Soldato
£400 for a 1.4GHz dual core with 4GB of non upgradable RAM and spinning rust storage is still insulting. And not up to running Plex.
Apple Event - 30th October - 2pm - "There's more in the making"
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My NAS is faster than the old mini, I’d rather a new one which is worth a toss 
Soldato
My 2009 mini would likely give it a run for it's money. That that was £400, over 9 years ago!
If it's just Plex then an Intel NUC all the way.
I run mine off my QNAP NAS. They seemed to offer far more bang for buck compared to Synology and I self upgraded the CPU to an i7 and 16GB of RAM. No regrets after moving over from a crippled Synology with ARM CPU.
I run mine off my QNAP NAS. They seemed to offer far more bang for buck compared to Synology and I self upgraded the CPU to an i7 and 16GB of RAM. No regrets after moving over from a crippled Synology with ARM CPU.
confused about the new air, watched some review vids and some comments.
- BT 4.x instead of BT5, weird as so many other apple devices have been BT5 for a while
- screen is lower quality than the Pros
- cpu fan kicks in and is audible when pushing it
- not much extra performance than the 2017 air, still under the rMBP pro non touch from last year
- only £50 less than the non touch pro
Main selling points seem to be
- touch login
- 16gb ram option
- Air name and shape
Pretty annoying as was looking to replace some apple kit over the next few months. House laptop is a 2009 Air with 1.3ghz chip, still copes with browsing and light programming but the screen is junk. Have a mac mini 1.4ghz for Kodi as well, it copes fine after a HD upgrade to SSD but it's a bit slow for doing some stuff.
Both Air and MacMini are just priced outside what I'd like to pay to upgrade them /disappointed
- BT 4.x instead of BT5, weird as so many other apple devices have been BT5 for a while
- screen is lower quality than the Pros
- cpu fan kicks in and is audible when pushing it
- not much extra performance than the 2017 air, still under the rMBP pro non touch from last year
- only £50 less than the non touch pro
Main selling points seem to be
- touch login
- 16gb ram option
- Air name and shape
Pretty annoying as was looking to replace some apple kit over the next few months. House laptop is a 2009 Air with 1.3ghz chip, still copes with browsing and light programming but the screen is junk. Have a mac mini 1.4ghz for Kodi as well, it copes fine after a HD upgrade to SSD but it's a bit slow for doing some stuff.
Both Air and MacMini are just priced outside what I'd like to pay to upgrade them /disappointed
Associate
The Mac mini is a bit of a tough sell really - once you spec it up you're not far off a well spec'd MacBook Pro or an iMac. Granted they all have different functions and the Mac Mini has desktop-grade processors, but I'd much rather have the portability of the MBP with a similar spec for similar money.
Soldato
I got the i5, 8GB, 256GB Mac mini from Very with a £40 off code so £1059 for that which is cheaper than any of their laptops and I never used my MBP as a portable anyway, so having a Mac desktop for that cheap is worth it for me, I have an iPad Pro 11" as my portable Apple device which suits me better.
Soldato
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That’s not cheap though for the spec, even considering apple tax, as mentioned above the prices are out of control now.
Soldato
To be as close a match to the mini the closest I can find is the following:
HP EliteDesk 800 35W G4 Desktop Mini PC
This is over £900 and doesn't include 4 Thunderbolt 3 ports which would add to the cost.
Can you find something that matches the mini I posted above for a lot cheaper? I mean match the spec exactly.
HP EliteDesk 800 35W G4 Desktop Mini PC
This is over £900 and doesn't include 4 Thunderbolt 3 ports which would add to the cost.
Can you find something that matches the mini I posted above for a lot cheaper? I mean match the spec exactly.
Soldato
I bought an i5/8GB/256GB Mac mini, $1033 after corporate discount which didn't seem too bad considering the spec. I've had it for a few days and have noticed a few issues with displays not waking up after being put to sleep though so I'm not sure what to make of that.
My mum is still using a 2010 Mac mini which is woefully out of date now (it's about 3 versions of macOS behind because they've dropped support for it) and I'm very keen to replace it for her but at the UK pricing the base model seems very expensive and 128GB of storage is woefully inadequate these days. Not sure what to do really, I said I'd sort it out when I'm back in the UK over Christmas but I'm struggling to see a sensible replacement.
My mum is still using a 2010 Mac mini which is woefully out of date now (it's about 3 versions of macOS behind because they've dropped support for it) and I'm very keen to replace it for her but at the UK pricing the base model seems very expensive and 128GB of storage is woefully inadequate these days. Not sure what to do really, I said I'd sort it out when I'm back in the UK over Christmas but I'm struggling to see a sensible replacement.
Commissario
Why would you get the i5 when you can get the i7 version for the same price? Add £100 for an external 500Gb SSD and a caddy and you’ve got a real powerhouse of a little machine. The i7 is so much better than the i5 with six cores and hyperthreading.
This setup would cost £400 more:? Is there a trick somewhere to get the same price for i7?
Edit...ah external drive...still i7 same price?
Soldato
The i5 also has 6 cores, I have no need for hyper threading, I don’t use VM’s or do much in the way of media encoding.
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Commissario
Sorry, I thought the i5 was just a four core device.
@haszek The i7 version with 128Gb SSD is actually £50 cheaper than the i5 version with the 256Gb SSD (I though they were the same price but I just double checked to find it's cheaper). Add an external SSD (because for most people this will be a desktop machine) and I really think it's much better way to go.
@haszek The i7 version with 128Gb SSD is actually £50 cheaper than the i5 version with the 256Gb SSD (I though they were the same price but I just double checked to find it's cheaper). Add an external SSD (because for most people this will be a desktop machine) and I really think it's much better way to go.
Commissario
A 500Gb SSD from OcUK is £90 - What's a caddy, £10 these days? If the i7 is £50 cheaper than the i5 then it's only fifty quid more expensive to get the i7 version with a 500Gb external SSD.
Apple admit that the new T2 prevents third party companies from repairing the new Macbooks. It's not an issue for new users under warranty but will be a big one for second hand owners in the future.
I think this is a bad move by Apple. It will affect long term sales because used macbooks will be worth less if they cant be repaired economically. People who support the right to repair and environmental sustainability should consider this too. With greater depreciation it may be a factor in future new buyers decision making. Not today, but perhaps in the future.
https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.trustedreviews.com/news/apple-macbook-t2-chip-repairs-3619777/amp
I think this is a bad move by Apple. It will affect long term sales because used macbooks will be worth less if they cant be repaired economically. People who support the right to repair and environmental sustainability should consider this too. With greater depreciation it may be a factor in future new buyers decision making. Not today, but perhaps in the future.
https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.trustedreviews.com/news/apple-macbook-t2-chip-repairs-3619777/amp