What I really like about the Mac mini is the internal power supply. I'd wish all the PC vendors would offer their mini PCs with internal power supplies too.
Mac mini Late 2018 Teardown
121–130 of 197 posts
Re: Mac mini Late 2018 Teardown
#122They say it’s got impressive specs, but I don’t find it impressive at all. This brick-sized Gigabyte (NUC) computer has far more impressive specs than the Mac Mini: https://www.gigabyte.com/Mini-PcBarebone/GB-BRi7-8550-rev-10
The Brix uses a 15W processor while the Mac mini is 65W; that's going to result in significant performance difference.
Re: Mac mini Late 2018 Teardown
#123Apple can be proud of using plastic recycled at 60 percent but a not easily serviceable computer will end up in a landfill way sooner than it should. What happens three years down the line when the device is out of warranty and the storage fails? Between paying an absurd amount of money to replace the whole board and getting a new one I bet most people will go with the landfill option. My Mac mini 2012 got a second l…
I think holding Apple to higher standards for its environmental impact has a lot to do with why they innovate in this respect, and I think that it is appropriate, given their size as a manufacturer and their positioning as a premium product. Tightly integrated hardware, and efforts to develop software that improves performance of long-discontinued products does a lot to explain why Apple products are used much longer…
OK, sure, but why do they need to manufacture everything out of CNC'd billets of aluminum? That seems extremely wasteful.
Re: Mac mini Late 2018 Teardown
#124Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think holding Apple to higher standards for its environmental impact has a lot to do with why they innovate in this respect, and I think that it is appropriate, given their size as a manufacturer and their positioning as a premium product. Tightly integrated hardware, and efforts to develop software that improves performance of long-discontinued products does a lot to explain why Apple products are used much longer…
OK, sure, but why do they need to manufacture everything out of CNC'd billets of aluminum? That seems extremely wasteful.
You know exactly why: you don’t get the quality that Apple wants any other way. Supposedly they reuse the shavings, so it might not actually be as bad as you think.
Re: Mac mini Late 2018 Teardown
#125Apple can be proud of using plastic recycled at 60 percent but a not easily serviceable computer will end up in a landfill way sooner than it should. What happens three years down the line when the device is out of warranty and the storage fails? Between paying an absurd amount of money to replace the whole board and getting a new one I bet most people will go with the landfill option. My Mac mini 2012 got a second l…
I think holding Apple to higher standards for its environmental impact has a lot to do with why they innovate in this respect, and I think that it is appropriate, given their size as a manufacturer and their positioning as a premium product. Tightly integrated hardware, and efforts to develop software that improves performance of long-discontinued products does a lot to explain why Apple products are used much longer…
From where does the belief that apple makes durable products come? I have the exact opposite experience, and I have been fixing my own and my friends computers for a long time.
I started recommending against in 2014 and nothing I have seen since has given me any reason to change my mind.
Re: Mac mini Late 2018 Teardown
#126Flash memory soldered to the main board also doesn't seem like a good idea, since this type of memory has a limited durability (depending on # writes).
Re: Mac mini Late 2018 Teardown
#127Soldered storage, soldered CPU, connectors on same board. Meh...
These are all par for the course for Apple’s products. The fact that the RAM is upgradable is quite surprising, since it’s a departure from the direction they went in for the earlier Mac Mini.
Re: Mac mini Late 2018 Teardown
#128Earlier quoted context omitted.
Once you set it to boot from an external SSD, it will happily continue doing so. What happens when the soldered-on SSD fails? Can you alter a setting in the PRAM or SMC to let the system completely disregard the failed SSD?
Yes, if the soldered-on SSD has failed you can boot from an external drive by holding down the alt/option key while the system powers on to bring up the boot selection menu.
I thought this no longer works with the T2 chip? Don't you run into issues with e.g. upgrading the firmware because it will only accept firmware updates from the internal drive?
Re: Mac mini Late 2018 Teardown
#129Re: Mac mini Late 2018 Teardown
#130Apple can be proud of using plastic recycled at 60 percent but a not easily serviceable computer will end up in a landfill way sooner than it should. What happens three years down the line when the device is out of warranty and the storage fails? Between paying an absurd amount of money to replace the whole board and getting a new one I bet most people will go with the landfill option. My Mac mini 2012 got a second l…
I agree that Apple could make a more serviceable machine, but instead of throwing the Mini into the landfill, why not bring it to the Apple store so they can recycle it?