I have a Mini I5 (Model 8,1 from 2011) that I added a 256GB SSD to the existing 1T spinner, essentially creating a 1.25TB Fusion Drive. Not as fast as an I7 with a 1TB SSD, but significantly less expensive. Such an upgrade might be worthwhile in the interim, though it won't solve your HDMI problem.
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Giving up on mini - what next?
- Thread starter noisedude
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As pointed out by previous posters, the MacMini is basically a MB of some kind. I have used a MacBook as my primary desktop system since 2008. I do numeric programming and data analysis, scientific paper and grant writing, and hate laggy computers. I have been very happy with this combination for 10 years. My current version is a 15" 2016 tbrMBP (an expensive and sidegrade, at best, from the 2012 rMBP). Previously I have had a 2008 13" MBP, 2011 13" MPB, and 2012 15" rMBP. From 2012 until last week I used a Belkin ThunderBolt dock. I recently upgraded to a CalDigit TB3 dock. I have one at work and one at home. I really like this setup. I have always gotten a large (currently 1 TB) SSD as I like to have everything with me. I upgraded all of the MPBs with SSDs after I quit using them and gave them to others to use. Installing the SSD was transformative. I have a 2008 MacMini and a 2013 MacMini that I use for servers. I upgraded the 2013 with an internal SSD, which made a huge difference. I have an SSD for the 2008, but just haven't had time for the upgrade yet. When I upgraded the MBPs to SSDs I backed up current drive via TimeMachine (actually I had 3 copies), replaced the HD with the SSD and restored from the TimeMachine backup. It worked perfectly every time.
I personally don't like the iMac. For one thing, I like to have a monitor that I can plug other computers into. So, I have always bought 3rd party (typically Dell) monitors that come with lots of input options. That lets me have independent computer and monitor replacement cycles. Second, it is my unscientific observation that the iMacs have maintenance issues (not personal, but friends and colleagues). I also like using the laptop because I can have everything with me wherever I go. I have 2 TM backup drives at work and 2 at home. I also store most of my files on OneDrive, so I can access then on my phone and iPad, and subscribe to a cloud backup service. So, my data is very well protected.
If I were you, I would buy a large Sata SSD in the Mac Mini and hold out for a little longer. I can't recall exactly what is on the 2012 mini. If it has multiple TB ports can't you run multiple monitors from that?. If you don't have 16 GB of memory in the Mini, I would add that too. A second option is, as suggested by someone else, restore the MacMini to an external USB3 or TB SSD and boot your rMBP from that. A 2015 rMBP can, I am virtually certain, drive 2 external monitors. I think you will find that the SSD provides an amazing performance boost.
I am personally hoping that Apple comes out with a Mac Midi: something not as ridiculously priced as a Mac Pro, but upgradeable and that uses Desktop CPUs and graphics unlike the Mac Mini. I guess this is like the iMac but without the monitor.
I personally don't like the iMac. For one thing, I like to have a monitor that I can plug other computers into. So, I have always bought 3rd party (typically Dell) monitors that come with lots of input options. That lets me have independent computer and monitor replacement cycles. Second, it is my unscientific observation that the iMacs have maintenance issues (not personal, but friends and colleagues). I also like using the laptop because I can have everything with me wherever I go. I have 2 TM backup drives at work and 2 at home. I also store most of my files on OneDrive, so I can access then on my phone and iPad, and subscribe to a cloud backup service. So, my data is very well protected.
If I were you, I would buy a large Sata SSD in the Mac Mini and hold out for a little longer. I can't recall exactly what is on the 2012 mini. If it has multiple TB ports can't you run multiple monitors from that?. If you don't have 16 GB of memory in the Mini, I would add that too. A second option is, as suggested by someone else, restore the MacMini to an external USB3 or TB SSD and boot your rMBP from that. A 2015 rMBP can, I am virtually certain, drive 2 external monitors. I think you will find that the SSD provides an amazing performance boost.
I am personally hoping that Apple comes out with a Mac Midi: something not as ridiculously priced as a Mac Pro, but upgradeable and that uses Desktop CPUs and graphics unlike the Mac Mini. I guess this is like the iMac but without the monitor.
Let me second, third, and fourth that suggestion. My 2011 was unusable with the original HD. From the time I bought the Mini, it was painfully slow and unusable. With the SSD it is quite usable. Not screamingly fast or anything, but acceptably good performance. I would never have expected that much of a difference. I use the Mini a lot now, even with a MBP with an i7 and an SSD sitting beside it.
Adding the SSD will be about the same as buying a newer Mini. But, personally, I'd recommend the internal version and not the external.
[doublepost=1521165334][/doublepost]Sorry about your mini, my imac 2011 is going like it would live for posterity
Just get new imac per budget that seems rogth to you
Cheers everobody
Thank you - I've now just got an extra office I need to work from for part of the week so I'm glad I have the extra hardware! Might get a dock to use the MBP at home.
[doublepost=1521402925][/doublepost]One week update
So.... the iMac is lovely. I immediately wished I could've afforded a 27" one because the bezel around the display makes it look smaller than my cheap AOC 1080p monitors but, honestly, I don't need anything bigger.
I'm still in the process of getting it up and running with external drives for archived storage.
Thanks again everyone.
Wait did you see this thread though??
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/the-new-mac-mini-is-almost-certainly-coming.1681773/
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https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/the-new-mac-mini-is-almost-certainly-coming.1681773/
[doublepost=1521491278][/doublepost]
I did exactly the same thing and it added years to that Mini's life. It's still going quite strong, actually, on my wife's desk. We even installed a current version of Photoshop on it recently and runs just fine. I shudder to think what it would be like with that old HDD doing all the heavy lifting by itself...
I hope true come out with a new one this year. I have a 2010 (I think, last ones with an optical drive), and it’s starting to show it’s age. I just use it for iTunes, ripping movies and music, and part of my media center. I could use a Windows computer, but my whole system is Apple for this.
Let me add to that. I was gifted a macmini 1,1 with a slow Core Duo 1,6 GHz CPU and 2 GiB of RAM on a slow 5400 RPM HDD. I've upgraded all of it and flashed it so the machine thinks it's a 2,1 instead of a 1,1. The last bit to upgrade was the HDD which I replaced with a lowend SSD. The machine has a SATA 1 link so splashing good money for stuff that will saturate the machine with not effort seemed like a waste of money. Before the SSD upgrade, the machine was barely useable to the point where doing anything really was a major PITA. After installing the SSD, I'm now happily compiling GCC 7.3 while browsing.
This is not a fast machine by any reasonable standard. It is, however, fast enough for a lot of things and just tossing machines like these out seems like a waste when an SSD can make them so much better.
One week update
So.... the iMac is lovely. I immediately wished I could've afforded a 27" one because the bezel around the display makes it look smaller than my cheap AOC 1080p monitors but, honestly, I don't need anything bigger.
I'm still in the process of getting it up and running with external drives for archived storage.
Thanks again everyone.
Nice! That's pretty much the direction I'll go in. My 2012 Mini is still chugging along and hope that I can go another year. Will use my current 1TB SSD as external storage once I switch and use my DELL U2515H as a second monitor.
That's interesting, thank you. I'm someone who gets impatient quickly - I do a lot by keyboard shortcuts and want a responsive machine. I don't wait to wait ten or more seconds for results when I'm searching for a file or for a minute or two for Illustrator to load when I just want to change one character in a graphic.
I've had a play around on a colleague's 27" 5k iMac with a Fusion drive and it seemed good - are they really not, in practice?
Depends. I have a Fusion Drive in my 27" 5K iMac and it's great -- but it's also one of the ones with a 128GB SSD portion (paired with a 1TB HDD). Mine is a few years old, and apparently they've now gotten to skimping on the 1TB Fusion drives and only giving them like 16 or 32GB of SSD, which is kind of lame. The 2TB Fusion drives still have a good sized SSD, so just read the specs carefully when you buy.
But yeah, overall I love the iMac. I actually had the same upgrade path as you -- ran a Mini for years and finally got the itch to have a retina display and didn't want to futz with a laptop. The iMac felt like the best bang for the buck to me, and for my budget the Fusion drive was the best deal. Like you, I wanted at least a 1TB drive because I like to have enough space to keep all my photos locally and generally not worry about space.
The iMac starts up fast, and the drive seems more than adequate. The idea is that the stuff you're actively using gets migrated to the SSD, and the HDD is more for inactive storage. I find it very automatic, very easy and quite zippy. The only time I find myself waiting is when I'm searching or accessing stuff on my external USB 3.0 media drive, waiting for it to spin up. I do a lot of Photoshop, Illustrator and such on it and I find it more than adequate.
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My Mini is running High Sierra but isn't eligible to install Mojave, which is sort of a shame. You're saying there's a way to trick the MacOS installer into thinking it's newer and installing anyway?
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I would go with a new iMac. Desktops are usually more durable and powerful than a laptop. There's more bang for the buck.
1. Depends on the desktop your talking about, but if it's a replacement of Mac Mini... Absolutely.. mainly because Apple has updated Macbook Pros, they haven't updated Mac mini as yet.
2. Nope, The more space, the better, and just because SSD's are the future (with Apple) doens't mean we have to all follow what they say.. Get as spinning drive in a main machine if you can find one.
The closest to this would be an iMac with Fusion drive.
3. From $1099: https://www.apple.com/mac/compare/
4. You'll have more hope with a MPB or iMac, then waiting some undefined length of time for Apple to release a updated Mac mini.
The longer you wait for one, the harder it would be to decide.
Same for me. Although my Mini is no longer my main machine since my MBP was repaired, I'd still have a great interest in this- I also have a MBA that just barely missed the cutoff.
The thing that sucks is that SSDs have come way down in price, but Apple is still marking them up so egregiously they're not really affordable.
Just get the cheapest option and go all in on external drives for the volume. If you can choose between a small and fast SSD or a big and slow HDD at the same price, get the SSD. The price for anything from Apple is just too great to not consider external drivers for stationary computers. Laptops are another story, but I'd still, at least, consider doing things the same way.
They were getting cheaper until around the end of 2015, since then they’ve shot back up because of demand outstripping supply, but seem to have topped out at the end of last year as nand flash supply has caught back up with demand. Currently prices are starting to fall but quite slowly - still a pretty long way to go to get back to where we were in 2015 yet.
Nope
Core i7 (I7-7700K) is a desktop processor
Radeon Pro 570/575/580 are not mobile GPUs
Apple doesn't use DDR4 in its laptop line but lower powered versions
Apple uses 7200 rpm drives in the 5k iMac which is a 2.5" drive, so I suppose you can make the claim that its a laptop part.
The really sad thing is that they are still using 5400 rpm drives in the 21.5" iMac. I really hope that the next time they refresh the iMac line that they dispose of the platter drives altogether and offer SSDs as default drives in all their iMacs.
Apple scoops up all the old tech-parts that would otherwise go into landfill
If all you use is a browser and maybe an email-app, the tiny 32GB (or whatever size it has) flash drive that accelerates the HD in a FusionDrive setup may just be enough for 80% of the people.
Not that I'd want to go back to a HD-only or FD setup myself, mind you.
If all you use is a browser and maybe an email-app, the tiny 32GB (or whatever size it has) flash drive that accelerates the HD in a FusionDrive setup may just be enough for 80% of the people.
Not that I'd want to go back to a HD-only or FD setup myself, mind you.