on 2013-09-05 13:24 Larry Colen wrote
The mac-mini seems to have a couple of major advantages over the iMac or
laptops:
1) more ports, and a wider range of ports. USB, firewire, thunderbolt, video
and gigabit ethernet
i would consider the ports more of a trade of the Mini's HDMI and FireWire
ports for a built-in display and an extra Thunderbolt port
a Thunderbolt port is more flexible; it can become either of the ports you lose
— a Thunderbolt to FireWire adapter is $29; a Thunderbolt (really DisplayPort)
to HDMI or DVI adapter is under $10 — and since the display is built-in, you
could get both of the Mini's ports back if you want (even after adding other
Thunderbolt devices as long as they have pass-through)
the Mini does have separate audio in & out, though for serious audio most would
use an external ADC/DAC
2) When the CPU is obsolete, you don't need to throw away the monitor.
no one throws away (er, recycles) iMacs unless they are broken (that's the
worst case scenario)
if the CPU is obsolete, just put it in TDM and it will act just like a
Thunderbolt display (the CPU can idle or remain booted headless)
3) Even the single disk minis can be upgraded to dual disk. Upgrading the drive
on an iMac is a bit of a pain.
upgrading to dual on a Mini is only a lesser pain; ifixit rates it "moderate",
same as the 2011 iMac, versus "difficult" for the current iMac (i would not
want to mess with the 2012 iMac):
<http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Replacing+Mac+Mini+Late+2012+Dual+Hard+Drive+Kit/11713/1>
<http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Replacing+iMac+Intel+27-Inch+EMC+2429+Dual+Hard+Drive+Kit/7575/1>
(ifixit sells a dual drive kit for 2011 iMac, but has no guide)
<http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Replacing+iMac+Intel+27-Inch+EMC+2429+Hard+Drive/7555/1>
some advantages for the iMac:
* iMacs have discrete graphics; this is the only major performance difference
(assuming you aren't relying on spinning disks, which are slower on the Mini);
when the GPU matters, the iMac will be *much* faster
* the iMacs support Target Display Mode (TDM); also, if you have a Thunderbolt
Display attached to a 2012 iMac, you can put it into TDM and the main display
can be used by another machine while the iMac continues to run on the external
display
I do expect that it is just a bad drive.
you could try to boot from an external (or another Mac in Target Disk Mode) to
test that theory
I'm also hoping that I can pull the superdrive out of
a dead macbook to repair the dead drive in the iMac.
probably simpler to pop it into a cheap USB case
--
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