User experience Mac Mini i3

I have the mini i3, no issues, a superb machine in all respects. Having said that, the mini is picky about monitor connections so suggest you take your monitor to the Apple store and verify it works properly. In particular, during boot, and waking from sleep. Hopefully they’ll allow you to do that. Good luck.

In terms of performance, these Geekbench scores are a start

for comparison. Of course, how you use a computer will determine

real world advantages.

Your MacBook Air single core = 500/multicore = 1083

2018 i3 MacMini. single core = 924/multicore = 3303

The mini will be significantly faster for all your tasks, especially Photoshop

which can benefit from the multicore performance.

The MBA does tend to get hotter when connected to an external display because it is pushing lots more bits around, especially if you use its internal display as well as the external as I do. But the MBA will shut itself down if it gets dangerously hot. I used my 2011 MBA with an external display about 25%-30% of the time and it is still going strong. However, as has been pointed out, the mini is quite a bit faster and a real joy to use.

That said, hcsitas is right about display connectivity. For whatever reason, HDMI connections can be problematic with the mini some displays. I have a late model 28" 4K LG display with HDMI and DisplayPort interfaces and immediately chose HDMI so I wouldn't have to use up a TB port. I've lost the use of HDMI twice since Apple released Catalina but each time DP worked fine. I'm currently back to HDMI - fingers crossed.

imo, the problem with HDMI is more likely to occur on display resolutions at 4K beyond 30 Hz. Which in turn, again imo, has to do with Intel chips not spec’ed, to date, beyond HDMI 1.4.

Apple specs don’t mention this, but I give them a pass since they offer iMacs with integrated displays that meet or exceed 4K. I don’t think it’s intentional, the entire 4K/HDMI 2+ industry is still fudging it’s way around between spec over-marketing (there’s a better word for that), what really works and the yet unresolved wars between DisplayPort (Dell), HDMI and Thunderbolt 3. Apple is only stirring the pot and having fun while they do it. To be continued (sigh).

In my experience, TB3 out to full size DisplayPort or miniDP works seamlessly with my Dell and Samsung monitors and a late 2018 Mac mini (i7). I bought my mini a month or so after they were available, and it has been on and plugged into a pair of 27” Dell 2560x1440 monitors with TB3->DP since and on 24/7 for a year now without any display glitches. I’ve also used it a few times with my 32” Samsung display, and no issues.

I did initially have issues with one monitor on TB3->DP and the other on HDMI (only one monitor would wake up, or the desktop wouldn’t extend at times) hence the switch to each being TB3->DP instead.

Makes sense because the gross rate of DisplayPort 1.2 is 21.6 Gbps compared to HDMI 1.4 10.4 Gbps.

In my book, the mini is HDMI is 1.4. Apple’s support for HDMI 2.0 is suspect for reasons already stated and imo, problems kick in when resolutions approach or exceed 10.4 Gbps i.e. bigger displays with near 4K resolutions. My 22” Dell 1080p HDMI display has also run flawlessly out of the HDMI port since day 1 and luckily for me, I have no need for bigger/better.

The question is, should Apple issue a clarification/correction to their spec based on speculative posts by hcsitas? I think so but they won’t. No big deal.

Upgrade the ram. I have one and runs great . I boosted the ram to 32 gig