So, the new Mac Mini is there...

[Flow Of Time]

What do you think?
http://www.apple.com/mac-mini/specs/

 

[JeffTD]

Crippled as fuck. Only dual cores? My Retina MBP is like 4x as powerful and is a generation behind.

 

[Line666]

I'm confused, have they even changed anything from the last generation? This looks exactly the same.

 

[Flow Of Time]

I'm not sure if they actually upgraded the cpus myself... Hoped some apple fanboy could jump in and give some insight

Was definitely expecting more, I waited for fucking ever for this...

If it turns out they're still ivy bridge, I'll get a MacBook

 

[LeSedna]

It's Haswell, and can deal better with two big retina screens, and power efficienty (i'm guessing some of the target could be data centers of some sort, as well). Not sure the upgrade is exactly what the typical AE would have expected. You need more benchmark, because it's not just about dual core and speed. A recent dual core is many many times faster than an old quadcore from a decade ago. But still, I don't think the specs bump is a revolution !

PS : also, PCIe flash storage. I got that on my last laptop and it's virtually like loading up a file of any size is instantaneous, and booting in about 5s even a year after I bought it (almost) is impressive

 

[xplanet2112]

I'm not massively impressed with the specs but Yosemite is now live.

 

[Flow Of Time]

So it seems, that the cpu options are the same as on the 13" MBPs. Not that bad! The cheapest config with the i7 would cost 1,6k with a MacBook and 1k with the mini (euros)

Anyone got experience with those fusion drives? Are they any good compared to an SSD?

 

[dsgseven7]

What fusion drive is?

 

[LeSedna]

Fusion drive is in a nutshell a normal hard disk drive with an SSD core used efficiently so that transparently for the user the response is faster. I think it moves the more used files to the SSD core so that those will load faster, and since they are loaded more often, on the user end it looks almost like an SSD performance. It's a cheaper alternative to a full SSD drive, but does not have the same performances still overall. It's not a bad idea, as far as I would know, for a recording drive because you can have more than 1To for a decent price that perform better than a normal HDD drive, and recording/playback dont need such high performances. The thing is, 1To SSD (normal, not the new PCIe) is coming cheaper and cheaper and it's probably the last generation I would even consider something else than an SSD, because it's more and more worth having a 1To SSD drive. I consider it the major improvement one can do do his setup, over upgrading RAM or CPU. For a recording computer (only) fusion drive could be cool, because the DAW and your most used softwares including VSTis would normally be loaded faster, while still having 1 or 2 To of space left for your recordings. I don't have any personal experience with it. All I can say, is : PCIe SSD is essentially erasing any load time. I boot my MBP in 3s, and wait another 3 so that all my little background running apps are loaded. It's even faster than my phone ! And I'm talking about a laptop that has no space left and is used a lot, so when it was new and not full of apps and crap, it was even faster. Also, the apple 500Go PCIe drive like the one i have, is only half as fast as the 1To one for some reason (I think this one goes over 1Go/s reading speed)

 

[Trevoire520]

Looks like a downgrade to me, no firewire port (replaced with another thunderbolt) only dual core with no quad core option. Price has come down though (£399 for the cheapest model)

I think this is a deliberate move to make people upgrade to the quad core iMac's tbh.
Just bought a non-retina MBP last night, only model with decent connectivity (FW, TB, USB3, Ethernet, DVD drive) though it's only a dual core processor. But it's just to use as a portable editing/internet setup really as I've got my quad core Mini for mixing etc.

With the way Apple are moving I don't think I'll be upgrading after these machines are outdated though, probably go down the hackintosh route I think.

 

[LeSedna]

^ I think the problem is we are right in this intermediate point in time where we/they want to get rid of old standards. Once all will have moved to thunderbolt (or equivalent) it will make much more sense, but this will take time as professional softwares and hardware have a big inertia. Firewire is enough for the bandwidth needed for audio, but the thunder port is so handy. I understood it when I got my thunderbolt external drive. It simply shuts off when unplugged, and turns itself on when plugged, and the whole chain is thus transparently available at any time for my laptop. I think for a prosumer perspective, another year will make more sense. I am myself waiting to be able to set up for a decent price something like a retina apple display dock set up with all external hard drive and interface and HPs where I would only have one plug for when I come home with my laptop. For other uses, set ups, or budgets, it's gonna take more time indeed.

I haven't used my drive in years. Same with ethernet, and just in case I have the adapter (bought on ebay). Same for HDMI, I sometimes plug myself to my TV with this cheap adapter. I ditched a firewire interface for an USB one years ago, and I would love a thunderbolt one one day. It all makes more sense when you make the move IMO. It's obviously hard or impossible on the spot for a professional with established and expensive gear, and a workflow. For a prosumer, or private use, I think it's worth making the move.

 

[guitarfishbay]

Thunderbolt is a better option than firewire, you can still run firewire from thunderbolt (with an adapter) but thunderbolt can handle more stuff. I'm not going to argue that all increases cost, but it is a better connection and times have to move on at some point. Likewise a lot of people no longer use a DVD drive (again, not arguing about people needing to burn/rip audio for AE). I think those changes make sense, looks like the unit is tiny and it will probably be very quiet unless you do video work. From what I remember the fans spun up on the older mini when doing video work.

However, unless these test way more powerful than expected, I do think it sucks that there are no quad core options anymore for Minis. It looks like they're bracketing the products pricewise as well as powerwise so there is less overlap. While this might make sense for Apple to prevent cannibalising sales of iMacs/Mac Pros, it doesn't make much sense for a consumer who wants more power than a Mini, less financial outlay than a Mac Pro, but doesn't want an iMac screen. Nice as they are I wouldn't want to be forced to have one.

IMO SSD is the way forward. If you get a decent sized SSD on a modern Mac unit then the machines are super quiet for tracking, if you have to record quiet sources in the same room as your machine then this is fantastic. You can always put files not in use on a bigger external hard drive which you switch off for doing work where you need to have a quiet machine.

 

[Line666]

To those saying the dual cores have got better in newer generations, I don't disagree but this is actually a pretty drastic downgrade on the 2012 model, heres the top of the line i7 quad core offered on the 2012 mac mini benchmark:

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i7-3720QM+@+2.60GHz

and heres the top of the line i7 dual core benchmark from the 2014 model:

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i7-4578U+@+3.00GHz&id=2345

As you can see that's over a 30-40% loss in performance - that's substantial. I don't disagree with firewire or cd drives being phased out on the mini/macbook due to their inherent redundancy for the most part but when you make something that goes 30% slower than two years agos model that's just a bit crap.

 

[updog]

So basically you would be just paying for the Iris graphics if you were to upgrade from a 2012 model, at the cost of lowered CPU performance? This upgrade is the single worst joke I've heard all year. It reminds me back when they simplified the MacBook range - I bought the last model to have a Firewire port, and it even had a better processor than its successor.

Anyone know if there's ANY redeeming qualities to this new model, other than improved graphics?

 

[PhilTheBeard]

Yeah.......def upgrading to an imac when I have the money. My mac mini (late 2011) slays.

 

[Flow Of Time]

To those saying the dual cores have got better in newer generations, I don't disagree but this is actually a pretty drastic downgrade on the 2012 model, heres the top of the line i7 quad core offered on the 2012 mac mini benchmark:

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i7-3720QM+@+2.60GHz

and heres the top of the line i7 dual core benchmark from the 2014 model:

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i7-4578U+@+3.00GHz&id=2345

As you can see that's over a 30-40% loss in performance - that's substantial. I don't disagree with firewire or cd drives being phased out on the mini/macbook due to their inherent redundancy for the most part but when you make something that goes 30% slower than two years agos model that's just a bit crap.

What the fuck, this sucks ass...