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Mac Mini End Of Life?

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Anyone heard of a computer company called Shuttle? They make small format PC's and one of their latest is a core 2 box with an HDMI out. This has been coming for a while as video cards didn't commonly support HDMI even a year ago. Yes, you can say MS tried to do this before and failed, but without HD resolution, computer on a TV is junk. I use to have a 29" 1280x1024 computer monitor as my TV, which was just good enough displaying a desktop as well. As for applications, anyone ever hear of youtube?
 
Clive At Five said:
For "xMac" folks, the Mini is the choice to make, because it WILL do those higher-end tasks, but unfortunately only for a limited amount of time, as newer software will very quickly out-pace it. This is the shortcoming of a non-upgradeable unit, packed with mobile components. Awesome for a couple years, then grudgingly slow afterwards.

The mini has its place and is a great PC for some uses, but it is nowhere near a complete solution for anyone who wants a long-term computer, or does a lot of higher-end work. Not that I'd recommend a Mac Pro because I wouldn't. Too damn much. Too much power. Too much money.
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Clive--

I think that is very well said. The Mini has a great deal of flexibility, and is a great introduction to Mac, but is limited. Then again, it's relatively inexpensive (for a Mac), so it seems a fair trade-off. I do wish it had a graphics card...
 
gkarris said:
this is the "Energizer Bunny Thread" - it keeps going, and going...

Can we nix this thread Jan. 15th if Apple keeps it or comes out with an equivalent?
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Ha! Remember the "G5 Powerbook next Tuesday!" threads? This is NOTHING compared to them. Or check out the Stoakley-Seaburg thread. . . etc.
 
mini mini mini mini mini all day long
and when we get together, we sing the mini song!

anybody remember where the tune comes from, with a different word in place of mini??:D
 
spatlese44 said:
Anyone heard of a computer company called Shuttle? They make small format PC's and one of their latest is a core 2 box with an HDMI out. This has been coming for a while as video cards didn't commonly support HDMI even a year ago. Yes, you can say MS tried to do this before and failed, but without HD resolution, computer on a TV is junk. I use to have a 29" 1280x1024 computer monitor as my TV, which was just good enough displaying a desktop as well. As for applications, anyone ever hear of youtube?
Click to expand...

What does this have to do with anything? Shuttle has had quality issues for several years and you still get stuck with Windows? And Youtube is not an application, it's not even half as much fun since they started filtering copyrighted content.
 
So question:

Will a Mini Core Solo make a good PVR with eyeTV? I talked to a guy with one w/ 2GB RAM & a Superdrive. What would you say are the minimum reqs for a good, dedicated eyeTV/FrontRow unit?

-Clive
 
January is almost here, Mini's fate or future will be known soon. Steve will say........... Looking at this thread it seems there are many many Mini users and lovers here at Rumors.
 
Dont Hurt Me said:
January is almost here, Mini's fate or future will be known soon. Steve will say........... Looking at this thread it seems there are many many Mini users and lovers here at Rumors.
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All the criticism of Mac minis I've seen are from people who do not have one. Most Mac mini owners talk positive about their minis. I'm assuming the Mac mini fit their needs for a computer and the Mac mini met their expectations. Most of the criticism comes from people who want more than a mini, less than a Mac Pro, but not an all-in-one like the iMac. The death of the Mac mini doesn't mean that they will get what they want.
 
Interesting Observation

Roy said:
All the criticism of Mac minis I've seen are from people who do not have one. Most Mac mini owners talk positive about their minis. I'm assuming the Mac mini fit their needs for a computer and the Mac mini met their expectations. Most of the criticism comes from people who want more than a mini, less than a Mac Pro, but not an all-in-one like the iMac. The death of the Mac mini doesn't mean that they will get what they want.
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I hadn't noticed that before, but after re-reading a selection of the posts its quite obvious. Those who have 'em love 'em (me included). Those who don't have a mini made their choice, and likely for good reasons, and don't regret their decision. The question for someone who is still only thinking about getting a mini - and whether it will be appropriate for their needs or not.
 
snberk103 said:
I hadn't noticed that before, but after re-reading a selection of the posts its quite obvious. Those who have 'em love 'em (me included). Those who don't have a mini made their choice, and likely for good reasons, and don't regret their decision. The question for someone who is still only thinking about getting a mini - and whether it will be appropriate for their needs or not.
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Yes. The Mini doesn't compete in certain PC "spaces" (like the standard PC desktop). It does the BEST in the sort of "nano" desktop "space" (like compared to the Shuttle or the eNano). The competitors' systems are way more money...
 
Westside guy said:
Given that the $599 Dell is 20x-30x larger than the Mac Mini, I would hope most people could see the problem with that simplistic reasoning. It's like asking why your $1300 Macbook has worse graphics than Dell's $1300 desktop system.
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Okay, I have to disagree with one thing... That the $599 model (or ANY of Apple's models, actually) STILL HAVE DVD-ROM DRIVES! On NewEgg, DVD-writers cost $10 more than ROM Drives... and that's retail. I'm sure the difference to Apple would be less than that. Secondly. The $799 model should have 2GB RAM. Especially if you have an onboard GPU, you need that extra RAM. There's no reason why any $800 computer nowadays should have less than 2GB RAM... and the fact that even the $1800 iMac only has 1GB.... is plain appalling.

Furthermore, while it's stated that Leopard's minimum amount of RAM is 512MB, the "street" minimum req. for Leopard is 1GB. What about 10.6? One OS release might be sending these computers out to the lag-house...

Its the lack of longevity that bothers me most about the MacMini. If it was just a little more future-proof, it would be the perfect machine.

-Clive
 
Clive At Five said:
Okay, I have to disagree with one thing... That the $599 model (or ANY of Apple's models, actually) STILL HAVE DVD-ROM DRIVES! On NewEgg, DVD-writers cost $10 more than ROM Drives... and that's retail. I'm sure the difference to Apple would be less than that. Secondly. The $799 model should have 2GB RAM. Especially if you have an onboard GPU, you need that extra RAM. There's no reason why any $800 computer nowadays should have less than 2GB RAM... and the fact that even the $1800 iMac only has 1GB.... is plain appalling.

Furthermore, while it's stated that Leopard's minimum amount of RAM is 512MB, the "street" minimum req. for Leopard is 1GB. What about 10.6? One OS release might be sending these computers out to the lag-house...

Its the lack of longevity that bothers me most about the MacMini. If it was just a little more future-proof, it would be the perfect machine.

-Clive
Click to expand...

Good points :)
 
Clive At Five said:
Okay, I have to disagree with one thing... That the $599 model (or ANY of Apple's models, actually) STILL HAVE DVD-ROM DRIVES! On NewEgg, DVD-writers cost $10 more than ROM Drives... and that's retail. I'm sure the difference to Apple would be less than that. Secondly. The $799 model should have 2GB RAM. Especially if you have an onboard GPU, you need that extra RAM. There's no reason why any $800 computer nowadays should have less than 2GB RAM... and the fact that even the $1800 iMac only has 1GB.... is plain appalling.


-Clive
Click to expand...

You wanna know why.
Well I tell you this, when the the first model of mac mini was released it came with 256mb ram and then afterwards there was a kind of an outcry that it was not sufficient. Around the end of July after it had been on sale for a few months the ram was upgraded to 512mb. Let's take that during the first few months since the product was released there were huge sales. So apparently they had run out of 256mb ram which the company had in stock, and now they were free to upgrade the ram which they must have got it for the same price as the one before it.

The same applies as to why the $599 still comes with combo drive. They have some in stock so discarding them, selling or even returning them to the company they bought it from will seem a stupid business practice as they will get a lower price from it compared to the price they actually paid for it in the first place.
Till the time they have some stock of combo drives there will be no superdrive.

And the same could said of the pathetic 80gb hard disk in the $599 model.
I bought the first model in June 2005( the $599 one) and it came with 80gb and now I am looking to purchase another one for the last 6 months and can't justify spending the same amount of money and not getting a bigger hard disk.
On most other machines hard disk capacity seems to be doubling every year.
Even on ipod classic. Damn 160gb and the mac mini is fine with 80gb.

Some people did say that the mac mini only exists to clear out old inventories of macbooks and before that of ibooks, and that stands true.
 
bluesjam said:
You wanna know why.
Well I tell you this, when the the first model of mac mini was released it came with 256mb ram and then afterwards there was a kind of an outcry that it was not sufficient. Around the end of July after it had been on sale for a few months the ram was upgraded to 512mb. Let's take that during the first few months since the product was released there were huge sales. So apparently they had run out of 256mb ram which the company had in stock, and now they were free to upgrade the ram which they must have got it for the same price as the one before it.

The same applies as to why the $599 still comes with combo drive. They have some in stock so discarding them, selling or even returning them to the company they bought it from will seem a stupid business practice as they will get a lower price from it compared to the price they actually paid for it in the first place.
Till the time they have some stock of combo drives there will be no superdrive.

And the same could said of the pathetic 80gb hard disk in the $599 model.
I bought the first model in June 2005( the $599 one) and it came with 80gb and now I am looking to purchase another one for the last 6 months and can't justify spending the same amount of money and not getting a bigger hard disk.
On most other machines hard disk capacity seems to be doubling every year.
Even on ipod classic. Damn 160gb and the mac mini is fine with 80gb.

Some people did say that the mac mini only exists to clear out old inventories of macbooks and before that of ibooks, and that stands true.
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While I basically agree with your post, I think that an equal part of the motivation for keeping the mini 'underspec'd' is to maintain a significant and unmistakable breach between the mini and the iMacs. Clive's point about the barely-noticeable price bump to a DVD drive in the low-end mini is the best proof of this: it makes no sense to me from any other point of view.

I use 'underspec'd' in quotes because it is just fine for me and many others as is; from this perspective there's nothing wrong with it, no matter how badly it makes the mini-bashers squeal. But from a value standpoint that is NOT relative to my personal needs, I think we're pretty close in these last few posts to making good sense of its shortcomings.
 
I have a DVD burner in one of my Macs, one of my Windows computers and one of my laptops, but I never use them. Sometimes I burn CDs. So, if I were to buy a Mac Mini, I would buy the one without the DVD burner.
 
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