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— The 2018 Mac Mini Thread —

I will order from apple usa veteran store. 779 for base add 270 for i7 cost me 1049 + 90 for apple care total 1139

I get

128gb ssd
i7 cpu
8gb ram

possible add ons
more ram
eGpu
external booter


if you are a usa veteran you are eligible for discount I will be selling off my 2014 base model to help defray cost. I see base models on ebay for only 280
 
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Miat said:
Where I am at for now.

The choke point for me is the cost of storage. I really want 1TB, but it is just not an option at new prices. Maybe a refurb with 512GB instead, in 6-12 months.
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I'm in the same boat. All of my recent computers (I have more than the average bear, but then I have software developer reasons) have 1TB OS/Boot drives including my "old" 2013 MacBook Pro and 2012 Mini. I also have a bunch of identically configured Intel NUCs that I use for multiplayer testing, with 250/275 GB drives (Black Friday combo deal)

Based on my experiences with all those systems and watching how software installs have been getting larger and larger (seen Visual Studio or XCode installs lately? Adobe CC suite? ) and the size of the data sets I've been using, I'm not comfortable with less than 1TB total. Those NUCs I use for testing ran out of space to keep more than one project on them.

My usage case probably is different than most people's but the size of media files, games, and software installs has only gone up.

And I want my Mini .. all my machines really .. to last and have a good working lifespan. Soldered SSDs would make upgrading the hardest and most expensive as it would involve buying and transferring to a new, even pricier, Mini.
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F-Train said:
Does anyone have thoughts on why this might happen/real life use cases?
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Two factors - 1) The increase in real "gigabit" (or higher) internet service to the home, and 2) Someone making easy to integrate chipsets for 10GB ethernet, cheap enough that SOHO/Consumer 10GB products become more common and aren't at a significant price premium over gigabit.
 
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philipma1957 wrote:
"I will order from apple usa veteran store. 779 for base add 270 for i7 cost me 1049 + 90 for apple care total 1139"

I never even knew that the Apple "veteran store" existed until I read your post above earlier today.

Do they require any special documentation, such as a copy of one's DD-214?
 
Fishrrman said:
philipma1957 wrote:
"I will order from apple usa veteran store. 779 for base add 270 for i7 cost me 1049 + 90 for apple care total 1139"

I never even knew that the Apple "veteran store" existed until I read your post above earlier today.

Do they require any special documentation, such as a copy of one's DD-214?
Click to expand...
Send me a message I will give you the link. I used to order one or two a year from them. 2009 to 2013 I think they proofed me for dd-214 in 2011. I am excited as I may be able to start Mac mini upgrade sales on eBay.
I did that from 2006 to 2013
 
How much did that little machine run you? I sometimes boot into Windows, on my Mac Pro, for games, but I totally hate doing that. Also, if I were to downsize, I wouldn't be able to do it (unless I stick my RX 580 8GB into an eGPU case).
 
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PowerMac G4 MDD said:
How much did that little machine run you? I sometimes boot into Windows, on my Mac Pro, for games, but I totally hate doing that. Also, if I were to downsize, I wouldn't be able to do it (unless I stick my RX 580 8GB into an eGPU case).
Click to expand...

(Looks like you double quoted me).

It's a Zotac Magnus EN1060 that I've upgraded the CPU on (it's socketed). There's also a version with a 1070 in the same case, and "larger" but small model that has a 1080 and water cooling.

I've actually got a few EN1060s (I am game developer, think multiplayer testing), and in the process I've optimized my purchasing, so the price has varied a tad over time. So let's see what it would cost to duplicate right now:

Zotac sells the EN1060 in a few different SKUs. As of today, Amazon has the Barebones (no RAM or hdd) 1060 w/ i5-7500T for $850 and the barebones 1070 w/ i5-7500T for $1050.

Since I was swapping the CPUs out with i7-6700T and i7-7700Ts, I found the i3 SKU that comes with the i3-6100T and 8GB RAM to be a better deal (it also has a throw-away 32GB m.sata SSD). Amazon has it for $870, but it's frequently on sale at newegg. For the next couple days you can get it at newegg for $599 after promo code. At it cheapest, which maybe could happen again for black friday, it was $499. For games, it was better than the older sku with the i5-6400T because of CPU clocks ( the i3 is 3.2 vs the i5-6400's 2.2-2.8 ). It was also on sale direct from Zotac's online store for $560 a couple days ago (expired now, has been that price before), which has the advantage of no sales tax outside of CA.

As of this moment a 1TB 870 EVO M.2 drive is $228 on amazon, and an 8GB stick of Crucial DDR4-2400 (SODIMM ) is $65.

So, without the CPU swap (which you can't easily do right now as the 35w TDB i7s have been out of stock everywhere the last couple months), and going for the i3 (trade cores for clock speed + HT) you could build one today (16GB, 1TB M.2 970 evo, 6GB GTX 1060, 3.2gz i3-6100) for $893 + tax. Which makes a decent game machine, though not bleeding edge. No OS though, but I get Win10 at employee prices ($35 for pro)
 
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ElectronGuru said:
We’ll have more options next year but these seem the favorites so far

https://oyendigital.com/MiniPro-3.1-USB-C.html

https://www.akitio.com/portable-storage/akitio-thunder3-quad-mini
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thank you I went to amazon and purchased 2 oyen digital in silver not black cost was 68 each with a 1tb hdd they were less then the black version which was 99. a 1 tb hdd in a case with a 3year warranty for 68 bucks is good.
this solves storage issues for me when I get the mini
 
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SpacemanSpiffed said:
(Looks like you double quoted me).

It's a Zotac Magnus EN1060 that I've upgraded the CPU on (it's socketed). There's also a version with a 1070 in the same case, and "larger" but small model that has a 1080 and water cooling.

I've actually got a few EN1060s (I am game developer, think multiplayer testing), and in the process I've optimized my purchasing, so the price has varied a tad over time. So let's see what it would cost to duplicate right now:

Zotac sells the EN1060 in a few different SKUs. As of today, Amazon has the Barebones (no RAM or hdd) 1060 w/ i5-7500T for $850 and the barebones 1070 w/ i5-7500T for $1050.

Since I was swapping the CPUs out with i7-6700T and i7-7700Ts, I found the i3 SKU that comes with the i3-6100T and 8GB RAM to be a better deal (it also has a throw-away 32GB m.sata SSD). Amazon has it for $870, but it's frequently on sale at newegg. For the next couple days you can get it at newegg for $599 after promo code. At it cheapest, which maybe could happen again for black friday, it was $499. For games, it was better than the older sku with the i5-6400T because of CPU clocks ( the i3 is 3.2 vs the i5-6400's 2.2-2.8 ). It was also on sale direct from Zotac's online store for $560 a couple days ago (expired now, has been that price before), which has the advantage of no sales tax outside of CA.

As of this moment a 1TB 870 EVO M.2 drive is $228 on amazon, and an 8GB stick of Crucial DDR4-2400 (SODIMM ) is $65.

So, without the CPU swap (which you can't easily do right now as the 35w TDB i7s have been out of stock everywhere the last couple months), and going for the i3 (trade cores for clock speed + HT) you could build one today (16GB, 1TB M.2 970 evo, 6GB GTX 1060, 3.2gz i3-6100) for $893 + tax. Which makes a decent game machine, though not bleeding edge.
Click to expand...


Thanks for the detailed information. Those specifications are fine enough for the games I play (in fact, I used to have a 1060 in my Mac Pro). If using OSX were no concern to me—or, if I were into Hackintoshing—I'd consider one of those machines as my main. It's tiring to drag a tower around, considering I don't really have a permanent place of residence until I am out of college.
 
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Miat said:
How do you find the NUCs? Any problems or limitations?

Do you use the factory SSD drives, and do they hold up (i.e. reasonable lifespan)?
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They're fine, not awesome. Haven't had any problems with them yet, but they are pretty much only used for testing.

The Kaby Lake i5 NUCs were a perf nice bump over their Skylake counterparts. You can tell the difference between a M.2 SATA drive and an M.2 NVMe drive. The Iris Plus GPU is good (not great) for gaming at 1080p but I wouldn't go any higher resolution.

The 28w Coffee Lake NUCs with quad core (w/ turbo+HT) + Iris Plus 655 should make for an even nicer perf bump, possibly at the expense of the near total silence the others have.
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PowerMac G4 MDD said:
Thanks for the detailed information. Those specifications are fine enough for the games I play (in fact, I used to have a 1060 in my Mac Pro). If using OSX were no concern to me—or, if I were into Hackintoshing—I'd consider one of those machines as my main. It's tiring to drag a tower around, considering I don't really have a permanent place of residence until I am out of college.
Click to expand...

I understand. I've taken my main EN1060 which I use for dev work (i7, 32GB, 3TB SSD total) on the road with me several times - it fits easily in my carry-on backpack. Having a good monitor (& keyboard) wherever I go is the bigger challenge. I've been spoiled with my 43" 4K monitor setup, but that's not very portable :)
 
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SpacemanSpiffed said:
The 28w Coffee Lake NUCs with quad core (w/ turbo+HT) + Iris Plus 655 should make for an even nicer perf bump, possibly at the expense of the near total silence the others have.
Click to expand...
For me the alternative/competition/comparison to a Mini is this NUC, which is just about perfect specs for my needs, apart from not running MacOS of course :rolleyes:.

The NUC wins easily on upgradeability and pricing. Check their NVMe pricing v. Apple's.
 
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Miat said:
For me the alternative/competition/comparison to a Mini is this NUC, which is just about perfect specs for my needs, apart from not running MacOS of course :rolleyes:.

The NUC wins easily on upgradeability and pricing. Check their NVMe pricing v. Apple's.
Click to expand...

That's the one I was thinking of. Availability seems limited - SimpleNUC only sells them with components added, and barebones units are nowhere to be found.
 
I have yet to see this mentioned in the discussion of the SSD.

It is most likely soldered. Apple has gone this route for the last few years in all their mobile devices AFAIK. Secondly, to those who claim 3rd party servicing will be able to swap out the storage chips, this is a flat out NO. For starters, the soldering process for these is very precise, and is often difficult to do properly even with a decent setup.

Secondly, and most importantly in the case of the new Mac Mini, is that the SSD/storage is ENCRYPTED by default with the T2 chip. Any mis-match of the T2 chip and the SSD storage chips will result in an encrypted drive being inaccessible. This means Apple, nor 3rd party services, will be able to "swap out" the memory chips.

Apple has never offered this service for multiple reasons. Now, they have an even better reason not to.

EDIT: From the Apple whitepaper on the T2 chip (page 5):

The UID allows data to be cryptographically tied to a particular device. For example, the key hierarchy protecting the file system includes the UID, so if internal storage media are physically moved from one device to another, the files they contain are inaccessible. The UID isn’t related to any other identifier on the device. This architecture forms the basis for secure internal volume encryption.
Click to expand...
 
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I'm really curious to see first reviews. In theory I'd love to go for the i7 Mini since that's such a powerful CPU but the temperatures worry me in the sense that I find it hard to believe that it'll run silently. The i7 8700 runs significantly hotter than an i5 8500 under load, probably due to hyperthreading.
Differences of 15-20°C would imply that the i5 might run a lot more quietly in the tiny Mac mini.
 
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marc_b said:
The i7 8700 runs significantly hotter than an i5 8500 under load, probably due to hyperthreading.
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Do we know how they compare with thermal controls in place? That is, if the i7 were theoretically throttled to prevent the fan from running much, would it then be slower than the i5 at the same temperature?

If not and such controls could be selectable, the i7 could behave and perform like an i5 most of the time, then change over to a super chip when the user wanted. Like a computer bottle of nitrous oxide.
 
ElectronGuru said:
If not and such controls could be selectable, the i7 could behave and perform like an i5 most of the time, then change over to a super chip when the user wanted.
Click to expand...

An interesting point. It could be very useful to have some control over how the hardware handles thermal control. If you want the machine to be quiet at the expense of occasional throttling you could set the controls that way, but if you need speed for some task and don't care if the fans are running you could reset the controls to let 'er rip. I can't see Apple giving us poor schmuck users this sort of control, but it would be useful.
 
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