So there's a new Mini, but I didn't see any mention about...

[rjmacs]

Lux Interior wrote:
[quote=deckeda]

Option B is to embrace one of the laptops and call it a day.

Don't discount option H (ackintosh)
Well, until there's hackintoshability for Yosemite, those plans are on hold....

[C(-)ris]

decay wrote:
I only see this serving Apple, not its providers (us) or customers.

A significantly lower failure rate would be serving the customer.

I had a school that had over 1000 early unibody laptops that transitioned to MacBook Airs. Their failure rate with the Airs is less than 40 per year including accidental damage. They haven't had any identifiable ram issues with the Air. They had well over 2000 repairs on the old machines, some of them were ram related. Between bad sticks, or bad slots I would guess 100 repairs total over the 3 years. I've followed up with other schools and all of them have encountered similar decreases in failure rates with the more integrated models. The blade SSDs and the soldered ram are far more reliable than tradition drives and sticks.

With the way that Macs hold their resale value it isn't a big deal to sell the machine in 2 or 3 years if you need more ram. There are always going to be people who just need a machine for light use that are fine with a 4GB machine. My home machine is a MacBook Air with 4GB of ram. Runs 10.10 great, only reason I might want more ram is if I was running a VM. Otherwise, for general laptop use, 4GB is plenty.

[rgG]

C(-)ris wrote:
[quote=decay]
I only see this serving Apple, not its providers (us) or customers.

A significantly lower failure rate would be serving the customer.

I had a school that had over 1000 early unibody laptops that transitioned to MacBook Airs. Their failure rate with the Airs is less than 40 per year including accidental damage. They haven't had any identifiable ram issues with the Air. They had well over 2000 repairs on the old machines, some of them were ram related. Between bad sticks, or bad slots I would guess 100 repairs total over the 3 years. I've followed up with other schools and all of them have encountered similar decreases in failure rates with the more integrated models. The blade SSDs and the soldered ram are far more reliable than tradition drives and sticks.

With the way that Macs hold their resale value it isn't a big deal to sell the machine in 2 or 3 years if you need more ram. There are always going to be people who just need a machine for light use that are fine with a 4GB machine. My home machine is a MacBook Air with 4GB of ram. Runs 10.10 great, only reason I might want more ram is if I was running a VM. Otherwise, for general laptop use, 4GB is plenty.
I am not happy that Apple is making it so that you can't add RAM later, but let me tell you, after trouble shooting a MBP with an intermittent bad RAM slot, it was a nightmare. With two slots and all the permutations of which slot is it, or which stick is it, it was awful. Also the fact that it would sometimes work and not others, made it lots of fun for everyone trying to figure out what was wrong. It seemed to be that the RAM would just work its way loose, after a certain period, so I guess the slot was just slightly out of spec, or something. Fix was to get one bigger stick of RAM and only use the good slot, after we figured out which slot it was.

If each new OS didn't seem to require more RAM, then picking your RAM needs at the outset would be a lot easier. It does seem that the last couple of OS updates having needed any more RAM to work well, but maybe I am wrong about that. If Apple could address that issue, then making your RAM decision at purchase would be a lot easier.

[GuyGene]

My old fashioned long time Mac user says I want replaceable RAM, drive, etc. But, when I look at Apple Store Mac mini, my current self says - BUY, BUY, it'll be good. With education discount, middle model, 16 GB RAM, DVI cable, it comes to $888, a good round number.

Oh, one other thing - wha' y'all think about only i5 processors now? No Mac mini with i7 now, eh? Wait, yes there is, but it only shows as an upgrade. Seems none of the regular Mac mini on main page shows i7.

[C(-)ris]

rgG wrote:
If each new OS didn't seem to require more RAM, then picking your RAM needs at the outset would be a lot easier. It does seem that the last couple of OS updates having needed any more RAM to work well, but maybe I am wrong about that. If Apple could address that issue, then making your RAM decision at purchase would be a lot easier.

That hasn't been true for a while. 10.7, 10.8, 10.9, and 10.10 have all had the same system requirements for ram. 2GB minumum and 4GB recomended. Since 4GB is the minimum for soldered on ram for the last 3 years I think we are good from that standpoint. I would expect you to be able to stay current for at least 3 years on the bottom end machines if not longer.

[decay]

I just replaced TWO sticks of bad RAM in a 21.5in iMac under AppleCare warranty. I cannot remember ever replacing two bad modules at a time.

I have definitely replaced more failed logic boards than failed RAM in the decade + I have been doing this.

[rgG]

C(-)ris wrote:
[quote=rgG]
If each new OS didn't seem to require more RAM, then picking your RAM needs at the outset would be a lot easier. It does seem that the last couple of OS updates having needed any more RAM to work well, but maybe I am wrong about that. If Apple could address that issue, then making your RAM decision at purchase would be a lot easier.

That hasn't been true for a while. 10.7, 10.8, 10.9, and 10.10 have all had the same system requirements for ram. 2GB minumum and 4GB recomended. Since 4GB is the minimum for soldered on ram for the last 3 years I think we are good from that standpoint. I would expect you to be able to stay current for at least 3 years on the bottom end machines if not longer.
I thought they might have made the RAM needs more standard now, but couldn't remember exactly. That is great, and if they hold with that, I can see the advantages of the soldered RAM. Like I said, getting that RAM slot problem figured out was really, really awful.

[decay]

Macbook Pro Retinas and iMacs all ship with 8 GB minimum.

non-Retina MBP ships with 4 GB.
MBA ships with 4 GB.

There must be a reason some ship with 8 GB minimum. Maybe the systems run much better with 8 GB? That seems to be the general consensus here on the forum.

[sekker]

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.

[decay]

An Apple TV can't really run OSX Server, though.