I'm very happy with my new 2018 Mini. Are others as well?

[Nicholas1490]

That's my understanding so far as well.

There are people who have used a T5 or a T6 on the same screw, and a T9 or a T10 on the same screw, but this doesn't surprise me. There's enough tolerance with Torx screws to explain this. In my case, I have a full set of Torx drivers anyway, so it doesn't matter.

I don't own an Apple Pentalobe P5, and have now ordered one, but for all the statements that it's necessary, I've yet to see anyone demonstrate it in use for this project.
[doublepost=1541716356][/doublepost]

I'm assuming that what you are saying is that the fan and the wifi cable have standard Torx screws, on which one can of course use a Torx security driver as well as a standard driver. In other words, you weren't using a standard Torx driver on a Torx Security screw. Right?

I found this video.

 

[F-Train]

I found this video.

Thanks, but that video has been posted several times and is just one of at least four at this point.

 

[thoang77]

No pentalobe screws at all. I saw the iFixit article this morning after I did my own upgrade. Their article is junk, completely wrong. It's a mix of 2014 Mini, 2018 mini and Mac Book Pro. They even said they didn't actually HAVE a 2018 Mini. They pulled stuff from their other articles and cut and pasted the article together without even having the 2018 Mini. They even said they "borrowed" some of the pictures from this forum.

I'm glad I'm not the only one that thought that write up was trash. That guy, who I do not believe works for iFixit, just wrote it up on heresay to be some kind of contributor.

I'm thrilled with my mini. Thing flies compared to my 2012!

 

[hvfsl]

delete

 

[xylitol]

David Gewirtz keeps saying throughout his video that all the screws are Torx Security screws, but it is perfectly obvious, just looking at them, that several of them are not.

I'm assuming that what you are saying is that the fan and the wifi cable have standard Torx screws, on which one can of course use a Torx security driver as well as a standard driver.

I think Gewirtz refers to his tools (bits) and not screws. This is where some of the confusion stems from.

 

[F-Train]

I think Gewirtz refers to his tools (bits) and not screws. This is where some of the confusion stems from.

If you're doing an instructional video, it's not exactly helpful to tell people that they need to use a special, more costly, screwdriver when they don't.

I may have a full set of standard Torx screwdrivers, but I sure don't have a full set of Torx Tamper-proof drivers, let alone a T10.

Having followed this, I figured out pretty quickly that Gewirtz was talking rubbish, but I suspect that a lot of the people watching his video are currently at sea. I don't know about Finland, but I can tell you that in the U.S. most people wouldn't know a Torx screw from a Phillips, and his video just adds to the confusion

 

[xylitol]

No disagreement there.

 

[jagolden]

Of course I've only had it one day but so far I'm very pleased with it. It replaced my 2014 Mini. Graphics are awesome running on a 32" 4K Dell UP3216Q at 60Hz. SSD is getting about 2800 MB/s R/W which is great. Around 25800 Geekbench.

No issues some others are posting about. Coil whine, heat, T2 related crashes, etc, etc.

Mine is running rock solid, quiet and very smooth. i7 model with 1TB SSD and 32GB Crucial ram, 10.14.1.

Glad you like it! Could you offer insight to a Mini (and buying external needs) vs. buying an iMac? Next year or two I’ll have to update my 27" iMac.

 

[tubedogg]

No pentalobe screws at all. I saw the iFixit article this morning after I did my own upgrade. Their article is junk, completely wrong. It's a mix of 2014 Mini, 2018 mini and Mac Book Pro. They even said they didn't actually HAVE a 2018 Mini. They pulled stuff from their other articles and cut and pasted the article together without even having the 2018 Mini. They even said they "borrowed" some of the pictures from this forum.

Not that it makes it necessarily accurate, but at this point, they have replaced all the pictures with pictures of the 2018 model.

 

[Zackmd1]

Not that it makes it necessarily accurate, but at this point, they have replaced all the pictures with pictures of the 2018 model.

Looks like ifixit does not have a 2018 mini to teardown yet. Interesting considering the usually have product teardown guides up almost immediately after product launch. Wonder if they are having difficulty sourcing one....

 

[F-Train]

Looks like ifixit does not have a 2018 mini to teardown yet. Interesting considering the usually have product teardown guides up almost immediately after product launch. Wonder if they are having difficulty sourcing one....

It looks like iFixit is so obsessed with trying to attract page views that it was prepared to go with a half-assed, rubbish article in hopes of sucking people in until they can get their act together.

Not impressed.

 

[Zackmd1]

It looks like iFixit is so obsessed with trying to attract page views that it was prepared to go with a half-assed, rubbish article in hopes of sucking people in until they can get their act together.

Not impressed.

Rather disappointed as well considering I was expecting the usual quality teardown on launch day.

 

[killawat]

Rather disappointed as well considering I was expecting the usual quality teardown on launch day.

lmao hopefully they give the guy a kit or something.

 

[kevink2]

It took overnight to restore my applications, etc, from my network time machine backup.

I had previously put my home directory on an external USB SSD drive. That was the hard part, since I had all sorts of problems making my home directory work on the USB drive.

The other issue is I ordered an USB C cable too fast before my computer arrived, and ordered a cable that was only 480mb. So I'm now waiting on another cable.

The computer handled the 4K HDMI monitor I already had fine.

 

[Zackmd1]

It took overnight to restore my applications, etc, from my network time machine backup.

I had previously put my home directory on an external USB SSD drive. That was the hard part, since I had all sorts of problems making my home directory work on the USB drive.

The other issue is I ordered an USB C cable too fast before my computer arrived, and ordered a cable that was only 480mb. So I'm now waiting on another cable.

The computer handled the 4K HDMI monitor I already had fine.

Different cables get better speeds for external SSDs on USB C? I though the standard itself was limited to about 500mb... Do tell please...

 

[rmdeluca]

Different cables get better speeds for external SSDs on USB C? I though the standard itself was limited to about 500mb... Do tell please...

No, unfortunately, the standard is a bit of mess right now. USB-C is backwards compatible with USB 2.0 (480Mbps), indeed a USB-C connector does not necessitate a SuperSpeed (5Gbps) or SuperSpeed+ (10Gbps) throughput. And SuperSpeed+ (USB 3.1 Gen 2) is limited to 1m cable lengths.

So you can have a USB-C cable that doesn't have the wiring for SuperSpeed, and it will be a USB 2.0 cable... With a USB-C connector.

 

[bumfluff]

very happy with my 2018 MM

 

[Dr. Stealth]

I'm assuming that what you are saying is that the fan and the wifi cable have standard Torx screws, on which one can of course use a Torx security driver as well as a standard driver. In other words, you weren't using a standard Torx driver on a Torx Security screw. Right?

Exactly correct. I was trying to make it clear for people running out buying tools that if they get the TR6 driver it will also work for the standard T6 screws so they don't have to buy both. TR6 will do both.

I can't believe all the mis-information being passed around by people who have not done the upgrade. It's very simple and only requires 3 bits. TR6, T10 & T5. That's it.

Of course the iFixit article did more to confuse people which is sad because a lot of people trust iFixit.

Also seems to be a lot of confusion about the security screws. Apple only uses security screws to OPEN the case. It makes no sense to use security screws inside a unit when they already are used to keep people out of the unit.

I'm just trying to provide the correct information in a sea of mis-information. Hoping to help...

 

[senseless]

My base model is a big improvement over my 2011 mini. Microsoft Office '16 loads way quicker and I can scroll through big Excel files without waiting for redraw! (it was painfully slow on my old mini). Love the fast USB-C ports for power supply free hub and ssd external drive. Coming from USB 2, you can see I'm excited about this.

Negatives were the usual hassles with migrated software unregistration and re-registrations and my AOL email password had to be changed for mail to work again. Microsoft was the worst offender by putting me through multiple hoops to get office running again. My Epson workforce printer needed updated software, but that went smoothly.

 

[iriejedi]

Waiting patiently...... i7/32/1TB - considering it is replacing a 2008 Mac Pro.... I'm expecting I'll have little to be sad about.... the 34 inch thunderbolt 3 curved screen was a bit of sugar on top.... at least until wife finds out my old monitor works....

Monitor Samsung CJ791

 

[grandM]

at least until wife finds out my old monitor works....

rofl
Say it wasn't you

 

[F-Train]

Exactly correct. I was trying to make it clear for people running out buying tools that if they get the TR6 driver it will also work for the standard T6 screws so they don't have to buy both. TR6 will do both.

I can't believe all the mis-information being passed around by people who have not done the upgrade. It's very simple and only requires 3 bits. TR6, T10 & T5. That's it.

Of course the iFixit article did more to confuse people which is sad because a lot of people trust iFixit.

Also seems to be a lot of confusion about the security screws. Apple only uses security screws to OPEN the case. It makes no sense to use security screws inside a unit when they already are used to keep people out of the unit.

I'm just trying to provide the correct information in a sea of mis-information. Hoping to help...

I think the problem is that a lot of the people doing the "instructing" don't know anything about the tools that they are using or the fasteners that they are dealing with, except that they got an iFixit package deal that is supposed to work

 

[Sun Baked]

I am happy.

Simply keeping those few legacy ports made things much less expensive for this update considering the usual alternative.

Only needed 1 monitor cable to drop the new 2018 Mini in place, and I used the 2014 Mini to swap out a 2007 iMac.

 

[Miat]

No pentalobe screws at all. I saw the iFixit article this morning after I did my own upgrade. Their article is junk, completely wrong. It's a mix of 2014 Mini, 2018 mini and Mac Book Pro. They even said they didn't actually HAVE a 2018 Mini. They pulled stuff from their other articles and cut and pasted the article together without even having the 2018 Mini. They even said they "borrowed" some of the pictures from this forum.

That's disappointing from iFixit, who usually do excellent work.

 

[dlemmon]

So far I'm pretty disappointed. I use my machine for logic pro, and came from a 2011 21.5" iMac. Projects that I didn't have any problems with on the old machine now overload the CPU causing crackling sounds. When playing a CPU heavy synth, it is only using 1 thread for some reason which it easily overloads causing crackling sounds. I can increase the I/O buffer or go down to HD from 4K to improve the performance, but I really shouldn't have to do that. You'd think from 2011 to 2018 it would be able to handle it better, not worse. I ordered it with only 8 GB of ram whereas my old machine had 20 (4x4x8x8) so that could be it. I had planned to upgrade the RAM anyway, so maybe it'll be alright. I just don't know if it was worth the purchase at this point. Love the extra room on the screen however, and all the ports!
for the record I got the i7 256GB 8GB RAM
Geek bench scored the mac mini about 2x for single and multi core performance.