Not sure if this has been posted already (I'm not about to go read through the entire thread) but the shipping time on all iBook & Mac Mini models is up to 3-5 business days now.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
New iBook and Mac mini Part Numbers?
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I still think tomorrow's the big day, it being Tuesday and all. And btw those 3-5 day times are *down* (in certain cases) from 7-10 days so we're obviously getting closer to "something"...
TM
TM
MarkCollette said:
They're 2.5". The 40 GB drive I saw today at Apple Store was 5400 rpm...I believe most of them are. Dunno about the 80 GB drives. Of course the eMac will have better disk performance regardless since it should have a 7200 rpm 3.5" drive. But the Mini still felt pretty fast to me.
Anyone have an opinion on getting a mini with superdrive versus combodrive plus a Pioneer DVD burner in an external enclosure?
For an enclosure, how about USB 2.0 versus Firewire (cheaper versus better?)
For an enclosure, how about USB 2.0 versus Firewire (cheaper versus better?)
macrumors12345 said:
The eMac has a 7200 rpm drive? Damn, if only it didn't weigh so much. I'm kind of worried about it tipping my table over.
I wish they'd just made the mini an inch wider/longer and put in a real hard drive and another RAM slot. Then it wouldn't feel like such a compromise.
MarkCollette said:
Well, it's a full size 3.5" drive in the eMac, so I'm pretty sure it's 7200 rpm. I mean, it's hard to buy a 5400 rpm 3.5" drive these days even if you're looking for one...
Yeah, I agree they should have made it somewhat larger and put in a 7200 rpm. Oh well. If it is really that important to you, you can get a good FW400 enclosure for $30 or less these days, and put a 7200 rpm drive in. Yeah, a burst rate transfer will max out the FW400 bandwidth, but only by a little bit, and for everyday pretty stuff I'm sure the latency (which should be fine) is more important anyway.
I want the most unbiased opinion I can get on this from anyone. If I'm tranferring a file with a size of a few GB, would it transfer quicker via FW 400 or USB 2.0 external hard drive? Or if I was writing to one of the external hard drives which would it write faster to? I'm just wondering which one is faster for sending/receiving such large file types from a external hard drive through each of those connections. I've heard that FW400 is better for large file types and USB 2.0 for small file types (aka iPod small mp3/AAC files), but for like huge digital videos firewire is the connection of choice. Does anyone know with some intellegence which is quicker, and why is the firewire400 quicker if it transfers at a est. speed of 400 mbps while USB 2.0 apparently transfers at 480 mbps... please help? 
Edit: Sorry this was so off topic but after that comment about a cheap FW400 enclosure, it made me think of it and thought I'd post it for the computer wiz's in here. It's kind of applicable to that hard drive enclosure point in determing whether to get a fw400 or usb 2.0 enclosure for my mac mini... To go full circle, anyone think the solo firewire port on the update mac mini will be updated from 400 to 800? And does anyone know if they even make 7200 rpm hard drives in 2.5" sizes and if so, there probably quite pricey and smaller storage-sizes huh? Ok one question at a time, sorry 'bout that
Edit: Sorry this was so off topic but after that comment about a cheap FW400 enclosure, it made me think of it and thought I'd post it for the computer wiz's in here. It's kind of applicable to that hard drive enclosure point in determing whether to get a fw400 or usb 2.0 enclosure for my mac mini... To go full circle, anyone think the solo firewire port on the update mac mini will be updated from 400 to 800? And does anyone know if they even make 7200 rpm hard drives in 2.5" sizes and if so, there probably quite pricey and smaller storage-sizes huh? Ok one question at a time, sorry 'bout that
MacSA said:
haha indeed. It is highly unlikely apple will put a 5400 rpm in a ibook this revision, that would only blur the lines between powerbook and ibook further. Also support for an external monitor, closed lid operation, more USBports, audio-in and a smaller enclosure are out of the question.
illegal amigo said:
Nope. At least assuming that "firewire" in the generic refers to firewire 400. USB 2.0 is rated at 480 mb/s while firewire 400 is rated (surprisingly
) at 400 mb/s. The difference is inconsequential for real-world purposes (in my experience at least), but it does exist. With that said, firewire 800 is faster than both, and seems to represent the near future for data connectivity.
If they're smart, they'll put eSATA ports on the new Mac Minis for attaching external storage. Yes, you can put attach external storage thru the usb2 and firewire ports but requiring usb and firewire bridgeboards on the external drives ups the cost of external storage considerably. What would be really cool is some kind of modular external storage device that the Mac Mini would connect directly to and get rid of the inboard disk drive and replace it with flash memory instead.
Plecky said:I want the most unbiased opinion I can get on this from anyone. If I'm tranferring a file with a size of a few GB, would it transfer quicker via FW 400 or USB 2.0 external hard drive? Or if I was writing to one of the external hard drives which would it write faster to? I'm just wondering which one is faster for sending/receiving such large file types from a external hard drive through each of those connections. I've heard that FW400 is better for large file types and USB 2.0 for small file types (aka iPod small mp3/AAC files), but for like huge digital videos firewire is the connection of choice. Does anyone know with some intellegence which is quicker, and why is the firewire400 quicker if it transfers at a est. speed of 400 mbps while USB 2.0 apparently transfers at 480 mbps... please help?
Edit: Sorry this was so off topic but after that comment about a cheap FW400 enclosure, it made me think of it and thought I'd post it for the computer wiz's in here. It's kind of applicable to that hard drive enclosure point in determing whether to get a fw400 or usb 2.0 enclosure for my mac mini... To go full circle, anyone think the solo firewire port on the update mac mini will be updated from 400 to 800? And does anyone know if they even make 7200 rpm hard drives in 2.5" sizes and if so, there probably quite pricey and smaller storage-sizes huh? Ok one question at a time, sorry 'bout that
FW400 would definitely be faster. USB 2.0 theoretically has a higher top speed (480 vs 400), but in reality it cannot sustain it. Remember, USB was not originally designed as a high bandwidth interface, unlike FW. To tilt matters further in FW's favor, Apple's implementation of FW appears to be better than Apple's implementation of USB 2.0 (I don't know if this is the hardware or the software, but it hardly matters...unless an OS/firmware update has somehow fixed it).
I doubt they will give the Mini FW800 this update. There are 7200 rpm 2.5" drives, but they are expensive and maxing out around 60 GB right now. I would not be surprised if a 7200 rpm 3.5" 160 GB drive on FW400 could beat a 7200 rpm 2.5" 60 GB drive on the internal Ultra-ATA bus in many instances (remember, for a given amount of data the 160GB drive is always going to be much nearer the outer edge than the 60 GB drive, which means the point on the 160 GB platter will be passing under the head faster than the point on the 60 GB platter, even though both are running at the same *rotational* speed).
chucknorris said:Nope. At least assuming that "firewire" in the generic refers to firewire 400. USB 2.0 is rated at 480 mb/s while firewire 400 is rated (surprisingly
Peak numbers don't mean much here. USB 2.0 on the Mac is not that fast (or at least wasn't a year ago), and even USB 2.0 on Windows is not as fast as FW400 on the Mac.
http://www.barefeats.com/usb2.html
I was about to say 'w00t!', as that's the first sure milestone towards the store going down again - but I tried logging on to Order Status through the US Store, and it still comes up for me - what message are you getting, MacHamman?
[EDIT] Checked again and right you are MacHamman - looking good!
[EDIT] Checked again and right you are MacHamman - looking good!
Just went there and hit refresh not 10 seconds ago, here is the text.
Thank you for shopping at the Apple Online Store
Apple's Online and phone Order Status services are temporarily unavailable due to a scheduled upgrade to our systems.
We apologize for any inconvenience.
Thank you for shopping at the Apple Online Store
Apple's Online and phone Order Status services are temporarily unavailable due to a scheduled upgrade to our systems.
We apologize for any inconvenience.
mini vs ibook
Here's my first post--hopefully many to follow on this great forum... I plan to make the switch soon, and would like advice for choosing between a mac mini, 17" wide screen monitor with TV tuner (Sharp LL-M17W1, 768 X 1280), and wireless keyboard & mouse v.s. low-end ibook with airport express. Both systems would be priced very similarly. Use would be mostly around house. Although the ibook is more portable, how comfortable is it to spend hours at a time in front of a small screen? This would be my primary/only computer, and would be replacing a laptop with 15" screen, 1400 X 1050 resolution. A larger-screened powerbook is out of the question due to price. I am hoping for a few words of advice before the updates are released tomorrow, in case I want to order early and avoid a long wait that will likely develop in the days following the announcement. One more thing--with the edu. discount, I would get a free iPod!
As for update predictions, I think both the Mac mini and the ibook will closely resemble the specs of the newly updated eMac. It's wierd that Mac may be unloading current-revision computers at overstock.com though, which makes me wonder if the Intel processors will arrive tomorrow.
Here's my first post--hopefully many to follow on this great forum... I plan to make the switch soon, and would like advice for choosing between a mac mini, 17" wide screen monitor with TV tuner (Sharp LL-M17W1, 768 X 1280), and wireless keyboard & mouse v.s. low-end ibook with airport express. Both systems would be priced very similarly. Use would be mostly around house. Although the ibook is more portable, how comfortable is it to spend hours at a time in front of a small screen? This would be my primary/only computer, and would be replacing a laptop with 15" screen, 1400 X 1050 resolution. A larger-screened powerbook is out of the question due to price. I am hoping for a few words of advice before the updates are released tomorrow, in case I want to order early and avoid a long wait that will likely develop in the days following the announcement. One more thing--with the edu. discount, I would get a free iPod!
As for update predictions, I think both the Mac mini and the ibook will closely resemble the specs of the newly updated eMac. It's wierd that Mac may be unloading current-revision computers at overstock.com though, which makes me wonder if the Intel processors will arrive tomorrow.