10-17-2014, 06:14 PM
This topic should probably be a sticky for our forum,.
This new mini form facrtor is exactly what we should have expected - except it's not as small as I would have thought Apple could produce.
The good - still plenty of ports, replacing FW with a second TB port is a bonus.
The bad - if you remove the ports, these really are just glorified Apple TVs that run Mac OS X instead of iOS. Yes, the Fusion Drive option has SSD AND a hard drive, but that's just a cost-saving thing on Apple's part. I'm sure they'd like to sell a solid state-only Mac mini if given a chance. The current Arm chip in the iPad Air 2 is approaching the computational power of the low-end Mac Mini.
I'm wondering why Apple isn't just making an NUC-style Mac mini with 3 storage configurations and just be done with it. You can add all of the extra ports via a TB hub. If you want a 'real' computer, get an iMac or Pro.
This new mini form facrtor is exactly what we should have expected - except it's not as small as I would have thought Apple could produce.
The good - still plenty of ports, replacing FW with a second TB port is a bonus.
The bad - if you remove the ports, these really are just glorified Apple TVs that run Mac OS X instead of iOS. Yes, the Fusion Drive option has SSD AND a hard drive, but that's just a cost-saving thing on Apple's part. I'm sure they'd like to sell a solid state-only Mac mini if given a chance. The current Arm chip in the iPad Air 2 is approaching the computational power of the low-end Mac Mini.
I'm wondering why Apple isn't just making an NUC-style Mac mini with 3 storage configurations and just be done with it. You can add all of the extra ports via a TB hub. If you want a 'real' computer, get an iMac or Pro.