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Anyone else considering alternatives to an updated mini?
- Thread starter dudedude
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Yeah. I used one of their build guides but upgraded the video and the ssd. Only real issue I had was I didn't pay attention to what sound kext I should have installed. If that hadn't cropped up it would have been install to using osx in about 30 minutes.
Very interested. Please update when you get the chance!
Several reviews I read on the Brix stated it had problems with thermals and the fans were loud. Your impressions?
Seems that on tonymacx86 even the golden builds have long threads of people troubleshooting problems. Minor problems like Ethernet not working, but problems nonetheless. What has your experience been?
I personally have had no problems from sticking to the recommended hardware and have been incredibly surprised from being new to this that I have had no major issues (a couple of times I had ethernet issues, I restarted and it worked). If you keep it simple and stick to this guide you cannot go wrong.
Remember most people post about problems rather than it going well. The commnity is there to help you if you run into something. If you don't mind a tinker about then go for it, but most likely you wont have too if you pick the right hardware. Important part is motherboard, the best seem to be Gigabyte with an intel. It really is easy, much more bang for your buck, all the features, bluetooth etc work flawlessly. But this all depends on the motherboard / bluetooth adapted you get, which can be seen in the link above
. When the new mac mini comes out I really wont regret or envy its specs, I have an i7k, 8gb, 2tb for less than £500, I am not yet a thunderbolt adopter but it is beginning to come out for motherboards if interested. When apple lag this behind on us this is what happens! I am more than happy with it .Usually though it's the result of doing something from what I've seen. Once you get it working it seems at least so far for the last 7 months to be rock solid.
Anyone else considering alternatives to an updated mini?
Grubworth, which one from that page did you build?
Grubworth, which one from that page did you build?
i'm starting to consider buying an iMac even thought i hate the 27' size and the SSD option is still high.
I love the size of my late 2009 27" iMac but hated it when the HD died. While swapping out the HD I thought, "no more iMacs for me" due to all the hassles involved with repairing it. The bad thing is, if you want a new desktop system running OS X but don't want an all-in-one, you don't have many options:
1) Mac Mini that hasn't been updated in over 500 days
2) Build a Hackintosh
(A Mac Pro that starts at $3K is not an option for many)
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I can't justify spending $3k on a computer. Especially when you consider what else you could get, or how many. The iMac I'm waiting for is the next 21.5" I7 Haswell w/ 850m. Hopefully it has a 4k screen. By then everything should have been updated so I'll have lots to choose from!
I used the list below in the link I posted and mixed and matched my parts, I already had a monitor so it was hackintosh or mac mini. For the motherboard I double checked the forums to made sure it was hassle free and went and ordered a Giga-Byte Z87-HD3, this being the most important component, but like I said sticking to the recommended on tonymacx you should be good. Intel i7k 1150 CPU, 1 x 8gb Vengeance RAM (with 3 more slots to use if I wish), 1TB HDD with more than enough sata ports and bays to use in a black R4 Fractal Design case I got to house it all into. A spare PSU I had lying around. I did not get a GPU as I am just using the onboard 4600 graphics on the i7 and its does me fine. Can even play DayZ Stands Alone in Windows at a acceptable FPS!
I use a magic mouse and keyboard so needed bluetooth, ordered one of these IOGEAR and bluetooth works fine.
I did plan to add upon it and add fancy corsair coolers, better GPU etc but it runs 20°, and now I have built it it sits under my desk with many USB3 ports and IO if I need it. It sleeps, wakes up no problem and is super fast for £600. And I was looking at buying the i7 Mac Mini.
Here is a guide to setting the os up.
I use a magic mouse and keyboard so needed bluetooth, ordered one of these IOGEAR and bluetooth works fine.
I did plan to add upon it and add fancy corsair coolers, better GPU etc but it runs 20°, and now I have built it it sits under my desk with many USB3 ports and IO if I need it. It sleeps, wakes up no problem and is super fast for £600. And I was looking at buying the i7 Mac Mini.
Here is a guide to setting the os up.
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Apple made us hard for normal users to consider Mac Pro by just including 256 GB SSD....that thing should've shipped with no less than 1 TB.
I'm going to revisit the hackintosh option. I've got a multiboot box that I built to boot OSX but had kernel panics almost immediately and never went back to figure it out.
Might be their strategy
256GB seems rather undersized. Makes me wonder if Apple decided to do this to prevent Amazon selling the nMP in any numbers, since Amazon doesn't do BTO versions, basically forces people to go to Apple directly.
256GB seems rather undersized. Makes me wonder if Apple decided to do this to prevent Amazon selling the nMP in any numbers, since Amazon doesn't do BTO versions, basically forces people to go to Apple directly.
Gigabyte Brix Update
So i have tried a few things with the brix pro i5 4570R version.
Transcoded a video on full blast using handbrake. The machine handled it fine but did get a little loud. I would say about maybe 1/3 louder than the i5 2012 mac mini I would use on my desk and transcode video with. The fan in the mac mini has a different pitch that made it less noticeable. In my living room the way I have the brix setup under my desk this was not too annoying.
I tried gaming in a windows with chrome open and some other things. Cpu usage only shot up to about 25%-30% while playing europa universalis IV. The fans didn't really get louder than their idle state when doing this.
I will update later once I get the Dell 24 inch 4k and am able to set all that up and really use this machine. I should get it Friday.
Overall the fan at idle is noticeable if you listen for it. Underneath my desk I can not hear it, so I would imagine as a HTPC in a media cabinet it would be fine under light loads.
So i have tried a few things with the brix pro i5 4570R version.
Transcoded a video on full blast using handbrake. The machine handled it fine but did get a little loud. I would say about maybe 1/3 louder than the i5 2012 mac mini I would use on my desk and transcode video with. The fan in the mac mini has a different pitch that made it less noticeable. In my living room the way I have the brix setup under my desk this was not too annoying.
I tried gaming in a windows with chrome open and some other things. Cpu usage only shot up to about 25%-30% while playing europa universalis IV. The fans didn't really get louder than their idle state when doing this.
I will update later once I get the Dell 24 inch 4k and am able to set all that up and really use this machine. I should get it Friday.
Overall the fan at idle is noticeable if you listen for it. Underneath my desk I can not hear it, so I would imagine as a HTPC in a media cabinet it would be fine under light loads.
Wow! So are we saying that this:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gigabyte-BR...932269&sr=8-1&keywords=BRIX+Pro+GB-BXI5-4570R
Boots Mavericks?
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gigabyte-BR...932269&sr=8-1&keywords=BRIX+Pro+GB-BXI5-4570R
Boots Mavericks?
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Update brix noise
Yes it is sadness. Hopefully I'll get another mac to hook up to this new display.
Finally got it hooked up to the Dell 24 inch 4k display. Thing is amazing. It's like a 24 inch iPad retina screen. The brix handles it very well. Now this thing does get a bit noisy when tab casting and full screen flash videos. I would say the noise would bother some people. When it's idle or light gaming and browsing it is not noticeable at all. It may have just been the combo of tab casting and running the flash video full screen on the dell. So if u are looking for something as quiet as a mini it is not. I'd say it is 50% louder than the i7 mini when that thing is at full blast and this thing is at full blast.
Yes it is sadness. Hopefully I'll get another mac to hook up to this new display.
Finally got it hooked up to the Dell 24 inch 4k display. Thing is amazing. It's like a 24 inch iPad retina screen. The brix handles it very well. Now this thing does get a bit noisy when tab casting and full screen flash videos. I would say the noise would bother some people. When it's idle or light gaming and browsing it is not noticeable at all. It may have just been the combo of tab casting and running the flash video full screen on the dell. So if u are looking for something as quiet as a mini it is not. I'd say it is 50% louder than the i7 mini when that thing is at full blast and this thing is at full blast.
I am also looking at the intel NUCs right now and the brix also. I want a small machine. I cant justify spending the money on a mac mini that was released 2 years ago. Even if it is technically faster then the others offer. the mini is old plain and simple. If im going to invest 700+ dollars I want it to be new.
The only alternative to the updated Mac Mini, for me personally, is the current Mini. I picked one up a week or so ago because I just couldn't wait any longer. However, since I bought it from Best Buy I have 45 days to return it. If the new Mini comes out within 45 days, great. If not then I'm actually perfectly happy with the Mini I have, the Intel HD4000 iGPU works fine for everything except gaming, it even does fine with FCPX while connected to my ATD. The one thing...ok 2 things...I couldn't bear dealing with were the slow 1TB HDD and 8GB memory so I ordered a 500GB 840 EVO SSD and the OWC data doubler along with 16GB of Crucial memory and now it's nearly perfect for what I want/need.
Gigabyte Brix Pro
Hackintosh is the only way to go.
Right now, the Gigabyte Brix Pro i5 looks very interesting:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/7648/gigabyte-brix-pro
Fitted with Samsung EVO 840 mSATA, 1 TB 7200 RPM HDD, and 16 GB of RAM, at ~$800 this is a beast.
There are still a couple of issues with drivers, but those should be fixed soon according to forum posts on tonymacx86.
Hackintosh is the only way to go.
Right now, the Gigabyte Brix Pro i5 looks very interesting:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/7648/gigabyte-brix-pro
Fitted with Samsung EVO 840 mSATA, 1 TB 7200 RPM HDD, and 16 GB of RAM, at ~$800 this is a beast.
There are still a couple of issues with drivers, but those should be fixed soon according to forum posts on tonymacx86.
I was considering the same thing, but while they're tiny, they're not exactly sleek, and lumber you with an external power adaptor just to make it smaller than it really needs to be in reality. Only major plus points are the easy to access 2.5" drive bay and mSATA slot, which is something I wish the next Mac Mini will have; maybe not externally accessible, but at least easier to access with the bottom cover removed. That and iirc they come with a bracket for VESA mounting, which is something Apple really should consider; I know the Mac Minis are nice looking machines, but sometimes saving space is even better, it's just lucky the bottom cover is so easy to turn into a VESA mount yourself.
Also, the pricing on the Brix Pros isn't super affordable either, while you can get a decent package for the Mac Mini price, the overall quality is lower (I don't like the case and the fan can get very noisy), plus it's lacking Thunderbolt which IMO is a fairly important omission, though I know plenty of people won't be bothered by it. Don't get me wrong, an i7 with Iris Pro graphics would be sweet, but I think I'd still rather wait for it (or Broadwell, since it's even more efficient) in a proper Mac Mini, rather than trying to make due with a hackintosh, even if it's compatibility should be very good. I mean, just take the i7 model and add even a cheap HDD and 4gb of RAM to it, and the Brix Pro grows in price considerably.
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