The news about the non-upgradable RAM is tough to swallow.
About the only remotely positive spin I can put on it is that, relative to the 2012 Mac Mini, the "Apple tax" you pay for 16GB of RAM on the 2014 Mac Mini is somewhat offset by the reduction in the price of the base hardware.
The Mac Mini matters to me, because they make nice servers - companies like MacMiniColo and MacMiniVault will host your Mac Mini for $50 a month or less.
From a pure "computing horsepower per dollar" perspective, it's superior to virtual hosting - try hosting a 200GB database on a virtual host with 16GB of RAM and virtual CPUs anywhere near the performance of those in the Mac Mini. It gets real expensive real fast.
Obviously, virtual hosting has a boatload of other advantages, and it's the right solution for most situations. But Mac Mini hosting fills a niche for small companies with data < 1TB.
About the only remotely positive spin I can put on it is that, relative to the 2012 Mac Mini, the "Apple tax" you pay for 16GB of RAM on the 2014 Mac Mini is somewhat offset by the reduction in the price of the base hardware.
The Mac Mini matters to me, because they make nice servers - companies like MacMiniColo and MacMiniVault will host your Mac Mini for $50 a month or less.
From a pure "computing horsepower per dollar" perspective, it's superior to virtual hosting - try hosting a 200GB database on a virtual host with 16GB of RAM and virtual CPUs anywhere near the performance of those in the Mac Mini. It gets real expensive real fast.
Obviously, virtual hosting has a boatload of other advantages, and it's the right solution for most situations. But Mac Mini hosting fills a niche for small companies with data < 1TB.