Heads Up! 2018 Mac Mini "Pro" = More Money!

[wgscott]

25 minutes ago, gmgraves said:

I think that this move was inevitable. After all, what is a Mini (circuit-wise) if not a headless iMac? And we all know that Apple introduced the iMac Pros last year with either an 8, 10, 14, or 18 core Xeon "W" running at over 4 GHz. I would never buy an iMac because I think an all-in-one, while an attractive package, has the some of the same problems as does an audio receiver. If one part goes up-the-pipe, you've lost the whole system. It is has recently been brought to my attention the importance of a separate display as my 2009 vintage HNC 25" monitor died recently. These things simply do not last forever. The $5000 starting price of the iMac Pro makes my skepticism of the all-in-one "integrated" concept even more acute. With the iMac Pros starting at five-grand, expect the "Mini Pro" to start at at least $3.5 K and going north from there. 

 

At least you can take a receiver apart with a screwdriver, instead of a pizza cutter, a bunch of suction cups, a guitar pick and then you have to glue the whole mess back together, just to replace a hard drive and failing power supply.  (Yes, I am bitter about this.)

[wgscott]

40 minutes ago, gmgraves said:

Well yes. for that small portion of the population who is qualified to do their own troubleshooting and repair, the fact that Minis, in general, are very difficult to disassemble is off-putting in the extreme. When my mini died, several year ago, I thought it was the power supply, so I watched an online video showing how to disassemble one. One look at that and I got cold feet and took the thing to the Apple store. Let them fix it. Turned out it was a good thing that I didn't order a new power supply on E-bay like I started to do because my "diagnosis" was wrong. It was not the power supply, but the Mboard that was bad. Apple charged me almost $600 to fix it! The price Apple charges for parts is what made me somewhat bitter. It's outrageous. I could have come very close to buying a new, faster Mini for that much money. But my whole life was on that computer so I grudgingly paid it. I suspect that one would have to be  a Swiss watchmaker to take one those puppies apart and reassemble it successfully!

 

I've done it with the minis.  The newer iMacs (2012 and newer) are a whole different world of hurt.

[wgscott]

24 minutes ago, gmgraves said:

My Mini is circa 2012, and it has room (I've read) for two 2.5" drives. I wanted to put a pair of 1TB SSDs in the thing, but ended-up putting the second disc in an external USB housing due to the difficulty of taking a Mini apart. (just watch the video on OWC's web site (www.macsales.com) It will dissuade the most intrepid of DIY'ers from attempting to take the thing apart! 

 

It is actually not all that bad.  I have two internal SSDs in mine (a 2012 mini), and a third in an external drive.