Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Waiting to pull the trigger on Mac Mini 2011 Refresh, this Feb

W

whocaresit

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 18, 2010
618
10
Strong rumors have been circulating that the new Mac Mini will have atleast a Intel Core i3 chipset with a possibility to upgrade to core i5.
I already have a PC with 2.5GHZ Core 2 duo desktop. Mac mini 2010 would really have been a downgrade anyway.

Good things come to those who wait! How many of you are on the line waiting for the next revision?
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7D11 Safari/528.16)

Highly doubt there will be a refresh by February. And if there is one in January, there won't be any refurbs until at least march, April.
 
The problem with getting an i series processor in the next mac mini means that the IGP will have to be an intel one. Some say the next intel IGP will be pretty good but I fail to see it even being as fast as a 9400m since all intel IGP's are pretty much trash and will continue to be.

I'd stick with a current mac mini just for the 320m, if graphics performance is what you need, if not the performance increase from a core 2 duo to a i3 is very negligible.
 
whocaresit said:
Strong rumors have been circulating that the new Mac Mini will have atleast a Intel Core i3 chipset with a possibility to upgrade to core i5.
I already have a PC with 2.5GHZ Core 2 duo desktop. Mac mini 2010 would really have been a downgrade anyway.

Good things come to those who wait! How many of you are on the line waiting for the next revision?
Click to expand...

I am with you 100 percent the 2010 mac mini is not much under the hood. don't buy one.


Wait for the up grade or get a 2.53ghz or a 2.66 ghz 2009 mini then do my esata hacks.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1040110/


I really feel sorry for owners of 2010 model. This is not to start any flame wars but the 2010 was cosmetic and not much under the hood. Also follow this logic apple spent a lot of time and money to make the new mini look good. It sells pretty well. Sooo its problem is no guts no power. how about pull the hdd and drop in flash ssd like the mac air. upgrade to an i3. faster and a machine that must be replaced in two or three years when the weld ssd dies. sounds like a plan to me.
 
Just pulled the trigger on a 10 mini.
Referb mini server 2.66 with 4gigs of ram.
 
Pulled the trigger on an '09!

Quite amusing that the day the new mini's came out this summer, I rushed to the Apple site and bought a previous generation refurb! The minis will never be powerhouses -- after all, they use notebook parts, but they make great entertainment centers, quiet and low power consumption, and the low end is now $100 more expensive with the only advantage being the built-in HDMI interface.

The '10 server was the only real improvement, giving 7200rpm drives and a CPU speed bump at the *same* price as before. That I wish I had instead of my '09 server, but the other minis, the '09 is fine!
 
philipma1957 said:
I am with you 100 percent the 2010 mac mini is not much under the hood. don't buy one.
Click to expand...

All depends where you're coming from. Compared to my previous 2006 iMac, my 2010 Mini is 2x faster for video encodes, has 2x higher framerates for games, and has 4x more RAM. People upgrading from an older Mac or who don't push their systems that hard will like it just fine.
 
I have both the 10 mini server and regular mini 2.66 with OCZ V2 SSD and 8G ram on both. I am very happy with both.
 
Obviously, a 2010 Mini is great.

There are Mac notebooks, MacBook Pros and Mac Book Airs, just as fast or slower.
 
I'm kinda waiting this thing out for myself. My wife has really been looking for a *good* computer - one that she picked out and isn't a cheap downgrade or quick fix computer. So I bought her a 2010 2.4 mac mini.

I'd be lying if I said my intentions were 100% pure though, because while I've always been a windows guy, I'm really interested in the possible switch over. So this is my big opportunity to get her what she wants but also to see how powerful these little beasts are.

I REALLY want to like the imac, but that glossy screen would kill me in my office (plus I plain don't like them). So it's mac pro or mac mini for me.

If this 2.4 can handle most of the programs I use, then I think the next refresh is for me whenever it happens. Likely I'll end up doing some dramatic upgrades like 8 gigs of ram, replace the hdd with a sdd, and then have an external drive do my storage. But even still I'll probably end up below the price of an imac by a decent amount.
 
I bought the '10 mini server(refurb), reset to a RAID0 configuration, and installed SL 10.6.5 (beta release). Everything works as a non-server SL machine. and seems faster than my 3.06 Duo iMac for most tasks. I see no reason to wait for the next best thing if you need one now.
 
What rumors?

whocaresit said:
Strong rumors have been circulating that the new Mac Mini will have atleast a Intel Core i3 chipset with a possibility to upgrade to core i5.
I already have a PC with 2.5GHZ Core 2 duo desktop. Mac mini 2010 would really have been a downgrade anyway.

Good things come to those who wait! How many of you are on the line waiting for the next revision?
Click to expand...

Are these the rumors you started all by yourself in this thread? Keep waiting but do give us an update in February.
 
If Apple introduces a Core i5 Mini, if ever, I am definitely upgrading. This would seriously rock! Core i5 Mini @ 3.6GHz with an SSD. Would be blazing fast!
 
I don't dig the waiting either. But have the 2009 Mini with 2.0 GHz and I need more CPU power - the new 2010 brings more gpu power but only a little more cpu and higher prices :-(
Don't want to swap my 30" (non glossy) screen for the 27" iMac and the Mac Pro is not for my desk in the living room; too big, too noisy and way too expensive.

Damn.
Might just have to buy a 2010 Mini to get a little more performance before buying a 2011 Mini. In all cases I will replace the hdd with a ssd like I have now - no way I can live with spinning disks again!
 
I doubt we'll see anything in Jan/Feb Mac Mini wise TBH.

Summer 2011 is my money.


Though I'd love to be proved wrong, and Blu-Ray, and USB3, etc etc.
 
batistuta said:
I don't dig the waiting either. But have the 2009 Mini with 2.0 GHz and I need more CPU power - the new 2010 brings more gpu power but only a little more cpu and higher prices :-(
Don't want to swap my 30" (non glossy) screen for the 27" iMac and the Mac Pro is not for my desk in the living room; too big, too noisy and way too expensive.

Damn.
Might just have to buy a 2010 Mini to get a little more performance before buying a 2011 Mini. In all cases I will replace the hdd with a ssd like I have now - no way I can live with spinning disks again!
Click to expand...

maybe you can get a 2009 2.53 or 2.66 from the apple store refurbs

http://store.apple.com/us/product/FC239LL/A?mco=MTU5MTc1NjM


this is better then the 2010 base model comes up some times.
 
I'm fairly new to reading about current model Macs, however....

what strikes me about the lineup is that there is three main areas


Mac Mini = low end model
iMac = mid range
MacPro = top end

ok so wouldn't an i3 or i5 based Mac mini push into the Imac market, and make the lineup confused?


I like that kind of logic, 3 models, simple, easy to look at and understand, sure you can get different processor and hard drive upgrades when you custom order a Mac, but they seem clearly defined for their intended user.



Gone are the days, mid 1990's when Apple had countless different models for sale and for the average Joe on the street it made it very confusing what Mac to actually buy.


Just my 2cents.
 
Peter.Howard said:
I'm fairly new to reading about current model Macs, however....

what strikes me about the lineup is that there is three main areas


Mac Mini = low end model
iMac = mid range
MacPro = top end

ok so wouldn't an i3 or i5 based Mac mini push into the Imac market, and make the lineup confused?
Click to expand...

Not at all. The fact remains the mini should have at least the i3 NOW at this price point. This really is a 2-3 year old machine technology wise. Dell/Lenovo/Sony, etc do not have old processors in their value systems.
The mini is barebones. It's meant to be that way. But the current components are poor considering what year it is.
At a minimum..
Mini=i3
Imac (with built in monitor, desktop grade hard drive, more feature rich)= i3, i5, i7
Mac Pro is on it's own with server grade components.
 
True however, don't bash me for saying it, but when do Apple computers and products, bar the ipod's compete price to price, spec to spec against other manufacturers?

They charge a premium for what they sell.

I'm not complaining about that, just my observations.

May be not so relevant in the USA, but here in Australia our dollars is near dollar for dollar against the US, but we pay a much higher price for Apple products, I assume because of the tiny market we have here.


have a look at our Apple store:

remember, USD and Australian dollar are nearly worth the same on the currency exchange:

http://store.apple.com/au
 
Peter.Howard said:
May be not so relevant in the USA, but here in Australia our dollars is near dollar for dollar against the US, but we pay a much higher price for Apple products, I assume because of the tiny market we have here.
Click to expand...

Keep in mind your Apple store prices include tax, but the US store prices don't. That cuts back 10% of the price. Another 2% for the exchange rate. I've no idea how import duties might figure in, and then there is probably a higher cost of doing business as you point out.
 
Peter.Howard said:
Mac Mini = low end model
iMac = mid range
MacPro = top end

ok so wouldn't an i3 or i5 based Mac mini push into the Imac market, and make the lineup confused?
Click to expand...

No. Because the iMac doesn't offer the choices many of us want. Whether it is the glossy screen, the all in one design or the fastest processor not available on the 21.5" iMac some of us won't touch it. So for us Apple doesn't have a mid range computer.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back