My Next Mac Mini • Hacker News Board

Re: My Next Mac Mini

#41

Post by newscracker » Sat, Jan 28, 2017, 2:33 PM UTC

Marazan wrote: post #3

Apple's attitude to the Mac mini truly confuses me. Many years ago I was interested in getting one for eithet iPhone development or as a media pc but every time I looked they kept seeming to jack the price or downgrade the spec (relatively speaking).

> Apple's attitude to the Mac mini truly confuses me.

I'm probably speaking for thousands of people. It's been complete frustration to see what Apple hasn't been up to on the Mac front. Apart from not updating a few ranges for years (and introducing updates that reduce or remove the kind of expandability the core Apple customer base wants), not reducing the price of old systems is highly insensitive on the part of the company. It looks like in another one or two years macOS won't support some of the aged hardware that Apple sells. That may be the time it'd completely junk those ranges. It's sad to see this.

Though lacking in certain ways, the HP Z2 Mini seems like a decent alternative for people who can move out of macOS.

Re: My Next Mac Mini

#42

Post by devdoomari » Sat, Jan 28, 2017, 2:33 PM UTC

pmorici wrote: post #23

caleblloyd wrote: post #5

The NUC has full Linux support out of the box. You can configure them with 16GB of RAM and a 256GB-512GB SSD for $400-$500, especially if you go for the old model (Gen 6 Skylake instead of Gen 7 Kaby Lake, not much has changed)

Are you sure? I have one and the wifi definitely doesn't work out of the box and there are a couple other annoyances the worst being the machine locking up if you let it sit for too long. I haven't spent time to investigate but that isn't the definition of "works out of the box"

> the worst being the machine locking up if you let it sit for too long.

uhm... look into power settings? That's common for most os.

Re: My Next Mac Mini

#43

Post by CydeWeys » Sat, Jan 28, 2017, 2:34 PM UTC

nottorp wrote: post #17

Speaking of NUCs, are there any that are (a) quiet at load (b) have the PSU integrated in the case? Those are about the only redeeming qualities of a Mac Mini right now, and it pisses me off to no end that no one bothers with (b) on the Wintel side. Edit: please don't explain to me how a power brick that's sometimes as large as the NUC doesn't bother you, it does bother me.

Unfortunately, your two desires are at cross purposes to each other. An external power brick helps keep a lot of heat out of the system, which allows you to run less cooling in the box, and thus be quieter.

Re: My Next Mac Mini

#44

Post by vetinari » Sat, Jan 28, 2017, 2:34 PM UTC

caleblloyd wrote: post #5

The NUC has full Linux support out of the box. You can configure them with 16GB of RAM and a 256GB-512GB SSD for $400-$500, especially if you go for the old model (Gen 6 Skylake instead of Gen 7 Kaby Lake, not much has changed)

The Skull Canynon has not yet an successor, it is still the most powerfull NUC and is still based on Skylake. No Kaby Lake has an Iris Pro yet.

Re: My Next Mac Mini

#45

Post by windexh8er » Sat, Jan 28, 2017, 2:35 PM UTC

rwmj wrote: post #31

nottorp wrote: post #17

Speaking of NUCs, are there any that are (a) quiet at load (b) have the PSU integrated in the case? Those are about the only redeeming qualities of a Mac Mini right now, and it pisses me off to no end that no one bothers with (b) on the Wintel side. Edit: please don't explain to me how a power brick that's sometimes as large as the NUC doesn't bother you, it does bother me.

The Gigabyte Brix [edit: the base model] is fanless, and if you use an SSD it's completely solid state. I have two next to me right now and they are completely silent as you would expect. However it has a small external power brick. It's only about 1/4 the size of the machine (at least that's for the UK PSU).

Considering there are tens of options in the Brix lines the comment about them being fanless is untrue. Most are actively cooled machines. None of the Brix or NUC I have are particularly loud. If you're doing heavy lifting on a small form factor machine you have to expect a small fan to generate noise to dissipate heat, there's really no way around it.

Re: My Next Mac Mini

#46

Post by arachnophobe » Sat, Jan 28, 2017, 2:35 PM UTC

arachnophobe wrote: post #40

nottorp wrote: post #17

Speaking of NUCs, are there any that are (a) quiet at load (b) have the PSU integrated in the case? Those are about the only redeeming qualities of a Mac Mini right now, and it pisses me off to no end that no one bothers with (b) on the Wintel side. Edit: please don't explain to me how a power brick that's sometimes as large as the NUC doesn't bother you, it does bother me.

I've used a gigabyte Brix n2807 - it's slightly larger than other Brix models as it takes a 2.5" drive (using an old laptop drive to save costs). It's not powerful, but it runs Kodi and Windows 10 okay. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth don't work (or didn't when I first tried) with Linux out of the box. Up to 8gb LPDDR. No power brick. £80 on offer a couple of years ago.

Forgot to mention - fanless.

Re: My Next Mac Mini

#47

Post by rocky1138 » Sat, Jan 28, 2017, 2:35 PM UTC

jmkni wrote: post #26

I wish Apple would just team up with Intel and license macOS on the NUC. It's a perfect successor to the Mac Mini.

What's the point of OSX on the NUC when Linux or even Windows does everything a NUC is usually used for?

Re: My Next Mac Mini

#48

Post by CydeWeys » Sat, Jan 28, 2017, 2:35 PM UTC

raphinou wrote: post #15

Honest question : any good reasons to go with Windows rather than Linux?

There may be streaming services that, for various DRM reasons, aren't supported in Linux. It sucks, but that's the lay of the land. Netflix is supported in Linux, but how about, say, the streaming season package for your favorite sports team? Who knows, but I'd wager a lot of them won't work.

Re: My Next Mac Mini

#49

Post by tyingq » Sat, Jan 28, 2017, 2:35 PM UTC

rwmj wrote: post #9

I would take a look at the Gigabyte Brix. The basic model is £119 [1] - considerably cheaper than the Intel NUC. I have a couple running a firewall and a little server, and they have trucked along for years without problems. [1] For a more complete spec including the other parts you may need, see: https://rwmj.wordpress.com/2015/05/04/new-home-gateway-route...

If your performance & storage needs are modest, the ASUS chromebox is just a little higher than that, but comes with 2GB RAM and a 16GB mSATA SSD. I believe the Brix comes with no ram, no hard drive.

It's very upgradable as well. It ships with one open DIMM slot, so upgrading to 4GB RAM is dirt cheap.

The Celeron 2955U isn't a speed demon, but it's good enough for a home machine.

And, you can get a ROM image that allows running an actual linux distribution instead of ChromeOS: https://johnlewis.ie/custom-chromebook-firmware/rom-download...

Re: My Next Mac Mini

#50

Post by CydeWeys » Sat, Jan 28, 2017, 2:36 PM UTC

UnbornSoul wrote: post #33

facepalm wrote: post #18

It seems to me an Amazon FireTV or even one of those sticks (firetv, chromecast) could do everything he wants.

It can't be used as a DVR.

Aren't DVRs kind of a dying product category? They're only relevant if you have a cable subscription, and most people putting media PCs in their living room are relying on streaming services. I don't know anyone who uses a DVR anymore, but I know dozens of people with Netflix/Amazon/Hulu/etc. subscriptions.