Here a crazy idea: what if Apple reuse the trashcan chasis for a not-so-mini Mini? Comes with iGPU and expandable via eGPU. Core i7 or i9. RAM and storage are removable. Size can shrink due to lack of internal dGPU. Starting at $1k - $1.5k. Any taker?
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The new Mac mini is almost certainly coming
- Thread starter GabrieleR
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DesertSurfer
macrumors 6502a
Please, Apple, put us out of out misery
I would go for that! It's not a crazy idea. In the context of recent discussion, there would be little engineering cost involved. But the trashcan itself might be rather expensive to make compared to the current mini form.
LeeW
macrumors 601
If that happened I would have one ordered before my wife could tell me we are getting divorced if I buy it.
Sadly though I really don't think it will happen. One thing is for sure, the New Mac Mini is definitely coming. I see one of two things happening.
- Same form factor, just a spec refresh to bring into 2018, nothing dazzling, probably get the i5 Quad Core in the current 13 inch MBP as an option at least.
- A new form factor update, all new internals and at least the option of a Radeon Pro inside.
Whilst there is some validity to that, I think it also depends how you look at it. The 2014 Mac mini was $100 cheaper than the previous model, and I believe the low-end model had higher performance. And the things that were lost in the 2014 Mac mini (such as access to RAM) may not have been things that the mini’s primary target audience cared about.
Unless you have data on Mac sales volume, you can’t make assertions like “people stopped buying”. For all we know, Mac mini sales volumes may have INCREASED in 2014, driven largely by the price. And indeed sales have evidently continued to be good enough to support continuing to offer that product even four years on. It could be argued that the 2014 Mac mini only “stinks” (or “stank” perhaps) for a particular niche group of people that were buying it, but for the average consumer the price drop may have made it a significantly better product for them than its predecessor.
As for companies/universities buying it in bulk to power key infrastructure, I don’t think Apple cares about that one bit. And I also don’t believe it was as common as you suggest here - companies typically do not run “key infrastructure” on cheap low-end PCs with single PSU, etc. And “bulk” is also relative. The number of Mac minis bought for that purpose is/was probably insignificant.
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Yes, that is a crazy idea.
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On what basis do you make that confident assertion that “there would be little engineering cost involved”?!? You are asking them to make a completely new chassis with upgradeable components (which would, by the way, completely go against the clear trend for every other Mac product except the Mac Pro), and then stand up a manufacturing process (with all the prototyping and validation work that goes along with that) to manufacturer that device. How exactly is that “little engineering cost”?
masterbaron
macrumors 6502
If Apple produces another gimped Mini as successor to the 2014 Mini they'll be shooting themselves in the foot and we'll have our marching orders to save up for the new MacPro. There's no indication users need less power and flexibility and there's no longer need for a segue product thus they need to raise the bar on the Mini while making the MacPro more realistically affordable perhaps through modularity.
When I consider the top-of-the-line Mac laptop cresting at $6000 I become somewhat doubtful.
When I consider the top-of-the-line Mac laptop cresting at $6000 I become somewhat doubtful.
Count Blah
macrumors 68040
Sorry, we’ll have our marching orders to abandon the platform. Just because Apple refuses to meet our needs, doesn’t mean others do as well. There are a ton of options out there. Sadly, Apple, doesn’t even support those they used to, let alone the expanding demand of consumers.
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I’m on vacation and posting from a phone, otherwise I would have 😉
Why will Apple be shooting themselves in the foot if they do that? How do you know that the lost revenue from potential Mac mini buyers who decide not to buy will be greater than the increased revenue from potential Mac mini buyers who buy a more expensive Mac instead?
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masterbaron
macrumors 6502
I could not imagine a desktop slowly de-evolving to become less powerful than an iPad - in my view, it would be an embarrassment (I know, Apple is not afraid of embarrassment) to produce such a machine in these times. But the potential to spur a migration to the MacPro is expected in lieu of Apple producing another Mini or severely gimped Mini.
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Not for MacOS and after my recent exposure to Win10 I won't be going that way. Frankly at my age I'd rather save my remaining brain cells for things that feed my spirit and body vs learning a new platform and attempting to re-create the Apple ecosystem.
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Not for MacOS and after my recent exposure to Win10 I won't be going that way. Frankly at my age I'd rather save my remaining brain cells for things that feed my spirit and body vs learning a new platform and attempting to re-create the Apple ecosystem.
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Partron22
macrumors 68030
Then again:
$35 Raspberry Pi rival offers 4K video, USB 3.0, DDR4 memory and runs Android.
Times are fraught for hardware manufacturers.
Someone may come out with a true "Killer Mini" at an unspeakably low price.
I wonder how Kodi runs on the linked machine.
The 2018 iPad has a Geekbench score of 3254/5857 and costs $430 for the 128gb wifi version. The base 2014 Mini scores 3022/5402 and costs $500. 🙂
There exists a huge gap between the Mini and the Mac Pro: the top-end Mini at $1k vs. lowest end Mac Pro at $3k. Some of that can be filled with an iMac but there are people who do not want an all-in-one for various reasons. The current Mac Mini was designed to be affordable. Now that you can remove the affordability requirement, you can absorb a higher cost. Removing the GPU card in the trashcan means a big thermal source is taken out. The only thing left to be cooled is the CPU. The freed space can be used for M2 or SATA 3 mount.
Too bad that's the perfect computer that Apple will never build.
For $1,000 you get a 2.8ghz i5 Mini with 8gb RAM and a 1tb Fusion Drive. But that is not the "top-end Mini". If you want the top it will cost you $2,000 for the 3.0ghz i7 Mini with 16gb RAM and a 1tb SSD. 🙂
masterbaron
macrumors 6502
No matter what goes down we may not be at a good place - a new Mini and a new MacPro represents exactly "what" for Apple - I'd be hard-pressed to buy the first machines with an unknown history and an equally unknown trajectory for Apple - are they committed? - for the expected increase in investment I would also want investment protection - which isn't going to happen - certainly not initially.
Then there's my other real-side which after waiting so long needs to be satisfied and reassured at the same time. Fresh-pressed Apple cool aid perhaps?...
Then there's my other real-side which after waiting so long needs to be satisfied and reassured at the same time. Fresh-pressed Apple cool aid perhaps?...
Hater
macrumors 6502a
So is mine, only because the Radeon in my old 2011 gave way!
I actually replaced my dead 2011 with a 2014, then sold the 2014 and spent half that money on my 2012 due to the stupidity that is soldered RAM + no way to have two HDD's...
Count Blah
macrumors 68040
Sorry to hear that. I use windows at work, since switching jobs a couple years ago. It’s not preferred, but I can get any hardware I want, in any configuration I want. Once my eyes were opened to the extreme limitations and high Apple costs(I can live with “less quality” in certain areas), it’s difficult to justify what Apple is doing to its customers.
I still do 90% of my at home work on the 2012 cMBP, but I also looking to upgrade many family members Mac Minis. None of the family wants iMacs.
masterbaron
macrumors 6502
The Windows underpinnings which seem deep-rooted present some "clunkiness" in the execution and feedback of the UI - like missing progress wheels - unknown actions after clicking... "something is happening but not what I anticipated" - clicking on files and multiple instances of the same file windows ... these attributes are relics from the past! Then we have the overall difficulty of software installations which are less intuitive on the PC.
After using a Mac for so long these aspects are intolerable for me especially since Windows tries to mimic the Mac UI without a similar ecosystem. There's an inherent fluidity in MacOS that is "native" to it's core - the same cannot be said for Windows after all these years the BIOS still feels like DOS.
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It looks like HP has leaked the 8th gen of 15W chips ("Whiskey Lake") which would be an appropriate, even likely, candidate for a refreshed Mac Mini. They would also be suitable for the bottom end MacBook Pro (if it's continued) and the speculated "affordable MacBook."
Of course Apple often has Intel make custom chips with slightly different profiles. Here's what the specs appear to be. All of these run UHD 620 graphics:
i7-8565U: Quad 1.8/4.6GHz, 8MB cache
i5-8265U: Quad 1.6/4.1GHZ, 6MB cache
i3-8145U: Dual 2.1/3.9GHz, 4MB cache
Personally I'm still hoping for 28W chips with Iris Plus graphics in a refreshed Mini, but I have to be realistic in that it wouldn't fit Apple's usual behavior with respect to the Mini.
Of course Apple often has Intel make custom chips with slightly different profiles. Here's what the specs appear to be. All of these run UHD 620 graphics:
i7-8565U: Quad 1.8/4.6GHz, 8MB cache
i5-8265U: Quad 1.6/4.1GHZ, 6MB cache
i3-8145U: Dual 2.1/3.9GHz, 4MB cache
Personally I'm still hoping for 28W chips with Iris Plus graphics in a refreshed Mini, but I have to be realistic in that it wouldn't fit Apple's usual behavior with respect to the Mini.
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masterbaron
macrumors 6502
One thing for sure... Ubuntu is updated way more than, say, the Mac mini, LOL! So I always check back with it. So used to MS Office and Win 10, but also very interested in Ubuntu. They are always improving it.
masterbaron
macrumors 6502
Santabean2000
macrumors 68000
How stable is a NUC Hackintosh? Sorry, I don't want to hijack this thread. I built a "hackintosh Pro" two years ago and it is quite buggy and will freeze up doing the most basic tasks (like the animation from clicking on a drop down menu will cause it to reboot). I find it completely frozen sometimes after a day of being idle. So, I can't rely on something with that kind of performance. Have you heard if NUC Hacks are as stable as the real deal?
Thinkstation P320 Tiny, if I ever have to.
More likely, it will be an iMac again. The old one from 2008 still works. Though it get's only limited use since 2014, when I bought the 2012 Mini.
I really, really like macOS. But I hate Win10 even more.
If it would be Linux, I'd choose OpenSuse any day for a desktop.