2018 Mac Mini Review

Post by muro » Tue, Nov 06, 2018, 2:21 PM UTC

ryanwaggoner wrote: post #113

veidr wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Post by wlesieutre » Tue, Nov 06, 2018, 2:23 PM UTC

drcongo wrote: post #160

realradicalwash wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The quote is a bit out of context. The sentence right above it: >It makes almost nothing worse and almost everything better, finally bringing the Mac Mini into the modern age. So, no, it's not "yayy" because it "hasn't gotten worse", it's "yayy", because "[it makes] almost everything better".

Anyone who owns a MacBook Pro with Touch Bar will definitely be saying "yay it hasn't gotten worse!" about these.

Post by thirdsun » Tue, Nov 06, 2018, 2:24 PM UTC

antsar wrote: post #178

thirdsun wrote: post #171

Side discussion: What are everyone's thoughts when it comes to external HiDPI monitor options to use with this Mac Mini? Ideally I'd want 5K displays (I'm used to the iMac 5K) but it seems that LG's UltraFine is the only real option and the rest of the industry has settled on 4K/UHD at 27 inches, which results in a) limited screen real estate due to an effective resolution of 1080p at 2x scaling and b) slightly less…

Nobody's forcing you to use 2x scaling. I use two 27" UHD displays with Debian/GNOME. The system-level scaling factor is 1, and I adjust application zoom levels as needed. I typically divide each display in half, and each half comfortably fits one browser window, mail client, terminal, Spotify, etc.

Post by pier25 » Tue, Nov 06, 2018, 2:26 PM UTC

KozmoNau7 wrote: post #139

thresh wrote: post #9

The review doesnt tell you that you cannot upgrade or replace your SSD.

Which also means the entire thing has to be thrown out when the SSD eventually dies. Sure it's going to take a while, but it will happen. Yay consumerism, I guess.

Post by robertAngst » Tue, Nov 06, 2018, 2:27 PM UTC

endorphone wrote: post #166

blinkingled wrote: post #12

The pricing is not really justifiable especially given the most use cases of the Mac mini (Home Theater, NAS, Backup etc.) are better handled by other OSes. The NUC8 with comparable specs (sans 6 core CPU) comes at under half the price! If you needed the 6 cores sure but given most workloads other than encoding don't - it's questionable. Even then the 6C processor doesn't cost enough to make up for the difference.

I would say most uses of the mac mini are simply as a desktop computer. It's what I use as my primary OSX workstation -- I have an old late 2012 model, upgraded with 16GB and an external SSD that I made the primary -- and it works fantastic. I plan on getting the new model. Two monitors. Monitors that are exactly what I want.