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— The 2018 Mac Mini Thread —
- Thread starter PowerMac G4 MDD
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Well I am not eligible for the education store. But The vet/military store works for me.
I went to the Apple veteran's page and priced out a Mini i5/16gb/512gb and it came out to 1,409 (v. 1,499 "regular" pricing). But add in the tax, and it reached 1,501. So, what you're really getting is a break on the taxes (at least where I am).
However, in time I would expect that a few resellers will offer some discounting on it (even the custom-configured models). Places like B&H or portableone.com (out in CA). If that's the case, the "delivered price" may be even lower than one could get from the veteran's store.
However, in time I would expect that a few resellers will offer some discounting on it (even the custom-configured models). Places like B&H or portableone.com (out in CA). If that's the case, the "delivered price" may be even lower than one could get from the veteran's store.
I am actually shocked at how poorly the 2018 Mac mini operates. I am getting pretty pi**ed that simple things do not work. For example: HDMI out? Forget it. Have to use USB-C to HDMI to get any video on the screen. Mojave boot time is between 6 and 10 minutes. WT*??? Opening up apps takes eons of time. I have to adjust the monitor settings for under scan every time I boot (including restart) because it sets things off screen. Set to Off, then back to exact same location, and poof, it works fine. My MBP with exact same USB-C to HDM to same LG monitor do NOT do that, nor does a MacBook Air (I have a 2018 15" MacBook Pro, new 2018 MacBook Air, and new 2018 Mac Mini). The mini is a POS. Which is shocking. Apple stuff is supposed to just work. There are clearly some issues with this machine to behave as poorly as this. I can only hope Apple addresses them in next release. Were I the product manager, I would never have released the machine. FWIW - I've been with Apple for decades and am an Engineer with extensive background in both HW and SW design. So I am deeply troubled that this machine is so poor.
Any one else "liking" their Mini so far? I sure am not.
This config: MM2018, 8G/256G, Apple Magic Mouse & Keyboard. Ext 1TB G-Drive USB-C (560MB/s). Mojave 14.1
Any one else "liking" their Mini so far? I sure am not.
This config: MM2018, 8G/256G, Apple Magic Mouse & Keyboard. Ext 1TB G-Drive USB-C (560MB/s). Mojave 14.1
HDMI out works fine on mine, and a usb-c to HDMI adapter to connect the 2nd monitor. (Can’t get usb-c to miniDP adapter to work though)
Not seeing any of those issues, boot in 10 seconds more like. Sounds like you have a faulty unit.
HDMI works great. Boots really fast. Apps load instantly. Love my 2018 Mini.
Sorry your Mini has problems.
Sorry your Mini has problems.
I agree with you on this. I have been using a 2011 iMac for doing light photo editing using the standalone CS6, plus the DXO NIK Software package, and OnOne. I replaced the internal hard drive with a 1TB SSD, and added as much RAM as possible. This computer has been nothing but a good performer for me, but as I contemplate an upgrade and look at the future iMac's and the possibility that the screen with sRGB won't be available, my eyes are turning to the Mac Mini plus an Asus Designo MX27US screen. However, it is going to be very expensive to buy a Mini with an i7 processor, and even with an i3.
See...If Apple would allow for buyers to choose a bare-bone Mac Mini without RAM, without a SSD, and with a processor starting with perhaps an i5, then I could buy and install the RAM and the SSD from a different manufacturer myself. I would love to buy an i7 Mac Mini, but at $1,100 it is just too much. I will just continue using the old iMac for a few more years and see which way the iMac turns. Maybe I should consider a Hackintosh?
In relation to all Macs, I just don't like the idea about Apple's "compactness" these days. I look at the small size Macs of today, specially the Pro, and from a consumer's point of view don't like them as much as older Macs. For example, I enjoy my old 13" MacBook Pro with the old ports and slow, internal hard drive (replaced with an SSD), the CD/DVD drive, and so on. It's heavy and slow, but...
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To paraphrase, if Mac Mini was 40% cheaper. Gotcha.
I don't know why would apple do that tho.
Intel at least sells their chips with NUC, this way, Apple would practically sell nothing. And there wasn't an empty mac ever in existence, this is just crazy, apple wont ship a non working computer... deliberately.
https://www.amazon.com/HP-Elite-Sli...95&sr=8-1-spons&keywords=hp+elite+slice&psc=1
Very tempting if it wasn't for Windows. PC consumers do have a lot of options, although a good performance PC can be as expensive as a Mac. The added cost is not what I look at, but the options to build a system from scratch (replaceable CPU, RAM, graphic board, RAM, and SSD).
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And the soldered CPU makes it more difficult for upgrading.
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Apple could have simply offered the 2018 with replaceable nvme m.2 and replaceable sata ssd.
Along with replaceable ram.
Buy it with a 128 gb sata ssd and 1 stick of eight gb ram.
All Sata ssds inbetween
Buy it with a 4tb sata ssd and 2sticks of 32 gb ram
Buy it with a nvme m.2 128gb ssd
all choices of m.2 replace m.2 ssd could be offered.
Force the soldered cpu
Force the gb or 10gb choice.
Then the mini could work for both the pro user and or the lite duty user.
Gives you the ability to have a small sata ssd a medium sata ssd a large sata ssd
A small nvme m.2 ssd a medium a large.
As low as 128 gb sata ssd as high a a 4tb sata ssd and a 4tb nvme m.2 the is 8tb ssd.
You can diy it you can order it from Apple. Force the cpu choice force the gb or 10gb choice. Best of both worlds
Agree about the options you mention above. In my view Apple would be selling a lot more Mac Mini and other computers. Since I started using Apple computers in the mid '80s, I have become used to the OS, and when OS-X came into the picture it was a huge step forward. While I do use Windows, I don't like it as much as OS-X.
I seriously doubt that. Computer power user is the vocal minority in 2018.
Give it another 5 years when tablets completely replace the personal computer for the average user. But then the market will be so shrunk and specialised it will certainly be more expensive.
Well, today has been a bit of a stinker here.
I came into the (home) office, and found the Mini off. Weird. Turn it on - no display signal to either monitor. Ugh, this issue again. Ok, force shutdown, back on. Nope. Ok re-plug TB3>2x DP adapter. Nope. 5 more hard shutdown/boot. Finally I disconnected one of the two DP cables from the DP adapter and one monitor woke up and showed me the 'reset your password' recovery screen.
Ok, reboot, back to login, oh. A crash report. Computer restarted (it had shut down actually, maybe rebooted to login and then turned off?) because of a BridgeOS error. Ugh. T2 has struck, it seems.
Ok, chat to Apple support, eventually he suggests reinstalling macOS. Oh, look at that. Trying to get into recovery mode with a bluetooth keyboard is a PITA. I have a Mojave bootable USB key, eventually get to recovery mode, and enable external boot to use the USB key (Internet connection here is sloooow) - then use Startup Disk to pick the USB key to avoid the hassle trying to get boot manager up, "you cannot boot from this device as it cannot be verified". Ugh. Ok fine. Reinstall the slow way.
I went outside to let it do it's thing, came back ~40 minutes later, and the computer is off. Well this can't be good. I turned it back on, took me to the login screen, i logged in and then it dropped back to the black installer screen. It eventually seemed to finish (I didnt watch it but it ended up at a regular login screen again), but when I contacted support again and told them of the shutdown during reinstall they agreed it probably needs a tech to look at it.
So, outcomes and learning from this:
Having a fallback machine:
This means I'm back using my 2018 MBP15, but with the displays, mouse/keyboard etc I'd been using with the Mini. So a) this has validated the decision to buy the MBP when I did, as a "spare"/"alternate" - in previous years when my 2011 MBP17 had hardware faults, I'd be forced to borrow my wife's MBA13 while it was repaired (either by a tech, or eventually by me, which meant finding and then waiting for parts to ship). Having this machine (which I intended for her to use in between, but definitely much more capable for what I need, compared to her old MBA) available has paid off - and with it setup like it is, it's almost as good workflow-wise (i.e. mouse, keyboard, two large monitors). I'd just need a decent USB-C hub/dock or something if i wanted to use it regularly.
Realities of multi-monitor/Mac mini:
When I first had the Mini, I had it connected to a single Dell P2415Q in "looks like 2560x144" mode, and it was great. I ordered a second P2415Q (Apple says it can run three 4K displays so I had faith it would be fine with two) and tried running both at that same resolution, and after a while I noticed increasingly that there were some issues with display - video frames dropped here and there, sluggishness in some parts. It wasn't apparent to start with, but once the system is under some load/full time use, they start to appear. So, a few weeks ago I switched both displays back to the 'default' resolution which is "looks like 1920x1080". It improved the performance somewhat, but still wasn't perfect. For work I mostly deal with text all day so it wasn't a huge concern, but it was disappointing to lose the extra screen real estate.
Today when I disconnected one display, everything seemed to respond quicker - even the time from powered off to the login screen seemed dramatically less with just one display connected. I've now unplugged the Mac mini, in preparation to take it in, and I have both displays connected to the MBP via the same 2x DP adapter, both running at 'looks like 2560x1440'. So far, they seem a lot more responsive. I haven't had time to test everything that was a problem before, but it definitely shows some difference, which is clearly due to the dedicated GPU being used in the MBP.
At this point I still think choosing the desktop CPU was the right way for a lot of uses of the Mac mini, but I think Apple's claim of "3 x 4K" is probably optimistic for how most people would want to use it.
The plan, going forward:
Well this depends a little bit what happens when I take the Mini in I guess. I can work on this machine for now, but as it was a "spare" it's not BTO at all - it's just the base 2.2GHz i7 w/ 16GB RAM. Assuming they find some hardware fault (it seems like a T2 issue at least, but it also has really terrible BT reception when anything is connected to the USB-A ports) and repair/replace it, I guess I'll try it all again, and see how it goes. If the T2 strikes again and there's opportunity to return/exchange for something different, I have to really consider if a different machine would suit me better. Possibly try to get by with this laptop until a 2019 Mac pro is launched. Even the 2013 Mac Pro seems attractive right now, I just wish it wasn't so heavily skewed towards GPU-centric workloads.
I came into the (home) office, and found the Mini off. Weird. Turn it on - no display signal to either monitor. Ugh, this issue again. Ok, force shutdown, back on. Nope. Ok re-plug TB3>2x DP adapter. Nope. 5 more hard shutdown/boot. Finally I disconnected one of the two DP cables from the DP adapter and one monitor woke up and showed me the 'reset your password' recovery screen.
Ok, reboot, back to login, oh. A crash report. Computer restarted (it had shut down actually, maybe rebooted to login and then turned off?) because of a BridgeOS error. Ugh. T2 has struck, it seems.
Ok, chat to Apple support, eventually he suggests reinstalling macOS. Oh, look at that. Trying to get into recovery mode with a bluetooth keyboard is a PITA. I have a Mojave bootable USB key, eventually get to recovery mode, and enable external boot to use the USB key (Internet connection here is sloooow) - then use Startup Disk to pick the USB key to avoid the hassle trying to get boot manager up, "you cannot boot from this device as it cannot be verified". Ugh. Ok fine. Reinstall the slow way.
I went outside to let it do it's thing, came back ~40 minutes later, and the computer is off. Well this can't be good. I turned it back on, took me to the login screen, i logged in and then it dropped back to the black installer screen. It eventually seemed to finish (I didnt watch it but it ended up at a regular login screen again), but when I contacted support again and told them of the shutdown during reinstall they agreed it probably needs a tech to look at it.
So, outcomes and learning from this:
Having a fallback machine:
This means I'm back using my 2018 MBP15, but with the displays, mouse/keyboard etc I'd been using with the Mini. So a) this has validated the decision to buy the MBP when I did, as a "spare"/"alternate" - in previous years when my 2011 MBP17 had hardware faults, I'd be forced to borrow my wife's MBA13 while it was repaired (either by a tech, or eventually by me, which meant finding and then waiting for parts to ship). Having this machine (which I intended for her to use in between, but definitely much more capable for what I need, compared to her old MBA) available has paid off - and with it setup like it is, it's almost as good workflow-wise (i.e. mouse, keyboard, two large monitors). I'd just need a decent USB-C hub/dock or something if i wanted to use it regularly.
Realities of multi-monitor/Mac mini:
When I first had the Mini, I had it connected to a single Dell P2415Q in "looks like 2560x144" mode, and it was great. I ordered a second P2415Q (Apple says it can run three 4K displays so I had faith it would be fine with two) and tried running both at that same resolution, and after a while I noticed increasingly that there were some issues with display - video frames dropped here and there, sluggishness in some parts. It wasn't apparent to start with, but once the system is under some load/full time use, they start to appear. So, a few weeks ago I switched both displays back to the 'default' resolution which is "looks like 1920x1080". It improved the performance somewhat, but still wasn't perfect. For work I mostly deal with text all day so it wasn't a huge concern, but it was disappointing to lose the extra screen real estate.
Today when I disconnected one display, everything seemed to respond quicker - even the time from powered off to the login screen seemed dramatically less with just one display connected. I've now unplugged the Mac mini, in preparation to take it in, and I have both displays connected to the MBP via the same 2x DP adapter, both running at 'looks like 2560x1440'. So far, they seem a lot more responsive. I haven't had time to test everything that was a problem before, but it definitely shows some difference, which is clearly due to the dedicated GPU being used in the MBP.
At this point I still think choosing the desktop CPU was the right way for a lot of uses of the Mac mini, but I think Apple's claim of "3 x 4K" is probably optimistic for how most people would want to use it.
The plan, going forward:
Well this depends a little bit what happens when I take the Mini in I guess. I can work on this machine for now, but as it was a "spare" it's not BTO at all - it's just the base 2.2GHz i7 w/ 16GB RAM. Assuming they find some hardware fault (it seems like a T2 issue at least, but it also has really terrible BT reception when anything is connected to the USB-A ports) and repair/replace it, I guess I'll try it all again, and see how it goes. If the T2 strikes again and there's opportunity to return/exchange for something different, I have to really consider if a different machine would suit me better. Possibly try to get by with this laptop until a 2019 Mac pro is launched. Even the 2013 Mac Pro seems attractive right now, I just wish it wasn't so heavily skewed towards GPU-centric workloads.
I have experienced the Mac mini slow down when I am running a single 4K display but at a scaled resolution, and I am really disappointed at the GPU in the Mac mini. It seems to be worse than the one in my 13" MBP late 2016. I guess Apple didn't have much of a choice because Intel choose to stick a lower end GPU in their desktop CPUs (compared to the GPUs in their mobile CPUs). Apple could have gone for a Ryzen chip 
There is talk about the UHD 630 performing a bit better with more RAM, so I have ordered a MM with 16GB of RAM to see if it makes a difference. If it doesn't then I will get a eGPU. I did contemplate getting a 21.5" iMac with a i7 CPU and Radeon 555 instead... but I think the best solution would be to pair the MM with a eGPU (like the RX570). This way, I get to enjoy the perks of the MM with its newer CPUs and better cost, and I can upgrade to a higher end GPU whenever I need in the future.
There is talk about the UHD 630 performing a bit better with more RAM, so I have ordered a MM with 16GB of RAM to see if it makes a difference. If it doesn't then I will get a eGPU. I did contemplate getting a 21.5" iMac with a i7 CPU and Radeon 555 instead... but I think the best solution would be to pair the MM with a eGPU (like the RX570). This way, I get to enjoy the perks of the MM with its newer CPUs and better cost, and I can upgrade to a higher end GPU whenever I need in the future.
Tablets will exist in their own place, but won't replace laptops/desktops within 5 years.
They will never replace them for the power user, they are already replacing them for the common user
I hear a lot on concerns about the gpu in the 2018 mini. Is there a similar benchmark I could look at like the geek bench website for cpu? I am curious to compare the 2018’s vs what’s in my 2012 mini. I have to imagine the 2018 device is better? If happy with my 2012 cpu and gpu, does that mean I’ll almist certainly be happy with the 2018 (i5/i7) in regard to gpu?
the internal GPU of the mini is roughly as powerful as the discrete Nvidia GT 650M of the 2012 rMBP was. (which had the same internal GPU as the 2012 mini, and it was significantly more powerful than the built in gpu)
It's not great, but i think it will be fine for most people and most applications
I think it really depends on what you’re doing with your mini and what type of displays your using. For me, I don’t do anything particularly gpu intensive (other than some light photoshop work). It runs flawlessly on my Dell HD monitor. I don’t have any issues or concerns regarding the gpu! However, if you’re trying to do video editing, graphic design or gaming, I’d say maybe the mini isn’t the right machine for you.
May I ask why you want to upgrade? And what are you using your mini for primarily?
My dad needs a new Mac so I was thinking of offering him my QC 2012 i7 2.6. I swapped in two 2TB SSDs about six months ago and the machine screams. I wouldn’t really consider an upgrade if my dad didn’t need/want a new one. If I got a new one, id pull the two huge SSDs and put back a 500gb SSD.
Alternative was to have him get a lower end 2018 mini, but once we’re spending over $500, it seems more worthwhile for me to buy something for myself and pass down mine.
Generally, I use the basic apps. Word, iTunes, photos, and Aperture (still). I don’t imagine I’d push the gpu much.