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The Mac Mini, what a great oppotunity

R.R.Mac

R.R.Mac

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 16, 2006
197
0
Guildford, England
What do you all think of the mac mini at the moment,

cheap computer
small
nice looking

but CRAP.


Really who agrees with me here, there is a great market for the Mac Mini. What apple needs to do is make it better. not 2 GB's of memory, but 3 like the MBP. Bigger HD. 120 is not enough for a desktop really i have an iBook G4 30 GB HD and its not big enough. i have an external hard drive, 250 GB, 10 GB left.

They need to make the Mac mini better really more memory and more HD space.

They also need to upgrade from 1.83 GHZ to 2<.

Really i think that the Mac Mini is a great idea but apple need to improve on it greatly!

What are your idea's?
 
It has its place. I bought and set one up for a colleague a little while ago, she's a switcher and there's no point in investing in anything bigger until she's ready - all she's using it for is writing, surfing, email and iTunes - give her a year or so and i'll bet she'll want an iMac. Does what it's designed to do and for less than £300.
 
I have friends how have a PPC one as their only computer. They use iPhoto, email, browse the web, a little light iMovie work. It's perfect.

I have 2 PPC ones that I use as DVRs. They are perfect. I have no doubt the next one will support 3Gb of RAM. It may also sport a 200Gb drive option. You have to remember that it's charm is in it's size so it uses a laptop harddrive. These tend to be small...
 
3gb RAM? The whole point of it is that it's cheap and plugs a gap in Apple's range; it's not supposed to be an iMac or PowerMac replacement.
 
If your thinking of getting a cheap mac that you can use for very light iLife, web browsing/emails and do school work its great of that.
 
It's due for an update that will no doubt come at MacWorld.

C2D - making the whole line 64-bit
Larger drive
Up to 3GB just like the MacBook

That should take care of your concerns.
 
crazycat said:
If your thinking of getting a cheap mac that you can use for very light iLife, web browsing/emails and do school work its great of that.
Click to expand...

Why very Light iLife work? People have been using 1.2ghz PPC G4 processors for making movies for ages. I would think you can do considerably more on a 1.8 Core Duo
 
I'm very happy with mine, and it's only a Core Solo model. All it needs is more RAM (and dare I say it, a dedicated graphics card, like the G4 models). If you need more storage, buy one of the excellent external firewire options. Its size/power consumption/lack of noise make it the perfect living room machine as well. None of that is going to change to incorporate a 3.5 inch hard drive any time soon.
 
Blue Velvet said:
3gb RAM? The whole point of it is that it's cheap and plugs a gap in Apple's range; it's not supposed to be an iMac or PowerMac replacement.
Click to expand...

I totally agree but the upper limit is likely to go to 3Gb as Apple will probably use the same core logic chipset they currently use in the MacBook. This should help their costs some too...
 
R.R.Mac said:
What do you all think of the mac mini at the moment,

cheap computer
small
nice looking

but CRAP.


Really who agrees with me here, there is a great market for the Mac Mini. What apple needs to do is make it better. not 2 GB's of memory, but 3 like the MBP. Bigger HD. 120 is not enough for a desktop really i have an iBook G4 30 GB HD and its not big enough. i have an external hard drive, 250 GB, 10 GB left.

They need to make the Mac mini better really more memory and more HD space.

They also need to upgrade from 1.83 GHZ to 2<.

Really i think that the Mac Mini is a great idea but apple need to improve on it greatly!

What are your idea's?
Click to expand...

Have you thought about buying a MacPro? :rolleyes:
 
robbieduncan said:
I totally agree but the upper limit is likely to go to 3Gb as Apple will probably use the same core logic chipset they currently use in the MacBook. This should help their costs some too...
Click to expand...


OK, fair enough. :)
I tend not to follow the technical minutiae of the Mini's evolution.

My point was that these machines are carefully positioned in the overall Mac range so that sales of one are not intended to cannibalise sales from another range, much like the iPods are carefully banded to provide something for everyone regardless of value-for-money arguments. In my view, for most people that the Mini is intended for, 120gb of disk space is colossal.

So it's as much about marketing and price-points as it is about the technology.
 
R.R.Mac said:
What do you all think of the mac mini at the moment,

cheap computer
small
nice looking

but CRAP.


Really who agrees with me here, there is a great market for the Mac Mini. What apple needs to do is make it better. not 2 GB's of memory, but 3 like the MBP. Bigger HD. 120 is not enough for a desktop really i have an iBook G4 30 GB HD and its not big enough. i have an external hard drive, 250 GB, 10 GB left.

They need to make the Mac mini better really more memory and more HD space.

They also need to upgrade from 1.83 GHZ to 2<.

Really i think that the Mac Mini is a great idea but apple need to improve on it greatly!

What are your idea's?
Click to expand...

Basically what you want is a headless iMac... like everyone else on this forum. It's not happening. Apple has the bottom, mid and high range computers. They tried a semi-upgradeable computer a looong time ago. The G4 cube was actually quite a failure:(
 
Blue Velvet said:
OK, fair enough. :)
I tend not to follow the technical minutiae of the Mini's evolution.

My point was that these machines are carefully positioned in the overall Mac range so that sales of one are not intended to cannibalise sales from another range, much like the iPods are carefully banded to provide something for everyone regardless of value-for-money arguments. In my view, for most people that the Mini is intended for, 120gb of disk space is colossal.

So it's as much about marketing and price-points as it is about the technology.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't say it was 'colossal'

I have the 1.83 mini, with 80gig. It's more than what I need. I could do with more RAM, but hey. I use it for iTunes, Web Browsing and whatever else takes my fancy, so far so good. I love it. I bought it over the iMac because I'm stuck with the display the iMac has to offer. So far I have a 19" BenQ, when I can get a HD Monitor in a large size ill upgrade, for me that was the factor that made me go for the Mini. I didn't already have the stuff (Coming from eMac) but I was willing to spend the little extra to get what I wanted.
 
I like the idea of a mac mini, I already have the monitor and high end pc etc and so dont need any all in one etc. I like it so much I will be getting one when they get upgraded (may as well wait till the new year at the very least :))

It's ideal as an "always on" machine, it uses lower power components than say a mac pro and is ideal for use as web browser, basic word processor etc. If you want more hard drive space theres plenty of mini style boxes for it :)
 
Apple is so insane to pursue a strategy that has led them to be the only PC manufacturer to post desktop gains this past year... Of course it's easy to ignore cost and profitability and state that Apple should cram $300 or $400 more in hardware into the Mini. Or make it twice as big so it can hold more memory modules and a 3.5" drive. But the only reasoning for doing that is egotistical... you want it. It doesn't make sense for very many people other than you...just you.
 
robbieduncan said:
I totally agree but the upper limit is likely to go to 3Gb as Apple will probably use the same core logic chipset they currently use in the MacBook. This should help their costs some too...
Click to expand...

Wait, you can only get up to 2GB, not 3GB of RAM on a MacBook, right? Am I missing something here?
 
Jasonbot said:
Basically what you want is a headless iMac
Click to expand...

Couldn't have said it better myself.

The mini is meant as a low-end consumer machine, not a smaller version of the mac pro. The form factor is what really distinguishes it from other computers. A 3.5" drive is significantly larger and many people would not use the space, I know people who think that they have way too much stuff and it is only 15-20 Gigs including the OS. On a side note, how many people would actually notice a difference if there was 3GB ram on a mini, instead of 2, furthermore those who could notice the difference would much more likely be getting an iMac or Mac Pro for their work.
 
As an entry-level Mac for a timid switcher, the mini is perfect. At least my G4 mini was what got me to try a Mac, and now I would never go back. If the cheapest Mac had been $999 (as was the iBook) I probably would never have switched. The mini, although not cheap, was cheap enough to get me to try a Mac (which I had always wanted to do but was put off by the price).
 
MacSA said:
Why very Light iLife work? People have been using 1.2ghz PPC G4 processors for making movies for ages. I would think you can do considerably more on a 1.8 Core Duo
Click to expand...

Because you can get a Mac Pro :). I just mean that if you would be doing a lot of movie editing and use iPhoto a lot its best to use something more powerfull but your right ilife will work just fine.
 
Markleshark said:
1) You can get upto 160gig in the Mac Mini and the smallest you can get in the Mac Pro is 160... Not much of a gap there id think.
2) Only 2 processors, 4 cores! ;)
Click to expand...
You can also hang any number of external FW/USB drives onto the Mini.

The lack of a mid-range headless is irking me more than usual these days as I can buy a Conroe based desktop from Dell for ~$1K, and just reuse my monitor SATA drives from my current Dell. But if I buy another Mac I'd have to get a 20" iMac for $1699 or go for the Mac Pro for $2500.

Ultimately I decided just to buy some RAM and a new GPU for my Dell and wait for Santa Rosa. :rolleyes:

B
 
The main reason anyone has to buy a Mac Mini is the price. If they make it too good, then Apple will have to jack the price up in order to make a profit. So maybe A CPU bump, slight increase on the HD, but nothing too substantial unless you want it to be 100 or 200 dollars more. Another smart move by apple would be to lower the prices of they ACD's, so people will actually buy them when they get a Mini instead of some other knockoff brand.
 
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