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Mac Mini Teardown Reveals Potential for User-Installable Second Hard Drive
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I am pretty sure the only Mac sold with ZIFS is the Mac Pro. Every other Mac, I believe, has the CPU soldered on the Logic Board.
Define cannibalizing their machines. At which point exactly is it cannibalization? The Mac Mini is comparable to the low-end iMac in many ways ever since it came out. Its whole purpose is a 'desktop' (and I use that word very sparingly given its extensive use of mobile parts) without a monitor. So by your thinking, even offering the Mac Mini model to begin with would cannibalize 100% of all iMac sales. But you seem to make a differentation of the Mac Mini with a Radeon in it and the Quad-Core i7 without one as apparently you think neither on its own is going to cannibalize anything, but the combination of the two would?
I wouldn't buy an iMac period so I can guarantee no matter what Apple offers or doesn't offer, I won't be buying an iMac. Similarly, while I wouldn't mind owning a Mac Pro, I refuse to pay that much for a consumer use machine when I can get a mid-range tower from a 3rd party and run it as a Hackintosh for literally half the price of the base model and with a high-end graphics card to boot! A lot of people like to say Apple hardware is competitive with the competition IF you compare models with the exact same relative hardware. The problem is that Apple offers NO model with mid-range hardware period. The iMac line uses mostly mobile parts as well so they are in no way going to cannibalize or be cannibalized by an actual real world desktop Mac. I'm so tired of hearing that BS argument because NONE of Apple's computers are in the same category as a consumer desktop with performance parts. The Mini and iMac are mobile or desktop/mobile hybrids with little to no expansion and the Mac Pro is a professional workstation priced well above the average consumer level.
I am considering a Mac Mini as a home server replacement for my PowerMac given its relative low price and ability to plug into my existing monitor setup (I would literally just plug the thing in and plug my media drive into it and copy the relative iTunes libraries over and be ready to go). The only sticking points are having to choose between a quad core option and a reasonable graphics card and the lack of USB3 that my 3TB media drive uses (forcing it to slow down). I suppose I could wait another year and hope they offer one with integrated USB3 by then or I can go with a PC (hacked or not) instead. Those are my only real options at this point. Come to think of it, the lack of a DVD or Blu-Ray drive built in is also a sticking point since I would like to be able to encode DVDs and Blu-Ray discs on it (quad-core would be handy to do the work, but I'd have to get an external drive to hook it up or rip them on another machine). It seems pointless for Apple to remove the DVD option when clearly the drive bay it used is just sitting EMPTY on most of the Mac Minis it is selling. An option to have one installed would be better than no option, but clearly Apple is starting to pave the way for eliminating ALL disc drives from all its computers, which will clearly be coming in the next few years save perhaps the Mac Pro (for 'pro' uses), although it will probably an add-on option at some point.
yes but "cheap" + "SSD" ?
for me the Macbook Air is the best deal to get an SSD equipped computer.
Magnum I hear your points, I just don't need to call Apple stupid for their model offerings, fortunately for me the Mac Mini(s) I've had have met about 90% of the needs I have when used with my HDTV for HT and PC needs.
I prefer the pre-2010 Mini case but a 2010 case with optical drive and some 2011 upgrades would meet most of my needs.
good luck on your quest.
I prefer the pre-2010 Mini case but a 2010 case with optical drive and some 2011 upgrades would meet most of my needs.
good luck on your quest.
In other words, the 2010 mini *does not* meet your needs, because you have to attach an external drive wart to it.
So far, so good.
You're drinking the apple kool-aid. Any idiot with 5 minutes and the sense to visit newegg.com can get 4GB for $35, not even on sale. The bottom SCREWS OFF without any tools and won't void your warranty. This upgrade is worth $35, max. Our new premium is now still $315.
500GB 7200RPM drives are about $65. multiply by two and add an iFixit second hard drive kit ($70) and you hit $200. This is a tougher DIY project, and the cost we come to is the same. But $200 from $315 is now $115, not $50. EVEN SO, why not DIY upgrade the hard drive to a 7200RPM ($65, not too difficult) and buy a decent 2TB external drive for about $90? Over double the storage for $155, PLUS you have an extra 500GB hard drive to stick in an enclosure and use for whatever. That's $155, bringing our extra expense to $160.
Adusted now, you're getting a >$100 value for $160. Plus you're spending an extra $50 on something you don't need (Server), so you're actually shelling out an extra $210. And you don't have a nice leftover 500GB 2.5" drive.
Good analysis. And I like the logic. I have tended to be a laptop person but with iOS 5 on a number of iOS devices in our household (particularly with photo stream), I feel it's time to have a desk top to handle the ever increasing amount of data stored on the hard drive. For neatness and form factor, I am going towards mac mini and with your analysis I am drawn towards the server model.
The last remaining question I have is if it would be possible when SSD prices drop, to replace one of the hard drives with an SSD? Can anyone answer that please?
For personal server use at home an SSD is not at all necessary really as it would be a very marginal gain in that situation. Any dedicated server needs a decent amount of storage and since you're limited to using lower capacity 2.5" drives it's best to get the biggest ones you can to maximize space before you need external drives.
We all know that magnetic drives win the capacity battle and are also far cheaper. I have owned a couple WD Scorpio Black 2.5" and they would be perfect. Very fast performers (132MB/sec sustained), run extremely cool for a 7200rpm and available up to 750GB but I believe a 1TB is coming very soon.
Forgot to add..
Don't forget that any type of mainstream wired or wireless networking can easily be fully saturated by even the slowest drives on the market. An SSD is far more practical and beneficial on your main system that you use directly.
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I *do* plan on using it as my main machine and take my MBA off the photo stream to preserve the measly 128GB storage I have on that.
I'm drawn to the mac mini server for the quad core processor which I hope will speed up photo and video editing I do. However basic it is, I find that even on a MBP (c.2007), it takes too long for video editing in particular.
And the ability to change one of the hard drives to SSD, would in my simplistic way of thinking reduce the number of moving parts which can go wrong with these machines and also help with 'firing up' speed and shutting down. But only if prices of SSD drop significantly from where they are now. So that I can do the operation DIY
In that case I say get an SSD then. If you're going to make that step though better to make it the biggest step you can handle. What I mean is that if you just get some lower to medium quality SSD you won't get near as much out of it. Spending more on a good Intel or OWC SSD will make a more noticeable difference. They will perform better and live longer. The best of both worlds but at a cost.
It's the difference between a marginal and a massive gain in both performance and longevity. The better more expensive drives have longer warranties also.
That's great, plan to get the OWC SSDs. The question that I had though was whether it was physically possible to take out one of the hard drives and just drop in an SSD? Are there any 'heating' or other physical fit issues that I need to consider?
I cannot comment on how well drives will fit as I have never worked on a current mini but all drives are standard sizes so if they say it can take 2 then I would imagine it can. An SSD though has no moving parts and runs quite a bit cooler than a standard magnetic drive.
Sorry for the late response, was looking at the old mac mini stories.
You're joking, right? A bazillion places sell small formfactor computers. As small as the Mini? No.
Also, calling it a "PC" equivalent is a deranged, since a Mac Mini *is* a Personal Computer.