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Desktops and mini PCs · Apple Mac mini

Apple Mac mini 2018

7owners with an opinion
67%of verdicts positive
2/1positive/negative since 2024
0happy after 3+ years

Praised for performance and reliability; criticized for noise and support.

What people wrote

Doesn’t like it
A side rant with some useful information: I had a nightmare week with an office Mac Mini, 2018 . When the employee tried to update to Sequoia, he faced the error-try again conundrum. So logically, I introduced the restore option. Oh boy, what a shitshow. So after faced by 8 hours restore process option, I proceeded to USB installation. Due to T2 restriction, enabling the boot process in restore utility menu is mandatory. Surprisingly, this cannot be done without working installation and admin user. So installing the OS which was the default for the computer and booting again was the next step. Long story short, the Mini stopped working in the middle of the installation. No chime sound. No light. We decided that it is dead for good. And then I got mad. Perfectly working computer bricked by slow and buggy restore process. 8 hours? Did Apple have no money to afford more server speed from Akamai? Or deliberately f&cks up the process, users to go and buy the new stuff? HMM. Solution: So I proceeded to DFU mode with non-recommended cable USB2 to USB-C (from my Logitech mouse, with data capabilities.) You power up the mini by holding the startup button and push the power cable in. USB-C must be connected to the first thunderbolt port after the HDMI input. Then magically you have a connection in your host mac Finder and proceed to restore the T2 firmware. Install as usual from the USB stick and revive the Mini. P.S. Found bits and pieces to come up with this solution from hardwar…
Likes it
MacOS Sequoia supports every computer 4 years old. Almost no apps or CLI programs will absolutely require it unless they’re specifically invented to support some brand new feature. I’m running it on my 2018 Mac Mini. If you wish Apple supported computers longer, fine. I’d personally disagree because I’ve had wonderful luck with them supporting my old hardware until said hardware was so old that it was time to replace it anyway, but would respect your different opinion. Don’t exaggerate it to make a point though.
Likes it
Nested virtualization also works great on ESXi for macOS guests ( so you can run docker desktop if so inclined ). I believe this is possible with proxmox as well with CPU=host but have not tried it. For graphics, another cool thing is intel iGPU pci passthrough - I have had success with this when running esxi on my 2018 mac mini https://williamlam.com/2020/06/passthrough-of-integrated-gpu...
Neutral
Have you tried rebooting your Mac? Because on both of my Macs (a MBP 2020 and a Mac mini 2018, both running Ventura), the involuntary Sonoma upgrade only started once I manually rebooted the machine. Before the reboot, everything seemed normal and there was nothing indicating that the upgrade would take place. After experiencing the issue on my MBP, I actually waited a couple days before I rebooted my Mac mini, and before I did so, I checked whether there was an "Install macOS Sonoma" app in the Applications folder (there was not). My (now proven incorrect) assumption was that the Sonoma installer would always come in form of such an app, like it did for previous versions of macOS. For the past 5+ years, I've always waited at least 6-9 months before upgrading to a new major macOS version, and I am generally very careful about not upgrading accidentally. There is zero chance that I twice missed a notification or accidentally initiated the Sonoma upgrade myself.
Doesn’t like it
Last week, I downgraded a Mac Mini 2018 to Monterey over never ending fan noise. This week, I tried to use an old iPad for testing purposes, turns out USB internet sharing in Monterey is not working at all. So I plan to roll back to Catalina and stay there. Honestly, I have more satisfaction and reliability with my Linux KDE boxes, this struggle with Apple ethos is pissing me off since 2015. I miss the reliability and UX/UI logic of the past Apple products. Nowadays, we get marketing driven design and features, dark patterns everywhere.
Likes it
> The performance of an M2 MacBook would undoubtedly be much better, but am I actually going to be able to browse the web faster or write code any faster? I split my coding time between a 2017 retina MacBook and a 2018 Mac Mini. Code compiles very much faster on the Mini -> faster iterations. So yes, you may literally code faster on a faster computer.
Doesn’t like it
Shitty software? My 2018 Mac Mini would crash every single time going to sleep on the last version of Mojave. I'm not alone in this as there's huge threads on MacRumors and Apple's support forum about it. Apple's "fix" was to just update to Catalina which indeed fixes it but doesn't really help if you want to run 32 bit software. Wouldn't surprise me if they did something similar again.