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Mac Mini: 11 Months Since Last Update

lparkiv said:
We are LONG overdue to replace our 12 year old color TV (humans on the screen no longer appear to be flesh colored--more like colors ranging from a pale reddish green to ochre), and we'd like set up a home theater with an LCD TV and a Mac mini. My spouse is reluctant to buy a mini if a new one will be released soon. So, we sit and we wait.

We've been waiting a long time....

I've even begun to think that perhaps buying an iMac with the largest screen and a TV tuner might end up being the family's home theater system. Our existing TV is only 19 inches, so an iMac would still be something of an upgrade.
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I have you beat. I am looking to replace my 23 year old 19 inch TV. If only Apple would cooperate with a Mini update........:(
 
Yikes! You win!

The Smithsonian may want your TV! ;)

Yes, we both need an updated, shiny new mac Mini STAT!
 
I wish Apple would upgrade the mini and drop it back down to the old pricing for $499 for the base model or at least throw in their wireless keyboard and mouse. It's not like they couldn't do that and still make money. But oh well, what can you do.
 
Frankly, there really hasn't been anything to update the Mini to.

Santa Rosa would have offered a few more percentage points in FSB bandwidth and nothing in memory bandwidth. And the GMA X3100 is a better GPU then the GMA950, but it is still pretty laughable compared to even the basic GPUs from ATI and nVidia.

The G4 Mac Minis had to have a discrete GPU because PPC never offered an integrated GPU option. But the GMA950 in the Intel Mac Mini outclassed the ATI R200 core in the G4 Mac Mini.

The Mac Mini is not an iMac without a monitor anymore then the MacBook Pro is a MacBook in an aluminum case. They are aimed at different market niches which overlap less rather then more.

And to get that small form factor, Apple needs to use components that do not generate a great deal of heat. Sure, a Dell or HP SFF machine uses much faster parts, but it's also in a much larger case with multiple high-speed fans to keep it cool which means they're quite noisy when pushed to the limits.

Moving to Penryn on the Montevina platform would bring some real and noticeable benefits to the Mac Mini. Not only the FSB, but also the memory bus will increase in speed while the CPU heat level will lower to compensate. And the GMAX4500 is a major improvement over the X3100 (especially if Apple uses the X4500HD) and would keep pace with the low-end nVidia 8000 series GPUs.
 
Interestingly enough, I noticed that John Lewis' (a UK department store) electricals section had a "Reduced To Clear" header over the Mac Mini display stand today in the Liverpool store... EOL, perhaps?
 
Alan Taylor said:
Is it still possible to drop a new CPU into these things?
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The Mac Mini requires a Socket M CPU. The most powerful one Intel released was the Core 2 Duo T7600 (2.33GHz) and costs $450+ based on spot pricing via Google. You could also fit in a T7400 (2.16GHz) which runs about $300+.


Peter Crowder said:
Interestingly enough, I noticed that John Lewis' (a UK department store) electricals section had a "Reduced To Clear" header over the Mac Mini display stand today in the Liverpool store... EOL, perhaps?
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Well AppleInsider said it's been EoL since October of last year... ;)
 
tom53092 said:
To put some numbers to it, a quick look at Dell. For about the same price as the base Mini, you get a 2.4 Ghz quad-core processor, 2GB RAM, a 250GB drive. OK, to be fair, it wasn't really the same price...it was $100 LESS. Yes, I know about the "it's laptop components so it's gonna be slower" argument, but this is getting to be extreme.

I love my Mini, and look forward to the next one. That said, given a choice, I would choose performance over smallness and cuteness. A consumer-grade sub-$1000 microtower would totally rock, ya know, what lots of us have been wanting for as long as the Mini has been out. That would excite me. I want to feel excited about my next Mac, not just settle for what's available. I want to feel a fraction of the excitement that iphone buyers are feeling.

The timing is right. Apple is on a roll. Their market share gains are amazing when you consider that they've done it without a performance-competitive consumer desktop (headless). A minitower could really give an even bigger boost to their market share. I wonder if the only person at Apple that hasn't figured that out is Steve.
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Apple doesnt want that market share. They hate the cheapskates, steves motto "Pay me for great hardware, pay dell for ****"
 
superman193 said:
Apple doesnt want that market share. They hate the cheapskates, steves motto "Pay me for great hardware, pay dell for ****"
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The low price point was intended to attract people that owned a PC. Apple wanted to encourage people to switch to OS X then sell them a iMac, MBP or Mac Pro.
 
gehrbox said:
The low price point was intended to attract people that owned a PC. Apple wanted to encourage people to switch to OS X then sell them a iMac, MBP or Mac Pro.
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It can be argued that Apple no longer needs such a device, which is why some believe the Mac Mini is going to be terminated as a product line.
 
I Think if apple dont replace the mini, then they are dumb or scared.

look at all those small atom PC's coming out soon.

They wouldnt be doing it if their wasnt a market

I am sticking to that rumour early this year that apple had a small team working on a redesign
 
slimandslam said:
It's funny that they bother comparing the Shuttle X200 with
the Mac Mini since the specs aren't all that different. But most
importantly, the price is basically the same:

http://us.shuttle.com/X200H_2.aspx

What a joke....If the price was $100 or more less, I might
consider it.

J
Click to expand...
I agree, the shuttle is not a good deal. A better comparison would be to something like the Dell Vostro, which is a "slim" tower. Not quite as nice and compact as the mini, but definitely more bang for the buck. The $299 model has about the same specs as the mini. No built in wireless, but it does have 3100 graphics (or you can put in a low end, i.e. low power, graphics card), a 2nd GB of memory is only $25 and current upgrade special to 160GB drive is free. Too bad you can't buy OSX for that.

If Apple built something like that, even without the upgrade ability, I know I'd buy a couple. Make the footprint the same as the AppleTV (why have 2 different form factors? It's a waste of production) and make it just tall enough to put in a desktop hard drive instead of expensive laptop parts (which is also a needless expense).

http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/vostrodt_200st?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd
 
...nnnn i want to buy the cheapest osx system i can so mini looks good BUT it must be updated soon right??i want to maybe buy cheap old mini after a new one comes or maaaaybe a new one if its ok in price

but to buy a mac mini now is stupid right??

i know a basic macbook is almost same price and better hardware but i already have a great imac i just want cheap portable osx system..... :(
 
Mini alternative? ... Not for me. If a new Mini doesn't show up this year, I'll be replacing the three I have with a Mac Pro or two and maybe a couple of Apple laptops (one workstation at a time). I gotta have more speed and RAM space for web development at work, so ... since Flash, Java development and motion graphics, et al, are hardware resource dependent ...
 
I've been waiting forever too. I can't believe they haven't updated it. They should ditch it or update it. Instead they keep it like a neglected and forgotten child.
I need it to replace my aging HTPC. I'll give it through August, then I'll have to buy something to replace it.
 
terriyaki said:
Honestly I was tired of waiting. I needed an HTPC now and had to have something with the form factor of the Mac Mini so I just bit the bullet and bought it. If something newer and better comes out in the next month or two then so be it, but I need something now.
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I have just done the same thing. I just bought a 1.8Ghz model it should be here in a day or 2.

i just wish I had not waited now though :)
 
I imagine Apple will update it in August. Be patient.

The mini is a good machine as it is, if you really need one, buy one, it's not going to serve your needs any less if a new model comes out, right?

But yes, since it's so close to August (When they updated it last) if you can afford to, wait.
 
Mac Mini fan!

I heard all the rumors but decided to spring for a MINI anyways...

The thought of this being discontinued concerned me as I think this is the perfect companion to a media center.

I decided to bite as an initial introduction to the Apple OS and have had it for
2 days and now understand the maxim, "Once you go mac...you can't go back..(to Windows that is...). Although I still have 2 laptops (XP) and 1 desktop (Vista) still operational in my home I can't see myself ever getting another Windows based PC. The Apple OS is much more intuitive in my opinion and super fast compared to Windows..
 
trek1500 said:
I heard all the rumors but decided to spring for a MINI anyways...

The thought of this being discontinued concerned me as I think this is the perfect companion to a media center.

I decided to bite as an initial introduction to the Apple OS and have had it for
2 days and now understand the maxim, "Once you go mac...you can't go back..(to Windows that is...). Although I still have 2 laptops (XP) and 1 desktop (Vista) still operational in my home I can't see myself ever getting another Windows based PC. The Apple OS is much more intuitive in my opinion and super fast compared to Windows..
Click to expand...

I was concerned about it being discontinued as well

and yes you are right, once you go mac you dont go back :)

thats why we are all here :D
 
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