I just purchased a refurbished late-2014 2.8GHz, 8GB, 1TB Fusion Mac Mini for £650 direct from Apple.
I got it primarily because my early-2008 Mac Pro (Quad Core, 12GB, 2x 256GB SSD and still going strong!) isn't supported by macOS Sierra. As I'm an iOS developer I felt I just had to be running the latest OS because, sooner or later, some new Xcode feature would require Sierra (e.g. it happened recently with the watchOS simulator requiring El Capitan).
Since the WWDC announcement of the requirements for running macOS Sierra I've been agonising over whether to "hack" the Mac Pro into working with Sierra (it's definite possible, but I feel uncomfortable with the legality of doing it!) or buy a new machine. After much deliberation and poring over these forums I decided to take the plunge and get the Mac Mini, although nagging doubts remained about if it was up to the task of running Xcode, the simulators, etc.
However, when the Mini arrived (looks brand new/unused to me) all my worries quickly faded away: this is a brilliant little machine! I expected it to be a bit "laggy" on certain Xcode tasks compared to the Mac Pro. But it isn't. In fact, it out-performs the '08 Mac Pro: things like Interface Builder run more responsively, compile times are about 15-20% faster. And disk performance is hugely better:
Mac Pro - Write = 245 MB/s, Read = 269 MB/s
Mac Mini - Write = 674 MB/s, Read = 732 MB/s
So, overall I'm hugely impressed by the Mac Mini (particularly for the price) and I thought I'd shared my positive experiences in case others reading this forum are wondering if they should go for the Mac Mini!
I got it primarily because my early-2008 Mac Pro (Quad Core, 12GB, 2x 256GB SSD and still going strong!) isn't supported by macOS Sierra. As I'm an iOS developer I felt I just had to be running the latest OS because, sooner or later, some new Xcode feature would require Sierra (e.g. it happened recently with the watchOS simulator requiring El Capitan).
Since the WWDC announcement of the requirements for running macOS Sierra I've been agonising over whether to "hack" the Mac Pro into working with Sierra (it's definite possible, but I feel uncomfortable with the legality of doing it!) or buy a new machine. After much deliberation and poring over these forums I decided to take the plunge and get the Mac Mini, although nagging doubts remained about if it was up to the task of running Xcode, the simulators, etc.
However, when the Mini arrived (looks brand new/unused to me) all my worries quickly faded away: this is a brilliant little machine! I expected it to be a bit "laggy" on certain Xcode tasks compared to the Mac Pro. But it isn't. In fact, it out-performs the '08 Mac Pro: things like Interface Builder run more responsively, compile times are about 15-20% faster. And disk performance is hugely better:
Mac Pro - Write = 245 MB/s, Read = 269 MB/s
Mac Mini - Write = 674 MB/s, Read = 732 MB/s
So, overall I'm hugely impressed by the Mac Mini (particularly for the price) and I thought I'd shared my positive experiences in case others reading this forum are wondering if they should go for the Mac Mini!