

Apple unveils a new Mac Mini - duartetb
http://www.theverge.com/2014/10/16/6981107/apple-mac-mini-new-release-date-price-specs

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Alupis
minor refresh, practically the same. very sad because the mini was long long
overdue for a refresh.

~~~
cseelus
Whats missing?

~~~
Alupis
it's underpowered compared to NUC's (and similar) in it's price range, even
after adding hdd's and ram to the NUC kit if you don't buy it pre-made.

the top $1k model still is only a dual core cpu.

it comes with a slow 5400 rpm drive instead of a ssd. even the pro $1k model
has a slow 5400 rpm mechanical drive unless you pay extra for the upgrade.

not to mention thunderbolt ports have not really caught on outside the apple-
peripheral community, would have liked to see more USB3's than thunderbolts.

(also not sure about their claim of "lowest power computer in the world",
guess it depends what your definition of a computer is, because RPi takes
700mW. None-the-less, some of the NUC kits sip only 8W or less, while the new
Mini is rated at 83W)

~~~
marcocampos
Intel NUC uses low TDP mobile CPUs. The new Mini uses regular TDP mobile CPUs.
The fastest NUC tops at 1.3GHz with Intel HD 5000 graphics. The new Mini tops
at 3.0GHz with Intel Iris graphics.

If you are refering to compact desktop computers there aren't many (none?)
that use regular TDP mobile CPUs, have Intel Iris graphics and are virtually
silent. The only ones that are similar or have better specs are the Gigabyte
Brix Pro line of compact desktops and most of them are noisy or extremely
noisy and have bad cooling solutions. I know because I've owned two and ended
up selling both after only a few weeks. The only one that show promise is this
[1] and I still have doubts that it will be any good...

My only issue with the new Mini's is that you used to be able to buy one with
a quad core CPU and now that option is gone. Other than that...

[1] [http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-
page.aspx?pid=5156](http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-
page.aspx?pid=5156)

~~~
wffurr
Gigabyte has a model[1] with the Intel Iris Pro 5200 graphics which includes a
128 MB L4 DRAM cache. The Iris Pro is a big jump up[2] from the Iris 5000
graphics.

[1]: [http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-
page.aspx?pid=4888](http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-
page.aspx?pid=4888)

[2]: [http://www.anandtech.com/show/8175/gigabyte-brix-pro-a-
secon...](http://www.anandtech.com/show/8175/gigabyte-brix-pro-a-second-look-
at-the-intel-i74770r-with-iris-pro-hd-5200)

~~~
Alupis
And it's still cheaper than the best new Mac Mini, and it will way way out
perform it.

That BRIX you linked to has a quad core with hyper threading (8 threads), and
Iris Pro graphics (you can do some gaming with this, not just hi-def video).

And when outfited with 16GB of RAM, and a 240GB SSD, this puppy is what the
new Mac Mini should have been. (only this is cheaper!)

[http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemLi...](http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.1671221)

And according to this review, it sips about 82w at full throttle:

[http://www.missingremote.com/review/gigabyte-brix-pro-gb-
bxi...](http://www.missingremote.com/review/gigabyte-brix-pro-gb-
bxi7-4770r-mini-pc)

So, it uses less power than the Mac Mini, busting Apple's claim that their new
Mac Mini is the "lowest power computer in the world".

All-in-all, you'd have to be a fool to buy the new Mini. Especially given we
can expect the current (new) Mini hardware to be the same for another 2-3
years without a refresh, and given the difficulty you will have trying to
upgrade it with more RAM, HDD, etc.

~~~
wffurr
Only missing feature is the ability to run Mac OS X without a bunch of weird
hacks and instability. :(

~~~
Alupis
who says I want to run Mac OS X? ;-P

I would of bought the mini then wiped it anyways. I've found Linux to be a
much better home server/build server anyways. And now that Steam is on Linux,
I could game on the same box. Great setup.

~~~
wffurr
Maybe you don't, but people considering a Mac Mini probably do.

I tried running a Hackintosh, and gave up after the third instance of
unrecoverable disk corruption. :(

------
chiph
Did they drop the server version?

~~~
Alupis
the server edition really was the same but had no cd drive in lieu of an
optional second hdd, and it came pre-installed with OSX server (which most
wiped anyways in favor of a linux or BSD flavor)

~~~
chiph
The second drive was useful because you could RAID the boot volume using Disk
Utility, and then use 3rd party software to RAID external USB drives. Cheaper
than what appears to be their new plan for data reliability: Buy an expensive
Thunderbolt RAID enclosure.

~~~
Alupis
unlikely you'd actually need the full 10Gbps from the thunderbolt. As you
said, they are way overpriced since Apple is really the only company using
Thunderbolt.

You could try out a USB3 external as a possible alternative, 6Gbps is still
likely faster than even an array of SSD's.

