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2018 Mac Mini Review

marco.org

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Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#211

Post by cptskippy »

drej wrote: post #165

Macs aside - this video clearly shows the wonderful experience you can get when an audio/video producer cares about audio quality. Spoken word recorded with clear audio is so lovely. I listen to podcasts and audiobooks on a daily basis and I really really appreciate someone putting the effort into this. Thanks!

I had a hard time watching him talk because the over dubbed audio is completely out of sync. It's really bad right around the 1 minute mark. I ended up minimizing the window and just listening.

I honestly don't care for this audio, it's crystal clear and perfect for a podcast but the video is of him sitting in front of a window with a dog and the absence of any environmental noise is odd.

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#212

Post by [deleted] »

bluedino wrote: post #205
maxxxxx wrote: post #198

I really don't like when reviewers test the high end configuration only. This makes the review pretty useless for most of us who may be considering a lower spec.

Car manufacturers rarely send their low end models out to reviews as well.

[deleted]

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#213

Post by Ambroos »

dbcooper wrote: post #153
veidr wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What OSes are better for a "Home Theater" TV computer?? That's a serious question; I recently replaced a creaking old Mac Mini (that couldn't do 4K) with a new Dell, after going a little bicurious with respect to Windows 10 (for software development work)... and, surprisingly, it's a complete and utter shitshow. I was astonished, actually; I had assumed Windows would be better than macOS as a TV computer, other than…

Windows 10 with MadVR for video rendering with GPU upscaling, and a 3D LUT for colour correction.

Yeah, I regret living without Windows for one thing only: good and accurate video playback. Got close with LibreELEC, can't get anything right with macOS.

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#214

Post by Yetanfou »

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.

...which is why Apple is more than happy to charge you said premium. As long as there are enough consumers like you who prefer to pay more there will be suppliers who will charge more.

Those who prefer to pay less, have more freedom and get a higher-performance system which is more tailored to their needs will, for the (small) price of some more up-front thought, choose other suppliers. They will have the added advantage of being able to partially upgrade their system by swapping the SSD while those who choose the Apple option will have to wait for the next iteration of this product.

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#215

Post by Aeolun »

veidr wrote: post #49
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.

What OSes are better for a "Home Theater" TV computer?? That's a serious question; I recently replaced a creaking old Mac Mini (that couldn't do 4K) with a new Dell, after going a little bicurious with respect to Windows 10 (for software development work)... and, surprisingly, it's a complete and utter shitshow. I was astonished, actually; I had assumed Windows would be better than macOS as a TV computer, other than…

What is your beef with VLC? It’s the only player that has yet to fail me.

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#216

Post by zaphoyd »

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…

I’ve been using dell P2415Qs. I run 3 at the HiDPI “looks like 2560x1440”. It’s not perfect 2x scaling, but it is close enough (185 dpi) and the price $300-400 each cant be beat. I’ve considered switching to the 21.5 inch LG ultrafines (220 dpi) but they are $700 and have very limited port choices compared to the dells. I use the dell displays with multiple other machines that don’t have USB-C graphics out. And want to be able to use the displays with eGPUs that won’t have USB-C out.

I just hope the default GPU of the mini can drive 3 UHD displays without choking on the dock animations :|

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#217

Post by rswail »

me551ah wrote: post #114
OJFord wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

To clarify, Mac ships with a native Unix [1], derived from BSD, not a posix subsystem. It has its own init (launchd) and its own GUI, but most of it is a Unix.

Using Macports or homebrew gets you most of the packages that are available for the various Linuxes, GNU utilities etc.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin_%28operating_system%29

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#218

Post by mikestew »

kalleboo wrote: post #194
throwaway9d0291 wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These days optical audio is dying when it comes to home theater systems, primarily due to its lack of codec support. You can't passthrough DTS-HD over optical, you can over HDMI.

I used to use optical audio but it was superseded by HDMI for home theater and USB for hifi. edit: I'd be curious to see what people are using optical for today (I'm under the impression audio pros mainly use USB interfaces as well)

Shockingly, I need optical for a $300 set of gaming headphones I purchased within the last year (Astro A50). Maybe it’s the only way they can do pass through, dunno.

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#219

Post by robertsd247 »

There is zero justification for the pricing. It needs to be starting around $399. Apple is still working the privileged pricing model. Considering it has year old processor and 8GB RAM. For $800 an i5 and 16GB should be standard. I can forgive that 128GB SSD but not the CPU or RAM.

Side note, why is a computer only for games, streaming, and mining bitcoin? It that what the end user experience is limited to?

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#220

Post by wild_preference »

me551ah wrote: 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.

Yet it doesn't have the one thing someone would care about: macOS.
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