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2018 Mac Mini Review

marco.org

111–120 of 653 posts

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#111
post #104

A $2500 desktop computer with integrated graphics? Honestly, it feels like a bit of a joke.

A huge chunk of that is the SSD. It's actually very reasonably priced, especially considering that you get a Mac ecosystem along with the computer.

Have you looked at SSD prices lately!?

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have dual booted Ubuntu for ~3 years on my MacBook Pro (13” late 2013 model) and used it as my main OS. I had to install a webcam driver but other than that everything just worked(TM)

Yes, especially on Mac, high DPI on Linux is still garbage to this day. It's not really good on Windows either, but at least with Windows 10, it is somewhat serviceable. On Linux, support is so abysmal, it is really comical in 2018. Moreover, it seems the dev community still hasn't "seen the light" in high DPI displays, and will often dismiss or backlog required changes for support. In 2018.

HiDPI worked / works great in UbuntuGNOME. I spend most of my time in a text editor, terminal or browser, but even things like games for my kid (Tux and Tux Kart) supported HiDPI without requiring any magic tricks.

/edit setting a different scalefactor on my external (non-HiDPI) monitor was frustrating in that it worked... sometimes

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#113
post #71
post #48

"...cost $2499 (much of which is the SSD)" The cheapest SSD I can find goes for €129.47, and it doesn't seem to get up to much more for consumer SSDs. Unless this SSD has some crazy specs that I'm missing, it seems seriously overpriced to me.

Apple charges +$600 (USD) for a 0.25 → 1TB SSD upgrade. I heard some complaints, but was all like "Yeah, but modern Apple SSDs are 3GB/sec, that is pretty good, bros..." My coworker clued me in, though: 1TB samsung 970Pro M.2 (3GB/s) was as low as AUD$304 here just yesterday. Thats ~USD$215. I don't usually mind paying the _AppleTax_ but that is ridiculously overpriced. I buy all sorts of overpriced Apple shit, but t…

I don't know anything about SSDs (hint) but that SSD looks like it's on sale at Amazon right now for $393. I'm more than happy to pay Apple a premium of $200 or whatever to just get what I want out of the box and not have to think about this, research options and compatibility, worry about drivers or who knows what else, etc.

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#114
post #63
post #42

A 2500$ windows desktop will give you. 1. A much better discrete GPU which can run titles in 4k. 2. Ability to run games cause windows has DirectX. 3. Ability to run Linux natively using WSL. 4. Expandability - You can add components like more RAM or an additional GPU.

> 3. Ability to run Linux natively using WSL. But what are you doing in WSL that you can't do on a Mac (or, of course, a Linux machine) without a 'subsystem'? Sincere question, because the 'Mac is not Linux' things that wind me up tend to require X11 to fix, WSL would be no different.

Mac ships with their own posix subsystem, WSL allows you to install a bunch of popular flavours of linux on top of Windows. I personally run Arch Linux and have access to a lot more bleeding edge packages.

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#115
I'm in the market for a new machine, but unfortunately that GPU is too anaemic to make sense. It's a shame, because otherwise it looks like a pretty great proposition. An eGPU is an option, but at £500+ and twice the size of the machine, not a vary attractive one.

I guess the options are throwing down the cash for a 15" MacBook Pro, or waiting to see what they come up with for the Mac Pro next year…

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#116
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really wish that devs out there, including the HN community, give PCs and Windows another chance. The PC specs are amazing, value for your money is excellent, the OS is beautiful - the biggest obstacle now is so much open source documentation explains how to install or build on a linux based machine, ignoring the Windows users and making them feel like sh*t for working on a Windows box. If more dev's offered docs a…

What advantages does Windows offer over Linux other than gaming?

I think the advantage right now is largely in a few select sectors right now, and mainly due to ecosystem.

Music production is a big one from my perspective -- currently, if you are looking at the tools and plugins that are the most popular in the professional world, your practical choice is basically between Macintosh or Windows.

The majority of DAW plugin synths / effects currently are not compiled for Linux, and I do not believe many popular DAWs (stuff like Ableton Live, Logic, Cubase, etc.) are currently supported yet either. I have heard that if you keep it light weight, some audio plugins will run just fine under something like WINE. But for a heavy-hitting plugin like, say, Spectrasonics Omnisphere, I have heard that emulation is too slow to be practical.

There are certainly native Linux DAWs and plugins out there, you can probably go quite far with Ardour or the Linux version of Reaper, and there's a few plugins too (u-He has some native Linux builds of their excellent synthesizer plugins for instance). It's just that the native ecosystem out there is quite a bit smaller, unfortunately.

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#117

I'm in the market for a new machine, but unfortunately that GPU is too anaemic to make sense. It's a shame, because otherwise it looks like a pretty great proposition. An eGPU is an option, but at £500+ and twice the size of the machine, not a vary attractive one. I guess the options are throwing down the cash for a 15" MacBook Pro, or waiting to see what they come up with for the Mac Pro next year…

I have the same issue, I don't understand why they are able to fit a Vega in the 15" MBP but not in the larger Mac Mini.

15" MBP is not an option for me because of the touchbar and keyboard, so I am basically out of options.

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#118
post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bung Kodi on a Raspberry Pi 3B+ - You'll be pleasantly surprised I think. Downside is... 99% of raspberry pi cases are really ugly :(

Just stick the Pi to the back of your TV with some self-adhesive PCB risers. No case required.

What do you use as a remote? Also does RP+Kodi do Netflix/Amazon/HBO etc. streaming in a nice way?

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#119
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> much of which is the SSD A 1 TB SSD is on the order of $150.

Not saying the price is not outrageous but I found it ironic that you spec maniacs can’t tell the difference between a sata ssd vs pcie ssd. You will be hard pressed to find retail ssd that’s remotely close to the performance in these new macs.

You can find PCIe SSDs for about $150. Like this one:

https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-860-SATA-Internal-MZ-N6E1T0BW...

That isn't a performance monster. But you could get something really top-of-the-line for, say, $400.

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#120
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s hilarious how often this exact comment gets made in every single new apple product thread everywhere.

and its pointing out the truly obvious as well...

Well the reviewer seemed to go out of the way to claim the price was justified - I was pointing out that wasn't the case, not that price is high which it undeniably is.
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