Yes you are absolutely right of course! I have corrected my post. Thanks.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
So, no Mini
- Thread starter Wirenut
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Yes you are absolutely right of course! I have corrected my post. Thanks.
The 2014 model was simply a deliberate gimping of the 2012 model. I consider the wait time between the last true update to be 5+ years at this point.
Apart from the mildest of graphics improvement (you still can't game on it, so who cares?) the 2014 was a downgrade in every conceivable way. A true gimping of epic proportions.
For those of us who have known the elegance of Apple and the Mac it's clear the "branding emphasis" has changed with the dongle / adapter mess which was and is completely un-Apple - so much so, I'm not surprised about anything they do anymore. When they changed the form-factor of the MacPro I was certain they lost sight of the corporate mentality and prior to that the elimination of their server. I'm almost certain they will kill the Mini and even more certain they will consider $2500-$3300 bottom-tier going forward wiping the Mini from the line-up and sending us to the bottom-tier modular MacPro. If they do it right and publish/commit to a desktop future I'll bite for sure.
QFT. The Mac Mini has not seen a meaningful improvement since the 2012 models.
Really? Sure, the quad core was dropped, but for the other models across the range performance was slightly enhanced. Even for the lowly 1.4 GHz model, which can boost to 2.5 GHz for a bit when required….. and that came at a lower price.
I know some who did buy the 2014 Mac Mini, and some here on MacRumors have reported their satisfaction with it…. even the base model. Sure, the odd dissenting voice, but can't please 'em all. Most negative comments have come from those who don't own one.
Should my present Mini fail catastrophically, I would buy one, and would be operational again within a day…. The Mac Mini is the only IT device I own.
Last edited:
I am not going to "defend" the 2014 Mini, it was a big disappointment and I am still very happy with my 2012 quad i7 2.6 Mini. But there were several other upgrades in 2014. It has 802.11ac wifi that is probably 5 times faster than the 2012. It also has a faster internal SSD interface. And it has two thunderbolt 2 ports as opposed to a single thunderbolt 1 port and a firewire port on the 2012.
The RAM is soldered to the board on the 2014 mini so it cannot be upgraded. They also made the enclosure harder to open as they felt there was no need for a user to get inside.
I am using a base 2014 mini as an iTunes server and it works fine for that - not a very demanding use, it just runs iTunes with home sharing 24/7 and serves media from a 4tb external USB drive. But for any kind of interactive uses (like a web browser or even just changing some System Preferences), it feels very slow.
The 2014 mini was a replacement for a base 2012 mini iTunes server, and the sluggish feeling was immediately apparent when I made the switch.
I am using a base 2014 mini as an iTunes server and it works fine for that - not a very demanding use, it just runs iTunes with home sharing 24/7 and serves media from a 4tb external USB drive. But for any kind of interactive uses (like a web browser or even just changing some System Preferences), it feels very slow.
The 2014 mini was a replacement for a base 2012 mini iTunes server, and the sluggish feeling was immediately apparent when I made the switch.
The entire Mac Mini user-base was downgraded with each iteration of the same architecture over the course of years for the same price while technology continued to move forward. Respectively, offering a spinner in this day and age is also a downgrade - it's not always necessary to loose something to feel the effects of being downgraded.
Look ... there won't be any new Quad Core Mac mini in the foreseable future. Not at least until the lowest-end iMac will have a QCore CPU.
What Downgrades as I have two Refurbished MM's(Late 2012 and Late 2014) and IMO the Late 2012; 2.5GHz,16GB Ram, 500GB HD runs way-behind my Late 2014 which has 2.8GHz, 8GB Ram, 256SSD.
The 500GB HD in the Late 2012 is the "bottleneck" but I have no Computer work-need to replace it with an SSD.
I got a base 2012 Mini like yours for $550 about three years ago. Upgraded it to 16gb for $65. Your 2014 mini currently sells for $999 on Apple's site. Wouldn't you expect a $615 computer to "run way behind" a $999 computer?
But I added an external USB SSD to the 2012 mini and that made it feel like a very different machine.
I got a base 2012 Mini like yours for $550 about three years ago. Upgraded it to 16gb for $65. Your 2014 mini currently sells for $999 on Apple's site. Wouldn't you expect a $615 computer to "run way behind" a $999 computer?
But I added an external USB SSD to the 2012 mini and that made it feel like a very different machine.
Like I stated above; my MM(Late 2012) with the 500GB HD meets all my present computer work-needs with a MM(Late 2014) to back-it-up. Oh, Last year ago I did upgrade the MM(Late 2012) to 16GB Ram.
Also this is a Refurbished MM with 4GB Ram that cost around $509 in the year 2013. The Refurbished MM(Late 2014) cost me around $850 in the year 2015.
Also, in my comments above I forgot to note that this was "IMO"(In-My-Opinion) in which I take the approach that there are no Right or Wrong Answers regarding this subject.
Last edited:
I did this. I had been using an Early-2009 Mini that started to show its age last year as it could no longer stream HD video without choppiness. Moreover, the overall experience had become sluggish. I waited till April of this year and since a new Mini did not arrive, I bought a 25" Dell display and an i3 (latest gen) NUC with Win10 Pro (for a lot less money than the the top-of-the-line Haswell Mac Mini even in today's prices). The result after using Mini/OS X for years?
+ Latest gen components
+ My choice of SSD and RAM (with easy installation)
+ Dead silent
+ Case a lot smaller than a Mini (love the customizable LEDs)
+ Super fast boot time with nearly the same user experience in terms of basic computing tasks
- Windows not as pretty as OS X (referring to both the OS and the applications such as e-mail clients etc.)
- Windows not as worry-free (gotta have virus/malware protection, gotta manually update drivers every once in a while)
- App selection is poorer (or, to put it in another way, OS X does have more quality apps)
So basically I got a lot faster computer for a lot less money. I did take a hit in terms of OS aesthetics and worry-free use, but that's the price I will gladly pay if the alternative is to keep buying dated Apple tech for premium prices (with fixed RAM and old HDDs). Still, I do miss OS X a bit (although we are actually talking about a secondary computer as I still use an iMac as my work horse) as you do get longevity (I'd imagine at least a decade of use is almost guaranteed with Apple tech if used for basic computing tasks) as well as the best OS in the market.
I do believe the mini will be updated yet, even get a new form factor. The mini has always more or less been the laptop-without-a-screen-a-desktop-a-trackpad and given that all the laptops has seen the upgrade, I think the mini will still come. But as with the Pro (possibly 2019 for crying out loud), it takes, far, far too long and that means they have not paid a lot of attention to it far, far too long. The problem is, how survive until it is there? Buying a laptop to work as desktop in clamshell mode is a waste of money.
Tigerman82 said:
"I did this. I had been using an Early-2009 Mini that started to show its age last year as it could no longer stream HD video without choppiness. Moreover, the overall experience had become sluggish. I waited till April of this year and since a new Mini did not arrive, I bought a 25" Dell display and an i3 (latest gen) NUC with Win10 Pro (for a lot less money than the the top-of-the-line Haswell Mac Mini even in today's prices). The result after using Mini/OS X for years?"
I'm sure many of us find ourselves on the precipice of this decision and the bet that moving away from the Apple ecosystem will at least be forgivable (as in not spending $3500 dollars to do it vs upgrading the Apple way). The idea of moving away from a completely integrated system that includes my phone is not forgivable however and my gut tells me to wait it out especially since my current demands don't exceed my current setup.
I figure by the time I'm ready to drop some cash even in the worst scenario Apple will have something that blows away my current capabilities albeit more expensively. I really want to scold Apple - I want them to see the error of their ways but the technological tide may eclipse even this dilemma one day.
"I did this. I had been using an Early-2009 Mini that started to show its age last year as it could no longer stream HD video without choppiness. Moreover, the overall experience had become sluggish. I waited till April of this year and since a new Mini did not arrive, I bought a 25" Dell display and an i3 (latest gen) NUC with Win10 Pro (for a lot less money than the the top-of-the-line Haswell Mac Mini even in today's prices). The result after using Mini/OS X for years?"
I'm sure many of us find ourselves on the precipice of this decision and the bet that moving away from the Apple ecosystem will at least be forgivable (as in not spending $3500 dollars to do it vs upgrading the Apple way). The idea of moving away from a completely integrated system that includes my phone is not forgivable however and my gut tells me to wait it out especially since my current demands don't exceed my current setup.
I figure by the time I'm ready to drop some cash even in the worst scenario Apple will have something that blows away my current capabilities albeit more expensively. I really want to scold Apple - I want them to see the error of their ways but the technological tide may eclipse even this dilemma one day.
Last edited:
The beauty is, the Intel NUCs are readily hackintoshed; I have a dual-core i5 Broadwell with a 256 GB m2 SATA/2 TB Samsung HD as a fusion drive, and genuine Apple 802.11AC wifi/Bluetooth card running Sierra driving a 27" IPS display. All for about $600.
If Apple's competitors have any brains about them, they will make sure their machines can be readily hackintoshed.
Let me play devil's advocate - can said machine run Windows as well?
People have said great things about this little baby:
http://www.simplynuc.com/core-i7-gen-7-tall-h-nuc-system-nuc7i7bnh/
I believe a new redesigned one will be on the way as well. Especially since the rumor about the iMac pro that was predicted months before turned out to be true. Hopefully its modular.
After configuring it with some basic components it is in the same price range as the high end mini. Makes it look like there is no Apple tax.