Apple Mac mini (2018) - Unboxing & Review

The Mac Mini: A Powerful and Flexible Desktop Computer

McMahon's Mac Mini is the latest iteration of Apple's compact desktop computer, designed to provide users with a powerful and flexible computing solution at an affordable price. The device features a sleek new design, including an internal speaker that has been improved significantly since the last generation, offering surprisingly clear sound despite not being intended for long-term use.

The Mac Mini is available in two different chip options: i3 and i5/i7, which offer impressive performance capabilities, particularly when compared to previous models. The i5 and i7 variants boast high single-core scores and multi-core rankings among Apple's Mac products, making them suitable for demanding tasks such as video editing, 4K playback, and gaming. However, the integrated UHD 630 GPU from Intel is a significant limitation, resulting in relatively low graphics performance, with only around 35 frames per second in OpenGL and Unigine Valley benchmarks.

Fortunately, there is a way to overcome this limitation with an external GPU (eGPU). When paired with a compatible eGPU, such as the AMD Radeon Pro 580, the Mac Mini's performance skyrockets, achieving nearly 80 frames per second in Cinebench and 45 frames per second in Unigine Valley. This makes the Mac Mini a viable option for users who require high-performance graphics capabilities.

In terms of connectivity, the Mac Mini features multiple USB-C ports, which support a wide range of peripherals, including DVI, VGA, and Thunderbolt 3 devices. The device also boasts a more modern design language, with a darker Space Gray color scheme that matches other Apple products, such as the iMac Pro and iPad Pro.

One of the key benefits of the Mac Mini is its flexibility and compatibility with various monitors, keyboards, and mice. Unlike some other desktop computers, it does not require users to purchase specific accessories from Apple, making it an attractive option for those looking to save money on peripherals.

Historically, the Mac Mini has been used in a variety of roles, including as a home theater PC, an inexpensive way to add a Mac to an existing setup, and even as part of large server farms with thousands of Mac minis stacked together. The device's compact form factor has made it an ideal solution for these use cases.

In recent years, the Mac Mini has undergone significant changes in terms of its focus and design. Previously, it was marketed as an entry-level Mac designed to introduce users to the Apple ecosystem, but with the new Mecca iteration, it has become clear that this device is now geared towards more advanced users who require horsepower and performance.

The Mac Mini's specs are impressive, particularly when compared to previous models. Geekbench scores demonstrate significant improvements in single-core and multi-core performance, making it one of the most powerful desktop computers available from Apple.

Despite its capabilities, the Mac Mini still has one major weakness: graphics performance. The integrated GPU is not sufficient for demanding tasks such as 3D modeling or video editing, and even gaming is limited to relatively low frame rates.

However, with the introduction of Thunderbolt 3, users have found a way to overcome this limitation by attaching an external GPU. This has greatly improved the device's performance capabilities, making it a more viable option for users who require high-performance graphics capabilities.

In conclusion, the Mac Mini is a powerful and flexible desktop computer that offers impressive performance capabilities at an affordable price. While its limitations in terms of graphics performance must be considered, the addition of Thunderbolt 3 and external GPU support makes it an attractive option for users who require high-performance computing capabilities. With its compact design, compatibility with various peripherals, and flexibility in terms of usage, the Mac Mini is an excellent choice for those looking to upgrade their desktop computing experience.

The Mac Mini's design has undergone significant changes since its introduction, particularly in terms of its focus and target audience. Historically, it was marketed as an entry-level Mac designed to introduce users to the Apple ecosystem, but with the new Mecca iteration, it has become clear that this device is now geared towards more advanced users who require horsepower and performance.

In recent years, the Mac Mini has been used in a variety of roles, including as a home theater PC, an inexpensive way to add a Mac to an existing setup, and even as part of large server farms with thousands of Mac minis stacked together. The device's compact form factor has made it an ideal solution for these use cases.

Overall, the Mac Mini is a powerful and flexible desktop computer that offers impressive performance capabilities at an affordable price. With its compact design, compatibility with various peripherals, and flexibility in terms of usage, it is an excellent choice for those looking to upgrade their desktop computing experience.

The Mac Mini's performance has been significantly improved since its introduction, particularly in terms of single-core and multi-core rankings among Apple's Mac products. The i5 and i7 variants boast high scores in Geekbench benchmarks, making them suitable for demanding tasks such as video editing, 4K playback, and gaming.

However, the integrated GPU is still a significant limitation, resulting in relatively low graphics performance. The addition of Thunderbolt 3 and external GPU support has greatly improved the device's performance capabilities, making it more viable for users who require high-performance computing capabilities.

The Mac Mini's specs are impressive, particularly when compared to previous models. The device features a sleek new design, including an internal speaker that has been improved significantly since the last generation, offering surprisingly clear sound despite not being intended for long-term use.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enwhat's up guys Mike here the Detroit Borg with the all-new Mac Mini it's been four years since Apple touched the Mac Mini so I wasn't sure we would ever see an update but this is mostly new on the inside from the outside it pretty much looks the same with a new space great paint job but we get a ton of upgraded specs and features across the board so we finally get some quad core and six core eighth generation Intel CPUs we also get standard and faster PCIe SSD s alongside so-dimm ddr4 Ram clocked at two thousand six hundred and sixty-six megahertz we also get a ton of modern IO including four Thunderbolt three ports and an optional 10 Gigabit Ethernet port the base price has increased to $7.99 but again that gets you a standard 128 gig SSD eight gigs of DDR 4 RAM and a core i3 clocked at 3.6 gigahertz and again this is a quad core CPU replacing the dual cores from the previous Mac Mini but for $10.99 you can double the storage and get a 6 core Core i5 clocked at 3 gigahertz you can upgrade that further to a core i7 clocked at 3.2 gigahertz you can even upgrade the RAM to 64 gigs or add up to 2 terabytes of SSD storage the 10 Gigabit Ethernet port is another $100 option so if you really want to max out the price you can spend up to 40 $1.99 on the Mac Mini that's quite a price spread so the one I have here is the baseline configuration the cheapest one you can get so it's really curious to see how much Mac you can get for $7.99 there's only two accessories that come inside the box with the Mac Mini so of course we get some paperwork which highlights its ports and major features and indeed that's kind of hard to miss that display there depicting on the artwork that actually looks quite nice hopefully we'll actually see something like that from Apple the other accessory is a new black power cable previously this was white to match silver but once again the Mac Mini has a built-in power supply which has been redesigned for the new generation otherwise like all Mac minis you have to supply your own keyboard mouse and display the external dimensions of the Mac Mini haven't changed at all it's still 7.7 inches square and 1.4 inches tall the bottom plate is surrounded by intake air vents which you can't really see but that bottom plate also acts as a pedestal which keeps the Mac Mini raised off a surface so it can breathe on the top is a black inset Apple logo which is also Radio transparent so the can work through this shell speaking of antennas there's a lot of them in the Mac Mini and one of them has a new Bluetooth 5.0 antenna there are a few design tweaks from the previous generation so for example the infrared sensor has been eliminated with a new one and the LED light has been moved down unfortunately that's quite disappointing for people who use a Mac Mini in their home theater setup but that infrared sensor also dates back to an old piece of mac software called front row which has been long gone also if you look at the Mac Mini logo on the pedestal you'll see that the font has changed to San Francisco to match all the other Mac's the good news with this generation is that it's a little more user upgradeable although it's not that easy to get into it so for example we have standard sodimm ram which means you can remove it the only problem is you have to disassemble the entire computer to get to it previously the Rama's to be soldered to the motherboard and couldn't be changed out the biggest visual change really is along the backside and you can see just how much different the internal structure of the Mac Mini is just by looking at the vents so you can see a much larger exhaust vent on the new Mac Mini which is an important part of the new airflow design to keep those processors cool on the left side not much has changed here we have our power bunt next to our power connector along with our Ethernet port but this time we have a 10 Gigabit Ethernet option moving on we have four Thunderbolt three ports and two USB 3.0 type-a ports that replaces the tooth under Bowl two ports and four type-a ports we still have an HDMI 2.0 port with support for 4k we also have a headphone jack but we lose the audio input and more importantly the SD card reader what's kind of interesting is that the Mac Mini is the only other Mac desktop besides the iMac pro that offers 10 Gigabit Ethernet and four Thunderbolt three ports but presumably the next iMac and Mac Pro will also get this now those four Thunder both three ports open up a wide variety of accessories to the Mac Mini so that means the Mac Mini can support us PC monitors and can support a single 5k display or two 4k displays and with HDMI you can run another 4k display alongside those so that means you can have two or three displays running at once Thunderbolt 3 also gives you access to things like an external GPU which might be especially useful for the Mac Mini and we have data transfer speeds up to 40 gigs per second with the right adaptor these USB C ports will support basically anything from DVI to V ga2 thunderbolt ooh and much more Believe It or Not McMahon he also has an internal speaker and they've improved it quite a bit since the last generation it's quite a bit bigger than it was and the sound is surprisingly clear although it's still not something you probably want to listen to all the time the space crayon the Mac Mini is the same darker Space Gray on the iMac Pro as well as the iPad pro and if you want to go all Apple but you don't have to do you can buy these Space Gray accessories which also match the Mac Mini and that's important to keep in mind the Mac Mini can be paired to basically any monitor or keyboard and mouse you don't have to buy apples gear especially if you want to save some money historically the Mac Mini has been one of those flexible Macs it can be used in a number of ways it can be used as a home theater PC it can be used as an inexpensive way of adding a Mac to your existing setup without having to buy everything else there's even Mac Mini server farms with thousands of Mac minis stacked in racks so thankfully that form factor didn't change so the hyuna's slot these in in many ways the redesign of the Mac Mini has sort of changed the focus of this device previously it was really sort of the entry-level Mac that got you started in the Mac universe but those people are no longer looking for desktops and the people that are looking for desktops or more flexible uses for their Mac really need horsepower and that's what the new Mecca gives you in terms of performance if we take a look at our Geekbench scores you can see there's quite a wide spread between the three different chips I three i5 and i7 now these are really impressive numbers especially the i5 and the i7 the i7 is the second highest single core score among all of Apple's Mac products in terms of multi-core score the Mac Mini ranks six just between two Mac Pros so that's pretty amazing so technically that means you could get one of Apple's most powerful computers for only $12.99 as long as you don't add additional RAM or storage comparing this to the old Mac Mini you can see that the i3 still completely destroys the i5 and the i7 from 2014 now despite all of this CPU performance the Mac Mini has one big Achilles heel and that's graphics so the Mini only has an integrated UHD 630 GPU from Intel in terms of how that benchmarks in Cinebench I'm only getting about 35 frames per second in OpenGL and then Unigine valley it's basically a slideshow no matter what sitting you pics so at best you can do 10 frames per second at the lowest setting but the medium default settings gets me to about 6.6 frames per second either way this is not a gaming computer unfortunately this affects more than just gaming so for example any 3d accelerated apps that require the GPU for rendering such as video editing apps will be at a disadvantage on the Mac many now for my needs I actually found this Mac Mini more than adequate it's just a little slow in terms of rendering and background processing so it takes more time for those projects to export but generally speaking playback and editing and 4k is quite smooth so I can't really ask for better at this price point but thanks to Thunderbolt 3 there is a way around the graphics situation on the Mac Mini thanks to an external GPU so with my AMD Radeon pro 580 external GPU you can see my opengl score jumps from 35 to nearly 80 frames per second in cinnamon and in Unigine valley we go from a slideshow to about 45 frames per second on the default medium configuration and if you max it out it's about 35 to 40 frames per second so that's a huge improvement when it's under load the Mac Mini can run a little warm to the touch so about 110 degrees at maximum but the fan is relatively quiet even at full speed but when the Mac Mini is not under loeb it's completely silent in the end the Mac Mini is a pretty impressive piece of hardware it can be a number of things to different people it can be a cheap entry-level Mac Mini or it can be one of Apple's most powerful desktop computers in the end I'm just glad Apple has finally focused some attention on the Mac Mini because they've done such a great job hopefully we can get some better graphics in the next update alright guys let me enjoy this look at the Mac Mini if you did please let me know with the like and I'll see you again in my next videowhat's up guys Mike here the Detroit Borg with the all-new Mac Mini it's been four years since Apple touched the Mac Mini so I wasn't sure we would ever see an update but this is mostly new on the inside from the outside it pretty much looks the same with a new space great paint job but we get a ton of upgraded specs and features across the board so we finally get some quad core and six core eighth generation Intel CPUs we also get standard and faster PCIe SSD s alongside so-dimm ddr4 Ram clocked at two thousand six hundred and sixty-six megahertz we also get a ton of modern IO including four Thunderbolt three ports and an optional 10 Gigabit Ethernet port the base price has increased to $7.99 but again that gets you a standard 128 gig SSD eight gigs of DDR 4 RAM and a core i3 clocked at 3.6 gigahertz and again this is a quad core CPU replacing the dual cores from the previous Mac Mini but for $10.99 you can double the storage and get a 6 core Core i5 clocked at 3 gigahertz you can upgrade that further to a core i7 clocked at 3.2 gigahertz you can even upgrade the RAM to 64 gigs or add up to 2 terabytes of SSD storage the 10 Gigabit Ethernet port is another $100 option so if you really want to max out the price you can spend up to 40 $1.99 on the Mac Mini that's quite a price spread so the one I have here is the baseline configuration the cheapest one you can get so it's really curious to see how much Mac you can get for $7.99 there's only two accessories that come inside the box with the Mac Mini so of course we get some paperwork which highlights its ports and major features and indeed that's kind of hard to miss that display there depicting on the artwork that actually looks quite nice hopefully we'll actually see something like that from Apple the other accessory is a new black power cable previously this was white to match silver but once again the Mac Mini has a built-in power supply which has been redesigned for the new generation otherwise like all Mac minis you have to supply your own keyboard mouse and display the external dimensions of the Mac Mini haven't changed at all it's still 7.7 inches square and 1.4 inches tall the bottom plate is surrounded by intake air vents which you can't really see but that bottom plate also acts as a pedestal which keeps the Mac Mini raised off a surface so it can breathe on the top is a black inset Apple logo which is also Radio transparent so the can work through this shell speaking of antennas there's a lot of them in the Mac Mini and one of them has a new Bluetooth 5.0 antenna there are a few design tweaks from the previous generation so for example the infrared sensor has been eliminated with a new one and the LED light has been moved down unfortunately that's quite disappointing for people who use a Mac Mini in their home theater setup but that infrared sensor also dates back to an old piece of mac software called front row which has been long gone also if you look at the Mac Mini logo on the pedestal you'll see that the font has changed to San Francisco to match all the other Mac's the good news with this generation is that it's a little more user upgradeable although it's not that easy to get into it so for example we have standard sodimm ram which means you can remove it the only problem is you have to disassemble the entire computer to get to it previously the Rama's to be soldered to the motherboard and couldn't be changed out the biggest visual change really is along the backside and you can see just how much different the internal structure of the Mac Mini is just by looking at the vents so you can see a much larger exhaust vent on the new Mac Mini which is an important part of the new airflow design to keep those processors cool on the left side not much has changed here we have our power bunt next to our power connector along with our Ethernet port but this time we have a 10 Gigabit Ethernet option moving on we have four Thunderbolt three ports and two USB 3.0 type-a ports that replaces the tooth under Bowl two ports and four type-a ports we still have an HDMI 2.0 port with support for 4k we also have a headphone jack but we lose the audio input and more importantly the SD card reader what's kind of interesting is that the Mac Mini is the only other Mac desktop besides the iMac pro that offers 10 Gigabit Ethernet and four Thunderbolt three ports but presumably the next iMac and Mac Pro will also get this now those four Thunder both three ports open up a wide variety of accessories to the Mac Mini so that means the Mac Mini can support us PC monitors and can support a single 5k display or two 4k displays and with HDMI you can run another 4k display alongside those so that means you can have two or three displays running at once Thunderbolt 3 also gives you access to things like an external GPU which might be especially useful for the Mac Mini and we have data transfer speeds up to 40 gigs per second with the right adaptor these USB C ports will support basically anything from DVI to V ga2 thunderbolt ooh and much more Believe It or Not McMahon he also has an internal speaker and they've improved it quite a bit since the last generation it's quite a bit bigger than it was and the sound is surprisingly clear although it's still not something you probably want to listen to all the time the space crayon the Mac Mini is the same darker Space Gray on the iMac Pro as well as the iPad pro and if you want to go all Apple but you don't have to do you can buy these Space Gray accessories which also match the Mac Mini and that's important to keep in mind the Mac Mini can be paired to basically any monitor or keyboard and mouse you don't have to buy apples gear especially if you want to save some money historically the Mac Mini has been one of those flexible Macs it can be used in a number of ways it can be used as a home theater PC it can be used as an inexpensive way of adding a Mac to your existing setup without having to buy everything else there's even Mac Mini server farms with thousands of Mac minis stacked in racks so thankfully that form factor didn't change so the hyuna's slot these in in many ways the redesign of the Mac Mini has sort of changed the focus of this device previously it was really sort of the entry-level Mac that got you started in the Mac universe but those people are no longer looking for desktops and the people that are looking for desktops or more flexible uses for their Mac really need horsepower and that's what the new Mecca gives you in terms of performance if we take a look at our Geekbench scores you can see there's quite a wide spread between the three different chips I three i5 and i7 now these are really impressive numbers especially the i5 and the i7 the i7 is the second highest single core score among all of Apple's Mac products in terms of multi-core score the Mac Mini ranks six just between two Mac Pros so that's pretty amazing so technically that means you could get one of Apple's most powerful computers for only $12.99 as long as you don't add additional RAM or storage comparing this to the old Mac Mini you can see that the i3 still completely destroys the i5 and the i7 from 2014 now despite all of this CPU performance the Mac Mini has one big Achilles heel and that's graphics so the Mini only has an integrated UHD 630 GPU from Intel in terms of how that benchmarks in Cinebench I'm only getting about 35 frames per second in OpenGL and then Unigine valley it's basically a slideshow no matter what sitting you pics so at best you can do 10 frames per second at the lowest setting but the medium default settings gets me to about 6.6 frames per second either way this is not a gaming computer unfortunately this affects more than just gaming so for example any 3d accelerated apps that require the GPU for rendering such as video editing apps will be at a disadvantage on the Mac many now for my needs I actually found this Mac Mini more than adequate it's just a little slow in terms of rendering and background processing so it takes more time for those projects to export but generally speaking playback and editing and 4k is quite smooth so I can't really ask for better at this price point but thanks to Thunderbolt 3 there is a way around the graphics situation on the Mac Mini thanks to an external GPU so with my AMD Radeon pro 580 external GPU you can see my opengl score jumps from 35 to nearly 80 frames per second in cinnamon and in Unigine valley we go from a slideshow to about 45 frames per second on the default medium configuration and if you max it out it's about 35 to 40 frames per second so that's a huge improvement when it's under load the Mac Mini can run a little warm to the touch so about 110 degrees at maximum but the fan is relatively quiet even at full speed but when the Mac Mini is not under loeb it's completely silent in the end the Mac Mini is a pretty impressive piece of hardware it can be a number of things to different people it can be a cheap entry-level Mac Mini or it can be one of Apple's most powerful desktop computers in the end I'm just glad Apple has finally focused some attention on the Mac Mini because they've done such a great job hopefully we can get some better graphics in the next update alright guys let me enjoy this look at the Mac Mini if you did please let me know with the like and I'll see you again in my next video\n"

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