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Apple Releases New Sandy Bridge Mac Minis and Thunderbolt Display

I upgraded my early 2009 Mac Mini to 4 GB RAM after using the 2GB for almost 2 years. The difference was amazing and well worth the $55 and care it took in doing it myself. It was real world difference that I realize every day whenever I have more than just internet open. Especially since I use iTunes quite often as a music server. After using the upgrade for a few months, I could never buy any machine with 2GB. In fact, I would be safeguarding myself by recommending upgrading to 8GB if you plan to keep your device for several years.

With that being said, I can't believe they are still shipping the base model with 2GB. Especially after they announce record profits...
 
BruiserB said:
You're supposed to AirPlay it to your AppleTV!
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Great. And now I want to show my sisters wedding and give the movie to my grandma and sister. They want to watch it on their TV. How am I going to play it there?

Virtually everyone has a DVD player. Not an AppleTV or internet mediacenter box.
 
S.Jobs said:
The Mac mini is a solid base computer and the high end is really nice. Most people dont need quad cores
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The server version is not a High-End version. It's a (would be) Server configuration :p. What's the difference? The GPU departement. Non CUDA based servers servers don't have a use for something else than an IGP (HD 3000) - if they even need it! (I manage my home server via ssh).

But then again ... it's pretty much would be ... Backing up Purposes? You can only get 2 TB in one mac mine (not even a BTO option), so more then a 3 laptops is like a no no. You could add one of those Prometheus things ... but seriously? Way pay 1600 bucks for something which shoud cost around 600 ... (2TB HDD's cost like less then 70 bucks now :rolleyes:). Web Server? Okéy ... but who has a Gbit connection at home?

The only thing I'd use if for is ... as an Apple TV with storage.
 
Everyone who needs the optical drive on the Mini:
Go get a refurb or clearance prev gen Mini.

Everyone who misses the optical drive on the Mini:
You probably whined when Apple came out with the USB-only iMac, obsoleting your ADB and SCSI peripherals. ;)

The writing has been on the wall for a while. Many of you complained that the prev gen Mini was too expensive. Apple listened and cut costs for you. Now you whine the optical drive is gone. It's pretty cheap for you to get one if you need one. If you must have it built in, you can get a prev gen Mini for cheap. I saw them going for $429 on the refurb store this am. Almost grabbed one, then realized I really don't use the optical drive either.
 
ArcaneDevice said:
Happy to see it go? Why? Did it insult you at some point or date your sister?

No drive is idiotic. You can't rip your CDs to it and use it as a music server. You can't run Windows 7 Media Center on it. It doesn't play DVDs.

Unless you pay another $70 and have another box sat on top of it. Which defeats it's compact design.
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You cannot rip CDs without pulling out a $70 box out of your drawer and connect it. Nobody forces you to put a box on it 24/7 if you only use it once or twice per month.

Yvan256 said:
The MBA Superdrive may be overpriced, but it only has a USB cable and gets its power from the Macbook Air/Mac mini. I think the extra cost is worth it for some people if it can eliminate another cable and another power brick. And it doesn't look out of place since it looks like a smaller Mac mini too.
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My LaCie 'Superdrive' also gets its power via USB. You pay extra for the looks (and possibly the privilege to play DVDs with DVDplayer instead of VLC, my LaCie plays DVDs only via VLC).
 
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deyorew said:
After using the upgrade for a few months, I could never buy any machine with 2GB. In fact, I would be safeguarding myself by recommending upgrading to 8GB if you plan to keep your device for several years.

With that being said, I can't believe they are still shipping the base model with 2GB. Especially after they announce record profits...
Click to expand...
Indeed but NEVER buy the upgrade RAM from Apple. Way too expensive. You can save hundreds of dollar buying other memory. Do some research and you know which memory to buy.
 
Also very surprised to hear that they took out the optical drive. So many people were using their macs as a juke box server and movie player. I guess as long as they make a nice fast external drive all is ok. Still surprise move...

After thinking about it' its kind of nice that they make you go external, that way you don't get upset if it fails. But they should be advertising the superdrive as a standard accessory like a mouse and keyboard if you ask me.

Not every device in the household needs a drive, but you need at least one per household i would think.
 
Remove the disc drive on your most basic computer? Have we forgotten the target market for it? There's no way my Mom will upgrade her Mac Mini G4 now. You have got to be kidding me....
 
Wildhorses said:
I notice how viciously people get thumbed down for noticing possible flaws with Apple products lol.

The thunderbolt port and magsafe port are on the opposite sides of the new airs. Design fail if you buy the new thunderbolt displays with an air. Otherwise they seem good.
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There is no design flaw. It will work just fine with the MBA. The image on the front page clearly shortened the length of the cables for aesthetics.

You seriously think they wouldn't have made them long enough to work with one of their best selling models. I mean… seriously?
 

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heimo said:
Seems that there is no recovery disks or drives. But this is interesting:

http://www.apple.com/macosx/recovery/
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This is a fantastic option, (speaking specificlly about the internet recovery option) I hope it will be available on older macs too, otehrwise it leaves a lot of people in the dark. I'm still not sure how I feel about recovery being somewhat dependant on an internet connection. call me paranoid but I'll keep a burned Lion disk around, and/or a Lion USB stick.
 
They should equip the external superdrive with magnets and the Cinema display, so you could snap it on the back so it would be iMac style, and also plug the usb into it.


:)
 
So I'm now very interested in getting a new Air with the thunderbolt display, I do need an upgrade but also the 'ultimate docking system' looks pretty cool.

I don't see a way to connect external speakers to the display (along with a few terabytes of external storage), is this possible? If it isn't, that's quite a big dent in the ultimateness of the setup.
 
gmcalpin said:
There is no design flaw. It will work just fine with the MBA. The image on the front page clearly shortened the length of the cables for aesthetics.

You seriously think they wouldn't have made them long enough to work with one of their best selling models. I mean… seriously?
Click to expand...

Would you prefer the current design versus the magsafe and thunderbolt being on the same side? Seems less manoeuvrability. I guess Apple is infallible, as a paying customer, what do I know? lol
 
WvB22 said:
Indeed but NEVER buy the upgrade RAM from Apple. Way too expensive. You can save hundreds of dollar buying other memory. Do some research and you know which memory to buy.
Click to expand...

Agreed, Lots of website have them for sale at a fraction of the cost Apple wanted to upgrade mine. In fact they make it sound like I was really hassling them When I called in to get it upgraded they gave me difference answers on pricing and whether or not they would even do my 18 month old machine! I felt like doing it myself based on online instruction was definitely the smarter decision.
 
Tastannin said:
Everyone who needs the optical drive on the Mini:
Go get a refurb or clearance prev gen Mini.
...
If you must have it built in, you can get a prev gen Mini for cheap. I saw them going for $429 on the refurb store this am. Almost grabbed one, then realized I really don't use the optical drive either.
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Where can a clearance 2010 Mac Mini be found?

As a media center connected to TV, not sure the 2011 Mac Mini is worth an extra $500 more than the AppleTV2 jailbroken with XBMC/Plex/Boxee loaded...
 
Interesting changes. I'll be more than happy to observe where all this goes with my relatively new 2010 Mac Mini.
 
notor1oustg said:
I have the Nov 2010 MBA 11 inch...

How would a thunderbolt display with with my computer?????
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It will work just fine. Hook it up to the MiniDisplayPort.

All Thunderbolt monitors should work fine with MiniDisplayPort ports AS MONITORS. You won't be able to use the USB, Firewire, Ethernet or Thunderbolt ports on the monitor, of course.
 
Tastannin said:
Everyone who needs the optical drive on the Mini:
Go get a refurb or clearance prev gen Mini.

Everyone who misses the optical drive on the Mini:
You probably whined when Apple came out with the USB-only iMac, obsoleting your ADB and SCSI peripherals. ;)
Click to expand...

Not a great comparison. Those ports you mention were replaced with something better. Better speeds, more compact, whatever. If Apple would have moved to the next level of physical media, Blu-ray in this case, I would have cheered and bought/ordered one tomorrow. The ultimate media monster!

Now they just left something out and replaced it with, well nothing. Not everything can be downloaded from iTunes / Mac App Store!
 
The Cinema Display is Nearly an iMac

The new Cinema Display as a docking station is pretty awesome.
It's like an iMac where you bring your own CPU via a MacBook Pro.
 
Are You ODD Complainers all Noobs to Mac?

Sounds like the same rumbling when Apple ditched the floppy. "Witch. Burn them at the stake." They had a USB floppy and the world didn't end. I suspect the same will be true here.

Oh how history repeats itself.
 
I'm seeing a page with the generic cardboard box and 6-8 weeks shipping for Apple Thunderbolt Display, can that be right?
 
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