I disagree. The Mac Mini is a beautiful little box, and a lot of people value the small size and beautiful design. And if you care about size and power draw, then you have to start looking at devices like a NUC or other not-as-pretty boxes, and once you start adding all of the components that come built into a Mac Mini, the price of those boxes ends up being close to, or sometimes even exceeding, the price of a Mac Mini. For example, I've thought about configuring one as a Windows Media Center server. So, in my case, the Mac operating system would actually be of no use to me. Yet, I'd still prefer starting with a Mac Mini over trying to build my own.
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Mac Mini vs Custom Built Desktop
- Thread starter Jobine
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With the NUC D54250 you get Haswell, HD 5000, 8GB of RAM, 120GB SSD, and 802.11ac for $634.96 (+shipping).
Here's the list:
- Intel NUC D54250
- Intel 525 120GB mSATA SSD
- Intel 7260HMW 802.1ac + Bluetooth 4.0 adapter
- Crucial 8GB DDR3 1600
OTOH, the Mini has a larger footprint, a slow mechanical hard drive, comes with only 4GB of RAM, and starts at $600.
Someone could easily find themselves spending an extra $250 (or more) on top of their Mini's original price tag for a RAM and SSD upgrade, but no matter what it still lacks Haswell, HD 5000, and 802.11ac. If a current Mini owner wants that, they'll have to buy and resell whenever Apple gets off their butt.
If I didn't need Xcode, or if both could run OS X, I know which SFF hardware I would prefer to buy. I bet fewer people would also be willing to pay a premium for the current 2012 Mini. I'm also confident, if that complete NUC had an Apple logo on top of it, there are some people who would automatically start singing it's praises telling us how beautiful and magical it is.
Just saying.
Well, it really depends on what you're looking to accomplish with the box. In my case, I'd be looking to use it as media server, specifically running Windows 7 Media Center and Plex Media Server. So, let's compare some of the specs/costs…
First, I'd argue that 4GB RAM is sufficient for this purpose. So, let's save a few bucks on your NUC and downgrade it to 4GB. Unfortunately, it looks like that will only saves us $25, but savings are savings. So, now it's just $585 for your NUC vs $560 for the Mac Mini (that seems to be the going discounted price these days). But I think we can save a few more bucks on that NUC by eliminating the 802.11ac/Bluetooth card. For a media server, we'll want to use the built-in gigabit ethernet instead. So final price is now $551 for your NUC vs $560 for the Mac Mini.
Both will need Windows 7, so that's a wash (of course, if someone wanted to use that Mac Mini just with Plex Media Server and/or experiment with one of the XBMC live TV solutions, in lieu of Windows Media Center, that could be a significant cost savings, since you could run those under OS X which the Mini comes with, whereas you'd need to supply an OS to the NUC).
Where we'll run into a debate is with the SSD drive. You can rightly argue that your NUC's 120GB SSD is superior to the Mac Mini's 500GB spinning drive, in terms of speed. But for someone wanting to use this as a media server, specifically Windows Media Center, that Mac Mini's 500GB spinning drive is actually a superior option for DVR purposes. You'll get 4x the storage space, and I'd be wary of putting the kind of wear & tear that DVR usage puts out on an SSD. Unfortunately, we can't easily downgrade your NUC to use a 500GB (or larger) spinning drive, because that NUC case can't accommodate an internal 2.5" spinning drive.
Beyond that, the Mini also has the advantage of two more USB 3 ports, one FireWire 800 port, and a Thunderbolt port. Again, for my needs, I'd want to connect several external hard drives which house my movie collection, and the two extra USB ports will be needed.
Don't forget, too, that we'll want an IR port for remote control purposes. The Mini has built-in IR, though admittedly, I'm not sure how easy it is to utilize that under Windows 7 (again, if you were just going to run Plex, you could certainly utilize it under OS X). Assuming I couldn't use it under Windows, I'd have to hook up a USB IR sensor. Again, the cost will be a wash between the NUC and the Mac Mini there, but the NUC only having two USB ports again becomes a concern.
I think most would argue that the Mac Mini is clearly better looking than that NUC, but I'm less interested in arguing that. The Mini's internal power supply is another advantage, though. The NUC's smaller size is neat, but if it comes at the cost of requiring an external USB IR sensor, external powered USB hub, external spinning hard drive for DVR usage, and external power brick, maybe they went a little too far and should have accommodated those things internally and made the case a little bigger? Once you have to add all of those external things, it all starts to look quite messy. Admittedly, for my needs, I'd still need external hard drives for my movie collection, but you can actually accommodate a 2nd 2.5" drive inside the Mac Mini (not sure if it accommodates two spinning 2.5" drives), so you could potentially stick a couple of 2TB drives inside there or something and keep everything self-contained.
Update: I screwed up and missed the fact that this NUC actually has four (4) USB 3 ports *and* a built-in IR sensor.
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Pretty sure the nuc has an IR receiver and 4 USB ports plus thunderbolt and hdmi.
And I actually disagree that the internal power supply is a plus. With an external brick, that's less heat to dissapate inside the box, thus less cooling required and quieter.
And I actually disagree that the internal power supply is a plus. With an external brick, that's less heat to dissapate inside the box, thus less cooling required and quieter.
The NUC D54250 also happens to include one internal SATA III data and power header, so an internal 2.5" hard drive is possible but you'll need a custom enclosure for the motherboard or run it naked. Coming up with your own case design would make a cool project especially if you have access to a 3D printer.
http://www.legitreviews.com/intel-nuc-kit-d54250wyk-review-the-nuc-gets-haswell-power_124251/2
http://www.legitreviews.com/intel-nuc-kit-d54250wyk-review-the-nuc-gets-haswell-power_124251/2
By custom Desktop, I suppose you meant a Windows desktop?
The beauty of using a Mac is because of the OSX, No matter how good the hardware your custom desktop has, you are likely stuck with Windows' garbage. Unless you use Linux or you want to make a hackintosh, (which is not recommended.)
The beauty of using a Mac is because of the OSX, No matter how good the hardware your custom desktop has, you are likely stuck with Windows' garbage. Unless you use Linux or you want to make a hackintosh, (which is not recommended.)
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There is one on my campus but i'm not sure if i am allowed to use it.
Could i hackintosh the NUC?
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Unlike Most MR users i don't mind Windows, I have W7 running on my laptop and it's a great OS, but i want to try mac
I love OS X and all, especially Mavericks, but the only real benefit it has for me over iOS is Xcode.
OTOH, having Linux and Windows 7 on my custom gaming PC is far more versatile.
Thanks for the correction on the number of USB ports (I misread the specs page on Newegg's site) and the IR port (I don't think Newegg listed that at all, but I see it listed on Intel's spec page for this box).
Yes, very good point. So, there are pros/cons on the internal vs external brick.
The fact that this box has more USB ports and the built-in IR sensor definitely kicks it up a notch for me. I wonder if you could install Windows 7 on a USB drive. If so, I might then just use an external drive for WMC TV recording. That would cut the cost down even more, from $561 to $415 (plus the cost of Windows 7 and a USB drive). If you weren't looking to use it as a Plex Media Server where you'd want it powerful enough to do on-the-fly transcoding for one or more low-powered clients (e.g., iPad), you could even get away with the lower-spec'd i3 model (another $75 cheaper):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856102053
All that said, when considering discounted prices, you should also look for refurb or Open Box (at Best Buy) Mac Mini's. You can sometimes find that base model i5 Mac Mini for a little under $500.
Sorry for taking this thread on an HTPC tangent.
There is one on my campus but i'm not sure if i am allowed to use it.
Could i hackintosh the NUC?
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Unlike Most MR users i don't mind Windows, I have W7 running on my laptop and it's a great OS, but i want to try mac
Mac or PC is entirely personal preference. You go with what your heart tells you.
As I mentioned before, the beauty of a Mac is in the OSX, the UI--it's elegant, the UX and stability-- not as susceptible to attacks.
As far as the hardware Macs are really not that impressive. 5 years ago, I built a Hackintosh with the best hardware I could find at the time, the hardware costs about half of a Mac Pro of the time but it actually out performed my roommate's Mac pro.
The reason I do not recommended Hacintosh is it takes a lot of time to tweak to get it to work as close to a real Mac, in one instance, I had to write the driver(kext) to get the WiFi card working. Even then, there will always some little glitches. Hard to have the best of both worlds.If you only want to try out the Mac, you don't need to spend a lot on the latest model (avoid the late 2012 model tho because it has a video bug.)
Go to eBay, there are plenty of older model Mac mini, keep in mind that you need at least an older mini with a Core2Duo processor to run the latest OSX Mavericks.
Probably a 2011 model or so. Please note that the mini has no build-in camera or mic, just in case you didn't know.
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Go to eBay, there are plenty of older model Mac mini, keep in mind that you need at least an older mini with a Core2Duo processor to run the latest OSX Mavericks.
Uhhh, why would i buy hardware that's slower than my current desktop?
(First-Gen Core i3+GTX 460)
I want at least a quad-core.
One thing to keep in mind for the Hackintosh crowd...
With Mavericks Apple has begun to implement signed kexts.
How big of a hurdle this will pose for future versions of OS X on unofficial hardware will certainly be interesting.
As for my Hackintosh, it was fun and cheap for excellent performance but when the time comes to replace it a few years down the road I may be looking to go back to a real Mac.
http://www.tonymacx86.com/apple-news-rumors/112300-whats-new-kext-development.html
With Mavericks Apple has begun to implement signed kexts.
How big of a hurdle this will pose for future versions of OS X on unofficial hardware will certainly be interesting.
As for my Hackintosh, it was fun and cheap for excellent performance but when the time comes to replace it a few years down the road I may be looking to go back to a real Mac.
http://www.tonymacx86.com/apple-news-rumors/112300-whats-new-kext-development.html
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