Other Apple Announces Mac Mini Refresh

[ondert]

You know what? I really really liked this Mac Mini, because it is the most user-upgradable system for now. You may put your own ram, 65w i7 version looks promising (hope it can cool it down well), you can pick your own peripherals and monitor (5k iMac is great but when the time comes people will sell it because of the old hardware inside of it although it has a great screen.). Also, you can connect this to any AMD Polaris & Vega eGPU you want. That is great. I have an 5k iMac now but for the future I might pass to this system. You can combine this little thing with a Gigabyte Gaming Box and at total you'll get a 4.5 liters super nice macOS system.

 

[all-in]

Also if you prefer 21:9 over the 16:9 of the imac 5K, the just available LG 34wk95u (5K minus the upper 1/4, can’t be driven by “mere” 4K machines) would be the perfect companion for this 5K capable Mini...at 5120x2160, this is the first ultrawide ever that can give you a vertical real estate of 1080 when in HiDPI mode in macOS...and the new Mini is the first headless Mac desktop that can drive it (single tb3 cable) even without an eGPU...funny that they became available at the same time, a retina5K-ultrawide-macOS perfect storm..

 

[Boil]

Am I the only one that worries for the surrounding components ? It must be hot as hell inside, even the chassis might be hot. SSD and memory modules won't live a long life if it runs likes that for too long.

I'm also worried for use in summer at this point...

It's designed for you to warm your coffee on, which also assists in pulling heat from the chassis...

hmm, tophat mod to open up the lids and place a fan on it...

Remember, the logic board is inverted once you flip the SG mini right side up, so a fan up top would just be either pulling or pushing against the backside of the board...

And I don't think I would want to cut into that chassis...

- RAM is free floating at an angle over the CPU, within an airy cage

Actually, it's hanging under the CPU, since the logic board is inverted once you flip the SG mini right side up...

You know what? I really really liked this Mac Mini, because it is the most user-upgradable system for now. You may put your own ram, 65w i7 version looks promising (hope it can cool it down well), you can pick your own peripherals and monitor (5k iMac is great but when the time comes people will sell it because of the old hardware inside of it although it has a great screen.). Also, you can connect this to any AMD Polaris & Vega eGPU you want. That is great. I have an 5k iMac now but for the future I might pass to this system. You can combine this little thing with a Gigabyte Gaming Box and at total you'll get a 4.5 liters super nice macOS system.

https://www.sonnettech.com/product/egfx-breakaway-puck.html

Only RX560s & RX570s (both 4GB) though, no 8GB RX580...

Also if you prefer 21:9 over the 16:9 of the imac 5K, the just available LG 34wk95u (5K minus the upper 1/4, can’t be driven by “mere” 4K machines) would be the perfect companion for this 5K capable Mini...at 5120x2160, this is the first ultrawide ever that can give you a vertical real estate of 1080 when in HiDPI mode in macOS...and the new Mini is the first headless Mac desktop that can drive it (single tb3 cable) even without an eGPU...funny that they became available at the same time, a retina5K-ultrawide-macOS perfect storm..

But does it offer a webcam, mic & speakers for FaceTime...? ;^p

 

[all-in]

But does it offer a webcam, mic & speakers for FaceTime...? ;^p

Crossing fingers for FaceID too on next year (possible and yet unrumored) Apple Pro Display..

 

[Thauner]

Love the design and the idea, but this can't cool the i5 and the i7 cpu enough. At least I don't believe it!

I have the i7 8700 cpu in my streacom (Mac mini ish design) case. I have not been apple to find a solution to keep a lit on the case without alot of holes.
I even delid and made a little undervolt.

Anyone that can tell how this Mac mini is gonna work? Cuz then I want my original top on my pc too

 

[VegetableStu]

Remember, the logic board is inverted once you flip the SG mini right side up, so a fan up top would just be either pulling or pushing against the backside of the board...

And I don't think I would want to cut into that chassis...

oh no, i meant placing the mac mini upside down o_o with the access side up

 

[all-in]

Love the design and the idea, but this can't cool the i5 and the i7 cpu enough. At least I don't believe it!

I have the i7 8700 cpu in my streacom (Mac mini ish design) case. I have not been apple to find a solution to keep a lit on the case without alot of holes.
I even delid and made a little undervolt.

Anyone that can tell how this Mac mini is gonna work? Cuz then I want my original top on my pc too

CPU is a BGA variant so maybe not exactly comparable.
Also the motherboard is based on mobile workstation chipset Intel CM246, apparently.
Also -ish doesn’t say much, probably cooling is different.

oh no, i meant placing the mac mini upside down o_o with the access side up

Only mod I would do is bare Mini + bare eGPU board + tb3 drives aplenty within a Powermac G5 or MacPro case...

 

[GuilleAcoustic]

@all-in please don't double post and use the edit option instead. I've merged your two posts

 

[Thauner]

CPU is a BGA variant so maybe not exactly comparable.
Also the motherboard is based on mobile workstation chipset Intel CM246, apparently.
Also -ish doesn’t say much, probably cooling is different.

This was new to me
- Do you or anyone know the difference from BGA to normal?

I know my "ish" is not the same as their case. Sizes are pretty close tho, so any cooling solutions is very limited. And thats why i ask in the first place - I would love some new options to test with my mini case.

 

[ondert]

This was new to me
- Do you or anyone know the difference from BGA to normal?

I know my "ish" is not the same as their case. Sizes are pretty close tho, so any cooling solutions is very limited. And thats why i ask in the first place - I would love some new options to test with my mini case.

This is a bga cpu. You may think it is already delidded and embedded.

 

[Thauner]

This is a bga cpu. You may think it is already delidded and embedded.

Cool! never seen that before. Will these come for everybody to buy?

 

[GuilleAcoustic]

Cool! never seen that before. Will these come for everybody to buy?

BGA means Ball Grid Array, they aren't meant for end-users since they are soldered to the motherboard.

 

[VegetableStu]

ber-GA. BIGGA.

 

[Thauner]

BGA means Ball Grid Array, they aren't meant for end-users since they are soldered to the motherboard.

Thank you!
Sorry for my noob question

 

[GuilleAcoustic]

Thank you!
Sorry for my noob question

No worries, that wasn't a bad question

 

[Howdy]

Hey All! I just picked up the 8700b i7 so just let me know if there's any questions you have about it. Gonna open it up to upgrade the ram in the next couple of weeks.

My guess is that I'll have a similar experience working in single threaded applications such as after effects compared to my 8700k PC build. Also really excited to test acoustics as it'd be nice to have it in the same room while recording audio which is unfortunately near impossible with my current pc build.

 

[Boil]

Hey All! I just picked up the 8700b i7 so just let me know if there's any questions you have about it. Gonna open it up to upgrade the ram in the next couple of weeks.

My guess is that I'll have a similar experience working in single threaded applications such as after effects compared to my 8700k PC build. Also really excited to test acoustics as it'd be nice to have it in the same room while recording audio which is unfortunately near impossible with my current pc build.

You should replace the thermal paste with some nice Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut while you have it opened up...

 

[VisualStim]

 

[Howdy]

That would be ideal but astropad is meh in reality. Plus there would be no way to boot into it since the astropad mac application needs to be launched after booting up. However would love to see apple create that kind of funconality over USB-C for the ipad pro. Similar to their old Target display mode on iMacs.

 

[parlinone]

This is an awesome small yet powerful machine but like others have said the RAM and SSD upgrades are hard to swallow. I think pricing would've been somewhat more reasonable if it started with 256 GB around $750 and topped out around $3750 for the maxed out model.