12 ms·

The pricing is not really justifiable especially given the most use cases of the Mac mini (Home Theater, NAS, Backup etc.) are better handled by other OSes. Th

The pricing is not really justifiable especially given the most use cases of the Mac mini (Home Theater, NAS, Backup etc.) are better handled by other OSes. The NUC8 with comparable specs (sans 6 core CPU) comes at under half the price! If you needed the 6 cores sure but given most workloads other than encoding don't - it's questionable. Even then the 6C processor doesn't cost enough to make up for the difference.

empath75 8y ago
It’s hilarious how often this exact comment gets made in every single new apple product thread everywhere.
- bnolsen 8y ago
  and its pointing out the truly obvious as well...
  - blinkingled 8y ago
    Well the reviewer seemed to go out of the way to claim the price was justified - I was pointing out that wasn't the case, not that price is high which it undeniably is.
    - Applejinx 8y ago
      Meh… the things I'm looking to do require some fancy outboard and don't ask all that much of the host computer. I've been looking at getting a fairly spiffy newer iMac or medium-old Mac Pro to hook the fancy outboard to (things like video production gear that'll take SDI inputs, external hardware x264 encoding, my MOTU 16A multichannel interface). It's looking very much like all that can be done just as well off the back of this tiny computer that's less than $1000. I was expecting the computer side to have to be more than $2000 to properly handle the fancy outboard. What with the Mini doing certain single-core processing tasks faster than ANY other Mac, and even having some RAM upgradeability (?!?) there is no question that it'd be able to work with the gear I mean. I don't need my host computer to be a quarter the cost of all the outboard gear that plugs into it. It'll be roughly the same cost as each of the pieces of outboard gear. That doesn't seem too expensive at all.
- lucideer 8y ago
  This exact comment is specific to this reviewers use case for his Mac Mini; it can't be made in every apple product thread, other apple products are used for things other than home media centres.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
veidr 8y ago
What OSes are better for a "Home Theater" TV computer?? That's a serious question; I recently replaced a creaking old Mac Mini (that couldn't do 4K) with a new Dell, after going a little bicurious with respect to Windows 10 (for software development work)... and, surprisingly, it's a complete and utter shitshow. I was astonished, actually; I had assumed Windows would be better than macOS as a TV computer, other than integration with Apple services (Apple Music, my kids photos as screensaver). Nothing could be further from the truth. It's a shitshow. 100% of Windows media players are garbage (VLC included, and there is no Movist). They can't play high-bitrate video without stuttering (on way better hardware), they show some ungodly mishmash of scaled UI and tiny unreadable UI on a 4K TV, for each player you install (about 10, so far, for me) you have to google for an hour to make sure they aren't malware (and of course almost all of them nominally are, trying to install all sorts of insane adware shit during the install phase, although that is par for the course on Windows)... It's been 2 months and I saw the new Mac Mini and despite the 200%+ markup on storage I couldn't help but think Hmmm.... My TV also has at its disposal Xbox (OK but not great), PS4 (pretty shit), iOS (Apple TV, pretty shit), and Nintendo Switch (has no TV computer features at all, basically). So what OSes are you talking about? Linux?? Android?
- dancsi 8y ago
  Have you tried Kodi (kodi.tv)?
  - veidr 8y ago
    No! Looks very interesting, thanks! (^_^) Will give it a shot.
    - Jaruzel 8y ago
      Bung Kodi on a Raspberry Pi 3B+ - You'll be pleasantly surprised I think. Downside is... 99% of raspberry pi cases are really ugly :(
      - SmellyGeekBoy 8y ago
garblegarble 8y ago
>The NUC8 with comparable specs (sans 6 core CPU) comes at under half the price! I'm actually very interested in these - could you point me at some? I've been interested in getting a NUC8 machine, but the cheapest I can find one for (granted, in the UK) is £750 before RAM & SSD... and I have been seriously considering the new Mac Mini as a result because the final price doesn't seem like it'll be much different. edit: found some on SimplyNUC.co.uk starting at £650 (inc VAT), 8GB of RAM and 128GB SSD, awesome! https://simplynuc.co.uk/8i7beh-full/ https://simplynuc.co.uk/8i7beh-full/
- 21 8y ago
  You might want to look at some Chinese mini/industrial PCs Same 8GB/128 GB, but probably lower CPU for £307: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B077SLPZ63 https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B077SLPZ63 There are many different configurations on Amazon/Ebay http://www.inctel.com.cn/product/MiniPC.html http://www.inctel.com.cn/product/MiniPC.html
  - graedus 8y ago
    Yeah, the model you linked has a i3-5005U - a very large step down from a i7-8559U. Still, could be sufficient depending on what you need it for.
    - GordonS 8y ago
      Bear in mind the i7 model in the article is $2,499!
      - graedus 8y ago
        In case it wasn't clear, user 21 was responding to user garblegarble with alternatives to the Intel NUC8i7BEH (~$484 in the US), not the Mac Mini. But yes, the decked-out i7 Mac Mini is really expensive! As noted elsewhere in the comments (and in the article), a big chunk of that cost is in Apple's 1TB SSD pricing - ticking that option adds $800 over the 128GB SSD for some reason.
- 8y ago
endorphone 8y ago
I would say most uses of the mac mini are simply as a desktop computer. It's what I use as my primary OSX workstation -- I have an old late 2012 model, upgraded with 16GB and an external SSD that I made the primary -- and it works fantastic. I plan on getting the new model. Two monitors. Monitors that are exactly what I want.
- robertAngst 8y ago
  2012 model work for iOS programming? I'm writing in react native, hopefully I only need to hit compile and never have to use an apple product.
  - pyr0hu 8y ago
    Yes, you could only compile once, but as soon as you add new native modules, you have to recompile the whole app. But you can basically use any other OS to write RN code. If you don't plan to add new native modules to it, then you can compile / deploy your app once from a Mac, then use CodePush to remote update the JS which can be done from any other OS.
  - endorphone 8y ago
    The i7 (3615QM) in it holds up extremely well. The storage was catastrophically slow but the system allowed me to effortlessly migrate over to an external SSD (then using the internal storage just for time machine backups). Finally considering upgrading as it has been a while. The low power consumption of the thing is one thing that always just blows me away. No noise, at all. My UPS seems to last forever when the power does go out.
    - photojosh 8y ago
      I have the "Server" model which came with 2x1TB 2.5" drives. Swapped one of them out for a SSD: ample storage without having to add anything externally.
  - geerlingguy 8y ago
    Yes but it’s the oldest model supported by Mojave, so consider getting a used 2014 maybe if you want it to be relevant for a few more OS releases.
ryandrake 8y ago
If you’re bought in to the Apple ecosystem, you can get a good HTPC by buying a 5+ year old Mac Mini from Craigslist. I’ve seen em for around $100, and unlike an AppleTV, you can run whatever additional Mac software you want. My 2010 is running great, recently upgraded to a SSD, and thanks to a kind soul here on HN pointing me to a link, can even run Mojave even though it’s technically unsupported.
saturdaysaint 8y ago
An Audi SUV's price isn't justifiable given almost every use case for a consumer automobile, but a lot of people enjoy the experience and find it worth paying tens of thousands dollars more than a Camry. By comparison, if you work on a computer for several hours every day and prefer the ergonomics of a Mac, spending an extra $1,000 is a pretty minuscule premium. And I say that as someone that happily switched from a Mac to a PC I built a few years ago - I like getting the maximum grunt for my money.
hrktb 8y ago
There is a very specific use case for this: Apple ecosystem integration. - Home theater -> iTunes movies play - NAS -> iCloud clone with eventualy automation running - Backup -> iCloud / Dropbox / Google Drive backup - bonus: siri, xcode builds, local+ third party remote iOS backup I have a raspberry pi setup handling the above for Google + dropbox. The day I want to switch to an Apple centric system I’d move to the Mac mini in a heartbeat.
rconti 8y ago
If you think the hardware and cost is overkill for "most use cases" perhaps the problem is your assumption of what "most use cases" are.
amelius 8y ago
And hopefully it is not just me, but it feels so much better to have a solution based on "open" hardware (i.e. PC based) and software (e.g. Linux), rather than support Apple's lock-in model.
Joeri 8y ago
The NUC8, like pretty much every small form factor pc, uses a mobile cpu, whereas the new mini uses desktop cpu’s. You have to look at the top model nuc8 with i7 to outperform the entry-level mac mini with the i3, and then the price advantage disappears. That CPU power comes in handy for most of the mini’s use cases, transcoding for home theater / nas, or build times for build server.
bnastic 8y ago
> The pricing is not really justifiable especially given the most use cases of the Mac mini (Home Theater, NAS, Backup etc.) are better handled by other OSes. I dont' know about "most", but pros who want quiet, small and fast (read: musician, audio engineers) will be all over this Mini.

empath75 8y ago

It’s hilarious how often this exact comment gets made in every single new apple product thread everywhere.

bnolsen 8y ago
and its pointing out the truly obvious as well...
- blinkingled 8y ago
  Well the reviewer seemed to go out of the way to claim the price was justified - I was pointing out that wasn't the case, not that price is high which it undeniably is.
  - Applejinx 8y ago
    Meh… the things I'm looking to do require some fancy outboard and don't ask all that much of the host computer. I've been looking at getting a fairly spiffy newer iMac or medium-old Mac Pro to hook the fancy outboard to (things like video production gear that'll take SDI inputs, external hardware x264 encoding, my MOTU 16A multichannel interface). It's looking very much like all that can be done just as well off the back of this tiny computer that's less than $1000. I was expecting the computer side to have to be more than $2000 to properly handle the fancy outboard. What with the Mini doing certain single-core processing tasks faster than ANY other Mac, and even having some RAM upgradeability (?!?) there is no question that it'd be able to work with the gear I mean. I don't need my host computer to be a quarter the cost of all the outboard gear that plugs into it. It'll be roughly the same cost as each of the pieces of outboard gear. That doesn't seem too expensive at all.
lucideer 8y ago
This exact comment is specific to this reviewers use case for his Mac Mini; it can't be made in every apple product thread, other apple products are used for things other than home media centres.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

veidr 8y ago

What OSes are better for a "Home Theater" TV computer?? That's a serious question; I recently replaced a creaking old Mac Mini (that couldn't do 4K) with a new Dell, after going a little bicurious with respect to Windows 10 (for software development work)... and, surprisingly, it's a complete and utter shitshow. I was astonished, actually; I had assumed Windows would be better than macOS as a TV computer, other than integration with Apple services (Apple Music, my kids photos as screensaver). Nothing could be further from the truth. It's a shitshow. 100% of Windows media players are garbage (VLC included, and there is no Movist). They can't play high-bitrate video without stuttering (on way better hardware), they show some ungodly mishmash of scaled UI and tiny unreadable UI on a 4K TV, for each player you install (about 10, so far, for me) you have to google for an hour to make sure they aren't malware (and of course almost all of them nominally are, trying to install all sorts of insane adware shit during the install phase, although that is par for the course on Windows)... It's been 2 months and I saw the new Mac Mini and despite the 200%+ markup on storage I couldn't help but think Hmmm.... My TV also has at its disposal Xbox (OK but not great), PS4 (pretty shit), iOS (Apple TV, pretty shit), and Nintendo Switch (has no TV computer features at all, basically). So what OSes are you talking about? Linux?? Android?

dancsi 8y ago
Have you tried Kodi (kodi.tv)?
- veidr 8y ago
  No! Looks very interesting, thanks! (^_^) Will give it a shot.
  - Jaruzel 8y ago
    Bung Kodi on a Raspberry Pi 3B+ - You'll be pleasantly surprised I think. Downside is... 99% of raspberry pi cases are really ugly :(
    - SmellyGeekBoy 8y ago

garblegarble 8y ago

>The NUC8 with comparable specs (sans 6 core CPU) comes at under half the price! I'm actually very interested in these - could you point me at some? I've been interested in getting a NUC8 machine, but the cheapest I can find one for (granted, in the UK) is £750 before RAM & SSD... and I have been seriously considering the new Mac Mini as a result because the final price doesn't seem like it'll be much different. edit: found some on SimplyNUC.co.uk starting at £650 (inc VAT), 8GB of RAM and 128GB SSD, awesome! https://simplynuc.co.uk/8i7beh-full/ https://simplynuc.co.uk/8i7beh-full/

21 8y ago
You might want to look at some Chinese mini/industrial PCs Same 8GB/128 GB, but probably lower CPU for £307: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B077SLPZ63 https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B077SLPZ63 There are many different configurations on Amazon/Ebay http://www.inctel.com.cn/product/MiniPC.html http://www.inctel.com.cn/product/MiniPC.html
- graedus 8y ago
  Yeah, the model you linked has a i3-5005U - a very large step down from a i7-8559U. Still, could be sufficient depending on what you need it for.
  - GordonS 8y ago
    Bear in mind the i7 model in the article is $2,499!
    - graedus 8y ago
      In case it wasn't clear, user 21 was responding to user garblegarble with alternatives to the Intel NUC8i7BEH (~$484 in the US), not the Mac Mini. But yes, the decked-out i7 Mac Mini is really expensive! As noted elsewhere in the comments (and in the article), a big chunk of that cost is in Apple's 1TB SSD pricing - ticking that option adds $800 over the 128GB SSD for some reason.
8y ago

endorphone 8y ago

I would say most uses of the mac mini are simply as a desktop computer. It's what I use as my primary OSX workstation -- I have an old late 2012 model, upgraded with 16GB and an external SSD that I made the primary -- and it works fantastic. I plan on getting the new model. Two monitors. Monitors that are exactly what I want.

robertAngst 8y ago
2012 model work for iOS programming? I'm writing in react native, hopefully I only need to hit compile and never have to use an apple product.
- pyr0hu 8y ago
  Yes, you could only compile once, but as soon as you add new native modules, you have to recompile the whole app. But you can basically use any other OS to write RN code. If you don't plan to add new native modules to it, then you can compile / deploy your app once from a Mac, then use CodePush to remote update the JS which can be done from any other OS.
- endorphone 8y ago
  The i7 (3615QM) in it holds up extremely well. The storage was catastrophically slow but the system allowed me to effortlessly migrate over to an external SSD (then using the internal storage just for time machine backups). Finally considering upgrading as it has been a while. The low power consumption of the thing is one thing that always just blows me away. No noise, at all. My UPS seems to last forever when the power does go out.
  - photojosh 8y ago
    I have the "Server" model which came with 2x1TB 2.5" drives. Swapped one of them out for a SSD: ample storage without having to add anything externally.
- geerlingguy 8y ago
  Yes but it’s the oldest model supported by Mojave, so consider getting a used 2014 maybe if you want it to be relevant for a few more OS releases.

ryandrake 8y ago

If you’re bought in to the Apple ecosystem, you can get a good HTPC by buying a 5+ year old Mac Mini from Craigslist. I’ve seen em for around $100, and unlike an AppleTV, you can run whatever additional Mac software you want. My 2010 is running great, recently upgraded to a SSD, and thanks to a kind soul here on HN pointing me to a link, can even run Mojave even though it’s technically unsupported.

saturdaysaint 8y ago

An Audi SUV's price isn't justifiable given almost every use case for a consumer automobile, but a lot of people enjoy the experience and find it worth paying tens of thousands dollars more than a Camry. By comparison, if you work on a computer for several hours every day and prefer the ergonomics of a Mac, spending an extra $1,000 is a pretty minuscule premium. And I say that as someone that happily switched from a Mac to a PC I built a few years ago - I like getting the maximum grunt for my money.

hrktb 8y ago

There is a very specific use case for this: Apple ecosystem integration. - Home theater -> iTunes movies play - NAS -> iCloud clone with eventualy automation running - Backup -> iCloud / Dropbox / Google Drive backup - bonus: siri, xcode builds, local+ third party remote iOS backup I have a raspberry pi setup handling the above for Google + dropbox. The day I want to switch to an Apple centric system I’d move to the Mac mini in a heartbeat.

rconti 8y ago

If you think the hardware and cost is overkill for "most use cases" perhaps the problem is your assumption of what "most use cases" are.

amelius 8y ago

And hopefully it is not just me, but it feels so much better to have a solution based on "open" hardware (i.e. PC based) and software (e.g. Linux), rather than support Apple's lock-in model.

Joeri 8y ago

The NUC8, like pretty much every small form factor pc, uses a mobile cpu, whereas the new mini uses desktop cpu’s. You have to look at the top model nuc8 with i7 to outperform the entry-level mac mini with the i3, and then the price advantage disappears. That CPU power comes in handy for most of the mini’s use cases, transcoding for home theater / nas, or build times for build server.

bnastic 8y ago

> The pricing is not really justifiable especially given the most use cases of the Mac mini (Home Theater, NAS, Backup etc.) are better handled by other OSes. I dont' know about "most", but pros who want quiet, small and fast (read: musician, audio engineers) will be all over this Mini.