Any ideas on 2014 mini?

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Stupid_Newbie

Gawd
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Well, I ordered and received most of my automation parts. And I'll run a work log on automating my home for you guys here. However the automation IOS software I am going to run for iPad (in wall) and iPhone control of house is somewhat limited. (no worse then OEM offering). However they have a Mac app that adds a rediculas amount of features. So I'd like to get a mini, and run Haikuhelper, and iTunes on it (for ATV, and russound WHA).

Any ideas when we might see a 2014 mini? I can't find apples next press conference, aside from quarter 4 earnings. I don't need much power for what I will be doing with it, but I also don't see myself buying less that latest, and greatest offerings. As this will be a long term investment, and needs may change.
 
Stupid_Newbie said:
Well, I ordered and received most of my automation parts. And I'll run a work log on automating my home for you guys here. However the automation IOS software I am going to run for iPad (in wall) and iPhone control of house is somewhat limited. (no worse then OEM offering). However they have a Mac app that adds a rediculas amount of features. So I'd like to get a mini, and run Haikuhelper, and iTunes on it (for ATV, and russound WHA).

Any ideas when we might see a 2014 mini? I can't find apples next press conference, aside from quarter 4 earnings. I don't need much power for what I will be doing with it, but I also don't see myself buying less that latest, and greatest offerings. As this will be a long term investment, and needs may change.
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Yes.
 
I've been keeping watch here and here. My 2006 Mac Mini is painfully old and I don't want to get the current version a week before the new one is announced.

Apple has been completely and utterly silent on when or if there will be a new Mac Mini. Every now and then there's a panic when someone who thinks they are an insider notices that Mac Mini inventory in their country has dropped to zero, but that is turning out to be just sellers doing their year-end inventory. Guesses by outsiders are now anywhere between February and June for the next Mac Mini.

Some are even suggesting that Apple is skipping Haswell for Mac Minis and waiting for Broadwell, which could account for the unusually long silent wait since Broadwell got pushed back from late 2013 to anywhere from 1Q to 4Q 2014.
 
evilsofa said:
Also, while there are an infinite number of photoshops of round puck-like Mac Minis made to look like the new Mac Pro, I don't believe that will happen, because one of the most popular uses of Mac Minis is server farms, where they are fit into racks by the dozens:
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I have been thinking that if there is a Mac Mini redesign, then it will certainly be going smaller and likely SSD only, probably mSata card.

It won't matter if it is round, they could fit even more in a server rack because it will be significantly smaller.

Apple is really pushing to get rid of spinning media, so I expect it is only a matter of when, not if they will change to a smaller, SSD only mini.

You may claim that poeple are using them for servers with the 1TB drives, but seriously when has Apple really cared about what people are using them for, when they decide to make a change.
 
Snowdog said:
I have been thinking that if there is a Mac Mini redesign, then it will certainly be going smaller and likely SSD only, probably mSata card.
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The Mini is already pretty tiny. It's 8 x 8 inches, and it's tough to get much smaller than that with even laptop components. mSATA drives would help to an extent, but that isn't Apple's style; they're already implementing PCI Express interfaces for SSDs, while the PC side is still waiting on freaking SATA Express.

IMO, the real barrier to making the Mini smaller is the power supply. It used to be external, and it's internal on the aluminum Minis. The PSU will have to come out. Apple will also have to rearrange the location of some connectors, or remove some entirely, to shrink surface space once the PSU is out.

Honestly, I don't see how the Mini can get too much smaller. We should be looking for improved components; Haswell and Iris Pro, AC WiFi, and Thunderbolt 2. Though if Apple waits too much longer, they might as well just delay the refresh until Broadwell is ready.
 
Terpfen said:
The Mini is already pretty tiny. It's 8 x 8 inches, and it's tough to get much smaller than that with even laptop components. mSATA drives would help to an extent, but that isn't Apple's style;
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It isn't Apples style to choose small size ahead of performance?

As for size: Mini vs NUC:

Intel-NUC-003.jpg
 
Snowdog said:
It isn't Apples style to choose small size ahead of performance?
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It's Apple's style to improve performance while reducing weight and size, yes. Notice that the current aluminum Mac Mini is smaller and faster than the previous white plastic model.

Are you actually comparing a Mini with a NUC? Did you really do that?
 
The current mini can fit two 2.5" drives. The NUC cannot even fit a single 2.5" drive.

Awful comparison, really.
 
Terpfen said:
It's Apple's style to improve performance while reducing weight and size, yes. Notice that the current aluminum Mac Mini is smaller and faster than the previous white plastic model.
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Wouldn't mSata SSD be faster/smaller than 2.5" inch drives in the Mini?

Are you actually comparing a Mini with a NUC? Did you really do that?
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I was talking about how much smaller it could get if they ditched 2.5" drives for mSata SSD, so it seems reasonable to show a computer that does that.

I think a Mini with SSD that could fit in my coat pocket would be quite neat.
 
Samsung, one of Apple's best frenemies, is doing interesting things like introducing a 1TB mSATA drive later this year. Another thing that Apple could be waiting for.
 
Snowdog said:
Wouldn't mSata SSD be faster/smaller than 2.5" inch drives in the Mini?
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It would also be slower than the PCI Express SSDs Apple is using the Air and Pro. Apple is skipping mSATA entirely—so far, at least.

I was talking about how much smaller it could get if they ditched 2.5" drives for mSata SSD, so it seems reasonable to show a computer that does that.
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I explained that there are several limiting factors that must be solved before storage media becomes a barrier to a smaller product. Do you know what the inside of a Mini looks like and how it's arranged?

I think a Mini with SSD that could fit in my coat pocket would be quite neat.
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Literally no one wants this.
 
At a certain point, it needs surface area to dissipate heat. Id guess that's why its AL. Im just hoping for as low as possible idle W. As really its not going to be taxed
 
PCunicorn said:
They can fit a i3 in a NUC and make it fit in your coat pocket, why not a Mac Mini?
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Because they're using i5 and i7 chips in them (edit: the Mac Minis). They're beastly little things if all you want is a relatively large amount of CPU power in a relatively small box. Hence their popularity for server farms. Edit: Probably too much heat and power for the NUC size, unless Broadwell improves on both that much.
 
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evilsofa said:
Because they're using i5 and i7 chips in them (edit: the Mac Minis). They're beastly little things if all you want is a relatively large amount of CPU power in a relatively small box. Hence their popularity for server farms. Edit: Probably too much heat and power for the NUC size, unless Broadwell improves on both that much.
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NUC comes in i5 as well.
 
wonderfield said:
You need quite a coat pocket to be able to fit a NUC in it. The smallest is 1.36" thick.
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I don't have a NUC handy, but I have one of these:

wdsfWDTV_Play.jpg


Yes, NUC is a little bigger, but there is tons of extra room to put this in in just about any jacket pocket, heck it even fits some pants pockets. A NUC would fit in my jacket pockets.

What direction do you think a future Mini redesign is going to take?

It isn't going to keep the same form factor forever. It is probably 50:50 on the next Mini just keeping the same case and getting a Processor bump.

But at some point there will be a form factor redesign(I expect within the next 2 years). When that happens, going SSD only and smaller seems like the direction Apple is extremely likely to go. Perhaps not as small as NUC, perhaps smaller. Apple are wizards of packaging electronics.
 
rflcptr said:
who honestly cares whether a desktop system fits in a pocket?
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Agreed. It's a pretty pointless metric.

On topic, Mac Rumors shows it's been 446 days since a release on the Mini as of today.
http://buyersguide.macrumors.com
It's pretty likely that they'll release something soon. Probably in Spring. As for what's inside, I don't have any real thoughts.
I'm guessing possibly fusion drive, updated graphics, and a newer processor. Anything else past that would surprise me.
 
Snowdog said:
What direction do you think a future Mini redesign is going to take?
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If the Mac Pro has shown anything, it's that Apple can be completely unpredictable when it comes to industrial design. It's almost impossible to speculate.

My guess is that they're going to work on minimizing height more so than any other dimension. Dimensionally, that's what really gives the impression of compactness, and that's also what makes the most sense for the desktop. It's also the most sensible direction from an internal layout perspective.
 
I'm really interested to see what they come up with as well, and I believe it is safe to say that they will shrink the current dimensions in the new model.

By how much is anyone's guess. But Apple has two things going for them that most of their competitors do not have: the ability to fully customize every component and the ability and apparent willingness to disregard upgradability. I wouldn't be surprised to an SSD similar to those found in the current MBPs in the new mini. You may even see a split between the server model and the consumer model in this regard so who knows.

In any case, I'm still waiting for an updated Thunderbolt Display... hell the thing still ships with the old MagSafe connector. So my hopes for an updated Mac Mini anytime soon aren't all that high currently.
 
Here's a thought: why not a Mac mini that looks like a cut-down Mac Pro?

It might be taller than the current mini, but it could easily be very compact. I'm not sure if Apple would go SSD in that case, and a cylindrical design would make it difficult to rackmount the system. However, it would be consistent with the Mac Pro's design language, and it would give Apple breathing room for a higher-performance processor than the current mini allows.
 
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The cylindrical design is a bit more purposeful in the Mac Pro's case, because the 'thermal core' can encompass dissipation duties for the logic boards and the graphics cards. For the mini and its historically on-board or integrated GPUs, a thermal core doesn't make sense, and a cylinder thus makes no real sense.

It doesn't need to make sense, but there's always some cause in the way Apple designs things. For the mini to be cylindrical, there needs to be some sort of purpose for it to be, and I can't really think what that would be.
 
It's all just speculation at this point. Heck, look what they did with the Apple TV. The first gen was similar in size to a mini, the new ones are positively tiny. I realize they are two different animals, but at this point we are all just taking shots in the dark as to when/if/what they will do.
 
wonderfield said:
The cylindrical design is a bit more purposeful in the Mac Pro's case, because the 'thermal core' can encompass dissipation duties for the logic boards and the graphics cards. For the mini and its historically on-board or integrated GPUs, a thermal core doesn't make sense, and a cylinder thus makes no real sense.

It doesn't need to make sense, but there's always some cause in the way Apple designs things. For the mini to be cylindrical, there needs to be some sort of purpose for it to be, and I can't really think what that would be.
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If Apple did go this route, it could theoretically make room for a dedicated GPU (if needed), more RAM or more storage. It's a chance to turn the Mac mini from a begrudging "fine, here's a cheap desktop Mac" option to something that gets a little more TLC and appeals to a wider audience. That said, I'll admit my idea is borne out of Apple's tendency to use common design languages more than anything else. I just hope there's a big update, full stop!
 
The new Airport Extreme and Time Capsule use a vertical "thermal core" as well, albeit a far, far less complex version. I guess we'll know the truth soon enough, but a "thermal core" mini doesn't seem out of place to me.
 
Aurelius said:
If Apple did go this route, it could theoretically make room for a dedicated GPU (if needed), more RAM or more storage. It's a chance to turn the Mac mini from a begrudging "fine, here's a cheap desktop Mac" option to something that gets a little more TLC and appeals to a wider audience. That said, I'll admit my idea is borne out of Apple's tendency to use common design languages more than anything else. I just hope there's a big update, full stop!
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I really don't see it. That is almost an xMac that has been a wanted product for over a decade. Apples moves ever smaller/lower power on everything, so I don't see Apple making a bigger mini.
 
Aurelius said:
It's a chance to turn the Mac mini from a begrudging "fine, here's a cheap desktop Mac" option to something that gets a little more TLC and appeals to a wider audience.
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The Mini is not what you describe. You don't maintain a product line for 9 years because you begrudge its existence, to start.
 
I wouldn't be surprised if the changes were architectural rather than cosmetic (although the two are necessarily unrelated).

It's not out of the realm of possibility that Apple start leveraging it's ARM processors in the mac mini. Now with the A8 64bit chip we could see some incredibly small footprint desktops (in terms of energy consumption, which is where Apple is really pushing their technology it seems).
 
what do you mean by "doesn't even compete?"

Apple certainly doesn't put everything into a specification check-off list next to their products as if they mean anything in rear world usage.

the macbook air haswell "lowly" 2ghz processor "doesn't even compete" with my desktop ivy bridge but blows it away in read/write speed (and I'd rather have that than my i5-3750k in a mobile platform under any circumstances). it doesn't even look like an upgrade compared to the 2011 macbook airs just by reading the ticks on the press release box.
 
They'd have to merge osx with ios for that to work. They already have an arm box its the apple tv that's very capable of running apps they just haven't enabled it to do so. The mini is already small and I don't see them going with a cylinder design just for shits and giggles. The hardware refresh is rumored for late February.
 
I just don't get how Gigabyte is already shipping the Brix Pro with a i7-4770R and we still haven't heard anything in regards to a refresh from Apple. Offer the mini with the i5-4570R and one that's $200 more with an i7-4770R and you're done. You have a mini that's on par with a MBR.
 
^^ I don't get that NUC obsession with external power supplies. I used to put up with them when I was building SFF systems, since I got my Mac Mini, however, I just like full integration better.
 
evilsofa said:
Every now and then there's a panic when someone who thinks they are an insider notices that Mac Mini inventory in their country has dropped to zero, but that is turning out to be just sellers doing their year-end inventory.
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In this case it's a Belgian retailer. Who might be just regurgitating macrumors' rumors back at them. I'd love to get a Haswell Mac Mini in February, but I've been disappointed too many times to believe anything but an announcement from Apple.
 
mope54 said:
It's not out of the realm of possibility that Apple start leveraging it's ARM processors in the mac mini.
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I think it is pretty much is out of the realm of realistic possibility.

It would be a massive step backwards in processing power, as well as not running any current OSX software.

They could get a similar power/price envelope by using a new generation Intel Atom processor, and maintain compatibility with current OSX software.
 
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