When I look at an iMac the glazing makes me want to weep.
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The new Mac mini is almost certainly coming
- Thread starter GabrieleR
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I wasn't interested in buying a computer until the Mac Mini came along in 2005. I didn't (and still don't) want a portable to tote from work to cafe, to park and home. However, I did (and still do) want something easily transportable from place to place, from time to time. The Mac Mini fitted my needs, and still does.I looked literally for YEARS for a small, fast, silent computer and the Mac Mini became the best choice and got me to move to the Mac world. Formerly a 23 year Windows vet
Folks have been predicting the death of the Mac Mini for years, yet it has been part of the line up for over ten years now….. and, I reckon, is likely to remain so.
While the Mac Mini may not have the guts desired by grunt conscious geeks, or the stylishness desired by a fashion conscious geeks, it is all the computer many an average Joe or Jill needs.
The Mac Mini is far from dead……. The new Mac Mini is almost certainly coming.
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Well, so am I, almost, along w/my late 2009 Mini. Can't wait for a new Mini announcement, so am about to get a souped up top of line Mini w/16MB & i7 processor. It will need to last a long time cause I'm basically broke. My needs aren't great, but at least I won't be at a standstill waiting for tabs to open, the story of my life for the last five years. So I'll be out of date, well, now, but operating at a speed I can tolerate.
I have 3 wishes. Why can't I have my own personal cloud where I can sync my several Mac devices? Why farm storage out when HDs are so cheap? (2) Why can't I have a dumb touch-screen wifi monitor that I can haul around the house like an iPad, but w/all the privacy guards, ad & tracker blockers, and inbuilt speed of my Mini, with, of course, OSX apps. I'll keep a stupid iPad around for the iOS apps I like. (3) Why has Apple closed its boxes so tight? For years we did fine w/third-party RAM & other upgrades w/everybody respecting the quality & heat control needs of the basic boxes. Even the ad blocker breakthrough on iOS devices is a strategy play for Apple, with, of course, the new News app designed to capture all the data they're missing otherwise.
Ok, that's it. This is my first post here. Maybe you hope it's my last. Kind of light-weight, but it's quite a burden for me. Thanks for any feedback.
Yes, but I would be willing to bet that the laptops will be updated to Skylake in the Spring while the Mac mini until the Fall, just like in 2014
I'm hoping for a new design with an SSD and 8GB of RAM standard, but that's probably too much to ask, since even the new iMacs don't come with an SSD standard
I'm actually tempted to get the mid range mini with 8GB and Fusion drive now rather than wait till Spring as the starter mini (2014 1.4Ghz) I've got isn't too good.
You might want to consider purchasing a used I7 2012 model. Current model has only 2 cores and its much slower. Problem is most people who have I7 2012 model are either keeping them or expecting very high price considering its 3 year old computer...
How good is the performance on these machines? I was thinking of a top of the line iMac 27", but I am still waiting on TB3
Performance is very good for the CPU but IGPU is not so great but if you can find one for the right price it should hold you over until next year and you can get your money back fairly easy. They come standard with a 5400 spinner that you will want to replace with a SATA SSD.
No gaming for me, just attaching to a 32" TV for now. Hopefully it can hold me over for 1 year or so, then I can see where the whole Skylake line is.
The model I have my eye on in eBay is:
2.6GHz quad core i7
16GB RAM
256GB SSD.
£800
Overpriced, maybe?
Put an SSD drive in that 2009 mini and you won't need an i7 to get tabs to open quickly. I'm using a 2009 base model mini upgraded to 4GB RAM and a 120GB SSD at work where it "smokes" my company-provided HP Z400 Xeon-Equipped workstation. These minis are good boxes (I've owned 3 2009 models) and are fine for most tasks when upgraded with an SSD and more RAM (than the base 2GB).
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That's pretty high but not unheard of since they are rare. It will be lightning fast.
Ill probably hold off for now and see how the lot goes.
It's a bit high yeah! Thanks
I was edged out of my design business by Adobe's pricing policy, but used to cruise on my 2009 Mini with all the Adobe apps open at once. Well, not really, but it was tolerable. Now I live on the internet, and can't seem to get my tab addiction to less than 30 or so, on 2 browsers, Epic (to fight trackers), and Safari. I thought the abysmal speed was due to choking on 4 gigs of RAM... and so studied used Minis w/RAM upgrades, and took note of the incredible value holding ability of the Minis. So then I thought, what the hell, it's gonna cost me over 1 thou anyway.
I like used things and admire ppl who love making the most of superior older equipment. But I have a long tradition buying new Macs (first was the Mac II), and was always obnoxiously proud of the newest, fastest innards. So even buying this new Mini is a step backwards, since it's NOT superior to older models except in some minor ways. BUT, it will be so much better than what I have now. A new monitor is way down the road for me, so the Thunderbolt version hardly matters right now. Also, since I'm not making big, complex files anymore, and am only fooling around on the web, I'm hoping the fusion drive with its bit of flash storage will be enough for me. If not, after warranty period, I'll install an SSD.
Ok, done now. Thanks, Talmy, for your suggestions.
well giveing that the mac mini this had there upgrade in late 2014 dont look for a new mac mini any time soon the next upgrade i think will come in 2016 or 2017 give on how long it took them too upgrade the mac mini 2012 line up too late 2014 line up thats 2 years so look for a new mac mini upgrade every 2 years
It should be fine. My 2012 SATA based Fusion Drive performs well. My only doubt is based on a nightmare I had the other day. In this dream Apple introduced a new Fusion Lite option with a tiny SSD front end.
My experience with traditional Fat Fusion might not predict much about the performance of such a drive.Follow Reagan's sage advice, "Trust but verify."
When was the last Mac Mini upgrade. Looking at Apple's page for it can be configured with an 3.0GHz dual-core Intel Core i7 (Turbo Boost up to 3.5GHz) with 4MB on-chip shared L3 cache. And 256GB, 512GB or 1TB of flash storage (SSD).
I mainly want to use it to build apps with Xcode in the background while maybe surfing the web or creating some 3D game objects with Cheetah 3D, or 2D clipart for games with Pixelmator.
It seems to me that the Mini with i7 with and SSD would be enough to do all of that (except playing games) lightening fast. no?
I mainly want to use it to build apps with Xcode in the background while maybe surfing the web or creating some 3D game objects with Cheetah 3D, or 2D clipart for games with Pixelmator.
It seems to me that the Mini with i7 with and SSD would be enough to do all of that (except playing games) lightening fast. no?
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Nope!
The 2014 i7 Mac mini 3.0 Ghz model is not a Quad Core CPU.
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/mac_mini/specs/mac-mini-core-i7-3.0-late-2014-specs.html
Thanks Celerondan. I changed my question after doing some research, but before I saw your response. It seems that the Mac Mini has been getting progressively worse since about 2011: At various times in its life it had a dedicated GPU, 4 cores, replaceable RAM....WTF!
There is still hope for our mini!
Fortunately we have compensations for some of those losses. Dual Thunderbolt 2, AC WiFi, and better integrated video may not completely balance out the loss of the Quad Core (QC) and replaceable RAM but the dedicated GPU had a down side (heat) and the integrated graphics have been improving for a couple of generations. Most folks don't need QC performance but those who do can purchase 2012 i7 minis or other i7 Macs. The solution for the memory problem is tougher, since 2014 buyers must now treat their memory configuration like an expensive tattoo. I estimate that your Mac should have 16Gb of RAM.
HD 4000 graphics should be able to handle your workload with ease. Your target machine might be a 2012 i7 with 16Gb of RAM and an SSD. RAM prices have dropped again. If you purchase a base i7 with 4Gb and a 1Tb HDD you can perform upgrades to create a sweet development platform.
Lightning fast? Yes it would be tokyodan!
The dedi graphics mini was before I got into the Mac world. But I do recall hearing some heat stories. Too hot always makes me think that they did like no testing at all.
The first thing I did when I got my 2012 mini (before the iMac in sig.) was to get the fans under control, and heat was kind of a major issue in mine as well, but I headed it off at the trail with the Fan software.
And it was very very quiet, which is a must for me. But this iMac, it is near silent. Granted, I do not do much of anything super stressful either Still, I am extremely happy about the silence.
The first thing I did when I got my 2012 mini (before the iMac in sig.) was to get the fans under control, and heat was kind of a major issue in mine as well, but I headed it off at the trail with the Fan software.
And it was very very quiet, which is a must for me. But this iMac, it is near silent. Granted, I do not do much of anything super stressful either
Still, I am extremely happy about the silence.
The minis with DGPUs weren't actually bad. The iMacs and MacBooks have been another matter. Apple encountered terrible heat problems with dedicated graphics solutions recently.
https://www.google.com/#q=mac video card recall
Other than the Mac Pro, each Mac design has special challenges for internal component cooling. In the end Apple made a decision regarding cost vs benefit. I think that DGPUs on minis may have been less attractive because of Apple's experience across their product line. I can't guess how much the fact that dedicated graphics add cost and complexity for design and programming impacted Apple's decision. After all, much of this work benefits multiple product lines. Still these factors may have combined with the heat questions to eliminate this feature on the low-end Mac. In the end, steady improvements in Intel integrated graphics probably helped to tilt this choice toward our current 2012/2014 mini configuration (no DGPU).