New mac mini. Apple introduced the new Mac mini
Once upon a time, the Mac Mini firmly entered the life of my parents. It was in 2011, when I brought it to them as a gift from Thailand. He came out to me then about 20 thousand rubles. In a small case, a replacement for a large one was hidden. system blocks, which occupy huge spaces, make noise, collect dust ... And to this day, this Mac Mini serves faithfully.
But is a Mac Mini worth buying in 2017? Or is it easier to assemble a finished computer on specialized sites like www.technodom.kg?
In my opinion, it is absolutely pointless to buy a Mac Mini now ... Below I will try to explain why I think so.
The Mac Mini is a relatively small and conservative line of computers. Judge for yourself. The first Mac Mini G4 appeared in 2005. Until 2009, 8 modifications were released. The modern Mac Mini in an aluminum case appeared in 2010. And since then, only 4 modifications have been released ... The last time the Mac Mini was updated was in 2014. It's been 3 years already. There is a complete feeling that Apple has scored on the line and we will not see the Mac Mini again.
I think it is pointless to buy a model that did not stand out for its special performance even 3 years ago.
The cheapest Mac Mini costs 36,990 rubles. But this is a 4 GB model. random access memory, processor i5 1.4 GHz, hard drive 500 gigabytes. In 2017, I would say this:
Mac Mini 2014 cannot install additional RAM. Apple closed this option. And 4 gigabytes of RAM is a sentence. Consequently, the sane configuration of the Mac Mini costs 52 thousand rubles. But if you want to put a hybrid HDD(SSD + HDD), then you will have to lay out 74 thousand.
Also keep in mind that for Mac Mini you will have to buy a monitor, keyboard, mouse ... That is, 74 thousand can easily be transformed into 90-100 thousand.
And this is “overkill” for a computer that will either go down in history soon or be updated. :)
The Mac Mini has integrated graphics, so the computer can still be considered only as a “working office/home horse”. There is no question of any games or professional video processing. Yes, the Mac Mini will be able to do all this without problems, but if you buy it for the sake of it, then it might make sense to invest a little more and get something more modern and powerful.
Conclusion: Mac Mini is the cheapest way to have an Apple computer at home, but is it worth it?! My answer is no!
It took fans of Apple's smallest computer just four years of waiting for the company to introduce an updated Mac mini.
Apple has repeatedly stressed that the nettop is very important for the entire ecosystem, so it does not plan to stop its further development.
But something went wrong with the release all the time. And now, four years and 14 days later, Apple has announced the eighth generation of Mac mini.
Well, let's figure out what is interesting about the novelty and what has changed in the new Mac mini.
What is the new Mac mini
Well, the design has remained almost the same. No futurism and some crazy fantasies of enthusiastic designers. Apple decided not to change the classics, so the only thing that looks different from the new Mac mini from the computer released four years ago is the color.
Mac mini will be available in Space Gray to match i Mac Pro and updated Macbook Pro.
But the novelty received support from a 4-core and up to a 6-core processor Intel Core 8th generation. According to Apple, Mac mini has become 5 times faster.
The new processor has replaced the obsolete 4th generation Intel Core i5 with two cores.
Mac mini now supports up to up to 64 GB RAM, against 16 for its predecessor. Of course, the memory speed also increased, amounting to 2666 MHz on the plank.
SSD speed up four times. Now the top Mac mini is equipped with a 2-terabyte SSD-drive.
However, Apple decided to completely move away from the HDD. Even the base Mac mini comes with a 128GB SSD. In new Apple products there is no place for hard drives.
The article is being updated...
For a singer/songwriter recording/mixing/editing setup, I am weighing the performance and expandability of a new 2017 Mac Pro against the cheaper and possibly entirely adequate new 2017 Mac Mini.
If I go for the Mac Mini I can upgrade the Mac Mini so it's 3GHz and 16 GB: total cost will be $1,400. The Mac Pro 3.7 GHz Quad-core with 12GB is $3,000. (Fwiw, I will be running two 23 " Apple HD Cinema Displays (circa 2008, DVI). I have already figured out that I can connect the two monitors to the Mac Mini and still have a free Thunderbolt connector for the audio interface.)
I am aware that the RAM on a Mac Mini is soldered and therefore not able to be upgraded after purchase. Having already produced a few albums, I am aware that for music production, RAM is key.
Another issue is the hard drive. How would you compare the Mac Mini 1TB Fusion Drive with the Mac Pro's 256GB PCIe-based Flash Storage? Would I have to get an additional hard drive for the Mac Pro on top of the 256GB PCIe-based Flash Storage? I do have an existing external Glyph HD from circa 2011 I could use.
For my current needs in the next year, say, to make this album, is it even worth it to consider going for the Mac Pro? This is a hobbyist situation and not a full-time job. I "m not going to have huge track counts or be playing loads of virtual instruments. I" ll be connecting a UAD Apollo Twin audio interface and possibly installing Omnisphere for use in my productions. I "ll be recording with a maximum of 2 microphones, probably one only mic at a time. The only other plugin I have is the SSL G-Master Buss Compressor. I don" t see myself going crazy with plugins.
Thanks for any light you can shine on this situation
________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________
Basic specs of Mac Mini* (see all specs, below):
Apple Mac mini - 3.0 GHz Dual Core
Desktop Computer with 3.0GHz Dual-core Intel Core i5, 16GB Memory, 1TB Fusion Drive, Intel Iris Graphics, 2 x Thunderbolt 2 Ports, 4 x USB 3 Ports, and SDXC Card Slot
*customized, as show, with upgraded 3 GHz processor and 16 GB Memory
Basic specs of Mac Pro (see all specs, below):
Apple Mac Pro 3.7GHz Quad Core Intel Xeon E5
Mac Pro with 3.7GHz Quad-core Intel Xeon E5 Processor, 12GB Memory, Dual AMD FirePro D300 GPUs, and 256GB PCIe-based Flash Storage
________________________________________________________________________________ ___________
Apple Mac Mini Features:
Dual-core Intel Core i5 processor
Integrated Intel Iris Graphics
Fusion Drive for shorter boot times, faster application launches, and quicker file access
2 Thunderbolt 2 ports for connecting high-speed devices or up to two Apple Thunderbolt Displays
4 USB 3 ports to connect external hard drives and transfer large files
HDMI port for connecting your HDTV
SDXC card slot for transferring photos and videos from your digital camera
Works with almost any display, keyboard, and mouse
Includes power cord
Apple Mac Pro Features:
3.7GHz Quad-core Intel Xeon E5 processor
12GB DDR3 ECC memory
Dual AMD FirePro D300 graphics
Connect up to three 4K or six Thunderbolt displays (available separately)
256GB PCIe-based Flash storage
Combined optical/digital audio output/analog line out minijack
Headphone minijack with headset support
HDMI port supports multichannel audio output
built-in speaker
Four USB 3 and Six Thunderbolt 2 ports
Dual Gigabit Ethernet; HDMI 1.4 UltraHD
802.11ac Wi-Fi wireless networking3; IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n compatible
Bluetooth 4.0 wireless technology
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Posted on Feb 11, 2017 8:46 AM
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On October 16, 2014, Apple introduced updated Mac mini nettops. The company has pleased fans of compact destopniks with a new processor from the Haswell family and Intel 5000/Intel Iris Graphics.
What is so special about Mac mini? For 36,990 rubles, being an inveterate vinduzyatnik, you can try out the “vaunted OS from Apple” in business. Another couple of hundred rubles will cost a mouse and keyboard, and any monitor will do as a display.
That's it, you have a new Mac. Nobody spilled coffee on him, nobody threw him on the sofa. One year warranty and all the goodies, including the "magic" box.
The Mac mini is still in the Apple store, but the nettop has gone three years without a hardware update.
How the Mac mini has changed
From 2005 to 2014, Apple gave the Mac mini a lot of attention. Computers of this series were updated with enviable regularity and Apple sought to introduce the latest achievements from the world of chip building into its nettops.
Judge for yourself:
2005: Mac mini PowerPC G4. The firstborn in a new category of computers. New design, built-in slot drive, a compact solution that was ahead of its time. During the year, Apple released three (!) Hardware upgrades.
2006: Mac mini and Intel processors. Apple is moving away from "hot" PowerPC chips and switching to Intel processors. First, the company masters the Intel Core model and for the first time aims at the bar of 4 GB of RAM.
Feature of models - full customization. The user could easily change the Intel Core processor to Intel Core 2 Duo and expand the RAM up to 4 GB.
2007 - 2009: Mac mini and the Intel Core 2 Duo era. The minor update of 2007 ended with a global update at the end of 2009. On October 20, 2009, Apple announced a productive Mac mini with the ability to install 8 GB of RAM, Nvidia GeForce 9400M graphics and Intel processor Core 2 Duo.
Over the years, the need for USB ports and in the new Mac mini there are as many as five of them (so far USB 2.0).
2010 - the first redesign of Mac mini. In that year of Apple announced the Mac mini in the trendy "all-metal case". So far, it still has an average processor (by the standards of 2010), but HDMI and an SD card port have appeared.
2011 - 2014 Mac mini without disc drive but with Core i5/i7 processors. A new round in the life of Apple nettops. As with the miniJack port, the company foresaw the future - who needs a CD-Rom now? Since 2011, all Mac minis have been released without a characteristic "gap" for blanks, but with Intel Core i5 / i7 processors.
Calling these models "dull computer for the office" does not turn the tongue.
Update Mac computers mini was seen three times: in mid-2011, late 2012 and late 2014. In 2014, Apple managed to bury the server Mac version Mini Server, refusing further production.
And since then, silence ...
What to expect from the new Mac mini
Apple's vice president of marketing, Mr. Phil Schiller, has repeatedly stressed that "Mac mini is a very important product for the company."
Those. Apple is not going to stop producing compact nettops and is preparing something new.
Haswell processors (22 nm) smell a bit like an old book. Since 2014, Intel has managed to release:
- Broadwell (14nm process technology);
- Skylake (14 nm)
- Kaby Lake (14 nm)
meanwhile, Coffee Lake (14 nm) is on its way, the release of which is scheduled for the 4th quarter of 2017.
Even if Apple opts for Kaby Lake processors (which is likely), future Mac mini buyers will at least:
- 30% performance boost,
- increased energy efficiency,
- support for USB Type-C (where without it in 2018),
- support for HEVC formats at the hardware level,
- comfortable 4K,
and many, many pleasant surprises.
When?
Very little is known about the new generation Mac mini. The nettop has experienced only two major redesigns and it's time for Apple to take the plunge for the third time.
wait from Apple new an announcement before the end of the year is hardly worth it. But the Mac mini has every chance to shine in the spring of 2018.
Macbook Air reincarnated into a MacBook. Having added in performance, the MacBook Pro 2017 has lost a lot of weight and began to look like a MacBook Air.
Queue for Mac mini: in a new case, with increased productivity and the same nice price tag.
Apple finally remembered about the users of their desktop systems. During the last event, she presented not only a new version of the legendary, which at one time changed the portable computer market, creating a fashion for thin and light systems, but also updated the Mac Mini, which she had neglected for a long time, which were still the most inexpensive options for computers from Apple. . Why did you have to wait so long?
As Apple CEO Tim Cook noted, a full-fledged working system the size of a pint of beer becomes a reality with the biggest update in Mac Mini history. The format remains quite familiar - it's still the same square box with rounded edges, but now in a dark gray finish, typical for the entire modern family. Apple computers. The cooling system has been redesigned, doubling the maximum airflow and 70% more continuous power. The aluminum chassis is made from 100% recycled alloy, just like the MacBook Air.
However, the biggest changes are on the inside. The new mini-computer is equipped with four or six-core processor 8th generation Intel Core, can be equipped with SO-DIMM DDR4 @2666 MHz memory models up to 64 GB and solid state drive capacity up to 2 TB. Integrated Intel UHD Graphics is 60% more powerful than the previous generation.
The overall productivity, according to the company, increased by 5 times. Unfortunately, in this case we are talking about calculations in Autodesk Maya, where you can really talk about such an increase (albeit with some reservations). In other tasks, the increase is usually noticeably lower - the new MacMini version with a 6-core chip is 2-3 times faster than the old basic 2-core model. But when encoding video in HEVC, the increase can reach 30 times.
Mac Mini like new laptop, received a special chip for security and other tasks - Apple T2. T2 chip stores sensitive data and checks if it has been hacked software that runs when the computer boots. It also has an SSD controller that performs online encryption of all data stored on the drive. The always-on processor in the T2 chip allows you to use the "Hey Siri" function for voice requests such as searching for files and launching applications.
On the back of the device are Thunderbolt 3 ports, HDMI, two USB-A and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Thunderbolt 3 allows you to quickly transfer data via USB and Thunderbolt and connect many different devices to your computer - external drives, docking stations to increase the number of ports, 5K monitors (4K displays in general, you can connect three), or even external graphics cards to speed up graphics processing.
Mac Mini is designed for people who need a very compact yet powerful system for audio, video editing and other creative tasks. But a few of these little ones, working together, can be even more useful in specific tasks. Therefore, now it is possible to combine dozens of Mac Minis into single system to use this configuration as servers or farms for rendering - for example, instead of Mac Pro.
Preinstalled on computers latest version with features like a dark desktop theme, Stacks, a revamped app store, and more. All this is good, but the cost new system not particularly inspiring: for a starting price of $800, you can only count on a configuration with a Core i3 @ 3.6 GHz processor, 8 GB of RAM and a 128 GB SSD drive.
For a 6-core model with a Core i5 @ 3 GHz, 8 GB of RAM and a 128 GB SSD, you will have to pay $ 1,100 already. An option with a 10Gb Nbase-T controller will cost an additional $100. Finally, for the maximum configuration with a 6-core 12-thread Intel Core @ 3.2 GHz (Turbo Boost up to 4.6 GHz), 64 GB of RAM and a 2 TB SSD, you will have to pay $4200! It’s better not to think about how much it will cost to create a professional system from dozens of such crumbs. Pre-orders in the US have already begun, with deliveries starting November 7th.
