The Tic and the Toc Haswell?

[sean barry]

I have saved my $$$ I can get a MM 2.5x2 or a 2.3x4 No other upgrades until I do the cheap 16g ram.
I will use it as home entertainment and GarageBand, well all iLife stuff.
I think the 2.5x2 will do that great. But this is a Tic right? Miner upgrade? The Haswell is supposed to be the Toc, major upgrade?
All the research I have done about the Haswell seems to be centered around less power consumption, not speed?
What about 2, 3 years from now? for 2 bills more you get 40% more goodness.
If I am having success with GarageBand I may want to try Logic.
Can I be enlightened here? Is Haswell going to be a Toc?

 

[Darby67]

Is there a Tac and Toe as well?

 

[Poki]

Don't understand what you want. Of course you'll get double the speed for the same price in three years, and of course Haswell will be faster (about 10-20% CPU wise, more GPU wise) and more power efficient, but until we'll see Haswell Minis there might well pass another year. If you need a Mac, buy now. If you need power, buy the quad-core one. If not, don't buy anything.

 

[karl878]

Intel's Tick-Tock Model:

Every "tick" is a shrinking of process technology of the previous microarchitecture and every "tock" is a new microarchitecture.

Haswell will be a tock.

 

[Yebubbleman]

I have saved my $$$ I can get a MM 2.5x2 or a 2.3x4 No other upgrades until I do the cheap 16g ram.
I will use it as home entertainment and GarageBand, well all iLife stuff.
I think the 2.5x2 will do that great. But this is a Tic right? Miner upgrade? The Haswell is supposed to be the Toc, major upgrade?
All the research I have done about the Haswell seems to be centered around less power consumption, not speed?
What about 2, 3 years from now? for 2 bills more you get 40% more goodness.
If I am having success with GarageBand I may want to try Logic.
Can I be enlightened here? Is Haswell going to be a Toc?

I'm pretty sure that Ivy Bridge was the die-shrink, and thusly the power consumption decrease. Haswell will be the major speed bump, Broadwell will be the die-shrink/power consumption decrease. Really, it's not like Ivy Bridge is all that slow. Haswell will be faster, but not so much that you'll regret buying a Mac mini today. Plus, it's not like the Mac mini you buy today will necessarily be updated the second mobile Haswell CPUs become available. With Sandy Bridge, they didn't update the mini until five months after chips became available and with Ivy Bridge, the update was closer to seven. Point being, if a Mac mini is the machine you want, now is the time to buy.

 

[CIA]

It's a fact that if you wait something better will come out. Question is how long can you wait? If it does what you need, buy now and be happy you have a solid machine for as long as *you* deem it solid.

 

[jack92029]

I'm on a three year cycle

I've been replacing / upgrading my computers every three years.

This cycle seems to allow me to get a fair amount of use out of my purchases, and to get a big increase in processing power when I buy new equipment.

I currently have a late 2009 21.5" iMac 3.06 Ghz dual core 4 Gb ram, that scores approximately 4,100 geek benchmarks.

My late 2012 Mac Mini 2.3 Ghz i7 quad core 8 Gb ram is scheduled to arrive on 11/1/12 and has approx. a 10,500.

On the geek benchmarks I'm looking at a 2.5X (250%) improvement. This processing improvement will enable me to notice the improvement.

Sure I could spend more today and get a faster machine, BUT Do I really Need a faster machine? NO, not now, but maybe in late 2015

 

[CIA]

I've been replacing / upgrading my computers every three years.

This cycle seems to allow me to get a fair amount of use out of my purchases, and to get a big increase in processing power when I buy new equipment.

I currently have a late 2009 21.5" iMac 3.06 Ghz dual core 4 Gb ram, that scores approximately 4,100 geek benchmarks.

My late 2012 Mac Mini 2.3 Ghz i7 quad core 8 Gb ram is scheduled to arrive on 11/1/12 and has approx. a 10,500.

On the geek benchmarks I'm looking at a 2.5X (250%) improvement. This processing improvement will enable me to notice the improvement.

Sure I could spend more today and get a faster machine, BUT Do I really Need a faster machine? NO, not now, but maybe in late 2015

I'm similar but a little slower. Finally going to replace my 2007 top end iMac this year with the new models.

 

[CausticPuppy]

Ever 2-3 years is a good cadence, because you can resell the old ones especially if they're covered by applecare.

I'll probably hold on to my 2011 mini though, when I buy the 2013 model. The 2011 model will then go into the entertainment center.

I also just picked up an rMBP 13", which I'll keep for a year or two and then possibly trade up.

 

[MatthewAMEL]

The poster above said it...

Sandy Bridge was a 'tock', Ivy Bridge is a 'tick', Haswell is the next 'tock'.

 

[philipma1957]

I have saved my $$$ I can get a MM 2.5x2 or a 2.3x4 No other upgrades until I do the cheap 16g ram.
I will use it as home entertainment and GarageBand, well all iLife stuff.
I think the 2.5x2 will do that great. But this is a Tic right? Miner upgrade? The Haswell is supposed to be the Toc, major upgrade?
All the research I have done about the Haswell seems to be centered around less power consumption, not speed?
What about 2, 3 years from now? for 2 bills more you get 40% more goodness.
If I am having success with GarageBand I may want to try Logic.
Can I be enlightened here? Is Haswell going to be a Toc?

THIS IS EASY ;

Haswell will have a major gpu boost over the 4000 graphics do you need that if you do and you have a sandy bridge 2011 mini don't buy this.


From your post it sounds like you need the mid 2.3 quad and 8gb ram not 16 gb ram.


I would consider buying a mid for 799 8gb ram for 42 and a usb3 case like this for 30.



http://www.amazon.com/MiniPro-2-5-i...UTF8&qid=1351640076&sr=8-3&keywords=oyen+usb3


then wait for a good ssd deal. put it in the usb3 case or put the ssd in the mini and put the stock hdd in the case.

 

[thekev]

I'm pretty sure that Ivy Bridge was the die-shrink, and thusly the power consumption decrease. Haswell will be the major speed bump, Broadwell will be the die-shrink/power consumption decrease. Really, it's not like Ivy Bridge is all that slow. Haswell will be faster, but not so much that you'll regret buying a Mac mini today. Plus, it's not like the Mac mini you buy today will necessarily be updated the second mobile Haswell CPUs become available. With Sandy Bridge, they didn't update the mini until five months after chips became available and with Ivy Bridge, the update was closer to seven. Point being, if a Mac mini is the machine you want, now is the time to buy.

Haswell isn't likely to be out at all prior to next summer.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6248/haswell-at-idf-2012-10w-is-the-new-17w

Don't expect any earth shattering increases in CPU performance over Ivy Bridge, although I've heard that gains in the low double digits are possible. The big gains will come from the new GPU and on-package L4 cache. Broadwell (14nm, 2014) will bring another healthy set of GPU performance increases but we'll likely see more than we did from IVB with the transition to Haswell on the graphics side.

This is a typical prediction, but we won't be sure on gains for a while. Just don't count on a sandy bridge like cpu gain. Part of what we gained with sandy was the implementation of quad mobile cpus. Core count will probably stay there for a while.

 

[k.alexander]

Not trying to hijack the thread, but I've got a question for you guys. I am between picking up a base 2011 iMac 21.5 or a mid-tier 2012 Mini.

I am replacing a CoreDuo 1.83 MBP (2006)--laugh now, but I have to say, the darn thing has lasted me forever. Primarily I use for typical web/office stuff, AND Aperture/PS (photography is a big hobby, my Aperture library is about 200GB).

So I am rocking my brain over the 2011 iMac vs. the 2012 mid-tier Mini. I know the GPU on the iMac is more powerful than the very much improved HD4000, and I figure I need the GPU for the photo stuff. On the other hand, the 2.3x4 Ive Bridge is faster than the 2.5x4 Sandy Bridge. And my biggest worry is that I am outdating myself (this is the first time ever that I can remember when I'm not buying the newest product). Can anyone offer any thoughts on whether I am outdating this PC before it's even bought. Hope is that it will run me 4-4.5-5 years, while getting all the OS updates and staying reasonably fast.

 

[MatthewAMEL]

No laughs here. I am replacing a C2D 15" MBP.

iMac is my vote for your needs.

I decided to 'segment' my server and desktop needs, so I just ordered an i7 Mini, but I'm also replacing a Late2009 27" iMac with a new iMac when I can.

I have almost 20TB of attached storage on my iMac, so I've decided to go with a server/desktop solution.

I use my iMac for gaming in Boot Camp and the 4850 is getting long in the tooth.