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Evidence that Next iMacs and Mac Minis to use NVIDIA Chipsets
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I have an Apple TV and love it. I don't see Apple replacing it with the mini but who knows. I'd like to pick up the lowest end mini (as long as it has 802.11n) to act as my AppleTV server. Currently I have a Macbook with a 1TB HD connected to it and over 200 movies I've ripped from my DVD collection. It then serves them to the AppleTV via iTunes on my Macbook. Problem is, I can't take my macbook out of my room and still have access to those movies since the HD is not connected. I'd like to just hook up the HD to the low end Mini and have that serve all my content to my apple tv.
I've read this from several members in other threads and fail to understand the logic of wanting such a device.
Do you want your Mac mini to be a router? If so, why? Replacing a network appliance with a full-blown Mac would be a nightmare. Every time you install updates or your Mac mini crashes it would be bring down your entire network.
Or did you mean Time Capsule's wireless backup feature? Because you can already attach an external drive off the Mac mini for Time Machine, and all your Macs can backup to that drive (wirelessly if you want) just like Time Capsule.
Time Machine natively supports built-in AFP shares if they're genuine (Mac OS X, Mac OS X Server). It just doesn't support emulated AFP shares (ReadyNAS, Windows Server 2003, etc).
As for Apple TV, I suppose you mean you want Front Row updated with the Apple TV GUI and all its features?
Until Apple gets around to adding 720p, 1080i and 1080p to Mac OS X's built-in resolutions (and include automatic adjustments for overscan and square pixels) — it's going to be difficult to use the Mac mini as an Apple TV.
Not to even mention the whole HDCP requirement for content providers, although I'm sure that's coming with DisplayPort.
Pretty good.
However, neither the Mac Mini nor the iMac's prices appeal to me as of now. I'll have to wait and see where they go. I really want something of the iMac's caliber but without an included monitor, as I just bought an excellent 24" BenQ one.
EDIT:
Correct me if I wrong, but I really don't see the use of a SSD in a desktop. Faster speeds over HHD's really haven't been proven, it's way more expensive, has a limited number of writes, and comes in smaller capacities. I really don't see why anyone would want that.
However, neither the Mac Mini nor the iMac's prices appeal to me as of now. I'll have to wait and see where they go. I really want something of the iMac's caliber but without an included monitor, as I just bought an excellent 24" BenQ one.
EDIT:
Correct me if I wrong, but I really don't see the use of a SSD in a desktop. Faster speeds over HHD's really haven't been proven, it's way more expensive, has a limited number of writes, and comes in smaller capacities. I really don't see why anyone would want that.
The macmini would be perfect as a PVR. Throw in a decent Hybrid Analog+Digital tuner that allows me to plug my cable line into the back of it and hook up to a TV and I'd be eternally grateful. Doing this now with a huge custom PC just isn't an option in every room of my house...Oh and an iPod dock on the top would be nice too.
It _is_ integrated graphics. It is just much, much, much, much better integrated graphics
I wouldn't be surprised of future MacPro's would get the same graphics, so you can use this to handle the screen, while four GPU cards can be plugged in for use with OpenCL to turn the MacPro into a supercomputer.
QFT. I love firewire, and if Apple dumps it, then firewire will be one more reason why I'll dump Apple.
I sure will correct you since you've been living in a cave for the past year.
SSDs have indeed proven their speed (the majority are almost twice faster than most 7200RPM drives, with some being almost 4 times faster like the Intel X25-M). Next year we'll see Toshiba's 512GB SSD with read performance over 200MB/s and write performance around 200MB/s. Try *that* at home with your 7200RPM HDD.
The limited number of writes for the recent SDDs is now well above the lifetime of a typical HDD (which usually last only 4-5 years).
Yes, they're still expensive and lower capacity but within the next 2-3 years, I can see SDDs matching HDD capacities and being only slightly more expensive...but the extra cash plunked on a a drive with no moving parts and higher life expectancy will be all worth it.
I agree that the Mini would be a great PVR, but if you are in the US or most of Europe and quite a few other countries, why would you want a Hybrid Analogue/Digital tuner, they are obsolete in 2 months. I want a Dual Digital with Cable Card capability tuner, built in would be best, but hopefully something will be announced about the time of Macworld.
No those are all desktop cards. The cards themselves wouldn't even physically fit in the iMac enclosure. 9400M in the low end, 9600GT in the mid/high end/ with a 9800GS BTO/very high end is my guess. Oh and all those cards you listed are owned by the 4870X2
Nvidia will be detailing its 300 series at CES in January. a lot of the 200 series and the 9000 series (to be rebranded into the 100 series) will make a move to the 55nm die shrink, making them use less power. Sorry Nvidia but I wasn't teh first to leak it anyways
Analog cable is just about dead / as well over the air.
You want cable card v2 / tur2way / OCAP but that will force them to run cable co applications on apples box and other out side lock down.
You don't want cable card v1 and right now the tru2way tests need a PRO install likely form the cable co installer.
I remember getting a PC with a 6 GB HD and thinking I was the pimp of the neigborhood. Gawd, am I getting old. Thanks for the tangential reminder.
Agreed. Because they use slow (and fairly small capacity) drives inside the Mini, booting from external Firewire drives is a great option increase its performance.
If they drop FireWire and use the Mini Display port (and don't include an adaptor), this would drastically increase the overall cost of upgrading my current Mini to the new model (I would need new external drives, new monitor or adaptor, replace iSight camera, etc., etc.). And isn't the Mini's whole purpose in life to be inexpensive?
alright! this should make the mini a much better machine. can't wait to see if it will be redesigned!
No, it just means its using the chipset. Using a dedicated graphics solution disables the IGP by default. With bulk discounts its cheaper for Apple to buy the MCP79 chips for all their notebooks, SFF desktops, and all in ones than to use the MCP79 for integrated graphics machines and Intel's PM45 for dedicated graphics machines. Besides, if hybrid SLI support were ever written into the OS, that 9400M would give a pretty big boost to the dedicated chip.
There ya go:
No optical drive, no remote, no remote sensor, no firewire, the slowest hard drives Apple can scrounge up, 1 GB of RAM soldered to the board
No sales outside the Mac community either.