2018 Mac Mini to replace Windows Desktop Advice

TwinCalliber

TwinCalliber

TwinCalliber

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Hey all,

I've been reading up a lot on the the new Mac Mini, and the idea of it sounds really cool to me. The fact its compact and powerful, with the options of bootcamping windows and using a eGPU for gaming are very interesting. In 2017 I got a 13" Macbook pro to replace an old Surface Pro 2 and I love it and the MacOS.

I would want it to replace a 4 year old Windows desktop with a i7 4790k @ 4ghz, 16gb ram, and GTX 1070 (used in the eGPU, I understand for now Nvidia cards can only be used in Windows, unless using a script), with the view to use MacOS as the day to day system, with some editing (nothing major) and boot camp windows for the odd gaming, through the use of the eGPU.

The setup I am thinking for the Mac Mini is; i7, 16gb ram and the 512gb ssd and get a Razer Core X down the line, but I am not sure if this will be overkill for my uses (and would frankly like to save where I can) I am also gaming a lot on my PS4 Pro nowadays as I get older, so im not sure if an i7 is neccesary, but I want something powerful enough to drive games at 1440p, and last as long as my desktop, if not longer!

Hopefully that makes sense...I would really appreciate any help/advice before I make a drastic purchase :P

Cheers!
 
I would get the best your budget would allow with the Mac Mini, as if you have buyers remorse at some point down the line theres nothing you can do about it.

If you skimp and get the i5 now for example, then later wish for the i7 you cant just pop the lid off and install that upgrade in a matter of minutes like you could on a desktop PC.
 
Get the base model one but select the i7 CPU. You can install additional RAM yourself and although it only comes with a small internal SSD, you'll be using it as a desktop so you can add a decent size and speed external SSD very easily and far cheaper than paying for an Apple one.

You'll pay £1,069 for the mini if you do it that way compared to £1,609 if you spec the higher model. That gives you £540 to buy memory and an external SSD which is absolutely plenty.
 
Spuddy said:
I would get the best your budget would allow with the Mac Mini, as if you have buyers remorse at some point down the line theres nothing you can do about it.

If you skimp and get the i5 now for example, then later wish for the i7 you cant just pop the lid off and install that upgrade in a matter of minutes like you could on a desktop PC.
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Yeah thats a good point!

Feek said:
Get the base model one but select the i7 CPU. You can install additional RAM yourself and although it only comes with a small internal SSD, you'll be using it as a desktop so you can add a decent size and speed external SSD very easily and far cheaper than paying for an Apple one.

You'll pay £1,069 for the mini if you do it that way compared to £1,609 if you spec the higher model. That gives you £540 to buy memory and an external SSD which is absolutely plenty.
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Yeah I read up about installing additional RAM, and it looks fairly straight forward, would just need to buy the TORX screwdrivers. What RAM and SSD would you recommend? would an m.2 one be a good choice?

I also forgot to add that I get a 6% discount through work, which definitely helps the cause!
 
I don't really know as I've not done this but a quick shufti at Crucial memory shows it being around £125 for 16Gb. Here's a 1Tb SSD and you'd need to add an enclosure for it. I'm not the best person to answer this really, I'm sure someone can give better examples (without linking to or mentioning specific competitors).
 
Feek said:
I don't really know as I've not done this but a quick shufti at Crucial memory shows it being around £125 for 16Gb. Here's a 1Tb SSD and you'd need to add an enclosure for it. I'm not the best person to answer this really, I'm sure someone can give better examples (without linking to or mentioning specific competitors).
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Thanks, managed to find the single 16gb stick. I am thinking of getting a 500gb NVME PCIE ssd, with an NVME enclosure and a regular 500gb ssd with enclosure. One for Mac and one for Windows.
 
TwinCalliber said:
Yeah thats a good point!

Yeah I read up about installing additional RAM, and it looks fairly straight forward, would just need to buy the TORX screwdrivers. What RAM and SSD would you recommend? would an m.2 one be a good choice?
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it's not that hard tbh, you just need to have some patience. Be careful as there's a couple of cables that would be very easy to break. Also, it's not just torx - it's the security ones with the hole in the bottom. This toolkit has all the stuff you need.
 
Feek said:
Get the base model one but select the i7 CPU. You can install additional RAM yourself and although it only comes with a small internal SSD, you'll be using it as a desktop so you can add a decent size and speed external SSD very easily and far cheaper than paying for an Apple one.

You'll pay £1,069 for the mini if you do it that way compared to £1,609 if you spec the higher model. That gives you £540 to buy memory and an external SSD which is absolutely plenty.
Click to expand...

A couple things to keep in mind with this approach.

1. It isn't clear what the warranty impact is with changing your RAM.
2. Some users have been having issues with external SSDs - https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/problem-samsung-t5-and-macmini-2018.2159066/


@TwinCalliber if you do put your own RAM in make sure you use both slots for dual channel. If you're planning to bootcamp, I'd definitely go for more than the 128GB. There won't be much space left after installing MacOS and W10 + a few apps. A full / near capacity SSD isn't ideal.

I presume you are happy using a non "retina" monitor. I've read mixed reports how Mojave looks on non retina screens.
 
LiE said:
A couple things to keep in mind with this approach.

1. It isn't clear what the warranty impact is with changing your RAM.
2. Some users have been having issues with external SSDs - https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/problem-samsung-t5-and-macmini-2018.2159066/


@TwinCalliber if you do put your own RAM in make sure you use both slots for dual channel. If you're planning to bootcamp, I'd definitely go for more than the 128GB. There won't be much space left after installing MacOS and W10 + a few apps. A full / near capacity SSD isn't ideal.

I presume you are happy using a non "retina" monitor. I've read mixed reports how Mojave looks on non retina screens.
Click to expand...

Yeah the effect on the warranty was an issue I was thinking about and I was also planning on selling the original RAM which if I do choose to replace it myself, might be best to keep incase someting goes wrong with the mac mini and I need to send it back. Plus the added cost of buying the appropriate tools for replacing the RAM, it all kinda adds up. I was planning on having windows on the external 1tb ssd, having a split partition for windows and mac. That external ssd issue is interesting, but looks like a software issue that will hopefully get fixed....

Ill be using it with a Samsung 27" 1440P monitor, so have no choice in the matter!

Do you think it would be best to just go for 16gb RAM for peace of mind, and the 256gb ssd? Like I said before, I do get a small discount through work, which helps the cause....
 
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I would go 16GB adn 256 SSD personally. You may want to do some reading on Windows 10 bootcamp on an external SSD to check for any issues.
 
LiE said:
I would go 16GB adn 256 SSD personally. You may want to do some reading on Windows 10 bootcamp on an external SSD to check for any issues.
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I just looked through a tutorial on 9to5mac, and it looks best to install windows on the macs internal ssd, then just use the external ssd for everything else. I would plan on formatting the external one as exFAT so that both mac and windows can use it, making it ideal for installing games on etc. Does this sound like a good idea?
 
TwinCalliber said:
I just looked through a tutorial on 9to5mac, and it looks best to install windows on the macs internal ssd, then just use the external ssd for everything else. I would plan on formatting the external one as exFAT so that both mac and windows can use it, making it ideal for installing games on etc. Does this sound like a good idea?
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If I needed to Bootcamp, that’s what I’d do although I’d use the new APFS on the external drive.
 
LiE said:
Don’t believe so.
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[EDIT] Sorry started to type then got distracted by lenses I can't afford. this will give you APFS access in Windows. I'll add that right now it doesn't work brilliantly in that performance seems a bit sporadic. It's also a bit of a PITA to remove. It will be fine though - the early ParagonHFS+ products were exactly the same. Early adoption type issues, then it just works.

Problems I'm having are that it kills performance of other drives on the same channel, and also seems to constantly give me issues with drive error checking at reboots - which I've been cancelling. Not sure I want windows error checking my APFS formatted drives.
 
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