Anyone getting a new 2018 mac mini?

blue max

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Be interested to hear your plans or experiences.

Specifically, ram, HD, processor options. Tempted to go 8gb ram (and potentially upgrade in the future myself), maybe minimum HD and use external (though pricey) and max processor (cos I doubt I'd ever regret that).

Oh, and anyone know if the USB-C ports are backwards compatible with a displayport connector (for my monitor)?
 
I replaced my last mini with an an iMac, as it seemed at the time that Apple were going to kill the mini. If I was in the market now, I’d certainly go for one, with as much storage as I could afford and at least 16GB ram. As for the port compatibility, not sure, but a chat online with Apple or a visit to an Apple store should sort that.

Clem
 
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For the display you should be able to get a DisplayPort to thunderbolt3 (usb-c) adapter, as it will no longer physical fit to the new port.
 
I was until I was offered a brand new 15.4" 2018 Macbook Pro with Applecare until 2020 by a client of mine, when I put a 'call to arms' on LinkedIn :)

I'd just sold my old 2012 Mac Mini (gopt hell of a lot more for it via my brothers eBay account than I expected) and my 2010 21.5" iMac was dying, very quickly! I tried my brothers 27" iMac for a few weeks whilst he was away on holiday and it was far too big, mainly as I'd sit too close to it at my desk etc

I really liked the Mini I had and had no idea they'd release another and would have spec'd one as much as I could and come off better than the price I paid for the MBP; but have to say, the build of the 2018 Macbooks is superb and it's a fancy piece of kit which I'm really enjoying

I was going to go for 16GB RAM and 1TB SSD

More so as all the peripherals I've got for it arte space grey too :)

Re the display, sorry, can't help you there. Ask on Macforums and I'm sure you'll get an answer soon enough
 
I have a late 2012 i7 quad core and have upgraded it to 16gb ram and 500gb ssd. In reality, it does everything I ask of it. I'm not a power user really.

I was excited about the announcement of the new one, but it's just too expensive really. The new mac pro should be released in early 2019, so I'll probably hang fire and see what that brings.

I guess I should be grateful the old computers will still run on the later software, though I'm only just on High Sierra and that wasn't pain free!
 
Apple 'should' announce a Apple branded display with the Mac Pro 2019 so that could make the mini 2018 more appealing? Apple sell that LG 5k monitor but look at that price vs speccing the iMac 27...
 
Apple 'should' announce a Apple branded display with the Mac Pro 2019 so that could make the mini 2018 more appealing? Apple sell that LG 5k monitor but look at that price vs speccing the iMac 27...

The mac mini 2018 is crippled with the onboard graphics. That is unforgivable. That and starting the spec at an unrealistically low level, to make a (still not insubstantial) entry level price that doesn't seem too astronomic.

It's insane that I'm probably going to stick with my six year old computer for now as there are just not enough improvements to justify moving 'up'.

And the pro will likely be hugely expensive. Likely more than the imac pro.

They seem to make underspecc'd, expensive or astronomicaly expensive these days.

Apple have really lost their shine for me. I'm no longer an evangelist. More like a very distant follower. Sad days.
 
Actually I refer to the list price of the LG 5K,

Any updated Apple display minimum matching, if not surpassing, the quality of the iMac 5K display, with modern usb c and thunderbolt connectors would realistically cost a decent sum

Egpu looks to be thermal throttling of a dedicated GPU vs Apple wanting to retain the form factor vs Apple has gone all in on egpu.
 
A bit of a late post with this. Apparantly the Mini's are flying off the shelves, even taking Apple by suprise. They are such a powerful machine compared to past Mini's. Apple have repurposed the Mini to appeal too creative types and it seems to be working. eGPU appears to be the order of the day for those that need it. Geekbench scores are pretty impressive.

Personally speaking I have no use for a GPU and haven't installed one in my self-build PC either. I'm more than happy with Intel HD 630 graphics. GPU is a waste of money unless you're into games or photo/video rendering - I do none of these things.

If I was buying I get the i5 with 256 gig SSD and 8 gigs of RAM. Plenty of grunt and enough drive space for MacOS and your programmes. An external HDD for data storage linked to a Mini would make an excellent PC. I've always liked the Mini but got rid of my last one for an iMac and regretted it.
 
The soldered storage (SSD?) on-board stops me from getting one, if ever I think of it. What a shame and perplexing since popular SSDs now come in a very small form factor.
 
The soldered storage (SSD?) on-board stops me from getting one, if ever I think of it. What a shame and perplexing since popular SSDs now come in a very small form factor.

No different to other Mac's in this regard. You pick the storage you need to start with or you are stuck with it. However, given the 4 Thunderbolt ports plus USB 3.0 it's a simple job to use an external HDD with large capacity for anything other than programmes and the OS.

I tend to keep most of my data on a NAS these days so 256 gig on a Mini is more than sufficient.
 
Perplexing answer... By any reasonable engineering design, the 2012 version is the most flexible. Un-upgradeable RAM (2014) or storage (2018) sounds a cash cow. Appreciate the external peripherals possible - but I don't want any to disrupt my "clean desk look" and have "shipped" off my backup's, TM runs, etc. to some TimeCapsule boxes.

Agree to disagree?
 
My late 2012 is still going strong! This is crazy in computing terms. I upgraded the ram and swopped out the hard drives for a 500GB SSD. Still pretty happy with it and will probably hang on now. No compelling reason to change really. An equivalent spec would be mightily expensive and not that much quicker (for what I generally do).

They should produce a 'maxi'. A bit bigger with expansion possibilities. Would get my dollars.
 
Perplexing answer... By any reasonable engineering design, the 2012 version is the most flexible. Un-upgradeable RAM (2014) or storage (2018) sounds a cash cow. Appreciate the external peripherals possible - but I don't want any to disrupt my "clean desk look" and have "shipped" off my backup's, TM runs, etc. to some TimeCapsule boxes.

Agree to disagree?

I have an Airport TC (the tall one). However, I also set up TM backups on my Synology NAS and for whatever reason I have found the NAS TM backups to be more reliable than the genuine article. My desktop looks very tidy as the NAS is next to the HH router which is in a small unit away from my desk, so no extra cables on my desk etc. If I had the Mini the desk clutter would not increas one iota.

The RAM is upgradable on the 2018 Mini and as demostrated storage is really a non issue. Lot's of iMac owners now run a seperate HDD due to cost for extra internal SSD capacity.

However, the point Blue Max makes is a valid one i.e. if you're an average user do you really need the latest and greatest? My 2011 iMac has 20 gigs of RAM, 500 gig SSD and 500 gig HDD running High Sierra. This is still a good machine and if I'm being honest more than meets my needs. Plus I also have a self-build Windows 10 machine with last years CPU and ancillary components.
 
Thinking of picking up the base model 2018 Mac Mini to supplement the iMac in our office at home, storage not an issue, it's mainly due to my wife working from home so much and preferring to commandeer the iMac rather than use her (frankly awful brick of a Lenovo work laptop).

Any reason for a non power user to spend the extra on the 6 core i5 over the quad i3? Even the base model should be faster than the older iMac (base model 27" 2015)
 
I got my 2018 Mac Mini a couple of weeks ago and I love it. I went for the i7 8700 @ 3.2 gHz and 512 GB SSD to enable sufficant space for dual booting with bootcamp / Windows 10. I purchased 32GB DDR4 SODIMM and upgraded that myself. Then for graphics I purchased the Razer Core X and installed a Radeon RX Vega 64.
Total price came in at around £2259 which is pretty good considering a similar spec iMac costs more than double. It's still a lot of money considering what you can build a high end gaming PC for, however I have the luxury of OS X for running the Mac software I need such as Logic Pro and Final Cut Pro, and I can switch to bootcamp and game at decent fps too.
It doesn't quite match my desktop pc in benchmarks (i7 4890k @ 4 gHz, 16GB DDR3, GTX 1080) but it's not that far off!
 
I've recently got a Mac Mini - I just went for the i5 with 256GB SSD but upgraded the memory to 32GB and its nice and fast. I use it for a bit of everything and have paired it with a 4K monitor. Its fast enough for running Windows alongside doing some 4K video editing (very basic editing), office productivity and photo editing. Its very snappy and responsive in all regards and has a decent range of ports.
 
I've recently got a Mac Mini - I just went for the i5 with 256GB SSD but upgraded the memory to 32GB and its nice and fast. I use it for a bit of everything and have paired it with a 4K monitor. Its fast enough for running Windows alongside doing some 4K video editing (very basic editing), office productivity and photo editing. Its very snappy and responsive in all regards and has a decent range of ports.

Did you upgrade the RAM yourself?
 

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