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What config Mac mini will we see in 2015-2016? My jobs-back-from-the-dead-fantasy config is quad-core skylake with *upgradable* ram (32GB max), iris pro, ssd standard. Basically what we should've gotten this year, with Haswell instead of Skylake.


That's the spirit! I'd ask for 5k support too. But the big question is how big a change finally getting new Intel chips will bring. With all the appleTV like speculation that entails.
 
So, just when is the new Mac Mini coming?

What is it going to have?

Should I replace my 2009 Mini with a 2014, or should I wait?

When Apple introduces a new form factor. The recent update was just to tide us over until the meaningful update occurs. I envision something along the lines of a Mini Mac Pro.
 
There was about the same number of games capable of running in NT as they are for Mac OS X.

hahaha this really brings out the memories. In the student dorm we had this guy pretending to know EVERYTHING better. So he bragged about the stability of WinNT over and over again. We were using 98 SE. Sure NT was better, won't argue about that. Thing was this brag thought he did everything better. So we underwent his reasonings.

Anyhow 2 of us were playing some games, Quake being one of them. The brag decided on playing too. So he put in the CD. NT showed a nice screen stating the game was not stable enough hence refusing to install.

DID WE HAVE A LAUGH :D:D The brag ended up installing win 98SE in dual boot or so to game too. Those were the good times!
 
2012 quad-core vs 2018

After the letdown of the 2014 mini and high possibility of no quad-cores in 2016, I'm thinking the next possible time for me to upgrade will be 2018. Even if the 2018s are fanless, they will probably be nearly as fast as the 2012 quad (thanks to Intel, not apple).

So should I get a 2012 now or wait four more years????
 
So, just when is the new Mac Mini coming?

What is it going to have?

Should I replace my 2009 Mini with a 2014, or should I wait?
As per Crosscreek and others I'd say wait. I upgraded RAM and HDD in my late 2009 Mini in mid 2013 and whilst I'd like a shiny new smaller Mini this release doesn't offer enough, my usage is standard home stuff, movies (Mini is connected to TV), base station for phones/ipad, home office (using computer screen). The more I think about it the more I wonder if Apple wasn't waiting for Broadwell and almost threw the towel in with this refresh

What I would say is a Mini upgrade is most likely more than a year away IMO, I cannot see Apple releasing a new Mini in the first half of 2015 and perhaps not until 2016.
 
After the letdown of the 2014 mini and high possibility of no quad-cores in 2016, I'm thinking the next possible time for me to upgrade will be 2018. Even if the 2018s are fanless, they will probably be nearly as fast as the 2012 quad (thanks to Intel, not apple).

So should I get a 2012 now or wait four more years????

Do it if you need it. Or else, wait.

And i dont think in 2018 it will be totaly fanless. It will need a fan for heavy tasks to throw the air out.

I've a 2005 pentium 4
 
While waiting for those new 2016 models, it just seems to me that for most uses (at least most of my uses) any old mini will do. Frankly unless you are doing gaming (better suited for a Windows PC anyway) or professional video editing (get a Mac Pro, please!) these little boxes do just fine.

In fact, I've got five of the things. In order of purchase:

  1. Late 2009 base model, first of three, bought as an entertainment center. Only one bought new rather than refurbished. Wifi became intermittant and audio failed rendering it useless in this roll, I now use it as my stealth Mac at work where it runs faster (thanks to a 120GB SSD since HDD failed as well) than my company provided Xeon-equiped HP Workstation.
  2. 2009 mini Server, been running 4½ years as a server. Only problem these days is it doesn't have Thunderbolt or USB 3. Both HDDs failed over the years, but this box does run 24/7 and I would expect that.
  3. 2009 base model, second one, use as entertainment center in another room.
  4. 2012 base model -- replaced the limping mini that I took to work. HDMI output is first to actually work properly. Previously I connected via VGA or DVI with separate analog audio.
  5. 2012 Quad Core, just purchased, will replace the server, probably end of November when I've got time to move it over.

Anyone interested in buying a 2009 mini with Snow Leopard Server? Slightly used. :)
 
While waiting for those new 2016 models, it just seems to me that for most uses (at least most of my uses) any old mini will do. Frankly unless you are doing gaming (better suited for a Windows PC anyway) or professional video editing (get a Mac Pro, please!) these little boxes do just fine.

In fact, I've got five of the things. In order of purchase:

  1. Late 2009 base model, first of three, bought as an entertainment center. Only one bought new rather than refurbished. Wifi became intermittant and audio failed rendering it useless in this roll, I now use it as my stealth Mac at work where it runs faster (thanks to a 120GB SSD since HDD failed as well) than my company provided Xeon-equiped HP Workstation.
  2. 2009 mini Server, been running 4½ years as a server. Only problem these days is it doesn't have Thunderbolt or USB 3. Both HDDs failed over the years, but this box does run 24/7 and I would expect that.
  3. 2009 base model, second one, use as entertainment center in another room.
  4. 2012 base model -- replaced the limping mini that I took to work. HDMI output is first to actually work properly. Previously I connected via VGA or DVI with separate analog audio.
  5. 2012 Quad Core, just purchased, will replace the server, probably end of November when I've got time to move it over.

Anyone interested in buying a 2009 mini with Snow Leopard Server? Slightly used. :)

I agree. The 2012 are a much better value if you want to wait it out. The 2014 will improve graphics somewhat but the prices on the new ones just seem wrong if you build one out with more ram and SSD. The PCIe makes the read/write speeds a little faster with SSD but my rMBP is not much faster than my Mini.
 
While waiting for those new 2016 models, it just seems to me that for most uses (at least most of my uses) any old mini will do. Frankly unless you are doing gaming (better suited for a Windows PC anyway) or professional video editing (get a Mac Pro, please!) these little boxes do just fine.

In fact, I've got five of the things. In order of purchase:

  1. Late 2009 base model, first of three, bought as an entertainment center. Only one bought new rather than refurbished. Wifi became intermittant and audio failed rendering it useless in this roll, I now use it as my stealth Mac at work where it runs faster (thanks to a 120GB SSD since HDD failed as well) than my company provided Xeon-equiped HP Workstation.
  2. 2009 mini Server, been running 4½ years as a server. Only problem these days is it doesn't have Thunderbolt or USB 3. Both HDDs failed over the years, but this box does run 24/7 and I would expect that.
  3. 2009 base model, second one, use as entertainment center in another room.
  4. 2012 base model -- replaced the limping mini that I took to work. HDMI output is first to actually work properly. Previously I connected via VGA or DVI with separate analog audio.
  5. 2012 Quad Core, just purchased, will replace the server, probably end of November when I've got time to move it over.

Anyone interested in buying a 2009 mini with Snow Leopard Server? Slightly used. :)

Since it seems you have quite the experience with failing HDs and replacing them (which a lesser man would use to dispute your earlier statement that the Mac mini is an appliance without need of user access to the hardware :p ), are the signs of a soon-to-fail hard drive similar to that of what is common in windows PCs, such as clicking, slowing performance, corrupting data, etc. Is it relatively easy to detect a failing HD before it totally fails?
 
Since it seems you have quite the experience with failing HDs and replacing them (which a lesser man would use to dispute your earlier statement that the Mac mini is an appliance without need of user access to the hardware :p ), are the signs of a soon-to-fail hard drive similar to that of what is common in windows PCs, such as clicking, slowing performance, corrupting data, etc. Is it relatively easy to detect a failing HD before it totally fails?

I've repaired my toaster, too! :) Most of the population repairs neither.

The server performs an automatic clone backup every evening. In both of the cases of server drives (as well as an external drive on the server that also had failed) it was the backup process that caught the failing drive in that a file sector would become unreadable and the backup process would stop. In both cases I was able to replace the drive with no data loss. Also important -- I was able to keep using the system while I waited for replacement drives to arrive.

The drive failure in the entertainment center was catastrophic -- one day the mini just locked up and would not reboot. My entertainment centers run the same disk image and store nothing, so I put in a new drive and restored from my cloned restoration image.

Looking at failed drives in general (and I've had a lot since I've owned computers for 35 years) is that about half have given me some sort of warning and half have just stopped dead. The warning period is usually short lived, though. I've also been a rigorous believer in backups all this time.
 
I wonder if a 5k Thunderbolt Display is coming in 2015. If it does, maybe the new mini will be able to drive it. That might make for an interesting newly
designed mini. What would it take to be able to fluently drive a 5k monitor??

Probably discrete graphics. Maybe Skylake not Broadwell. xMac but not likely.
 
I wonder if a 5k Thunderbolt Display is coming in 2015. If it does, maybe the new mini will be able to drive it. That might make for an interesting newly
designed mini. What would it take to be able to fluently drive a 5k monitor??

Broadwell mini with TB3 ports... Now that would be just able to drive it. To drive it fluently might take several more generations of IGP's to get there considering that a single GTX980 is barely able to get decent frame rates on new titles at 4K.
 
I for one will be waiting for the 2018 mini. Unlikely the 2016 will be good enough.

Despite the fact that this thread has dropped off the first page for the first time since…… it started……

The new mac Mini is almost certainly coming……...

…… in 2018, or thereabouts, and there may even be a generation or two before then.
 
Despite the fact that this thread has dropped off the first page for the first time since…… it started……

The new mac Mini is almost certainly coming……...

…… in 2018, or thereabouts, and there may even be a generation or two before then.

The direction it's going right now will include more anti tamper screws glued in, less soldered amount of ram and of course an ARM processor. :)
 
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