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New Mac Mini - No Optical Drive
- Thread starter haruhiko
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No. The DVD or CD Sharing box in the spec page of the new Macbook Air and Mac Mini shows them sharing a CD/DVD over the air from an iMac.
Unfortunately I think is highly likely. Already some iMac users are receiving units with no software DVDs but Internet Recovery instead apparently.
It'll be interesting to see if the Mac Pro keeps the optical drive or not.
moving away from the drive
except for burning movies. Many of the films I like are dvd only and netflix priced themselves out of the picture.
Hopefully, Mac compliant external optical drives will still be available, IF the iPad is not everything I need in a computer by the time I get done with school. I've stopped buying cds so it's only a matter of time I guess.
Still, the thing that bugs me more than no optical drive is the fact that Apple has drastically cut the educational discount (on the Mini, Air and display > those are the ones I've checked) by at least $30. As a long time student this is very disappointing to see.
except for burning movies. Many of the films I like are dvd only and netflix priced themselves out of the picture.
Hopefully, Mac compliant external optical drives will still be available, IF the iPad is not everything I need in a computer by the time I get done with school. I've stopped buying cds so it's only a matter of time I guess.
Still, the thing that bugs me more than no optical drive is the fact that Apple has drastically cut the educational discount (on the Mini, Air and display > those are the ones I've checked) by at least $30. As a long time student this is very disappointing to see.
In a few years down the line, when the Mac Mini get more and more powerful i think apple will do away with the iMac not just the Optical Drive
they will sell TB Display with all the connections but no moving parts and SSD will be the norm for hard drives by then in the Mac Mini
they will sell TB Display with all the connections but no moving parts and SSD will be the norm for hard drives by then in the Mac Mini
I am not sure what you mean by "mac compliant", but any external DVD or BR drive will work with a Mac. I am using one right now to rip my BR collection.
For now, yes. But, if you look how cloud computing is moving in, consumers are being moved to dumb terminals. Turn on the box, your icons will be there to click on, then the program you RENT (subscribe to) will come from their servers for you to use.
Really? Because the way I see it, IF Apple had left he ODD in the mini, those who do not want the ODD would have no choice about paying for one. If you choose to use an ODD, you can choose to buy an external.
Nope, probably not... but where did Apple's success really come from in the last decade? It's the iPod... which lead to the iPhone. The only reason why I own a Mac today is because I needed it for iPhone development. That's why I don't like these latest desktop changes. It seems to take away the desktop and push things towards the iOS/Cloud world.
And again, history might prove Apple right. They're helping to kill off discs, so Apple is making their own future. This time around, I already have a good Mac. I can just wait things out. Unlike the late 90's, I don't have to worry about replacing $1000 worth of hardware. Heh, and my current Mac Mini is not a Performa 6300... I don't feel the same urgency to upgrade.
And yeah... the desktop appears to be losing ground to portable devices, so maybe Apple is right to make these changes. I'm actually happy that Apple launched hardware that is disappointing to me... that means I can save money and wait for the next generation of stuff.
I remember the dark days of Apple, when it wasn't clear if Apple was going to live or die. I was a big Mac fan, but Apple didn't seem to care about to that. I actually wrote to Apple and asked if I could get an all-in-one G3, but I didn't even receive a reply. Macs were expensive... they're still expensive.
What's so exciting about it really? Most of the things that I need extra computing power do so with a GPU... and the Mac Mini is really screwed up in that regard. If I want the better graphics processor, I have to spend $799. If I want the quad, I have to give up the better graphics processor and spend $999.
The base model Mac Mini has 2GB of RAM... so that stunts the power of the dual-core Intel Core i5. Apple wants $100 for the upgrade. That's expensive... especially if you start adding an external optical drive. If computing power was my main concern, I could build a Windows PC that would crush the Mac Mini. In fact, the PC under my desk now is probably more powerful than my 2009 Mac Mini.
I like the Mac Mini because it does a lot, without taking up a lot of space or electricity... and it's cheap. The way things are setup now, buying the $599 model doesn't make sense for me because of the shared memory graphics processor and the limited RAM. So, $799+$80 external optical drive a lot for an upgrade.
Is roughly double (perhaps triple) the CPU power really worth it to me? No, I think that's just too much money... especially when the external is less elegant looking.
I can use my early 2009 Mac Mini to render 3D graphics, create apps, write books, read and write CD/DVDs, make promo videos, use the Internet and more! It does it's job. And while I enjoyed looking at the benchmarks for the new Mac Mini... I currently do not have a need for that much CPU power.
I think Folding@home changed my perspective of the CPU. With CUDA GPU folding, I completed in weeks what used to take years with just a CPU.
Get an external drive. How many times a month do you plan to install Windows? Sure, back in win2000 and xp days I used to have to reinstall every 3 months, but I believe that things have improved now.
You can download it from MS and enter your serial or use an external drive. How often are you planning to reinstall? You could image the DVD and keep it on an install hard drive. To protect yourself against data loss, make a backup of this onto another drive. DVDs can scratch and also deteriorate over time.
A virus will only infect executable files, not your precious memories. Since you're talking about people's media this point is moot. A virus / Trojan cannot do anything to your photos or other media. You cannot backup your installed applications to a DVD. So when you mention writeable backup media, you must be talking about using an external hard drive to backup media and not applications. A virus will not do anything to this data.
Yep, those pesky CDs and DVDs do get scratched and they even deteriorate over time. This is exacerbated if you live in a humid climate. I would urge you to image them to an enterprise hard drive, if the data is critical.
No one, unless you're talking about an old school virus from two decades ago or so that would attempt to destroy the data on your hard drive. These days such things do not exist. Viruses only infect executable files. They cannot infect your media. They are designed to make money by stealing your info or make your computer join a botnet. They won't harm your precious memories or music. Again, get an external drive or a NAS solution and store your media there. Always have a backup. A virus cannot damage your backed up media on an external drive.
If the external disk is the only place that you have, then make a backup of that. It's safer than physical media. What about those people that have far more precious memories and other media than you can imagine? Do you really think I should try to backup 4 TBs ( WITH A T and growing) of data onto DVD discs? Or even BR discs?
Hard drives crash, DVD discs deteriorate, planes fall out of the sky. These things happen. You need to lower the risk of this scenario happening. Keep multiple backups and use enterprise grade hard drives if it's really important. Off-site tape storage for mission critical stuff. It works for enterprises so it will work for you. The nice thing is that you can recover your data from a faulty HDD in most instances. I am not aware of consumer services that will allow you to recover data from a broken or badly scratched DVD.
I would plug in my external BR drive and restore my music again, if I was silly to forget to back it up to an external drive. Or I would connect my backup HDD and restore it.
Your precious pictures can be backed up to a cloud-based solution and to an external drive.
What about them? Which countries would those be? I've lived in Africa and even there they don't have 3 GB caps.
Do you have any proof of this other than your anecdotal evidence? CD sales are dwindling, no matter how much you deny this. DVD sales are still holding their own against streaming media.
Just use an external DVD drive. Considering the mini's size I can see plenty of logical reasons to remove it. I can also see Apple's strategy. If you don't agree with it, no one is holding you back to stay on the train.
Who are these people besides you? Do you wear a tin foil hat as well? We used writeable media for backups long before DVDs and CDs and managed to survive. For how long have you been around? Not long enough, I guess? Corporations do not backup to DVD discs.
I actually laughed because I pictured DR Evil saying, "One billion dollars!". One billion records per hour? That is nearly 27,778 records per second. How big are these records since I do wonder how your current mac mini core 2 duo manages to run this special database, write DVDs, rip music and still allow you to surf the Internet? I thought that you couldn't afford any slowdowns? That's quite impressive indeed. What makes this database special?
Moot point. Have you ever heard of a proper backup strategy? Why would you keep your backup powered on all the time? Imagine what would happen to your precious photos if you didn't have a backup strategy with offsite storage? If your house caught on fire, then it would be all gone, including your discs. Hence why a proper backup strategy is important.
You could, of course, have bought an external DVD drive and burnt discs all night long, but I have better things to do.
Exactly. Some of us that have CDs or DVDs do not want to spend the time ripping all of it to hard drives. If what we have works why not use it that way? But Apple getting rid of the optical drive forces one of three things that aren't really necessary. Getting an external drive for what is supposed to be a stationary desktop computer, spend all that time ripping what we already own to a hard drive or buying it all again from iTunes.
When a slightly bigger case and an option for an internal optical drive would have been the best solution.
I just had a conversation with my business partner about the Mac Pro ODD today. (we own two recording studios)
Both of us are really, really hoping they throw it out--along with HDD's. Mac Pros are not consumer grade machines. Sure, some people use them for other purposes, but they're mostly purchased by professional audio/video/media editors.
We use a Mac Pro 8 core, and a quad core in our private studio. All data is stored on external drives. All optical discs are read or burned from/to an external device as well. This is the norm for the majority of pro shops. We have to use external devices because they are the most likely to fail. If we rely on what's built in, and a drive fails, then we have to have the entire machine serviced. The work we would lose in the down time can't be justified by the convenience of an all-in-one solution.
As a result, when we (and many other pros) buy a Mac Pro, we are paying an arm and a leg for internal components that are hardly even used.
If the new version is the slim, rack-mountable design that has been rumored, it would make much more sense to do away with those things in favor of better processors & GPU options for video editors.
Really what would be perfect would be two small SSD's to boot from and load applications. Each could be cloned, thereby creating a backup system in the event that one would fail. All the data is stored externally anyway, discs are loaded externally too, so getting rid of these options creates a system that is more in tune with real professional workflow. It would take up substantially less space and potentially reduce the price as well.
When the redesign happens, and it is inevitable, I suspect that is along the lines of what we'll see--with multiple options. If they keep the current case design for the next refresh, I'd expect the ODD to stay put. The thing's so big you could practically live in it, so it would make little sense to shake things up for no reason.
Are you sure you aren't actually talking about a MacBook Pro? Otherwise your post makes very little sense to me. A Mac Pro is super-easy to swap out drives... you could install 2 SSDs in like... 3 minutes or something if you want to. There shouldn't be any need to have the machine 'serviced' just for a failed drive. All you'd need is a new drive, a screwdriver, and 1 fewer coffee break.
Whilst this sort of stuff may seem very simple to you and me, most people have no idea where to start and don't want to ever open their computers.
I've had external HDDs, memory card readers, webcams, etc, hooked up to every "stationary desktop computer" I've owned in the past 10 years. What's so special about an optical drive that it must be internal? Did God come back to Mt Sinai and decree that desktop computers must have optical drives inside them or something?
I mean, if anything the optical drive is the last piece of equipment you'd want to waste internal space with, since USB transfer is faster than the disc reading mechanism itself. There is ZERO benefit from having an internal vs. external DVD drive per se. With the extra room created by removing the ODD I can get an internal HDD that will actually benefit from being internal.
theSeb said:
Computational novices probably aren't the ones buying Mac Pros.
@ theSeb;
I've forgotten more than you'll ever know, you have not gotten a clue what I've done in the past 30 years.
Regarding backup, don't worry I've got that well under control. I like to see how you are going to safeguard your offsite backup against intellectual theft and other calamities. Let me assure you that weekly putting a DVD in a safe at the bank is darn hard to beat.
I've forgotten more than you'll ever know, you have not gotten a clue what I've done in the past 30 years.
Regarding backup, don't worry I've got that well under control. I like to see how you are going to safeguard your offsite backup against intellectual theft and other calamities. Let me assure you that weekly putting a DVD in a safe at the bank is darn hard to beat.
The new Mac Mini works perfectly for me, without the built-in DVD. I barely used the DVD drives from my MBP, Windows PCs. If I really need to do something with the CD/DVD, simply plug in an external one.
For people heavily rely on the DVD drives, it's a big let-down. But for others, it's perfectly fine.
For people heavily rely on the DVD drives, it's a big let-down. But for others, it's perfectly fine.
You would probably want everyone to drive old cars with a rumble seat and the spare tire exposed on the front fender? Why have the back seat inside? Why have the spare tire neatly stored out of sight?
It's called convenience and practicality.
I'm finding it hard to follow you.....You think the new mini is a poor product because it doesn't cater to your unique needs, which are:
-An optical media drive to make weekly backups of highly-sensitive, mission-critical data that is highly desirable and consequently highly susceptible to theft...justifying a safe deposit box and weekly trips to the bank.
-"Cuteness"....which would be spoiled by a $30 external DVD drive that would solve issue A 100%.
You my friend are a complex individual. I only hope you don't end up being some super-spy "Brain" like the guy from Law Abiding Citizen. Last thing I need is a really "cute" cell phone blowing my head off.
So much whining about the removal of the internal ODD! This is my first Mac, ever, and i'm nothing but impressed with the design of this little power house. Removing the ODD was a great move, now we have the option of choosing the external ODD of our choice, slim @8x, full size @24x, blu-ray ROM or burner and now there's room for 2 internal disks.
I had an internal SATA DVD burner laying around that had been replaced with a newer one in a PC, I bought an external enclosure for it for $34 and now have a great ODD to plug into my new mini. Which I expect to be delivered in the next day or two.
Stop the whining, buy an external ODD if you need one! Enjoy!
I had an internal SATA DVD burner laying around that had been replaced with a newer one in a PC, I bought an external enclosure for it for $34 and now have a great ODD to plug into my new mini. Which I expect to be delivered in the next day or two.
Stop the whining, buy an external ODD if you need one! Enjoy!
Well hell why not make it even smaller and take out the hard drives too. That way you have the option of choosing the external hard drives of your choice, 2.5 inch or 3.5 inch, USB, Firewire, TB, disk or SSD.
Madness and stupidity.
That's what new Mac Mini is. What it should have been is G4 cube.
I'm not opposed to the idea of having laptop hardware to use as a desktop. But damn you Apple, why not give Mac Mini a top of the line GPU? It would be a reasonable gaming machine. If it had the same GPU as iMac 27", it'd be alright. Or even some sort of ATI mobile crossfire something something;
And if it was 1cm taller because of that, so what? What difference does it make? Making Mac Mini smaller doesn't really make it any better (well, built in power brick is nice, I have to admit).
Just a bit bigger and soo much more useful. Sigh..
That's what new Mac Mini is. What it should have been is G4 cube.
I'm not opposed to the idea of having laptop hardware to use as a desktop. But damn you Apple, why not give Mac Mini a top of the line GPU? It would be a reasonable gaming machine. If it had the same GPU as iMac 27", it'd be alright. Or even some sort of ATI mobile crossfire something something;
And if it was 1cm taller because of that, so what? What difference does it make? Making Mac Mini smaller doesn't really make it any better (well, built in power brick is nice, I have to admit).
Just a bit bigger and soo much more useful. Sigh..