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Unboxing and Disassembly Photos of the New Mac Mini

I have the CS4, I'm a student, I simulate physics for instance. My hobby is photography. My MBP is struggling when processing large files.
A 2k+ pricetag for a desktop is out of the question since I know it is ridiculous. I build computers (PCs) for friends and KNOW that you can get a very beefy machine for 500-700 bucks (graphics card does not matter, just standard.....and apple does not install highend ones anyway). You can have a 3GHz quadcore for that with loads of RAM. So how on earth could I justify 2k+ for a machine that should cost half. Better said: how can I justify it if I can get the same performance for a third?!

go figure
 
randfee2 said:
I have the CS4, I'm a student, I simulate physics for instance. My hobby is photography. My MBP is struggling when processing large files.
A 2k+ pricetag for a desktop is out of the question since I know it is ridiculous. I build computers (PCs) for friends and KNOW that you can get a very beefy machine for 500-700 bucks (graphics card does not matter, just standard.....and apple does not install highend ones anyway). You can have a 3GHz quadcore for that with loads of RAM. So how on earth could I justify 2k+ for a machine that should cost half. Better said: how can I justify it if I can get the same performance for a third?!

go figure
Click to expand...

I assume you are comparing to a home-built PC to a new MacPro? If you can do that and function as well in every app that you need, I think most would encourage you to just build your own and not worry about justifying anything. If you are questioning it out here, there is a reason.
 
Jayomat said:
isnt OSX the main reason to buy a mac?
Click to expand...

It's a key reason ... yes.

I buy Macs because I love them, respect the company's business plan and success, and totally enjoy the out-of-the-box, dependable experience overall.
 
well yeah, OSX is the main reason. But that doesn't cost much! With the right hardware, it can easily be installed on an ordinary PC and works like a charm with updates and everything. That fact changes everything. The fiction that Macs are "different" from PCs. internally, they are not much different at all.

Mr Maui,
I'm only comparing computing power, performance when working. I know exactly how well build MacPros are and that you cannot have that for a third to half the price. But even the "highend" iMac costs over 2 grand, the basic MacPro 2500, so performance/money it is a no brainer!

And yes, I want OSX. I have to say, I'm illogical. I'd spend maybe 500 bucks more to get a genuine Apple instead of spending the couple of hours it takes to set up a "Hackintosh" on selected PC-Hardware, so I'd actually lose money, that is because I DO support Apple and like their way of thinking.... but I won't waste thousands just because the case is 2 classes better, I don't need that, I care about software and performance!
 
What a huge disappointment!

I can't really believe they just spent this long.... to make a minor update.

This is the type of move that the auto industry makes. The sell the same exact car that gets the exact same mileage, but this one has Microsoft Sync..... or a connection for your iPod.

Apple is officially following the automakers model. Bravo!

The reason Apple's notebooks sell so well is innovation. They do something new and the interest peaks. Instead they are throwing out the same old stuff repackaged.

Sure it's an upgraded GPU. But the darn thing is shared memory again. Same audio quality. Power supply still external. No BlueRay. Not capable of ugrades.

The form factor of the Mini is as a HTPC. But Apple hasn't figured that out. They seem to believe it's best as a rock bottom desktop. The iMac and Macbooks are better suited as affordable options. Both come with keyboard, mouse, camera, and display. They have more for the money.

Hello Linux... I am done with you Apple!!!
 
kastenbrust said:
I could hackintosh a same spec machine for less, due to Apples recent price increases, for the first time hackintoshes have actually become economically viable, before they were about spec for spec, cost for cost, but now... Apples just going to loose sales due to their price increases, and i doubt the price increases will make up the lost revenues from lost sales, especially in the recession and now OS X can be installed on almost any machine with en EFI-X card.
Click to expand...

Exactly.

I was holding out for an update on the desktop line (I had a ADC subscription that expires this week), and they even managed to update the desktops before the my hardware discount expired.

Even WITH the hardware discount its hard to justify the MacPro I was hoping for, let alone a Mac Mini (which is rediculously overpriced).

I'm probably going to end up throwing together a Linux server in place of the MacPro for ~$850 (4x1TB SATAII, 4GB DDR2, 3Ghz Core2Duo), but its just PAINFUL, especially in this economy to look at Mac prices. The cheapest Mac that I can run RAID5 in is a MacPro that runs ~$2000 to START (before I put drives in it, or a RAID controller, with 1GB less RAM, but more 2 more cores in a faster CPU), and I can't even order a BluRay drive for backups (although I'm going to hold off on that for now so its a moot point).

Heck, with the money I save, maybe I'll pick up a "tricked out" Dell Mini9 for a Hackintosh since I don't have a laptop. That might take the sting out of Mac's pricing structure (for me at least).
 
Mr Maui said:
Thanks for mirroring some of my earlier comments. However, i have to disagree with one of your comments though. Apple will have no problem surviving anytime in the near future with $28 billion cash in the bank.
Click to expand...

Well, Apple isn't going to use their war chest to "subsidize" a losing business. They're also not going to reduce profit margins on a product if they cannot substantially increase sales in return. So that $28 billion is nice, and Apple isn't going broke, but Apple also isn't going to change their business model just because they have a lot of cash right now. Make no mistake, Apple is in it for the money and as long as people keep buying their stuff, they will squeeze out every inch of profit, and keep being healthy in the eyes of the investors. Apple's goal is to increase that war chest, not make it smaller.
 
KnightWRX said:
Pricing like what ? You're not factoring the form factor and power consumption in your pricing argument. If you want to compare the mini to a Dell, compare it to the Studio Hybrid. The Dell is still cheaper, but not by the margin you people are claiming. The Dell also has slower memory, FSB, and is stuck with the sub-par Intel X3100 of the old mini.



Because it's not a valid argument. Check the market. You're comparing a full blown PC, with fans, big power draw and hulking case to a small form factor, low power device. The costs of the components of a mini are higher. The Dell Studio Hybrid shows the same pricing "problems" as the mini because of the small form factor HD, small form factor optical drive, mobile CPU/logic board architecture, etc...

You don't want a mini, you want an entry level Apple desktop. They don't make one, they make the mini. You buy the mini for the smallish form factor and low power consumption and you agree to pay more for that for lesser specs. It's not a slap in the face that apple doesn't sell a machine for your segment.
Click to expand...

I give up. You do not and will not ever get it. No one ASKED for an ultra small Mini with ultra-low power consumption. What people HAVE asked for is a fairly priced Mac with some limited upgrade options. What is not to get? Compare spec for spec. Leave the size out of it as no person I know is complaining about the size and power consumption of their desktop. This is like talking to 1st grader.

I give up.

D
 
randfee2 said:
I have the CS4, I'm a student, I simulate physics for instance. My hobby is photography. My MBP is struggling when processing large files.
A 2k+ pricetag for a desktop is out of the question since I know it is ridiculous. I build computers (PCs) for friends and KNOW that you can get a very beefy machine for 500-700 bucks (graphics card does not matter, just standard.....and apple does not install highend ones anyway). You can have a 3GHz quadcore for that with loads of RAM. So how on earth could I justify 2k+ for a machine that should cost half. Better said: how can I justify it if I can get the same performance for a third?!
Click to expand...

You're a student right now, but when you get older you may eventually realize your time is worth something as well. The time you're spending putting together your computer is time you don't have to play with your kids, go to the movies, or go skiing or taking photos. If the computer breaks, the time you spend figuring out the problem and dealing with it (since you can't just carry it in to the vendor - you're the "vendor" with your homebrew machine) is more time you've lost.

I used to put together my own computers. I used to run Linux on my desktop. But at some point I realized "okay I don't want to keep spending time on this stuff" and bought a Mac - and haven't looked back. :D
 
i have had Macs for almost 10 years now, so yes, I know that I don't want to spend my time fiddling around with the system, I just want to use it. Trust me, I've been there!

Me being a student does not mean I don't have the money to get that MacPro, I just don't see why to waste the money if the same performance (and 80% of the hardware) is substantially cheaper if you look elsewhere. That has nothing to do with me thinking that OSX is the best for me. The last couple of years Apple hardware was decently priced compared to competition (performance wise) but now, they forgot that again!
 
ddTaylor said:
I give up. You do not and will not ever get it. No one ASKED for an ultra small Mini with ultra-low power consumption.
Click to expand...
There's enough of a market for ultra-SFFs for Dell to come out with Studio Hybrids.

What people HAVE asked for is a fairly priced Mac with some limited upgrade options.
Click to expand...
Unfortunately Steve hates the concept of expandable computers; this may be one thing that improves if/when he steps down. I completely agree that there should be a midrange tower with normal desktop parts. Apple could sell a quad core minitower for $1200 or so which would have huge margins and still be affordable. But back in the real world, the mini isn't a standard desktop, and comparing it to them while ignoring its advantages isn't useful.

What is not to get? Compare spec for spec. Leave the size out of it
Click to expand...
Size, noise level, and power consumption are specs. They may not matter to you, but that doesn't make them irrelevant to everyone.
 
ddTaylor said:
I give up. You do not and will not ever get it. No one ASKED for an ultra small Mini with ultra-low power consumption. What people HAVE asked for is a fairly priced Mac with some limited upgrade options. What is not to get? Compare spec for spec. Leave the size out of it as no person I know is complaining about the size and power consumption of their desktop. This is like talking to 1st grader.

I give up.

D
Click to expand...

I do get what you're saying, but what I'm telling you is that you are not understanding the Mac Mini. You want a low end desktop, Apple doesn't make one. It's useless to compare the Mac Mini to the dozen or so cheap desktops, that's not the market it's aimed at.

You say people never asked for it, but the booming Mini-ATX and Nano-ATX craze that spawned the mini and G4 Cube before it (with much better specs than the VIA offering) was important enough to Apple to offer some kind of machine in that segment.

Maybe it's you who doesn't get the market dynamics. I'm not saying that spec for the spec the Mac Mini is a match, I'm saying the value of the mini doesn't lie in the specs of the machine. The hulking Dell can never offer what the mini offers and that's what people are buying in the mini.
 
tapsevarg said:
What a huge disappointment!

I can't really believe they just spent this long.... to make a minor update.


Sure it's an upgraded GPU. But the darn thing is shared memory again. Same audio quality. Power supply still external. No BlueRay. Not capable of ugrades.
Click to expand...


1) Minor update? Let's see...

• Proc speed bump
• Faster RAM and bus
• 802.11n WiFi
• Upgraded graphics capable of handling up to 256MB of shared memory
• Dual monitor capable as well as choice of video input (DVI or MDP)
• Additional USB port

That is NOT the spec sheet of a minor update. No it's not "Quick Phone Home," but the mini is Apple LOW END machine. It's specs are pretty decent for a $600 Mac and comparable to the low end MacBook and iMac.

2) Because it is Apple low end machine it's ludicrous that you'd expect to see some of the upgrades you mention. Blu-Ray? Apple doesn't even support t yet. And even the low end iMacs now have integrated graphics. Also let's be clear, the NVidia integrated graphics chipset Apple uses is not the weak sauce Intel Integrated chipset used years ago. No, you aren't going to run Aperture on it, but then again Aperture is "pro" app.
 
ddTaylor said:
no person I know is complaining about the size and power consumption of their desktop. This is like talking to 1st grader.

I give up.

D
Click to expand...

Well, then let me be the first to expand your horizons. I had complaints about the size, noise and power consumption of my old PC. So those were all major decision factors when I bought my Mac Mini. I wanted a computer I could leave on 24x7 without seeing my electrical bill skyrocket. I wanted something that didn't sound like a vacuum cleaner when in use. I wanted a size that fit on a small desk instead of constantly being kicked on the floor.

The Mini fits all of those needs perfectly.
 
statik13 said:
Well, then let me be the first to expand your horizons. I had complaints about the size, noise and power consumption of my old PC. So those were all major decision factors when I bought my Mac Mini. I wanted a computer I could leave on 24x7 without seeing my electrical bill skyrocket. I wanted something that didn't sound like a vacuum cleaner when in use. I wanted a size that fit on a small desk instead of constantly being kicked on the floor.

The Mini fits all of those needs perfectly.
Click to expand...

Agreed. It's so nice to have a whisper quiet computer. The iMacs make some humming noise because of the bigger hard drives and all. It also doesn't have too many blinking lights that become annoying when you want darkness for sleeping or watching movies.

I wonder if the new Mac Mini's Power brick is still pretty much half as big as the computer itself. But it's nice to keep a cup of coffee or your feet warm when you're really pushing the hardware. When idling, it's not warm at all.
 
jnc said:
Wow. I'm getting the max ram and processor on that thing. I don't wanna go inside!

If the internal HD is 5400 rpm, would access to an external 7200 over fw800 be comparable? How about two of them daisychained... anyone know? (Mybook Pro 500GB + Studio 500GB if it helps - the Studio has an eSata port that I don't see being able to connect to the Mini?)
Click to expand...

God yes! My first mini was too slow to boot so I got the external 160 gig drive from OWC that matches the look of the mini. Connected it through firewire and used it to boot from.. what an improvement...
 
I don't understand why people are screaming for Blu-Ray on their computers. IMHO, watching a Blu-Ray DVD on a computer 'kinda defeats the purpose. I understand that Blu-Ray offers more capacity in terms of removable media but I can't really remember a single time where having a recordable Blu-Ray disc. vs. a recordable DVD would have made a big difference. I'm more into the network archiving frame of mind but maybe that's just me.....
 
The Man said:
Well, Apple isn't going to use their war chest to "subsidize" a losing business. They're also not going to reduce profit margins on a product if they cannot substantially increase sales in return. So that $28 billion is nice, and Apple isn't going broke, but Apple also isn't going to change their business model just because they have a lot of cash right now. Make no mistake, Apple is in it for the money and as long as people keep buying their stuff, they will squeeze out every inch of profit, and keep being healthy in the eyes of the investors. Apple's goal is to increase that war chest, not make it smaller.
Click to expand...

I wasn't implying that they would (or should) reduce profit margins. Quite the contrary. Apple has $28 Billion in the bank for a reason, and that will help them succeed in this downturn, allowing them to acquire other downtrodden companies of interest to them if they desire, while other companies struggle in this economy. Don;t you believe Dell would sell their computers for $2500 each if they could get away with it? Absolutely! But they can't. Their cheaper computers are garbage and their high-end computers, while built a little better still have a couple of flaws. First, they are priced much closer to the Macs, and second, they still run Windows. I just wish people would stop comparing the Mac Mini to a cheap PC desktop. They are two very different markets. Those cheap PCs don't have the small footprint, quiet performance, stabilty and design of the Mini.
 
amac4me said:
Would have been nice to see the Mac mini entry price fall back below $500 - back to $499 given the economic backdrop.
Click to expand...

That was my hope, too. Would have been nice to see it go under $500 again and sell more. I think that extra $100 may be a deterrence. That $100 can be used to get an average featured 19" LCD monitor.
 
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