New mac mini on store

brav

From:
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2010/06/15macmini.html

* 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 3MB of shared L2 cache;
* 2GB of 1066 MHz DDR3 SDRAM, expandable up to 8GB;
* a slot-load 8X SuperDrive® (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW) optical drive;
* 320GB Serial ATA hard drive running at 5400 rpm;
* NVIDIA GeForce 320M integrated graphics;
* AirPort Extreme® 802.11n wireless networking and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR;
* Gigabit Ethernet;
* four USB 2.0 ports;
* SD card slot;
* one FireWire® 800 port;
* one HDMI port and one Mini DisplayPort;
* HDMI to DVI video adapter;
* combined optical digital audio input/audio line in (minijack); and
* combined optical digital audio output/headphone out (minijack).

jarvis_c82

At last it has HDMI in it. Pity it doesn't have a blu-ray writer. Wonder how much its going to be?

kippy

jarvis_c82 wrote: »

At last it has HDMI in it. Pity it doesn't have a blu-ray writer. Wonder how much its going to be?

Too much no doubt.
Its a pretty basic piece of hardware so without the Apple logo it shouldnt go for any more than 300 Euro.

brav

Well it says $699, or £649 inc VAT, can't see EUR price anywhere

Kbeg3

Starting from €799

J-blk

brav wrote: »

Well it says $699, or £649 inc VAT, can't see EUR price anywhere

The product page (store not working for me yet) says "Starting at €799" - though it looks pretty nice overall, that's quite a price hike for not much in terms of specs over the previous gen...

Talisman

Irish store isn't working but the UK prices are crazy : £649 for base model.

http://store.apple.com/uk/browse/home/shop_mac/family/mac_mini

Good to see they are finally admitting it can support 8GB RAM, no doubt this official support is one of the reasons for the price hike.

brav

Just saw that, http://www.apple.com/ie/macmini/features.html
RAM is now user upgradeable

DIY memory.

Thanks to a removable bottom panel, now it’s easy to open Mac mini and add memory. Just a slight twist of the panel and you’re inside Mac mini. Simply pop your memory into the SO-DIMM slot then twist the panel back on. And you’re done.

Ronan

Having just got a mac mini for a media centre 3 weeks ago at first I was annoyed, but now having seen the price of the new model I would have gone the old model anyway, all you need for plex

bluemachaveli

As soon as I saw the update I was on my way to buy one. Then I saw he price. From €549 to €799??

Someone in Apple must have lost their mind.

Sad Professor

I love the new form factor, but the built-in power supply is probably going to come back to haunt it. However, at least Apple have finally acknowledged that people use the Mini as a media centre with the addition of the HDMI port. I suspect the current AppleTV is about to be retired soon.

Too bad the extra 100 dollars is going to make the Mini prohibitively expensive for most people. But the Euro price has the potential to kill off European Mini sales entirely - 250 more than the old price. To match the new US price it should be €750 not €800. Apple must be expecting the Euro to tank over the next 6 months.

I was gonna wait for the new iMacs, but seeing as how they'll probably get a 200-300 price bump when they do arrive, I might go for it now. Even as it stands, Apple are selling the iMac for about a 100 euro less than the US price. Goes to show just how much the Euro has dropped against the dollar in recent months.

brav

I like the new look as well, was thinking of getting one for my media player, but this is a bit over my budget now. Will have to look under the couch for some extra change

Irish store still offline and now it looks like so are all the rest, probably more to do with iphone pre orders though

Also, seen online it looks like 10.6.4 may be out by the end of the week

DominoDub

Very Nice but way over priced :eek:

jester77

Should come with a tube of lube... that price is crazy.
I will stick with my current mini. Wish they would get over themselves and allow blu-ray as an option

whiterebel

Massively stupid price that.

K.O.Kiki

I figure the price increase due to many factors affecting mainstream PC parts too, such as labour & parts increases in Asia.

was.deevey

I dont think the price is "That" high considering.... and reckon they are onto a winner ....

1. Form factor vs price .. not that many PC's out there that rival it for size bar a few Atom powered ones, and ruggerized car or kiosk PC's which are also very expensive. Click to see Their "high powered" rival in the HT market (starting at over 2k sterling!)

30mm high (not much in it) and a hell of a lot wider and uglier by the looks !

2. Build quality ..I'm sure the Aluminium has to cost a bit more if for nothing else but that gorgeous finish ?

I have yet to feel a notebook that feels as sturdy and plain "lovely" to touch, use, feel as the macbook pro uni.. if thats anything to go by.. there isn't a rival in sight.

3. OS / Applications.

4. PSU integrated .. WTF! .. how did they manage that inside a case like this? I know it probably seems like a no-brainer, but its a REAL PC ... under 2 inches high and what ? .. 6inches square !

How many man-hours of design and engineering went into this lil monster to make it what it is .. just coming up with a method of getting the PSU in there musta been a nightmare bugging designers for months.

5. It looks aimed at movie buff who already spend crazy figures on home theatre equipment / projectors / 40' LCD's .. I think designers / occasional gamers / musicians would probably just buy an imac.

6. I honestly have yet to meet someone who ever considered a Mini over an Imac or refurb macbook..I'm sure they have done their market research on this and discovered perhaps the majority of people were using their mini hooked into their home theatre OR using them as servers.

I wouldn't be too concerned about it heating up same as the time capsules, the unibody design "should" dissipate heat much better than the old plastic.

The server version is the one I can see should kick off though, Dual hard drives.. its $999 i think .. haven't checked the irish stores, but that includes the Server OS which should make it a great competitor in the SMB office server environment I would think.

Of course IT installers might have to learn a thing or two installing them instead of selling a crappy dell workstation running SBS2003 *groan* .. so probably never gonna happen :P

banquo

I don't think mac buyers really buy the mini as a dedicated PC. Not the majority, anyway.

There's been a definite trend toward Mac since the iPhone, but I think most new buyers are going iMac. So Mac Mini is now a dedicated, single-purpose device. And this model will do anything well except Blu-Ray.

New Mac Mini + 1080p widescreen telly + Drobo + terabytes of space + boxee = media centre nom nom.

Sad Professor

Yeah, I actually think it was a great update.

Obviously the Mini's target market has changed. The Mini was originally designed as a entry-level budget Mac to appeal to defecting Windows users. However, as mentioned above, I suspect that most switchers choose to go the iMac/Macbook route, which is undoubtedly what Apple would prefer as they both offer an superior introduction to the world of Mac.

In subsequent refreshes I think it became clear that Apple didn't really know what to do with the Mini. They went all of 2008 without refreshing it, and for a while it seemed like it was about to be discontinued. But Apple picked up on two things that people were using Minis for: media centres and home servers. And in this latest update, they have adjusted the Mini to fill either of those purposes nicely. So for both of those people, the Mini is still a good buy.

~Rebel~

Beautiful machine, if it wasn't for the price hike.

On the plus side however, this means that any previous gen models anyone can find should be going for great prices. The previous gen model new or second hand for between 300 and 450 with plex and 'Free Mouse' app for ipod touch or iPhone is pretty much as awesome as a home entertainment system gets

jpfahy

Wow, seriously expensive

Ghost Train

Have been thinking about a mac mini, but after the price hike with minimal improvement wouldn't go for it. The shape does look better but not much change in spec

Sad Professor

Ghost Train wrote: »

Have been thinking about a mac mini, but after the price hike with minimal improvement wouldn't go for it. The shape does look better but not much change in spec

The graphics card is a big improvement on what was in there, though.

Anyway, check out the refurb store for last gen Minis:

http://store.apple.com/ie/browse/home/specialdeals/mac/mac_mini

€469 for the old base model.

nesf

Looks pretty, pity about the price.

kippy

An acer revo on special offer is a far better option than one of these. The name wins out I suppose.

Sad Professor

kippy wrote: »

An acer revo on special offer is a far better option than one of these. The name wins out I suppose.

For someone looking for a ultra cheap media centre, maybe. But it's got noting to do with the name. The Mini would wipe the floor with the Revo. The Revo isn't a PC, it's a netbook without a keyboard. The Atom in it makes it barely suitable for anything else. The Mini is a full computer. The Revo is an alternative to the AppleTV, not the Mini.

K.O.Kiki

The Acer Revo also uses the much slower Atom processor, and nVidia ION for graphics.

Which means it would lose badly in CPU-bound applications/en- and decoding.
Not too sure about if ION can provide enough backup for that, though I'd be happy to be proven wrong.

Ham'nd'egger

Sad Professor wrote: »

Yeah, I actually think it was a great update.

Obviously the Mini's target market has changed. The Mini was originally designed as a entry-level budget Mac to appeal to defecting Windows users. However, as mentioned above, I suspect that most switchers choose to go the iMac/Macbook route, which is undoubtedly what Apple would prefer as they both offer an superior introduction to the world of Mac.

In subsequent refreshes I think it became clear that Apple didn't really know what to do with the Mini. They went all of 2008 without refreshing it, and for a while it seemed like it was about to be discontinued. But Apple picked up on two things that people were using Minis for: media centres and home servers. And in this latest update, they have adjusted the Mini to fill either of those purposes nicely. So for both of those people, the Mini is still a good buy.

I recall reading an article about Mac Mini's last year which said that much of their sales were made to business users who use them as discrete hard drives, back up units, running CCTV, servers etc as opposed to units for home and domestic use. Giving the Mini this level of a bump would indicate than Apple view it very much as a unit with a future and that it holds potential as a cheap alternative to X Serve and Mac Pro for smaller based businesses and systems. Let's not forget, most revenue and sales from PC brands are made from business users and work machines that run from servers have very little inside them in terms of memory and hard driver storage while Microsoft make fortunes from licencing OS and softwares to work places. It would take a very very little slice of this market to make a lot of money for Apple if it's sold well to the business world even as a niche market.

enda1

Really nice product.
With a bit lower a price it would be a real contender for me to upgrade from my Mac Mini Core Solo.

was.deevey

Quite apart from the price:

Revo
Low powered Atom
External Power brick
No CD / DVD
No Digital Audio on HDMI
No Decent Graphics Card (Try playing even NFS carbon which is a few years old on one of these).
Playing High Def video even over youtube is stuttery.
Factor in the non-basic version of Win7 into the price

Conclusion - headless netbook


Mini
Decent Powered CPU
Decent Graphics Card capable of playing most game (ok some at low res admittedly but most everything is playable.
Digital Audio over HDMI
DVD / CD Burner
Built in power brick
Unibody design
Decent OS included.
Can be used as a mid range office server with dual HD's and server class OS at a reasonable price.

Conclusion headless imac..if you have a 32 high def TV great!

I can see exactly where the revo is a much better deal, aren;t the two so so so similar .. in the same way as LADA and BMW ... both have 4 wheels and an engine

its cheap and will get you there (eventually) but without any style, slower than the rest and lots of headaches .

kippy

Sad Professor wrote: »

For someone looking for a ultra cheap media centre, maybe. But it's got noting to do with the name. The Mini would wipe the floor with the Revo. The Revo isn't a PC, it's a netbook without a keyboard. The Atom in it makes it barely suitable for anything else. The Mini is a full computer. The Revo is an alternative to the AppleTV, not the Mini.

This machine is starting at €799 euro.
An absolutely crazy price for the hardware in it. Thats the name.