Introduced at the end of October 2018 Mac mini became both more powerful and more expensive - so that it has every right to be called a competitor of the "apple" all-in-one computer-all-in-one iMac. So which one is the best?

Mac mini 2018 and iMac 2017 design

Both the iMac and Mac mini are made of aluminum; both are also designed for desktop use. This is where the similarities end - after all, their form factors are absolutely different from each other.

The dimensions of the Mac mini (19.7 cm on the sides, 3.6 cm in height) are more like a set-top box for cable TV.

Ideal if desk space is limited. The main thing is to find where to put the external monitor, mouse and keyboard (they are offered to be bought separately).

The package for Mac mini 2018 includes only the system unit itself and a network cable:

The iMac is a completely different story. This is an "all-in-one" solution (the system unit is located in the monitor), and from the very beginning there is a monitor - 21.5 or 27 inches with Full HD, 4K or 5K - and a Magic Keyboard, and Magic mouse Mouse 2.

A number of professionals will, of course, choose the iMac because of its display and all-in-one form factor. But Mac mini benefits from the fact that it can be easily connected to existing "peripherals".

Mac mini 2018 and iMac 2017 performance

Apple has clearly changed the positioning of the Mac mini - now it is not an "entry ticket" to the world of "Apple" devices, but a compact computer with a claim to be the best solution for everyday tasks.

Yes, the basic version of the new "mini", as they say, is not impressive - for 69 thousand rubles you will be offered only a 4-core i3 3.6 GHz processor (do you remember the last time a Mac was used with such a modest CPU ?!), 8 GB RAM and 128 GB PCIe-based SSD (very fast, but not enough space). But the "advanced" version for 94 thousand rubles already offers a 6-core i5 with 3.0 GHz, 8 GB RAM and 256 GB SSD.

The screenshots below show the performance gains over the previous generation Mac mini.

In Russia, there is no new "mini" yet, and it is unclear what options can (and can be ordered at all). In the US, for an additional fee, Apple offers and Intel Core i7, and up to 64GB RAM, and up to 2TB SSD. And the cost of all this, of course, will already be decent - for example, Mac mini Late 2018 with Core i7, 16 GB RAM and 512 GB SSD will cost $ 1,699.

Another thing is that the modularity of Mac mini requires you to "upgrade" only the processor from i3 to i7 in the basic version (you cannot replace it), and this costs only $ 300. RAM Mac mini now again, like in 2012 models, can be easily upgraded by yourself, and the SSD can be connected external (via any of the four Thunderbolt 3 ports).

The only Achilles' heel of the new Mac mini is its graphics. As before, you still cannot put a discrete graphics card into a minicard from the factory - there is only a modest Intel UHD Graphics 630, even if it is "up to 60% faster" than before. On the other hand, now it is not difficult to connect an external video card to Mac mini - for this, again, there is any of the four Thunderbolt 3.

The iMac is still only offered with 7th Gen Intel processors and a much slower 1TB SSD on SATA.

The screenshots below show the performance gain over the previous generation iMac.

Mac mini 2018 and iMac 2017 ports

The 2018 Mac mini has a more modern set of ports - 4 USB-C / Thunderbolt 3, 2 “regular” USB 3.0, 1 HDMI (enhanced version 2.0), as well as Ethernet and 3.5mm headphone jacks.

In the case of USB ports, the iMac is the opposite - 4 USB 3.0, 2 USB-C, Ethernet and a memory card slot.

Who is cooler? We understand Apple's course towards USB-C, but ... even today, 3 years after the Mac transition to USB-C began, it is more pleasant to have 4 "regular" ports, not 4 "new" ones. And professionals who work a lot with photos and videos, all other things being equal, will certainly choose the device with an SDXC slot.

Question: Q:

Question: Q: Have replaced 2009 iMAC with 2018 iMAC, Problems Erasing Old HD

Have a new iMAC and now retiring the old one which is still OK and want to pass it over to a relative. I already have the new iMac setup used a Time machine Backup which helped to get rid of some older unused SW.

My old IiMAC information

OS X Yosemite Version 10.10.5, IMAC (27 ”, Late 2009, Processor 2.66 GHz Intel Core i5, Memory 4 GB 1333 MGz DDR3: Capacity 999.21 GB, Used 67.64 GB, Available 931.57 GB

My issue relates to erasing or reformatting the HD on the old iMAC did some reading up from the blog sites and watched several videos on YouTube I am either technically challenged or overlooking the obvious it does not seem to be working!

1) backed up my system and I still have the old Time Machine back ups which I used to update the new Mac as well as earlier backups.

2) I have signed out of everything i.e. de-authorized I-tunes, I-Cloud was not activated nor Bluetooth already for next step

3) Restart followed steps i.e. Hold down Command and R and kept hold down keys but nothing happens Mac finishes loading etc. Tried several variants for this step as examples in several cases were different i.e. release when the Apple Icon appears, release when the wagon wheel stops machine just carries on too boot up completely.

That is where I am stalled

Q When I open the Disk Utility after restart i.e. from the utilities folder or the Taskbar is the appearance any different than it would be going through the Command + R process?

An example of the Disk Utility window: select ERASE, Select Mackintosh HD, format is greyed out and cannot be changed the examples indicate the same format, cannot change the name either. The majority of the examples indicate I should then hit the erase button? Where is it I have already selected on the top line there is an ‘erase Free Space button surely that is not correct? My objective is to start afresh just Erase & Reinstall OS X.

I did have a picture but cannot display it

Mentioned currently OS X Yosemite this is not the original OS, I have upgraded several times I still have original install DVD OS X 10.6.2 Snow Leopard, Lion, Mountain Lion, Mavericks, Yosemite I recall skipping Mountain Lion upgrade.

Hoping for some words of wisdom

More Less

iMac, OS X Yosemite (10.10.5)

Posted on Apr 4, 2018 7:56 PM

How To Do A Factory Reset

Selection A B

B.

1. C
2. Continue Options OK Apply button.
3. Command-Q

More Less

Apr 5, 2018 11:48 AM

More Less

Apr 5, 2018 11:48 AM

Page content loaded

You need to follow this guide:

How To Do A Factory Reset

Selection A should be used on computers that came with Lion or later when factory new. These models had no disks included when new. Selection B is for Macs that came originally with Snow Leopard or earlier. These models shipped with Software Restore disks when new.

B. Factory Reset Your Pre-Lion Mac

Follow these instructions until you get to Step 5: Factory reset of your Mac - Apple Support ... At Step 5 you will need a Snow Leopard DVD or the installer disc that came with the computer.

1. Boot the computer using the Snow Leopard Installer Disc or the Disc 1 that came with your computer. Insert the disc into the optical drive and restart the computer. After the chime press and hold down the " C"key. Release the key when you see a small spinning gear appear below the dark gray Apple logo.
2. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities "menu. After Disk Utility loads select the hard drive entry from the left side list (out-dented entry - mfgr." S ID and drive size.) Click on the Partition tab in the Disk Utility main window. Set the number of partitions to one (1) from the Partitions drop down menu, click on Options button and select GUID, click on OK, then set the format type to MacOS Extended (Journaled), then click on the Apply button.
3. When the formatting has finished quit Disk Utility. Proceed with the OS X installation and follow the directions included with the installer.
4. If you are planning to sell or give your computer away, then do the following: After you reformat your hard drive and reinstall OS X, the computer restarts to a Welcome screen and asks you to choose a country or region. If you want to leave the Mac in an out-of-box state, don "t continue with the setup of the system. Instead, press Command-Q to shut down the Mac. When the new owner turns on the Mac, the Setup Assistant will guide them through the setup process.

More Less

Apr 5, 2018 11:48 AM

You cannot give away or sell any software you have purchased or downloaded from the App Store because it is all tied to your Apple ID. You need to pass on a computer in its original factory state so the new owner can configure as their own.

More Less

Apr 5, 2018 11:48 AM

Thanks Kappy for the add / info re Apple Store purchases makes sense and the same flow MS expect. Also peace of mind

Encountered a few false starts to Erase the HD not sure if it were HW related or not I usually use Logitech KB & M with my iMAC and have a wired Apple full-size KB (numeric pad) which I am using with my new iMAC.

Waiting for the Chime and then pressing / holding "C" did not work all it was doing was loading the Install DVD the wagon wheel was also not visible.

I borrowed the wired Apple Keyboard from the new iMAC and as soon as I selected "Restart" I held down the "C" i.e. before the chime and the process worked the wagon wheel spinning etc so all good from that perspective. Started install of OS X from the DVD and done in 35 min (Coincidence or not)

This year, Apple will introduce an updated iMac line, which has not received hardware upgrades for about a year and a half, writes Consomac. The imminent release of monoblocks, according to colleagues, is indicated by the disappearance of the "novelty" indicator, which until yesterday marked the models of the current generation.

Despite the fact that Apple has not indicated its plans to update in any way the lineup branded monoblocks, unlike new MacBook Pro, which are in the EEC long before the release, the company still has time to fix everything. In any case, the release of the updated iMac, traditionally, should not be expected earlier than October.

When will the new iMac be introduced

The authors of the Consomac edition do not recommend waiting for a large-scale iMac upgrade. There is at least one reason for this, which is called i Mac Pro... It is unlikely, colleagues believe, that Apple will volunteer to create a competitor to the professional candy bar, which will have to replace the Mac Pro station for at least another year.

Most likely, Consomac predicts, the updated iMac will receive Coffee Lake processors with six cores, an increased amount of RAM compared to the current generation models and, possibly, ultra-fast SSD memory instead of hard disk in junior models and hybrid storage

Apple will update all of its devices this fall, from iPhone and Apple Watch to Mac mini and MacBook. iPad Pro and iMac.

Apple to release new 11-inch iPad Pro and updated AirPods

Apple's spring WWDC was all about software and. It is likely that at the September event, everyone Apple presentations will apply to the company's devices, and not only to the iPhone.

According to a new report released by analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple will show many new products. In addition to the new iPhones, there are updates coming to Mac mini, iMac, MacBook Pro laptop, Apple Watch and iPad Pro tablet. According to the analyst, the company will show updates this fall.

Apple to release new 11-inch iPad Pro, refreshed AirPods and new Apple watches this year

In his new report, Min-Chi Kuo added a few details about Apple's upcoming device update. Some of his predictions refer to three new iPhone 2018, new Mac Mini and AirPower charger. Here's a breakdown of all projected new devices:

• Apple Watch

Apple is believed to be working on two variants of the watch. fourth generation... Both models new Apple Watch 4 will receive a large display. One of the displays can be rounded.

Apple Watch 4 will receive two displays at 1.57 inches (39.9 mm) and 1.78 inches (45.2 mm), respectively. That's about 15 percent more than current Watch 3 models. Also, newer versions of Apple watches will have improved heart rate sensors.

• iPhone

This year, two are expected to appear. new iPads Pro. The first will arrive in 11 "and the second in 12.9" in size. Probably both iPad model Pro will be made in the style of iPhone X design, with big screen and without the "Home" button. Apple is expected to install a Face ID sensor on the 2018 iPad Pro instead of the usual Touch ID.

• MacBook

The update will also affect Macbook and MacBook Pro. According to the analyst, the company is engaged in development. It will likely become the successor to the MacBook Air.

• Mac and iMac

With a significant boost in display performance, the new iMac arrives. The long-awaited update will also receive the Mac mini. Specific data were not announced.

• AirPower

Kuo said with hope and confidence that Apple's long-awaited AirPower wireless charging station will be mass-produced in the third quarter of this year. How it will turn out in reality is not yet clear. Although everyone hopes that everything will be launched immediately after the autumn conference.

In addition to all of the above, an update is expected for the second generation of wireless.

I will summarize what was voiced by a respected analyst. Ming-Chi Kuo has more than once justified his predictions regarding new products from Apple. But, these are all just assumptions and guesses, obtained on the basis of rumors and speculation. Apple has already demonstrated its attitude to this at the spring conference.

The only thing we can say for sure is that only after the official presentation and when the devices can be held in hands, everything will become clear. Until then, we expect new "truthful" data about what Apple will show at the fall conference. We can say that there will be more new products from Apple in 2018 than expected.

We continue to track the most interesting things to share with our readers. Leave comments and subscribe to our groups

1. Testing was carried out by Apple February 2019 using preproduction 27-inch iMac Pro with 18-core Intel processor Xeon W 2.3GHz, 128GB RAM and GPU Radeon Pro Vega 64X with 16GB HBM2 memory. Comparison included commercially available 27-inch iMacs with 4.2GHz 4-core Intel Core i7 processor and Radeon Pro 580 GPU with 8GB VRAM, as well as commercially available 12-core Mac Pros Intel Xeon E5 2.7GHz Dual Graphics AMD processors FirePro D700 with 6GB of VRAM each and connection to an external 5K monitor, both used 64GB of RAM. Tested in Cinema 4D R20; a scene with a volume of 1.98 GB was used, the number of polygons was 60 million. Tests were conducted using specific computer systems and represent the approximate performance of iMac Pro, iMac, and Mac Pro.
2. Testing conducted by Apple in November 2017 using preproduction 27-inch iMac Pro units with an 18-core Intel Xeon W 2.3GHz processor with 128GB RAM and preproduction 27-inch 10-core Intel iMac Pro units Xeon W @ 3.0GHz and 64GB RAM, both used Radeon Pro Vega 64 GPUs with 16GB HBM2 memory. Comparison included commercially available 27-inch iMacs with 4.2GHz 4-core Intel Core i7 processor and Radeon Pro 580 GPU with 8GB VRAM, as well as commercially available 12-core Mac Pros Intel Xeon E5 2.7GHz, dual AMD FirePro D700 GPUs with 6GB VRAM and 5K external monitor connection, both used 64GB of RAM. Testing using Autodesk Maya 2018 with 399.6 MB scene. Testing conducted on specific computer systems and reflects the approximate performance of iMac Pro, iMac, and Mac Pro.
3. Testing conducted by Apple in November 2017 using preproduction 27-inch iMac Pro units with a 2.3GHz 18-core Intel Xeon W processor with 128GB RAM and Radeon Pro Vega 64 graphics with 16GB HBM2 memory. Comparison included commercially available 27-inch iMacs with 4.2GHz 4-core Intel Core i7 processor and Radeon Pro 580 GPU with 8GB VRAM, as well as commercially available 12-core Mac Pros Intel Xeon E5 2.7GHz, dual AMD FirePro D700 GPUs with 6GB VRAM and 5K external monitor connection, both used 64GB of RAM. Tested in Cinema 4D R19.024; a scene with a volume of 1.98 GB was used, the number of polygons was 60 million. Testing conducted on specific computer systems and reflects the approximate performance of iMac Pro, iMac, and Mac Pro.
4. Testing conducted by Apple in November 2017 using preproduction 27-inch iMac Pro units with an 18-core Intel Xeon W 2.3GHz processor with 128GB RAM and preproduction 27-inch 10-core Intel iMac Pro units Xeon W @ 3.0GHz and 64GB RAM, both used Radeon Pro Vega 64 GPUs with 16GB HBM2 memory. Comparison included commercially available 27-inch iMacs with 4.2GHz 4-core Intel Core i7 processor and Radeon Pro 580 GPU with 8GB of VRAM, as well as commercially available 12-core Mac Pros Intel Xeon E5 2.7GHz, dual AMD FirePro D700 GPUs with 6GB VRAM and 5K external monitor connection, both used 64GB of RAM. Testing was carried out using Xcode 9.1 (9B55), ninja (v.1.7.2), swift (swift ‑ 4.0.2-RELEASE), swift ‑ clang (swift ‑ 4.0.2-RELEASE), swift ‑ llvm (swift ‑ 4.0 .2-RELEASE), swift ‑ cmark (swift ‑ 4.0.2-RELEASE), swift ‑ compiler-rt (swift ‑ 4.0.2-RELEASE), and CMake 3.9.4. Testing conducted on specific computer systems and reflects the approximate performance of iMac Pro, iMac, and Mac Pro.
5. Testing conducted by Apple in November 2017 using preproduction 27-inch iMac Pro units with 3.0GHz 10-core Intel Xeon W processor with 64GB RAM and Radeon Pro Vega 64 graphics with 16GB HBM2 memory. Comparison included commercially available 27-inch iMacs with 4.2GHz 4-core Intel Core i7 processor and Radeon Pro 580 GPU with 8GB VRAM, as well as commercially available 12-core Mac Pros Intel Xeon E5 2.7GHz, dual AMD FirePro D700 GPUs with 6GB VRAM and 5K external monitor connection, both used 64GB of RAM. OsiriX MD v.9.0.1 was tested using CT scan data: 1300 slices of 512 × 512 voxels. Testing conducted on specific computer systems and reflects the approximate performance of iMac Pro, iMac, and Mac Pro.
6. Testing conducted by Apple in November 2017 using preproduction 27-inch iMac Pro units with an 18-core Intel Xeon W 2.3GHz processor with 128GB RAM and preproduction 27-inch 10-core Intel iMac Pro units Xeon W @ 3.0GHz and 64GB RAM, both used Radeon Pro Vega 64 GPUs with 16GB HBM2 memory. Comparison included commercially available 27-inch iMacs with 4.2GHz 4-core Intel Core i7 processor and Radeon Pro 580 GPU with 8GB VRAM, as well as commercially available 12-core Mac Pros Intel Xeon E5 2.7GHz, dual AMD FirePro D700 GPUs with 6GB VRAM and 5K external monitor connection, both used 64GB of RAM. Testing was conducted using Mathematica v.11.2.0.0 with built-in WolframMark benchmarks. Testing conducted on specific computer systems and reflects the approximate performance of iMac Pro, iMac, and Mac Pro.
7. Testing conducted by Apple in November 2017 using preproduction 27-inch iMac Pro units with an 18-core Intel Xeon W 2.3GHz processor with 128GB RAM and preproduction 27-inch 10-core Intel iMac Pro units Xeon W @ 3.0GHz and 64GB RAM, both used Radeon Pro Vega 64 GPUs with 16GB HBM2 memory. Comparison included commercially available 27-inch iMacs with 4.2GHz 4-core Intel Core i7 processor and Radeon Pro 580 GPU with 8GB of VRAM, as well as commercially available 12-core Mac Pros Intel Xeon E5 2.7GHz, dual AMD FirePro D700 GPUs with 6GB VRAM and 5K external monitor connection, both used 64GB of RAM. Work Adobe applications Photoshop 19.0 was tested using the following filters: Crystallization, Dotting, Circular Blur, Shape Blur, Dust & Scratches, Median. Testing conducted on specific computer systems and reflects the approximate performance of iMac Pro, iMac, and Mac Pro.
8. Testing conducted by Apple in November 2017 using preproduction 27-inch iMac Pro units with a 2.3GHz 18-core Intel Xeon W processor with 128GB RAM and Radeon Pro Vega 64 graphics with 16GB HBM2 memory. Comparison included commercially available 27-inch iMacs with 4.2GHz 4-core Intel Core i7 processor and Radeon Pro 580 GPU with 8GB VRAM, as well as commercially available 12-core Mac Pros Intel Xeon E5 2.7GHz, dual AMD FirePro D700 GPUs with 6GB VRAM and 5K external monitor connection, both used 64GB of RAM. Pixelmator Pro 1.0.1 preview tested using 3.31GB image. Testing conducted on specific computer systems and reflects the approximate performance of iMac Pro, iMac, and Mac Pro.
9. Testing conducted by Apple in November 2017 using preproduction 27-inch iMac Pro units with an 18-core Intel Xeon W 2.3GHz processor with 128GB RAM and preproduction 27-inch 10-core Intel iMac Pro units Xeon W @ 3.0GHz and 64GB RAM, both used Radeon Pro Vega 64 GPUs with 16GB HBM2 memory. Comparison included commercially available 27-inch iMacs with 4.2GHz 4-core Intel Core i7 processor and Radeon Pro 580 GPU with 8GB VRAM, as well as commercially available 12-core Mac Pros Intel Xeon E5 2.7GHz, dual AMD FirePro D700 GPUs with 6GB VRAM and 5K external monitor connection, both used 64GB of RAM. The preliminary version of Logic Pro X 10.3.3 was tested by mixing 20 audio tracks from a project (without connecting to the network) and then burning the result to disc in PCM format. Testing conducted on specific computer systems and reflects the approximate performance of iMac Pro, iMac, and Mac Pro.
10. Testing conducted by Apple in November 2017 using preproduction 27-inch iMac Pro units with an 18-core Intel Xeon W 2.3GHz processor with 128GB RAM and preproduction 27-inch 10-core Intel iMac Pro units Xeon W @ 3.0GHz and 64GB RAM, both used Radeon Pro Vega 64 GPUs with 16GB HBM2 memory. Comparison included commercially available 27-inch iMacs with 4.2GHz 4-core Intel Core i7 processor and Radeon Pro 580 GPU with 8GB VRAM, as well as commercially available 12-core Mac Pros Intel Xeon E5 2.7GHz, dual AMD FirePro D700 GPUs with 6GB VRAM and 5K external monitor connection, both used 64GB of RAM. Testing conducted using pre-release Logic Pro X 10.3.3 and a 200-track Sculpture synthesizer project. During playback, the mode of playing individual tracks was turned on until the CPU was overloaded. Testing conducted on specific computer systems and reflects the approximate performance of iMac Pro, iMac, and Mac Pro.
11. Testing conducted by Apple in November 2017 using preproduction 27-inch iMac Pro units with an 18-core Intel Xeon W 2.3GHz processor with 128GB RAM and preproduction 27-inch 10-core Intel iMac Pro units Xeon W @ 3.0GHz and 64GB RAM, both used Radeon Pro Vega 64 GPUs with 16GB HBM2 memory. Comparison included commercially available 27-inch iMacs with 4.2GHz 4-core Intel Core i7 processor and Radeon Pro 580 GPU with 8GB VRAM, as well as commercially available 12-core Mac Pros Intel Xeon E5 2.7GHz, dual AMD FirePro D700 GPUs with 6GB VRAM and 5K external monitor connection, both used 64GB of RAM. Testing done using pre-release version Final Cut Pro 10.4 and a complex project lasting 63 seconds that included a variety of multimedia content up to 8K resolution. Testing conducted on specific computer systems and reflects the approximate performance of iMac Pro, iMac, and Mac Pro.
12. Testing conducted by Apple in November 2017 using preproduction 27-inch iMac Pro units with 3.0GHz 10-core Intel Xeon W processor with 64GB RAM and Radeon Pro Vega 64 graphics with 16GB HBM2 memory. Comparison included commercial samples of a 27-inch iMac with a 4.2GHz 4-core Intel Core i7 processor, a Radeon Pro 580 GPU with 8GB VRAM and 64GB RAM. Testing was conducted using Compressor 4.4 preview and a 30-second project that included Apple video ProRes 422 at 4096 x 2160 pixels and 30 frames per second. Testing conducted using specific computer systems and reflect the approximate performance of iMac Pro and iMac.

• The availability of certain features, packages and device configurations may vary by country and / or region of distribution.
• Specifications are subject to change without notice.
• Software and content may be sold separately. Availability not guaranteed.