Earlier quoted context omitted.
Installing and applying security updates on a Linux desktop is fairly automatic and uneventful. Keeping a hackintosh updated (for even stuff like graphics card drivers) turns out to be a lot of time doing research, scrolling through endless forum posts, and bricking your install quarterly because you "did the wrong thing" (like absent-mindedly accepting a security update notification). Yes, you can get it running. Bu…
> But macOS is buggy enough as it is I really do not understand this sentiment at all. Mind you, I am decidedly on Mojave. I am not discounting the experience of others, but macOS has been rock stable for me since about Leopard. I had kernel panics back on Tiger, but that was their first OS for x86 so I can forgive that.
Mac mini
141–150 of 259 posts
Re: Mac mini
#142Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can get a new Mac Mini and a Thunderbolt 3 eGPU for $1500 or less.
Thanks, I had no idea eGPUs were a thing!
Re: Mac mini
#143Anyone have suggestions on what the best option is going forward? Looks like ~$700 to pay Apple to fix, less to DIY but that's a risk in itself, Apple trade-in would give me $310 with damage or $890 without damage (so basically the difference is price to repair).
The cheapest option is of course to not repair at all and just continue using the laptop with an external monitor.
Definitely want to stick with Apple. I only use this computer for DAW / home music studio.
Anyone been in a similar situation and what did you do?
Re: Mac mini
#144Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is honestly the thing I miss most while using macOS. The windows key search always seemed to work better than Spotlight.
I don't know what you like about it? When I use Windows I try to use it to find Control Panels to set up stuff and it does a horrible job at that. In macOS you'll find Disk Utility by typing "disk utility" in CMD+SPACE, even when you're on a different language system that has it's own name. I couldn't find anything in Windows even when that was the literal name of the panel. And hunting for formerly easy to find sett…
Realistically, they both get the job done.
Re: Mac mini
#145Re: Mac mini
#146Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, but since you can get 4k on everything from 24" to 84" you'll want to choose between more space or bigger fonts depending on the setting. macOS can do 'fractional scaling' when the integer scaling isn't to your preference, but the implementation works by rendering to a much higher resolution internally and then scaling down which needs a beefy GPU to run without noticeably overhead.
Anything bigger than 24" or so and the blurriness gets bad. The pixel density just isn't quite there.
Re: Mac mini
#147Earlier quoted context omitted.
They are, but I would only use one as a second device besides a real Mac. Setup and updates are relatively painless if you choose the right hardware and store additional kexts not on the system OS partition but the EFI boot partition. Biggest troubles are WIFI and Bluetooth (and therefore continuity, needs one of a few selected cards), graphics (no nVidia) and keyboard and trackpad (for desktops, use used Apple perip…
>Setup and updates are relatively painless if you choose the right hardware Agreed. But this is where "I'll pay an extra $200 to not have to worry about that" comes into the equation
Re: Mac mini
#148So much naysaying here. The Mac Minis are excellent for certain use cases (like a home server) and they last forever. Great that Apple is updating them regularly.
Intel NUCs are even better for home server use cases. Similar form factor, much cheaper, and you can put your own memory and storage in them. Just built my own last week and it idles at 5W, it's great.
Re: Mac mini
#149The Mac Minis are still expensive and underwhelming (even when maxed out) when compared with the top of the range NUCs with even AMD GPUs. The Skull and Ghost Canyon NUCs are great for Linux CIs or building large projects or I could even go far to either Hackintosh a few NUCs to surpass the need to buy a Mac Mini anyway for next 5 years. Thanks, but I would skip this Mac Mini and go for the latest maxed out NUC inste…
The Mac Minis are still expensive and underwhelming (even when maxed out) when compared with the top of the range NUCs with even AMD GPUs I've been considering getting a Mac mini, but haven't committed yet. Can you tell me which NUCs run macOS so I comparison shop?
Re: Mac mini
#150Earlier quoted context omitted.
It probably doesn't, and in some sense, that's the problem. Really hoping that the next major redesign of this looks less like an Intel NUC and more like a slightly smaller Mac Pro. An actual mini tower! What a concept.
A "Mini Pro" is what I've been wanting from Apple forever (in tech years). Just a small tower with room for a graphics card and two or three SSD/NVMe drives. I'd be fine with paying Apple's customary 100+% hardware premium for something like that.
Is there a Mini Pc that would be similar to this now?