New Mac Minis and Firewire

[yarngrrl]

I am planning to buy a Mac Mini in the near future to replace my old iMac (I use my laptop 99% of the time, but I still need a desktop - I'm old, leave me alone.)

Anyway, I know there are rumored to be new models coming out shortly, so I'm cool to wait, unless the new models will do away with the Firewire port.

Do you all think that is a realistic possibility?

 

[fa8362]

I doubt they get rid of firewire, but if they do, the 2012 model will still be available when the 2013 is released.

 

[phoenixsan]

It is.....

possible that Apple wants to push out the Thunderbolt tech and hence, going away with the FireWire port. That would be a problem with people like me, with legacy hardware. But the previous poster is right, still will be 2012 models....

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

Since it is a consumer machine, and the MBP already dropped Firewire in favor of Thunderbolt, I quite strongly assume it won't have Firewire. But you can buy a Thunderbolt-to-Firewire converter from Apple, if you really need it.

I would probably do that if I were in your place, to get the latest model, when they are released.

 

[mcnallym]

The MBA has dropped Firewire ( if it ever had Firewire to begin with )
The rMBP has dropped Firewire
The iMac has dropped Firewire
The preview of the next Mac Pro shows no Firewire.

Only the mini and the cMBP and the Mac Pro are shipping with Firewire.

The Mac Pro replacement we already know has no Firewire, I suspect that the cMBP won't be around for too much longer either.

The trend here is that Firewire is being ditched by Apple

For people that really need Firewire then will need to suck up a Thunderbolt to Firewire Adapter, or look at one of the Thunderbolt Docks / Apple Thunderbolt display which appear to all have Firewire on them.

When the new Mini with Haswell Processors appear then should be a supply of the current model appearing in the refurb store ( just be quick ). You may find that benefits from the new IGP in the Haswell CPU make worth going the adaptor route, or that get a refurb. You can still add applecare (if you want) to the products from the refurb store so won't lose out by waiting.

 

[phrehdd]

+1 for getting an adapter for FW if you really need it. There are several companies coming out with some decent units that will handle FW from TB. It shouldn't be a problem if Apple drops FW but just an additional expense to keep all of your investment in FW drives. Given the price of drives, USB 3 runs faster than FW and to me that is also a good investment for certain purposes.

 

[Ma1Garv]

Mini

I see a mini in my future also.

Like the OP I have several legacy firewire products.

Yup another adapter that someday will go in the bucket with the
dozens of other adapters I have had to buy over the years.

Take care.

 

[phrehdd]

I see a mini in my future also.

Like the OP I have several legacy firewire products.

Yup another adapter that someday will go in the bucket with the
dozens of other adapters I have had to buy over the years.

Take care.

I think my next Mac Mini will be coming out late this year under the name "Mac Pro."

I do feel your pain about "has been" equipment going to the trash bin. A few months ago I got rid of a lot of old stuff including serial cable switches, parallel port related stuff, scsi wide, scsi narrow and more. I even found my original "huge" volume thumbdrive that was a whopping 64 megs. There is some grief associated with being in the Mac camp in that nearly everything they put out is intentionally meant to be antiquated in 3 years.