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No more Mini Quads ever?

dogslobber

dogslobber

macrumors 601
Original poster
Oct 19, 2014
4,670
7,809
Apple Campus, Cupertino CA
If you review the new Broadwell-M chips then you'll notice the dearth of 4 core cpus. Indeed one thing that jumps out is that the 1.2ghz without TB so is that the future for the late 2015/early 2016 Mini? i.e. even LOWER base clock rate than the 2014 Mini and no 4 core ever again.

Grab those 2012 quads while they're still hot!
 
Broadwell-Y (aka Core M) is just a slice of the Broadwell cake. That's what you're referring to.

Broadwell-U that will be launched at CES in January won't include quads either.

Broadwell-H will come in quadcore flavors. Dual and quads will be available on the same bga socket this time (unlike on Haswell = that's why no quads in Mini 2014).

So

if next mini uses broadwell Y = no quads and new hockey puck extremely small (or extremely thin) format

if next mini uses broadwell U = same old format, no quads

if next mini uses broadwell H = same old format, both dual and quads a possibility (vs. impossible with haswell without designing two different motherboards)

if next mini skips broadwell and aim directly for skylake in late 2015 or Easter 2016 = same old format, quad cores, ddr4, Thunderbolt3 ports, 5K tb-display ready


dogslobber said:
Grab those 2012 quads while they're still hot!
Click to expand...

Hot as in "you can fry eggs on them" being powered by 45W tech designed inside intel labs like back in last decade.
 
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There will be mobile quad-core Broadwell and Skylake CPUs. Whether Apple will use them is a different consideration.
 
The next version of the mini will be single-core, and it'll come with a 64GB SSD soldered to the motherboard. But don't worry, you'll be able to upgrade to a 256GB SSD for $450.

Apple should realise that if they release a newer model of something, and the value of the older model actually increases (e.g. 2012 Mac mini, Apple TV 2), they've made a mistake.

Then again, they've got more money than the US government, so I don't think they really care.
 
seems quad core minis are the new 12" Powerbooks, or 17" Macbook Pros, or G4 cubes, or Cheese grater Mac Pros.

What others am I missing?
 
corvus32 said:
Having them run hot was Apple's decision.
Click to expand...

That's right - it's a (good) design decision to use the aluminium case as a heat sink. Instead of keeping the thermal energy inside the case and having to use a more powerful (and noisy) fan to expel the hot air, there use the case to do some of the work. As you don't often touch a desktop computer, this is a good design choice.

Laptops are a different matter - my 2007 MBP gets really hot above the function keys. I remember suffering sweaty hands in summer using that laptop, so I used to carry a bluetooth keyboard (or a fan!) with me.
 
Occamsrazr said:
Yes, buy two year old hardware everyone. This makes perfect sense.
Click to expand...
The Mini is going the way of a network appliance. Likely future editions will be hockey puck size, fully sealed, non-upgradeable, low power consumption and only meant to get users to/from iCloud with little or no local processing. The product lineup is a funnel meant to feed buyers into the next higher level (iMac, Mac Pro etc).
 
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