Skip 2019 Mini for 2020 model?

[brdeveloper]

I ended up picking up an i5 model for 999$ on Black Friday. Wife found out and was absolutely furious but I only had to sleep on the couch for three nights before being forgiven. Great value!

That's why I prefer upgrading parts. While she thinks I still have the same desktop or laptop, I'm fine.

 

[Cheapassmac]

2020 seems a bit close. Especially considering an all new, redesigned Mac Pro is coming next year. Seems odd to put all of that effort into a new Mac Pro only to begin switching away from x86 a year later. On that note, while the ARM chips Apple are putting out compete with mobile chips, they don't yet compete with mid or high-end desktop chips like those in high end Mac mini's, the iMac Pro, and presumably Mac Pro. I don't see Apple maintaining an x86 and ARM version of macOS.

I guess they could move the lower end Macs over to ARM and have a forked macOS, but even that seems a bit of an odd move to add yet another operating system. I am not saying Apple does not move to ARM, but I do think 2020 seems a bit ambitious and does not feel right. That is just about a year off (year and a half if we assume WWDC 2020), and I just don't know that we are seeing signs that something like that is coming.

I will say that it is rather interesting that both the MacBook and the iMac were not updated this year. Those would be the machines I would guess would be the first to switch. However, as I said, what would they do for the rest? I don't think ARM is fast enough to replace i5 and faster systems. Maybe I am wrong about that?

Well, when they said new mac pros for 2013, they literally released it in December, so 2020 could be at the tail end (ie 2 years away). That said, it was probably just an internal goal that got leaked (as oppose to a public promise like the mac pro).

I prefer if Apple stayed intel for a little while longer then 2020, but I'm sure there's an ARM version of mac os in their lab. Steve Jobs once mentioned that Mac OS X has a double life. At the time of that statement, he also claimed Apple was maintaining both a PPC and Intel build since inception).

 

[Cashmonee]

Well, when they said new mac pros for 2013, they literally released it in December, so 2020 could be at the tail end (ie 2 years away). That said, it was probably just an internal goal that got leaked (as oppose to a public promise like the mac pro).

I prefer if Apple stayed intel for a little while longer then 2020, but I'm sure there's an ARM version of mac os in their lab. Steve Jobs once mentioned that Mac OS X has a double life. At the time of that statement, he also claimed Apple was maintaining both a PPC and Intel build since inception).

I remember the Intel switch very well, and everyone saw it coming. While there are a lot of people predicting ARM, and I think they are probably right, I also find it interesting that most speculation is based on benchmarks from a single source that are synthetic and by their nature not a great way to compare different systems. We have no idea if the A chips can scale to compete with i7s and Xeons (or i3s and i5s for that matter) in real-world performance. We have no clue what graphics will look like and if it will compete with the modern cards. And to top it all off, I am not so sure there is the same need as there was when PPC was dropped. PowerPC had hit a wall and Apple was stuck without a choice.

I think we will see ARM. I don't know about 2020 and I don't know that macOS will be around to see it. It could be the fabled merged OS, although Apple has stated that iOS and macOS will remain separate. I think there are far more unknowns and pretty big assumptions being made for this to be happening in a year and a half (I highly doubt it would be announced anywhere other than WWDC).

 

[Cheapassmac]

Sure, I'm not rooting for ARM 2020, and hope it won't happen until 2024+. I'm just saying it's very possible, almost beyond reasonable doubt that it is at least in the works. Apple would save money and be free from intel with the move, so it's not like there is no incentive.

If AMD doesn't actually put out the graphics goods on the high end, Apple could be seeing a similar performance wall as back then. Ironically, the root cause would be the same (video game consoles), with the PS3 impacting IBM's PPC R&D, and PS5 determining Navi's roadmap.

 

[ElectronGuru]

...with the thermals not improved...

This seems to contradict what I’ve read, would you mind expanding on what you mean?

 

[Stephen.R]

Wife found out and was absolutely furious but I only had to sleep on the couch for three nights before being forgiven.

That's why I prefer upgrading parts. While she thinks I still have the same desktop or laptop, I'm fine.

I don't want to take this off topic, but this is a joke right?

 

[bunce66]

Knowing Apple, they're not gonna update the Mini for 5 years and will not lower the price during that entire time. I'd buy it now to get my money's worth.

I've been looking at the GPU in the 2018 model which is a UHD 630. This is the same chip that was in the prior generation Kabylake CPUs. And according to research the likely chip for the 2019 Mini will still be using the same 630 model. E.g.

https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/intel/core_i3/i3-9100

So that begs the question of whether we should skip the 2018 and 2019 models while we wait on upgraded iGPU in the 2020 Mini?

 

[dogslobber]

I don't want to take this off topic, but this is a joke right?

I am the boss in my own house when it’s empty.

 

[philipma1957]

I don't want to take this off topic, but this is a joke right?

If I told my wife every part I purchased Since 2001 she would have me on the chopping block not the couch. If she new how many 2tb ssds I have purchased she would freak. BTW I have one coming today. She did like the new 28 inch Acer 4k monitor but I got a BF deal from best buy and paid under 180 for it.

 

[Cashmonee]

Knowing Apple, they're not gonna update the Mini for 5 years and will not lower the price during that entire time. I'd buy it now to get my money's worth.

This is so true. I cannot believe what they are charging for the current iMac lineup. I was seriously considering one, but the only one that was on sale earlier in the month was the base 27" at Best Buy. Otherwise it is full price for tech that was released a year and a half ago and has been twice superseded! And that is not even the worst example!

 

[Cheapassmac]

Don't worry guys, now that phone sales have slowed down, they'll pay attention to the mac now lol

 

[BigBoy2018]

Next mini won't be around until 2022. That's a long wait.
Minis are famous for having low end graphics processing. The next one, while improved over the 2018 model will still underwhelm. Tis the mini way.

good luck with that. The next Mac mini won't exist.

This Mac mini was the last, spectacular, dying spasm of a once great line of Macs. All other lines of Macs soon to follow in its footsteps.

 

[brentsg]

If I told my wife every part I purchased Since 2001 she would have me on the chopping block not the couch. If she new how many 2tb ssds I have purchased she would freak. BTW I have one coming today. She did like the new 28 inch Acer 4k monitor but I got a BF deal from best buy and paid under 180 for it.

Yeah I have an RMA replacement for a 1TB Sandisk Extreme Pro coming tomorrow. I was ticked that they mailed it an incredibly slow method that took 8 days to cover a 6 hour drive. Was explaining how I was disappointed that they would do this for what was a $450 SSD 4 years ago and I stopped myself mid sentence.

Nothing good could come from that conversation.

 

[Ploki]

Wrong. They simply need to make it behave like the dell optiplex 7060 micro.
Easy access to a replaceable nvme m.2 ssd
Easy access to the sata
Easy access to the ram
Easy access to the cpu!

Same size as the Mac mini
Trade offs i7 8700t is a bit slower then the i7 8700b
And a brick.

Since I have to plug the gear in I could not care less about a brick.

I purchased the dell about a month before the mini.

And because it is superior to the mini in terms of upgrades.

Ie an i3 an i5 an i7 i can swap
Ram I can swap
2 drives which means I could put in a 2tb nvme.2 and a 4tb sata ssd.

Same gpu

whi needs sata in 2018? please dont. give me two more tb3 porta instead

edit: so base i7 is 1200 same as mac mini but ni TB ports? lol. you can have the sata
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Literally all I have seen in the comments section for years is people bang on and on about the Mac mini... they update it and surprise surprise they don’t buy it

Apple should have just killed the Mac mini tbh

what? its great. i got 15” refunded to buy the mini and i never had it before,.