Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Intel Mac mini Upgraded to 2.16GHz Core Duo

so, now we see that processors in mac mini are swappable, so what do you think about buying, mac mini solo or duo. which is better for now?
 
capran said:
It's very cool that we finally have a relatively low priced upgradeable Mac. (I guess it would be too much to ask for an upgradeable GPU as well...)

But it does suck that Intel's chips cost more than PPC chips. Is that just Intel's price premium, or is there something in the design/manufacturing process that's inherently more expensive? Or is it just that the PPC G(n) series were designed to be low cost?
Click to expand...

User-upgradeable GPU won't happen in a computer this size (the price premium of notebook GPUs is insane anyway--almost no one bought them when they were tried). You'd be well on your way to an iMac if you bought a mini and then a $300 GPU drop-in that would cost you half that in a full-size desktop.

The reason the G4 was so cheap was that it was an ancient processor line. The speeds up to 1.42 GHz were available by 2002. With everything worked out on the processor and no new innovation hitting the market, the price plummeted by 2005-2006. (The newer 1.5GHz+ PowerBook CPUs were a little more expensive.) Had the G4 kept up technologically and performance-wise, the price difference between the Intel and Motorola chips would be substantially smaller. In this case, there were no cost savings in switching over (as much as a 300% increase, actually), but the long-term prospects are much better.
 
Price is relative

capran said:
But it does suck that Intel's chips cost more than PPC chips. Is that just Intel's price premium, or is there something in the design/manufacturing process that's inherently more expensive? Or is it just that the PPC G(n) series were designed to be low cost?
Click to expand...

Those prices are retail. If Apple is paying retail cost for CPUs, they're getting ripped off.

And when one goes to purchase a G4 upgrade, the cost is significantly higher than buying a typical Intel (or AMD) chip. I could spend about $400 US to upgrade my 1.25GHz G4 to a 1.42GHz G4 (13% speed improvement). Uhh, no thank you. For that kind of money I could upgrade my AMD from 2GHz single to a 2.2GHz Dual Core (>100% speed improvement) and get a new motherboard to go with it.

whooleytoo said:
Yikes. I read this headline, and thought Apple had done another "It's even faster than we thought!"
Click to expand...

Yeah, so did I. I was just about to run out to the local Apple store and buy one.
 
what would be nice is starting a company that took over your warrantee and installed chips for you.

can you imagine that? big easy money and you could buy chips in bulk!!!!
 
runninmac said:
Wow thats amazing, So you can get MacBook Pros power for about 1/2 the price. (Just guessing on that, I have no idea how much the 2.16 chips cost)
Click to expand...

Yeah, but carrying around a mini, a keyboard, a mouse and a display is only half as cool as a MacBook Pro ;-)
 
Oh wow! This is just fricken' awesome! Good play, Apple! I guess this means I need to pick one of these up before Apple finds out about this and does something...:confused: :D

Do you think they care or would do anything to prevent this upgrade from being able to happen in future mini's? :( Can they do something to the currrent revision (while still on the assembly line) if they hear about this?

Sorry, just being paranoid...:eek:
 
This means a long usfull life

Macrumors said:
...upgrade of a 1.5GHz Mac mini Single Core to a 2.16GHz Dual Core processor.
Click to expand...

This is good. It means the Mini can have a long usfull life. The upgrade is not economical today but in three or four years when the mini is looking to be slow you will be able to upgrade it and add a few more years of life.

As for heat, I doubt it. It think what you'd get after the upgrade is just a bunch of fan noise. The mini has a powerfull fan inside but it never runs
with the apple supplied CPU chip
 
upgrade to merom

Does this mean that we could upgrade a mini or maybe an iMac to Merom or such? sorry my knowledge on procs is limited
 
Retail price for the Core Duo 2.16 GHz is $1213 (edit: Australian)

The 2.16 GHz version of the Core Duo is much more expensive, retail price $1213 (edit: Australian) , see this link :eek: . If Apple was paying retail for the 2.16 GHz, the upgraded MBPs would be much more expensive than they are.
 
wow, this is the shizzle :eek: :D :cool:

though you wont see me doing it [obligatory] not until they get rid of integrated graphics [/obligatory]
 
MacinDoc said:
The 2.16 GHz version of the Core Duo is much more expensive, retail price $1213, see this link :eek: . If Apple was paying retail for the 2.16 GHz, the upgraded MBPs would be much more expensive than they are.
Click to expand...

Would you actually trust that site?
 
runninmac said:
Would you actually trust that site?
Click to expand...
That's why I specified retail price. Intel's price, per 1000 processors, is $637, but unless you want to upgrade 1000 Minis and have $637,000 lying around, that price isn't what a consumer will pay. NewEgg's list doesn't include the 2.16 GHz model, which is much more expensive than the rest.
 
This is extremely good news! Intel chips being widespread and sold almost anywhere will come down in price alot sooner than 2-3 years. Something we PPC folks are not used to at all.

In fact the prices have dropped since the Intel announcement was done in Jan.

Everyone always has concerns about heat issues, but you have to think about this. Did Apple intend on selling this machine with a 1.66 CD forever? No way! They make sure that the current case design lasts at least a little bit.
Sure there are some exemptions (The G5 room heater, like mine), but the Intel Core Duo chips are laptop chips made to run cool and keep the wattage low.

If I'm not mistaken, the 1.66, 1.83, and 2.0 have almost the same watt usage.
 
whooleytoo said:
Yikes. I read this headline, and thought Apple had done another "It's even faster than we thought!"
Click to expand...

Hehe. Me too.

Nonethless, it's still very cool [and tempting...damnit] to be able to pick up the Solo now with the option to upgrade to a Duo later.

Again...damnit.
 
This is GREAT news!!! Just one question though.... who on earth would give this thread a negative rating??? :confused:
 
Why not?

runninmac said:
Would you actually trust that site?
Click to expand...

There's no reason not to trust it. It's a site in Australia, with prices in Australian dollars.

$1,213 Australian equals about $900 US.
 
Don't forget, since the MBP uses a chip carrier that's soldered, the price will be different from one that is socketed, anyway. I'll bet you that if the upgrades are offered for $270 difference in the Apple store, the difference when Intel is charging Apple is a bit less. Maybe not much. But some. When was the last time Apple voluntarily lowered their margins of profit? :)

And yes, this really has implications for what happens a year or so from now, not for purchases today. This is probably another reason why they made sure to have the less powerful integrated video, instead of something better. This is still no headless iMac, unfortunately. But it's very tight if you need power in a small space. Hopefully the Duos don't run too hot, and hopefully there will be further chips in the series, after they move the die size even smaller.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back