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2018 Mac Mini Review

marco.org

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Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#261

Post by jillesvangurp »

matthewmacleod wrote: post #124
jillesvangurp wrote: post #83

People are missing the point about the integrated graphics. For me this is a feature not a bug because it has USB-C instead. That means that instead of hopelessly compromising thermals and power supply with some power hungry, yet limited GPU (because of the small form factor) you simply buy the CPU and memory that you need. It simplifies the job of keeping it cool. CPUs are evolving a lot slower these days. This one…

It's not so much that I want a gigantic GPU, but I'd like something that could just run two external 4K monitors without stuttering. That would make this an excellent general-purpose desktop machine. The 15" 2017 MacBook Pro does this fine, so it's hard to accept that it would be difficult to engineer something into place. Unfortunately, an eGPU is gigantic external box costing a large chunk of change, so it's not re…

With a laptop, an external GPU is indeed a big issue in terms of form factor. However in your case, your big 4K monitors are comparatively large as well so having an eGpu that you can also use as docking station is not necessarily the end of the world. Likewise, with a mac mini this should be less of an issue. I'm also guessing this market will develop over the next few years with more attractively priced options aimed at people who just want a middle of the road setup that works reasonably well for games and vr. Right now all the available options are targeted at people who in any case spend too much money on HW.

Besides, with Apple you are paying a premium for a dedicated GPU in a macbook, which makes the price of an external eGPU less of an issue. Because if the choice becomes paying 500 euro extra for a mac mini with a last generation laptop grade GPU or spending the same on a eGPU with modest specs (or a bit more on something fancier), that's a lot easier to defend. Especially if you can swap it out once every other year for a new one.

I'm guessing that with the mac pro they may offer some options for a dedicated, non upgradable GPU as well as eGPU options. Most professionals would probably prefer investing in the latter because it provides them performance without much compromise and an easy way to upgrade. E.g. I'm still waiting for Apple to make a move with AR/VR, which they sort of support but which they don't really actively promote currently.

Anyway, the mac mini is not necessarily that interesting for people looking for cheap options. The start configurations are nice if you don't need much but most more serious users are going to want bigger ssds, more cpu, and more memory. That creeps into the mac pro use case already. I'm guessing that in terms of price segment this thing is designed to fill the gap with the mac pro, which will likely have a starting price of around 5K, just like the last one.

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#262

Post by graedus »

krisroadruck wrote: post #221
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.

Reasonably priced because SSD? You know a 1TB NVME PCIe M.2 drive can be had for under $250 right? How Apple justifies $800 for this single part is beyond baffling. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BN217QG/?coliid=I2D5ZX13M1AMZ7&...

Yeah, and that's one of the best consumer models available! I believe the WD Black 1TB is in the same league for performance and price as well.

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#263

Post by dTal »

lucideer wrote: post #59
dTal wrote: post #35

>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!"

> "Unless you used optical audio, audio input, or the SD-card reader" Craftily hidden in a footnote for that paragraph.

I missed that! So not only is 'not any less useful or versatile than the outgoing Mac Mini, including the generous assortment of ports' a shockingly low bar, it's also what might charitably be termed 'rather a bit of a fib'.

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#264

Post by Tactic »

realradicalwash wrote: post #95
dTal wrote: post #35

>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!"

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".

Given the use of the word "donglage" I suspect it was a somewhat snarky reference to the iphone and the disappearing head phone jack.

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#265

Post by endorphone »

robertAngst wrote: post #189
endorphone wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

2012 model work for iOS programming? I'm writing in react native, hopefully I only need to hit compile and never have to use an apple product.

The i7 (3615QM) in it holds up extremely well. The storage was catastrophically slow but the system allowed me to effortlessly migrate over to an external SSD (then using the internal storage just for time machine backups).

Finally considering upgrading as it has been a while.

The low power consumption of the thing is one thing that always just blows me away. No noise, at all. My UPS seems to last forever when the power does go out.

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#266

Post by kalleboo »

asfgknionio wrote: post #119
akfanta wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I clicked on your link and it says "SATA 6 Gb/s Interface". is the Amazon description incorrect or did you paste the wrong link?

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#267

Post by [deleted] »

Tactic wrote: post #264
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".

Given the use of the word "donglage" I suspect it was a somewhat snarky reference to the iphone and the disappearing head phone jack.

[deleted]

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#268

Post by ap3 »

Mindwipe wrote: post #191
dTal wrote: post #35

>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!"

And it has got a bit worse. Just not as worse as we'd expect from Apple.

Worse how? There are a couple of directions you can go in, just curious (price/storage)?

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#269

Post by tzs »

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.

In late 2014 I replaced the disks in my 2008 Mac Pro at work and my 2009 Mac Pro at home with Samsung EVO 840 and 850 SSD disks. I kept track of accumulated writes.

Both machines were heavily used for development and consumer type stuff. No big data stuff or big media stuff.

Samsung rates these things at 150 TB write endurance for the 850 and something around 120 TB for the 840.

My projection based on that usage is that it will take over 35 years to reach 100 TB.

Samsung's ratings are quite conservative. Reviewers that have put these things through write torture tests to the point of error have typically gotten several times Samsung's rating. Around 170 years worth of writes at my usage rate.

I haven't seen numbers for Apple's durability, but if it is within even distant sight of Samsung's EVO performance you can expect to have retired the computer for other reasons long before the SSD dies.

I'd expect that the only reason the SSD might lead to getting a new computer is that you want a bigger SSD, but even that might not be an issue because Thunderbolt 3 gives pretty good performance for external disks.

My Mac Pros have both been retired, replaced with a 2017 iMac (one iMac could replace both office and work computer because we switched to working at home). My Samsung EVOs are now on the iMac in an AKiTiO Thunder3 Quad Mini enclosure.

The internal SSD in the iMac gets just short of 2000 MB/s for both read and write, according to Disk Speed Test from Blackmagic Design. The Samsung EVOs get around 465 MB/s write, 520 MB/s read, so 1/4 the internal disk but still fast enough for most purposes.

Note that the Samsungs are SATA drives. Something that made more direct use of TB3 could probably go much faster.

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#270

Post by chaosphere2112 »

Tactic wrote: post #264
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".

Given the use of the word "donglage" I suspect it was a somewhat snarky reference to the iphone and the disappearing head phone jack.

It's actually a reference to the USB-C ecosystem for the laptop line; Marco and his cohosts on the Accidental Tech Podcast have burned a lot of time griping about the state of connecting things to a laptop. Not so much time on the head phone jack, which was mostly a no-op for them (since it was paired with the airpods).
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