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"But the striking thing to me is just how much smaller the Intel NUC is." Add the volume of the NUC's hideous and ungainly power supply brick. Then make your

"But the striking thing to me is just how much smaller the Intel NUC is." Add the volume of the NUC's hideous and ungainly power supply brick. Then make your judgement on size. If you've taken a mini apart, you'd see that the easiest way volume could be significantly reduced is by replacing the space for two 3.5" drives with space for one modern NVME gum stick - a trick which the already NUC does thanks to its being developed more recently. The mini has Thunderbolt and and digital audio in/out. The NUC has neither of these. If you compare the interior of the mini and the NUC, the NUC does not stand out as an marvel of engineering or miniaturization. Anyway, whose desk cannot fit a mac mini?

JasonFruit 8y ago
I've seen many a power brick in my time, and some were ugly, but hideous seems excessive even for the worst of them.
derefr 8y ago
It's not about desks, really. Sufficiently-small-form-factor computers become "AIO enablement dongles", in the sense that you can stick one to the back of a monitor or TV (much like a "compute stick") and now that monitor or TV is an AIO PC. People use NUCs in that use-case quite a lot. Sufficiently-SFF computers are also used as kiosks, for POS systems, and other embedded use-cases. This isn't really the "pitch" behind the Mac Mini, but it's something the NUC is quite good at.
arthurfm 8y ago
> The mini has Thunderbolt and and digital audio in/out. The NUC has neither of these. The NUC I am using at the moment (a NUC7I5BNK) has Thunderbolt 3. The current Mac mini is stuck with Thunderbolt 2 and doesn't have any USB-C ports either.
freeone3000 8y ago
The Intel NUC has a VESA bracket, so you can mount your monitor to the NUC. Who needs a desk, you've now got an All-In-One.
nottorp 8y ago
I really don't understand how people can put up with these huge power bricks. Just because you can hide it under a desk it doesn't mean it's not there. And speaking of all in ones, the iMac doesn't have a power brick either. If you screw your NUC to the back of a monitor/tv you will end up with two power bricks if you're unlucky. They may fit under the desk, or the cable may be too short and you'd have to keep one or both on the desk. I don't see the advantage. Apple has other, significant problems right now, but the devices not being mini enough isn't one of them.
- nxc18 8y ago
  Every Mac I've every seen can message with a huge power brick, often integrated directly into the plug. I can't plug my MacBook in under my desk because it's one two-pronged and it's super heavy so it falls down. I don't care if it has a power brick or not, just make it easy to plug in. Bonus: a cable material that is designed to withstand years of use not months; their cables are no better than the competition and they have a crazy failure rate.
  - megaman22 8y ago
    Those Mac wall-wart chargers are awful. You essentially have to buy the extension cable, and voila, you have a bulkier version of the power adapter every laptop comes with. And how in the world do they not have a grounded plug?
    - B1FF_PSUVM 8y ago
      Things that use less than 100 W usually don't.
    - Milner08 8y ago
      Because they're double insulated, so no need for ground. Also with UK plugs (The superior plug type) the apple chargers are pretty great, no way they're falling out the wall then. With the US plug they're pretty annoying though. But I have to say I do prefer the extension (which I luckily have from previous Macs).
rythie 8y ago
They don't want to make it NVME only, because they don't want to make a cheap Mac Mini with SSD, because it would eat into their iMac sales. Right now the Mac Mini starts at £479, but the cheapest with a SSD is £859, don't forget that's without a keyboard/mouse/keyboard.

JasonFruit 8y ago

I've seen many a power brick in my time, and some were ugly, but hideous seems excessive even for the worst of them.

derefr 8y ago

It's not about desks, really. Sufficiently-small-form-factor computers become "AIO enablement dongles", in the sense that you can stick one to the back of a monitor or TV (much like a "compute stick") and now that monitor or TV is an AIO PC. People use NUCs in that use-case quite a lot. Sufficiently-SFF computers are also used as kiosks, for POS systems, and other embedded use-cases. This isn't really the "pitch" behind the Mac Mini, but it's something the NUC is quite good at.

arthurfm 8y ago

> The mini has Thunderbolt and and digital audio in/out. The NUC has neither of these. The NUC I am using at the moment (a NUC7I5BNK) has Thunderbolt 3. The current Mac mini is stuck with Thunderbolt 2 and doesn't have any USB-C ports either.

freeone3000 8y ago

The Intel NUC has a VESA bracket, so you can mount your monitor to the NUC. Who needs a desk, you've now got an All-In-One.

nottorp 8y ago

I really don't understand how people can put up with these huge power bricks. Just because you can hide it under a desk it doesn't mean it's not there. And speaking of all in ones, the iMac doesn't have a power brick either. If you screw your NUC to the back of a monitor/tv you will end up with two power bricks if you're unlucky. They may fit under the desk, or the cable may be too short and you'd have to keep one or both on the desk. I don't see the advantage. Apple has other, significant problems right now, but the devices not being mini enough isn't one of them.

nxc18 8y ago
Every Mac I've every seen can message with a huge power brick, often integrated directly into the plug. I can't plug my MacBook in under my desk because it's one two-pronged and it's super heavy so it falls down. I don't care if it has a power brick or not, just make it easy to plug in. Bonus: a cable material that is designed to withstand years of use not months; their cables are no better than the competition and they have a crazy failure rate.
- megaman22 8y ago
  Those Mac wall-wart chargers are awful. You essentially have to buy the extension cable, and voila, you have a bulkier version of the power adapter every laptop comes with. And how in the world do they not have a grounded plug?
  - B1FF_PSUVM 8y ago
    Things that use less than 100 W usually don't.
  - Milner08 8y ago
    Because they're double insulated, so no need for ground. Also with UK plugs (The superior plug type) the apple chargers are pretty great, no way they're falling out the wall then. With the US plug they're pretty annoying though. But I have to say I do prefer the extension (which I luckily have from previous Macs).

rythie 8y ago

They don't want to make it NVME only, because they don't want to make a cheap Mac Mini with SSD, because it would eat into their iMac sales. Right now the Mac Mini starts at £479, but the cheapest with a SSD is £859, don't forget that's without a keyboard/mouse/keyboard.