (Nice Margins for Apple)
+200 to add 4TB bulk storage
+300 to add 5TB bulk storage
So you got new Mini's from $599 to $2599, which is in line with historical pricing on older Minis, and chock full of profits.
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Oh, and just
"One More Thing..." (Yes, set it up for the classic end of show reveal)
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Now you guys know I am a game developer, and I've been doing it for decades. Steve Job on the other hand felt games were to be tolerated at best, and Apple has been half-hearted at catering to that sector a best. But Apple has been making noises about VR being important, yet they have absolutely NOTHING in that space.
I would fix that and create a Halo SKU for the Mini that would appeal to gamers using the i7-8706G which has the Radeon RX Vega M GL and 4GB of HBM Memory on the same package with a Quad Core it @ 3.1 Ghz. Apple could claim that it is the "Smallest/Tiniest VR Capable PC in Existence" (as it passes Oculus's min specs) and make lots of noise about embracing VR and delivering serious gaming in the world's most efficient package, etc...
How can we fit that KabyLake-G CPU into the Mini though??
Did you know... the 2011 Mac Mini's AMD 6630 dGPU had a 26W TPD, and the Sandy Bridge i5 and i7 were both rated at 35W TDP, for a total of 61W TDP to be handled. This "Halo Mini" (Master Chief Not Included) would use the 65W TDP version. The Mini could handle the i7-8706G's power and cooling needs, especially with slightly re-worked cooling using the space freed up from the hard drive bay. The Power Supply might need a tweak, but honestly Apple designs great power supplies (witness teardowns comparing Apple to cheap knockoff chargers, etc)
And upon seeing this "Ultimate Mac Mini" ... the Mac Mini fanboys... all 13 of us that still remain... would go nuts...
...In my dreams at least.
Who am I kidding? Time to bury the Mac Mini.
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