Mac Mini Not Dead Yet?

[Kar98]

DVD burner, excuse me, "Superdrive" in the lower end models, superduperdrive (Bluray) in the higher end.

7,200 rpm hard drive, not smaller than 200 GB.

2 GB RAM minimum.

fresher CPU and GPU.

And back off on the price again, sheesh. Remember? "Starting at just $499! Boom! Isn't that cool?" I paid more than $800 for mine in December 2006!

 

[mags631]

Listen don't quote me, I hate that. I am giving my own opinion.

OK, you can count on me!

 

[Santabean2000]

"Apple would never kill off Classic completely."

"Apple will never open brick-and-mortar stores. It would be a disaster."

"Apple will never make the eMac available to non-educational buyers."

"Apple would never get into the music business. They can't legally do it."

"Apple would never offer iPods for Windows users."

"Apple would never discontinue the iPod Mini. It's way too popular."

"Apple would never offer iTunes for Windows."

"Apple would never create a 24" iMac. It would be too top-heavy."

"Apple would never offer a headless Mac."

"Apple would never switch to Intel chips."

"Apple will never get into the cell phone market. It's way too competitive."

"Apple will never let people run Windows on a Mac."

"Apple will never let developers into the iPhone. It's a security problem."

"Apple would never call something the Macbook Air. That's horrible sounding."

You sir, are the latest in a very long line of naysayers. So please, express your opinion with that in mind and save the sarcasm for a time when history isn't against you. Also, it wouldn't hurt for you to show a little more respect for those who know what they're talking about. The single biggest demand right now on Apple is a headless, midrange Mac tower. Not only are more and more Windows switchers demanding such a thing, but a lot of high-profile Mac commentators are saying the same. If you think Apple is ignoring that, you're delusional.

I love it. Naysayers go hide in shame, and don't come out until you're prepared to open your mind.

Stevo is not stupid enough to say never to anything; all options are continually/consistently assessed on their merits.

 

[newamiga]

Great HTPC

I love my mini in my theater. Now if they would just add HDMI out and HDCP so they could rent HD movies throught it .. I would buy one right away.

 

[TuckBodi]

802.11n would be nice but I would like to see at least the capability to upgrade to 4GB of RAM added. Parallels/Windows sucks with the 2GB if you're running anything else.

 

[WannaGoMac]

I've been hoping for a half-spec Mac Pro. Just cut a MP in haalf. One quad core CPU chip, two disk drives. slts for 16GB RAM all in a half tall case.

Te trouble is that every one at Apple knows that a machine like that would complete cannibalize the mini, iMac and MP products. Just think what would happen if Apple actually sold a "normal" computer.

Just build a hackintosh It's what I will do...
That'll show em!

 

[Beric]

Apple needs to dump the combo drives, which likely actually cost more than the superdrives, and upgrade to Wireless N. Processor upgrades and lower price-points (with lower specs as a result) might be a good idea too, especially for countries that aren't as rich as us Americans, and for the people who just don't need all that power.

What's the deal about graphics cards? They really don't cost much relative to Apple's computers. Why can't Apple put real GPU's in that actually are fairly new? People would pay extra for them, I'm certain.

 

[Decrepit]

Apple needs to dump the combo drives, which likely actually cost more than the superdrives, and upgrade to Wireless N. Processor upgrades and lower price-points (with lower specs as a result) might be a good idea too, especially for countries that aren't as rich as us Americans, and for the people who just don't need all that power.

What's the deal about graphics cards? They really don't cost much relative to Apple's computers. Why can't Apple put real GPU's in that actually are fairly new? People would pay extra for them, I'm certain.

Even if the price difference isn't bad, recent graphics chips will require more cooling than a Mini can offer. I'd love to see a major upgrade in graphics, I just don't think they can pull it off in that chassis.

 

[BTW]

Still alive.

Why would they discontinue a system that is on the cheap to make with high margins? They can move old tech (discounted processors and disk drives) through the Mac Mini line. A minor processor, memory, and disk update plus a $100 off the base price would still give Apple good margins and move a mega-ton of them.

 

[Eidorian]

In after Eidorian.

Thanks but it wasn't necessary. Intel is slowly ramping up the production of 45nm processors but they're still rare. I don't expect to see as significant volume purchase price cuts at this stage when compared to the launch of 65nm Core 2 Duo processors.

Why would they discontinue a system that is on the cheap to make with high margins? They can move old tech (discounted processors and disk drives) through the Mac Mini line. A minor processor, memory, and disk update plus a $100 off the base price would still give Apple good margins and move a mega-ton of them.

It was supposed to be humorous.

Keep in mind that Intel really wants you to use its 45nm line instead of the older 65nm ones. I keep seeing users bring up the following.

However Apple could go get some cheap Geforce 6800 chips from a few years ago, they could be clocked such that the heat isn't bad, but it would give them the ability to play WoW or drive very large displays. It would probably be a major jump in performance over any integrated Intel GPU, but not so new that it would need a fan on constantly.

A majority of those components are End of Life or beyond and aren't made anymore. Why should Apple bother Intel or other hardware manufacturers for a run old hardware? Not to mention the venerable GeForce 6800 is out paced by cooler and faster chips already.

 

[Decrepit]

A majority of those components are End of Life or beyond and aren't made anymore. Why should Apple bother Intel or other hardware manufacturers for a run old hardware? Not to mention the venerable GeForce 6800 is out paced by cooler and faster chips already.

Oh, I know. My point was that they could probably be had for cheap and they'll still outperform the Intel integrated chips.

Apple knows that I'll buy whatever they end up releasing. So, I can just do some wishful thinking while I wait.

 

[BenRoethig]

DVD burner, excuse me, "Superdrive" in the lower end models, superduperdrive (Bluray) in the higher end.

7,200 rpm hard drive, not smaller than 200 GB.

2 GB RAM minimum.

fresher CPU and GPU.

And back off on the price again, sheesh. Remember? "Starting at just $499! Boom! Isn't that cool?" I paid more than $800 for mine in December 2006!

Good idea in theory, but the even the BD-rom/ DVD burner combos still cost as much as a Mini. It'll be another year to 18 months before their more than a luxury item.

 

[bigandy]

i really hope it's soon, i need to have quite a few of these ordered shortly...

 

[twoodcc]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/4A102 Safari/419.3)

glad to hear this. I hope its true . I've always liked the mini

 

[iPoodOverZune]

Just build a hackintosh It's what I will do...
That'll show em!

Count me in. I too have plans for that and have chalked out about 1000 bucks quad core comp with comparable graphics card (to Mac Pro) and 22 wide monitor. I don't want to, but I am sorry. I don't want Mac Mini and Mac Pro's greater than 2300 is out of the question. I have seen benchmarks of many hacintoshes (Hack Pro) (look on Xbench stats if you want to), which when compared to Mac Pro, are above par with their specs ($1000 = 70-80%MacPro). And Apple, I will still support you by buying Leopard for that. Or, just bring us an expandable Mac iTower or Mac Classic, whatever you want to call it.

 

[Silverhawk]

There's honestly so much APPLE can do with the current Mac Mini looks and specs.

Now before I get flamed like many others about bringing the Cube back, lets first think about this,

1) Technology is getting and smaller every quarter. With the possibility of using the new ATOM chip for the summer and skipping the Peryn series; they can stuff more into that form factor but for other upgrades that are possible, think of this...

2) If we take back the cube and take the guts of the Mac Mini, we could so fit more into that little guy, such as a real graphics card that can be swapped out.

3) The price can stay the same, just more room to play with.

 

[jbernie]

Good idea in theory, but the even the BD-rom/ DVD burner combos still cost as much as a Mini. It'll be another year to 18 months before their more than a luxury item.

Or Apple can create a new market as opposed to just being a part of the market. I don't doubt the cost side, but like everything else the price will always come down, trade the upfront cost with easier profits later on.

 

[chadder007]

Keep it around forever! BYOK, BYOM

If it didn't have shared video memory it would be even better!

If it had integrated NVidia or ATI graphics it would at least be better than Intel's integrated solution. ATI/AMD being the best integrated and NVidia being the best discrete graphics.

 

[aswitcher]

They need to lower the prices on the Mini, they just aren't competitive compared to a low end iMac.

Agreed. They should try and knock 25%-35% off the price.

It also needs N wireless.


Every Mac owner should be tempted to get a second Mac in the Mac Mini or recommend one to a friend.

The only real problem is that then the MM starts to seriously compete with the Apple TV.

 

[forgottensoft]

The mac mini needs the following things to get me to even think about upgrading

1. No More integrated graphics
2. $500 starting price
3. larger HD's
4. Firewire 800
5. Wireless N
6. More easily accesable Ram Slot (I dont want to have to use a paint scraper to get my Mini open )
7. 2.4Ghz perhaps?
8. Apple TV features


Its looking like i wont have a Mini for a while?

 

[djmase]

Mac Mini

Just my idea pfffttt

 

[Bad Paper]

lower price-points (with lower specs as a result) might be a good idea too, especially for countries that aren't as rich as us Americans

um. read news much? There are overseas money-changers no longer taking US dollars because their value is dropping too quickly. I was in a store today (in California) that offered a 20% discount if you paid in Euros. You could buy an $8 block of cheese for four Euros. Spurring inflation has its drawbacks.

Sorry, mate, but Apple is going to have a hard time keeping the Minis at their current price-point, especially in the US; no way could they drop that price further. It is actually a bad time for a spec upgrade.

I am excited to pick up a Mini soon. I had originally tried to keep my WinXP box limping along until fall 2009. It started to behave Rather Poorly recently, and so I pushed that up to fall 2008. Now my wife has taken to deleting apps and files at random, to "fix it." If only Apple can push out a Mini before she completely hoses that machine...

FWIW, I know two people who own Minis; both love them. {#1} runs his (quite successful) web-design business on his G4 Mini, with Parallels running his Winderz apps (Quicken, web-design crap, who knows) side-by-side with Office and whatnot. {#2} asked me to help her design a $600 Winderz box. I talked her into an $800 Mini, and she is super thrilled, never looked back, and even bought an iPhone.

 

[Decrepit]

Just my idea pfffttt

I like your idea. Either Mini would make me happy. Bring it on!

 

[chadder007]

I have no problem with the current specs continuing to exist, but it should range from there all the way up to a model with 7200 RPM drives, a real video card, and 4 GB of RAM.

So the current model could stick around for $499 and then other models range up to $1,099 or something.

The Mini is kind of like the Macbook. I think it would be great if the Mini could be like the Macbook AND like the Macbook Pro depending on the model you get.

The "old' thinking was that this would eat into iMac sales. I think that at the rate Apple is growing now, there's room for the Mini and the iMac to each pull in new Windows switchers without stealing current users from each other.

Would love to see a... Mac Mini Pro

 

[mixel]

Yay! Keep on mini-ing!

I'm still wonder slightly if Apple are dragging their feet with the mini spec as there are a lot of the old guard G5 users waiting around for a cheap(er) upgrade.. XD

I have a 1.8 Macbook which in benchmarks *should* outperform my 1.8 Dual CPU G5 Powermac - in reality the G5 runs rings around it in day to day use.

Is there any way to plug a second monitor into a Mini?