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2011 Mac Mini - Speculation

G4er? said:
.- -. -.. .. ..-. -.-- --- ..- .-- .- -. - - --- -.. --- .- .-. .- --
..- .--. --. .-. .- -.. . --- -. .- -- .. -. .. -.-- --- ..- .- .-. .
... - .. .-.. .-.. .- .... . .- -.. ...- ... -... ..- -.-- .. -. --. .- -. .. -- .- -.-.

:D I left out the comma and period.
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LOL. Thanks...:)
 
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Hellhammer said:
Furthermore, there is no guarantee that Thunderbolt will be included in Mac Minis. Keeping it as a "pro feature" doesn't sound too far-fetched.
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I'm of the opinion that Apple will want to get this port out to as many customers as possible to encourage it's support and use. I'm thinking of the FireWire port which was introduced on the Powerbook G3 in February 2000 and was also found on the iBook G3 roughly 6 months later.
 
ok they do what they always do with the mini ..give the customer some % more processor speed and the customer keeps quiet
which would mean the 2.66ghz which is now optional made baseline and maybe a downclocked i3 as optional upgrade and as apple doesn't give anything for free on the mini the obvious price increase

which i personally dont understand why every goody on the mini leads to a increase while the iMac and MBP are getting the same goodies without price increase and sometimes even drop a bit in price
 
I'll doubt they will increase the price once again. If they will release the 2011 model again in 2 models and the most expensive will cost over €999 it would be a instant kill for their product.On the European market the Mac Mini server was cut from €1150 to €999 somewhere in the end of 2010.

If the most expensive 2011 model will again be priced at €1150 they will hurt their own market. if you can get a fairly better iMac 21'' for only €50 more what would be the reason for the gross to even begin on a Mac Mini ?

The thought of a low (although it isn't low) budget entry Mac will not stand with another price increase.
 
John.B said:
AMD shipped Llano today. The CPU is ho-hum, but the integrated GPU should run circles around anything that Intel could dream up...

http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2011/04/amds-ships-llano-the-ultimate-htpc-processor.ars

Too bad we'll never see anything like this in a HTPC-style Mac mini... :(
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:( its a sad sad day
The thought of a low (although it isn't low) budget entry Mac will not stand with another price increase.
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why ? makes no difference even if the base mini will go up to £700 its still cheaper then the base iMac for £1020 , and still below the base MacBook £867
and Apple Knows if you need /want a cheap new Mac the mini is your only option
and like i pointed it out since 2005 the base mini went from £325 to £612 (ok some cause by VAT increase )and did that stop people from buying ..no and even if some consider then a iMac ...apple does not care if you choose a iMac instead of a mini , they will happy sell you a iMac instead
 
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The price went up last time probably because of the redesign. Hopefully the price will stay the same or drop back to the $599 USD level.
 
Hellhammer said:
Furthermore, there is no guarantee that Thunderbolt will be included in Mac Minis. Keeping it as a "pro feature" doesn't sound too far-fetched.
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I hope (and think) that Thunderbolt will be in every product. If they want to make capable small business servers, it needs to have it.
 
MacHamster68 said:
ok they do what they always do with the mini ..give the customer some % more processor speed and the customer keeps quiet
which would mean the 2.66ghz which is now optional made baseline and maybe a downclocked i3 as optional upgrade and as apple doesn't give anything for free on the mini the obvious price increase

which i personally dont understand why every goody on the mini leads to a increase while the iMac and MBP are getting the same goodies without price increase and sometimes even drop a bit in price
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Makes absolutely no sense to keep using C2Ds when they cost the same or even more than Sandy Bridge CPUs. P8800, which is your 2.66GHz, costs 241$. That would get you a Core i5-2520M. C2D also requires a GPU/chipset from NVidia which also costs more. Sandy Bridge has all that in it, no need to pay extra money for the GPU. That makes it even more efficient.

Aslo, it makes absolutely no sense to use C2D and Sandy Bridge in the same product. It's much easier and cheaper for Apple to go with single logic board design and produce a crapload of it instead of keeping two lines each producing different logic boards.

C2Ds will also stop shipping on October 14th, 2011 so sooner than later Apple would have to update the Mini again.

Heilage said:
I hope (and think) that Thunderbolt will be in every product. If they want to make capable small business servers, it needs to have it.
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So do I, but my point was mainly that we don't know for sure, yet.
 
Here in Australia both the 2.4Ghz and 2.66Ghz Mini are on the refurb store at the moment, as well as the Mac Mini Server.

Normally the ordinary Minis sell out pretty quick, but the 2.4Ghz Mini's been up a fair bit recently. Considering what Philip had to say about the mass selling of Mac Minis on eBay in the US, and that iMacs are expected to be updated soon, I do think the Minis will get an update sometime in the next few months.

I agree that a move to Sandy Bridge on all Mac Mini models is what will likely happen.
 
mdgm said:
This has already been discussed with the new 13" MBPs. Probably not much difference. Some reckon it's a small move backwards.
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Thanks. I have been away from this site for a while, PC blew up, so decision time, buy mini now, or wait... :)
 
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It's so frustrating waiting for an announcement that may or may not come. I was just about to buy the mac mini and then it hit the macmall on ebay so I figured I better wait for a potential refresh. I'm a casual PC user at best and am in need of an update and figured i'd break onto the mac scene as inexpensively as possibe. I've been glued to my iPad since the day it was released last year, I've had every iteration of iPhone and figured they would all play much nicer with a mac. Ahead of my mini purchase, I bought the wireless keyboard/magic trackpad/magic mouse and was just about to buy the mini when I had to pause and now wait it out. A week, a month, heck a year? who knows. If nothing happens by the first week of may I think i'll just go with the 2010 model, which i'm sure is a step up from my 5 year old laptop.
 
lol i dont care if apple does not refresh it.

we can buy AsRock Vision 3D that already comes with i3, 3d and bd.

there's the Dell Inspiron too.

nettops are growing and Mac Mini is one step behind in specs terms

they have have until June to release something that appeals me in specs and price. Dont they know there is competition around the corner?

you guys rely too much on apple
 
boechat said:
lol i dont care if apple does not refresh it.

we can buy AsRock Vision 3D that already comes with i3, 3d and bd.

there's the Dell Inspiron too.

nettops are growing and Mac Mini is one step behind in specs terms

they have have until June to release something that appeals me in specs and price. Dont they know there is competition around the corner?

you guys rely too much on apple
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well in general you have a good point the AsRock Vision 3d gets good reviews.. it may be my next computer. and my pc that I ever owned. owned lots of macs.
 
So we can basically all agree that the new Mini will have the same internals as the new SB 13" Pro, right?

In that case, would it be recommended to wait for the new Mini or just buy the current one for graphics intense tasks?

I'm asking because I'd like to update my HTPC this year. It's currently a 2009 Mini with 2.26GHz and 9400 graphics (I guess). The only problem with that machine is that some BluRays don't run smoothly in Plex and since Plex gets hardware acceleration from the GPU, a GPU with a little more performance should do the trick.

Is the HD3000 still faster than the 9400 or are they on the same level?
 
boechat said:
lol i dont care if apple does not refresh it.
we can buy AsRock Vision 3D that already comes with i3, 3d and bd.
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What a concept. Things on the front where you can reach them. You have to pony up $2499 for the Mac Pro to get the same thing from Apple.

I really wish Apple would get back to its original idea of having computers be easy to use.
 
Transporteur said:
So we can basically all agree that the new Mini will have the same internals as the new SB 13" Pro, right?

In that case, would it be recommended to wait for the new Mini or just buy the current one for graphics intense tasks?

I'm asking because I'd like to update my HTPC this year. It's currently a 2009 Mini with 2.26GHz and 9400 graphics (I guess). The only problem with that machine is that some BluRays don't run smoothly in Plex and since Plex gets hardware acceleration from the GPU, a GPU with a little more performance should do the trick.

Is the HD3000 still faster than the 9400 or are they on the same level?
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I'm betting on a MBP13"-identical Mini too, but a discrete GPU, even low-end ones such as the 6490M, would be very nice.

HD3000 will beat the 9400 in most cases. The Intel equivalent of the latter would be the HD1000, which I have and dislike.

As for GPU performance with videos, later Intel GPUs have been very good with decoding (especially H.264) and encoding (better with QuickSync on the Sandy Bridge chips - but I don't think it's supported under Mac OS yet). The ones who do worry about Intel GPUs are gamers, 3D graphics designers, CAD users, and anyone who actively uses OpenGL regularly (though Sandy Bridge alleviates this a bit).
 
forget what i said about AsRock

http://www.amazon.com/ASRock-Barebo...2?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1302140030&sr=8-2

yeah, its a bd, i3, 500 gig, 4gb, 3d system.. but it costs 1000 bucks.

im not in the mood to burn 1000 cash on a not-so-reliable tiny box. i want a cheaper system.. but when it comes to comparsion: a mini mac with these specs would cost more than 1500 dollars.

but yet there is another option that i forget to mention before: the zotac zbox

bd, ion, 250gb, atom (sux) for 530 dollars.

there are better versions.. but dont ask me about its quality. its not even close to a mac, but its an option.
 
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The more I think about it, the more sure I am that the Mini's refresh will be a dual core SB i3 or i5 that'll be fairly baseline without any quad core options. Mini's just don't seem to leap ahead because Apple is maintaining the bare minimum to get PC people into the Mac ecosystem.

I hope I get to eat my words, but seeing how the hd3000 doesn't have much better performance than the 320m, it makes me even more tempted to just buy a used server edition and slap 8gb of ram in it.

Frankly at this point, I'm more and more inclined to try and build a hackintosh that if I can't get working 100%, I'll just format the drive and stick on Win7 (which I've found I REALLY like, but just prefer OSx at the end of the day). Very discouraging to find out the units are now back in stock too :(
 
MacHamster68 said:
they might as well give up on the mini, at least here in the UK and europe it makes absolute no sense to buy a new mini ,except the mini server if you desperately need a small headless server ,
as the standard mini cost here in the UK £612 which is close to $1000 and the iMac which offers a faster CPU, a better GPU, comes with more ram , more hdd space , and a monitor and bluetooth keyboard /mouse for just £400 more and if you choose a refurb iMac the difference is even only a little over £200 difference

so the mini is really only a sensible option for people who cant afford under any circumstances to spend more then £612 but want a brand new Mac
not that i want to see the mini die , i found it always a nice idea , but lately it just evolved into a overpriced small alu box , i quiet liked the mini as a basic Mac when it first was released and could compete against the cheapest pc's on the market in price but thats now 6 years ago
and since then it nearly doubled in price while the base iMac didn't
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Agreed, it's over-priced here, but disagree with the rest of your reasoning. There are a number of good reasons why iMacs aren't a viable alternative for some people.

Having used an intel iMac for 2 years 10 months, ie. until logic board fried recently (no Apple Care as I expected an expensive desktop to last more than 3 years, like my PPC laptop has & still going strong after over 5 & 1/2 years), in that time regularly fighting the many reflections from its glossy screen, I'll never buy an AIO from Apple nor from any other company again. If the hardware fails, you're left with mostly expensive junk fit only for selling on eBay for spare parts.
xheathen said:
For me, I could afford an entry level iMac, but I just have no interest in it (glossy screens as one big reason among others). What I'm really interested in is a smaller form factor system I can use with my existing large screen monitor, keyboard, mouse and speakers. Eventually I want to transition that Mini into being our home theater computer.

Hellhammer's point of $400 is actually alot of money. For those on a budget, the Mini makes a lot more sense than an iMac - plus if I were to guess, I would say that the majority of people looking at the Mac Mini are current Windows users (like myself). Those users in general are not going to be upgrading the ram or HDD through the Apple store, but instead buy the cheapest one we can find on something like Amazon.com and then buy an additional $80 to bump the ram up.
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I agree the Mini works very well on some levels that the iMac doesn't, not least its options of using matte monitors, etc.

Like others, I'm still waiting in case of updates in coming weeks, as I'm also a Mac gamer, so I'd appreciate any improvements in the integrated 320M.

But I've taken on board various opinions here, not least whether the Mini is really the best solution for those of us who'll also need to buy a separate monitor. Thus I'll explore alternatives for my desktop computing needs. I'll still be a Mac guy via my laptop (+ I have an old G4 iMac) & have a high regard for Apple generally, but I'm no longer ruling out a W7 machine as being a viable solution also. Meantime, I'll give it a few weeks more to see what Apple come up with as regards a newly updated Mini.
 
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