New Mac Mini • Hacker News Board

Re: New Mac Mini

#421

Post by phendrenad2 » Thu, Jan 19, 2023, 11:39 PM UTC

szastamasta wrote: post #253

I really love the idea of Mac mini, but when you add some more RAM and disk price is almost the same as for MacBook PRO, where you get almost the same hardware a superb display and a keyboard built in. And you can carry it around with you. These machines almost make no sense because of that.

But they do have better cooling than a Macbook Pro, so probably somewhat better sustained performance.

Re: New Mac Mini

#422

Post by iainmerrick » Fri, Jan 20, 2023, 11:31 AM UTC

reaperducer wrote: post #420

iainmerrick wrote: post #172

"Available starting 1.24" January the 24th? January 2024? I wish the US would start writing dates in a sensible way!

I wish the US would start writing dates in a sensible way! Looks like standard big-endian notation to me.

I realise you're joking, but no, not without the year.

It's not even standard for the US! Did they decide "/" wasn't Apple-y enough so they had to use "."?

Re: New Mac Mini

#423

Post by asdff » Fri, Jan 20, 2023, 8:13 PM UTC

MikusR wrote: post #409

asdff wrote: post #356

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

From https://www.anandtech.com/show/8377/usb-typec-connector-spec... 1,500 connect/disconnect cycles for A 5,000 for the Mini 10,000 for micro and type-c

What about when the laptop on your lap slides slightly off and the connector is now being torqued against your leg and the couch? Factor in the use from plugging it in and out, then also the wear and tear from a laptop being a mobile computer, and those cycles will diminish a lot sooner than what was extrapolated from lab testing.

Re: New Mac Mini

#424

Post by Maursault » Sat, Jan 21, 2023, 4:23 PM UTC

peanuty1 wrote: post #61

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.

Welcome to Apple pricing.

If you max out the configuration of an M2 Pro mini with upgraded

     12-core M2 Pro processor
     19-core GPU
     16-core Neural Engine
     32GB memory
     8TB storage 
     10Gb ethernet
     4 Thunderbolt ports

it costs $4,099, which is exactly the same price as a base configured Ultra Mac Studio with

     20-core M1 Ultra processor
     48-core GPU
     32-core Neural Engine
     64GB memory
     1TB storage
     10Gb ethernet
     6 Thunderbolt ports

or two base configured Max Mac Studios with

     10-core M1 Max processor
     24-core GPU
     16-core Neural Engine
     32GB memory
     512TB storage
     10Gb ethernet
     4 Thunderbolt ports

So, clearly, Apple doesn't want to sell maxed out M2 Pro minis with 8TB SSD because an M1 Ultra Studio will likely beat the M2 Pro, or at least match it with more resources, and two M1 Max Studios will wipe the floor with both the M1 Ultra Studio and M2 Pro mini.