Mac mini alternatives (macOS in VM on Apple and non-Apple hardware)

[imrazor]

I used a VM Mac on ESXi for about a year as my primary work machine, never could resolve audio and video issues. Granted, the host was a server class machine with limited A\V resources. I took the same steps you mention without positive results. So, I got an old Mini and loaded it with the backup from the VM. Worked fine until SIP came on the scene and the VoodooHDA caused issues with booting. So, I removed all the non-Apple kext files and it worked fine after that.

So, beware if you use migration or restore from the TM backup of a VM.

I've managed to disable SIP in Sierra, though I had to do it differently than you would on a real Mac. In ESXi the CMD-R (or whatever) keystroke doesn't work at boot, so I had to use the VMWare boot menu to boot the recovery partition, then disable SIP. VoodooHDA actually works, but it pops and distorts when the VM has a lot of I/O going on. So watching YouTube is painful when, for example, downloading emails.

I got around the video issues by installing a GTX 1050 Ti, enabling GPU pass through in ESXi, then installing the Nvidia web driver remotely through the VMWare console. It works perfectly, though I've had one minor issue with fullscreen video playback. Even got HDMI audio working thru VoodooHDA, but it has more issues with I/O than the onboard audio.

I don't actually have a server running ESXi. It's a Dell T5500 workstation with two video slots, so the logistics of GPU passthrough are easier to accomplish than with a true server. Fortunately it was 100% compatible with ESXi, though I don't have hardware monitoring.

 

[Adz76]

To be honest if you don't go down the Apple hardware route, the experience is always more of a challenge rather than the seamless it just works ethos which the Mac is supposed to provide.

I run ESXi on an HP Gen 8 micro server and have my Mac guest my Plex server and it works well, just not perhaps as seamless as having an all Mac setup.

If you go down this hybrid route be prepared to invest, time will be you biggest spend IMO!

 

[leo-tech]

To be honest if you don't go down the Apple hardware route, the experience is always more of a challenge rather than the seamless it just works ethos which the Mac is supposed to provide.

I run ESXi on an HP Gen 8 micro server and have my Mac guest my Plex server and it works well, just not perhaps as seamless as having an all Mac setup.

If you go down this hybrid route be prepared to invest, time will be you biggest spend IMO!

Well, compared to ditching macOS altogether and switching to some Windows and Linux combination instead (as a very likely outcome for me personally of all that Apple monopolist-abuser insanity), I would say retaining some hard to replace macOS apps functionality in VM would not be such a bad thing.

Time and technical problems I can deal with; increasingly brazen and delusional Apple policies - not really.

 

[leo-tech]

Intel NUC Roadmap 2018-19: Gemini Lake, Coffee Lake, and Kaby Lake H

 

[leo-tech]

The Mac Mini was arguably the world's first mass popular small form factor computer. It came out in 2005 and quickly captured a following among Apple fanboys (and girls). It was an elegant desktop that reached its zenith in the 2012 model. It was easily repairable and spawned a subculture of geeks upgrading RAM and storage themselves. It was rather unusual for an Apple product. And it weighed under three pounds.

Apple downgraded the 2014 Mac Mini model and let it lie dormant for the last three years. It is not easily repairable. The RAM was soldered in. And the top-end processor (CPU) was downgraded to a dual-core i7-4578U, not a quad-core. It is still being sold at this time with Haswell Processors...

Mike Konrad - The Mac Mini as Portent | Oct 01, 2017

 

[leo-tech]

Intel has finally shown its hand in the 2017 CPU wars, revealing the processors that’ll power the laptops going on sale before Christmas this year. It’s just added the first details of the "Coffee Lake" desktop processors, with the "premium performance" chips set to launch on 5 October 2017, with the Core i7-8700K and, for the first time ever, a four-core i3...

Intel 8th-gen CPUs: Release date, specs, price, news and more

 

[Cape Dave]

This looks slick. A bit pricey but way cool. MAGNUS EN1080K Thanks for pointing this out. This is proof positive that Apple has chosen to take themselves out of the mini computer market. Way slick! https://www.amazon.com/Zotac-MAGNUS-EN1080K-Desktop-Computer/dp/B06XVSNFRB/ref=sr_1_3

 

[Altis]

Intel has finally shown its hand in the 2017 CPU wars, revealing the processors that’ll power the laptops going on sale before Christmas this year. It’s just added the first details of the "Coffee Lake" desktop processors, with the "premium performance" chips set to launch on 5 October 2017, with the Core i7-8700K and, for the first time ever, a four-core i3...

Intel 8th-gen CPUs: Release date, specs, price, news and more

Dell is already putting quad-core, low-power 8th gen CPUs (8250U and 8550U) in their budget/mid-level Inspiron lineup. You can order one today.

They're officially 4 generations ahead of Mac Mini.

 

[imrazor]

This looks slick. A bit pricey but way cool. MAGNUS EN1080K Thanks for pointing this out. This is proof positive that Apple has chosen to take themselves out of the mini computer market. Way slick! https://www.amazon.com/Zotac-MAGNUS-EN1080K-Desktop-Computer/dp/B06XVSNFRB/ref=sr_1_3

That's nice ... but if it's VR ready then it has to have a dedicated GPU. All I see in the description is "GeForce gtx". That covers a lot of ground.

 

[leo-tech]

Intel seems to be preparing a new series of processors which will further boost the core count of their mainstream platform. The said processor lineup is planned for launch in second half of 2018 and it might be making use of the latest 10nm process technology...

Intel To Launch Ice Lake 8 Core, 16 Thread Mainstream CPUs in Second Half of 2018 – Will Feature Support on 300 Series Platform

 

[phairphan]

That's nice ... but if it's VR ready then it has to have a dedicated GPU. All I see in the description is "GeForce gtx". That covers a lot of ground.

It does—that's just the craptacular Amazon listing. It has a GTX 1080: https://www.zotac.com/us/product/mini_pcs/magnus-en1080k

 

[leo-tech]

GIGABYTE GB-BKi7HA-7500 Kaby Lake BRIX Review

 

[Cape Dave]

GIGABYTE GB-BKi7HA-7500 Kaby Lake BRIX Review

Worth a look, but Gigabyte has been way too loud in the past.

 

[Joe The Dragon]

Apple has resisted licensing the OS to third party manufacturers for almost their entire existence. To allow it to run on other HW would require efforts to test, certify and support hardware they don't produce. In return, they offer the OS at no cost to those who own Apple HW. Their main argument over the years has been to control the soup and nuts which prevents the issues that often plague Windows users (Blue Screens, though less so today than in the earlier years).

They are calculated in their HW offerings, too much churn is an expensive way for a low volume (relatively speaking) company to run a HW business. Long lifecycles are more profitable. If new models were introduced before older models had reached their market potential, they would be less profitable. Don't forget, Macs are only used by 10-15% of the market, so the product cycles are longer for Apple than other manufacturers who benefit from greater volume. Competition tends to drive most PC makers to cheap components in order to be more price attractive, but Apple tends to resist this in favor of quality offers.

Their business model works, they are one of the few profitable HW companies, so what would be the driver to change?

I would love to see them support a more open OS, but don't foresee it. But, a more modular approach to their products would be refreshing, the ability to add memory, disks, GPU often extends the useful life of a PC, but is not generally supported by current products. We can hope they will go back to a more modular approach.

they should have a mac os server for VM"s at the very least.

 

[techwarrior]

they should have a mac os server for VM"s at the very least.

Mac Mini and Mac Pro can run ESXi natively. Spinning up macOS VM on these hosts is how some companies do it. But, if you want a number of macOS guest machines, you really need high end machines.

At work, we do a lot of virtualization of Linux and Windows machines, we use higher end HP servers with 24 Core CPU and 256GB RAM and SAN drive arrays with 10GB Networks. This is not really possible with existing Apple HW, too bad they buried the old Xserve line.

 

[leo-tech]

There is something about this picture (and the concept behind it) that apparently makes those increasingly brazen and delusional Apple geniuses very uncomfortable. First, the the life of me I was unable to figure out what it was. Now I think I know, and that knowledge is guiding me toward leaving the Apple reservation for good.

 

[leo-tech]

Intel Coffee Lake H-Series Processor GeekBench Benchmark Appears

The upcoming Intel Coffee Lake H 6C/12T mobile processors are going to take laptops to the next level when it comes to performance and today we get to see what Intel is sitting on. An unknown 45W H-series mobile processor that is clocked a 2.60 GHz was benchmarked on Geekbench 3.4.1 for Windows x86 (32-bit) and scored 4,013 points on the single-core test and 19,129 points on the multi-core test.

 

[leo-tech]

...also I guess up to 32gb user-upgradeable memory (at least)

NVIDIA GeForce MX150: New dedicated laptop graphics explained

 

[leo-tech]

Intel Z370 motherboards round-up: 17 times Coffee Lake
The best motherboards with the Z370-chipset

For a long time you could count the performance improvement percentage of a new Intel-generation using the fingers of two hands. However, in the latest Core i7-series Intel takes a big step forward with 50% more cores: it has been quite a while since upgrading looked so attractive. Unfortunately you do need a new motherboard for this. Luckily there is a lot to choose from: we tested 17 Intel Z370-motherboards. Which one should you get?...

 

[Haswell]

Not a full computer, but the Streacom F1C-WS is a nice case that's very Mac Mini like.

I ordered this case yesterday. I am sick of waiting on Apple to release a new Mac Mini. So I am just going to make a hackintosh and be done with it. I was able to save about $150 by going with Skylake over Kaby Lake. Since there's really isn't much difference. One of the main benefits of building my own system is that I am using a full desktop quad core CPU. Instead of a dual core laptop CPU. I already have an M.2 SATA hard drive and a Corsair RM550x PSU. The PSU will be outside of the case, and it's about the same size as the case; but I already had it and I always use a high quality PSU.

Intel i5-6500
GA-B250N Phoenix-WIFI
Corsair CMK16GX4M1A2400C16
Noctua NH-L9i
Streacom F1C-WS Case

 

[leo-tech]

I am sick of waiting on Apple to release a new Mac Mini

Many Mac mini users feel that way, myself included (neglected, abandoned, disrespected, you name it).

What I find interesting though is that not many people realize how deep the rabbit hole goes, so to speak, or how close this whole thing on the side of Apple comes to (something probably best explained under the angle of) "the long train of abuses and usurpations" and "power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely", albeit on a smaller "petty monopolist-abuser" scale.

 

[leo-tech]

Best Z370 Mini ITX motherboards for your brand new Intel Coffee Lake

1. ASUS ROG Strix Z370-I Gaming

2. ASRock Z370M ITX/ac

3. MSI Z370-I Gaming Pro Carbon AC

 

[leo-tech]

Coffee Lake’s motherboard compatibility hints at Intel releasing 8-core CPUs
The real reason Intel doesn't allow Coffee Lake to work in Z270 motherboards could have to do with future CPU releases

With the introduction of Intel's 8th generation Core processor line (Coffee Lake), Intel also announced a new motherboard chipset, Z370. The real surprise, however, came when it was revealed that Coffee Lake would not be compatible with Z270 motherboards even though they use the same LGA 1151 socket. Some people assumed it was an arbitrary restriction, but it might have to do with Intel planning to release 8-core Coffee Lake chips sometime down the line...

 

[1mac2]

Well, compared to ditching macOS altogether and switching to some Windows and Linux combination instead (as a very likely outcome for me personally of all that Apple monopolist-abuser insanity), I would say retaining some hard to replace macOS apps functionality in VM would not be such a bad thing.

Time and technical problems I can deal with; increasingly brazen and delusional Apple policies - not really.

Would the HP Elite Slice be an answer to the Mac Mini

 

[leo-tech]

Ever wondered what our progressive Big Tech overlords (including Apple) are really up to?

Franklin Foer - World Without Mind: The Existential Threat of Big Tech (2017)

Over the past few decades there has been a revolution in terms of who controls knowledge and information. This rapid change has imperiled the way we think. Without pausing to consider the cost, the world has rushed to embrace the products and services of four titanic corporations. We shop with Amazon; socialize on Facebook; turn to Apple for entertainment; and rely on Google for information. These firms sell their efficiency and purport to make the world a better place, but what they have done instead is to enable an intoxicating level of daily convenience. As these companies have expanded, marketing themselves as champions of individuality and pluralism, their algorithms have pressed us into conformity and laid waste to privacy. They have produced an unstable and narrow culture of misinformation, and put us on a path to a world without private contemplation, autonomous thought, or solitary introspection—a world without mind. In order to restore our inner lives, we must avoid being co-opted by these gigantic companies, and understand the ideas that underpin their success.

Elegantly tracing the intellectual history of computer science—from Descartes and the enlightenment to Alan Turing to Stuart Brand and the hippie origins of today's Silicon Valley—Foer exposes the dark underpinnings of our most idealistic dreams for technology. The corporate ambitions of Google, Facebook, Apple, and Amazon, he argues, are trampling longstanding liberal values, especially intellectual property and privacy. This is a nascent stage in the total automation and homogenization of social, political, and intellectual life. By reclaiming our private authority over how we intellectually engage with the world, we have the power to stem the tide.

At stake is nothing less than who we are, and what we will become. There have been monopolists in the past but today's corporate giants have far more nefarious aims. They’re monopolists who want access to every facet of our identities and influence over every corner of our decision-making. Until now few have grasped the sheer scale of the threat. Foer explains not just the looming existential crisis but the imperative of resistance.