Apple Unveils Newer, Faster, Still Little Mac Mini

[Marcus Yam]

Faster. Greener. Still mini.

Apple Unveils Newer, Faster, Still Little Mac Mini : Read more

 

[StupidRabbit]

The $599 Mac mini will buy you all of the above with 1 GB DD3, 120 GB 5400 RPM hard drive. Moving to a $799 Mac mini will bump the RAM to 2 GB DDR and a 320 GB 5400 RPM hard drive.

im guessing 1GB DDR3 and 2GB DDR3, unless apple is sticking ddr1 memory into their machines.

 

[KyleSTL]

So Apple is using expensive laptop CPUs (P7350, P8400) and expensive DDR3 in their entry-level machine and matching it with a 5400RPM laptop hard drive all for the sake of 'efficiency'. Cmon. I'm all about using as much electricity as you need and not more, but they're jacking up the price of this thing out of the range of what consumers feel is entry-level. A MiniITX board with a 2GB stick of DDR2 and an E5200 processor would have been plenty efficient for this use.

I guess another instance of Mac being Mac for the perception of 'superiority'.

 

[magicandy]

[citation][nom]KyleSTL[/nom]So Apple is using expensive laptop CPUs (P7350, P8400) and expensive DDR3 in their entry-level machine and matching it with a 5400RPM laptop hard drive all for the sake of 'efficiency'. Cmon. I'm all about using as much electricity as you need and not more, but they're jacking up the price of this thing out of the range of what consumers feel is entry-level. A MiniITX board with a 2GB stick of DDR2 and an E5200 processor would have been plenty efficient for this use.I guess another instance of Mac being Mac for the perception of 'superiority'.[/citation]

Standard Apple price jacking, nothing new there.

 

[jerreece]

the Mac mini features a whooping five USB ports

LOL Do they yell "Yippy Kiyay!" too? Sorry was the first thing I thought of when I read the typo.

[citation][nom]magicandy[/nom]Standard Apple price jacking, nothing new there.[/citation]

I kind of agree. Apple charges to much for most of their products. $600 is hardly entry level for a desktop PC. Although, as with most stuff, you're paying for convenience. This Mini is pretty darn small, so you're paying more for that too. Plus the cool "Apple" emblem they affixed to it.

Just be glad they are still using the Core 2 Duo and have not switched to something else.

 

[Nik_I]

honestly for that price, who would buy one besides an apple fanboi? if you're looking for a mini desktop, dell's studio hybrid costs the same as the more expensive mac mini, with a few extras, like a 22" monitor, mouse, keyboard, twice the ram, faster cpu... need i go on?

 

[jsloan]

a bit disappointed, little change.

makes it a little less expensive to buy an apple. basically they lowered the 799 to 599

small cpu speed increase max cpu from 2.0 to 2.25 ghz, why not 2.4 ghz cpu or higher, why is 2 gb memory not standard on entry mini, is 1 gb really useful on 64 bit os, i bet you need 2-4 gb to use the box,
why is largest drive on $799 only 320 gb, and why is the keyboard soo expensive $99. i'm not a mac owner, i would like to get one, but the price is still to high to get just to play with. even on ebay the used ones with older specs basically sell for list price or near list so its not a deal because for a little more you can a new one with better specs.

makes it a better deal because its basically giving me what i had to pay more for less. 2.0 ghz, 1gb, ect used to be part of $799 package and now its part of $599 package, but when i put 2 gb of memory $50 and iworks $50 and keyboard $100 which one needs i was up to $800 on a mac mini which is still too expensive for me. for that amount of money i could build a very high in hackintash or a nice pc. think of what i could buy at dell for $800

are there mac mini owners out there are $599 specs good, or 2gb or even 4gb needed

 

[Nik_I]

if apple wants to discourage people from illegally running their operating system on hackintoshes, this is not going to help...

 

[pharge]

hmm... spec of the new Mac mini ($799.99) sounds like a HP HDX16t Premium Series I just checked (1249.99 - 400 (instant rebate))... same CPU speed, memory, HD, Wifi, and similar multi-drive.. but without a 16" LCD monitor and a webcam, a keyboard/track pad, a battery, a 9600M GT (9400M instead), and of course a Windows VISTA home prem. For a computer from Apple.... it is not too bad I guess. At least I have no way to put all these stuffs in a 6.5" x 6.5" x 2" box without over heating everything.

 

[pharge]

hmm... spec of the new Mac mini ($799.99) sounds like a HP HDX16t Premium Series I just checked (1249.99 - 400 (instant rebate))... same CPU speed, memory, HD, Wifi, and similar multi-drive.. but without a 16" LCD monitor and a webcam, a keyboard/track pad, a battery, a 9600M GT (9400M instead), and of course a Windows VISTA home prem. For a computer from Apple.... it is not too bad I guess. At least I have no way to put all these stuffs in a 6.5" x 6.5" x 2" box without over heating everything. (Ps: I am sorry if I double posted this one.. I can not find it after I submitted it)

 

[LuxZg]

I'll be honest, and state right away I've never been a fan of Apple. In fact it's not Apple, just their pricing. I mean ok, small format has it's price, just as lower power consumption. But 800$?! And let me tell you, since US$ is 5,84kn (local $$$) which in Apple store suddenly translates to 1$:8,12kn, that's gonna be 1115$ in Croatia!!!
Scr** the small form factor, I can buy a desktop computer with E8200, P45 board, HD4870 card, 4GB RAM, 640GB HDD, Vista Home Premium 64bit, 22" LCD display, and kbd/mouse - all for the same "799$ Mini-Mac"!

I'll never understand Apple zealots, even though my best friend (and a best-man) is one of "those" I sure have large enough working desk that I don't mind extra space taken by a midi tower, or the extra $ that I pay for electricity - if I get a huge performance for that.

 

[macer1]

alot of apple haters here.... we use the imac's at work and i must say the OSX is the best operating system i have ever used.

this unit is a macbook without a a screen.

 

[tenor77]

Not sure why but I've got Tommy boy on my mind right now.

Because they know all they sold ya was a guaranteed piece of s#$%. That's all it is, isn't it? Hey, if you want me to take a dump in a box and mark it guaranteed, I will. I got spare time.

 

[tayb]

How does Apple get away with continually saying crap like "World's most energy efficient desktop computer."

There is no way in hell this thing is the world's most energy efficient desktop computer when there are desktops out there running intel atom processors. Give me a break.

 

[Lunatic Magnet]

Let's compare apples to apples for a sec (pun intended). If apple sold computers with the exact same guts as every other PC and charged what they did, then they would definitely be charging too much. If they sold as much (in volume) and charged the same they'd also be over charging.

Apples have a niche market, and like many other niche markets you pay for that.

 

[jkflipflop98]

It's one sexy little gizmo.

 

[xxsk8er101xx]

Studio Hybrid - $604

Studio Hybrid:
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T6400 (2.0GHz/800Mhz FSB/2MB cache)

Operating System:
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Edition SP1, 64-Bit

Hard Drives:
160GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM)

Optical Drives:
Slot Load CD / DVD Burner (Dual Layer DVD+/-RW Drive)

Video Card:
Intel® Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator X3100

Sound Card:
Integrated Sound Blaster® Audigy™ HD Software Edition

Keyboard and Mouse:
Dell USB Multimedia Keyboard & Optical Mouse

Media Reader:
Dell 7 in 1 Media Card Reader

Is $604 a good price for mac users to try a PC? Apple is for users who like to be limited and pay more for it. The PC's gives you more options to choose from including color and design making a PC user be able to customize their PC to fit their personality. Where as all apple users are the same because all apple computers are the same.

 

[antilycus]

600 bucks, wtf are you smoking!?

 

[antilycus]

notice now NEW LOW PRICE wasnt in the press line, either

 

[TheFace]

I love apple computers. That said, this is a hard buy for me at $549 (education discount). It's just too expensive. Maybe after they come out with snow leopard. That would make it more tempting.

 

[jsloan]

[citation][nom]xxsk8er101xx[/nom]Studio Hybrid - $604[/citation]

lowest Dell Inspiron 530s $279 (which has hardware comparable to mini $799 and a keyboard which mini does not come with, you have to buy one for an additional $99 for wired one)




Date 3/3/2009 4:55:46 PM Central Standard Time

Catalog Number 29 Retail 19



Catalog Number / Description Product Code Qty SKU Id



Dell Inspiron 530s:
Intel® Celeron® processor 450 (2.2GHz, 800 FSB) ST450H 1 [224-3120] 1


Operating System:
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Basic Service Pack 1 VHB31E 1 [313-5582][420-6436][420-7622][420-8506][420-8873][420-9105][421-0323][463-2282] 11


Office Productivity Software (Pre-Installed):
Microsoft Works 9.0 DWRK9 1 [420-8085] 22


Limited Warranty, Services and Support Options:
1Yr Ltd Hardware Warranty, InHome Service after Remote Diagnosis S111OS 1 [960-3249][982-4330][983-3680][987-3157][987-6238][990-8029] 29


Monitor:
No Monitor N 1 [320-3000] 5


Memory:
2GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz- 2DIMMs 2GB82 1 [311-7319] 3


Hard Drives:
320GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™ 320S 1 [341-4946] 8


Optical Drive:
16X DVD+/-RW Drive 16DVDRW 1 [313-5365][420-8152] 16


Video Cards:
Integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3100 IV 1 [320-5878] 6


Sound Cards:
Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio IS 1 [313-2758] 17


Keyboard and Mouse Bundles:
Dell USB Keyboard and Dell Optical USB Mouse EKOM 1 [330-0916][330-3666] 4


Floppy Drive and Media Reader:
No Floppy Drive Included NFD 1 [341-5008] 10


Modem:
No Modem Option N 1 [313-3137] 14


Mouse:
Mouse included with Keyboard purchase N 1 [310-1966] 12


Adobe Software:
Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 9.0 Multi-Language AAREAD 1 [410-1867] 15


Network Interface:
Integrated 10/100 Ethernet IN 1 [430-0412] 13


Labels:
Windows Vista™ Basic VBD 1 [310-8625] 750


Entertainment and Editing Software:
WildTangent Games WLDTNGT 1 [420-9352] 195


Speakers:
No speakers (Speakers are required to hear audio from your system) N 1 [313-2198] 18


Security Software:
McAfee SecurityCenter with anti-virus, anti-spyware, firewall, 30-Days MC930D 1 [410-1160] 25


Dell Digital Entertainment:
No Entertainment software pre-installed NODE 1 [464-9572] 399


DataSafe Online Backup:
Dell Remote Access, free basic service DRAFB 1 [420-9800][993-1919] 813


Datasafe:
Dell Online Backup 2GB for 1 year DOB2GB 1 [420-9518][988-0099][988-7707] 34

 

[KyleSTL]

A Celeron 450 is not comparable to a 2.0Ghz C2D, neither is the crappy integrated Intel graphics equal to the nVidia IGP in the Mac Mini. What are you smoking?

 

[ag3nt smith]

Wow! That is one sexy looking boat anchor! Would make a great computer if you're accustomed to Cold-War era computer technology.

 

[jsloan]

[citation][nom]KyleSTL[/nom]A Celeron 450 is not comparable to a 2.0Ghz C2D, neither is the crappy integrated Intel graphics equal to the nVidia IGP in the Mac Mini. What are you smoking?[/citation]

good point forgot mini has laptop cpu and not regular desktop cpu... ouch even slower. you know that something the apple website i went to doesnt say. laptop parts, laptop performance...

 

[jawshoeaw]

The price is justified by Apple in just this once case (pun intended). The problem here is competition - no one else makes such a compact good looking PC. The Dell studio things are ugly and big - so of course they are cheaper. Of course if they are tucked away where you can't seem them anyway, what difference does it make? Which is why I'm sticking with my Windows tower for now. It's not like I need to save space under my desk - I could put 6 full sized towers under it and I have a small desk.

I also think it's fair for Apple fans to say that you have to include the price of Vista ultimate if you are comparing to Apple. I don't care if you think Home Premium has everything you want - it doesn't have everything it could have, which OS X does. ag3nt smith, I think in the cold war era they would have been impressed with the mini.

One final thought - since there's really no way to upgrade these things (besides HDD->SDD or adding ram) you're kind of forced to keep it longer. OK, sick logic, but my roommate has a 5 year old mac laptop which she uses in grad school. It looks "cool" and boasts the cute Apple on its cover so everyone knows she has a mac. I bet she would keep a Mac Mini 5 years too. Cheaper in the long run for her.