Is 2012 new mac mini coming?

[blanka]

2 Facts about the Mini's that should not make you too nervous about all the speculation, rumors etc. Just buy one if you need one.

- The resale value of Minis is the BEST of any computer in the world. There is NO COMPUTER AS CHEAP PER MONTH USE as the MacMini. It's the Volkswagen Polo of computing.
- New Mini's ALWAYS DISSAPOINT. There is always a reason why people want the previous version, hence fact 1!

 

[CausticPuppy]

I hope like many here I am not disappointed in next weeks announcement.

I don't know what type of upgrade they could announce which would be "disappointing." I think we know exactly what to expect.

It's going to be a spec bump, but basically the same "tiers" and same price points.

They'll be faster than the Macbook Airs but slower than Macbook Pros. Which is to say they'll be just great for most tasks.

 

[blanka]

I don't know what type of upgrade they could announce which would be "disappointing."

• Drop of Ethernet port
• No upgradable HD, no more room for second HD
• Drop of dedicated GPU
• Soldered SSD that keeps price the same or makes it higher
• Down the hole again on iFixit repair (read tinker) score
• Drop of Firewire port

I bet 6 beers on 4 maybe 5 of the above to come true.

 

[keema]

• Drop of Ethernet port
• No upgradable HD, no more room for second HD
• Drop of dedicated GPU
• Soldered SSD that keeps price the same or makes it higher
• Down the hole again on iFixit repair (read tinker) score
• Drop of Firewire port

I bet 6 beers on 4 maybe 5 of the above to come true.

I kinda think somehow that some of these will be true...

 

[APlotdevice]

• Drop of Ethernet port
• No upgradable HD, no more room for second HD
• Drop of dedicated GPU
• Soldered SSD that keeps price the same or makes it higher
• Down the hole again on iFixit repair (read tinker) score
• Drop of Firewire port

I bet 6 beers on 4 maybe 5 of the above to come true.

Loss of the FireWire port seems inevitable. They may go SSD, but I doubt it will be soldered on (even the ones in the MBA and rMBP are on a removable mini-PCIe board).

 

[FrozenShivers]

• Drop of Ethernet port
• No upgradable HD, no more room for second HD
• Drop of dedicated GPU
• Soldered SSD that keeps price the same or makes it higher
• Down the hole again on iFixit repair (read tinker) score
• Drop of Firewire port

I bet 6 beers on 4 maybe 5 of the above to come true.

Dropping the ethernet port would be a horrible move.

 

[flopticalcube]

Dropping the ethernet port would be a horrible move.

Not likely to happen. I don't see a case change this time around.

 

[CausticPuppy]

• Drop of Ethernet port
• No upgradable HD, no more room for second HD
• Drop of dedicated GPU
• Soldered SSD that keeps price the same or makes it higher
• Down the hole again on iFixit repair (read tinker) score
• Drop of Firewire port

I bet 6 beers on 4 maybe 5 of the above to come true.

I bet 12 beers that it's the exact same form factor and case design-- with all the same ports (except USB3 instead of USB2).
The ONLY one might be the drop of the dedicated GPU, but we'll see.

None of that list came true for the classic MBP, and it got the Ivy Bridge update.

 

[blanka]

Guess they are too lazy to change the case, but it is a waste of profit. 15x15x3cm is more than enough after Ivy Bridge.

And with soldered SSD I ment the tiny daugterboards. Anyway: no generic 2,5 inch SSD bay with SATA cable at least.

 

[Kryptik.Kode]

Dropping the ethernet port would be a horrible move.

Yes. Beyond horrible. Dropping Ethernet on a desktop doesn't even make sense.

 

[SR45]

• Drop of Ethernet port Wrong, not going to happen
• No upgradable HD, no more room for second HD Wrong again
• Drop of dedicated GPU Wrong for the third time.
• Soldered SSD that keeps price the same or makes it higher Wrong
• Down the hole again on iFixit repair (read tinker) score
• Drop of Firewire port Possible

Goodness, you are wrong all over the place.

1. Ethernet port is important on a desktop, period. WiFi only would be dumb
2. Upgradable HD to another spinner or SSD has always been important and Apple will not drop this either.
3. GPU will be improved along with the intel integrated video chip
4. Firewire port is the only possibility of being dropped.
5. Upgraded CPU

 

[antithema]

My guess is that the design will stay the same, they will upgrade to ivy bridge processors possibly quad cores (I really hope so) and graphics card (possibly HD 4000), they will offer 4gb of ram minimum and of course USB 3.0 ports (all 4 of them or at least 2 of them). Regarding the HDD I think they will stay as standard but they will offer more options for SSD.

 

[dasx]

My 4GB 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo is starting to struggle with the few things I ask him to do, which include video conversions and compressions. I could do it faster with my basic Air, but I have this Mini running 24/7 and it's much more easy and comfortable than having to be looking at the air. I've been waiting for an update for some time now.

The only thing I'm afraid of is no secondary drive option. I've learned how important a SSD is terms of performance is, so I want a basic 128GB (or even 64GB, although I don't see that being available) to install my SO into and a 500GB or even 1TB regular drive to store all my stuff.

If that option goes away... I can't spend €700+ on a 512GB SSD ffs...

 

[MacSignal]

Not likely to happen. I don't see a case change this time around.

Agree. USB 3 but maybe the same set of external connections otherwise.

 

[iAlex]

Yeah, you're right...

Get rid of the FireWire & Ethernet port. Solder in the HD & ram. Heck, just seal up the whole freaking box. Seal it up tight! Then integrate a camera & mic, call it the "i-cloud box" or cloud box, no wait, The freedom box! How about.... "The i-freedom" --and make it the size of a marble.

If you tamper with it, TSA comes and takes you away under suspicion of being a Republican.

ialex

 

[kronstal]

Don't care what the update brings. I'm getting one to hook up to my projector as a media player

 

[henchman]

Loss of FireWire would be bad for me, as I will be using a FireWire audio interface.
An the thunderbolt will be used for my UAD sattelite DSP plugins box.

 

[kobyh15]

Another thunderbolt port would be nice.

 

[Kebabselector]

I bet 6 beers on 4 maybe 5 of the above to come true.

I seriously hope not.

 

[Oracle1729]

• Drop of Ethernet port
• No upgradable HD, no more room for second HD
• Drop of dedicated GPU
• Soldered SSD that keeps price the same or makes it higher
• Down the hole again on iFixit repair (read tinker) score
• Drop of Firewire port

I bet 6 beers on 4 maybe 5 of the above to come true.

If a single one of those comes true Timmy's a bigger idiot than I thought. Every single thing on your list is a loss for no reason at all.

How is no ethernet better than ethernet? How is a soldered SSD better than a drive bay? How is no dedicate GPU better than GPU.....

Why do you want to turn a sweet little machine into a piece of garbage?

 

[henchman]

If a single one of those comes true Timmy's a bigger idiot than I thought. Every single thing on your list is a loss for no reason at all.

How is no ethernet better than ethernet? How is a soldered SSD better than a drive bay? How is no dedicate GPU better than GPU.....

Why do you want to turn a sweet little machine into a piece of garbage?

Well, they need to save on costs somehow, as they don't want to make it cost as much as an iMac.
And they need to keep iMacs in the affordability range.

Remember when they dropped the DVD burner from the mini's?
I think it's cafe to assume FireWire would be on the chopping black next.
And since they have thunderbolt, I can see them not going USB 3.0

I think they will just make people decide for themselves what adapters to get for thunderbolt.

 

[APlotdevice]

Well, they need to save on costs somehow, as they don't want to make it cost as much as an iMac.
And they need to keep iMacs in the affordability range.

Remember when they dropped the DVD burner from the mini's?
I think it's cafe to assume FireWire would be on the chopping black next.
And since they have thunderbolt, I can see them not going USB 3.0

I think they will just make people decide for themselves what adapters to get for thunderbolt.

No USB 3.0... Huh? The latest MacBooks already include it. There is no reason to think they won't put it in the Mini.

 

[ctyrider]

Well, they need to save on costs somehow, as they don't want to make it cost as much as an iMac.
And they need to keep iMacs in the affordability range.

Remember when they dropped the DVD burner from the mini's?
I think it's cafe to assume FireWire would be on the chopping black next.
And since they have thunderbolt, I can see them not going USB 3.0

You clearly don't know what you are talking about. Dropping commodity ports like Ethernet does not save costs. Any updated Mini will have USB3 ports. Count on it.

 

[henchman]

You clearly don't know what you are talking about. Dropping commodity ports like Ethernet does not save costs. Any updated Mini will have USB3 ports. Count on it.

I don't ever count on anything when it comes to Apple.
They had a year left on the google maps lease, and left it out of Ios6.

So, if they decide to only have thunderbolt and USB, well, that saves them the cost of a FireWire and Ethernet chip, and the connectors as well.

Just sayin'.

 

[kappaknight]

I'd agree Apple is hard to predict for some of this stuff. However, I think they'd definitely keep the Ethernet port. A number of people use these machines as servers in data centers. They also promote it to be used as such so taking it out would be counter intuitive.