New Mini by August Rumor

I guess that means they could only manage 128GB in the entry Air, which isn't enough for a mainstream model. Quad-core Ivy Bridge will be a better switching point for the CPU but I was hoping they'd be able to ditch the plastic at this revision - even if they made a very thin non-tapered metal model.

Good news about the Mini but it's been drawn out way longer than it needed to be as usual. It's interesting that there's a 3rd model - possibly the dual-core i7 that's in the MBP. Still, crappy graphics chips all round so I'll probably give it a miss.

If they offered Thunderbolt GPUs, I'd be on it right away but I'm not prepared to go back to Intel IGPs that don't have compute capability. I mean really, they launch Final Cut Pro X for consumers with OpenCL support and ship all their consumer machines with GPUs that don't support OpenCL...

I reckon the server Mini will stay at $999 and the entry one at $699. The MBP difference between the i5 and i7 is $300 but I'd say they'll price the middle one at $899 so as not to be identical to the server model.

$699
2.3GHz i5
HD 3000
2GB RAM
320GB HDD

$899
2.7GHz i7
HD 3000
4GB RAM
500GB HDD

$999
2.7GHz i7
HD 3000
4GB RAM
2 x 500GB HDD

All with dual Thunderbolt.

It would be nice to get a surprise for a change though. The quad i7 MBPs were a nice surprise but the 13" ones were a bit underwhelming.

AMD supports OpenCL, have since the Radeon 5000 series. Intel is a different story, but I don't see many people running FCX on a 13" screen or a Mini.

Marvin,

The mini would not be an option for me, unless it had an SSD. My needs don't include discrete graphics, and the HD 3000 is suppose to rival entry level discrete graphics. Perhaps that is more true with Windows than OS X. I hope the mini keeps the independent HDMI port, since it is already there. With 2 Thunderbolt ports, that may not happen. I know, 2 x 500 GB SSDs would cost like a Buick, but what about 1 SSD, and 1 spinning HD in the Server model?

There's no real reason they can't put a blade SSD in every model alongside the HDDs and the server model could still get two drives but to keep the price reasonable, they'd have to limit it to 64GB or something. You can always open it up and stick a 3rd party 2.5" SSD in but I really wish they'd make it easier to do this.


It's capable of playing games ok but it's a downgrade from the last revision (enough to go from playable to unplayable). Last year, it would have been good but now it's last year's performance at today's prices, which is never good. No OpenCL support should have automatically excluded it from Apple's lineup. Obviously Ivy Bridge will sort it but it means that every buyer of current machines are going to have GPUs with no OpenCL compute capability and so next years' model will make them seem very outdated - just like the GMA models when the 9400M hit and it was 'like a glass of ice water in hell'. Now we take a step back and things are getting warm again.

I'm a fan of external GPUs - I priced up MXM cards that you should be able to run at almost full speed over a Thunderbolt port and you can pick up the card in the high-end iMac for $450. The GPU would sit in an MXM slot similar to the 75W PCIe Thunderbolt slot Sonnet built. Then, the card itself would have HDMI/Mini-DP output. The other port would be free for RAID etc.

Won't happen though and it's a shame because I want to support NVidia. They innovated and made an IGP that put everyone else to shame and showed Intel up for the losers they are in the graphics field and Intel just blocked them out of the market. Now nobody at the low-end has any choice but to follow Intel's lacklustre roadmap from now on.

128GB can serve some users fine.

One the other hand remember that some people actually prefer the plastic models to the metal ones. The rush away from plastics isn't all that wise in my mind.

It will be very interesting to learn what they will in the end put in the Mini. I still think AMD has a shot at this platform. The reason is pretty simple, much better GPU performance which a lot of Mini users can really make use of.

Well I'm still of the opinion that TB based GPUs are bit of a joke. In Apples case it would be far cheaper for them to build a mini with a high performance GPU.

Actually the server model shouldn't be much more expensive than the entry level. All they do is delete the optical for another secondary storage disk.

I could see Apple going to $599 on the base model

Dual would be very nice indeed. Especially if they can configure the links in such a way as to sustain the bandwidth.

Agreed!!!! The 13" MBP really deserves a better GPU.

Apple will be able to slam a signficant amount of performance into a Mini in the coming years. Beyond that you don't seem to realize just how strongly OpenCL is coming on. It will show up in more software than you might imagine.


TB connects you to just about anything monitor wise. A good GPU will drive a monitor of significant size these days. Thinking positive about OpenCL is very important in order to make sure one isn't left behind. Everybody should be concerned about the lack of OpenCL support in Apple low end machines.

Thanks Marvin.

You could assume correctly OpenCL is something I don't understand. As a result, I am less likely to understand why the onboard GPU from Intel is not of value compared to the current mini. I think all agree with you about the HD and needing to be a surgeon to get to it in the mini. I am not against spinning platters until they fail. I cannot see well enough to use any of Apple's AIO machines, be it an iMac, or any of the notebooks. So any computer I purchase with OS X, has to be tied to an HDTV. I've returned to Windows and a PC I can see. My 2007 iMac is still wondering what is next. I do miss OS X, and the mini is the best choice for my needs. Before I purchased a mini with an HD waiting to fail, probably just past Apple Care (grin) I would get a used original Mac Pro, circa 2006.

I would be surprised if there were two TB ports on anything other than the Sever model, perhaps the top of the line one also. Only the top model of the iMac got two TB ports as I recall it.

That's likely a logic board size limitation and NOT a "this is the higher-end machine" limitation.

The MacBook Pro only has one Thunderbolt port, and it's "pro".

@Tallest Skil

It could be.

I do not know enough about the TB controller chip to say whether is is only capable of a single channel or not which would involve an additional, not inconsequential, cost on a model that is supposed to be an entry level platform and is price sensitive to a greater extent than the higher performance models which is why I would not be entirely surprised to see a second port on the server model though I certainly am not predicting it. I note that TB devices can be daisy chained up to seven devices, but they share the bandwidth in doing so.

Cheers.

well if the mini has on board video then you can have 8-12 unused pci-e lanes only haveing x4 for TB will be a big joke and make you thing why not give X8 or X16 to the TB ports so you can maybe hook up a TB video card with killing all the TB bandwidth.

I wonder if the next iteration of the mini will have the optical drive. Looking at the product shots that "leaked," I didn't see an optical drive on the mini they paired with the new Thunderbolt Cinema Display.

I certainly hope that it will have its own 16x lane, otherwise the bandwidth may not be what it should be. That it is easier to saturate the bandwidth of a single TB port is the "dirty little secret" of TB. Presumably there will be more ports added in the second generation products, but the cost of the TB controller chip will be a limiting factor unless/until Intel "comoditizes" the pricing. Failure to do so may well limit TB to a small niche status and what is catamount to commercial failure.

You may be aware that Sony have announced an external video card for one of their laptops using TB, except with a USB 3 connector. It will be interesting to see how that tests out when production units are available for testing.

I would not read too much into that photo. They may have chosen the server version of the Mini just because it has a cleaner, more attractive look in the photo. They probably shot the scene with both versions of the Mini and then chose the better looking photo.

Obviously, sooner or later the Mini (and all other Macs) will lose the internal optical drive. It's a 20th century technology. However, I would be surprised if the Mini loses the optical drive before the MacBook does. In the Mini, it's just cost vs benefit issue. In the MacBook, it's also a benefit vs benefit issue because a MacBook without the internal optical brick would be lighter, thinner, and have better battery life as well as being less expensive. Lighter and thinner don't matter so much with the Mini and battery life is a non-issue with the Mini.