Next Mini update? [Archive] - MacRumors Forums

alexf

Jun 27, 2005, 11:46 PM

mxpiazza

Jun 27, 2005, 11:48 PM

i think they are going to try and keep is as basic as possible... they'll upgrade it however they can to allow them to earn the same margins at the current price point, imo. i think the most likely areas for upgrades are slight proc. speed bump, and maybe 512MB installed RAM.

aussie_geek

Jun 27, 2005, 11:51 PM

Hi Everyone,

I was just wondering if anyone has any ideas about when the mini might be updated.

I am considering getting one but I don't know if I should wait.

What would likely be improved / upgraded with the next refresh?

I reckon they will up the hard drive speed to 5400rpm, and the graphics card to 64 Mb with core image compatibility. Maybe the addition of another DIMM slot - the total RAM will stay a 1GB or go up to 1.5. The processors will stay the same. They may throw in Airport for free.

I think the Mini's will be updated with the iBooks. Whenever that happens.

aussie_geek

alexf

Jun 28, 2005, 12:11 AM

aussie_geek

Jun 28, 2005, 12:19 AM

mxpiazza

Jun 28, 2005, 12:21 AM

By the way, I'm sure that this has been asked before, but for the sake of convenience I'll ask it here:

Just how quiet is the Mini? I know it has a fan, but is the computer actually noticeable when it is idling?

whisper quiet, stays cool... its really, really nice, my younger brother has one in his dorm room, after having a dell last year, he says that the noise/fan difference is like sleeping with the TV on or off.

alexf

Jun 28, 2005, 12:26 AM

Great, thanks for the info.

What about the hard drive? I am essentially trading a Cube for a Mini and, although the Cube has no fan, the hard drive can really be quite noisy, especially when its working.

Will I likely notice more or less noise with the Mini?

ChrisFromCanada

Jun 28, 2005, 12:56 AM

1.42GHz
512MB RAM
Combo Drive
Radeon 9600 64MB
40 Gig 5400RPM HD
$499

1.67GHz
512MB RAM
Superdrive
Radeon 9600 64MB
80Gig 5400RPM HD
$649

Just a guess...probably wrong but I can dream...

shadowmoses

Jun 28, 2005, 12:56 AM

rabadash

Jun 28, 2005, 04:30 AM

1.42GHz
512MB RAM
Combo Drive
Radeon 9600 64MB
40 Gig 5400RPM HD
$499

1.67GHz
512MB RAM
Superdrive
Radeon 9600 64MB
80Gig 5400RPM HD
$649

Just a guess...probably wrong but I can dream...

No way, that'll make the difference between the mac mini and the powerbooks even worse. Oh, sorry I guess I've just read that so many times about the ibook it just stuck.

Anyways, I think they'll upgrade the video to a 9600 or x300 (probably 9600) and give it a minor speed bump to maybe 1.5Ghz at the top end, but no ram update yet, no included bluetooth or airport(but they may lower the cost of the upgrades), and definitely no superdrive for either model. They'll only give us 5200rpm hard drives if there's a negligble price difference, which may very well be the case. I also believe it will be sometime before the mac mini is updated. There is a small chance that it will be updated before september and the paris expo, but I'm not holding my breath. Rather they'll try and hit the holiday season.(though, I hope this isn't true)

The nice thing about the mac mini though, is that it doen't have to carry the same life span as other macs do, so unlike the ibook or pro stuff, I wouldn't wait nearly as long for an updated version of the mac mini.

Spanky Deluxe

Jun 28, 2005, 04:39 AM

MacTruck

Jun 28, 2005, 04:41 AM

I don't quite see why everyone expects the new Mac Minis to get 512MB RAM. Yeah it'd be nice but the UK store is still selling brand new (non refurbed) 1.8Ghz G5 Powermacs with 256MB RAM. The top model could get 512MB but I don't really see why the 'low end' would get it.

Even if they do get 512mb ram who cares. You still have to pull it out to put more ram into it and lets face it OSX needs at least 1gb.

Gordy

Jun 28, 2005, 07:29 AM

Even if they do get 512mb ram who cares. You still have to pull it out to put more ram into it and lets face it OSX needs at least 1gb.

512mb is fine in osx, though the more the better.

Lets be honest 256mb is not enough tho! It's bound to put off people trying the mini for the first time, and how many people know the minimum amount of ram they should have? It should 512mb as standard to avoid all the issue's even if they have to raise the price slightly to do it :)

The apple store is down so fingers crossed for updates! :)

Ryan T.

Jun 28, 2005, 07:38 AM

512mb is fine in osx, though the more the better.

Lets be honest 256mb is not enough tho! It's bound to put off people trying the mini for the first time, and how many people know the minimum amount of ram they should have? It should 512mb as standard to avoid all the issue's even if they have to raise the price slightly to do it :)

The apple store is down so fingers crossed for updates! :)
My Power Mac came with 256MB!

It absolutely crippled the computer. I can't believe Apple still puts that tiny amount in some of their machines, especially considering how dirt cheap RAM is.

mrgreen4242

Jun 28, 2005, 08:15 AM

I'd bet on having 256 soldered onto the mainboard and having one empty DIMM slot to add up to 1gb of extra RAM. Add that with a slight decrease in BTO RAM prices and one of the mini's weaknesses will be removed (or at least reduced). 1.25gb of RAM should be plenty for most people - if you need more you shouldn't be buying a mini most likely.

I'm guessing that the only HDD update will be in the BTO options. I suspect we will see a 60gb 5400rpm and a 100gb 5400rpm choice in there as well, but you'll have to pay a little extra for them. This gives you a chance to remove one of the mini's other main weaknesses.

I'd love to see a 9600/64mb in the mini, but have this terrible feeling they will stick a 5200ultra/64mb in there. Which won't be BAD, but just not as good as it could be. It won't completely cure the last soft spot in the mini, but would be enough to get it through a prodcut cycle.

CPU's to 1.33ghz and 1.5ghz is all I expect to see at this point, keeping the top G4 spot for the PBs. They need to get this out well before holiday time if Jobs wants to have Intel mini's on the shelves before June. Bringing the last G4 out before the end of summer gives him a good 6 month window to get the first Intel mini released in late May, just enough time for the first orders to be shipped to users right before the conference.

Assuming they are something close to these specs I'll buy one as soon as I can.

wwooden

Jun 28, 2005, 09:11 AM

So we're thinking:

Low:

1.33 GHz
256megs (soldered on so expandable to 1.25GB)
40 or 60 GB hard drive (5400 rpm)
either 5200ultra or 9600 GPU with 64megs of VRAM
combo drive

High:
1.5GHz
256megs (same as above)
80 GB hard drive (5400 rpm)
same GPU as above.
combo drive

No airport or BT standard.

Edit: Now that I look at it, I think the low ones seems reasonable, but I can't justify playing $100 to only increase the CPU, hard drive ( but that is the only change they have now!). Something else would have to change on the high one, maybe 512megs of ram standard.

mrzeve

Jun 28, 2005, 09:55 AM

Yes the mini will be quieter because it uses 2.5" HD's which produce less noise than the bigger 3.5" HD's used in cube's....Also the mini could be considered fanless becuase it is silent, makes no noise like the cube...

ShadOW :D

My mini starts getting louder and louder when I do something like watch a streaming video. Then it shuts up.

Gordy

Jun 28, 2005, 10:17 AM

There is no advantage in adding 256mb via a soldering on board as it adds to production costs and they would have redesign the motherboard. It would be far cheaper to do with the standard stick of 256mb becoming 512mb.

brianus

Jun 28, 2005, 11:02 AM

Think there's any chance they'd lower the cost of upgrading to 1GB if they made 512 the standard? $225 extra is just downright criminal, and I don't want to HAVE to break open the case and install another brand it myself.

As the for the rest, all I ask is an ADEQUATE video card (supports Tiger/can at least do with Expose what my 5 year old PowerMac can do), an an adequate and *predictable* HD speed (5400 at least, and don't make us guess which we'll be getting). 60GB for the lower end model would be nice, as 40 just isn't sufficient these days. CPU speed, AE/BT, etc, don't really matter all that much.

Surely they can do this by the end of the summer? My worry is that they're going to try to stretch the updates out to 9 months -- the Mini was introduced in January and will likely be replaced with an Intel version next June, so that's 18 months of life for the PPC Mini. One update smack in the middle would put it in September or October. I can't wait that long!

Spanky Deluxe

Jun 28, 2005, 12:59 PM

All I want is a *slightly* better graphics card. Extra processor speed would be nice too but that's not nearly as important imo.

alexf

Jun 28, 2005, 02:11 PM

As the for the rest, all I ask is an ADEQUATE video card (supports Tiger/can at least do with Expose what my 5 year old PowerMac can do), an an adequate and *predictable* HD speed (5400 at least, and don't make us guess which we'll be getting). 60GB for the lower end model would be nice, as 40 just isn't sufficient these days. CPU speed, AE/BT, etc, don't really matter all that much.

Is the Radeon 9200 really such a bad card? Is is worse or better than the GeForce 5200?

(Pardon my ignorance - graphics cards are not really my forté)

brianus

Jun 28, 2005, 03:43 PM

Is the Radeon 9200 really such a bad card? Is is worse or better than the GeForce 5200?

(Pardon my ignorance - graphics cards are not really my forté)

Me neither -- but from people who've used the Mini the consensus I'm hearing is that it's not quite up to snuff, particularly with Exposé. Since my Mac is 5 years old, uncustomized, and like the mini a G4, and it has no problems with it, I would hope a relatively new product like the mini would be able to handle it. Also the small amount of Video RAM (32MB) has been criticized, and I'm told it doesn't fully support some new graphics technology in Tiger.

While admittedly we're really just talking about eye candy, it's not like we're expecting a the mini to be a great gaming machine or anything -- just support basic features of the operating system adequately.

topgunn

Jun 28, 2005, 03:55 PM

Yes the mini will be quieter because it uses 2.5" HD's which produce less noise than the bigger 3.5" HD's used in cube's....Also the mini could be considered fanless becuase it is silent, makes no noise like the cube...

ShadOW :D
I guess I don't understand the definition of the word "fanless".

Ryan T.

Jun 28, 2005, 04:17 PM

I don't think we'll see these for a while. Not as long as they're still selling like hotcakes.

ijimk

Jun 28, 2005, 04:35 PM

So any idea when the revision is coming out? I am buying my girl friend one , sure the one out wil be just fine for her but I want to get the most bang for my buck. Any help is appreciated. :)

mklos

Jun 28, 2005, 07:55 PM

I don't think we'll see these for a while. Not as long as they're still selling like hotcakes.

Except that they're not selling like hotcakes. Last quarter's numbers on the MacMini were quite disappointing. Apple sold far less than anyone had expected. It was basically in the 250,000 range which isn't very good considering that iMac sales are around 400,000 to 450,000 and cost more than 3x the MacMini.

I think Apple just needs to bite the bullet the sell a keyboard and mouse with it. Its only an extra $70 for Apple and it will seem like a better value to any customer. A customer sees that its $499, a very good value, then they read that they need a keyboard, mouse, and display. Now it doesn't seem as good as a value to the customer, especially when they can buy a Dell for $399 with a keyboard, mouse, and display. Now we all know the $399 Dell is a POS, but the clueless person who knows nothing about computers will just look at the price tag and what's included and take the Dell because at the time, it seems like a better value. Its a psychological thing, I guess you could say.

If Apple would put a little better graphics card in it, that would be great. Even something like the NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra would be perfect for a $499 computer. Sure its nothing it brag over, but it sure beats what a PC has to offer for $499, which is 64MB or less of SHARED RAM from an Intel Extreme graphics chip or something.

My opinion, Apple is kinda stuck right now. The G4 isn't advancing very fast so it makes it hard to have updates for any Mac using the G4. You can't make the MacMini too powerful, because then it doesn't compare well with the PowerBook. Most people probably won't compare a MacMini to a PowerBook, but basically, a MacMini is a laptop in an desktop case without a keyboard, mouse, or display. I don't think you'll see iBook updates without also having PowerBook updates. If you do, then the iBook will basically be the same exact thing as a PowerBook in a different case, with a different name. So I think this is one of the reasons why Apple is just saying the heck with this, were going with Intel. They have different processors that are scalable on a yearly basis without a problem. They also have the money and resources that Freescale (Creators of the G4 processor)doesn't have. The Macs using a G5 have the same problem. The G5 isn't going anywhere fast. So Apple can't update the PowerMac lineup which makes it hard to update the iMac line up.

I would like to see a 1.5 GHz MacMini with a 5400 RPM HD, 512MB RAM, and 64MB VRAM. I think that would a steal for even $599....

alexf

Jun 30, 2005, 11:56 AM

Except that they're not selling like hotcakes. Last quarter's numbers on the MacMini were quite disappointing. Apple sold far less than anyone had expected. It was basically in the 250,000 range which isn't very good considering that iMac sales are around 400,000 to 450,000 and cost more than 3x the MacMini.

I think Apple just needs to bite the bullet the sell a keyboard and mouse with it. Its only an extra $70 for Apple and it will seem like a better value to any customer. A customer sees that its $499, a very good value, then they read that they need a keyboard, mouse, and display. Now it doesn't seem as good as a value to the customer, especially when they can buy a Dell for $399 with a keyboard, mouse, and display. Now we all know the $399 Dell is a POS, but the clueless person who knows nothing about computers will just look at the price tag and what's included and take the Dell because at the time, it seems like a better value. Its a psychological thing, I guess you could say.

If Apple would put a little better graphics card in it, that would be great. Even something like the NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra would be perfect for a $499 computer. Sure its nothing it brag over, but it sure beats what a PC has to offer for $499, which is 64MB or less of SHARED RAM from an Intel Extreme graphics chip or something.

My opinion, Apple is kinda stuck right now. The G4 isn't advancing very fast so it makes it hard to have updates for any Mac using the G4. You can't make the MacMini too powerful, because then it doesn't compare well with the PowerBook. Most people probably won't compare a MacMini to a PowerBook, but basically, a MacMini is a laptop in an desktop case without a keyboard, mouse, or display. I don't think you'll see iBook updates without also having PowerBook updates. If you do, then the iBook will basically be the same exact thing as a PowerBook in a different case, with a different name. So I think this is one of the reasons why Apple is just saying the heck with this, were going with Intel. They have different processors that are scalable on a yearly basis without a problem. They also have the money and resources that Freescale (Creators of the G4 processor)doesn't have. The Macs using a G5 have the same problem. The G5 isn't going anywhere fast. So Apple can't update the PowerMac lineup which makes it hard to update the iMac line up.

I would like to see a 1.5 GHz MacMini with a 5400 RPM HD, 512MB RAM, and 64MB VRAM. I think that would a steal for even $599....

Well said. Yes, Apple is in a rut. I think hardly ever in their history have they put out such infrequent updates, and when they do come out they are seriously meager.

As you mentioned, a big problem is the tiered product line. For instance, if a processor cannot be made to go any faster - such as seems to be the case with BOTH the G4 and the G5 - then that affects the entire product line, as they cannot have a consumer-end machine competing with a professional-end model.

The Intel thing makes me very sad - Apple seems to have lost a piece of its 20+ year old soul, but maybe that really was the only option to save sales...