Not really.
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Mac Mini just received its first update in over four years.
But that ancient relic, vis-à-vis the 2014 Mac Mini, was actually slower than the 2012 Mac Mini thanks to two fewer cores
So, as you can imagine, Mac Mini fans have welcomed this 2018 refresh with wide open arms.
However, Apple's entry-level computer, like many things Apple now makes, is not so "entry-level", with a
$300 price increase over its predecessor, bringing the price of Apple's cheapest computer to over $800.
On the plus side, the base model is now a quad-core processor with the choice to opt for a hexa core.
The spinning hard drive of yore has been replaced by a PCIe SSD, albeit a very small
128 gigabyte drive, and like I demonstrated in a previous video, the RAM is now user upgradeable
which it was not before. All of those sound like good things. So what's my beef with this little pancake?
Well, unlike the higher-end Mac Mini configurations,
I'm not really sure who this $800 Mac Mini is for. I think some context will help explain a little.
Remember the famous "Get a Mac" ad campaign? You know,
the one starring John Hodgman as PC, and then that one guy from Alvin and the Chipmunks is the Mac?
Yeah, well that coincided perfectly with the release of Mac Mini. Believe it or not, it hadn't been super-easy for Apple
Circa 2006 to sell low-end PC users and families on the idea of a Mac when they had to shell out
$1200 minimum for an iMac, but letting them replace their old computer with a petite
$499 Mac Mini, while keeping the same display, keyboard and mouse that they were already using, uh,
changed that whole dynamic and Mac Mini became enormously successful as the Mac for PC switchers.
From 2006 to 2012, the machine saw a new iteration nearly every year, and the base model Mac Mini shared
Generally the same CPU as the base model iMac which was typically more than double the price
It was a legitimately good deal for several years
So is it true that the 2018 Mac Mini is still the golden child in Apple's lineup?
Well, if we take a look at Geekbench, everyone's favourite artificial benchmark,
It sure looks like it. The scores are just slightly less than the base model iMac, but really it's pretty close.
Par the course for Mac Mini, right? Video's over! (laughs) Not so fast.
Uh, Mac...
Benchmark guy, because the performance actually takes a downturn in any extended workload.
Similar to what we saw with MacBook Air in my previous video, with Mac Mini out of the box in both Adobe Premiere and
Final Cut Pro,
exporting a 4K video to
H.264, the machine hits the CPU's T-Junction, or maximum operating temperature of
100 degrees Celsius, within just 60 seconds, and you know what that means kids!
(unintelligible)
Thermal throttling.
These kids are going to take my job!
Kids are so smart nowadays.
Thermal throttling.
Especially considering the processor isn't even capable of turbo boost. Weirder yet,
Even when I was doing something moderately intensive, while the computer never Beach bawled everything slowed down a lot.
Even dragging around and resizing windows felt a little laggy.
I've never seen that before on any Mac and so I thought maybe I had a defective model
But I got a second and nope, the results are the same
Now these measurements were taken before I pulled the Mac Mini apart a few weeks ago
And once I did, I had to replace the stock thermal paste, so I used Arctic mx2, which is pretty inexpensive thermal paste
But it works well for its price; and upon reassembling the machine
I ran the benchmarks again not expecting a huge difference.
But holy balls! Not only does the computer not thermally throttle anymore. at all.
But it doesn't even surpass 91 degrees Celsius and that's with the same ambient temperatures. The thermal paste
Apple uses is pretty thick and dry. Look. It's the same stuff they use in everything and they're not stupid
So there's probably a reason they use it
Maybe it lasts a few more years than normal paste, or maybe it doesn't shift in shipping
I don't know but what I do know is that it sucks and it's a shame
That without pulling apart your entire machine and re pasting it you're paying for performance that you're not actually getting and that just seems wrong
Now you can make the argument and someone will Oh Quinn
Well, someone who's does video editing isn't going to buy the i3 Mac Mini
That's that's not who the machine is for and you're right
Kinda, but that argument falls apart once we start to talk about price this machine costs
$800 and if you haven't already
Take a look at the comments section below because there are PC boys that are shrieking that's a ripoff Mac suck
And do you know what if you're looking at the raw hardware price of all Mac's they're all overpriced compared to comparable pcs
but if you want Mac OS and those people exist, I know because I am one of them and by the way,
It's not just because we're idiots Mac's are just better at certain workloads than a PC and certainly vice-versa. Both platforms are good
Oh, and by the way, since when was it a crime to have a preference? Give me a break deep breaths
Some people want a Mac and to those people a PC isn't an option
Well, unless you're going to build a hackintosh, but that's a completely different subject. You don't fix the thermal paste, which look normal
People are not going to be doing the machine performs
Very similarly to the base model 2017 21 and a half inch iMac now that iMac doesn't have an SSD
It uses a one terabyte fusion drive which kind of sucks but the CPU
Despite being dual core actually performs similarly in Geekbench and sadly has slightly better
Editing performance when dealing with video thanks to just simply better cooling hardware
And you also get a nice keyboard and a mouse and a nice. I'll be at low resolution 1080p display
I kind of forgot that I was dassault at 1080p iMac
gross
Now the higher spec Mac Mini serves a different market as an iOS development machine a home server a data center computer
And so I don't want to mesh those models into this video
But if you're on a budget and you're looking to buy apples cheapest Mac, you should really consider your options
I mean look, I just found this open box
But otherwise new 2017 21 and a half inch iMac with a 4k screen for under
$1000 the 2018 Mac Mini is not a bad computer percent, although with the stock thermal paste
I'd argue that actually it is but even if you're daring enough to fix that it's just still
Mat, it's no longer the groundbreaking
$499 Mac Mini
We've always had
It's just hard to be a Mac fan right now because Mac Mini has fault the rest of Apple's lineup this year with a relatively
Uninspired met update but a gut-wrenching price increase it just it sucks
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