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Mac mini 2014 v MacBook Air Value

A

AltiVecG4

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 14, 2013
15
0
Hi,

Most on this forum consider the baseline '14 MM as a bad buy and bad value for money. But, the machine that it is based of, the '14 MBA, seems to be universally praised. Most would recommend the MBA as a high performance machine while the almost identical MM is said to be underpowered. Also, the MM is almost half the price of the cheapest MBA.

My question, why is the '14 baseline MM not recommended versus the MBA?
 
One is mobile and the other is not.

Also, mini PCs have more advanced hardware in a smaller form factor at a better price.

The Gigabyte Brix Pro i7-4770R Mini PC, for example. It sells for $599 at Amazon and Newegg. It has a quad core i7 and Iris Pro graphics. Just add the RAM and SSD you want and go. Those are things most people upgrade anyways. If you already have RAM and an SSD from a previous Mac Mini, you're golden.
 
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AltiVecG4 said:
HMy question, why is the '14 baseline MM not recommended versus the MBA?
Click to expand...
The Mini is a desktop computer. The Air is an ultrabook. Expandability, power consumption, CPU choices etc should follow the product category. Can't compare a sports car with an SUV even if they use the same motor.
 
Also the MBA comes with an SSD so the performance will be much better.

I think the fact that you can get much better processor and graphics and twice the memory and hard disk space for only $200 is the reason that people prefer the $699 MM. With the MBA, there is no significant upgrade for a small amount of money like that.
 
The Mac mini is desktop yes, but it houses laptop components. In fact, the hardware in the baseline Mac mini is almost identical to that in a Macbook Air, just worse because it doesn't have an SSD. The higher-end models are more what you would find in a 13'' Retina Macbook Pro. Never are you getting true desktop-level performance out of a mini, but get a higher-end model and you'll get better performance than a MBA, for the same price.
 
The ssd on the MBA hides the impact of the paltry 4gb of ram. Swapping memory into a 5400 rpm hard drive is so 2005.
 
magbarn said:
The ssd on the MBA hides the impact of the paltry 4gb of ram. Swapping memory into a 5400 rpm hard drive is so 2005.
Click to expand...

I'm surprised 5400 RPM drives are still being used in these at all, considering you could get a Power Mac G4 with a 7200 RPM drive back in 2000. That's 14 years we've had 7200 RPM drives.
 
5400rpm drives today have much faster data transfer speeds than 7200rpm drives 14 years ago. And they use much less power, which is apparently what Apple was going for.
 
thagomizer said:
5400rpm drives today have much faster data transfer speeds than 7200rpm drives 14 years ago. And they're cheaper, which is apparently what Apple was going for.
Click to expand...

Made a minor correction as we're talking about at most <1 watt difference at the wall between a mini with a 7200rpm vs 5400 rpm hard drive.
 
People value more mba because of ssd and mobility qualities.

But doesn't mean the mini base is a bad computer. The 5400 hdd is slower than ssd, but has much more capacity storage and its a reliable technology.
 
cinealta said:
The Mini is a desktop computer. The Air is an ultrabook. Expandability, power consumption, CPU choices etc should follow the product category. Can't compare a sports car with an SUV even if they use the same motor.
Click to expand...

Good one... I could not resist:

1024px-LandRoverFreelander.jpg

1-carbon-fiber-lotus-elise.jpg


Same engine
 
AltiVecG4 said:
My question, why is the '14 baseline MM not recommended versus the MBA?
Click to expand...

The base Mac mini is slow because of the 5400 rpm hard drive. It is much slower compared to a MacBook Air. I purchased one last week but I am returning it for the middle model for this very reason. SSDs make a very big difference. I couldn't quite believe the difference in performance between my 1.3 GHz MacBook Air (2013) and the base Mac mini until I experienced it when I first used it last week.

If you need portability, get a MacBook Air. You can also connect a MacBook Air to an external monitor using the built-in Thunderbolt port, with an appropriate adapter.

A Mac mini is good if you generally use your computer at your desk, and also if you want to use multiple external monitors (like in my case). However, if you are considering a Mac mini, save yourself a lot of time and hassle and just don't even bother considering the 1.4 GHz model - it might be cheap, but it is slow for anything more than casual/light use.

Perhaps 8 GB RAM in the base model might help elevate some of the speed problems with the machine, but I'm not confident it will...
 
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bbnck said:
The base Mac mini is slow because of the 5400 rpm hard drive. It is much slower compared to a MacBook Air. I purchased one last week but I am returning it for the middle model for this very reason. SSDs make a very big difference. I couldn't quite believe the difference in performance between my 1.3 GHz MacBook Air (2013) and the base Mac mini until I experienced it when I first used it last week.

If you need portability, get a MacBook Air. You can also connect a MacBook Air to an external monitor using the built-in Thunderbolt port, with an appropriate adapter.

A Mac mini is good if you generally use your computer at your desk, and also if you want to use multiple external monitors (like in my case). However, if you are considering a Mac mini, save yourself a lot of time and hassle and just don't even bother considering the 1.4 GHz model - it might be cheap, but it is slow for anything more than casual/light use.

Perhaps 8 GB RAM in the base model might help elevate some of the speed problems with the machine, but I'm not confident it will...
Click to expand...

Yeah, I gave up on the base model. The middle one with 8gb RAM and with SSD is the way to go IMO if you are looking at the 2014 ones.
 
gugy said:
Yeah, I gave up on the base model. The middle one with 8gb RAM and with SSD is the way to go IMO if you are looking at the 2014 ones.
Click to expand...

The middle 2012 with an aftermarket upgrade to 16 gig is a few hundred dollars cheaper and a far superior machine (twice the cpu speed, spare sata port).

There is just no reason anyone should buy the 2014. Either grab a 2012 however you can or wait for the 2016/17/18/??.
 
Oracle1729 said:
The middle 2012 with an aftermarket upgrade to 16 gig is a few hundred dollars cheaper and a far superior machine (twice the cpu speed, spare sata port).

There is just no reason anyone should buy the 2014. Either grab a 2012 however you can or wait for the 2016/17/18/??.
Click to expand...

Exactly. If you are are in the US, there have been a lot of i7 refurbs showing up nearly everyday.

2012 i7 quad-core $589
16GB ram $135
Samsung 850 Pro 256 GB $185
Total: $909
 
Oracle1729 said:
The middle 2012 with an aftermarket upgrade to 16 gig is a few hundred dollars cheaper and a far superior machine (twice the cpu speed, spare sata port).

There is just no reason anyone should buy the 2014. Either grab a 2012 however you can or wait for the 2016/17/18/??.
Click to expand...

Well, the cheapest I found new (2012, i7) was at $789. Used or refurbished I wasn't able to find much better. The middle of the pack 2014 is at $699.

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crazzapple said:
Exactly. If you are are in the US, there have been a lot of i7 refurbs showing up nearly everyday.

2012 i7 quad-core $589
16GB ram $135
Samsung 850 Pro 256 GB $185
Total: $909
Click to expand...

That looks like a great upgrade but I have not seem a quad core at this price point yet.
 
gugy said:
That looks like a great upgrade but I have not seem a quad core at this price point yet.
Click to expand...

That price is direct from apple's refurb store. You will need to sign up for notification at one of the refurb tracker websites. I have not been signed up for a week, so it's possible they have stopped putting them up.
 
gugy said:
That looks like a great upgrade but I have not seem a quad core at this price point yet.
Click to expand...

I actually gave up and bought the Server model for $760 in the refurb store. The extra $170 was a bit high for an extra 1TB drive and special cable, but at least it was available and it's still a bargain for the whole machine at that price.

I may still grab a 2.6 or 2.3 quad core if I can get one with everything else base. I really don't see any mac going in a direction I'd buy any time soon.

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crazzapple said:
That price is direct from apple's refurb store. You will need to sign up for notification at one of the refurb tracker websites. I have not been signed up for a week, so it's possible they have stopped putting them up.
Click to expand...

They haven't been up for about a week, but I'm hoping we haven't seen the last of them.
 
crazzapple said:
That price is direct from apple's refurb store. You will need to sign up for notification at one of the refurb tracker websites. I have not been signed up for a week, so it's possible they have stopped putting them up.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I have been checking the Apple site often with no success. I'll check the refurb checker
 
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