128GB SSD base, +800 USD to go to 1TB? +600 USD to go from 8GB to 32GB? +300USD to go to the six core CPU? brutal. I was considering this for a moment instead of building a PC rig at home because I really like macOS, but that's just too much.
I used to always just get the lowest configuration Powerbook or Macbook Pro, and place an order for a RAM upgrade simultaneously from another vendor. And eventually max out the RAM, upgrade to SSD, etc. Made the upfront purchase price less of an issue as a longer term investment.
Apple is nickle and diming customers by locking down and soldering everything on Macs, when they should look at the Mac as a gesture of goodwill to the professionals and developers who contribute to the Apple ecosystem and help drive sales of Apple's iOS cash cow.
If not you can use an external SSD since it's a desktop computer and doesn't move. An external 1TB Samsung for everything besides applications and OS isn't bad at all.
If this Mini with up-gradable RAM had come out before then, I would have bought it instead.
Yep. 4x TB3 means I don't care at all about the internal storage. I'll take the 128GB internal drive for the OS and be on my way.
[0] http://eshop.sintech.cn/ngff-m2-pcie-ssd-card-as-2013-2014-2...
sure / source?
If so I will order one straight away (not $2000 for 64gb ;)
> external 1TB
how do internal NVME SSDs compare to external ones speed wise?
Update: There are external Thunderbolt 3 NVMe SSD enclosures out there that can read and write in excess of 2000 MB/sec
But they bring you back to the $1000 upgrade cost ? :(
Any guess how much faster Apples SSDs would be than a T5 like this: ?
https://www.amazon.de/Samsung-MU-PA1T0B-EU-Portable-Kabel/dp...
This should be very close to internal PCI-based SSD performance and benchmarks seem to confirm this: https://9to5mac.com/2018/09/05/review-samsung-x5-thunderbolt...
So there‘s a storage upgrade path if you’re fine with external hardware. I‘m considering this solution myself.
There’s a lot of small gotchas and caveats with Thunderbolt 3 and SSDs now but they are getting better slowly https://www.macworld.com/article/3276325/storage/nvme-over-t...
And let’s not forget that this is a 1st run product of a new generation and the Mac Mini 2019 may be significantly better in this area (or worse...)
It's kind of a nightmare the first time, it took me like an hour, very slowly disassembling the entire thing and replacing the drive with the iFixit tools I ordered. The second time took like 15 minutes and it got easier from there, it's just kind of remembering all these steps.
Needless to say it's ridiculous that they built it that way, it would have been trivial to keep the form factor and make it easy. But whatever, it's no big deal to swap out. And there's a couple places in NYC that'll do it for you for $50 as well.
Hopefully the new one will be the same way, it does look pretty much like the same box. If the RAM is also upgradeable (which it appears to be) then the platform would definitely remain attractive.
On the other hand, selling to professionals and businesses usually means much less price sensitivity. I know corporations and startups balk much less at the price of a fully-loaded MacBook Pro than a consumer who just wants a laptop to surf Facebook with.
I always expect 80-100% markup on a Mac, and I've accepted it, given the integration and beautiful design; but this time they went way over the top, especially with the upgrade prices. To get an equivalent Mac Mini (ignoring that it's impossible to get 8 cores and discrete GPU), I would have to spend about $2100. That's about 160% markup on comparable components. That's a first in Apple history, as far as I can tell.
ESX system with MacOS VM and GPU passthrough. If this works, then I could have a standardized MacOS VM build that will keep working as I upgrade the underlying hardware. Still mulling this over...
What card do you recommend for GPU passthrough?
I managed to get a High Sierra VM converted to Mojave yesterday. Previous attempts had been failing due to the VM not being APFS. This link was helpful: https://licson.net/post/vmware-apfs/
I started musing if trying to get an eGPU to work with a Mac VM would be possible but that might be pushing it too far. It looks like Thunderbolt 3 support might be hit or miss from what I've been able to find so far plus I do not see a lot of motherboards (Z390?) that are TB capable. Gigabyte just announced a Z390 based Designare which looked interesting. https://www.guru3d.com/news-story/gigabyte-launches-their-al...
Current plans are:
* ESXI 6.5 or 6.7
* 10G NIC
* 32 or 64GB mem
* mATX footprint
* USB switch to control which machine keyboard/mouse goes to
* MacOS VM with iGPU passthrough
* Win VM with Nvidia GPU passthrough for gaming
On a related note, I'm still annoyed that there does not seem to be a wealth of consumer MBs that have onboard 10G
128gb of storage was too small for a PC 5 years ago, let alone in 2018.
On the plus side, despite Dell's warning, both the SO-DIMM and the M.2 SSD are user serviceable and easily accessible. The chassis even has retaining screws!
The PR would be far, far worse.
I'm looking to do a gaming rig rebuild soon, and was excited to see a new Mac Mini before I made my decision. These prices though....I'll just build a mini-ATX myself.
And 128 GB? Not even iphones start at that.