Thumbelina Mini Trackball For Mac
Just thought I'd create a thread for future users of the NEW and long-awaited Mac Mini. What are your thoughts on it? I, for one, appreciate that it isn't the lame duck which the 2014 Mac Mini was. Granted, I would not go all-out with a Mac Mini—I'd rather do so with an iMac. The highest-configuration for the Mac Mini brings it to $4,200.
At that rate, why not try for high-end iMac or low-end iMac Pro? The high-end isn't worth it, but the low-end seems to be a good value. If I were to configure one, I'd probably put in 16GB of RAM and go one step up from the included i3.
Apple just announced my new home computer, that's what I think. The i7 with 512 GB of storage and base RAM is gonna be my machine. Later will come: more RAM, RX680 (it is just around the corner) and external TB3 storage.
That will be enough, for half a decade at least. With maybe GPU refresh after 2 or 3 years. As to why not iMac, I do not want all in one. Never wanted, never will, probably. And almost nobody buy maxed out Mac Mini, most people are gonna buy the less expensive version, and upgrade RAM and storage later (with external, of course, you can get 2 Mb/s read/write speed on TB3, which is quite good. If the RAID0 is possible, we are talking about crazy speeds).
Apple just announced my new home computer, that's what I think. The i7 with 512 GB of storage and base RAM is gonna be my machine. Later will come: more RAM, RX680 (it is just around the corner) and external TB3 storage. That will be enough, for half a decade at least. With maybe GPU refresh after 2 or 3 years.
As to why not iMac, I do not want all in one. Never wanted, never will, probably. And almost nobody buy maxed out Mac Mini, most people are gonna buy the less expensive version, and upgrade RAM and storage later (with external, of course, you can get 2 Mb/s read/write speed on TB3, which is quite good. If the RAID0 is possible, we are talking about crazy speeds). I'm pleased, annoyed and holding my judgment until I see am iFixit teardown. I think I posted my ideas in some detail for the next mac mini a couple times in the monster thread. Apple didn't follow most of them, yet still did pretty decent.
What I wasn't expecting was the shift to 65W desktop CPUs, nor Intel's reaction to AMD by pushing up the core counts in Coffee Lake. Pleased: Apple did the right thing by leaving 2 USB Type-A ports - I personally would have left more, but 98% of the time it'll be ok, and adding a USB 3 type-a hub isn't costly. It's a mini - you're going to plug in a USB Keyboard and mouse for starters, and you probably have thumb drives or an external hard drive laying around, perhaps even a webcam. If they went with only one type-A or none like on the macbook pro's, it would have been a failure to many people. Given Apple's recent track record I don't think any of us thought keeping the type-A ports was sure thing. The CPU options are nice, and not too terribly priced (unlike RAM and SSD).
Right now there are not a lot of SKUs in the Coffee Lake Desktop lineup and it was Intel's choice to reserve hyper threading for i7s only, so Apple just dealt with it. Regarding the loss of hyperthreading - In various testing with game engines and high-end compression, having hyper threading is like getting 1.35 to 1.5 the cores, with some caveats (like if all cores are doing heavy memory read/writes you max out bandwidth even without HT), so under max situations the 6-core i7-8700 is like having 8 or 9 cores total, which combined with the higher base clock and turbos thanks to the 14nm process, is a real nice jump over the i7-3720QM in my 2012. The base i3 is a decent jump over the 2014's i7 - we were that overdue. RAM is user serviceable again! And up to 64GB!
Big, smart win on Apple's part. Big companies like my previous employer are going pay for Apple RAM due to IT policy and that's fine. Power users like you and I are going to be happy replacing RAM on our own terms and schedule.
Overall - It's entirely possible to have a 2018 mini doing heavyweight duty in a build/server/transcoder/etc type of role, because of the combination of components: 10Gb Ethernet (which is probably 2-3 years from becoming more common in SOHO situations), 64GB of RAM, 12 CPU threads, and a very fast primary drive with 3500MB/s peak through put and thunderbolt 3 additional storage. I mean, in those types of roles none of the Mini's components/subsystems are 'weak links' - a metric crap-ton of computing can be done very quickly without the 2018 Mini breaking a sweat. Annoyed: The UHD 630 iGPU isn't that hot, and gamine will remain a weak spot on the Mini, especially given the 4K and 5K montior support (yay, finally!) I do game testing on Intel NUCs, and the Iris Plus 655 would have been nicer, as it benchmarks about double the UHD 630 (which benchs about 1.6x/ 2.7x the GPUs in the 2014/2012 minis), but only the mobile 28W CPUs have it. What Apple could do, and was a golden opportunity missed IMHO, is offer a special version of the Mini with the i7-8706G CPU - It's a 65W TDP chip, same as the other CPUs, but that 4GB HBM2 Radeon Vega would give it enough punch to do VR work and pretty decent (though not greatest) gaming on. I'm pretty sure I know why they didn't thought - it would have required a different chipset and thus board (but Apple has has multiple mainboards for the same generation of Mini's before), or even convinced Intel to make a Coffee Lake version. I wonder if this means the Hades Canyon NUC hasn't sold well and the -G CPUs will be discontinued soon?
Yes, eGPUs are an option. But compatible choices are limited and pricey and not that many people are going to want to hook up a second box significantly larger than the Mini itself. I don't see eGPUs being the popular solution that some people are hoping for. Holding my Judgment: Preliminary reports say the SSD is soldered onto the motherboard, but it's not clear if that's true, or the SSD just isn't 'user serviceable' like the RAM. The 2014 Mini had it's RAM soldered, but they didn't try to solder the SSD. And to be honest, it doesn't make much sense to do that. SSD fails and you have to replace the entire mainboard, which is now a lot more expensive, much less manufacturing flexibility, Refurb 2018 minis would come with SSDs that might be well on their way to being worn out (lots of Apple Care claims in 2021+), and so on.
And I don't see Apple leaving empty chip sockets on the mainboard - given that the difference in storage runs 16x from low end (128GB) to high end (2TB). And of course. Sure you can add external storage, but it's not the same. In short, it sucks for more reasons that I've mentioned here. So I'm going to wait for the teardown to confirm if the flash chips are soldered on, or if it's a removable, and thus replaceable SSD. Even if the connector isn't standard like in the 2014, someone like OWC is likely to step in.
Assuming the T2 chip lets them. If the SSD can be replaced via an iFixit level teardown, I'll probably get a 2018 sooner than later, otherwise I'll feel pressed to wait and see if a 1TB or 2TB is any better as a refurb due to the high cost. That's too much typing.
I should wait until we're all waiting for the 2022 Mini before getting worked up again. I ordered the base model the other day. I'll use it for web browsing, and other light tasks.
You also might want to make sure your computer is discoverable and see if you can see it from another bluetooth device. Try unpluging the dongle and then pluging it back in. 
Apple Footer • This site contains user submitted content, comments and opinions and is for informational purposes only. Secondly, try plugging the dongle directly into the computer's usb port rather than through a hub.
So it should work fine for me. I don't do video editing, gaming or other heavy uses. I used to buy iMacs, but I'm done with them. My last one was a 5K that overheated due to dust getting in the vents. It was such a pain in the ass to clean the dust out with a butter knife and dust cloth, I hate how the iMac vents are designed. I also despised the lack of an HDMI port in the iMac. Anyway, I'm happy to move to a Mac mini again after all these years.
I have a new monitor coming that is not from Apple obviously. So I'm very happy about the new Mac mini. I know it's not everybody's cup of tea, but it should work very well for me. Apple just announced my new home computer, that's what I think. The i7 with 512 GB of storage and base RAM is gonna be my machine. Later will come: more RAM, RX680 (it is just around the corner) and external TB3 storage.
That will be enough, for half a decade at least. With maybe GPU refresh after 2 or 3 years. As to why not iMac, I do not want all in one. Never wanted, never will, probably.
And almost nobody buy maxed out Mac Mini, most people are gonna buy the less expensive version, and upgrade RAM and storage later (with external, of course, you can get 2 Mb/s read/write speed on TB3, which is quite good. If the RAID0 is possible, we are talking about crazy speeds).
Mini Trackball For Laptop
Click to expand.You are smart to stay away from the iMac. The design makes cleaning the vents a huge headache, and I have one that was overheating because of clogged vents. Such a pain in the ass to clean it, I vowed I would never buy another one again. Finally the new Mac mini is here. So I bought a new monitor, and my current iMac will be moved into the living room for use for movies and TV shows.
Eventually I'll get rid of it and replace it with a monitor and Mac mini, but I might as well use it for a while since I already own it. Click to expand.I said that because currently it has not been confirmed that it is or it isn't soldered on the mainboard, given that Apple didn't mind doing that with RAM on the 2014 If you look at things like they say things like: 'No. It is not a slotted M.2 drive, nor SATA.
Buy what you need for internal storage when you get the machine. ' but no has clarified what it (2018 SSD) actually is. We saw that a custom connector was used for the blade-style SSD on the 2014 Mac Mini, and had to wait for OWC to release 3rd party blade SSDs.
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I said that because currently it has not been confirmed that it is or it isn't soldered on the mainboard, given that Apple didn't mind doing that with RAM on the 2014 If you look at things like they say things like: 'No. It is not a slotted M.2 drive, nor SATA. Buy what you need for internal storage when you get the machine. ' but no has clarified what it (2018 SSD) actually is.
We saw that a custom connector was used for the blade-style SSD on the 2014 Mac Mini, and had to wait for OWC to release 3rd party blade SSDs. Click to expand.I need to clarify myself: The storage is probably soldered, but just because storage is soldered, that doesn’t mean that it is not removable at all.
If (let’s hope not) your Mac Mini get storage failure, and you take it to Apple to fix it, they are not gonna swap the entire motherboard. What they are gonna do instead is de-solder old storage and solder the new one in its place. Everyone with professional tools and knowledge can do this. At least this was true until the T2 came, but as I have heard, the T2 still allows unauthorized repair technicians to repair Macs.
For now, at least. I need to clarify myself: The storage is probably soldered, but just because storage is soldered, that doesn’t mean that it is not removable at all. If (let’s hope not) your Mac Mini get storage failure, and you take it to Apple to fix it, they are not gonna swap the entire motherboard.
What they are gonna do instead is de-solder old storage and solder the new one in its place. Everyone with professional tools and knowledge can do this.
Unless it was until the T2 came, but as I have heard, the T2 still allows unauthorized repair technicians to repair Macs. For now, at least.