New Mac Mini | Hacker News Reader

New Mac Mini

apple.com

10gbe, 64gb ram, they've gone full server farm with the mac mini. I like it.

Website says the RAM is "Configurable to 16GB"

Website is old.

This is probably a better link for the actual specs/changes: https://www.macrumors.com/2018/10/30/apple-announces-new-mac...

Starting price went from $499 to $799... but a pretty nice spec bump

1.4Ghz Dual Core -> 3.6Ghz Quad Core

500GB HDD -> 128GB SSD

4GB 1600Mhz DDR3 -> 8GB 2133Mhz DDR4

2x Thunderbolt 2 -> 4x Thunderbolt 3

If the SSD is user expandable, then its damn near perfect, but I get the feeling they pointed out the DIMM and not the SSD as replaceable.

It’s probably either soldered on or non-user replaceable NVMe, like their other portables.

Mac Mini is hardly a portable though. In the past it had been because of thinness, but that obviously doesn't apply here.

They also have a new T2 chip, just like the new Air, and every incarnation of the T2 seems to include the SSD controller for the disk that provides inline encryption, tying the chipset/storage more deeply than before. I'd say it's the same here. (This maybe isn't a strict technical limitation for not making the disk replaceable, of course, but I'm just speculating it's part of the reasoning.)

I'd guess that, unlike the SO-DIMM change here, Apple will continue to vertically integrate their storage solutions across all products as they roll out things like this. So soldered NVMe is all you're going to see from this point on, I'd imagine.

Of course it's not user expandable, how they will make money. Very few people will buy 128GB version and SSD increase will have very premium cost, like usual. But you should be able to use external disks via thunderbolt if you want to.

There's really no excuse for that these days. So disappointing that Apple must bake in this kind of greed into the product. Overall I think it's shortsighted because it will drive away many budget conscious customers.

I guess you could expand it with an external SSD via the USB or thunderbolt ports? Not ideal, but a potential workaround.

Based on the marketing images on their website it sure looks like the NAND is soldered to the board.

It looks like you jumped the gun, the website isn’t even updated yet ;)

But overall, I’m liking the new Mac Mini. Updated processors, new Thunderbolt ports, and new color: I can’t see anyone feeling like they’ve lost anything here.

The only ports that are gone are the SD card slot, and separate mic jack

Edit: no CD Drive in the last one.

the previous generation already dropped the superdrive.

The previous generation Mac Mini did not have an optical drive either, so that is not removed.

The last Mac Mini didn’t have a DVD drive either. I think the others were already expected to be removed.

Yeah I see the issue, but I've had plenty of laptops without CD Drives. SD card would be cool I guess. Mic jack for sure.

This is the page for the old Mac Mini. The new one starts at $799

Finally! My 5 year old Mac mini is getting long in the tooth. I know most people aren't going to be excited but as a iOS dev the Mac mini makes a GREAT CI server.

This seems like a pretty important use case. Beside builds, are there other core iOS dev use cases like automated UI testing? I've only done a little bit of iOS development circa 2011.

Yes, we do builds, automated UI testing, and store/Test Flight build and deployment from my Mac mini for our startup.

What software do you use to run the CI server?

A combination of Xcode command line tools(clang/Xcode server/xcodebuiltool), gitlab CI runner, and fast lane ruby gems to script the continuous deployment parts.

These are super handy for, say porting a project to macOS without the price tag of a much bettter Mac. Nice to see Apple is keeping them updated.

Putting a high performance machine in this form factor has really become a lot more viable. I love my Intel NUC. I've traditionally leaned towards full-size PCs for expandability, repairability, and longevity, but I've really started to wish I had a few more of these sorts of machines lying around.

Just for the curious, with the 6-core i7, 64GB ram, 2TB ssd and 10Gbe, you're getting set back a cool $4,199

Not getting 8 cores (or more) for that price is ridiculous.

Not getting a monitor for that price is ridiculous!

I'm pleasantly surprised by this computer. With external GPU and external disks it could be quite cost-effective Mac. Not sure about those external GPU prices, didn't even saw them yet.

There’s a $700 BlackMagic eGPU that Apple advertised with MacBook Pro that presumably still works with Mac Mini?

no nvidia eGpu?

Just on a lark I've been looking at picking up an old MacPro tower to max out on the cheap, but it looks like a better idea every time Apple announces new Mac hardware.

I dont see a difference. Mayve cache problem?

The page hasn’t been updated yet.

Cloud providers will purchase loads of them. Curious to see pre-made server blades made from them.

Hmmm... no separate management network, no OOB management firmware, no ECC memory. It's not much of a general purpose blade. You're not going to run a farm of these without significant operational headaches.

You can install your own memory.

Sure, but the chipset and motherboard need to support ECC. You can't just add a DIMM with ECC and have it work.

But there is so much demand for OS X workers out there. People are doing it already

What are OS X workers used for? I can't picture OS X doing anything better than Linux in the server space.

All SSD and no HDD model!

Note: as of posting the page is still showing details for the old Mac Mini.

Solid. Socketed memory, good connectivity... I'm getting one.

And it's _super_ sexy in black.

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