New Mac Mini

The only compelling use for the mac mini is to take parents/grandma/other family member/etc's current computer out, and replace it with this because they want a mac.

Typically these people have standard Dell setups (monitor, tower, mouse, keyboard), and if they need a new computer and want a mac, a mac mini is the cheapest way to get them on a mac. Just unplug the tower, replace with mac mini, done.

For these users, $500-700 is what they expect to spend anyway, so while I agree that $700 is a little steep for this machine, it still is within the range of most mac mini buyers. At $500-600, it would be a much better deal.

Few [H]ard members have any use for this thing, and I agree that an imac with the ips screen is a much better value. My grandma though, she thinks her 15" Dell freebie LCD is freaking amazing because it is soooo thin. She is better off with a mac mini because it saves her some money and there is no way she could handle the magic mouse that comes with the imac.
 
Archer75 said:
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.
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IF the hardware is setup to do that behind it. In many computers the HDMI is just setup to pass video signals...which really is just a cosmetic swap from DVI.
 
I just moved from my sig pc to a new mac mini. Sucks they just updated it. I bought mine exactly 33 days ago. :(
 
Grentz said:
IF the hardware is setup to do that behind it. In many computers the HDMI is just setup to pass video signals...which really is just a cosmetic swap from DVI.
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I'm not aware of any computer hardware that can't send audio over HDMI assuming they have HDMI. Nvidia GT 210, 220 and 230 can do it. All ATI 2000 series on up. Intel can do it. Maybe some obscure motherboards can't.
 
Snowdog said:
I said it should include all of those things for the original price. The 1TB model is a thousand bucks, that is utterly ludicrous.
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the $1k model is also a SERVER replacement model (it comes with OS X server which is $500 on its own). And coincidently aside from missing the optical drive which is negligible,
the upgrades in it make it cheaper than upgrading the base Mini to it's CPU, memory and single 500GB drive.

Also, the previous Mini Server was $1k.
 
Mistrblank said:
the $1k model is also a SERVER replacement model (it comes with OS X server which is $500 on its own). And coincidently aside from missing the optical drive which is negligible,
the upgrades in it make it cheaper than upgrading the base Mini to it's CPU, memory and single 500GB drive.

Also, the previous Mini Server was $1k.
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The new low end is the old high end. I would be pissed if I just bought the high end for 1k and now its 700.... I'm lucky. I bought the low end 33 days ago and now the low end is 100 dollars more for a 200mhz difference. The harddrive size is not a concern to me because I have a 2TB external.
 
That looks tempting. I've been using my Mac Mini 1.5 solo for years as my quiet internet machine, so my gaming machine can stay off when not gaming. I figure it could use an upgrade, and even with the price increase, that's a helluva package.

The fact is, even in 2010, PC makers are still not designing SFF PCs using notebook chips. Instead, they rely on desktop chips to save money, and you end-up with a loud tiny box that radiates heat just like a desktop. The rest are either crap boxes featuring Atom (that's slower than my Core Solo 1.5), or overpriced contraptions that make the Mac Mini look like a good deal (trust me, I've scoured EVERYWHERE to find something better for less).

About the only announcement this year of a Mac Mini competitor is this from AsRock, but you can't buy it yet...hell, there's no price announced, so we don't even know if it will compete.

The fact is that the Mac Mini is still one-of-a-kind given it's feature set, and there's obviously a market for it, or else they wouldn't keep releasing new models. I really wish someone would release something competitive with Windows 7 preinstalled, because I really could care less for OS X. But I buy the Apple hardware because no one else makes it.
 
Been waiting for a Mini refresh, this was majorly disappointing. Not only was it a meager hardware bump but it was one at a huge price hike. Ugh
 
defaultluser said:
About the only announcement this year of a Mac Mini competitor is this from AsRock, but you can't buy it yet...hell, there's no price announced, so we don't even know if it will compete.
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Even more of Mini Competitor from Asrock (Vision), even looks like the old mini, but very nicely appointed:
http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/25/..._campaign=Feed:+weblogsinc/engadget+(Engadget)

Mistrblank said:
the $1k model is also a SERVER replacement model (it comes with OS X server which is $500 on its own). And coincidently aside from missing the optical drive which is negligible,
the upgrades in it make it cheaper than upgrading the base Mini to it's CPU, memory and single 500GB drive.
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That 1TB was suggested when I mentioned a lack of storage. I don't want a mini server. I was simply pointing out that that this was not an option for the internal storage woes. $1000 to get up to 1TB is still ridiculous, including a Server OS that is unwanted, doesn't change that.

Once in a while I think that the Apple tax is declining then something like this gets released and proves all the critics right. This doesn't seem like anything more than paying $700 for a laptop lacking screen, keyboard, battery. With a low enough price it might be interesting as a secondary system, but at $700 it's a bad joke.
 
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CrimandEvil said:
Been waiting for a Mini refresh, this was majorly disappointing. Not only was it a meager hardware bump but it was one at a huge price hike. Ugh
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Yeah, the only thing holding me back is the price :(

If this sucker remained at $599, I would have already ordered one. At $699, it's still a good deal (for what I want), but then I want to sit back and see if someone in the PC world can do better.
 
defaultluser said:
Yeah, the only thing holding me back is the price :(

If this sucker remained at $599, I would have already ordered one. At $699, it's still a good deal (for what I want), but then I want to sit back and see if someone in the PC world can do better.
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What happened to the $499 price that the Mini started at??
 
CrimandEvil said:
What happened to the $499 price that the Mini started at??
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They added an Intel mobile CPU, and they added 802.11g and Bluetooth standard. That bumped the price to $599.

Intel charges twice the price for the same speed with their mobile parts, but the performance that Core brought to the table was impressive. The PPC G4 used in the earlier Mac Mini was a bulk, low-end chip clocked at 1.25 GHz.

This latest iteration, I'm sure Apple is getting raped by Nvidia for the GeForce 320M chipset (which I believe nobody else is shipping), but I can't see the justification for the entire price increase.
 
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A cool new device. Really high price point though, even for Apple. I was surprised they wouldn't try to get something like this down to the sub-$500 mark. That's the only price at which I could even consider this, and I still don't think I could find enough use for it at that price.
 
Archer75 said:
As an HTPC it's still too expensive. You can get the WD TV Live HD thing for $120.

And this mini still can't bitstream DTS-MA HD or Dolby True HD which is what I want and have in my HTPC.
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No Blu-ray drive either, which means you'd have to stream and/or download HD content, and there are cheaper alternatives that can do the same (Like the WDTV Live you mentioned, especially the new Plus version which supports Netflix along with YouTube). At $699 its still alot cheaper than a Macbook but...eh, it just doesn't look worth $700.
 
Also... maybe its just me, but I think the old models looked better. :eek:
 
King of Heroes said:
No Blu-ray drive either, which means you'd have to stream and/or download HD content, and there are cheaper alternatives that can do the same (Like the WDTV Live you mentioned, especially the new Plus version which supports Netflix along with YouTube). At $699 its still alot cheaper than a Macbook but...eh, it just doesn't look worth $700.
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WD Live can't play TrueHD or DTS-HD either.

And I rip all my blurays onto my server so I don't need a bluray drive on the mini. I already have 2 HTPC's that can do this so it isn't something that I would consider for me.
 
I'm going to order a Mini Server tomorrow for a nice media box and occasional virtual lab use with VMware Fusion.
 
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