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szolr

macrumors 6502
Jul 27, 2011
376
0
London, UK
The 2GB RAM in the base mini is inexcusable for a machine that's supposed to work for novices right out of the box...if I were going to write a negative review I would definitely give Apple a beating over that decision rather than the lack of DVD drive. Of course, none of the reviewers seem to even mention the RAM.

Even so, to say that the 2010 mini is better than the 2011 one (as engadget did) is insanity.

I couldn't agree more with all of this. The reviewers have their own agenda of what makes a great computer. But sometimes they miss the obvious and focus on kind of less relevant things. The optical drive's not present on the MBA but I see they love that. It's just made a fuss of on the Mini because people can be slow to adapt to change-the Mini used to have an optical drive.
 

G4er?

macrumors 6502a
Jan 6, 2009
633
29
Temple, TX
The optical drive's not present on the MBA but I see they love that.

One is meant to be a thin lightweight portable computer. The other has become a show case for making a stationary desktop computer as small as possible regardless if functionality is lost.
 

trip1ex

macrumors 68030
Jan 10, 2008
2,860
1,417
Other people have addressed this, but for me the decision came to this: My current iMac is a 24" model. I'm not going down in monitor size.

The bundle of Mini stuff I bought was $950 (i5/Radeon mini, kb/mouse, superdrive). Canadian refurb price for the current-gen 27" iMac is $1439. I suppose for $1270 there's an i3, but I don't know if I could bring myself to buy into an older machine like that :)

The current plan is to use our 37" TV as a monitor. I don't know if that will be suitable for all our computing needs, but for $200, we can get a fairly good 24" screen, bringing our total price to $1150 -- still saving $280.

Ultimately, I squander some power this time around (and yes, some sexy monitor real estate :) ), but I put myself on a much less expensive upgrade path.

If the price of entry remains around that $800 mark, I can upgrade more frequently than I do with an iMac that runs $1700 new.

Buy the refurb 21.5" imac and hook it up to your tv or $200 monitor. :D

Mini is decent though, but hard to buy over a refurb imac. Then again I'm comparing new Mini to refurb imac. HIgh-end refurb Mini would be another $100 cheaper. Still $500 difference for 22" IPS monitor, keyboard, mouse, built-in speakers/camera/mic, less cords, faster gpu, faster hd, faster cpu, ...

Be nice if they found a way to make the same headless imac.
 
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trip1ex

macrumors 68030
Jan 10, 2008
2,860
1,417
But I do not get the benefit of removing it on a desktop. It isn't like Apple did something great with the space - as the low end still as crappy graphics, they didn't make it smaller, they didn't allow the use of the 3.5" drives etc. They just removed the option.


They did something great with the pricepoint though while roughly doubling the cpu power, increasing hd space and adding TB.
 

aeaglex07

macrumors 6502
Mar 18, 2007
399
1
United States
most bad reviews focus on the lack of ODD. And I have a feeling these same reviewers would have given the original iMacs bad marks too for removing the floppy drives,if the internet had existed back then.

As many have said, people don't like change.

I love my new Mini and I was on the fence about it because it lacks an ODD but after thinking it through I realized i haven't used a CD/DVD in a long time.
 

moxxey

macrumors regular
Feb 27, 2011
220
19
You do realize that the media outlets who review the mini themselves are greatly influenced (read controlled) by the same corporations that want you buying cd's and dvd's, blu rays... for the next ten years, right?

They are, how? I work for one of these "media organizations" and we have almost no relationship with any company who products discs/DVDs/etc. I don't even know how you came to that conclusion? Explain.
 

santosmarco

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 2, 2011
29
0
Mexico City
Thank you all

thank you all in this thread with so nice comments.
In my sincerlly opinion, those reviewers are not doing his job properly, they should dedicate time and real benchmark work on the new processors evaluation, thunderbolt interface possibilities and peripherals, SSD disks performance and expansion, HTPC features (HD Audio) and new ones, Lion features that Mac Mini could take advantage, hardware compatibility, and too many other aspects that bring some add value in their reviews and help us how to get more from this wonderful machine! I am seeing them as "baby cyring" that lost a toy (DVD/CD Drive). Nowadays we are downloading TB and TB of information from Internet every single day, torrents, movies, digital midia, cloud computing, and so on. They can not stop those things and they should admit sooner or later everything will be storage in some monsters data center spread in the world as cloud service, if they complain about personal data and security, look at the NAS options in the market and create your own "cloud" in your home!!!!!
I really like the Mac Mini at all, I have to admit that equipment has a premium price and compared with the market, you can buy any "xing-ling" hardware with half of the price, otherwise if you can pay for the best desktop design that brings to you the best class in a desktop services with one of the best operation system in the market, make your choice!
 

thedenethor

macrumors newbie
Jul 20, 2011
29
3
Why do people who are using a Mini as a 'media centre pc' need to upgrade? :confused:

As a Mac Mini HTPC user; I need it because on-the-fly "encode and stream" of 1080p Movies, FLAC and 1080i Live TV to other devices including mobile ones.

Mid-2010 model can do that "good enough" but you loose multitasking.

For those who recommends external DVD/BD for HTPC user. Since the HTPCs suppose to replace your other Multimedia devices like stand alone DVD,CD and BD Player you recommendations simply fails fundamentally.

But this is "my personal" usage scenario so I want (not need) ODD as a HTPC user :) Please just respect this.
Everyone knows that there are tones of alternatives for multimedia; Dell Zino, Dune HD, Hulu, iTunes, Netflix, External ODD, rapidshare, torrents! etc... and we also know that other cloud or stream based services will dominate the future.

But today; macmini is the best solution in sense of design, performance and stability for HTPC usage. So we just "want" not need ODD.

PS: I will definitely try to replace new Minis internals with the Mid 2010 chassis within 30 days hoping that someone will do that before me:)
 
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JamSandwich

macrumors regular
May 19, 2006
127
3
Buy the refurb 21.5" imac and hook it up to your tv or $200 monitor. :D

Mini is decent though, but hard to buy over a refurb imac. Then again I'm comparing new Mini to refurb imac. HIgh-end refurb Mini would be another $100 cheaper. Still $500 difference for 22" IPS monitor, keyboard, mouse, built-in speakers/camera/mic, less cords, faster gpu, faster hd, faster cpu, ...

Be nice if they found a way to make the same headless imac.

Agreed on that last part... it would be nice to have a wider range of hardware to choose from. I'm sure there would be a sizeable market for a headless range of computers that were specced equally to the iMac. I totally get how they've stratified their offerings, but can't they please all of the people all of the time? :)

If we weren't at least trying to totally overhaul the footprint of our "computer area" in our home (i.e: almost eliminating it), maybe a dual-monitor configuration with the 21.5" Mac would do for us.
 

azentropy

macrumors 601
Jul 19, 2002
4,013
5,353
Surprise
They did something great with the pricepoint though while roughly doubling the cpu power, increasing hd space and adding TB.

The price point is still $100 higher than the original mini. They didn't increase the "HD space" as you could always remove the DVD drive and put in a second HD. Other changes have nothing to do with removing the DVD drive or option. The new CPU itself is the same bulk price as the old CPU. It isn't like removing the DVD option allowed them to use a pricier CPU.
 

Tulpa

macrumors regular
May 11, 2011
145
0
The price point is still $100 higher than the original mini. They didn't increase the "HD space" as you could always remove the DVD drive and put in a second HD. Other changes have nothing to do with removing the DVD drive or option. The new CPU itself is the same bulk price as the old CPU. It isn't like removing the DVD option allowed them to use a pricier CPU.

If you're comparing it to the original January 2005 mini that's laughable. There's no comparison on the specs, the body is totally redesigned and smaller, there are HDMI and Thunderbolt ports and an SD card reader, totally different CPU, etc. The manufacturing price is affected by so many variables that the comparison is useless.

You could compare it to the 2010 mini in a reasonable fashion. $100 less and you get Thunderbolt (which ain't free BTW) in place of the ODD. That's a pretty decent trade assuming Thunderbolt takes off.

Also you have to take into account that the dollar has crashed since 2005. Everything is more expensive.
 

Tulpa

macrumors regular
May 11, 2011
145
0
Now someone that did his work well done on this review
The 2011 Mac mini Value Equation:
http://lowendmac.com/musings/11mm/2011-mac-mini-value.html

From the article:

We've heard that VirtualBox will let you virtualize Snow Leopard and run it as a session on your Lion Mac, but that was done using hardware that supported Snow Leopard. Whether Macs that can't boot Snow Leopard will be able to virtualize it remains to be seen, but it could give users the best of both worlds - the totally up-to-date Lion environment plus Snow Leopard for all those old apps you can't run in Lion.

This is a pretty pressing question for a lot of users...has anyone with the new mini tried this?
 

Baby Mac

macrumors regular
Jul 28, 2010
178
0
Kentucky
And Apple isn't making people "conform", they're just seeing that the majority of users hardly use the ODD anymore, so why include it?

Not a reason to remove it if true, since the ODD space is just an empty hole in the current base mini and you could always add a 2nd internal drive to the last mini.

You could compare it to the 2010 mini in a reasonable fashion. $100 less and you get Thunderbolt (which ain't free BTW) in place of the ODD. That's a pretty decent trade assuming Thunderbolt takes off.

Compare the number of users who have ODD media to those who have Thunderbolt devices, and you'll understand the lack of appreciation Apple is getting from the vast minority of people like me.
 

azentropy

macrumors 601
Jul 19, 2002
4,013
5,353
Surprise
If you're comparing it to the original January 2005 mini that's laughable. There's no comparison on the specs, the body is totally redesigned and smaller, there are HDMI and Thunderbolt ports and an SD card reader, totally different CPU, etc. The manufacturing price is affected by so many variables that the comparison is useless.

You could compare it to the 2010 mini in a reasonable fashion. $100 less and you get Thunderbolt (which ain't free BTW) in place of the ODD. That's a pretty decent trade assuming Thunderbolt takes off.

Also you have to take into account that the dollar has crashed since 2005. Everything is more expensive.

LOL... Your statement is incorrect. Of course the new machines are more advanced than old ones, duh - BUT NO, not everything is more expensive! Some things that is not are computers and most electronics! Except of course by Apple. ;)
 
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