Price Drops For Mac mini Upgrades 886
RustNeverSleeps writes "Apple has just lowered prices on certain build-to-order options on the Mac mini. The combination Bluetooth and AirPort Express option has gone down to $99 from $129, 1 GB RAM upgrades have been reduced to $325 from $475 and the price of an upgrade from a 40 GB hard drive to an 80 GB hard drive has been reduced to $50 from $90. Also, the original 4x SuperDrive has been upgraded to an 8x drive for the same price. Interesting that they dropped prices so soon after release. Perhaps Apple actually listened to people complaining about overpriced upgrades."
Or they were losing to cheaper players (Score:3, Insightful)
It's about friggin' time... (Score:5, Insightful)
The Mac Mini - Greatly Insane!
A question: can a Mac mouse/keyboard from an old G3 system be used with the Mini?
Look.... (Score:4, Insightful)
All this did was correct stuff that was already WAY overpriced to begin with. I'm thrilled, and this pretty much seals up that I'll buy a mini, but I don't think it makes a huge difference to most people, maybe just to those on the fence. If they weren't going to buy one before, they probably won't now just because of these incremental price "normalizations."
Re:Look.... (Score:4, Interesting)
I have always said "the day a Mac becomes affordable I will own one." The mini brought that to be and mine is on its way (should be here the 27th).
I am getting the 1.42Ghz with 80GB HD. It'll have the bare minimum 256MB of RAM and the regular combo drive but if push comes to shove I'll get an external Firewire DVD writer and might even open the case myself and add some RAM. Who knows. It'll all depend on how well it performs for me.
I always wait too long and am left in the dust by the early adopters. Now with this price drop I got burnt by being one
Re:Look.... (Score:4, Informative)
Unless you're planning on running one application at a time, you will want to get at least 512 MB. MacOS X is slow as molasses with 256 MB, and it's a shame that Apple still sells computers with that little memory. As Anandtech points out the machine swaps quite a bit with 256 MB [anandtech.com], and the 2.5" HD is rather slow.
Re:Look.... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Look.... (Score:3, Funny)
If you don't like spooge in your eye, stay the hell out of bukkake.slashdot.org.
If you use a registered account, you can filter out the bukkake [wikipedia.org] stories. If you insist on browsing without an account, bring plenty of paper towels.
Or Apple hears Anandtech's cry (Score:5, Informative)
Good review for those who care.
Re:Or Apple hears Anandtech's cry (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Or Apple hears Anandtech's cry (Score:3, Insightful)
As to the people saying you need 1GB, what for? I've got a flatmate that does graphical work on a PowerMac with 512MB, and it's fine for everything except Photoshop. Everyone seems too used to Windows XP's memory usage, and is assuming OS X is s
256 is ridiculous (Score:3, Interesting)
I've used Macs with 256MB that ran fine too. 5 years ago. Not now, no way.
You're granting that you can't run anything on these things (like photoshop), then say "why would you want to?" Well, why not? You should be able to. The guts of the Mac mini is pretty similar to a powerbook (com
Re:Or Apple hears Anandtech's cry (Score:3, Insightful)
Uh, if anything, OS X needs _more_ RAM than XP for decent performance.
It just gets better and better ... (Score:3, Insightful)
Improving the prices even more just makes it that much sexier.
I wonder if these price drops are because they've been able to get an idea of the volume of these they'll be selling, and relying on economies of scalre just got even more attractive to them.
Hard drive upgrades didn't drop (Score:5, Informative)
The "Why" is the question (Score:3, Interesting)
Possible reasons:
- Sales figures in first tow weeks overwhelming under BTO projections
- Analysts/Fans complained of over priced BTO
- Yet-to-be-released products with similar BTO pricing coming sooner than Apple originally planned
- Margins on BTO items are higher, even at reduced prices, than margins on the original equipment.
Classic TV Shopping technique.. (Score:5, Interesting)
2. Stress out benefits of given product so potential buyers actually think it's good value.
3. Let early buyers get in.
4. For those still undecided, actually improve the deal (i.e more features, ie. superdrive) and/or cut the price
5. Those actually undecided that thought it was already good value now think this is fantastic value.
6. Sell like crazy
I think this technique is call "push-over" or something like that. The key to it is to convince people that even at a premium your product is fantastical value (Apple sure knows a lot ib this field). The more you convince people at step 2, the easier the push-over.
IMHO, APPLE had it all laid out. They knew they could make the fat margins with early adopters and then have the extra publicity announcing this. It keeps the momentum...
Re:Classic TV Shopping technique.. (Score:4, Funny)
"But Wait! There's MORE!"
Re:Classic TV Shopping technique.. (Score:3, Interesting)
I forgot to mention the scarcity aspect that "seals the deal".
People *MUST* buy it now or else regret taking too long to make up their minds and wait 6 months to get it!
Just have a look at the iPod shuffle. Apple knew they were gonna sell this like there is no tomorrow. Heck just a year ago they were in shortage of Ipod Minis for twice the price!
They have mastered the science in creating envy from their fan base and a key element to that is making sure there is never enough at
So much for quiet (Score:4, Funny)
Quiet, until the story was slashdotted.
Price Protection. (Score:5, Informative)
As far as the superdrive goes, I ordered mine the day it was announced, and it arrived two days before the official release date. It came with an 8X Superdrive.
8X is not 8X DVD write! (Score:5, Informative)
The price needs to be in the impluse buy range (Score:4, Insightful)
I got caught up in the Mac Mini frenzy. To me $499 is impluse buy pricing. I figured it was worth it to let me have my first Mac to enjoy and learn on. I had been holding out for the next gen PowerBook. I went to the Apple Store and began an order.
$100 more for the SuperDrive and faster CPU. I'll buy my own RAM and deal with a putty knife to put it in. Yeah, I need Wi-Fi and Bluetooth because you can't add that afterwards. Applecare? Good idea. Now it was $800, even with my educational discount. It was no longer in impulse buy range. I left the site.
You think maybe that Apple saw that happening again and again and took this action to keep the buyer there until they completed the order?
Re:The price needs to be in the impluse buy range (Score:4, Informative)
If you're just looking for wireless mice, printers, and keyboards it might be worth it, but if you have a PDA, skip it.
Re:The price needs to be in the impluse buy range (Score:3, Insightful)
$100 more for the SuperDrive and faster CPU. I'll buy my own RAM and deal with a putty knife to put it in. Yeah, I need Wi-Fi and Bluetooth because you can't add that afterwards. Applecare? Good idea. Now it was $800, even with my educational discount. It was n
Re:The price needs to be in the impluse buy range (Score:3, Insightful)
Why bother upgrading the internal HD in the Mini to a larger 4200 RPM drive, when you can easily go out and buy a 7200 RPM FW HD that will work just as well if not better?
Re:The price needs to be in the impluse buy range (Score:5, Insightful)
Speaking of boxes, let me get on my soapbox and address all the bashers.
I can't believe so many people can't figure it out. Sure it costs more than your x86 box. But you wanna know something? You are paying for industrial design AND the computing experience (software). Bitch and whine all you want about how the harddrive, cpu, video card are slower than your custom built beige gamer box, but in the end it's not about FPS, read times and floating point instructions per second, what counts is how well the computer allows you to do what you want to do. IMNSHO, Apple software along with the design of it's computers makes my life easier and that is worth a price premium. All you turd-fuckers can't figure that out and only cry about the price/performance based on hardware merits. Last time I checked, you weren't pushing and popping bits onto the processor, the most critical thing you are seeing/using is the software. Hardware has become a commodity. The value is in the software. Don't believe me? I think the entire OSS movement has made you delusional. Just cuz it's free doesn't mean it has no value. There is a difference between good software and bad. Ignore the entire hardware argument, sit down and ask yourself how much you think OS X and iLife are worth. Honestly, don't fool yourself...give it a fair estimate. Compare it to other similar software and come up with a dollar value. You can tell me that Windows comes preinstalled or Linux is free blah blah blah...but if I offered you the choice for free, which of those 3 OS'es would you run (ignore all technical limitations such as OS X won't run on x86, etc...this is just for argument sake)? OS X right? There, that tells you that you place more value in OS X than the other two. Now then...that $499 seem so bad?
How about the software that comes preinstalled, allowing you to literally open the box, power it up and actually be able to use it? Put that in contrast with the Windows or Linux experience, how much time do you need to spend installing and customizing those boxes before they are actually useable? Even assuming that the stuff you install afterwards is all free, it's still time saved. Ok fry-boy, maybe your time is cheap but mine isn't.
If you bashers insist on comparing it on hardware alone, then move on because there's nothing for you here. You will never think Apple products are affordable. It's funny how many of you bitch that their memory upgrades are a rip-off, so you're not going to make the switch. If you were going into a restaurant to eat a burger but they had an overpriced salad on the menu, would it stop you from eating the burger? The choice is yours. if the overpriced ram is stopping you from buying an Apple, you're lying to yourself because you are only looking for an excuse, you were never going to buy one to begin with.
Not likely... (Score:3, Insightful)
Or they misjudged market demand for upgraded units and have warehouses full of units that aren't selling while the bottom end is oversold.
-Adam
I called Apple and this is what they said.... (Score:5, Informative)
This is part of the reason people love Apple so much, they really do take care of their customers.
Re:I called Apple and this is what they said.... (Score:3)
Re:I called Apple and this is what they said.... (Score:5, Informative)
Using the same site, and actually looking up the Mac mini using Crucial's system selector, a 1GB DIMM for it [crucial.com] costs $226.99.
Now that $350 Apple charged doesn't look so good.
Is this really a good buy? (Score:3, Informative)
Mac mini
512MB DDR333 SDRAM - 1 DIMM
80GB Ultra ATA drive
4x SuperDrive (DVD±RW/CD-RW)
56K v.92 Modem
Mac OS X - U.S. English
1.42GHz PowerPC G4
Subtotal $774.00
Dell Dimension 4700
* Pentium® 4 Processor 520 with HT Technology (2.80GHz, 800 FSB)
* 512MB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 400MHz (2x256M)
* 80GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM)
* Dual Drives: 16x DVD-ROM Drive + 48x CD-RW Drive
* Windows XP Home
* 56k Modem
Subtotal $685.00
So my big question, besides the obvious price drop from normal Apple systems and putting aside the whole Mac vs. x86 platform, is where is the real price savings for a new user buying a new home computer? Granted the 15% off is a big factor, but Dell runs similar specials all the time.
Re:Is this really a good buy? (Score:4, Insightful)
Apple is betting yes. And next quarter we'll see what the market said.
Good buy? You bet. (Score:5, Informative)
You also forgot to configure the DVD/CD drive option the same on the Dell. When you do, it adds $35.
What's still different in the technical details? The mini includes Firewire and a real video card. You need to add $110 to the Dell to get those. Now you're up to $685 + $35 + $110 = $830.
The only technical details the Dell has now over the mini is that the (minimum optional) video card is better (I think) than the 9200 in the mini and that the 4700 has 6 USB ports on it instead of 2, if you care to have that many.
Is the mini a good buy? Uh, well, technically, yes. Unless you're going to quibble about raw processor performance.
Look. At this level of machine, it's a new game. Make your choice based on what you want. Price is not an issue anymore. Instead, sit down and ask yourself whether you want to try:
* A new user experience. Yes, there will be a learning curve if you've never used one. There's no Start button. There's one menu bar. It will take you a few days. Big deal, likely.
* A new level of security--whether through design or obscurity, your choice. This will save you a few days. Each month. No joke.
* Lower number, but higher average quality (typically) app selection. What do you use? What can't you live without? A lot of good stuff is ported. Some good stuff is not. There are sometimes great alternatives, sometimes not.
Apple's giving those at this price point the chance to make a personal selection that has very little to do with financials. Enjoy making it.
Re:Is this really a good buy? (Score:4, Insightful)
- XP Home isn't anywhere near as powerful as Mac OS X. Put XP Pro on that box.
- DVD-RW vs. DVD-ROM. Drop the Superdrive from the Mini, or add the burner to the Dell.
How's that comparison now? Enough to absorb the missing keyboard and mouse?Oh, and for the record, the real savings is in having a system that has fewer annoying habits, has a consistent UI across applications, and is less susceptible to worms, virus infections, and spyware, as well as including a robust suite of polished, easy-to-use applications that will cover most of the needs of the freshman computer enthusiast (photography, music, basic word processing, even movies).
"How do I get photos from the Sony Mavica to iPhoto?" my wife asked me. Answer: Plug in the USB cable, and when iPhoto automatcially opens, click the blue pill clearly labelled "Import." Tell me that Dell will be able to do that OUT OF THE BOX!
Re:Is this really a good buy? Yes it is, damnit! (Score:3, Insightful)
No, instead you get years of heartache with driver issues with your camera and a corn-you-fscking-copia of bastard-ass photo organization applications that do fsck-all for you actually organizing, printing, and making books from your pictures.
Why do you think that they finally came out with printers with CF cards and fscking monitors on them? I'm sure easy to use software on windows was the reason!
I've had my mini (Score:5, Informative)
Re:I've had my mini (Score:5, Informative)
I've had my mini since last Thursday so I thought I would post my thoughts for anyone who might be interested....
Overall the mini is outstanding, right now my list of stuff I run frequently includes....
Safari
FireFox
Mail
iBlog
Pages
KeyNote
iTunes
iPhoto
PhotoShop Elements 2.0
iSync
Transmit 2.0
CandyBar
Diablo II
and to a lesser extent...
iMovie
GarageBand 2
Chess
MacJanitor
CockTail
Specs:
G4 1.42 / 80GB HDD / 512MB RAM / DVD/CD +/-RW combo drive / AE + BT
NEC LCD1735 NXM w/ DVI cable, Logitech Z3i 2.1 Speakers, Apple Pro Keyboard (wired), Apple Pro Wireless Mouse, D-Link DL-524 Router/WAP, Epson Stylus C80 printer on D-Link 301U ethernet printer server
Everything opens quickly, usually one bounce on the dock and it's up and usable. I have spent a good deal of time moving my vacation photos (about 800-900) and music (about 3400 tracks) to their repsective apps. Both iTunes and iPhoto still snap right open and are usable pretty quickly, although obviously startup scans of large libraries take a few seconds. Application perfromance is great, very smooth and pretty much what I expect of OS X. Pages and KeyNote are very responsive and stable, PhotoShop Elements 2.0 is the only lagard, as it is on any system.
A big improvement for me is not having to turn off eye candy and little features to maintain performance. This is my third Mac, I've gone from an iMac G3 700 Snow w/Jag to an iBook G4 800 w/Panther to the mini I am currently running. For the first time I don't have to turn off dock animation or magnification, find a hack around transparency or turn off font smoothing to avoid those occaissional chops that would happen to my other Macs. Finder is smooth and responsive and outside of the occaisional delay with iDisk synching is vastly improved from Jag and even my earlier Panther experiences.
Browsing my network, mapping drives on my Wintel box and even remote managing my DVR is perfection. I have the AE/BT option. AE immediately finds my Dlink DL-524 and works with it's WPA-PSK settings with no hassle. The Apple wireless mouse was found on first boot and OS X shows you a little 2 step pictogram so the OS can pair the device before it is even compeltely launched. BT performance is overall about the same, although it does not ship with the 1.2 firmware upgrade, which definitely made for smoother mouse tracking. Pairing with my Nokia 3650 is still a little wonky, but this appears to be my phone at fault as it pairs poorly with anything.
The size is truly impressive and you have to see it in relation to the rest of your hardware to really appreciate it. It runs virtually silent all the time, even under moderate load the fan barely kicks up. The fan is a rotary blower similair to the ones in the new iMacs, although obviously a much lower profile and slighlty different form factor. It does kick up during gaming, and while it makes more noise, it is more of a whoosh of air than anything mechanical or clicky. I think most of the noise is due to the shape of the exhaust vents more than the blower. At higher speeds you can definitely feel it moving some air, so I feel pretty confident the mini gets adequate air flow.
I am the only one home right now at 7:45a.m., there is very little ambient or background noise to be heard currently, it is probably as close as my place gets to 100% silent and I can barely hear the mini at all, the fan is a whisper at best. I can here thee clock on the wall 20 feet away clicking more than I can hear the mini's fan.
The hard drive is quiet, I rarely even here it seek. In fact, hard drive noise is so rare when I do hear it I tend to notice it. Hard drive performance has so far proven to be pretty decent, it honestly doesn't feel slow or he
If only they'd use fair conversion rates ... (Score:3, Interesting)
If I want to buy a Mac Mini in Belgium, the entry price is 519 euro, as opposed to 499 in the US. At the current conversion rate (taken from XE.net/ucc), the "correct" EU price should be 381.68 eur.
Even tough Apple is an American company, they're not going to convince me this price is because the stuff has to come from the US of A. And even then, you'd think that Apple, being a global company, should be able to get some volume discounts from their transport service.
This goes for all of their products. If I want to buy a Powerbook, it's actually cheaper to take a plane to New York, buy it at the NY Apple store (if there is one, I suppose there is), put it in my bag and fly back to the Old Continent than to buy it here, be it from a store or from the Apple website.
Come to think of it, anyone from Belgium or Holland who wants to buy some mac stuff? I'll go to NY, pick it up and pass the discount on to you. The more, the merrier.
(yes, I know I won't be able to walk trough the airport with thousands of $ worth of stuff without being robbed (be it by criminals or by the import tax officers), and I know this doesn't include cab rides.. but you get the picture)
Re:If only they'd use fair conversion rates ... (Score:4, Informative)
Re:If only they'd use fair conversion rates ... (Score:3, Informative)
Okay, so the prices before tax aren't that different ($499 us, $550 eu), it's still worth the trip if you buy say a cinema display. (Which of course I will not.)
I still think it's illogical to overcharge us "just in case the dollar should become more expen
Apples-to-Apples Comparison (Score:3, Informative)
I know these comments contain the inevitable PC-to-Mac price comparisons, but are they equivalent? One fellow found out that the RAM price difference is only about $29 (installed) if the identical type of memory is selected.
So my question is this: How about if we compare a Mac Mini to a mini-ITX system? Now we're in about the same price range, with similar limitations on upgrades. Plus it's harder (impossible?) to get a suitably powerful processor in a mITX PC.
Anandtech compared the Mini with a full-size Dell - they'd have to, there's no mini-ITX Dell systems that I'm aware of. I hope there's someone else here who thinks that's just stupid: "Hey guys, guess what? I just did a price comparison between a dual-Opteron system and a high-end laptop. The Opteron box is so much better for the price. Now excuse me while I place it in my laptop bag and take it on a business trip!"
You do not need 1GB of RAM!!! (Score:5, Insightful)
However, why do you want 1GB of RAM? I use a PowerBook with a 1.5Ghz CPU and 512MB as my desktop replacement at work, and have no problems. I've currently got Thunderbird, Adium (IM), iTunes, Firefox, Azureus and X11 open, with no noticable slowdown or disk swapping.
Unless you're going to be doing something you know is memory intensive (Photoshop), you probably won't use anything more than 512MB. If you're that worried, and live anywhere near an Apple store, see if you can try one of these out, open half a dozen applications and see what performance you get.
Re:You do not need 1GB of RAM!!! (Score:3, Interesting)
Doing deltas between different versions is much faster if both versions are in memory. This means you need at least half a gig for the page cache, with nothing else running.
For me personally, a gig is the minimum for development, and 2 gigs is noticeably nicer.
My personal machine has a half gig though, as I don't do as much kernel work there.
All the kvetching (Score:3, Insightful)
It's a budget, CONSUMER, box, it's not even the 'pro' consumer model (the iMac). The point of the parent was that perhaps 4% of the computing populace would even notice 1GB of RAM in their machine (as opposed to 512MB), which makes all the kvetching about the price of 1GB on Slashdot seem a little sp
Re:You do not need 1GB of RAM!!! (Score:3, Informative)
Re:You do not need 1GB of RAM!!! (Score:3)
(If you are God, I'm really sorry about asking you to damn my luck last Friday at poker night, and I hope that you don't tell Santa because I'm really pulling for solid placement on the "nice" list this year.)
Inevitably, someone writes a tool or program that takes advantage of a lot more memory to do what it does. What might seem to be a perfectly acceptable amount o
Had mine 5 days now, no chg in price for mine (Score:3, Informative)
Went to the apple site and went thru the order process again out of curiosity. Same price.
I feel better.
Re:this goes against.... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:this goes against.... (Score:5, Informative)
For 700 bucks I get a DVD burner, 80 Gig HD and the best OS on the planet.
I would never buy the RAM upgrades form Apple, nor would I do the same from any maker. I buy my RAM from the cheapest source possible, which usually ISN'T the maker. So what are we talking about here, another $125 for a full Gig of RAM now.
$825 for a killer system. That's only 125 to "bring the Mac Mini up to a reasonable configuration".
Now, you may think me a Mac zealot, but in fact, I build and maintain computers from scratch running Linux. I haven't owned an Apple product in about 8 years. I've used them quite a bit in my old job, but they were always "overpriced" for me. That's really no longer an excuse.
Re:this goes against.... (Score:3, Funny)
Wow, you must be crazy smart, I hear CPU's are real hard to make from scratch.
Just messin.. $825 is a pretty good deal for a mac tho. If I had the extra cash, I think I'd be all over it. Where did you find a gig ram for $125? Best mini stuff i could find was here [crucial.com].
Re:this goes against.... (Score:5, Funny)
Wow, you must be crazy smart, I hear CPU's are real hard to make from scratch.
You don't know the half of it! One time I was painstakingly hand-soldering a 68040, when I accidentally dropped my pince-nez. Well, when I got back to my work, I had inadvertently given the chip a half turn, and before I knew it I connected pin 25965 to 52692! That took me even longer to figure out than the time I baked the hard drive platters a little too long.
Re:this goes against.... (Score:5, Funny)
Ah, so you did exactly what I did - bought a nice Athlon system and installed Linux. Good choice!
Re:this goes against.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Buying generic RAM for mini is dangerous (Score:5, Informative)
The only place I would get Mac RAM from would be Crucial.com, and they're more or less the price of the Apple RAM, though the 1GB is a hundred less. Crucial is a division of Micron and thoroughly tests their RAM.
The problem is that some people report issues with using PC2700 RAM in the mini, some report overheating (you need quality RAM because of that cramped airflow in the casing), and so on.
Make sure you people manually upgrading your minis get high-quality RAM that is up to spec!
Re:Buying generic RAM for mini is dangerous (Score:5, Interesting)
If that happens, then your RAM is defective. Assuming you bought memory with a lifetime warranty (can you even find memory that doesn't have one?), then get it replaced.
The only place I would get Mac RAM from would be Crucial.com, and they're more or less the price of the Apple RAM, though the 1GB is a hundred less. Crucial is a division of Micron and thoroughly tests their RAM.
I'll never buy from Crucial, and here's why. I was shopping for a memory upgrade for my PowerBook when I came across this product on their site:
http://www.crucial.com/store/MPartspecs.Asp?mtbpo
It's a 1GB memory module for my model of PowerBook. It's $480. I thought this price was a little high, but Crucial is generally kind of expensive. Then I found this page:
http://www.crucial.com/store/PartSpecs.asp?imodul
It's an identical 1GB module, but for $340.
What's going on here? I e-mailed them and asked what the difference was. Here are some quotes from their reply:
Thank you for your e-mail. At Crucial we offer different "flavors" of the same memory, some that work in specific systems and some that work in general systems.
If you placed the general use module into a PowerBook the system would become unstable and even lock up at sporadic times.
Part number CT12864X335 is not compatible.
I'm not sure what's going on here. It's obvious that this e-mail is at extreme odds with the truth. One explanation is that they've caught on to the idea that Mac owners have more money, and they decided to cash in. Another explanation is that their customer support is incompetent. Either way, I see no reason to buy from them and every reason to avoid them.
Re:Buying generic RAM for mini is dangerous (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm glad we cleared that up.
I don't particularly like their explanation, but for every person who says that generic memory will work fine on modern
Re:Buying generic RAM for mini is dangerous (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Buying generic RAM for mini is dangerous (Score:3, Informative)
Re:this goes against.... (Score:3, Insightful)
The Mac Mini specs [apple.com] also say that "Memory, AirPort Extreme and internal Bluetooth upgrades must be performed by an Apple Authorized Service provider; fees may apply.". In light of the assurances in the article this may not be true for memory but it certainly is for the other components.
Re:this goes against.... (Score:3, Informative)
Yes, this is a killer system.
It's not a quad processor 4 GIGA-PLEX-ZOWIE-BAM with optional tinted windows and a 1GIG 32x AGP-ultra mega 6D graphics card...but show me a $825 system that is.
Being $825 and having the features that it does in itself makes it a "killer system". SO STFU.
Re:this goes against.... (Score:4, Insightful)
You don't have a small form factor, and I hardly doubt that it's quiet. For some people, those are important design considerations. Now if you spec out a mini ITX box (say with a VIA Eden chipset, or whatever they are up to now-a-days...), it would be more relevant.
Re:this goes against.... (Score:5, Informative)
i priced this at logic Supply [logicsupply.com]:
Morex 3677 mini-ITX case Silver $85.00
VIA EPIA MII12000 Mini-ITX Motherboard $214.00
Notebook 2.5" Hard Drive 80GB $175.00
Panasonic Slot Loading CD-RW / DVD $99.00
PC2100 / DDR266 memory 1024MB $290.00
Microsoft Windows XP Pro with SP2 $175.00
Netgear WG511 54 Mbps Wireless PCMCIA Card $49.00
Combo Keyboard, Mouse and Speakers $21.00
Sub-Total: $1,108.00
note that the Mac mini has a slightly faster CPU (and i'm willing to bet the G4 will out-perform the Via Eden in most cases). the Mini has a DVD burner as opposed to a DVD-ROM/CD-RW. the Mini has Apple's wireless keyboard.
so, the Mac Mini price is at least competitive with other small form factor computers, if not regular full size computers.
Re:this goes against.... (Score:3, Informative)
There are PowerPC ports of Gentoo, Debian, and a few other Linuxes (Linuxen?
Feel free to purchase that Mini!!!
Re:this goes against.... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:this goes against.... (Score:3, Insightful)
Truck! (Score:4, Funny)
Re:this goes against.... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:this goes against.... (Score:3, Insightful)
You may not get "faster CPU" or something of the sort, but you do get a great OS, tiny case made of adonized aluminium, a practically silent computer, great software-bundle and the like. Staring at just few specs (CPU-speed etc.) is pretty short-sighted IMO.
Re:this goes against.... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:this goes against.... (Score:5, Informative)
I ran my PB17 for about 4 months (512mb, 4200? rpm HD, 1.33 ghz cpu) and it was plenty fast doing real world work (daily on-site video production for a public school system).
Is this the new angle of attack for the Mac-haters?
Re:this goes against.... (Score:3, Informative)
How do you know the margin is thin? (Score:5, Interesting)
A Mac mini has no monitor, or keyboard or mouse and only costs $500 for roughly the same hardware. The pacakging is also a lot smaller and simpler.
Apple could still be making decent margins off this I think. And as others have noted if there are many accessory sales margins are even better.
Who needs to upgrade? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:New Apple Business: Workstations (Score:5, Insightful)
Because the desktop market would not be best served by having Apple take the lead. Half of everything Apple does would be considered "anticompetitive" if they were in Microsoft's position. And talk about vendor lock-in! Apple doesn't even allow clones any more.
Apple would need to make a *lot* of changes to become dominant, and would need to take some big chances.
Re:New Apple Business: Workstations (Score:3, Informative)
No, there just haven't been any for several years.
Apple did *not* refuse to renew the cloning licenses. They *did* insist on larger fees on upper end machines, and the cloners refused.
The more expensive machines with fatter margins for apple had always paid the bulk of the R&D costs. The cloners weren't paying any of that under the old deal.
hawk
Re:Slap in the Face (Score:3, Insightful)
- Mac Mini: $75
- Power Book: $200
This isn't a fair comparison as the laptop uses SO-DIMMS, which are more expensive. I should also point out that people who get Apple memory upgrades have money to burn, especially with a powerbook, since the memory is user installable.
Re:Upgradablility (Score:3, Insightful)
With the exception of Graphics, I would venture to say all consumer level options usually upgraded via PCI on a PC are either (1) built in (like Bluetooth or Firewire ports) or (2) available via Firewire (like Audio/video input/output devices).
Re:Upgradablility (Score:5, Insightful)
TV Tuner. I know you can get a USB tuner, but that kind of defeats the whole form factor thing.
I'm not complaining though - this is going to be one really sweet DVD/DivX/MP3 player machine. I picked up a Remote Wonder control today, and now I can comfortably select and play movies from the couch.
If Apple were to release a version of the mini with 6-channel sound, a TV tuner, PVR software, and a good looking remote Windows Media Center wouldn't stand a chance. It would be the iPod of the living room.
Re:Upgradablility (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Now how about accessory purchases? (Score:3, Insightful)
if someone wanted a bundle including a mouse/kb/monitor, there's a perfectly good (and more powerful) alternative called iMac. (and it's not much more expensive that buying a mini with all the accessories from apple, as you suggested.)
Re:Now how about accessory purchases? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Mini Blues (Score:5, Informative)
Also due to the clever way in which OS X is designed, you can set up a high speed network utilising your firewire, bluetooth, wifi and ethernet ports all simultaneously, with the file being threaded across the available connections.
Re:Mini Blues (Score:3, Informative)
What can you actually do with the Mini Bluetooth connection?
I suspect this is pretty much intended for keyboards, mice, cell phones, PDAs, and headphones. I know the OS supports file transfer via bluetooth for both LDAP info and general files, and has some nice security options. Theoretically, it could be used for all sorts of low-bandwidth wireless applications.
where's the truly hifi Bluetooth stereo headset?
Did you just say, "hi-fi???" Can you even buy low tolerance components these days? I mean
Re:Mini Blues (Score:3, Informative)
The Bluetooth support on the Mac mini is completely programmable. As such, you can do anything with it that Bluetooth supports.
Some of the Bluetooth support that is built into OS X includes:
Re:kitchen computer (Score:5, Informative)
You can, however, use the Mac mini on its side.
Re:kitchen computer (Score:5, Funny)
You could even augment this by placing an external disk array cabinet in place of the refrigerator.
Re:Hmm (Score:3, Insightful)
-Registered/buffered makes for slightly slower RAM (though at pc2700, you could use higher-end circuitry) by storing memory fetches in latched registers/buffers to ensure that no timing weirdness occurrs (ie, reading a byte when only 4 of the bits have been set)
-the extra bits (72 vs 64) are used for the parity bits for ECC.
So to recap, what apple is installing is "better" in terms of stability, and if they use faster-rated RAM (say, PC3000) to build it, the speed
It doesn't work that way. (Score:5, Informative)
It doesn't work that way. SDRAM is synchronous memory and the chipset will attempt to run the memory at the speed of the bus. Faster memory will not make the bus go any faster than the chipset's rated speed.
For example, I had a KT333 chipset which had a 333 mhz bus speed. It used PC2700 memory, which is 333 mhz memory. I had a power surge and my MB died. So I replaced it with a KT266 motherboard, which only has a 266 mhz bus speed (PC2100 speed). I still used my old PC2700 memory, but the memory now operates at the bus speed, which is 266 mhz. It is not any faster than if I just had PC2100 memory in it, since it can only run as fast as the chipset can drive it.
The Mac mini's chipset works at 333 mhz, which is PC2700 speed. Putting in PC3000 or faster won't make the memory speed be any faster- it'll always run at 333 mhz.
Re:Hmm (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Total (Score:5, Funny)
I was able to configure one up to a surprising $40,553 [miniusa.com]!
Perhaps a typo (Score:3, Informative)
On the UK store for the 1.2ghz the prices are: BT 35.00 UKP, AP 49.00 UKP, and combo 152.88 UKP.
However, the prices for the upgrades on the 1.4 ghz are: BT 35.00 UKP, AP 49.00 UKP, and combo 69.99 UKP.
I think there is a possible typo on the store or something. the 152 UKP price would seem reasonable for the combo BT/APExtreme and an AP Express bundled in, but not for the c
Re:Why are people supporting apple? (Score:3, Informative)
Go read that first link you supplied us. They are *targetted* by the bastards at Gator, who add their own ads to apple.com pages. It is the reverse which is scorn-worthy.
Now go read your second link, which gives no real information at all. Go to ThinkSecret, read the full blurbs elsewhere on powerpage.org.
Now what do you think Apple is trying to accomplish?
Jobs is sick and tired of leaking assholes in R&D stealing all his fire every year by providing specifi
Re:Why are people supporting apple? (Score:3, Funny)
Then he should quit consuming food that contains Olean [olean.com].
You have no idea what you linked to, read backward (Score:5, Informative)
Scroll down to the targeted host [harvard.edu] apple.com and click on it (link provided for you).
Now read the WHOLE PAGE. Those are advertisers that Gator pops up WHEN YOU ARE BROWSING APPLE.COM.
Key distinction there. It's not that APPLE is advertising. It's that gator is DISPLAYING OTHER ADS when you are on Apple.com.
Living proof that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.
As for the suing thing, Apple is actually suing to find out who the employees are that are leaking details. I'm not that happy about them suing they guy but I have to say that whoever leaked these details has probably crossed the line because they have seriously broken a contract a NDA they signed. Previous rumors have been close but this last wave was just too exacting in detail.
If you want to be angry at someone how about wondering why these employees do not come forward and give themselves up instead of letting this kid twist in the wind.
Re:RAM Still cheaper at Crucial (Score:3, Informative)
Oh, and don't buy registered ECC, Mac mini won't support it. It needs to be unbuffered and unregistered memory for the Mac mini. You can use PC 3200 (DDR 400) but it runs at the slower speed.
Indeed, you get a lot more... (Score:4, Funny)
You get a lot more fan noise - try a new HP. WHOOOOOOOSH!
You get a lot more spyware helping you browse. Apple doesn't help you browse. What the hell is up with that!
You get a lot more product activation. Without product activation, all your products would just lie dormant!
You get more wait time for a major OS update. Waiting gives you time to read and makes you smarter!
Re:Upgrades are still over priced... (Score:4, Insightful)
I've never owned a Mac, but I would buy this if I didn't already have more computers than I need.
Re:Hard Drive? (Score:3, Informative)
Yes, although some buyers are reporting that their drives are 5400rpm (compared to the 4200rpm of most laptop drives).
f it does come with a slow hard drive, could someone stick there own 3.5" 7,200RPM hard drive in place of it?
Almost certainly not due to space limitations. There are 7200rpm 2.5" drives which you could probably use, but in most cases it will be more convenient to use Firewire external drives.
If you can put your own stan
I got a $30 refund (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Mac Mini (xMac) (Score:3, Insightful)