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My Next Mac Mini

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Re: My Next Mac Mini

#201

Post by DCKing »

I understand this blogpost is meant to point out that Apple is abandoning desktop computers and their various use cases. It's all very bad and we haven't had enough articles discussing this yet, why won't Apple think of us anymore, etc. etc.

But I'm surprised he quickly says "No worries you might say, go to Apple and buy a new Mac mini!". If your Mac Mini behaves like he describes, wouldn't the straightforward response be to open it up, give the fans a good cleaning, maybe replace any HDDs with SSDs, and give it a fresh install (of either OS X or Windows 10)? If you blog about tech as this guy does surely it would be no issue at all to just (attempt to) quickly fix these issues.

Don't get me wrong, I too like buying new toys. But I'm amazed at how some apparently tech-savvy people think "this computer does not work as it used to, so it logically follows I should buy a new one!". The problems with his Mac Mini don't sound particularly bad and perfectly fixable in less time it would take to set up a new computer.

Re: My Next Mac Mini

#202

Post by smcl »

base698 wrote: post #94

Just bought a NUC with an added 32GB of RAM as a dev machine. It's been great so far.

Which model is that? I've considering a dedicated windows dev machine, ogling the Surface Book but can't find anywhere that sells the 16/512 model in Czech Republic. I hadn't considered an NUC, I just presumed they'd be low on RAM and non-upgradeable

Re: My Next Mac Mini

#203

Post by eanzenberg »

fowlerpower wrote: post #157

Someone here needs to explain it to me because I just don't understand. We have the largest computer company in the world, a shit load of people work there, supposedly smart people. Yet they can't put together a refresh of many of their desktop machines. Why the fuck not? What do all those people getting paid all that money do all day? I can only imagine the conversations, "it takes years it has to be super innovativ…

My guess is they're mostly working on the "next big releases", so between iphone, ipad, and previously the touchbar mac and watch.

Re: My Next Mac Mini

#204

Post by CydeWeys »

nottorp wrote: post #69
CydeWeys wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yeah, except Apple manages to come close so it's possible :) Give credit where credit is due.

There's two other factors that the Mac Mini doesn't do well on though: Performance (both per dollar and absolute), and size. Not having an external PSU is less important to me than both of those factors, and I'm sort of struggling to see how it could be considered more important.

Re: My Next Mac Mini

#205

Post by SeanLuke »

coldtea wrote: post #10

> Well, perfect except that six years in this machine is very creaky. It needs a reboot every week or so (otherwise it will refuse to launch anything). That sounds totally unrelated to the age of the machine, and totally related to what's installed, the mini running out of disk, etc. Maybe do a clean install of the OS? Aside from the mechanical parts (CD ROMS, Hard Disks, etc), the "digital" parts of a PC do not age…

> the "digital" parts of a PC do not age and their age does not affect program execution speed (all other things being equal)

Maybe not in six years. But I've been shopping for 25-year-old music synthesizers and the field is filled with discussions about how to replace bad capacitors, broken power supplies, and (most interestingly) failing chips.

Re: My Next Mac Mini

#206

Post by antfarm »

rwmj wrote: post #12
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).

TBH I've never understood what Apple gets out of selling the Mac Mini. It cannibalizes their own low-end laptops/desktops, and at the same time must be quite a marginal product mainly sold to a small number of hackers who probably put Linux on them.

They make nice build/CI servers for iOS development.

Re: My Next Mac Mini

#207

Post by rsync »

srj wrote: post #76

I had the same experience when I went to create a small recording studio for my wife. I figured I'd use garage band on a Mac Mini and connect the mixer to that. I changed my plans after going to Apple's website - I don't want to buy old tech and especially not at full price. It's bizarre to see a company with the wealth and resources of Apple not even putting out spec upgrades for their machines. I could say the same…

"It's bizarre to see a company with the wealth and resources of Apple not even putting out spec upgrades for their machines."

What's so bizarre is that the things that people want are actually the easiest and cheapest things for apple to do.

All anyone wants is a macbook air with a retina screen. Not a new 12" one, not a new form factor, not design and engineer some new razor thin design ... just take the same old cad drawings and put a nicer screen on it.

All anyone wants is a mac pro tower (not the wastebasket) with nicer internals and fast SATA/USB ports. That's it. Nothing new to design, no new manufacturing processes - you don't even need new press photos.

If you're going to relegate the product line(s) to second tier, why not just save a ton of money and give people exactly what they were all asking for ?

Re: My Next Mac Mini

#209

Post by dba7dba »

fowlerpower wrote: post #157

Someone here needs to explain it to me because I just don't understand. We have the largest computer company in the world, a shit load of people work there, supposedly smart people. Yet they can't put together a refresh of many of their desktop machines. Why the fuck not? What do all those people getting paid all that money do all day? I can only imagine the conversations, "it takes years it has to be super innovativ…

It's the management, not the product managers, designers or engineers.

With the management led by a logistics/operations man, you end up with products that are UNinspired.

It's a pity Mr. Jobs picked Mr. Cooks to be the successor.

Re: My Next Mac Mini

#210

Post by camperman »

DCKing wrote: post #201

I understand this blogpost is meant to point out that Apple is abandoning desktop computers and their various use cases. It's all very bad and we haven't had enough articles discussing this yet, why won't Apple think of us anymore, etc. etc. But I'm surprised he quickly says "No worries you might say, go to Apple and buy a new Mac mini!". If your Mac Mini behaves like he describes, wouldn't the straightforward respon…

I don't believe you can - it's all soldered on. Like the new Macbook Pros, it's designed to be impossible to upgrade.
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