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Mac mini ripoff
- Thread starter simie
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I may well get shot down for this, but i don't think it is all that bad. Granted it is a mini rip off, but then barebones have always made small PC's so it does seem kind of logical.
I should think this will be a very popular media centre solution for some people.
I should think this will be a very popular media centre solution for some people.
Is that a serial port I can see 
what are they still used for?
I dont think making a small computer is really ripping off the mini because the mini is as small as you can go at the moment so if someone else wants to make a small computer then its going to have the same basic of the mini.
The aesthetics of it though are not good at all in my book. But if it looked good it would look like a mini.
what are they still used for?I dont think making a small computer is really ripping off the mini because the mini is as small as you can go at the moment so if someone else wants to make a small computer then its going to have the same basic of the mini.
The aesthetics of it though are not good at all in my book. But if it looked good it would look like a mini.
Is that a serial port I can see
I dont think making a small computer is really ripping off the mini because the mini is as small as you can go at the moment so if someone else wants to make a small computer then its going to have the same basic of the mini.
The aesthetics of it though are not good at all in my book. But if it looked good it would look like a mini.
Isn't that a DVI port?
I saw these at work a few weeks ago. I came in one day and a tiny little box was sitting on my desk that was the exact size and shape as a Mini's box. Apparantly everyone knows an an Apple person at work, and two coworkers bought a few of these things to setup to record and send some data (what else are they good for?). They wanted to show me that pc's can look cool too, but obviously they were pretty wrong... The case is flimsy plastic and that top rounded part is reallly hard to get on (but pretty easy to get off), putty knives aside... Oh well...
I meant the circular one to the right of the the DVI.
Maybe is not called serial but I thought it was ancient standard either way. I meant the circular one to the right of the the DVI.
S-Video by the looks of it. Still used today!
If it wasn't flimsy plastic I'd disagree but as soon as you said that I got a very unfavorable impression of what it would be like to have one.
If they think PC's can look cool, though, all you'd have to do is point at the screen each machine was connected to. Now that I use Macs 99.5% of the time, the Windows GUI looks like crap and gives you the impression that is in pain every time it redraws something, whereas the OS X effects are practically a reward in and of themselves.
I'll be polite since you're a Miro fan, but I totally disagree. I think it looks as good as the Mini, if not slightly better. Sometimes Apple's aesthetic of white or silver gets a little tiresome. I think darker shades have a place in the computer world. Personally, I'm hoping the rumored black iMac comes out before I'm ready to buy a new one in a few months. I'm not overly fond of white.
Anyway, the price is $529 US. I would actually consider one of these except the shipping would probably put it over the cost of a comparable Mini.
I don't understand how it is a mini rip off? Because it is small and square???
If it were white, and the exact same shape and design of the mini, then yes.....
If it were white, and the exact same shape and design of the mini, then yes.....
The comment, "dumb as hell" was directed towards the profuse and frank plagiarizing of the Mini's design aesthetics. However, I agree that the color is debatable. I would enjoy seeing more black Apple products; that is, black and silver rather than black and white.
Is that a serial port I can see
S-Video
Really. Because according to its specs
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=323745
Product Description AOpen miniPC MP945-VXR - no CPU
Type PC barebone
Form Factor Desktop slimline
Dimensions (WxDxH) 16.5 cm x 16.5 cm x 5 cm
Weight 1.5 kg
Processor No CPU
Processor Socket Socket 479
RAM 0 MB (installed) / 2 GB (max) - DDR II SDRAM
Storage Controller Serial ATA ( Serial ATA-300 )
Hard Drive None.
Optical Storage DVD-Writer
Monitor None.
Graphics Controller Intel GMA 950
Audio Output Sound card - 5.1 channel surround
Networking Network adapter - Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet
Power
Additional Specs
Graphics Controller
Type Integrated
Graphics Processor / Vendor Intel GMA 950
Video Memory Dynamic Video Memory Technology 3.0
€500 for the barebones
Add 1gb memory
Add 2ghz CoreDuo 2 Processor
Add 100gb HDD
Add Wireless WiFi option
Total = €1080
MacMini 1.83ghz with 1gb + 120gb HDD = €999
Uh, yeah...see the slot along the top edge on the front? The specs say it's a DVD burner.
I like it, actually. Quite nice, albeit pricey. I don't think it's fair to call every mini-formfactor PC a Mac mini ripoff; the Mac mini wasn't the first computer to be shrunk down to these sizes (although it was the smallest of them).
To whomever thought the S-video was a serial port...you know serial ports look nothing like that, right?
I dunno, I think it's pretty OK looking... but it's not a mini rip off. Just because something is small and roughly square doesn't make it a mini ripoff. If it was aluminum and flat topped I'd say it was (and there are systems out there that look very very similar to the mini... but not this one).
EDIT: Actually just following through the links in the article you posted found the one I was thinking off... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mini-DIN_connector ... which is the same spec as the SVideo port, but has been used for, ironically enough, serial communication data on Macs (and several other machines) for awhile.
"Also, an RS-232-compatible variant of RS-422 using a mini-DIN-8 connector was widely used on Macintosh hardware until it was replaced by Intel's Universal Serial Bus on the iMac in 1998." from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RS-422, which is a related article listed in the RS232 link you posted.
Well, the most common one (RS232) didn't look like that, but there were lots of different serial port connectors, I'm sure one of which was vaguely SVideo looking. I'm to lazy to find one, but there's bound to be at least one that was round, about that size, and had 6 or 8 pins.
EDIT: Actually just following through the links in the article you posted found the one I was thinking off... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mini-DIN_connector ... which is the same spec as the SVideo port, but has been used for, ironically enough, serial communication data on Macs (and several other machines) for awhile.
"Also, an RS-232-compatible variant of RS-422 using a mini-DIN-8 connector was widely used on Macintosh hardware until it was replaced by Intel's Universal Serial Bus on the iMac in 1998." from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RS-422, which is a related article listed in the RS232 link you posted.