The 2018 Mini is a rethink of the design. The main spinner did the same - the replacement Samsung 850 PRO operates at expected speeds. It's a SATA III drive, but operates at SATA II speeds. The 2014 Mini was IMO a 'why bother' effort, I've never even seen one in an office.Īn edit: my 2012 Server does have the 'slow drive' in the slave position, it stores some of my personal music. The company I own went through about 20 Minis then to find 8 that worked properly - failed/slow drives, components that just didn't work (Apple was transitioning to LE components then), and my Apple rep just kept pushing me to laptops which seemed to me then to be Apple's focus. What I didn't write but alluded to is the urban legend of the 'cribbing together from back room parts' for the then-new form factor of the 2011/2 Minis. There's too much to like about the 2018 Mini - faster I/O/drives/RAM, better ventilation/ergonomics/support (as in several years worth to come), updated components (BT/wifi).

Yes, I advise avoiding a 2012 unit altogether, ditto for the 2014 units. There's no way I'd buy an 2012 i5, and I'd avoid Catalina at all costs on a 2012 Mini. I replaunits in my company with 2018 units, my personal unit has been bulletproof, still running Mojave - it'll be sold in the next few months. Regarding Apple's macOS support? 6-18 months for the 2012, long gone for hardware. For Boot Camp, Intel has supported the iGPU in the Mini much better than Apple over the years - the drivers from Intel for the iGPU were updated just a few months ago. Parallels is focused on Metal right now, the 2012 will be cut off in a year or two from improvements in Metal. Regarding Windows? Parallels - just don't. More money spent on a 2012 unit that could go toward buying a 2018 unit. You'd need to max out the RAM just to get decent video performance - the RAM resources are shared with the iGPU. You'll be reading for a bit, grab a beer first. The 2012 unit review were littered with complaints about failed components, bolstered by Apple employees offering that there were plenty of 'backroom' parts in this EOLed Mac - google for yourself along the lines of this and 'Mac mini slow drive'. No, the 2012 units are not worth it - this coming from an owner of one on my desk. The 2012's mobile CPU is a dog when compared to the desktop CPUs in the 2018. I respect your budget, I wouldn't buy my Mini at your budget when I know I could find a newer i3 unit that performs much better. Owner of a 2012 i7 Mini Server here, 16GB RAM with a Samsung 850 PRO installed as the main drive.

External gpu for mac mini 2012