Does the mac Mini need Core/2 Duo?

[MacSA]

I noticed the new Apple TV has a Pentium M chip in it and it sells for £199.

How much cheaper would a Mac Mini be if they were to use a Pentium M chip or something similar? I bet they could knock £100 off the price and sell it for £299.

 

[NintendoFan]

They could, but you'd lose a pretty decent amount of performance. It's what, a four year old chip, that is rather suitable for the Apple TV, not so much for OS X. They also lack SSE 3, which is something I believe OS X for Intel requires.

 

[etjazz]

It either needs a core 2 + ram upgrade, or one serious price drop. the mini is horrible value at the moment

 

[dvdiva]

It either needs a core 2 + ram upgrade, or one serious price drop. the mini is horrible value at the moment

What is really ridiculous is the price of referbs are the same as new models. I agree that the price should be lower. Only good deals I've seen are for the solo core models which is taking a big performance hit vs the duos if you run anything in emulation.

 

[Teh Don Ditty]

I bought a stock mini (1.67, 512, 60). I maxed the ram to 2GB and this thing flies. Got it hooked up to my 26" Sony Bravia HD TV (A lot of people doubt the GMA 950). Absolutely gorgeous. As for the CPU upgrade, I was thinking about doing that when the prices of the C2Ds drop and also putting in a(n) 8x Superdrive and a 100GB 7200RPM HD. Which brings me to price. If I did that all at once, it would easily be north of $1000 which in that case you can buy a nice new iMac. Which also brings me to the gap in Apple's lineup (I know, I know. We won't get into that ).

- The Don Ditty (aka Mike)

 

[SkyBell]

It nees to knock $100 off the price, and keep the Core Duo.

 

[emptyCup]

It nees to knock $100 off the price, and keep the Core Duo.

It's selling. Most of the people who buy it love it. You can always spend a little more and get a little better. That's fine with Apple.

 

[Bibulous]

Yes it does.

 

[Zwhaler]

The Mac Mini does need a Core 2 Duo at the price it is at now. Drop it by 150 dollars and I will stop asking.

 

[Zwhaler]

It's selling. Most of the people who buy it love it. You can always spend a little more and get a little better. That's fine with Apple.

Yeah, but if it is selling now, sales would shoot up is they knocked down the price.

 

[Claven2]

Yeah, but if it is selling now, sales would shoot up is they knocked down the price.

I can even live with a Core Duo, if they'd put in a decent GPU. Realistically, people like me will spend the extra $400 or whatever and get a macbook which is basically a delux mini with a screen and peripherals. It's the same hardware just boxed differently.

If I want a nifty looking mini desktop I need to buy my own peripherals for, it had better not take a performance hit over the inclusive iMac or I will NEVER buy it and will continue running a PC in parallel for gaming and hi-graphics apps.

The day the Mini ships with a decent GPU, I'll buy TWO of them and happily chuck the last of my PC's i nthe rubbish bin. Won't go near a mini till then, especially not at the current pricing.

 

[Dont Hurt Me]

It either needs a core 2 + ram upgrade, or one serious price drop. the mini is horrible value at the moment

I agree and also its superfantastic best in class GMA950 is saturated by its current coreduo so even a core2duo isnt going to do anything for its gaming frame rates. Mini is crippleware, no mouse,keyboard or real GPU. its ok for some people but Apple is wanting folks to buy a iMac.

 

[metalgearmac]

Why make the mac mini even worse? Cram as much power in there as possible please

 

[mark88]

The biggest problem with the mini is that when you start speccing it up, you realize you're extremely close to the price of an iMac which offers much better value for money.

 

[Teh Don Ditty]

very true. Fun to upgrade though.

 

[Eidorian]

The processor is more then enough on the Mac mini. I'd be more concerned about the RAM and video card. It'd be nice if they included a keyboard/mouse but you'd lose the tiny box to fit all that in.

 

[shikimo]

this is the key...

The processor is more then enough on the Mac mini. I'd be more concerned about the RAM and video card. It'd be nice if they included a keyboard/mouse but you'd lose the tiny box to fit all that in.

Exactly: the value problem in the mini lies in the lack of RAM, HD space and the average video card. It is not, however, fair to compare it to MBPs in any sense, because obviously mini buyers want full-sized (and maybe non-Apple) peripherals. I'm currently waiting for SOME kind of value upgrade on the mini, as I want a 20" screen and dont feel like shelling out 1500 euros for the 20" iMac...and in any case I want a 16/10 monitor, which brings us back to the true appeal of the mini in the first place: use the peripherals you like and keep the superior Mac OS without paying for a Mac Pro...

...but yeah, no denying that it's a bit of a ripoff at the moment.