Mac Mini Mid 2010 Teardown Photos

[Gotta Hankerin]

How does the new mini look on your Panny 32 inch? I have the exact same TV and setup. I also encountered all kinds of issues with DisplayConfigX and gave up. I am interested in as much detail as you can provide as I am looking at swapping a new Mini for my old mini still connected to that 720p Panny TV.

THANKS!

I think it looks great. Finally the image fills the entire screen. As I mentioned I upgraded the RAM with some chips I already had and it was a breeze. The bottom of the Mini pops off after a slight turn and the RAM is right there. Easy. The video setup was simple too. Straight HDMI from Mini to TV. Once connected I went to the Display system preference and used the slider to adjust the image size. I have a Harmony One remote controlling the TV, the Mac Mini (I use it for FrontRow and Hulu Desktop), my Samsung Soundbar, and a PS3. Even my wife is happy with our current setup. We probably watch just as much TV as we did when we had satellite but it's now a heck of a lot cheaper.

 

[WCLPeter]

Blu-Ray great for movies, bad for backups...

And in this parallel universe of yours, is Internet connection also 50MBS world wide under 100% load in every corner of the planet? Because that's the speed you'd need to replace blu-ray completely.

The original poster was talking about his two terabyte drive, he'd need at least 40 of the 50 GB discs to back it up to Blu-Ray. At 295.95 for a spindle of 50 discs it'd be much easier, and cheaper, to buy a spare desktop hard-drive for 129.99 and mount it in a drive enclosure when he needs to perform them.

I'm not saying that Blu-Ray doesn't have its place, I know I personally would love to have one in the new Mini so I can archive my HD footage for playback on the Blu-Ray player connected to my TV.

However as a computer backup storage medium, in an age where drive sizes are measured in terabytes, it is sorely lacking.

 

[flopticalcube]

The original poster was talking about his two terabyte drive, he'd need at least 40 of the 50 GB discs to back it up to Blu-Ray. At 295.95 for a spindle of 50 discs it'd be much easier, and cheaper, to buy a spare desktop hard-drive for 129.99 and mount it in a drive enclosure when he needs to perform them.

I'm not saying that Blu-Ray doesn't have its place, I know I personally would love to have one in the new Mini so I can archive my HD footage for playback on the Blu-Ray player connected to my TV.

However as a computer backup storage medium, in an age where drive sizes are measured in terabytes, it is sorely lacking.

From what I gather the OP to his post was talking about content delivery, not backup. Both could be solved by ubiquitous high-bandwidth, no-cap internet. Sadly, that day is still a ways away. I agree in that BD for backup no longer makes sense, especially with a hotmount docking station and cheap HDs.

 

[Osamede]

If you can extol the virtues of buying a $999 Mac mini server with an unlimited client copy of OS X Server and 2 500 GB hard drives as a HTPC then please do so. Unless a HTPC needs to run a directory server, Apache, and NetInstall. Maybe my priorities are wrong.

To be fair if you want to buy a 2-drive NAS that is designed to run only laptop drives, then you're looking at spending 5 or 6 hundred bucks one of the QNAP SS models then another couple hundred bucks on drives. That lands you at about 700 or 750.

Then you compare and the Mini Sever:
- is a full blown PC with discrete graphics card, rather than a Atom
- is way quieter
- and has the HDMI port and optical out
- adds wireless integrated

So basically the NAS has been shurnk merged with a media player and made ultra quiet.

That's pretty damn good if you ask me. I've been looking for just this for a long time and couldnt not find it. I'd say its well worth the 300 buck premium over the QNAP.

If one wants to complain, I'd rather ask why everybody else in the market has been pussyfooting around for so long. This device is basically obsoleting the idea of owning a media player plus a NAS somewhere in your closet, the getting stressed about struggling to stream your HD films between them without hiccups.

I often think Apple is overrated but they earned every bit of their rep on this one. Hats off to them.