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New Intel Mac mini

I am glad i bought the ibook G4 last summer. Please don't do this integrated crap on the new ibook/macbook. I am scared of this !!!
 
Lord Blackadder said:
...Now you can buy a stock Mini and upgrade the RAM without necessarily having to pull the stock memory out.
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doesn't look like it. Apple Store is showing me that the stock 512 is 256x2. kind of annoying.
 
Donot wait & sweat - it has been done!

nagromme said:
This is Apple's low end machine. It has SOME high-end specs, but you can't expect it to have ALL high-end specs. Other companies use integrated graphics on the low end too--and meanwhile a LOT about the Mac Mini was just upgraded.

I'll wait for real-world reports of the Mac Mini's graphics before I judge.
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It has been done in the windows world! 900/950 is the worst graphics you can have (SiS is even worse than this so you can imagine!) ... bottom of the barrel than ATI X200 IGP and a 5 times worse than the already given up X300. Does not have HW T&L so a hell a lot of games including Age of empires III will not run!
 
That's just too funny.

iMac:
# 512MB 667 DDR2 SDRAM - 1x512
# 160GB Serial ATA drive
# ATI Radeon X1600/128MB VRAM
# SuperDrive 8x (DVD+R DL/DVD+RW/CD-RW)
# Keyboard & Mighty Mouse + Mac OS X - U.S. English
# 17-inch widescreen LCD
# 1.83GHz Intel Core Duo

$1299

Mac mini:

# 512MB 667 DDR2 SDRAM - 2x256
# 120GB Serial ATA drive
# SuperDrive 8x (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
# Wired Keyboard & Mighty Mouse Set - U.S. English
# 1.66GHz Intel Core Duo
# Intel GMA950 graphics

+ $100 17" display
+ $130 iSight

$1230


So why on earth would you buy a mac mini if for $70 more you get a kick-ass graphics card, 40GB more HD space and a better processor?

I understand the home theater use but as an entrance into the Mac world it would be a lot smarter to buy an iMac.
 
The Red Wolf said:
2 GB RAM... = Motion capable.
Core Duo = Fast enough to run pro apps as Universal Binaries.
950 Integrated video with 64 MB and Core Image supported = Ripples in Dashboard.

What the hell is wrong with all of you people! It's a $500 computer? How on earth will they put in everything it comes with and include DUAL SLI 7800 GTXs?

~The Red Wolf~
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except one thing, it's NOT a $500 computer. It's a $650-900 computer with taxes and all. You cannot put integrated graphics in a computer if you do not give the customer a choice for something else. That's just dumb. People will buy this because it's apple and many are fanatics who have no real intelligence. (READ--Steve Jobs coolaid drinkers). But this is not a good deal at all. And for the person who had an intel mini and the dual 1.8 g5 at the same price, for goodness sakes, why on earth would you buy the mini?!?!? Please don't.
 
carlivar said:
I do agree that the integrated graphics are disappointing, but perhaps Apple got a better deal from Intel by agreeing to use it, bringing down the price of the whole box. It's hard to criticize too much without knowing the inside details.

Fact of the matter is if you need decent video performance you should NOT be buying a Mini. Complaining about the video is like buying an SUV and complaining about the gas mileage.

For my needs it's fine. It's going to be my main iTunes & internet box. There's a lot of people with simple needs like that. That's why the Mini exists.
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Weren't Apple's margins on the original mini really small? I think I read that somewhere. If that's true, then going with integrated graphics and upping the low-end price point by $100 gives Apple a higher margin now.

I think a refurb G5 iMac is a better value. For example, you can get the iMac below for $1099

Refurbished iMac G5 17-inch 1.9GHz SuperDrive
512MB memory (533MHz DDR2 SDRAM)
160GB Serial ATA hard drive
ATI Radeon X600 Pro (128MB DDR video memory)
Front Row with Apple Remote
Built-in iSight camera

Or a 1.5GHz core solo with 512MB RAM, 120GB HDD, SuperDrive, Integraged graphics, mouse, and keyboard for $902. Add a 17" LCD monitor to that and you're at about $1050.
 
I don't know if someone has said it already but the ppc mac mini is gone from the apple store.
 
alien said:
Ya... overall it was a pretty underwhelming announcement. The core-duo processor will actually be good once programs can actually take advantage of the two cores... and as the title line says... what's up with the $&^% graphics card? Really. It's bad enough that we can't get decent games on the Mac... but to actually get games and have them under-perform even more on it because we're using old tech (or in this case, bad tech) for graphics cards... no good.
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Anyway.

What is this, a $299 Dell?

I mock those bargain-basement Sunday newspaper-ad PCs with integrated graphics. Largely because they have integrated graphics.

This officially makes the Mac Mini the worst value in Apple's lineup.
You could buy an EOL'd G4 Mac Mini and get a better deal and a better performer.

If they update the iBook with identical specs, including the intergrated graphics and an even higher price tag, then the new iBook will officially be the worst value in Apple's lineup.

I'm ashamed. You should be too, Mr. Jobs.
 
what really sucks about the new mini:

- integrated graphics (not because it's a bad chip, it isn't, but: they could have used an ATI X1300 with integrated H.264 decoding!)
- Core Solo
- the price: from EUR 659,- in .at, that's a third more than the G4 mini when it came out. 499,- was really attractive at that time, but 659 for a Core Solo - that's poor.
 
intlplby said:
on the BTO options you can only choose 2 sticks of ram and not one

512mb - (2x256)
1gb - 2(2x512)
2gb - 2(2x1)

i guess the best thing to do is go stock and upgrade with the cheap ram from other places but it's only a $50-60 savings

they should give you a 1gb (1x1) option
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I saw the same thing and i agree that they should give that option. Makes it a pain in that arse to upgrade later if you feel you need the 2GB.
 
The integrated graphics aspect of this update ruins the whole thing. Seriously.

Intel super duper Core Quadro Core INXS chip!!!

With integrated graphics chip.
 
I don't understand how Integrated Graphics would be that bad. I am sure Intel improves it every year. Perhaps Integrated Graphics in the 90's was really slow but it probably is faster than the fastest video card of those days.

At least the main processor isn't a Celeron M. Even the low end Mac has a excellent CPU. Apple is buying in volume of select Intel CPUs rather than buying last years CPUs.
 
coming up! new ibook with integrated graphics!

I will be laughing while hugging my MBP and iMac intel as I hear that news.


bwahahahaha
 
Those of you scratching your heads wondering who the ehll this mini is for I have your answer. me.

I went with core solo with 1Gb ram and superdrive. Getting a fw HDD for it too. It will hook up nicely to my 32" lcd tv 1366x768 via DVI. The most graphics intensive thing I need it to do is play videos, run front row, and do slideshows in iphoto🙄 . The external hd will house my movies and music and serve as backup. I was hoping for the 3.5" drive in this model but oh well.
 
Well this pretty much tells us that the bottom line iBook will use Core Solos @ 1.55 and the upper end ones will get Duos at 1.66.

If they put an Intel Graphics chip in the iBook...😡
 
NVRsayNVR said:
Mac mini = CONSUMER
Intel iMac = PROSUMER!

You chuz! 😀
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But if you spec the Mac mini with the same specs as an Intel iMac or even the G5 iMac, the iMac is a better value since it'll be about the same price as a similarly speced Mac mini. Where's the logic there?
 
lame lame lame. I was thinking about getting an intel mini and keeping my ibook G4, but now I guess I'll be going for a 12" MPB (the goal being to use my ACD). Price increase and integrated graphics... no thanks.

And don't even get me started on that boombox... 🙁
 
Integrated graphics would be fine on a sub $500 model but it really kills the higher end models. The Mac mini serves two groups of people. Those looking for a cheap entry level computer and those who want to pack in as much power into as small a computer as possible. They could have easily separated the Mac mini for these two distinct groups.

Imagine...

An entry level Mac mini with 2 USB ports, internal modem, 10/100BaseT ethernet, analog audio, integrated graphics and core solo.

A high end Mac mini with 4 USB ports, no internal modem, Gigabit ethernet, digital audio, ATI x1300 graphics and core duo.

Well, at least now we know the specs of the upcoming MacBook (iBook) don't we?
 
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