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2018 Mac Mini Review

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Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#231

Post by slezyr »

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…

There is also Philips 275P4VYKEB. But you need two displays ports to power it. IIRC only some new and not so adopted(both by displays and GPUs) display port standards support 5K. Apple iMac 5K uses same setup of two DPs to power display.

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#232

Post by slezyr »

naner wrote: post #227
rado wrote: post #15

In a world of 5K displays and Apple's insistence on smoothness, this GPU just won't work.

There isn't a "world of 5k displays" unfortunately, only Apple's high-end all-in-ones offer this option.

Philips 275P4VYKEB, but yeah, just one monitor.

Edit. Remembered Iiyama ProLite XB2779QQS, but it uses 6bit colors.

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#233

Post by wlesieutre »

robertAngst wrote: post #190
sgt wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> considering that you get a Mac ecosystem People consider this a good thing? EDIT: To clarify, the cost of their proprietary devices mean spending an additional bit. Every other company uses USB C now.

I have a Windows 10 computer for gaming and oh my god am I glad I don't have to use that for anything productive.

But hey, at least it's the year of desktop linux!

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#234

Post by Symbiote »

garblegarble wrote: post #152
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.

>The NUC8 with comparable specs (sans 6 core CPU) comes at under half the price! I'm actually very interested in these - could you point me at some? I've been interested in getting a NUC8 machine, but the cheapest I can find one for (granted, in the UK) is £750 before RAM & SSD... and I have been seriously considering the new Mac Mini as a result because the final price doesn't seem like it'll be much different. edit…

I have a NUC7 (NUC7i5BNH) in a silent Akasa Newton case. It's great, I love having a completely silent computer.

I tested the original case, and it was fairly noisy, like a busy laptop. I don't recommend it.

You may find it slightly cheaper if you install the RAM and SSD yourself. This would be easy with the normal case. Installing the silent case was more tricky, since it requires using thermal paste to connect the case to the CPU.

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#235

Post by copperx »

robertsd247 wrote: post #219

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?

I agree that Apple has gone completely crazy with the markup, but who is saying those are the only applications for computers???

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#236

Post by rorykoehler »

wlesieutre wrote: post #183
drcongo wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I don't dislike the touchbar, I'm just annoyed at having to pay so much for something I'm ambivalent about.

I don't understand why it isn't just an option. If you want it give you can pay for it.

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#237

Post by 3pt14159 »

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!

He makes Overcast, the best iOS Podcasting app. Many good features to handle all the fiddly edge cases. Almost no complaints[0] and he keeps making it better.

[0] The only one thing I wish he'd add would be the ability to limit concurrent downloads to prioritize at least one of them finishing. I routinely get bad wifi and seeing 8 downloads at 55% is maddening.

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#238

Post by copperx »

muro wrote: post #167
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…

Why do you need a PC at all? A TV can play movies directly from a NAS.

Yeah, I thought Media PCs were a thing in the 00's. But it's 2018 now. Why would you have a Media PC?

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#239

Post by _ea1k »

stevewodil wrote: post #64
Keyframe wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lack of GPU wasn't OP's gripe.

How else would you interpret the comment? The only thing they mention is the lack of GPU, so I'm curious why you would say that. In any case the price is due to the SSD and RAM upgrades. You can get the i7 with 8gb RAM and 256gb SSD for $1300, which is still pricey but what do you expect from Apple...

You would interpret it as saying that it is overpriced. A high-end GPU at the same price might make sense, but paying that much for RAM and an SSD is nonsense.

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#240

Post by rangibaby »

benologist wrote: post #150

Is anyone worried that Apple's transition to their own CPUs will render these x86 machines obsolete very fast? How long did it take for the pre-x86 Macs to fall behind when the software started focusing on x86 instead?

Apple waited for 5 years to release a version of OSX that couldn’t run PPC apps on x86 Macs.

Last PPC Mac: 2005

First x86 Macs: 2006, PPC apps work on x86 Macs

Adobe CS3 (first native x86 version): 2007

OSX 10.5, last OSX version released for PPC Macs: 2007

--

OSX 10.6 (x86 only, PPC apps still work): 2009

Adobe CS5 (x86 only): 2010

OSX 10.7, PPC apps no longer work: 2011

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