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New Mac Mini

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Re: New Mac Mini

#321

Post by scns »

almog wrote: post #204
simplotek wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> On the other hand, maybe there should be pushback against shitty inefficient software? How would that work? You whine on an online forum over how bloated a software is, and in the process opt to be deprived of it's usage? Or would you continue to complain about bloated software while using it? Because none of those scenarios offer a compelling reason for the software maintainers to rearchitect their whole applicati…

Not saying you're wrong but specifically to address OP's memory usage issue when running over dozen tabs in Chrome, I'd suggest testing it against Firefox for start. I'm not proud of this bad habit, but I have an order of magnitude more tabs than that with FF running on a pre-M1 8GB Macbook and it's pretty great most of the time. I use Chrome mostly for development but wouldn't dream of keeping it running as many tab…

Maybe because Firefox automatically suspends old tabs, Chrome needs a extension for that. If you reopen FF it reloads only the tabs you actually visit.

Re: New Mac Mini

#322

Post by wilg »

rayiner wrote: post #279
Varloom wrote: post #182

I can't use my M1 mini with non-retina monitor because of how blurry it is. They stopped providing font anti-aliasing (default on Windows) few years ago in MacOS to make retina displays more relevant.

They didn’t stop antialiasing. They stopped sub-pixel antialiasing and snapping stems to the pixel grid, which is less relevant on retina displays, to avoid artifacts when text is translated and animated.

Also subpixel antialiasing doesn't work if you rotate the display, like a phone, iPad, or Pro Display.

It also requires you to know the pixel geometry, so may not work correctly on OLED or TVs or other display technology.

Re: New Mac Mini

#323

Post by samcat116 »

jasonpbecker wrote: post #319
misterprime wrote: post #318

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always imagined a 24x7 docked laptop was a good setup for a couple reasons: 1. built in UPS due to the battery. 2. easy to grab and go in an emergency situation. Could you tell me more about the liability it creates? Is it a fire hazard? Decaying battery performance?

The battery will be useless in 8-12 months if you keep it plugged in nearly 24/7.

I haven't found this to be the case. The OS is fairly intelligent about charging so this doesn't happen. Probably not ideal, but the flexibility is more than worth it IMO

Re: New Mac Mini

#324

Post by skydhash »

misterprime wrote: post #318
rollcat wrote: post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, these are more niche than a laptop. I explicitly chose an M1 Mac Mini however (as opposed to a Macbook) for several reasons that have less to do with price/specs: - I do not like the laptop form factor for doing actual work at my desk; I strongly prefer a bigger and better positioned screen, an ergonomic keyboard, etc - 10Gig ethernet - HDMI (wasn't available on Macbooks at the time, also couldn't plug in two ex…

I always imagined a 24x7 docked laptop was a good setup for a couple reasons: 1. built in UPS due to the battery. 2. easy to grab and go in an emergency situation. Could you tell me more about the liability it creates? Is it a fire hazard? Decaying battery performance?

I don’t know about the current M1 CPU, but my last work computer was a 2015 MBP and the fan was always on. Plugging a monitor enabled the dedicated GPU. So I had to keep it plugged so it does not crawl to a stop due to throttling. Being in tropical weather did not help either. The battery bulged within one year. And the one I replaced it was deteriorating fast. My current mac mini has much better thermal and I bought an MBA for light and mobile uses.

Re: New Mac Mini

#325

Post by jbverschoor »

rayiner wrote: post #279
Varloom wrote: post #182

I can't use my M1 mini with non-retina monitor because of how blurry it is. They stopped providing font anti-aliasing (default on Windows) few years ago in MacOS to make retina displays more relevant.

They didn’t stop antialiasing. They stopped sub-pixel antialiasing and snapping stems to the pixel grid, which is less relevant on retina displays, to avoid artifacts when text is translated and animated.

One of the artifacts is weird colors at the edges

Re: New Mac Mini

#326

Post by qwytw »

tromp wrote: post #248
ant6n wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well it seems like for more than a decade, Apple seemed to think that nobody really needed more that 8GB of ram.

Apple offering 16GB is a clear counterexample to that. We can only say that Apple feels 8GB is enough for a significant fraction of users...

I think it's much more related to market segmentation and upselling. If they started shipping 16GB in the base model they'd probably have to price it closer to the current price of the 8GB one than to the 16GB to stay competitive.

8GB is probably enough for most users in most cases currently (not necessarily in a couple of years, which means they'd update earlier) but the cost for adding 8GB would be pretty low for Apple.

Re: New Mac Mini

#327

Post by jbverschoor »

skydhash wrote: post #324
misterprime wrote: post #318

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always imagined a 24x7 docked laptop was a good setup for a couple reasons: 1. built in UPS due to the battery. 2. easy to grab and go in an emergency situation. Could you tell me more about the liability it creates? Is it a fire hazard? Decaying battery performance?

I don’t know about the current M1 CPU, but my last work computer was a 2015 MBP and the fan was always on. Plugging a monitor enabled the dedicated GPU. So I had to keep it plugged so it does not crawl to a stop due to throttling. Being in tropical weather did not help either. The battery bulged within one year. And the one I replaced it was deteriorating fast. My current mac mini has much better thermal and I bought…

The mba doesn't have a fan or any moving parts, which was one of the reasons I chose it over the mbp

Re: New Mac Mini

#328

Post by kimixa »

loufe wrote: post #239
horsawlarway wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Way fucking cheaper than 40. Closer to $16 unless you really need DDR5. Even then, it's still around $29/8gb if buying 32gb or more. The issue is that Apple is integrating the RAM in the SoC. Personally, I'm not really a fan of "smart-phonification" of my desktop computers. I get that the mini is in a bit of a weird spot, since it's still got fairly challenging size constraints, but still... not my cup of tea.

The integration into the SoC is partially responsible for the amazing performance. The extra travelling distance for a click-in ram stick adds up, in terms of latency, quickly

Not really less latency so much as the signalling can be run at much higher speed and/or much lower power without having to worry about stuff like the optional termination, the electrical properties of the socket->dimm connection itself, and much shorter track lengths. It also allows you to have as wide a bus as you want, limited by cost of packaging and die sizes on the package, instead of dimm size and board layout, which naturally has a much higher trace pitch than the package.

The higher speed "may" cause lower latency, but it's likely secondary at best.

Re: New Mac Mini

#329

Post by qwytw »

13of40 wrote: post #284
tromp wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple offering 16GB is a clear counterexample to that. We can only say that Apple feels 8GB is enough for a significant fraction of users...

I have a Mac Mini from around 2010 that I saved from the recyclers recently. Dusted it off, put in 8GB of RAM and an SSD, and it booted up Windows 11 just fine. However, as far as I can tell there is no up to date MacOS available for it because Apple considers such a thing too obsolete to support.

You might be able to install latest macOS using OpenCore-Patcher (it's just bootloader IIRC it does not modify the OS itself in anyway so it should be pretty safe). I've used it on 2011ish 17" mbp and had no issues.

Re: New Mac Mini

#330

Post by jbverschoor »

coder543 wrote: post #159
luxoramonrising wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

External NVMe?

Yes. You can buy an NVMe SSD and put it into an external thunderbolt enclosure. Here is one random $115 option for a thunderbolt external NVMe enclosure with seemingly good reviews: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BB74BQVN Realistically, you probably don't even need a thunderbolt enclosure to have a good experience with an external Apple Photos library, but this option is still way cheaper than the prices Apple charges.

I was really looking forward to thunderbolt accessoires, until I saw the prices. An external bay for a GPU (just a piece of junk metal!!) was over $400 when I was looking at it.

At this point I don't need it, and I prefer USB, because I don't like the idea of hot swapping something directly on the PCI bus

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