New Mac Mini :(

[lopri]

I just came back from a local Bestbuy and HD4000 didn't look "fine" for 2880x1800 (or 2560x1600, didn't check). It played movies alright and scrolling paged documents looked smooth. But as soon as I started something real-time (rendering), things got slowed down quite visibly. Simply resizing windows looked sluggish.

To Apple's credit, it wasn't the kind of stutters that you usually see in Windows when a GPU is running out steam. It was more of a decelerated/slow-mo'ed animation, rather than stutters. That definitely helps reducing the irritation factor but still, I found myself getting impatient regardless.

[bearxor]

In Apples defense, the target market of Mac Mini users likely wot be running screens with resolutions tht high. They'll probably be in the 1440x900 - 1920x1080 range.

But totally, I wouldn't buy the machine myself unless I had a very specific purpose for it.

[Childs]

Originally Posted by bearxor

In Apples defense, the target market of Mac Mini users likely wot be running screens with resolutions tht high. They'll probably be in the 1440x900 - 1920x1080 range.

But totally, I wouldn't buy the machine myself unless I had a very specific purpose for it.

The Mini handles 2560x1440 just fine. Users shouldnt have a problem using 27" or 30" monitors.

[RampantAndroid]

Originally Posted by Rubycon

Because everyone plays Crysis on their Mac Mini?

HD4000 is fine. It can handle the rmbp just fine. If you want to game you should be looking at another platform.

To be fair, the rmbp has the 650M running at 660M speeds, just without the extra VRAM a 660 would have.

[Tyranicus]

Originally Posted by RampantAndroid

To be fair, the rmbp has the 650M running at 660M speeds, just without the extra VRAM a 660 would have.

The 15" has a 650 and HD4000; the 13" has only HD4000.

[Ice_Dragon]

In my view, there needs to be at least one discrete model mini. Intel's graphics are getting better though there is much more room for improvement especially under OS X. Let's remember you get more VRAM under Windows.

[yehness]

Here's a picture of my setup:




SWEEET!

[Ice_Dragon]

What is everyone's predictions for the next Mini? Return of discrete graphics? SSD options? Low expectations?

I don't think much will change from the 2012 models but here goes.

$599 - Dual core i5/4 GB RAM 1600 MHz/HD 4600/500 GB HDD but hopefully more (would like to see them have an option for the Fusion drive)

$799 - Quad core i7/8 GB RAM 1600 MHz (though 4 GB is more likely)/HD 4600/1 TB HDD/(options for Fusion and SSD though hopefully a bigger SSD). If they offer a dual core i7 then hopefully a good discrete graphics chip but I won't hold my breath.

$999 - Same as above except no discrete/dual possibility and two hard drives or two SSDs as an option.

Thoughts?

[Tegeril]

Originally Posted by cheez

Well at least the new Mini has Ivy Bridge processor.... so that's a good thing.

Unfortunately my family is short on the budget so they won't be able to buy a Mac Mini this Christmas....

Oh I want to get one. Eventually this will replace my huge LianLi case HTPC but it won't be anytime soon.

I have the money for speaker upgrade though! Woohooo!!~~~

"$20,000 Coconut-Audio White Night Power Distributor 2.5m coming SOON"

"Unfortunately my family is short on the budget so they won't be able to buy a Mac Mini this Christmas...."

Brain explodes.

[Emulex]

crappy old PC with quad core that nobody wants anymore $100
windows 8 pro $14.99
media center - free
8gb of ram $25
smaller case $75

smokes the piss out of the mac mini. plays 4K video in software render and 8K with hardware (GT430) in 3D.

Good to go for a few more years.

Then again my $1100 mac pro dual E5520 (4,1) is a bit faster but is hard to fit anywhere. How does the mac mini top of the line cpu go these days? E5520 is slow. only quad core with HT (two) and max 96gb of ecc ram. Can run ESXi 5.1 and spool up about 40 OSX 10.8 client or servers at the same time.

just running a flashed megaraid card to the 4 internal slots with some cheap 512gb ssd's in jbod (IT). Main weakness is i need to flash to 5,1 rom to upgrade video card to uefi flashed 5870 so I can output 3 DP at once (two cards) for 6 total DP outputs. no thunderbolt or bluetooth 4 sucks though. decent box nobody wants old mac pro's.

[umrigar]

I like old Mac Pros, but I won't pay a lot due to cost of older RAM.

[KeithP]

Originally Posted by Emulex

crappy old PC with quad core that nobody wants anymore $100
windows 8 pro $14.99
media center - free
8gb of ram $25
smaller case $75

smokes the piss out of the mac mini. plays 4K video in software render and 8K with hardware (GT430) in 3D.

-KeithP

[Tegeril]

Which smaller case than the Mini fits an old quad core (let's go with Q6600 for argument's sake) and doesn't overheat and holds a GT430?

[Ice_Dragon]

Originally Posted by Ice_Dragon

What is everyone's predictions for the next Mini? Return of discrete graphics? SSD options? Low expectations?

I don't think much will change from the 2012 models but here goes.

$599 - Dual core i5/4 GB RAM 1600 MHz/HD 4600/500 GB HDD but hopefully more (would like to see them have an option for the Fusion drive)

$799 - Quad core i7/8 GB RAM 1600 MHz (though 4 GB is more likely)/HD 4600/1 TB HDD/(options for Fusion and SSD though hopefully a bigger SSD). If they offer a dual core i7 then hopefully a good discrete graphics chip but I won't hold my breath.

$999 - Same as above except no discrete/dual possibility and two hard drives or two SSDs as an option.

Thoughts?

Hi. Wanted to see if this is accurate from some of you.

[gus6464]

Originally Posted by Ice_Dragon

What is everyone's predictions for the next Mini? Return of discrete graphics? SSD options? Low expectations?

I don't think much will change from the 2012 models but here goes.

$599 - Dual core i5/4 GB RAM 1600 MHz/HD 4600/500 GB HDD but hopefully more (would like to see them have an option for the Fusion drive)

$799 - Quad core i7/8 GB RAM 1600 MHz (though 4 GB is more likely)/HD 4600/1 TB HDD/(options for Fusion and SSD though hopefully a bigger SSD). If they offer a dual core i7 then hopefully a good discrete graphics chip but I won't hold my breath.

$999 - Same as above except no discrete/dual possibility and two hard drives or two SSDs as an option.

Thoughts?

You can put together a Fusion mini right now with this and last year's model. Buy the dual HD kit from OWC and pop in any SSD you want. Make a 10.8 flash stick, boot to it and wipe both drives and click option to recover Fusion Drive.

[TheStu]

Originally Posted by gus6464

You can put together a Fusion mini right now with this and last year's model. Buy the dual HD kit from OWC and pop in any SSD you want. Make a 10.8 flash stick, boot to it and wipe both drives and click option to recover Fusion Drive.

Oh, so that worked for you? Cool.

[gus6464]

Originally Posted by TheStu

Oh, so that worked for you? Cool.

Yeah the trick is that for some reason both drives have to be wiped clean. It wasn't showing me the option oddly enough when the SSD was clean but the HDD had 10.7 on the 10.8 bootdisk.

[Ice_Dragon]

Originally Posted by gus6464

You can put together a Fusion mini right now with this and last year's model. Buy the dual HD kit from OWC and pop in any SSD you want. Make a 10.8 flash stick, boot to it and wipe both drives and click option to recover Fusion Drive.

Yes that's true, but I mean this is what I expect from Apple.

Maybe now you can add the Intel HD 5200 in the quad-cores and the 4600 in the dual core perhaps? Possibly an option for a 512 GB SSD CTO?

[Ice_Dragon]

Bump to the top.

[dawks]

Originally Posted by Ice_Dragon

What is everyone's predictions for the next Mini? Return of discrete graphics? SSD options? Low expectations?

I don't think much will change from the 2012 models but here goes.

$599 - Dual core i5/4 GB RAM 1600 MHz/HD 4600/500 GB HDD but hopefully more (would like to see them have an option for the Fusion drive)

$799 - Quad core i7/8 GB RAM 1600 MHz (though 4 GB is more likely)/HD 4600/1 TB HDD/(options for Fusion and SSD though hopefully a bigger SSD). If they offer a dual core i7 then hopefully a good discrete graphics chip but I won't hold my breath.

$999 - Same as above except no discrete/dual possibility and two hard drives or two SSDs as an option.

Thoughts?

I don't think you'll see discrete graphics in a Mini again. Intel is promising a pretty big performance boost for their integrated graphics with Haswell coming this summer, so if Apple is satisfied with Ivy Bridge and HD 4000 graphics, they might be just as happy with HD '5000'. Apple probably thinks, 'if you want higher end graphics buy an iMac or Macbook Pro with discrete graphics'. And hopefully the Mac Pro if they ever decide to update it.
I'd like to see them bump everything to 8gigs stock. Ram is cheap and everyone knows it. But I guess thats where Apple sees big margins. Especially with the ram soldered to the mobo on Retina Macbooks.

[Ice_Dragon]

How about hard drives and options? Do they move up from 500 GB to 1 TB on the base model? Do they at least offer the 1 TB Fusion drive as an option on the base model? Larger SSD option on the mid range model?

[Rakehellion]

Originally Posted by Ice_Dragon

How about hard drives and options? Do they move up from 500 GB to 1 TB on the base model? Do they at least offer the 1 TB Fusion drive as an option on the base model? Larger SSD option on the mid range model?

http://www.apple.com/mac-mini/specs.html

[Ice_Dragon]

Originally Posted by Rakehellion

http://www.apple.com/mac-mini/specs.html

*facepalm* I meant for the next one. I am asking hypothetical questions.

I would think in February I would know the specs of a computer released in October >_>

[TheStu]

Originally Posted by Ice_Dragon

*facepalm* I meant for the next one. I am asking hypothetical questions.

I would think in February I would know the specs of a computer released in October >_>

You would hope so sure, but not everyone does their research and due diligence before posting something. So the other party provides the facts to make sure every one is on the same page.

[Ice_Dragon]

Originally Posted by TheStu

You would hope so sure, but not everyone does their research and due diligence before posting something. So the other party provides the facts to make sure every one is on the same page.

Pardon me on that then, I just detected sarcasm and that annoys me (in this specific instance) since I was expecting someone to either agree with me or disagree with me. If there was a disagreement, I wanted to see what their views were for the upcoming mini.

I'm a bit obsessed with specs I admit.