Not looking that good. Underpowered base model (like a MacBook Air but without the benefits of the SSD) plus more expensive mid and high-end models with dual core i5 vs. quad core i7 before. Iris graphics at the top end. All a bit meh.
All in, I'm sure the bump for haswell has some benefits but there seems no compelling reason to upgrade any 2011 or 2012 models.
It's going to be a speed demon. Can't wait to see actual specs and then reviews.
No. The entry-level mini only has a 500 GB spinning drive. Cheapest SSD will cost you $899, and that's not even PCIe. PCIe is only available on the top model.
Not a 1.4 GHz. The Acer C720 Chromebook sells for $199 with a 1.4 GHz chip. Hook one up to an external screen using it's HDMI port, buy an external 1 TB Toshiba drive for $65 and just use the USB 3 port with a USB hub and boom you've got an equivalent machine for $300 without buying a keyboard or mouse. When you want to travel just unplug your C720 and take it with you. Bring the external drive if it will be needed.
I didn't see the Apple presentation today. When I heard about the Mini being priced lower I was excited. Then I went to the Apple site and saw the specifications of the $499 model. What a let down. At $350 I would get interested in having a Mini with those specifications.
To be fair, that's a celeron processor at 1.4Ghz not an i5, relying on USB 3 and external drives is not industrial strength, not to mention that ChromeOS is not remotely up to Yosemite standards - so not really equivalent at all. But your point that it is no bargain probably still stands.
Just looked at the configurations - Mac Mini is simply a bad investment. RAM is no longer upgradable. It starts at 4GB... really?!?! Not getting it.
A better investment is 5K iMac even though it's more than twice more expensive because of RAM being upgradable and the display is simply like having four monitors at once.
Looks like they've chosen to use the Mobility CPUs again and they are no longer Quad-core. This is a step backwards. There are Haswell Quad-core Mobile CPUs. My guess is they are afraid of Heat because CPUs like the 4770R which also has Iris graphics is as fast as desktop processors.
The prices are a bit misleading, they lower the price on some but decide to give you different "clocked" CPUs and again with the Apple pricing of charging you hundreds for a simple 200-300MHZ differents.
Bah. The new low end Mini is just the Macbook Air's motherboard in a box - exact same 1.4 GHz CPU. The "high" end Mini is just the 13.3" macbook Pro in a box. At least they could have offered the innards of the 15.4" macbook pro, with quad core i7 and nvidia GPU, as a true high end option for the Mini.
Why does everyone keep assuming this? When you purchase the Mac Mini on the Apple Store it doesn't say anything about your RAM choice being permanent, but it does say that when you buy a MBA or rMBP.
Typically LPDDR3 RAM is soldered to the board which is what the new Mac mini has. Just because you don't want to believe it doesn't make it true.
Entry level is priced lower, but the CPU in it looks pathetic (1.4 GHz).
Anybody know how the new top-end (dual core) CPU compares to the previous top-end (quad core) CPU?
Apple also seems to have messed up the pricing. The final price is slightly cheaper when adding onto the mid-range configuration than when adding onto the top-end configuration.
Typically LPDDR3 RAM is soldered to the board which is what the new Mac mini has. Just because you don't want to believe it doesn't make it true.
And vice versa, just because you believe it's true doesn't make it true. We are both going to have to wait to hear the final answer.
With that said, every computer that Apple sells that comes with soldered memory is referred to as onboard memory on the tech specs page and in the Apple Store configuration it mentions to make your choice wisely because it is permanent. None of those statements exist on the Mac Mini page. Looks to be just as much evidence for either party to make the claim.
I don't really care either way as I'm not in the market for this computer, but I'm just surprised so many people are stating this computer as having soldered memory when Apple has not said so in any literature thus far.
I wouldn't be so sure ... perhaps in a few specific use cases, but I think overall, the faster RAM bus and way better GPU, and newer CPU will more than make up for it.
I wouldn't think the GPU would be much of a help for a server machine. The monitor doesn't really get used much.
For a server machine, I am not sure of the breakdown. The new Mini has a 15% faster clock speed, and a newer generation processor. My old Mini has four i7 cores vs. two i7 cores in the new Mini.
For use as a general purpose server (web, mail, etc.) will the new machine give me better performance? As a server, I don't need the fastest execution on a single thread. I need good performance on a lot of threads.
I've been waiting a LOOONG time for this MacMini update so that I can trash my non-upgradeable and monitor-failing PowerPC iMac stuck on Tiger. The entry-level new MacMini is a joke. But the mid-tier model is right where I needed it to be. Two questions:
1) The obvious one that everyone is asking, is the RAM soldered or is it user-upgradeable? And if it IS user-upgradeable, are you able to order it with ONE 8gb memory stick rather than two 4gb sticks (that way you only have to buy one additional 8gb stick, and not have to lose the 4gb in order to buy and install two 8gb sticks on your own)? I've seen pricing of 16gb (2x8) for $160-$190. Given that Apple wants to charge $200 for an 8gb bump is obviously not cost-efficient. But if it IS soldered, then I would have to have Apple bump it to 16gb.
2) What is the performance difference between the 1tb HD and the 1tb Fusion drive? Is it worth the extra $200 to upgrade to that Fusion drive even though it's the same memory capacity?
Once I know the answers to these questions I'll be buying one ASAP.
I wonder how this new Mac Mini benchmarks compared to the old one, especially since the dual core CPUs seem to be a bit weak, purely going by the specs, but I don't know much about them to be honest.
And it's interesting that there is no longer any quad core option. Maybe Apple is positioning the Mac Mini as purely an entry level Mac, and no more.
Comments
All in, I'm sure the bump for haswell has some benefits but there seems no compelling reason to upgrade any 2011 or 2012 models.
So true. The vocal minority complains the loudest. Still, though, I want a new Apple TV.
What do you guys prefer for normal office work 1.4Ghz or 2.6 one? Does upgrading the memory to 8 GB RAM on 1.4 helps? What speed impact does it have?
It's going to be a speed demon. Can't wait to see actual specs and then reviews.
No. The entry-level mini only has a 500 GB spinning drive. Cheapest SSD will cost you $899, and that's not even PCIe. PCIe is only available on the top model.
Oh the people who don't understand real world differences between quad core and dual core. They are fun to watch.
Because four of one thing is always better than two of another. /s
Not a 1.4 GHz. The Acer C720 Chromebook sells for $199 with a 1.4 GHz chip. Hook one up to an external screen using it's HDMI port, buy an external 1 TB Toshiba drive for $65 and just use the USB 3 port with a USB hub and boom you've got an equivalent machine for $300 without buying a keyboard or mouse. When you want to travel just unplug your C720 and take it with you. Bring the external drive if it will be needed.
I didn't see the Apple presentation today. When I heard about the Mini being priced lower I was excited. Then I went to the Apple site and saw the specifications of the $499 model. What a let down. At $350 I would get interested in having a Mini with those specifications.
To be fair, that's a celeron processor at 1.4Ghz not an i5, relying on USB 3 and external drives is not industrial strength, not to mention that ChromeOS is not remotely up to Yosemite standards - so not really equivalent at all. But your point that it is no bargain probably still stands.
Just looked at the configurations - Mac Mini is simply a bad investment. RAM is no longer upgradable. It starts at 4GB... really?!?! Not getting it.
A better investment is 5K iMac even though it's more than twice more expensive because of RAM being upgradable and the display is simply like having four monitors at once.
Looks like they've chosen to use the Mobility CPUs again and they are no longer Quad-core. This is a step backwards. There are Haswell Quad-core Mobile CPUs. My guess is they are afraid of Heat because CPUs like the 4770R which also has Iris graphics is as fast as desktop processors.
The prices are a bit misleading, they lower the price on some but decide to give you different "clocked" CPUs and again with the Apple pricing of charging you hundreds for a simple 200-300MHZ differents.
Bah. The new low end Mini is just the Macbook Air's motherboard in a box - exact same 1.4 GHz CPU. The "high" end Mini is just the 13.3" macbook Pro in a box. At least they could have offered the innards of the 15.4" macbook pro, with quad core i7 and nvidia GPU, as a true high end option for the Mini.
…the display is simply like having four monitors at once.
You DO realize it renders at 2560x1440, right?
Typically LPDDR3 RAM is soldered to the board which is what the new Mac mini has. Just because you don't want to believe it doesn't make it true.
Entry level is priced lower, but the CPU in it looks pathetic (1.4 GHz).
Anybody know how the new top-end (dual core) CPU compares to the previous top-end (quad core) CPU?
Apple also seems to have messed up the pricing. The final price is slightly cheaper when adding onto the mid-range configuration than when adding onto the top-end configuration.
Typically LPDDR3 RAM is soldered to the board which is what the new Mac mini has. Just because you don't want to believe it doesn't make it true.
And vice versa, just because you believe it's true doesn't make it true. We are both going to have to wait to hear the final answer.
With that said, every computer that Apple sells that comes with soldered memory is referred to as onboard memory on the tech specs page and in the Apple Store configuration it mentions to make your choice wisely because it is permanent. None of those statements exist on the Mac Mini page. Looks to be just as much evidence for either party to make the claim.
I don't really care either way as I'm not in the market for this computer, but I'm just surprised so many people are stating this computer as having soldered memory when Apple has not said so in any literature thus far.
I wouldn't be so sure ... perhaps in a few specific use cases, but I think overall, the faster RAM bus and way better GPU, and newer CPU will more than make up for it.
I wouldn't think the GPU would be much of a help for a server machine. The monitor doesn't really get used much.
For a server machine, I am not sure of the breakdown. The new Mini has a 15% faster clock speed, and a newer generation processor. My old Mini has four i7 cores vs. two i7 cores in the new Mini.
For use as a general purpose server (web, mail, etc.) will the new machine give me better performance? As a server, I don't need the fastest execution on a single thread. I need good performance on a lot of threads.
I've been waiting a LOOONG time for this MacMini update so that I can trash my non-upgradeable and monitor-failing PowerPC iMac stuck on Tiger. The entry-level new MacMini is a joke. But the mid-tier model is right where I needed it to be. Two questions:
1) The obvious one that everyone is asking, is the RAM soldered or is it user-upgradeable? And if it IS user-upgradeable, are you able to order it with ONE 8gb memory stick rather than two 4gb sticks (that way you only have to buy one additional 8gb stick, and not have to lose the 4gb in order to buy and install two 8gb sticks on your own)? I've seen pricing of 16gb (2x8) for $160-$190. Given that Apple wants to charge $200 for an 8gb bump is obviously not cost-efficient. But if it IS soldered, then I would have to have Apple bump it to 16gb.
2) What is the performance difference between the 1tb HD and the 1tb Fusion drive? Is it worth the extra $200 to upgrade to that Fusion drive even though it's the same memory capacity?
Once I know the answers to these questions I'll be buying one ASAP.
I wonder how this new Mac Mini benchmarks compared to the old one, especially since the dual core CPUs seem to be a bit weak, purely going by the specs, but I don't know much about them to be honest.
And it's interesting that there is no longer any quad core option. Maybe Apple is positioning the Mac Mini as purely an entry level Mac, and no more.