Mac Mini to Launch at Macworld San Francisco?

[milo]

Without a switch to a 3.5 drive, this update is useless.

What could be a more ridiculous waste of money than building a machine with two 2.5 inch hard drives?

Let's hope this redesign is a real redesign that makes the box a bit bigger and finally takes advantage of desktop parts instead of just slapping on new materials and colors.

 

[milo]

The current Mac Pro came after 518 days without an update.

I'm not sure where you got that, looks like previous updates were about eight months apart.

http://guides.macrumors.com/Mac_Pro_Buyer's_Guide

Right now we are way overdue, and while intel has new chips expected soon, I'm sure there are updates Apple could have been making in the interim.

 

[OllyW]

I'm not sure where you got that, looks like previous updates were about eight months apart.

http://guides.macrumors.com/Mac_Pro_Buyer's_Guide

Right now we are way overdue, and while intel has new chips expected soon, I'm sure there are updates Apple could have been making in the interim.

That wasn't an update after eight months, it was just the addition of a new top end option. The other Mac Pros were not changed and were kept at the same price for the 518 days Tallest Skil mentions.

 

[milo]

That wasn't an update after eight months, it was just the addition of a new top end option. The other Mac Pros were not changed and were kept at the same price for the 518 days Tallest Skil mentions.

I consider the addition of a new model to be an update.

 

[Inconsequential]

I consider the addition of a new model to be an update.

Its not.

Adding one new CPU is hardly a significant change is it?

No price change, no memory change, no chipset change, no GPU change, no HD change, no case change.

Its not an update.

 

[BenRoethig]

Without a switch to a 3.5 drive, this update is useless.

What could be a more ridiculous waste of money than building a machine with two 2.5 inch hard drives?

Let's hope this redesign is a real redesign that makes the box a bit bigger and finally takes advantage of desktop parts instead of just slapping on new materials and colors.

I would have agreed with you not too long ago, but laptop hard drives have finally exploded in capacities the way desktop drives once did (up to 500GB) and they've also become much more affordable. Like its other components, the 80 and 120GB drives in the Mini are old and beyond obsolete. Keeping the 2.5" form factor might be advantageous as 3.5" will be going away in the not too distant future as solid state drives become cheaper and more prevalent.

I'm not sure where you got that, looks like previous updates were about eight months apart.

http://guides.macrumors.com/Mac_Pro_Buyer's_Guide

Right now we are way overdue, and while intel has new chips expected soon, I'm sure there are updates Apple could have been making in the interim.

Worse than that. The April '07 "update" was just adding an additional high end option. In reality last January was the only time they had been updated since their introduction in August of 2006.

 

[OllyW]

I consider the addition of a new model to be an update.

Most people don't.

The Mac Pros which were announced in August 2006 were not updated in any way (hardware wise) until January 2008 (518 days).

 

[milo]

Adding one new CPU is hardly a significant change is it?

Making an eight core machine available for the first time seems extremely significant to me.

We disagree, you don't consider it an update, I do.

I would have agreed with you not too long ago, but laptop hard drives have finally exploded in capacities the way desktop drives once did (up to 500GB) and they've also become much more affordable. Like its other components, the 80 and 120GB drives in the Mini are old and beyond obsolete. Keeping the 2.5" form factor might be advantageous as 3.5" will be going away in the not too distant future as solid state drives become cheaper and more prevalent.

2.5s are getting closer, but they still lag way behind in terms of price and performance. Someday we may see them catch up, but it doesn't look like we'll see a 1TB for $130 or a 1.5TB for $180 in the 2.5 form factor any time soon. 3.5 may go away, but I'll bet that is years off, and the mini will again be due for a redesign before that.

Worse than that. The April '07 "update" was just adding an additional high end option.

As I said, I consider that an update. Not as good as bumping the existing models as well, but still an update in my book.

 

[milo]

Most people don't.

It's a matter of opinion, and as I said, we don't agree.

 

[Sehnsucht]

Please, at least two ports of Firewire 800. Booting and working from external Firewire drives is a much faster experience for Mac mini.

If the new mini has FireWire at all, it will have ONE port. Which is better than nothing, of course. Even if it means having to use a hub.

 

[Sehnsucht]

I would have agreed with you not too long ago, but laptop hard drives have finally exploded in capacities the way desktop drives once did (up to 500GB) and they've also become much more affordable. Like its other components, the 80 and 120GB drives in the Mini are old and beyond obsolete. Keeping the 2.5" form factor might be advantageous as 3.5" will be going away in the not too distant future as solid state drives become cheaper and more prevalent.

I know Sony's VAIO AW laptop can be configured with a 1TB hard drive. I can't find anything specific on it other than it's a 4200-RPM SATA. And just going by how huge and thick it looks, I'm assuming that it's a 3.5" drive in there. Fortunately, cramming a desktop drive into a laptop doesn't sound like an Apple move to me. I think I want a (new) mini too

 

[SpaceMagic]

Without a switch to a 3.5 drive, this update is useless.

What could be a more ridiculous waste of money than building a machine with two 2.5 inch hard drives?

Let's hope this redesign is a real redesign that makes the box a bit bigger and finally takes advantage of desktop parts instead of just slapping on new materials and colors.

I agree. I would LOVE the mini to be, less mini. Sounds silly but a bit taller and give me a full speed Nvidia chip like in the MB (not like the underclocked Air) and give me a user accessible SATA 3.5" drive! Also, with a new Core2Duo so it fits 4GB memory. Is that tooo much to ask?

That would have so many more people buying.

 

[gkarris]

I know Sony's VAIO AW laptop can be configured with a 1TB hard drive. I can't find anything specific on it other than it's a 4200-RPM SATA. And just going by how huge and thick it looks, I'm assuming that it's a 3.5" drive in there. Fortunately, cramming a desktop drive into a laptop doesn't sound like an Apple move to me. I think I want a (new) mini too

I think that may be 2-500 Meg drives, and forgo the optical?

I think that's a rumor for the new Mini as well? Use the optical area/slot for a 2nd hard drive?

 

[Cave Man]

Also, with a new Core2Duo so it fits 4GB memory.

The issue isn't the cpu, it's the memory controller. Of course, the NVidia will permit 6 gb for sure, and perhaps 8 gb.

 

[Cave Man]

I think that may be 2-500 Meg drives, and forgo the optical? I think that's a rumor for the new Mini as well? Use the optical area/slot for a 2nd hard drive?

If the optical drive is SATA, then this cave man will be running a SATA to eSATA cable out the back of his new Mini...

 

[gkarris]

If the optical drive is SATA, then this cave man will be running a SATA to eSATA cable out the back of his new Mini...

LOL...

Not even out yet and people are already thinking of Mods...

fun times...

 

[VoR]

I'd like to see a 3.5" drive for improvements in price and speed. I'm sure the case could remain the same or shrink slightly if the optical is removed.

I'd like them to use a stacking solution for drives (could anyone find a use for a battery?), I'm sure that would work elegantly and would be very easy to implement.

I'd like them to use cheaper and faster desktop cpus and squeeze in as many ram slots as possible - unfortunately I'm not sure how feasible it would be having the cheapest mac also being the fastest mac from a marketing perspective.

I'm sure I'll have issues when it isn't any of this, the lack hdmi (with sound) and the price Especially frustrating as I think that this is the product that could take huge percentages of the os market share incredibly quickly - I'm not sure that they're pushing for this for various reasons.

 

[vendettabass]

I'd like to see a 3.5" drive for improvements in price and speed. I'm sure the case could remain the same or shrink slightly if the optical is removed.

3.5" would be awesome. I'd so stick a WD Greenpower 1TB HDD in there for media serving

 

[Shanpdx]

3.5" vs 2.5"

how much is the peformance difference between 3.5" and 2.5" ?

both are SATA 3.0 Gbs right?

performance will match if 2.5" 7200 RPM?

 

[VoR]

3.5" would be awesome. I'd so stick a WD Greenpower 1TB HDD in there for media serving

I was thinking you could then go on to add multiple drives to the bottom of the mini just by snapping on a small matching enclosure - look, no wires!

Itunes/osx should have had much better serving features for a long time, I hope it's not a sign they're planning on bringing another hardware product out to do this.

how much is the peformance difference between 3.5" and 2.5" ?

both are SATA 3.0 Gbs right?

performance will match if 2.5" 7200 RPM?

sata isn't very close to being saturated, even with a couple of fast drives on a single port - the interface doesn't mean too much. The bigger the drive is physically the faster. You can fit bigger, faster spinning disks, with less platters that's available much quicker in a larger box, faster access and transfers.

 

[BenRoethig]

2.5s are getting closer, but they still lag way behind in terms of price and performance. Someday we may see them catch up, but it doesn't look like we'll see a 1TB for $130 or a 1.5TB for $180 in the 2.5 form factor any time soon. 3.5 may go away, but I'll bet that is years off, and the mini will again be due for a redesign before that.

Maybe, but honestly, if you need 1TB of hard drive space, you're doing a lot of video work (or need to download the latest WoW patch) and probably not in the intended audience for the Mini.

 

[Tallest Skil]

We disagree, you don't consider it an update, I do.

Fail. This isn't about disagreements or semantics.

You're saying that when they add the 17" unibody MacBook Pro to the lineup, the 15" MacBook Pro will have been updated.

The 8-core Mac Pro was the addition of a new model. They have different machine IDs than the original set of chips. The 8-core was an addition of an option, leaving the rest of the line untouched both in hardware and price.

 

[takao]

Maybe, but honestly, if you need 1TB of hard drive space, you're doing a lot of video work (or need to download the latest WoW patch) and probably not in the intended audience for the Mini.

well no matter what he might be in the desktop audience and in that regard Apple only offers the mac mini, the "my first computer" computer, and the excess in every way possible computer


personally i don't care about the size of the internal disks (after all i already have plenty of external gizmos, hdds and usb hubs lying around thanks to the great internal expandability of my mac mini) but i have requirements which i can now clearly say after 4 years of an mac mini:
3,5" disks: a desktop without just wastes time .. and lots of it and yes i take 2 of them
desktop chipsets + cpus
a single pcie slot: notebook GPUs ? never again
more ports: hdmi _and_ displayport please and more USB ports

yes apple there are people who want actual desktops ... and they want them from _you_

 

[gkarris]

APPLE STORE IS DOWN!!!

(had to post it somewhere)

New Mini, here we come!

 

[Ironduke]

I think that may be 2-500 Meg drives, and forgo the optical?

I think that's a rumor for the new Mini as well? Use the optical area/slot for a 2nd hard drive?

and leave a slot that does nothing