Considering a Mac Mini .... Thoughts?

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W.Feather

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Let me layout my setup right now .... and questions ...

- I currently have a MBA (2014, 13", my "primary" computing is on this now..), iPad mini 3, iPhone 6+ ... those are my primary tech interfaces
- For gaming / use on my TV I have a rather big machine (See below), and lately I've been playing ALOT of Civ 5 or similar games. and turing it on just to browse internet and stuff (When i do not plan on sitting on the couch or bed to use the laptop..), seems like a massive waste of heat / power .


For devices i'd be connecting the mac mini to: 1080p Sony TV 65", 27" Dell U2711M [i think ... have to check], 24" U2412M. The two dells have DP 1.2a I think, meaning I should be able to daisy chain right?


What I'm really looking for is a way to have them all connected, along with the TV, and to play the occasional game (Civ 5, Tropico, lower end GPU wise and power wise.).....



What I'm wondering:

- Would a Mac Mini be able to do what I want?
- How is a Mac Mini for light gaming like listed above?
- How old of a mac Mini could I get away with? If i can go older i'd be more interested in that for money saving [I can get a 15% discount from apple via a friend, so would have to beat that...].... No media would be stored locally on the device, it would all be on a local server.

Thanks.
 
Hrmmm, I always felt like Civ 5 was a pretty intensive game. At least in the CPU/frame buffer department. But to answer your question, it will work just fine. Mini's have the same GPUs as the MBA line. Intel 5k and Intel Iris. So if you're satisfied with the performance on your MBA, it will be similar. The mini should be faster in the CPU department however, with significantly higher clocked processors.

They also have PCI-E SSD options which I would take advantage of, or at least the biggest Fusion Drive you can afford.
 
if buying new i'd be getting the 256gb ssd no doubt.

As for gaming, I don't think mine has IRIS? (Could be wrong, I have the early 2014 MBA 13", i5 refresh, build date of 05/05/2014 FWIW...). Would an older one work as well? Can it do a daisy chain on monitors with DP?
 
W.Feather said:
if buying new i'd be getting the 256gb ssd no doubt.

As for gaming, I don't think mine has IRIS? (Could be wrong, I have the early 2014 MBA 13", i5 refresh, build date of 05/05/2014 FWIW...). Would an older one work as well? Can it do a daisy chain on monitors with DP?
Click to expand...

Iris is the newest chip. I think your MBA is using Intel 5000 (which I noted as "5k").

It has two Thunderbolt 2 ports and 1 HDMI port. DP can't daisy chain, it never has been able to. However if your monitors support Thunderbolt, you can daisy chain that way. Regardless of whether you decide to chain or use each Thunderbolt port separately or use some combination of HDMI and Thunderbolt: the Mac Mini only supports up to two monitors with resolution up to 2560x1600.

You can buy one used if you'd like. Mac's aren't special in regards to hardware... so just pay attention to the specs you need and buy what you want to. The mini has existed for a long time. I can tell you for sure that you'd probably only want to buy one from the past 2-3 years (further back than that, you're going to run into some slow machines... especially if you get a 2010 and before with a C2D). If you want Thunderbolt 2, then you're stuck buying the current model, as nothing previous to it has it.

Also, you may just want to look at the specs page: http://www.apple.com/mac-mini/specs/
 
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Cool....i learned some stuff digging up more info as well :)


However thinking a 2012 variant might be fine for my usage .... my main concern is having 3 monitors .... But it doesnt seem ill get that easily with manyoptions that im currently looking at..
 
Wait before buying one - the current model is about a year old and had fairly disappointing specs when released. If they don't release a new one with updated specs within a few months, we'll certainly get a new one next year.
 
Isn't that what a lot of people said in 2013?


Also --- still digging around and looking. Question on the SSD model. As i understand it there are 3 drive choices... 500gb, 256gb sad, and 1tb fusion.

The 500gb = platter
256 = ssd ... is this "blade" or in the 2.5" slot?
fusion = 1tb platter + 128gb ssd in blade .


My question is, for the 256gb version, is it a blade drive? I can't seem to find anything online one way or the other, I imagine it is a blade one.
 
Hmm thats what i was thinking, but same, have yet to see any tear down on a blade version (What makes me curious is that it seems the only verified SSD amount in the mac mini is 128 (However my MBA has 256, early 2014 model)
 
I would just buy the fusion version if you plan on using both the pcie and 2.5" storage in the future, even without fusion. Who knows if Apple left off the 2.5" sata connector if you go SSD only without seeing one torn down.
 
The SATA connector can be purchased (~12 bucks). So losing the sata connection is a non issue. The PCIe connector is ~48 bucks, making it probably more worth while to do a $200 upgrade for the 256gb SSD (I havent been able to find a 256gb blade SSD, and the adapter for $200). Thats kind of where im going with the line of thinking. however might end up just waiting to see if there is a refresh at the beginning of the year....
 
Fusion drive is fantastic. However, I would buy the SSD separately, you will get a lot more space buying the drive yourself. This is for a 2012 model at least.

It is very easy to setup, in fact it's actually a hassle to put a SSD and HDD and NOT set it to Fusion in a Mini. The system just really wants to set up a Fusion drive with that combination.

The 2012 variety is straight forward on installing the 2.5" tray and drive. You will have to disassemble to Mini, but it's easy. I do not know if the 2014 model is the same.

I added a 256GB to the stock 500GB HDD on mine. Right now I am right about at 490GB of used space. I need to look at putting a 512 or 1000GB SSD in there. But even then with the system using half SSD, half HDD, I do not notice any slow downs. It's always responsive. I do notice a slight hesitation when editing tags on some songs, that's usually an indicator of HDD. But other then that, it's seamless.

I cannot recommend Fusion enough, it is truly a special product. I just don't recommend paying the Apple tax for it if you can avoid it.
 
westrock2000 said:
Fusion drive is fantastic. However, I would buy the SSD separately, you will get a lot more space buying the drive yourself. This is for a 2012 model at least.
Click to expand...

On the 2014 model, if you don't get it with an SSD, the need to buy the new carrier/pcie cable combo: http://applecomponents.com/items/ca...-storage/0000006001?pn=1&cmp=0231&per_page=30

Then you need to grab the actual ssd from ebay, that seems to be the cheapest place to get them currently, I haven't seen any aftermarket replacements.
 
I had a mac mini and now I have a macbook. They are both working exceptional and for me the only difference is that one is portible and one not.
 
Get yourself an Intel NUC. Just picked one up. Great! and really small. I got the i7, 16gram and a 500 ssd, iris pro integrated graphics. You can run bootcamp if you want iOS and game with the NUC.

MY BAD. You CANNOT install bootcamp on a PC. It is the other way around. Bootcamp on a Mac = PC.
 
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harsaphes ... How does it run say Civ 5, or Tropico at 1080?
 
I will admit that thunderbolt is pretty nice on these small devices. It's pricey to implement, but it does open a lot of possibilities.

I have even thought about replacing my Mac Pro with a Mini because I can use thunderbolt to connect a PCI SATA card that supports port multiplying. Thus a bunch of SATA drives natively connected to a small form factor computer. Not something easily done on a "PC" SFF.
 
I spent money on this as I wanted to try and replace a seven year old Xcube by Maingear. It's the new i7 model that has the Iris pro graphics. I put 16 megs of ram in it and a Samsung M.2 SSD with a clean install of Windows 10.
I LOVE it. It so small when they handed me the bag I thought they forgot to put the computer in. It's sitting in our media cabinet and runs very quiet, less quiet when gaming.

http://goo.gl/zfHym2
 
MY BAD. You CANNOT install bootcamp on a PC. It is the other way around. Bootcamp on a Mac = PC.
 
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