The review doesnt tell you that you cannot upgrade or replace your SSD.
So if the motherboard dies, all your data is gone?
2018 Mac Mini Review
251–260 of 653 posts
Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review
#252Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Yea, it could at least have been an option. But my guess is they didn't want too many SKUs, and wanted to hit a price-point of less than $1000.
Also they need to preserve a market for the "modular" Mac Pro next year
Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review
#253I'm impressed, but I am also not sure how accurate the benchmarks he's using are for replicating real-world load.
I actually think it's pretty cost effective if you go for 32GB RAM instead of 64GB, and keep the baseline 256GB SSD storage. It comes out to $1,899. With 64GB RAM and 2TB storage, it comes out to $4,099, which is a huge markup for things that can be self-upgraded on a PC.
Even $2,699 for the 64GB version doesn't seem that bad for effectively the best MacOS running computer you can get currently.
Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review
#254Earlier 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…
What is your beef with VLC? It’s the only player that has yet to fail me.
Comparing vlc to a home theater setup is laughable at best.
Can vlc scrape Metadata and download art? Can I browse my catalog through vlc? Does it work with my remote? How hard is it to get to the next episode when watching a season?
Vlc is great, but it's just a player.
Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review
#255Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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!
As an aside- I do not like desktop linux or anyone that defends this awful status quo.
Its desktop, the user should not have to type anything ever ever ever. The community is toxic and harmful to the future of linux by telling everyone that terminal for the average user is okay.
I love my ubuntu server, its the greatest thing I've ever used. No problems ever.
Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review
#256Earlier quoted context omitted.
But Apple's strategy has never been to go after the price-sensitive market. Complaining that their prices are way higher than commodity parts you can piece together yourself makes zero sense. That's like complaining that a Ferrari is way more expensive than a Honda.
Yep, good point. I read someone online commenting that Apple's "price sensitive" option are second-hand devices as they (historically) remain updated and working well for a long time. Hopefully the new 3rd generation keyboard will stand up to years of use - I'm not at all confident that my 2017 will have much resale value due to the keyboard issues.
Resale value on my 6 month-old MBP 2017 was pretty rough.
Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review
#257There 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?
Apple uses value-based pricing, not cost-based pricing.
Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review
#258The 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.
If you’re bought in to the Apple ecosystem, you can get a good HTPC by buying a 5+ year old Mac Mini from Craigslist. I’ve seen em for around $100, and unlike an AppleTV, you can run whatever additional Mac software you want. My 2010 is running great, recently upgraded to a SSD, and thanks to a kind soul here on HN pointing me to a link, can even run Mojave even though it’s technically unsupported.
Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review
#259I'm impressed, but I am also not sure how accurate the benchmarks he's using are for replicating real-world load. I actually think it's pretty cost effective if you go for 32GB RAM instead of 64GB, and keep the baseline 256GB SSD storage. It comes out to $1,899. With 64GB RAM and 2TB storage, it comes out to $4,099, which is a huge markup for things that can be self-upgraded on a PC. Even $2,699 for the 64GB version…
How hard is it to upgrade yourself?
Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review
#260>Number one — and this is a big one these days, especially for this product — is that it’s not any less useful or versatile than the outgoing Mac Mini, including the generous assortment of ports. If the previous one served a role for you, the new one can probably do it just as well, and probably better and faster, with minimal donglage. Wow. This is what it's come to. "It hasn't gotten worse! Yayy!"
I would phrase it more like "Yay it has made improvements without compromises"