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A Mac Mini Pro, Worth an upgrade?
- Thread starter t8er8
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This configuration was in my shopping cart so they have it. Where you gonna get custom SO-DIMM 32GB is an unknown variable for me
https://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/insights/news-events/the-industrys-first-32gb-ddr4-sodimm/
These were targeted for Apple from the announcement, just do not think anyone pinned them on being used in the MacMini revival. Several were speculating MacPro, a new style iMac/iMacPro/MacBookPro. Wider availability towards end of 2018.
As someone who does 3D Art, this won't cut it. Too few cores, too little RAM, too few connectors.
Unless software vendors tap into this specifically, would be limited benefit for the majority of my needs. Basically would have to set them up as a render farm with licenses for applications and plugins for each machine (adds up quickly). They all would likely still need a headless adapter of some kind to VNC into each machine without slowing down the OS.
The lack of robust GPU (or any non-integrated GPU) does little to nothing for boosting performance speeds. Theoretically could actually slow down renders on some projects due to the mismatch in acceleration, especially if compared to using multiple networked MacBookPro's and MacPro towers. I guess you could add an eGPU to each of them to avoid that?
For me, performance vs. cost vs. headache is barely worth looking at. Would almost be better off setting up a cloud-based rendering platform for better value, but this can become very cumbersome when working with large source footage/media...
I imagine that's probably not going to solve the problem of needing a stonking big GPU to drive the viewport for your workspace, which is where you're most likely to feel the inadequacy of your current hardware.
warranty depends where you live, in America it looks like your fine now & in the UK iv never had a mac with default ram and never had a problem with repairs under warranty or apple care in the past.
the CPU side looks good, much faster than what we have now and 6c is good for most people nice middle ground.
32GB is all you need for light video work (the most it's designed at) or light coding projects (mac min has always been a favorite of iphone app coders and light coders).
external GPU may give more expansible options for video work and even light gaming and i can see the apple vision of sharing a GPU with your laptop/mac desktop and there is value there.
so no it's not a BEAST but for the price (in the UK) for a mac with a strong CPU (compared to the imac at the same price) i can see it as a good option, just wish the price with the 6c CPU was closer to £900 and not £1100
still if they had moved to AMD that might be a 8 core at a lower price point or 6 core at much lower price point
edit when you say stacking are you talking about mac mins or eGPU's?
it dose have 4 thunderbolt ports so depending how there wired up you may be able to get 4 external GPU's on it, 2 at least so there are possibility's with it, in the past mac mins have been used as servers (for light use) when you need something small/cheep to do osx things.
i think the macpro 6.1 had two controllers sharing the thunderbolt ports so it worked best with two high demand devices plugged in before it started sharing the speed over ports.
PS the CPU will be much faster than my 5.1 mac pro, the ram will be faster and the storage will be faster as well as USB-C so it is kind of a replacement for the macpro 6.1 in a lot of ways
so it all depends no if thunderbolt 3 is a win or a fail.
the CPU side looks good, much faster than what we have now and 6c is good for most people nice middle ground.
32GB is all you need for light video work (the most it's designed at) or light coding projects (mac min has always been a favorite of iphone app coders and light coders).
external GPU may give more expansible options for video work and even light gaming and i can see the apple vision of sharing a GPU with your laptop/mac desktop and there is value there.
so no it's not a BEAST but for the price (in the UK) for a mac with a strong CPU (compared to the imac at the same price) i can see it as a good option, just wish the price with the 6c CPU was closer to £900 and not £1100
still if they had moved to AMD that might be a 8 core at a lower price point or 6 core at much lower price point
edit when you say stacking are you talking about mac mins or eGPU's?
it dose have 4 thunderbolt ports so depending how there wired up you may be able to get 4 external GPU's on it, 2 at least so there are possibility's with it, in the past mac mins have been used as servers (for light use) when you need something small/cheep to do osx things.
i think the macpro 6.1 had two controllers sharing the thunderbolt ports so it worked best with two high demand devices plugged in before it started sharing the speed over ports.
PS the CPU will be much faster than my 5.1 mac pro, the ram will be faster and the storage will be faster as well as USB-C so it is kind of a replacement for the macpro 6.1 in a lot of ways
so it all depends no if thunderbolt 3 is a win or a fail.
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Stacking Macs yes not the egpu's.warranty depends where you live, in America it looks like your fine now & in the UK iv never had a mac with default ram and never had a problem with repairs under warranty or apple care in the past.
the CPU side looks good, much faster than what we have now and 6c is good for most people nice middle ground.
32GB is all you need for light video work (the most it's designed at) or light coding projects (mac min has always been a favorite of iphone app coders and light coders).
external GPU may give more expansible options for video work and even light gaming and i can see the apple vision of sharing a GPU with your laptop/mac desktop and there is value there.
so no it's not a BEAST but for the price (in the UK) for a mac with a strong CPU (compared to the imac at the same price) i can see it as a good option, just wish the price with the 6c CPU was closer to £900 and not £1100
still if they had moved to AMD that might be a 8 core at a lower price point or 6 core at much lower price point
edit when you say stacking are you talking about mac mins or eGPU's?
it dose have 4 thunderbolt ports so depending how there wired up you may be able to get 4 external GPU's on it, 2 at least so there are possibility's with it, in the past mac mins have been used as servers (for light use) when you need something small/cheep to do osx things.
i think the macpro 6.1 had two controllers sharing the thunderbolt ports so it worked best with two high demand devices plugged in before it started sharing the speed over ports.
PS the CPU will be much faster than my 5.1 mac pro, the ram will be faster and the storage will be faster as well as USB-C so it is kind of a replacement for the macpro 6.1 in a lot of ways
so it all depends no if thunderbolt 3 is a win or a fail.
Also, as of right now, no web drivers for 10.13.6 (17G3025) Security Update 2. This is getting beyond serious now
Lou
Also, as of right now, no web drivers for 10.13.6 (17G3025) Security Update 2. This is getting beyond serious now
Lou
Sierra drivers just released for the update, but no High Sierra. The last High Sierra driver (.108) created issues with the introduction of VOLTA for several users. I was not one of those with an issue and still on 17G65. Hopeful troubleshooting that is the reason for delay and not anything else...
Have been given an extension on the Mojave install from client IT departments through EOY due to lack of CUDA, but this High Sierra update will need to be installed by next week. "Patiently" waiting.
This configuration was in my shopping cart so they have it. Where you gonna get custom SO-DIMM 32GB is an unknown variable for me
See, the part in red above, it sounds like you are planning on sourcing your own SO-DIMMs to get to 64GB...
Of course, now OWC has them available, for a bit over a cool grand for the pair...
Still cheaper than from Apple though, but we still do not know if we can really get to the RAM slots ourselves without voiding warranty...?
a Mac Mini Pro would need to have a Xeon in it
The fact the MacBook Pro doesn't have a Xeon is stupid. It should just be the MacBook, the current MacBook can be replaced by the new MacBook Air and then another line of actual MacBook Pro's with Xeons, no stupid soldered RAM/Storage/CPU, a removable battery, no stupid failure of a keyboard etc and have the MB actual Pro come only in 15 and 17" versions so they can get enough cooling into it.
I can dream...
what's funny is that even if these actual MBP's were $12,000 (like any top spec Xeon workstation laptop), there would still be people buying them for FaceBook and Instagram, because they have to have the "best", heh.
The fact the MacBook Pro doesn't have a Xeon is stupid. It should just be the MacBook, the current MacBook can be replaced by the new MacBook Air and then another line of actual MacBook Pro's with Xeons, no stupid soldered RAM/Storage/CPU, a removable battery, no stupid failure of a keyboard etc and have the MB actual Pro come only in 15 and 17" versions so they can get enough cooling into it.
I can dream...
what's funny is that even if these actual MBP's were $12,000 (like any top spec Xeon workstation laptop), there would still be people buying them for FaceBook and Instagram, because they have to have the "best", heh.
@Boil ram upgrades depend on location in most states in america right to repair will more than cover ram upgrades and in the UK it has never been a problem, i suspect in all of the EU ram upgrades will be fine (as long as you dont have a relay bad local shop like i found in Portugal) so as long as you dont do damage you tend to be ok with ram upgrades.
iv done drive upgrades in the uk to and had no problems (in laptops) , HD to bigger HD or SSD upgrades.
id gess if the CPU is replaceable that might be a problem to upgrade ?
iv done drive upgrades in the uk to and had no problems (in laptops) , HD to bigger HD or SSD upgrades.
id gess if the CPU is replaceable that might be a problem to upgrade ?
I can't understand why anyone would pay $4200 for a Mac mini. If your workflow is platform dependent perhaps it's time to go for something platform agnostic.
The majority of my intensive is work these days (except for photo/video) is done on PC. Simply put I can have more performance, custom cooling, etc. for less. I just put together a mini-ITX system that is simply way faster than even this new Mac mini will be. For starters it has a 6-core processor and a 1080 ti... and cost me less than $1500 for all the components.
The majority of my intensive is work these days (except for photo/video) is done on PC. Simply put I can have more performance, custom cooling, etc. for less. I just put together a mini-ITX system that is simply way faster than even this new Mac mini will be. For starters it has a 6-core processor and a 1080 ti... and cost me less than $1500 for all the components.
it's £800 4c and £1100 6c for base models in the uk, so thats not bad just not good (like i mentioned 10-20% cheaper and it's a killer price).
apple like every one up charges like god if they can so id gess $4200 is as much as you can pay apple if you relay want but i cant see any one sensible paying that. just looking at dell's uk site and there not massively better in pricing up-sales.
the intel NUC is a relay good comparison, about the same size.
https://www.scan.co.uk/products/int...eon-rx-vega-m-gl-graphics-4gb-hbm2-ddr4-2x-m2
i7 4c 8t 3.1-4.1ghz AMD Vega graphics (so thats better cpu and GPU but if you eGPU then ~~) but no operating system, ram or drive included for £725
so mac min ends out mixed there but for 90% of users who will not want to open it and get the base models, less room for expansion but up to a point so what.
the only thing i relay want to have the option of upgrading is drives and ram most the
you just need to pick the 6c cpu or 6c/12t (but that gets you potential 25% boost from HT and 500mhz for £150) and the 250GB SSD, thats all you need for most work.
buy the ram and upgrade it.
iv got my cmp here, i do video work 250GB SSD for os & apps then iv got 17 external drives next to my macpro in a pile from 2TB - 8TB all usb 3
yes i have internal drives but i can only ever have a few projects on my macpro at one time so to me i cant see it as any real problem id be able to do the same with a macmin id just need one or two USB 3 or thunderbolt drives plunged in with the project's im working on on.
for websites work id have no problem there.
for audio work no problem.
for working with photos no problem.
anything relay GPU dependent will have to wait for benchmarks.
thermal throttling will have to be seen in benchmarks & id gess the 6c will still end up a lot faster than my 5.1 cmp!
im not saying it's a pro box but at the same time i have no big problem with it apart from id like to see it 10-20% cheaper in the UK
from my point of view a box dose "X" and i need "Y" for work, you get a box that fits "Y" and no single box will do everything, for a small box it's not bad and in most ways it's better value than the cheaper imacs that are close in price.
it will be fine for pro web design, audio ect..
if you need a stronger box then you wont even look at a macmin anyway
edit
i do have 6 internal drives in my cmp 5.1 but id be able to use an external box for drives and im moving that way soon any way as once you hit 17 USB3 HD's a single external box (well two for backups) starts looking tempted to make life simple.
& as mentioned PRO dose not mean anything at all, it's just a label
apple like every one up charges like god if they can so id gess $4200 is as much as you can pay apple if you relay want but i cant see any one sensible paying that. just looking at dell's uk site and there not massively better in pricing up-sales.
the intel NUC is a relay good comparison, about the same size.
https://www.scan.co.uk/products/int...eon-rx-vega-m-gl-graphics-4gb-hbm2-ddr4-2x-m2
i7 4c 8t 3.1-4.1ghz AMD Vega graphics (so thats better cpu and GPU but if you eGPU then ~~) but no operating system, ram or drive included for £725
so mac min ends out mixed there but for 90% of users who will not want to open it and get the base models, less room for expansion but up to a point so what.
the only thing i relay want to have the option of upgrading is drives and ram most the
you just need to pick the 6c cpu or 6c/12t (but that gets you potential 25% boost from HT and 500mhz for £150) and the 250GB SSD, thats all you need for most work.
buy the ram and upgrade it.
iv got my cmp here, i do video work 250GB SSD for os & apps then iv got 17 external drives next to my macpro in a pile from 2TB - 8TB all usb 3
yes i have internal drives but i can only ever have a few projects on my macpro at one time so to me i cant see it as any real problem id be able to do the same with a macmin id just need one or two USB 3 or thunderbolt drives plunged in with the project's im working on on.
for websites work id have no problem there.
for audio work no problem.
for working with photos no problem.
anything relay GPU dependent will have to wait for benchmarks.
thermal throttling will have to be seen in benchmarks & id gess the 6c will still end up a lot faster than my 5.1 cmp!
im not saying it's a pro box but at the same time i have no big problem with it apart from id like to see it 10-20% cheaper in the UK
from my point of view a box dose "X" and i need "Y" for work, you get a box that fits "Y" and no single box will do everything, for a small box it's not bad and in most ways it's better value than the cheaper imacs that are close in price.
it will be fine for pro web design, audio ect..
if you need a stronger box then you wont even look at a macmin anyway
edit
i do have 6 internal drives in my cmp 5.1 but id be able to use an external box for drives and im moving that way soon any way as once you hit 17 USB3 HD's a single external box (well two for backups) starts looking tempted to make life simple.
& as mentioned PRO dose not mean anything at all, it's just a label
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PikerAlpha provided some interesting news:
https://pikeralpha.wordpress.com/
https://pikeralpha.wordpress.com/
Code:
November 8, 2018
Mac mini 2018
Q: are RAM modules replaceable?
A: yes.
Q: is the SSD replaceable?
A: yes.
Q: is the WiFi/Bluetooth module replaceable?
A: yes.
Q: is the processor replaceable?
A: yes.
Update: it appears that we have two different logicboards. Mine (internal one) includes sockets for RAM, CPU, SSD and WiFi/Bluetooth modules but end-user hardware not!
P.s. I will no longer be able to comment on the matter (I am a software engineer. Not a hardware engineer).That's crazy, they actually made a design that was what everyone wanted, asked for, and then went ahead and changed it to be all soldered on. I don't understand why internal testers would needs to be able to swap the CPU... Did they intend to release it with everything in sockets, then change it? So many questions.