I'd love to see an eSata port...toss a SSD in there for a boot disk with a couple external RAID HDs...that would fly.
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Waiting to pull the trigger on Mac Mini 2011 Refresh, this Feb
- Thread starter whocaresit
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has anyone looked to the new asrock 3D minis here ?
Hello APPLE ? HELLOOOOOOO - thats the way to go.... DO IT
Card reader and ports on the front where they are easy to reach and use? Apple would never go for such a radical idea.
I'd rather them keep everything in the back...a big part of the Apple appeal is the design aesthetic...not too big of a deal to reach an extra 7 inches and rotate something.
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That's a rather poor comparison. Firstly, Apple don't make cars. Secondly, usability is their priority - if they ever did make a car, it would be the easiest car to drive in the world. Locating all the ports at the back makes total sense - I got fed up of sitting in Dell cable Hell many years ago, and I think many PC to Mac converts would agree that a wireless environment is overall much safer too.
Because of course every external drive, every thumb drive and every memory card is wireless.
Well, I certainly don't need to juggle portable drives every two minutes like they're hot potatoes (like I did ten years ago), and spinning a Mini round to plug something in is hardly a physical effort.
Apple (and the whole of the tech world) is rather geared towards cloud storage these days, so I expect your collection of thumb drives will find themselves increasingly redundant in Apple's ecosphere moving onwards - mine already are. USB is already very dated, and I expect will be made obsolete in a few years by standards like Thunderbolt, and moving forward wireless personal storage. Times are changing.
Well, let's recall this one:
USB3.0 or eSATA - No. But Thunderbolt.
i3 CPU: Most certanly. i5 too. And if we all eat our fruit, there is still hope for a dual core i7. The 13" MacBook Pro suggests that it's going to be Intel graphi's only.
I wouldn't mind if Apple would toss a 330M in there along with the Intel IGP, thought.
About the Mac Pro: Ever heard about Moore's Law? A 2010 Mac Mini has a better performance than a 2005 quad core PowerMac G5 (Geekbench 3500 vs. 3300):
The CPU doubled it's performance, as it's quad vs. dual core.
Graphics were downsized dramatically.
The whole system occupies less than 1/3 of the space.
A 2010 Quad Core Mac Pro has an average Geekbench score of 9900.
You see: Yes, the Mac Pro is 3x as fast as it was 6 years ago. The Mac Mini is as fast, but was shrinked by factor 3. With 8GB RAM, it's actually a pretty decent machine.
According to Moore's Law, the Mac Mini is a Mac Pro. As I don't have that much radiation nor cosmic rays around, I'd be fine with a $1499 "Macintosh i7", thought. I don't need a Xeon, nor ECC memory. I hope Apple has something like this in the pipeline.
USB3.0 or eSATA - No. But Thunderbolt.
i3 CPU: Most certanly. i5 too. And if we all eat our fruit, there is still hope for a dual core i7. The 13" MacBook Pro suggests that it's going to be Intel graphi's only.
I wouldn't mind if Apple would toss a 330M in there along with the Intel IGP, thought.
About the Mac Pro: Ever heard about Moore's Law? A 2010 Mac Mini has a better performance than a 2005 quad core PowerMac G5 (Geekbench 3500 vs. 3300):
The CPU doubled it's performance, as it's quad vs. dual core.
Graphics were downsized dramatically.
The whole system occupies less than 1/3 of the space.
A 2010 Quad Core Mac Pro has an average Geekbench score of 9900.
You see: Yes, the Mac Pro is 3x as fast as it was 6 years ago. The Mac Mini is as fast, but was shrinked by factor 3. With 8GB RAM, it's actually a pretty decent machine.
According to Moore's Law, the Mac Mini is a Mac Pro. As I don't have that much radiation nor cosmic rays around, I'd be fine with a $1499 "Macintosh i7", thought. I don't need a Xeon, nor ECC memory. I hope Apple has something like this in the pipeline.
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For some reason I have a big problem with you trying to say the mini is 1/3rd the size of the mac pro. lol more like 1/32 of the size haha
To people comparing the Mini to PCs, please compare it to similar form factors, thats a key issue. I know the Dell Zino has often been compared. It currently offers AMD chips(and offers much cheaper set ups then the Mini, but those clearly aren't meant to really be compared to C2D chips).
Still that said, can't wait for i3 and maybe i5 chips in there! Don't forget guys, the iMac and Mini used to share similar if not the same CPU and GPU inside, so I wouldn't put the i5 past Apple.
Still that said, can't wait for i3 and maybe i5 chips in there! Don't forget guys, the iMac and Mini used to share similar if not the same CPU and GPU inside, so I wouldn't put the i5 past Apple.
Mac is better than PowerMac Quad!
I think he meant new MacMini is smaller than old macmini??? maybe?
Anyways, I recently sold my 6 year old PowerMac Quad for £430 quid with a view to buying the yet unreleased i3/i5 MacMini....
So for a £200 quid or so I will end up with a machine which is twice the power!
Only problem is where is the new Mac Mini?
I think he meant new MacMini is smaller than old macmini??? maybe?
Anyways, I recently sold my 6 year old PowerMac Quad for £430 quid with a view to buying the yet unreleased i3/i5 MacMini....
So for a £200 quid or so I will end up with a machine which is twice the power!
Only problem is where is the new Mac Mini?
I'm eagerly waiting for the 2011 mac mini. I have no idea where it is too
I hope we see one soon. I've got £600 for it; not sure if that will be enough.
I am also very interested in seeing the 2011 Mini before I bite the bullet and buy a Mac Pro. I will be waiting for the Sandy Bridge update for the Mac Pro anyway.
When was this?
If I recall, the Mac minis had always the components, that the Macbooks (Pro) had. Nothing more.
You wrote: the Mac minis had very similar components, as the iMacs? They had similar CPUs and GPUs?
Can you show me a Mac mini with Radeon 2400, 2600?
Yes, there was a 20" iMac with Geforce 9400 ... but that was because it had to be "cheap".
Which is first?
I am, as most of you all are, waiting for the mini refresh. Does anyone know which is most likely to get refreshed first between the mini, iMac, Mac pro, MacBook (white), and MacBook air? I just hope that we don't end up waiting and the mini is the last Mac to get refreshed. Also, is there a snb core i3, or is the i5 in the new mbp the least powerful model? I am trying to speculate what to expect if and when the refresh does happen, but I don't know enough about these new processors. Also, do all snb processors run on the same board? If so, this would be good for us, as apple will likely use only snb processors, not a c2d as base and a snb as an upgrade.
I am, as most of you all are, waiting for the mini refresh. Does anyone know which is most likely to get refreshed first between the mini, iMac, Mac pro, MacBook (white), and MacBook air? I just hope that we don't end up waiting and the mini is the last Mac to get refreshed. Also, is there a snb core i3, or is the i5 in the new mbp the least powerful model? I am trying to speculate what to expect if and when the refresh does happen, but I don't know enough about these new processors. Also, do all snb processors run on the same board? If so, this would be good for us, as apple will likely use only snb processors, not a c2d as base and a snb as an upgrade.
i think we will see the imac and mac mini refresh together this spring or summer with the mac pro in the summer,
the macbook air will most likely not be refreshed again until october
My guess is shortly after WWDC in June when they give an offical release date for Lion. I'm betting on 2 models, a base/bare bones one @ $700 and one with an upgraded processo/more RAM for $1000 that would take the place of the Server Edition as OSX Server is supposedly rolled in to the standard verson of 10.7.
mini updates seem to always be last. Certainly last to lose the C2D processors. I expect iMacs next, followed shortly by Airs, and Macbooks in time for back-to-school.
I'd sure like to see the next mini drop back to $599, and would really like to see a low performance $499 model again. It's a mystery what will happen with the server model. They might just drop it altogether. They will surely need to drop the price after Lion comes out.
I'd sure like to see the next mini drop back to $599, and would really like to see a low performance $499 model again. It's a mystery what will happen with the server model. They might just drop it altogether. They will surely need to drop the price after Lion comes out.
Mac Pro isn't expected till very late this year or early next year (waiting for Intel to release suitable Sandy Bridge Xeons). It should be the last to be updated.
iMac should be the first to be updated possibly alongside the Mac Mini.
As for MacBooks and MBA it's harder to say. Apple may want to update the MacBook or it could just discontinue it. As for the MBA perhaps Apple's waiting for improved availability of the new Sandy Bridge ultra portable processors.
The Mac Mini and the MacBook (if it's updated) could get the same CPU as the 13" MBP. If so, Apple will want to be sure that it has MBP supply levels sufficiently under control that releasing the MM and MB won't affect it's ability to meet demand for the MBP.
iMac should be the first to be updated possibly alongside the Mac Mini.
As for MacBooks and MBA it's harder to say. Apple may want to update the MacBook or it could just discontinue it. As for the MBA perhaps Apple's waiting for improved availability of the new Sandy Bridge ultra portable processors.
The Mac Mini and the MacBook (if it's updated) could get the same CPU as the 13" MBP. If so, Apple will want to be sure that it has MBP supply levels sufficiently under control that releasing the MM and MB won't affect it's ability to meet demand for the MBP.
What makes you think we'll be seeing an i3 for certain? Apple went i5 and i7 for the MBP on the 13'' models, I'd expect to see those in the Minis as well.
Any i3 would be a mobile chip, and I suppose the i3 could be preparing to go into the white MacBook and the into the Mac Mini as well, but I wouldn't say i3 is certain. In fact since the MacBook Pro and MacBook have been so similar in the past, I'm expecting i5 in the white to match the MBP.
I'm hoping we see desktop upgrade one tuesday and laptop upgrade another tuesday. i3 ULV in MBA, i5 in MacBook, i5 in Mac Mini(and i7 as a custom order options) and i3, i5 and i7 in the iMac.