Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Sure hope mac mini is updated soon, definitely lags market...

P

phatjoe

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 28, 2008
62
0
IL
Hello:

This topic probably isn't new...

As previously posted, I'm looking to purchase a mac mini. I have two homes and typically use my laptop, so I'm just lookin' for a cheap desktop. Out of curiousity, I priced out a dell slim line pc (no monitor). Below are the specs, and the price was only $400! The baseline mac mini is $600 with only a 80GB HD.

I'm not new to macs and know there is a premium price and have a better OS, but it just seems the mac mini significantly lags versus the competitors. I can probably hold off purchasing a PC for another 1-2 months. I hope we see an update for the mac mini soon...:D

DELL Slim Line specs
dual-core processor E2180 (1MB L2 Cache,2.00GHz,800 OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows Vista® Home Basic - English
MEMORY 1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz- 2DIMMs
HARD DRIVE 250GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™
OPTICAL DRIVE 16X DVD+/-RW Drive
VIDEO CARD Integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3100 SOUND Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio
KEYBOARD & MOUSE Dell USB Keyboard and Dell Optical USB Mouse
FLOPPY & MEDIA READER No Floppy Drive Included
MODEM & WIRELESS 56K PCI Data Fax Modem
 
That Dell slimline really doesn't belong in a comparison to the Mini. It is a slimline, but it's still a tower. It would be more appropriate to only compare the Mini to other supersmall units.
 
What competitors are there? I'm not really familiar with the machines most PC makers are putting out, but I've NEVER seen a machine like the Mac Mini from ANY other manufacturers. This thing is TINY, and can be hidden almost anywhere.
 
Also, remember to add:
- Bluetooth
- Wi-fi adapter
- IEEE 1394a adapter (Firewire 400)
And the Pentium Dual-Core is slower than the base C2D in the Mini. GHz aren't everything...

No competitor will put laptop parts in a desktop for the sake of super-small. It costs too much and they have to sacrifice HDD space, but Apple did it. That's why the Mini is unique, and the Slimline tower is 11 times the volume of the Mini.

But the Minis still need to be updated. The combo drive and GMA950 are pathetic. X3100 graphics, at the very least.
 
Yeah the mini employs CPUs that are technically out of production - so it can use an update.

When Apple gets around to an update then you will have a Santa Rosa unit with maybe a 120GB drive for the same price.
 
I totally agree. I want to buy my first mac and was looking at the mini but it needs updates bad. Even the top of line one is pretty expensive for what you're getting, although it is quite a small form factor.
 
Leon Kowalski said:
It would be "more appropriate" only if you care about the
supersmall form factor. If you're looking for an "entry-level"
OS-X platform (and/or care about function more than form)
the mini is a computationally anemic toy at a boutique price.
Click to expand...

The only other option for my needs would be a MP, and I'm not willing to dish out that kind of money. There are also other factors to consider as to why Mini's are more than "a computationally anemic toy at a boutique price."

Let's hope for Penryn in the next couple of weeks.
 
Leon Kowalski said:
It would be "more appropriate" only if you care about the
supersmall form factor. If you're looking for an "entry-level"
OS-X platform (and/or care about function more than form)
the mini is a computationally anemic toy at a boutique price.

LK
Click to expand...

The mini is far from "computationally anemic". It's surprisingly effective in real life.

However, I'd like to see a price reduction or performance bump.
 
phatjoe said:
Out of curiousity, I priced out a dell slim line pc (no monitor). Below are the specs, and the price was only $400! The baseline mac mini is $600 with only a 80GB HD.
Click to expand...

Great price comparison...

You missed the fact that Dells are COMPLETELY HORRIBLE...

http://www.ihatedell.net

and I can go on, and on about Dells at work and people that I told to by a Mac who bought a Dell instead who wanted "more for less money"...

We really need to nix these "Apple compared to Dell" threads...
 
gkarris said:
Great price comparison...

You missed the fact that Dells are COMPLETELY HORRIBLE...

http://www.ihatedell.net

and I can go on, and on about Dells at work and people that I told to by a Mac who bought a Dell instead who wanted "more for less money"...

We really need to nix these "Apple compared to Dell" threads...
Click to expand...

I wish that was the first time anyones sorted a hate site as "fact," but I digress... Dell runs Vista and XP. You can use that $100-$200 you save buying a Dell on repairs, relatively useless virus protection software and the migraine medication you're going to need.
 
Leon Kowalski said:
If you're looking for an "entry-level"
OS-X platform (and/or care about function more than form)
the mini is a computationally anemic toy at a boutique price.

LK
Click to expand...

That doesn't make any sense. Either you want a Mac or you don't. If you do, either the Mini or the iMac is a great machine - both are Core 2 powered and neither is "computationally anemic". You make them sound like they're P3's or something...
 
Jimmdean said:
That doesn't make any sense. Either you want a Mac or you don't. If you do, either the Mini or the iMac is a great machine - both are Core 2 powered and neither is "computationally anemic". You make them sound like they're P3's or something...
Click to expand...

It's Apple hardware that makes absolutely no sense. For the same price as a
mini -- and the same Apple profit margin -- they could offer 50% more CPU
power, four times the disk space at twice the speed, plus a fast and flexible
tray-loading optical drive. ...not to mention accessibility and serviceability.

Instead, they offer "cute" packaging of low-performance, high-cost parts.

...OS-X is great. Apple hardware is an egotistical disaster,

LK
 
Leon Kowalski said:
It's Apple hardware that makes absolutely no sense. For the same price as a
mini -- and the same Apple profit margin -- they could offer 50% more CPU
power, four times the disk space at twice the speed, plus a fast and flexible
tray-loading optical drive. ...not to mention accessability and serviceability.

Instead, they offer "cute" packaging of low-performance, high-cost parts.

...OS-X is great. Apple hardware is an egotistical disaster,

LK
Click to expand...

I can't wait to go back to tray loaders - lol.
 
Jimmdean said:
That Dell slimline really doesn't belong in a comparison to the Mini. It is a slimline, but it's still a tower. It would be more appropriate to only compare the Mini to other supersmall units.
Click to expand...

Well if Apple made a mid range tower you'd be right but they don't so the comparison is apt.

The current incarnation of the mini is neither a good deal nor anemic. It's a respectable machine but Apple is definitely charging today's prices for yesterday's hardware. Once it's updated to Santa Rosa it will again be a decent deal.

There's also a little more to the mini's form than just being "cutesy" It's ridiculously quiet and uses very little power.
 
Yeah, the Mac mini offers good performance, but the GMA950 graphics are far from stellar. They definitely need to bump it to X3100 graphics and at least Crestline (Santa Rosa).

The upper model should get 2GB RAM standard.
 
Cave Man said:
Well, this is ominous:

While those people familiar with plans for the Mac mini were unclear on a precise release date for the forthcoming makeover, the Penryn-3M-based systems reportedly remained within the engineering build stage as of mid-month.

If it's still in engineering, it's probably a few months away, at the earliest.
Click to expand...

Ominous AND confusing: if it isn't coming out till June-ish, then why not organise engineering to put the Montevina chipset in it?

And since the Macbook is already on SR Penryn, there surely shouldn't be a huge amount of work to do! All they need is to adjust the logic board to fit in the mini really ;)

I'm sure we'll be waiting for months, like with the MBP's :rolleyes:
 
Q-Dog said:
What competitors are there? I'm not really familiar with the machines most PC makers are putting out, but I've NEVER seen a machine like the Mac Mini from ANY other manufacturers. This thing is TINY, and can be hidden almost anywhere.
Click to expand...

As far as form-factor is concerned, the only one I know about would be the AOpen miniPC (aside from nano-ITX and pico-ITX, which are motherboards and not a standard for the cases themselves).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back