A quick comment. If people really think they will compromise Pro territory with the Mini, dream on. Apple quite simply recognise the popularity of the NUC and have chosen to price their slowest model in NUC territory. In Dollars at least. One thing we in Europe and the U.K. know is that translation to the Euro and Sterling will bring additional costs and taxation that will push the price way over any figure quoted for the US market. So perhaps when we have product on the shelf we can make real world comparisons because no one is wrong here.
It has been with local pricing from day one in all (or at least most) the markets where it will be available. Just check Apple.com and choose your country. And yes it’s more expensive than in the US (where, if I understand correctly you also pay additional tax in some states).
And it’s alwas tiering having the same old posts anytime Apple is mentioned. As if this is not common knowledge? Sometimes I’d wish people would stop and ask themselves “do I contribute to the discussion now?”.
Actually, the Mac Mini launched the entire NUC movement way back in 2005, much like the MacBook Air launched the entire Ultrabook segment. Before the Mini, the smallest PC were mainly mini-ATX machines.
I could have sworn I was using small form factor machines well before then! I still have two that I am way more attached to than any of my modern machines.
https://goo.gl/images/qxxBfg
I don’t personally see any Apple bashing in this topic. I started the topic to get advice. If someone offers advice that you disagree with, that is hardly bashing. Disagreement comes with the territory in OS discussions since we each have different priorities.
BTW, I am a happy Mac/iOS user. I’ve owned at least ten models of Mac in the last 30 years. I worked for Apple briefly and made my living writing Apple software for many years. So, it is safe to say that I’m very biased in favor of the Mac.
That said, when I looked at the cost, building a NUC made more sense to me than buying a Mac Mini. I have no regrets about that decision, though the new Mac Minis are clearly very nice machines. A lot of the spec of the newest NUCs and Mac Minis is overkill for ROCK, if that is all you are running.
Also, my 2011 Mac Mini’s fan was much louder than my 2018 NUC. Perhaps it was quieter when it was new, I can’t recall.
Smaller than desktop towers but hardly NUC/Mini sized.
The board inside isn’t particularly big, it was a noble effort for those old hot Pentium 2’s.
I also think the new Mac Mini is overkill for most things Roon. My slightly modified Mac Mini from 2011 is as quiet as always (surprisingly so) but I have opened it to remove dust maybe 3 times — while doing other modifications as well.
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