EQTakeOffense
[H]ard|Gawd
- Joined
- Sep 12, 2002
- Messages
- 1,643
So, while pre-ordering my iPhone 4, I noticed this: http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_mac/family/mac_mini?mco=MTAyNTQzNTk
Interesting....
Interesting....
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New Mac Mini
- Thread starter EQTakeOffense
- Start date
Hmm. I've done nothing but hate on the Mini but the HDMI and built-in power supply makes this nice. Throw Plex on this thing and you have an amazing HTPC: http://www.plexapp.com/
I wouldn't even go for the baseline model, I'd go straight to the server version with Snow Leopard server and 1TB.
That said, nothing has changed, the iMac is still the best desktop value, hands down. Adding a display (which will be inferior to the iMac's IPS), mouse, keyboard, will give you slower internals, less hard drive storage, and a poorer display compared to a baseline iMac.
So yeah, as an HTPC, awesome, great, otherwise just get an iMac or a Macbook/Macbook Pro.
I wouldn't even go for the baseline model, I'd go straight to the server version with Snow Leopard server and 1TB.
That said, nothing has changed, the iMac is still the best desktop value, hands down. Adding a display (which will be inferior to the iMac's IPS), mouse, keyboard, will give you slower internals, less hard drive storage, and a poorer display compared to a baseline iMac.
So yeah, as an HTPC, awesome, great, otherwise just get an iMac or a Macbook/Macbook Pro.
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Blame Intel for blocking Nvidia from making any more integrated GPUs beyond the Core 2 series. Going with a Core i3 or i5 means you'd be stuck with a shitty Intel IGP since there is no room for a dedicated GPU. It would be a net step backwards in performance, not forwards. Nvidia's 320m smokes the Arrandale IGP. On the whole it makes sense for Apple to go with a faster Core 2 Duo and an integrated Nvidia GPU instead, especially given how much the OS X desktop leans on the GPU and that OpenCL will play into things more and more.
After this year, I dunno, maybe they go with AMD for the CPUs in their lower end machines, given that their integrated GPUs are much better than Intel's. That or Intel gets their act together, who knows.
Intel chipset + Nvidia or ATI video, like how a laptop does it.
Not enough room in that little enclosure.
15" Macbook Pro with i5/i7 and dedicated 330m GT:
13" Macbook Pro with Core 2 Duo and integrated 320m GPU:
The Mac Mini motherboard is probably about the same size as that of the 13" Macbook Pro, given that the case is about 7"x7". There simply isn't enough room to cram that many chips onto it. We'll see teardowns in a few days, I'm really curious to see how they crammed everything in this one.
Anandtech did an excellent analysis on the 13" Macbook Pro and the performance tradeoffs between going with a faster GPU versus a faster CPU. The same conclusions presumably apply to the Mini: http://www.anandtech.com/show/3762/...ly-2010-reviewed-shaking-the-cpugpu-balance/2
The 9400m smokes Intel's IGP, and the 320m smokes the 9400m by a wide margin. Again, maybe they go with ATI next year for their integrated GPUs, we'll see. There is only so long they can drag out the Core 2 Duo.
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Store page seems to be getting rocked, but you can still see it from the Apple main page. http://www.apple.com/macmini/
Anything with store in it is horribly slow for me.
Anything with store in it is horribly slow for me.
iPhone 4 pre-orders are killing the Apple site... so much for OSX Server being able to handle extreme loads, eh?
Got mine on the third attempt, no problem.
No harder than when I scored my Blizzcon tickets, haha.
iPhone 4 pre-orders are killing the Apple site... so much for OSX Server being able to handle extreme loads, eh?
Apple's site is hosted by Akamai. Not on a bunch of XServes.
So tempted to pick one up. I would boot camp it and turn it into a media server. Only thing is, I need to verify the HDMI out can do 5.1 surround. While its a little pricey, I can use my student discount to knock off some dollars.
Sure do love the Apple tax though, extra $100 to upgrade from a 320 to a 500 gig hard drive....
Sure do love the Apple tax though, extra $100 to upgrade from a 320 to a 500 gig hard drive....
wrxdrunkie
Limp Gawd
- Joined
- Dec 23, 2007
- Messages
- 461
I really want to get this with an apple cinema display
I'm currently running 2 mac minis at home (I had keyboards, mice, monitors - yes, not as nice as an apple display, but still). They're nice little silent units and I've work horsed them pretty good.
I just keep getting caught with the silent updates on them.
At least the newer one has Steam on it (2.0 Ghz, 4 Gig Ram, 320 Gig HD) and runs HL2 and portal just fine. The older unit (1.83 Ghz, 80 Gig HD, 1 Gig Ram) is shifted mostly to media (iTunes, VLC, local network streaming).
I just keep getting caught with the silent updates on them.
At least the newer one has Steam on it (2.0 Ghz, 4 Gig Ram, 320 Gig HD) and runs HL2 and portal just fine. The older unit (1.83 Ghz, 80 Gig HD, 1 Gig Ram) is shifted mostly to media (iTunes, VLC, local network streaming).
bomberboysk
Gawd
- Joined
- Jun 7, 2009
- Messages
- 760
Bit pricey....but they look really nice and sleek, gotta hand that to apple, they can make their products look really nice.
Steelgrave
Limp Gawd
- Joined
- Jan 11, 2005
- Messages
- 253
OH MY God you guys are a bunch of winning people, the unit is designed for a light computer not a gaming computer. Think about people who want to spend about 1000$ on a computer, who already have a lcd / crt monitor. The mac mini is perfect for the person who wants to email chatt surf the internet etc etc.
Its a great machine, perfect for limited space, or a collage student who doesn't need a GAMING machine, who only has a small desk
Its a great machine, perfect for limited space, or a collage student who doesn't need a GAMING machine, who only has a small desk
Well, the truth is you get nearly any system config, be it a lightweight server, internet machine, media machine, gaming machine (within reason) with better hardware for less money..
now that said. I have one of the older Core Duo 1.83's which I picked up second hand and I absolutely love the thing. It's been a great bittorrent machine. It's silent, doesnt suck up power, and best of all will run MacOS natively without having to screw with patched ISO's. Which I have done before.
I did Mac support for nearly 8 years. I'm far from an Apple Fanboy but I do like a lot of their products. If i were rich i'd probably own a lot of them. Nothing really pisses me off more then the Apple Vs. PC arguments.
In Short. I like the Mini. Apple has made some fairly wise choices if you look at the logic. As some have stated with the CPU/GPU configuration. I can't wait to pick one up second-hand for half the price
now that said. I have one of the older Core Duo 1.83's which I picked up second hand and I absolutely love the thing. It's been a great bittorrent machine. It's silent, doesnt suck up power, and best of all will run MacOS natively
without having to screw with patched ISO's. Which I have done before. I did Mac support for nearly 8 years. I'm far from an Apple Fanboy but I do like a lot of their products. If i were rich i'd probably own a lot of them. Nothing really pisses me off more then the Apple Vs. PC arguments.
In Short. I like the Mini. Apple has made some fairly wise choices if you look at the logic. As some have stated with the CPU/GPU configuration. I can't wait to pick one up second-hand for half the price
Well, the truth is you get nearly any system config, be it a lightweight server, internet machine, media machine, gaming machine (within reason) with better hardware for less money..
now that said. I have one of the older Core Duo 1.83's which I picked up second hand and I absolutely love the thing. It's been a great bittorrent machine. It's silent, doesnt suck up power, and best of all will run MacOS natively
I did Mac support for nearly 8 years. I'm far from an Apple Fanboy but I do like a lot of their products. If i were rich i'd probably own a lot of them. Nothing really pisses me off more then the Apple Vs. PC arguments.
In Short. I like the Mini. Apple has made some fairly wise choices if you look at the logic. As some have stated with the CPU/GPU configuration. I can't wait to pick one up second-hand for half the price
Agreed
however i love mac's and swear by them. Convincing people to pay more $$4 to buy abetter product / more expensive product is harder tho.I wish i could find a cheap mac mini!
I wouldn't say this is a rip off at all. The mac mini before this had a huge power supply, larger in size/weight, no hdmi out, and consumed more power. This one has better graphics and, better design, integrated power supply, less power consumption, all for a hundred bucks more than the old version.
It's not meant to be a HTPC.
I defend Apple when the do something cool and reasonably priced like the iPad, but this just seems ridiculous. As far as HTPC. For that price, I want a Blu Ray drive, full size HD, and a remote. There is nothing here that says HTPC to me.
I agree, so what is it meant to be? Essentially this is a $700 laptop with no screen, no battery, no keyboard, no mouse... and no point.
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It should be able to do 7.1 LPCM though (at least in Windows). And since I convert everything to flac it should make a great HTPC.
Better graphics is a given with new products. It's not a laptop, so weight/size means nothing to me after a certain point. Sure it's cool, but not something that should cause an increase in cost. The old one was overpriced, this is even worse. They shouldn't sell these things for more than $500. Then they go and make it sound like 320gb or 500gb is huge. There are larger 2.5" drives available. They should also offer an SSD as an option. The 320M uses shared memory, and they only give 2GB on a $700 system.
Because they advertise hooking it up to a big screen. Also giving it's size and power consumption it would make a nice HTPC, besides the cost.
You can get 1TB and a remote for the Mini. Blu Ray is the only missing piece of the equation. It would put it over the top (as for me, I'll just stick with my PS3).
As I said: Nothing has changed, the iMac is still the best desktop value, hands down. Adding a display (which will be inferior to the iMac's IPS), mouse, keyboard, will give you slower internals, less hard drive storage, and a poorer display compared to a baseline iMac.
Despite the lack of Blu Ray, installing Plex (IMHO the best solution out there) and going with the 1TB option makes this is an excellent, compact HTPC. It certainly isn't for me but I can see other people getting into it.
For the rest I recommend an iMac or Macbook Pro. I've hated on the Mini for years. Now I hate on it just slightly less with the HDMI slot.
Nice graphics update at least on the mini. The 320M has 3x more SPs than the 9400m (48 vs 16). It will be memory bandwidth limited, but a nice bump if only for OpenCL and some shader intensive games.
Yeah the mini seems expensive, but all cloners have not even come close for the price. The Dell Zino mini desktops are the closest, and have decent prices.
Yeah the mini seems expensive, but all cloners have not even come close for the price. The Dell Zino mini desktops are the closest, and have decent prices.
It is what it is. And a lot of people are talking about it as a HTPC.
I said it should include all of those things for the original price. The 1TB model is a thousand bucks, that is utterly ludicrous.
I've hated on the Mini for years. Now I hate on it just slightly less with the HDMI slot.
That is a pretty lame reason. HDMI/DVI swap is merely a cosmetic difference, they are the same signals. I feed my HDTV from one of my DVIs. $100 price increase is a reason to hate it more.
To me the best HTPC would be:
Case that looks just like a DVD/Blu Ray player. Black, typical component width/height.
It would allow at least two internal 3.5inch HDs (you can pick up 1TB drives for $65 or less)
Have Blu Ray right in the tray where you would expect it on stand alone DVD/BD player
Also I won't buy any new computer with USB3 from now forward.
There is absolutely no need to get into the game of "look how small we can make it" for HTPC usage. Making it smaller than a system component just cost more money and makes it less expandable.
No, it's not cosmetic. HDMI carries audio. 7.1 uncompressed. Otherwise you are using SPDIF/optical/coax whatever and the best that can do is 5.1 compressed audio.