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2011 Mac Mini - Speculation

Lankyman said:
The only fly in that particular ointment is the not insignificant problem of space - there is no room in the casing for a discrete graphics. That was the reason they didn't get one last time around. There has been discussion about this last year. A couple of reviews also highlighted this was the case.
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True, but not exactly. The current Mini has 2 chips; the C2D + M320.

Sandy Bridge is a SoC architecture so this has been cut down to just one chip. The space left by the M320 could be used by a discrete GPU.

However, the problem I see with this is whether or not there is space for the dicrete RAM for the GPU, not the GPU itself.
 
FWRLCK said:
Well, they didn't on either the laptops or iMacs, so I'm going to go with "will probably still have a FW800 port and USB2 ports" for legacy support. I don't understand why people would even speculate about USB3 though given no other Apple product supports that technology.

I don't expect the new Mac Mini to be anything other than a 13" MBP in a different case. The lack of discrete graphics will piss a lot of forum goers off, but given the low priority MacOS gaming seems to have at Apple, it seems pretty unlikely that Apple would be willing to make the tradeoffs required to dissipate the extra heat generated by a discrete graphics solution.

The real question to me is, when? This summer? Fall? Next year?
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the question when may be partially answered next week. if they give the ipod away for a back to school special. i think they will hold back on the mini until late july. if they have a lesser back to school deal the mini will come out ver soon.
 
I come to this page every day hoping there is news of constrained supplies, a leaked photo of a mini ... or anything that will give me hope that a mini refresh is imminent.

I don't want to purchase a refurb and then have the new ones released a month later, and knowing my bad luck recently that will happen.
 
MattyO said:
I come to this page every day hoping there is news of constrained supplies, a leaked photo of a mini ... or anything that will give me hope that a mini refresh is imminent.

I don't want to purchase a refurb and then have the new ones released a month later, and knowing my bad luck recently that will happen.
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So hurry up and buy then so the rest of us can get the refreshed version! ;)
 
I don't think it's getting Sandy Bridges, and it wouldn't surprise me to see it not get a Core i option.

Apple doesn't want the Mini to cannibalize iMac sales, that's why they typically keep it a good generation or so behind.
 
Same

Same thing with me. Dieing to buy new mini for my media center. I know soon as I buy one Apple will upgrade... I come here everyday looking for any kind off mini update...
 
The outlook is still quite grim for my 2006 intel iMac with the "bad" (or so they say) GPU, so I've been looking to save up for a new mac and had my sights on the mini. I'd still wanna save up a bit of dough for one but it would be great. Now that I have a 21.5 Inch widescreen for my gaming pc, I could throw the mac mini in with that combo. But the specs on the mac mini worry me right now.

Would love to see an i5 or i7 with at LEAST 6 to 8 GB of RAM and a Radeon HD 5000 to 6000 series chipset and a 1 TB HDD.

Keep the price right and you have a winner.
 
KurtangleTN said:
I don't think it's getting Sandy Bridges, and it wouldn't surprise me to see it not get a Core i option.

Apple doesn't want the Mini to cannibalize iMac sales, that's why they typically keep it a good generation or so behind.
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There is absolutely no doubt that the next Mini refresh will have an i-series CPU. It would make no sense to release a "refresh" with essentially the sames mediocre specs. If there is no Core i, there is no refresh.

Personally I don't agree with your reasonings on sticking with the C2D. There are other ways of keeping the iMacs and Mini from eating at each others markets. Speed, GPU, Storage, etc are just some ways while still keeping the SB architecture on both.
 
hey you know what apple should do ... have a DIY section where you can "build" your dream apple setup .... put anything you want in anything .. you want 1TB ssd in your imac ? no problems ...

If you have the dough, why would we say no?

lmfao.
 
MacinJosh said:
There is absolutely no doubt that the next Mini refresh will have an i-series CPU. It would make no sense to release a "refresh" with essentially the sames mediocre specs. If there is no Core i, there is no refresh.

Personally I don't agree with your reasonings on sticking with the C2D. There are other ways of keeping the iMacs and Mini from eating at each others markets. Speed, GPU, Storage, etc are just some ways while still keeping the SB architecture on both.
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Well, technically there's a chance the next mini refresh will skip the core i-series. It's possible that Intel doesn't use core i for Ivy Bridge, right? And it's possbile that the Mini will skip SB. I wouldn't find it likely, but 'absolutely no doubt' is a bit bold.

But I agree with your second point, and would like to point out that iMacs use desktop versions of SB architecture, while Mini would probably use laptop versions of SB chips.
 
Lankyman said:
The only fly in that particular ointment is the not insignificant problem of space - there is no room in the casing for a discrete graphics. That was the reason they didn't get one last time around. There has been discussion about this last year. A couple of reviews also highlighted this was the case.
Click to expand...

There is an easy solution. All Apple has to do is make the case bigger. Go ahead and make it about 6 to 8 inches tall. Plenty of room then for two hard drives and the optical drive and even put jacks and slots on the front. Problem solved.
 
G4er? said:
There is an easy solution. All Apple has to do is make the case bigger. Go ahead and make it about 6 to 8 inches tall. Plenty of room then for two hard drives and the optical drive and even put jacks and slots on the front. Problem solved.
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Not.
Going.
To.
Happen.

Seriously, why are you even trying to convince us? We have no control over Apple's product line aside from deciding to buy or not buy.
 
What are the odds / is it technically possible for them to ditch the intel integrated graphics and use a mobile ATI solution that's actually a GPU improvement?
 
FWRLCK said:
Not.
Going.
To.
Happen.

Seriously, why are you even trying to convince us? We have no control over Apple's product line aside from deciding to buy or not buy.
Click to expand...

The question was regarding heat issues. I answered with a logical and easy solution to the heat issue. A bigger case.
 
He was right though, it's not going to happen. And while his statement was a bit.. bold.. I do agree that there's no need to convince us, but not because we have little to no influence, but because there's plenty of people already convinced. Plenty of topics from people that want a more powerful Mini/the mythical xMac/headless iMac/cheaper Pro/whatever you call it.

I also agree with you, there's no problem with doubling the height to me: It'd still be small, still look good (not as good as the old Mini IMO :p), but there's just more room! For cooling, for GPU, for HDD, for not engineering very tight solutions that drive the price up...
glitch44 said:
What are the odds / is it technically possible for them to ditch the intel integrated graphics and use a mobile ATI solution that's actually a GPU improvement?
Click to expand...

Not too sure about the technical possibilities, but I think that's a no, due to the space requirements. For the chip itself, plus it needs RAM. I believe shared RAM isn't an option with SB (??)
About the odds: I don't think it's going to happen. Mac Mini is marketed more of a HTPC/low end all purpose system, so its graphics are of little concern to Apple. Not to me, mind you, but to Apple.
 
G4er? said:
The question was regarding heat issues. I answered with a logical and easy solution to the heat issue. A bigger case.
Click to expand...

While it would be the logical and perhaps the smart thing to do, there are a couple of reasons why I don't see that happening. (I will refrain myself from using bold statements ;) )

1. Apple just had a case redesign last year. I seriously doubt that they would redesign it again although anything could happen. Take my MacBook SE as an example. All of a sudden it became a Pro and ditched the user-replaceable battery.

2. A larger case would be just that, larger. Not Mini. It would have to be a new product with a new name. Mac Medium? Mac Not-So-Mini? Mac Not-So-Pro?
 
Nice revamped cube with 4 drive bays plus SSD, to support the growing need for media serving. Yum.

It'll never happen though, so I'd be happy with whatever the minimum spec is required to transcode a 1080p stream to an appleTV while simultaneously playing a 1080p stream.
 
I got the 2010 mini few weeks ago simply cause of 320 that's inside. I'm not a fan of intel graphics and I'm afraid the new one will have it.
If there's a radeon in there then mine goes up for sale pronto but I highly doubt it. Heat increase with a dedicated GPU would be significant in such small casing plus... where do you actually fit it?
 
lvlarkkoenen said:
Mac Mini is marketed more of a HTPC/low end all purpose system, so its graphics are of little concern to Apple.
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Do you mean to say you've actually seen marketing for the mini, other than on Apple's website?

I think our problem is that despite Apple's best efforts to sell more profitable computers, the mini still sells quite well. So Apple doesn't want to upgrade it too often.
 
Undo Redo said:
Do you mean to say you've actually seen marketing for the mini, other than on Apple's website?

I think our problem is that despite Apple's best efforts to sell more profitable computers, the mini still sells quite well. So Apple doesn't want to upgrade it too often.
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The mini in my case is a great "get familiar with apple" computer. It isn't expensive by any means and it is plug and play so to speak.

I have an excellent monitir, keyboard etc from a PC which will go nicely with the mini so all I need is the unit itself.

But I am very hestiant to buy a 2010 mini right now what with TB and the i series processors that the refreah will hopefully get.

I plan on waiting till when the minis come with Lion and if there isn't a new mini released, then I will have to consider other options.
 
lvlarkkoenen said:
Well, technically there's a chance the next mini refresh will skip the core i-series. It's possible that Intel doesn't use core i for Ivy Bridge, right? And it's possbile that the Mini will skip SB. I wouldn't find it likely, but 'absolutely no doubt' is a bit bold.

But I agree with your second point, and would like to point out that iMacs use desktop versions of SB architecture, while Mini would probably use laptop versions of SB chips.
Click to expand...

Actually it is possible the Mac mini could switch to desktop processors without upgrading cooling much in the form of the i5-2390T which normally operates at 2.7GHz, but can boost to 3.5GHz while running at 35W TDP, but Apple is unlikely to do this as this downgrades to Intel HD 2000 which is weaker than the 320M
 
CaoCao said:
Actually it is possible the Mac mini could switch to desktop processors without upgrading cooling much in the form of the i5-2390T which normally operates at 2.7GHz, but can boost to 3.5GHz while running at 35W TDP, but Apple is unlikely to do this as this downgrades to Intel HD 2000 which is weaker than the 320M
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wouldn't the HD3000 on the mobile chips be downclocked in comparison though, at least on the 25W chips? wonder how a downclocked HD3000 compares to a normal speed HD2000?
 
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