Mac mini add-ons: image mockups

dejo · Jan 15, 2005, 05:44 PM

SiliconAddict made the suggestion that there might be a market for add-ons to the Mac mini that stack underneath it. I'd already put together a cheesy RAID mini mockup, but I got to thinking. So the following posts contain some sample image mockups of a variety of add-ons one could place underneath the Mac mini (including a "more-matching" RAID mini). Feel free to suggest other things or post your own ideas.

dejo · Jan 15, 2005, 05:46 PM

dejo · Jan 15, 2005, 05:46 PM

dejo · Jan 15, 2005, 05:47 PM

dejo · Jan 15, 2005, 05:48 PM

dejo · Jan 15, 2005, 05:49 PM

dejo · Jan 15, 2005, 05:50 PM

dejo · Jan 15, 2005, 05:53 PM

johnbro23 · Jan 15, 2005, 06:17 PM

Is this for real? There would be a huge market for these. Especially the FW/USB ports one. How much do you think the price would be for one of those? If they keep it under $50, it would make the Mini more attractive for those complaining they would have their USBs taken up by keyboard and mouse.

Chaszmyr · Jan 15, 2005, 06:40 PM

Don't forget about a tiny monitor and battery in this same style that attach to the bottom and top like is available for Gamecube

Peyote · Jan 15, 2005, 06:45 PM

Like I mentioned in another thread, I'd love to see one that had a FW, USB and heaphone port at least....a great addition would be one with a memory card slot as well, or an audio input.

johnbro23 · Jan 15, 2005, 06:49 PM

They should also make one with built in speakers. Thats one thing that the Mac Mini is missing.

Chaszmyr · 07:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by johnbro23

They should also make one with built in speakers. Thats one thing that the Mac Mini is missing.

So with all of these addons, the Mac mini is now a 6.5'' square... that's 3' tall :P

A really well engineered product could have just one of these little units that had extra USB, Firewire, a little LCD screen, another HD and another optical drive and be the exact same size as the Mac mini (making it 6.5'' x 6.5'' x 4''), afterall, Apple fit more in it than just that.

dejo · Jan 15, 2005, 07:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by johnbro23

Is this for real? There would be a huge market for these. Especially the FW/USB ports one. How much do you think the price would be for one of those? If they keep it under $50, it would make the Mini more attractive for those complaining they would have their USBs taken up by keyboard and mouse.

No, these aren't for real. Just my overactive imagination. I agree there's probably a market for these. Somehow I doubt the FW/USB hub one could be kept under $50 but what do I know. I'm just the "designer" not the manufacturer or sales department.

Yvan256 · Jan 15, 2005, 07:20 PM

Hehe, you guys should see what I got in mind.

Can't talk about it though, but I'll keep you informed.

Yvan256 · Jan 15, 2005, 07:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Peyote

Like I mentioned in another thread, I'd love to see one that had a FW, USB and heaphone port at least....a great addition would be one with a memory card slot as well, or an audio input.

Headphone port?!

Yvan256 · Jan 15, 2005, 07:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chaszmyr

So with all of these addons, the Mac mini is now a 6.5'' square... that's 3' tall :P

A really well engineered product could have just one of these little units that had extra USB, Firewire, a little LCD screen, another HD and another optical drive and be the exact same size as the Mac mini (making it 6.5'' x 6.5'' x 4''), afterall, Apple fit more in it than just that.

Well, dunno if it could be as thin, but even if you'd stack some of those units, you're still taking the same amount of desk space... (compared to the usual gear).

jlewis2k1 · Jan 15, 2005, 07:35 PM

you know i think that would be a great idea for companies to make new addons for the mini ... some of the ideas that i have seen in this thread are really neat ideas. i highly doubt there is a way but what if it were possible to have some type of a video upgrade? you know instead on having 32mb vram have the ability to boost it with some addon. just an idea

Mr. Anderson · Jan 15, 2005, 07:39 PM

These are great ideas, but I think they'll need to get a G5 in the mini before they would really take off.

D

Yvan256 · Jan 15, 2005, 07:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jlewis2k1

you know i think that would be a great idea for companies to make new addons for the mini ... some of the ideas that i have seen in this thread are really neat ideas. i highly doubt there is a way but what if it were possible to have some type of a video upgrade? you know instead on having 32mb vram have the ability to boost it with some addon. just an idea

Forget any video upgrade, not gonna happen (I got a college degree in computer electronics, so I know what I'm talking about here).

Unless some weird company starts making FireWire videocards....

jlewis2k1 · Jan 15, 2005, 07:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yvan256

Forget any video upgrade, not gonna happen (I got a college degree in computer electronics, so I know what I'm talking about here).

Unless some weird company starts making FireWire videocards....

it would have to use firewire 800 if they do ^_^

Yvan256 · 07:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr. Anderson

These are great ideas, but I think they'll need to get a G5 in the mini before they would really take off.

D

Nope, they're already taking off. Didn't you notice the jump to "shipping in 3-4 weeks" just two days after their announcement?

Not everyone wants/needs a G5, especially those who just want to ditch Microsoft and all the problems related to using their stuff.

Me, I'm just waiting until the Mac mini ships with Tiger, then I'm putting my order for the basic model!

Edit: Apple to manufacture 100,000 Mac minis a month

jlewis2k1 · Jan 15, 2005, 07:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yvan256

Me, I'm just waiting until the Mac mini ships with Tiger, then I'm putting my order for the basic model!

same here, it would be my first mac too!

Yvan256 · 07:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jlewis2k1

it would have to use firewire 800 if they do ^_^

Even if they did, the Mac mini only has a FireWire 400 port.

And even if they tried, it wouldn't be possible: FireWire 800 = 800mbits/sec. That's 100MB/sec. The new GeForce 6800 video card has a memory bandwidth of 22.4 GB/sec.

Even if the Radeon 9200 is 100 times slower than the GeForce 6800, that's still 224MB/sec.

Edit: ok, I compared the GPU/VRAM bandwidth vs what should've been the AGP bus... But still, the original AGP 1x specification ran at 66 MHz and provided 266 MB/s of bandwidth, that's still more than twice the maximum of FireWire 800.

So, FireWire 800 might be great, but videocards are in a league of their own.

Peyote · Jan 15, 2005, 07:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yvan256

Headphone port?!

It's what you plug your headphones into on a computer.

Jan 15, 2005, 05:44 PM	#1
dejo macrumors Demi-God Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: On the roadside	Mac mini add-ons: image mockups SiliconAddict made the suggestion that there might be a market for add-ons to the Mac mini that stack underneath it. I'd already put together a cheesy RAID mini mockup, but I got to thinking. So the following posts contain some sample image mockups of a variety of add-ons one could place underneath the Mac mini (including a "more-matching" RAID mini). Feel free to suggest other things or post your own ideas.

Jan 15, 2005, 05:46 PM	#2
dejo Thread Starter macrumors Demi-God Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: On the roadside	External HD

Jan 15, 2005, 05:46 PM	#3
dejo Thread Starter macrumors Demi-God Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: On the roadside	External Optical Drive

Jan 15, 2005, 05:47 PM	#4
dejo Thread Starter macrumors Demi-God Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: On the roadside	4-port FireWire and 4-port USB hub

Jan 15, 2005, 05:48 PM	#5
dejo Thread Starter macrumors Demi-God Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: On the roadside	DVI Mirror Hub

Jan 15, 2005, 05:49 PM	#6
dejo Thread Starter macrumors Demi-God Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: On the roadside	RAID mini

Jan 15, 2005, 05:50 PM	#7
dejo Thread Starter macrumors Demi-God Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: On the roadside	Possible LCD display (showing sample Mail alert)

Jan 15, 2005, 05:53 PM	#8
dejo Thread Starter macrumors Demi-God Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: On the roadside	Another Possible LCD Display (showing iTunes EQ graph)

Jan 15, 2005, 06:17 PM	#9
johnbro23 macrumors 6502a Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Pittsburgh, PA	Is this for real? There would be a huge market for these. Especially the FW/USB ports one. How much do you think the price would be for one of those? If they keep it under $50, it would make the Mini more attractive for those complaining they would have their USBs taken up by keyboard and mouse. __________________ MacBook Pro - 2.16GHz Core Duo, 2GB RAM, Leopard 23" Apple Cinema Display iPhone

Jan 15, 2005, 06:40 PM	#10
Chaszmyr macrumors Demi-God Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Boulder, CO	Don't forget about a tiny monitor and battery in this same style that attach to the bottom and top like is available for Gamecube

Jan 15, 2005, 06:45 PM	#11
Peyote macrumors 6502a Join Date: Apr 2002	Like I mentioned in another thread, I'd love to see one that had a FW, USB and heaphone port at least....a great addition would be one with a memory card slot as well, or an audio input.

Jan 15, 2005, 06:49 PM	#12
johnbro23 macrumors 6502a Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Pittsburgh, PA	They should also make one with built in speakers. Thats one thing that the Mac Mini is missing. __________________ MacBook Pro - 2.16GHz Core Duo, 2GB RAM, Leopard 23" Apple Cinema Display iPhone

Jan 15, 2005, 07:20 PM	#15
Yvan256 macrumors 68040 Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Canada	Hehe, you guys should see what I got in mind. Can't talk about it though, but I'll keep you informed.

Jan 15, 2005, 07:35 PM	#18
jlewis2k1 macrumors 6502a Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: in your closet	you know i think that would be a great idea for companies to make new addons for the mini ... some of the ideas that i have seen in this thread are really neat ideas. i highly doubt there is a way but what if it were possible to have some type of a video upgrade? you know instead on having 32mb vram have the ability to boost it with some addon. just an idea __________________ • Jeff L. • MacBook White CD2 2.1 GHz; 13" Wide; 4GB RAM; 320GB; 160GB Ext.; 10.6.1 • iPod Touch 2G (3.1.1) • Current iTunes Status (updates every minute)

Jan 15, 2005, 07:39 PM	#19
Mr. Anderson Demi-God (Moderator) Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Back in VA	These are great ideas, but I think they'll need to get a G5 in the mini before they would really take off. D __________________ "Klaatu varada nikto!"

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