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Mac mini

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191–200 of 259 posts

Re: Mac mini

#191

Post by grecy »

whalesalad wrote: post #70

Still got my fingers crossed for a desktop machine that isn’t a Mac Pro and isn’t a Mac Mini. Would love iMac Pro firepower without being tied to a set display. I’ve been alive 30 years. A good portion of that was growing up as a PC user, overclocker, teenage hacker, etc. My professional career however has been on Unix and MacOS, and as much as I try to get back to desktop Linux and open source OS’s I just find them…

> Still got my fingers crossed for a desktop machine that isn’t a Mac Pro and isn’t a Mac Mini

People have been waiting eons for this, and it seems like you'll just have to keep waiting.

From what I can remember, Apple haven't done anything like this since the G4 cube, and they've never given indications they'll do it again. Everyone was praying the new Mac Pro would be the magic xMax, but it just isn't.

Personally I don't think anything wrong with being tied to the iMac display, given it's one of the best you can get.

Re: Mac mini

#192

Post by whalesalad »

grecy wrote: post #191
whalesalad wrote: post #70

Still got my fingers crossed for a desktop machine that isn’t a Mac Pro and isn’t a Mac Mini. Would love iMac Pro firepower without being tied to a set display. I’ve been alive 30 years. A good portion of that was growing up as a PC user, overclocker, teenage hacker, etc. My professional career however has been on Unix and MacOS, and as much as I try to get back to desktop Linux and open source OS’s I just find them…

> Still got my fingers crossed for a desktop machine that isn’t a Mac Pro and isn’t a Mac Mini People have been waiting eons for this, and it seems like you'll just have to keep waiting. From what I can remember, Apple haven't done anything like this since the G4 cube, and they've never given indications they'll do it again. Everyone was praying the new Mac Pro would be the magic xMax, but it just isn't. Personally I…

The iMac Pro price tag is hard to swallow when I already have a 4k display that I really like (HP Z27)

Re: Mac mini

#193

Post by paul7986 »

wtracy wrote: post #174
paul7986 wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are the best entertainment center machines.... the full Internet experience from your couch using a wireless mouse and keyboard.

That's hardly unique to Apple hardware: https://www.microsoft.com/accessories/en-us/products/keyboar...

Im sure it isn't, but i used various mac minis as an entertainment center since 2008. It's compact and fits nicely into the TV cabinet or dresser.

I've used any wireless mouse/keyboard bought from Best Buy since. Prefer they are separate as I dont type. Just click through my bookmarks to read and watch content.

Re: Mac mini

#194

Post by [deleted] »

mortenjorck wrote: post #171
cbm-vic-20 wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does anyone make a "case" that holds a Mac mini and eGPU in an attractive desktop-sized package?

While this is probably too niche to make economic sense as a product, this seems like a perfect use case for a vertically-mounted PCIe slot, creating a tall GPU pedestal for the Mini in a similar vein to the G4 Cube.

[deleted]

Re: Mac mini

#195

Post by _ph_ »

stephenr wrote: post #177
MattRix wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, which is why it would be good if they had a mac mini that had laptop grade CPU and GPU instead.

They do. It also includes a screen, and a keyboard and trackpad. It's called.. a laptop.

Putting the cpu/gpu of the 16" MB Pro would enhance the mini greatly. The thermals would be be much better than in a laptop resulting in better performance. Yet, you wouldn't have to pay for an unused screen/battery. Also, while you can use the MP Pro in clamshell mode, it is making the thermals even worse. So why should one get a laptop, if one wants a compact desktop?

Re: Mac mini

#196

Post by FpUser »

bluedino wrote: post #60
bzzzt wrote: post #54

Earlier 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.

I am reading this on 32" 4K monitor (2 of them actually are hooked to a gaming laptop). I do not notice any blurriness.

Re: Mac mini

#197

Post by armitron »

moondev wrote: post #180
WaltPurvis wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You can do all that now with the mini, it has 4 thunderbolt ports.

Thunderbolt isn't nowhere near close in performance to built-in PCI express slots.

Re: Mac mini

#198

Post by _ph_ »

grecy wrote: post #191
whalesalad wrote: post #70

Still got my fingers crossed for a desktop machine that isn’t a Mac Pro and isn’t a Mac Mini. Would love iMac Pro firepower without being tied to a set display. I’ve been alive 30 years. A good portion of that was growing up as a PC user, overclocker, teenage hacker, etc. My professional career however has been on Unix and MacOS, and as much as I try to get back to desktop Linux and open source OS’s I just find them…

> Still got my fingers crossed for a desktop machine that isn’t a Mac Pro and isn’t a Mac Mini People have been waiting eons for this, and it seems like you'll just have to keep waiting. From what I can remember, Apple haven't done anything like this since the G4 cube, and they've never given indications they'll do it again. Everyone was praying the new Mac Pro would be the magic xMax, but it just isn't. Personally I…

The iMac display is great, I am using it right now :). But I don't get why it is still locked at 27". Apple once used to make 30" cinema displays. Not only is the iMac overdue for a redesign, it better should have an option for a larger display. Also, it is absolutely offensive, that the iMac as a desktop is glued together, preventing even the simplest maintenance like fan cleaning.

Re: Mac mini

#199

Post by rsync »

everdrive wrote: post #48
tabs_masterrace wrote: post #21

Still no real GPU. It's the reason I went back to a MacBook. What drew me in is the desktop class i7. At the time the Mini outperformed all other Macs in benchmarks, and it is noticeable and fast during compile times etc. Once you connect a 4k Screen (or even more screens), an eGPU becomes a must have. The integrated one just can't do smooth UI rendering. For example typing in IntelliJ always felt laggy, because it t…

Mac Mini doesn't need a real GPU in my opinion -- what they need is a mid-level desktop that accepts a real GPU. $1000 - $1500 with decent specs. But, we know they won't move into that space.

"Mac Mini doesn't need a real GPU in my opinion ..."

I tend to agree, but then I also see 4x thunderbolt 3 ports and 1x HDMI 2.0 ports and think how nice it would be to drive all four of my monitors from that one tiny system ...

However the specifications dictate that only 2x 4k monitors can be driven, simultaneously (at 60hz ?) ... ?

Which brings up the same old, tired question:

Just who is it that works as an engineer, at Apple, and has such boring, inexact, low-power-user use-cases that they, the actual creators of this kit, are happy with it ?

How do you do your jobs ? Why don't you need these things ?

Remember, there were years where multi-monitors were completely, totally broken - in OSX, for all models - which suggests that nobody inside Apple uses multiple monitors.

That's weird ... who are these people ?

Re: Mac mini

#200

Post by FpUser »

whalesalad wrote: post #70

Still got my fingers crossed for a desktop machine that isn’t a Mac Pro and isn’t a Mac Mini. Would love iMac Pro firepower without being tied to a set display. I’ve been alive 30 years. A good portion of that was growing up as a PC user, overclocker, teenage hacker, etc. My professional career however has been on Unix and MacOS, and as much as I try to get back to desktop Linux and open source OS’s I just find them…

For backend development I am writing native C++ servers that run on Linux. But all the development and debugging is done on Windows using Visual Studio. After I am ready to publish I check out the source and rebuild it on Linux. Since I use multi platform libraries all works like a charm and I have yet to encounter any platform related problem. I can still edit/debug project on Linux ( Using CodeLite ) but the need is very rare. This way I get to either build my hardware any way I like or buy a laptop (the kind I can customize) with exact configuration I need.
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