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New Mac Mini

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Re: New Mac Mini

#351

Post by gymbeaux »

jmull wrote: post #286
gymbeaux wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"many people" is as anecdotal as it gets. I don't know anybody who A) only needs 8GB/256GB and B) isn't better-served by an iPad or something similar. I think if anyone from Apple Marketing is reading this thread, they are laughing at how people are so instinctively buying into the entry-level Mac mini. The biggest value-add the $599 Mac mini has is that Apple can say Macs start at "just $599". There will always be s…

The onus is really on you to back up your claim that 8GB/256GB isn't enough. I don't see what iPads have to do with this at all. Surely tablet vs desktop is an entirely different decision.

It's just ironic that some people here are really pushing a $599 Mac mini as a valid option, while ignoring tablets. The argument that a Mac mini is a great alternative to a PC in that malware isn't an issue is totally valid, but iPads benefit from that too (and are often less than $599).

As I'm sure you know, there are many articles, threads, et. al. out there about whether 8GB is enough for a Mac. We can link articles back and forth all day, but here's what it comes down to: with only 8GB of RAM, even light use will see the Mac offload to swap much more often than if it had 16GB to work with, and one of the first "scandals" that arose from the M1 Macs was that bytes written to the internal SSD was much, much higher than it should have been, because of that swap usage.

Re: New Mac Mini

#352

Post by gymbeaux »

ceejayoz wrote: post #164
gymbeaux wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"many people" is as anecdotal as it gets. I don't know anybody who A) only needs 8GB/256GB and B) isn't better-served by an iPad or something similar. I think if anyone from Apple Marketing is reading this thread, they are laughing at how people are so instinctively buying into the entry-level Mac mini. The biggest value-add the $599 Mac mini has is that Apple can say Macs start at "just $599". There will always be s…

> "many people" is as anecdotal as it gets. I don't know anybody who... lol

I got ya beat. You don't know anybody who meets that criteria, either.

Re: New Mac Mini

#353

Post by cwaffles »

astrange wrote: post #276
jd3 wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

macOS still provides anti-aliasing — I assume the OP is referring to the removal of subpixel rendering/antialiasing. See "The subtle death of subpixel antialiasing" https://arstechnica.com/features/2018/09/macos-10-14-mojave-... https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Scree... The one thing I appreciate about windows is that you can completely disable cleartype/anti-aliasing, if you'd like. As far as I…

It's difficult and memory-expensive to do subpixel font rendering in the presence of things like transparency/colors/blur effects - eventually you'd end up in a situation where it's just missing half the time anyway.

How expensive would it be? Windows XP (circa 2001) does it without GPU acceleration with ease on a 512MB ram machine. Windows Vista runs on 2G of ram, with transparency everywhere (to the point that it is distracting).

Re: New Mac Mini

#354

Post by asdff »

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.

You get used to it. I went back to a nonretina 2012 mac as my daily driver. From 2 feet away, you can't see any pixels so it really doesn't matter much. Enjoy the increased performance from driving fewer pixels.

Re: New Mac Mini

#355

Post by gymbeaux »

Kerrick wrote: post #134
gymbeaux wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True, but I would argue that it actually makes some sense for the XPS, Dell's only "pro desktop" option (does Vostro count as "pro"?). That the Mac mini can cost either X or ~10X is more like saying "a car starts at $15k and can cost $150k". Throw in that it clearly overlaps with the Mac Pro and Mac Studio and I can only ask "why would I pick X, Y or Z?" It seems like the Studio is the way to go vs a mini configured…

XPS is Dell's premium lifestyle model. OptiPlex is their enterprise/pro model (which starts at $499). I didn't talk about "a car" in the generic sense, I talked about a single model--not even multiple models from the same manufacturer (Apple:Ford::Mac Mini:Maverick).

That's my point. Within the same model is a variance in price expected of the entire industry at the macro level.

You can't argue that XPS is "premium lifestyle", that's what Dell says it is, but that's not what it ends up being in reality. I will say XPS/Optiplex are both the "pro" stuff (pro as in MacBook Pro, not necessarily Pro as in "used in corporate IT most often").

Re: New Mac Mini

#356

Post by asdff »

coder543 wrote: post #95
frognumber wrote: post #9

Is the RAM and SSD upgradeable? The baseline model is 8GB / 256GB, and very reasonably priced at $600. Upgrading to 24GB is a whopping $400, and to 1TB is another $400. The $700 baseline seems reasonable. $1500 for a minimum usable machine seems more than a little excessive.

As I mentioned here[0], it is worth considering using an external, upgradeable SSD instead of paying Apple's exorbitant prices for more internal storage on a Mac mini. For a laptop, you would definitely want to upgrade the internal storage. [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34413582

This is not a worthwhile solution. The jacks on mac laptops are prone to fail after a few years of regular use in my experience. I have to imagine usb-c ports are even more fragile than type a.

Re: New Mac Mini

#357

Post by coder543 »

asdff wrote: post #356
coder543 wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As I mentioned here[0], it is worth considering using an external, upgradeable SSD instead of paying Apple's exorbitant prices for more internal storage on a Mac mini. For a laptop, you would definitely want to upgrade the internal storage. [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34413582

This is not a worthwhile solution. The jacks on mac laptops are prone to fail after a few years of regular use in my experience. I have to imagine usb-c ports are even more fragile than type a.

The point is that you wouldn’t be removing it… ever. It would be your primary OS drive, sitting on the table forever with your Mac mini desktop. How would you wear out a port by leaving something plugged in?

I’m not talking about laptops. I specifically said that.

Regardless, USB-C has the springs in the cable, not the port (unlike Lightning), so the port should never fail with regular use anyways, but you may need to replace the cable at some point. You may need to clean the port out eventually, since gunk build up could make the connection feel looser with enough cycles, but then it should be fine again after cleaning. But again, I’m not talking about a laptop where you would be removing and reattaching the drive constantly, so this is completely off topic.

Re: New Mac Mini

#358

Post by FearlessNebula »

tw1984 wrote: post #268

Apple: please give your customers ECC RAM, we take data integrity seriously.

Serious question, what difference does ECC make on a laptop? I thought it’s only useful on a server or for situations that are critical (aircraft computer).

Re: New Mac Mini

#359

Post by asdff »

setgree wrote: post #21

My first thought for this thing is to download Linux, Steam, and all the emulators you can and you've basically got a conveniently sized and priced home theater PC that can play any video game from 1990-2010 or so

You are better off getting an intel 16" mac and running bootcamp.

Re: New Mac Mini

#360

Post by FearlessNebula »

cat_plus_plus wrote: post #335
atonse wrote: post #302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've thought the same but I'm not really sure what else I'd want in my laptop. With the M1s they've just hit such a sweet spot. Battery life is great, the laptop is fast enough for everything I need. TB 3 hubs allow me to use external peripherals, two 4k 27" monitors, plenty of real estate. Update: I just saw a couple other comments – camera for sure. A much better camera than the garbage they include nowadays.

Agreed for laptop, but how much will power efficiency make a real difference on a Mac Mini?

Quite a bit IMO. My Mac Mini is silent, even my gaming PC with expensive BeQuiet fans doesn’t stay silent. My Mac Mini also outputs no noticeable heat (although in the winter I kinda wish it did)
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