Mac Mini Update Specs?

Pretty much in line with what I expected... probably just a simple processor update, everything else about them will stay the same.

A few weeks?!?!?/11!!1onehundred111!?

No Merom? Mac mini and Mac Pro drifting even further apart now. Although TS have been quite unreliable lately so I'm going to wait for AppleInsider's take on it.

I think it's ridiculous to not put a Core 2 Duo chip into the Mini. While I'm not waiting for Merom, to upgrade one of your machines with a faster version of the same soon-to-be-out-of-date chip is silly.

A "FEW" weeks!!!!!!!
That too for a Core Duo and not even a Core 2 Duo!

Thats disappointing!!!

And what about the MBP?

Those speeds line up exactly with the T5000 series of Merom.

epicwelshman said:

I think it's ridiculous to not put a Core 2 Duo chip into the Mini. While I'm not waiting for Merom, to upgrade one of your machines with a faster version of the same soon-to-be-out-of-date chip is silly.

Click to expand...

But this IS Apple were talking about lol. Anyway the article doesnt mention which 1.66/1.83 chips they will use. Probably Core Duo (Yonah) though. If that were the case, they could, but i'm sure they won't, cut the prices a little further now that Core 2 Duo is out.

The machine is due for an update in a month or so anyways. This is a pretty safe rumour.

MacSA said:

But this IS Apple were talking about lol. Anyway the article doesnt mention which 1.66/1.83 chips they will use.

Click to expand...

It says Core Duo. If we were talking about Merom, it would be Core 2 Duo.

Incredibly underwhelming.

If they're going to stay yonah, at least bump the clock speed more than that.

The only upside to this is that it leaves a HUGE gap between the mini and Pro, could mean that apple really is planning a conroe minitower/pizzabox/mediacenter.

That, and the fact that ThinkSecret is NEVER right. EVER.

Mac mini not getting Meroms might also mean MB wont get Meroms any time soon too. Hopefully Apple will put Meroms in MBP only. So that I can sell my MB without much loss and buy a merom MBP

BlizzardBomb said:

It says Core Duo. If we were talking about Merom, it would be Core 2 Duo.

Click to expand...

oops.. so it does, getting my cores mixed up

This is the lowest end machine Apple makes. Let's be realistic. This is a reasonable update for the base model. And it's probably being done in advance of a Core 2 Duo update to the iMac.

epicwelshman said:

I think it's ridiculous to not put a Core 2 Duo chip into the Mini. While I'm not waiting for Merom, to upgrade one of your machines with a faster version of the same soon-to-be-out-of-date chip is silly.

Click to expand...

I think Apple is more concerned with price for the Mac Mini than speed. Make them just a little bit faster than they are now, but much cheaper.

They're too expensive in the line-up now, with merom they would stay the same price but with Yonah they can make them cheaper again.

Hope they bring back the $499 price point, Merom or not

wheres my media edition mac mini...

seriously i would be stoked if they released an ULV Mac Mini with a 100GB HDD for all your audio and video needs. Ability to plug a 30" ACD would be nice, as 23" isn't that big for a TV. Built-in eyeTV equivalent, better remote... i want one!

Merom

Why is everyone so hung up on Merom?

I never expected the mini to go that way this year. Remember, the entire point of the mini is to be LOW COST.

The switch to Intel caused the price of the mini to jump $100. I would much rather see its processor lag behind a little bit if they can get that price back to $499.

Same thing with the Macbook, I'd rather see a $999 Macbook with the current chips than a $1,099 Macbook that keeps up with the Macbook Pro's chips.

Of course, there's nothing saying Apple will lower the prices but IF they do then I would be very happy to see the "old" Intel chips stay in those machines another 6 months. The first core chips are still VERY fast chips, it's the rest of the system (video card) that's holding things up now. I wonder how much extra benefit you'd even get from a Merom chip in a mini.

Does anyone know how much the Core Duo chips will be now that we have Core 2 Duo. I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that Intel were reducing the prices again. If thats th case, i'd be a bit disappointed to see the Mini stay the same price.

m-dogg said:

This is the lowest end machine Apple makes. Let's be realistic. This is a reasonable update for the base model. And it's probably being done in advance of a Core 2 Duo update to the iMac.

Click to expand...

Yonah doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Merom is pin-compatible and costs exactly the same amount. Besides, it would be a PR boost for Apple to have the entire lineup 64-bit and "Leopard ready". The Mac Mini is going to use the 5000 series Meroms and the iMac is going to use the 7000s.

Small White Car said:

Same thing with the Macbook, I'd rather see a $999 Macbook with the current chips than a $1,099 Macbook that keeps up with the Macbook Pro's chips.

Click to expand...

HP have $800 laptops with Core 2 Duo though....

Small White Car said:

Why is everyone so hung up on Merom?

I never expected the mini to go that way this year. Remember, the entire point of the mini is to be LOW COST.

The switch to Intel caused the price of the mini to jump $100. I would much rather see its processor lag behind a little bit if they can get that price back to $499.

Same thing with the Macbook, I'd rather see a $999 Macbook with the current chips than a $1,099 Macbook that keeps up with the Macbook Pro's chips.

Of course, there's nothing saying Apple will lower the prices but IF they do then I would be very happy to see the "old" Intel chips stay in those machines another 6 months. The first core chips are still VERY fast chips, it's the rest of the system (video card) that's holding things up now. I wonder how much extra benefit you'd even get from a Merom chip in a mini.

Click to expand...

To cut the price of the Mini by $100, Apple better hope Intel are doing a "Half Price" cut which is extremely unlikely. How much would it hurt Apple to just double the height of the Mini and put a 1.83 GHz Conroe (Allendale) in there and a 3.5" Hard Drive? I'm pretty sure no-one would be whining about that. It would also get the price back down to $499 easy!

BenRoethig said:

Merom is pin-compatible and costs exactly the same amount.

Click to expand...

And you think they're going to still cost the same next month? When something faster comes out the slower thing has to get cheaper or Intel will suddenly find that no one is buying them.

BenRoethig said:

Besides, it would be a PR boost for Apple to have the entire lineup 64-bit and "Leopard ready".

Click to expand...

In an ambigious "64 sounds better than 32" kind of meaningless way. Can you think of any 64-bit-advantages that Mac mini owners could actually take advantage of?

BlizzardBomb said:

No Merom? Mac mini and Mac Pro drifting even further apart now.

Click to expand...

Yeah, imagine that. Their top-of-the-line 64bit full-tower quad-core workstation and their bottom-of-the-barrel consumer-model have wildly different specs!

As to putting Merom in there... Yep, in a way, it would make sense. But I bet that Intel is unloading their Core Duo's to Apple for rock-bottom prices to be used in the Mini (and maybe MacBook).

m-dogg said:

This is the lowest end machine Apple makes. Let's be realistic. This is a reasonable update for the base model. And it's probably being done in advance of a Core 2 Duo update to the iMac.

Click to expand...

Compared to similarly priced PC's, $799 for a yonah duo 1.8 is pretty weak.

To be honest, I'd rather see the cheaper model drop in price (if not both) than a speed bump.