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Mac mini 2013/2014 refresh.

addictive said:
Personally, I think the form factor of the Mac Mini is going to stay the same for this next release. There has been zero leaks of information or photos to suggest a different form factor.

I do expect the big changes for the Haswell Minis to be:
1x PCIe SSD (Same as new Macbook Air)
Bluetooth 4.0
AC Wifi

I think they'll redesign the form of the mac mini over the next 12 months or whenever they can get hold of the Broadwell chips from Intel as Broadwell will necessitate a new motherboard.

While serving a totally different market from the Mini the new Mac Pro is likely the only new design we'll see for OSX products this year. Apple wouldn't blow is its aesthetic load twice in the space of a month with a new design for the Mini and a new design Mac Pro.

This year the Mac Pro is the priority and next year I would imagine they can put the bells and whistles on the Mac Mini (Thunderbolt 2 etc...) but the Mac Mini is still a very capable machine for most peoples uses.

I would imagine a redisign of the Mac Mini would make it even smaller and lighter and potentially making it the home hub machine and for it being part of :apple: and their plans to compete in the living room.
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Doesn't it already have bluetooth 4.0?
 
As far as no two drives: is concerned: I see a high likely hood of a smaller Mac mini in the shape of Airport - Time Capsule and I see the server with two disks disappear and the Mac Pro being suggested for server purposes. This is why I got myself another base Mac mini so I could two SSD in that.
 
MJL said:
As far as no two drives: is concerned: I see a high likely hood of a smaller Mac mini in the shape of Airport - Time Capsule and I see the server with two disks disappear and the Mac Pro being suggested for server purposes. This is why I got myself another base Mac mini so I could two SSD in that.
Click to expand...

But the Mac Pro doesn't have room for internal storage beyond what looks like a single PCIe SSD - Apple want you to store your data outside of the Mac Pro. They are pushing the idea of Fusion drive for domestic computing so if it's good enough for the iMac then I'd expect Apple to continue it for the Mac Mini.

Obviously, they don't have to continue with 2x2.5" drive bays so it's perhaps easier to see a smaller form factor mini having a single 2.5" drive bay paired up with a PCIe SSD slot. It would certainly allow for a smaller form factor and in the style of the Mac Pro or Time Capsule while making sure that DIY Fusion drives become that bit more expensive for punters to do on their own.
 
sublunar said:
But the Mac Pro doesn't have room for internal storage beyond what looks like a single PCIe SSD - Apple want you to store your data outside of the Mac Pro. They are pushing the idea of Fusion drive for domestic computing so if it's good enough for the iMac then I'd expect Apple to continue it for the Mac Mini.

Obviously, they don't have to continue with 2x2.5" drive bays so it's perhaps easier to see a smaller form factor mini having a single 2.5" drive bay paired up with a PCIe SSD slot. It would certainly allow for a smaller form factor and in the style of the Mac Pro or Time Capsule while making sure that DIY Fusion drives become that bit more expensive for punters to do on their own.
Click to expand...

They may well go for PCIe but I doubt if they'll have facility for PCIe and a 2.5" drive. Frankly I feel Fusion is a transition thing and won't be around very long especially if we see how fast prices for SSD is dropping. Perhaps they'll do the same thing as with the Mac Pro - use internally PCIe and some external or more likely push cloud storage.
 
Mr. Retrofire said:
Nothing in the Haswell Mac mini supports USB 3.1, why should the Mac mini support TB2?
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In (early?) 2014, new USB spec will be 3.1 (double speed). TB is going to introduce TB2 spec, too!

"Why should MAC mini support TB2?" Simple!
It's the same with Wi-Fi AC...who needs it now? All MAC series are going to incorporate it....in 2014, TB2 will replace TB...
 
NewbieCanada said:
Haswell, HD5000, Wireless ac added

No change in size or cosmetically. No TB2. Dropping Firewire and/or Ethernet in favour of a second thunderbolt.
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Of course, I know no more than you do until a product comes out, but if Apple plans to leave the chassis/enclosure/design the same, I cannot see ethernet being dropped. The mini is heavily touted by Apple as being a "server" device for business (at least the $999 model), and server administrators/data centers are not going to be pleased with requiring a dongle for TB to ethernet.

On a thin notebook without enough physical space for an ethernet port, where most users are on wireless? Sure. But not on a desktop (albeit small) with plenty of physical space. Firewire? I suppose I could see that dropped, but not ethernet.

There's enough of a market for data center type installs from the likes of macminicolo and plenty of small businesses that it would be suicide for Apple to require a dongle for the wired network.

But what do I know?
 
ioannis2005gr said:
In (early?) 2014, new USB spec will be 3.1 (double speed). TB is going to introduce TB2 spec, too!
Click to expand...
Too late for the Late-2013 Mac mini. :D

ioannis2005gr said:
"Why should MAC mini support TB2?" Simple!
It's the same with Wi-Fi AC...
Click to expand...
No, 802.11ac routers existed before Apple implemented 802.11ac in the MBA. Where are the TB2 or USB 3.1 devices for the Late-2013 Mac mini!?
 
Mr. Retrofire said:
Too late for the Late-2013 Mac mini. :D


No, 802.11ac routers existed before Apple implemented 802.11ac in the MBA. Where are the TB2 or USB 3.1 devices for the Late-2013 Mac mini!?
Click to expand...

As I said before....If Mac mini appears in 2013, there will be no TB2 or USB3.1...there is also a possibility to see Haswell Mac mini in 2014 (between Mar.-Apr.2014). In this case, TB2 will be added in the Mac mini (among the others)...
 
G4er? said:
Because they are Apple?
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Apple didn't remove the Ethernet port from either the iMac or Mac Pro. They probably aren't going to remove it from the Mini either.

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mcarling said:
The more I think about it, the more I think the Haswell Mac mini will use the form factor of the new Airport Extreme / Time Capsule. I expect to see 802.11ac Wifi and a second Thunderbolt port replace the Firewire port. Otherwise, I expect the ports to remain the same.
Click to expand...

I doubt they would adopt that form-factor for the Mini. The only reason they did with the Airport Extreme/Time Capsule was so they could fit the new 802.11ac beam-forming antennas. Otherwise Apple generally prefers the most discrete form possible. (e.g.. the current Mini can sit right underneath the monitor)
 
thestickman said:
If Apple hasn't improved the airflow & overall cooling of these upcoming mini's, I wouldn't buy one on a dare. Just my 2 cents worth.
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I'm not sure what mini you have previous experience with, but my 2011 i5 mac mini stays on for weeks at a time. I use it daily and also use it as a video server for XBMC. I've never experienced any type of cooling issues or any type of issues for that matter.
 
I don't need to worry about airflow because I just use smcfancontrol if it gets too hot. Let it run at the max rpms for 3-5 minutes and it's cool to the touch.
 
APlotdevice said:
Apple didn't remove the Ethernet port from either the iMac or Mac Pro. They probably aren't going to remove it from the Mini either.

----------



I doubt they would adopt that form-factor for the Mini. The only reason they did with the Airport Extreme/Time Capsule was so they could fit the new 802.11ac beam-forming antennas. Otherwise Apple generally prefers the most discrete form possible. (e.g.. the current Mini can sit right underneath the monitor)
Click to expand...

Yeah no ethernet means no machine for me. So I hope you are correct.
 
APlotdevice said:
I doubt they would adopt that form-factor for the Mini. The only reason they did with the Airport Extreme/Time Capsule was so they could fit the new 802.11ac beam-forming antennas. Otherwise Apple generally prefers the most discrete form possible. (e.g.. the current Mini can sit right underneath the monitor)
Click to expand...

You forget the Bluetooth issues with USB3 and limited range in the current form factor. Will be interesting to see what they are going to do about that.
 
MJL said:
You forget the Bluetooth issues with USB3 and limited range in the current form factor. Will be interesting to see what they are going to do about that.
Click to expand...

The USB3 interference issue could be solved by giving the BT controller better shielding, as existing DUI solutions have.
 
ValSalva said:
For 4K display support?
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Non-TV 4K displays are very expensive. Unlikely that “you” use them on a Mac mini.

ValSalva said:
I'd be happy if Apple just put two TB1 ports on the back for dual displays that are not Thunderbolt, i.e. used as DisplayPorts.
Click to expand...
I need two Thunderbolt ports for fast & energy efficient backups via TM or Disk Utility (compressed disk images of entire disks/volumes). USB 3.0 + UASP is probably sufficient if “your” target disk/volume is not a SSD.
 
I am no longer looking forward to the Haswell chip.

System builders and manufacturers are reporting that the pre-production chips were running a lot cooler than the production chips. They are unhappy because it appears that the production Haswell runs hotter than the Ivy or Sandy bridge and they have all kinds of issues due to running so hot.
 
MJL said:
I am no longer looking forward to the Haswell chip.

System builders and manufacturers are reporting that the pre-production chips were running a lot cooler than the production chips. They are unhappy because it appears that the production Haswell runs hotter than the Ivy or Sandy bridge and they have all kinds of issues due to running so hot.
Click to expand...

links? I do have a chip in a pc I built it may be a 4670s or a 4570s.

but this machine is very well cooled. I am not that impressed with it. frankly the big jump in cpus was core 2 duo to sandy
 
http://www.bit-tech.net/news/hardware/2013/06/06/haswell-heat/

http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/report-intel-haswell-processors-prone-to-overheating/

I get the impression that they both refer to the same batch of builders so do not know how much value it has.

I am running 24/5 Windows and the weekends OS X. Under Windows I have limited the CPU to maximum 99% of the CPU speed, meaning that it will not go into turbo mode.

This came to a head when I needed to a full scan in Windows 8 and the temperature went up to 85-87 C which I regard as too hot. (check the maximum temperature allowed for the CMOS battery, memory and SSD have increased degradation at elevated temperatures).

After setting it to 99% temperature dropped slowly and after a while it was a lot lower: CPU dropped to below 60 C and max temperature was 71C. Fine by me, the machine is fast enough for my purposes.
 
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