What is that point of view? I think the mini's reason for being is to make money; lots and lots of it. The mini might have been, at one time, an introductory Mac for those who could only afford $500. Now it's $700 and a huge profit making machine for Apple. IMO.
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2011 Mac Mini - Speculation
- Thread starter Nanker/Phelge
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Geez Apple hasn't even announced a new mini yet and its already overheating.
This is true though I do think the poster voiced a very valid concern. The most important feature for me from any computer is "silence" and cool operation. Those two requirements come before any other considerations. I often bring work home in the evenings which is quite technical and involving. Computer fans whirring away or noisy hard drives can be a real distraction to the point where I could take a hammer to the computer - seriously.
It really would be ironic if after waiting all this time for the Mini upgrade the new model were to be noisier and hotter than the outgoing Mini. The posts in the link provided concerning the 13" MBP doesn't exactly inspire one with confidence.
That's because the parts in the current machine are old and cheap. If they move to i5/TBolt/750 GB HDD/4 GB RAM that will lower profit per unit by a lot.
Hopefully thats not the case and that there is enough individuals and more importantly businesses using the mini to warrant its inclusion in the line up. The only way I would not consider a mini down the track if they make it so thin that you need so much stuff hanging off it to regain the functionality of the things they took away etc.
But there is an easy fix for that. Make the darn thing bigger. A little more space inside, a little more airflow. Problem solved. I'll take a bigger case for quiet operation.
I just want a Mac mini for proper HD video editing with Final Cut.
So bring on the Quad-Core i5/i7!
So bring on the Quad-Core i5/i7!
I just want a Mac mini for proper HD video editing with Final Cut.
So bring on the Quad-Core i5/i7!
I think most observers would put good money on that being a non-starter.
Not sure. I would find it very difficult to fork out $699 for an i3 or i5 two cores only. But then Apple has a way of getting us to pay ridiculous prices for their profit margin..
I would certainly go ahead and opt out of a small step up mini in favor of waiting until there are at least four cores next year. Really I'm hoping that a server version mini is announced sans optical drive and will be a high performer for guys like me who don't need sixteen cores in the MP and don't need a big glossy led, we just need a mac that works well with today's software and file sizes without taking all day.
One thing I noticed is that the new 2TB and 3TB Time Capsule have no Thunderbolt. Not even usb 3. This has resulted in the lowering of my expectations about the new mini, unfortunately. No way I'm using wireless or broadband speeds only to manage my data.....
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Me too. While I'd really like to upgrade my 2009 mini, I have a feeling I'm going to skip the 2011 model.
The way I understand it, the processors in the Time Capsules and Airport Extremes don't have enough power that it would make any difference. It takes some juice to convert ethernet data into hard drive data, so USB2 is plenty fast enough for connecting drives.
"I would certainly go ahead and opt out of a small step up mini in favor of waiting until there are at least four cores next year."
If the Mini comes out with an i5 duel core it will be a major step in performance. And I can't imagine they will come out with less.
If the Mini comes out with an i5 duel core it will be a major step in performance. And I can't imagine they will come out with less.
I don't understand, the mac mini is a stable, not a portable. Shouldn't it be easy to put a discrete gpu in it?
They have to be careful not to kill the iMac's perceived value though. I could definitely see them lowering the price a bit and going for the cheapest Intel x86 processor still being produced (i3).
They probably couldn't get away with i3 for $699, but then again the C2D mini is currently #1 desktop seller on Amazon for that price.
ASROCK has cloned probably the future Mac Mini...
Dears, please really read this hardware spec from this new product of ASROCK: http://www.asrock.com/nettop/overview.asp?Model=CoreHT Series, if you have been following this thread you can see many specs that we discussed here! This company has released this product just before the rumors that Mac Mini will be probably released in earlier August...
Dears, please really read this hardware spec from this new product of ASROCK: http://www.asrock.com/nettop/overview.asp?Model=CoreHT Series, if you have been following this thread you can see many specs that we discussed here! This company has released this product just before the rumors that Mac Mini will be probably released in earlier August...
If it came with the option of a second HD you could always use an external DVD.
What's funny is that I would be willing to pay a premium to get a mid range tower from Apple that had iMac performance but in an easy to open case that had a little bit of expansion room. Give me an easy to open case, room for two hard drives and an optical drive and a couple of jacks on the front and I'd gladly pay $1500 for that. That is more than the price of an equivalent iMac but it allows me to use the monitor I already have.
To me the iMac has no value since I'm not interested in all in ones.
So as it stands I'm stuck between $699 Mini and $2499 Mac Pro. Plenty of room for a $1500 mini tower. I don't want the clutter of external devices that would necessary to get what I want out of a Mini but I don't want to have to fork over $2500 just to get a little bit of expansion.
I do get the feeling we might loose the DVD, especially as Mac App Store is becoming the way Apple want to distribute apps. It's not ideal as I said before but I could live with it.
Just one more thing, i'd still like to keep a fw800 port. The world and me aren't ready yet to purchase an expensive Thunderbolt HDD.
I am totally with you. I too would fork over $1500 for a mid range tower that had the means of being able to offer the purchaser small upgrades I could do myself. But $2,500 is way more than I am willing to spend on a computer.
I already have a monitor, Keyboard, mouse etc ... and I hate the Imac mirror screen.
As much as I personally would prefer a superdrive free mini, I can't envision Apple removing this feature as they do target the switchers with mini and no optical drive could be very deal breaking for your average novice pc user, I can hear it now, "You expect me to pay an extra $150 for an external dvd player??"
With usb/ iPod ready car stereos, home audio, tv's, etc.. I'm ready to kiss the disc format goodbye except for the rare dvd that I need to burn and I can do that with a different Mac in the house when needed. And I'd cherish the extra space in the mini for higher performance specifications or better storage options.
That said, my crystal ball says that the base mini will see a lot less spec bump than the server model.. if there is a new server model.. (crosses fingers)*
With usb/ iPod ready car stereos, home audio, tv's, etc.. I'm ready to kiss the disc format goodbye except for the rare dvd that I need to burn and I can do that with a different Mac in the house when needed. And I'd cherish the extra space in the mini for higher performance specifications or better storage options.
That said, my crystal ball says that the base mini will see a lot less spec bump than the server model.. if there is a new server model.. (crosses fingers)*
I think there should be three minis; base, premium and server. I can't imagine a whole lot of people have been buying the server model but it does have features that people want.
If the base had an i3, then the premium might have an i5, and the server would have i5, dual hard drives and no optical drive. (Or something like that.)
Since we're unlikely to see a mid-Mac, more options for the mini would be nice.
If the base had an i3, then the premium might have an i5, and the server would have i5, dual hard drives and no optical drive. (Or something like that.)
Since we're unlikely to see a mid-Mac, more options for the mini would be nice.
I absolutely concur that we need the mini to come in three versions. Lave the Mac "Pro" Tower to those who need that - though with Thunderbolt is it really that necessary any more? Just watched the LaCie demo of two Thunderbolt enabled externals with a 24" monitor running from the TB drives and running through raw HD 1080p footage while still playing a dvd and another movie... Now is the time for smaller - using TB as the conduit for add-ons - and the mini is the perfect medium for that. Give us the option of swapping in better graphics cards and an i7 and you'll see a billion of them...
The idea of iDave is great! I hope that Apple listens and gives us more choices on the Mac Mini! I have been waiting for the update of Mac Mini. If the update is not terribly upset to me, I will grab one once it is updated. The following minimum set of specs will make me happy: i3 or i5 CPU + thunderbolt + 500 GB or 1TB HD + 4 GB memory. I wish that the memory + HD could be easily updated. It will be nice to be able to put an SSD (in addition to HD) into it.
What's wrong with dual cores? The sandy bridge mobile chips are dual core but four threads, the desktop chips are quad core with four threads. So with good hyper threaded apps the mobile chip performance should still be good