Any word on the when's and what's of the next Mac Mini refresh?

[JaySeeDoubleYou]

Hey guys!

I have a Mac Mini in my house that is less than a month old. And yet, when you click "About this Mac", it says Mid 2014 (it might be Late 2014, I can't remember). I'm not worried that I got ripped off with old stock, especially considering that it came straight from Apple. Instead, I really believe that it has been that long since the Mini line got an update. I can't remember whether this line has the Haswell or the Broadwell chips, only that it was a more lowly regarded generation, aince which there have been several new lines, all more highly regarded as far as I know.

Anyway, I'm in for penny, in for pound on my current Mac, and don't plan on replacing it, barring catastrophe for the next 3-5 years. But I'd still like to stay in the know, you know?

So, anyone have any updates? Any tantalizing scraps from the rumor mill floor for me?

Thanks!

 

[robertk328]

Nobody knows for sure -- there's SOME talk that there could be an update/refresh in June at WWDC but nobody knows. Seems the life cycle of the Mini is a bit longer than some of the others out there. I'm still using my 2011, with upgraded RAM (went from 8gb to 16gb) and a 256gb SSD replacing the spinning drive. Great machine, IMO. Did you get the SSD or at least the Fusion Drive option?

 

[JaySeeDoubleYou]

Ah, okay! Thanks! Yeah, I know the refresh cycle is longer on these. I think they're a bit lower priority for them - which is fine, because they are great little machines. Still, I'll be very interested to see what happens in June. That'd be just my luck that as soon as I buy one they do a huge beneficial refresh.

To the question about SSD or Fusion: Yeah, if I had just settled with the Fusion drive, I could've had instant gratification on tax return day, walked in to the store and said "gimme". But I had to have the SSD, so I had to wait a little.

It was worth it though, this thing seems soooo fast to me after that old MacBook, and I know the SSD has a lot to do with that. I have two 4TB external USB 3.0 drives hooked up. One for storage, and one for time machine. I'll eventually either buy a bigger drive for Time Machine (likely) or a smaller drive for the data (unlikely), and give the freed up 4TB to my XBoxOne either way.

The only thing about it I don't like is it's only dual-core. I've been tempted to Boot Camp Windows 10 on it, but having to power down to switch between would probably result in one or the other OS falling into relative neglect, and what I'd much rather do is use Parallels to virtualize the Windows Boot Camp install and run them simultaneously. But with only two cores, it would not run very well. So I wish it were Quad.

 

[robertk328]

Your system is a lot like mine, with the SSD and two external (one for Time Machine, one for storage), only newer I'm happy to keep buying Minis, just hoping they at least allow us to make modifications as necessary to get some extra life out of them. I don't see that coming back, unfortunately. I was all set to buy a new one until I upgraded the RAM and put in the SSD -- they'd rather I buy again!

 

[JaySeeDoubleYou]

Yeah, I wish they'd at least let us upgrade memory and/or storage.

 

[robertk328]

Yeah, I wish they'd at least let us upgrade memory and/or storage.

I don't think any of these should be locked down. If you're out of warranty and want to upgrade you should be able to.

 

[JaySeeDoubleYou]

No, I agree with that too. It is both one of the best - and one of the worst things about the world of Apple (said as one who is obviously an Apple fan, but also as one who is definitely not an Apple exclusivist) how tight and insular, and locked down the ecosystem is. This just happens to be one of the "rears its ugly head" iterations of an increasingly intensely applied philosophy.

 

[robertk328]

I still won't buy anything else. Just means I'll have to buy the best I can afford (and need) up front with the knowledge that's all I can get.