the old g4 mini had a real video card with 32mb or 64mb video card the x86 one uses 64mb+ over head of system ram.
You automatically assume that dedicated is better. The old Mini GPU was much slower than the current GMA 965 or whatever the IG solution is called. Given that the Mini comes with more RAM now, the fact that it draws of system RAM is less of an issue.
I'd take the IG in the Mini/Macbooks over the GPU in the g4 Minis/iBooks any day of the week on any computer with 1 GB of RAM or more.
Is this the Mac Nano? There's lots of talk about Apple ditching the optical drive on the next mini/nano/whatever they'll call it. I love the look of it, if it's legit, but the lack of an optical drive is a big deal.
We all know Apple was first to omit the floppy drive, but this time it's different. The CD is not yet dead, and DVDs are thriving.
User-replaceable hard drive, RAM and Graphics Card. Add $100. to the price to compensate. End of story.
After helping to upgrade the RAM in about 20 G4 Mini's, and replacing the HD and RAM in a Intel Mini, all you really need is a putty knife and patience, although the Intel Mini basically requires you to dismantle the entire computer (plus it helped to have the Apple repair docs).
I would like to see a Mini with a GMA X3100 - its a fairly decent gaming IGP. probably one of the best as far as IGP's go at the moment. And for $600 model to include a DVD burner, there are so cheap nowadays.
Is this the Mac Nano? There's lots of talk about Apple ditching the optical drive on the next mini/nano/whatever they'll call it. I love the look of it, if it's legit, but the lack of an optical drive is a big deal.
We all know Apple was first to omit the floppy drive, but this time it's different. The CD is not yet dead, and DVDs are thriving.
Since iDVD now works with external optical drives, the Mac nano may not have an internal drive. Cheaper but more cables.
I still hold that the next mac mini will have an Allendale and possibly a 3.5" HD, but only if 3.5" disks are cheaper than 2.5" HDs. I also expect it to use the cheapest form factor of RAM, possibly with a gig soldered to the mobo to offset the fact that the form-factor might be larger that what is currently used.
Cheap, cheap, cheap. That's the goal. $499 or less. Ideally, $449, which I think is doable. When you look at this page, I find it hard to justify NOT getting the GPU, 20" screen, and all the extras (keyboard, mouse, webcam, etc) for $400 more. In a world of cheap PCs, the mini needs to be cheaper if it's to continue its purpose as a product targeted to first-time mac buyers. Otherwise, in all but a few niches, the iMac will be the realistic entry point into the mac line.
In testing, the improvement this new engine offers over the older solutions isn't massive - 3DMark06, the industry benchmark for ascertaining the capabilities of graphics engines in general, returned a score of 416. While this result is twice that from the previous generation of integrated graphics, it still proves that integrated graphics aren't for next-generation titles. Top-end cards score around 8,000, with even cheaper cards managing scores around the 4,000 mark.
The ATI Radeon 9000 in my five year old (November 2002) TiBook comes in at 77th...
I'm sure using the GMA in nearly half the Macs sold was part of Apple deal with Intel to secure things like 3.2GHz Xeons for the top end models etc etc.
I'm guessing the next mini will have a lower-end processor, and perhaps also a 3.5" HD. The mini now is too expensive: anyone with half a brain will buy an iMac or an AppleTV instead. So, either the mini will go away completely or will be cheaper, perhaps conjoining with the AppleTV.
I have a G4 Mini at the office. I'm about to replace it with a new Mini. I'd love to put an iMac in there, but my company doesn't officially support anything but XP, and the IT folks would scream if they saw anything but an XP machine on their network (why they'd allow the least secure OS in the world online, but not one of the most secure OSes is a testament to how intelligent they are).
In any case, I can discretely hide my Mini. It's hard to hide an iMac. On top of that, I do have my XP machine that I use on occasion, and I can't use my KVM with an iMac to see its display. I could VNC or RDC in to it and view it in a window on the Mac, but that's a little less convenient.
User-replaceable hard drive, RAM and Graphics Card. Add $100. to the price to compensate. End of story.
Hmmm. Add $100 to the price for a feature that would interest fewer than 1% of buyers. Apple are not so stupid. End of story.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Splinemodel
I still hold that the next mac mini will have an Allendale and possibly a 3.5" HD, but only if 3.5" disks are cheaper than 2.5" HDs. I also expect it to use the cheapest form factor of RAM, possibly with a gig soldered to the mobo to offset the fact that the form-factor might be larger that what is currently used.
Cheap, cheap, cheap. That's the goal. $499 or less. Ideally, $449, which I think is doable. When you look at this page, I find it hard to justify NOT getting the GPU, 20" screen, and all the extras (keyboard, mouse, webcam, etc) for $400 more. In a world of cheap PCs, the mini needs to be cheaper if it's to continue its purpose as a product targeted to first-time mac buyers. Otherwise, in all but a few niches, the iMac will be the realistic entry point into the mac line.
The general sentiment of your post is correct. The Mac Nano needs a price point of $499 or less. However, there is zero chance that Apple will put a 3.5" disk in it because of the added cost of the cooling requirements and the increased size.
I don't understand why a 3.5 is preferable to a 2.5 drive. Is it because of its capacity? In that case, WD announced the Scorpio 2.5" SATA HDD with 320GB.
I don't understand why a 3.5 is preferable to a 2.5 drive. Is it because of its capacity? In that case, WD announced the Scorpio 2.5" SATA HDD with 320GB.
Capacity, cost, speed and selection. Oh, and reliability.
Comments
the old g4 mini had a real video card with 32mb or 64mb video card the x86 one uses 64mb+ over head of system ram.
You automatically assume that dedicated is better. The old Mini GPU was much slower than the current GMA 965 or whatever the IG solution is called. Given that the Mini comes with more RAM now, the fact that it draws of system RAM is less of an issue.
I'd take the IG in the Mini/Macbooks over the GPU in the g4 Minis/iBooks any day of the week on any computer with 1 GB of RAM or more.
User-replaceable hard drive, RAM and Graphics Card. Add $100. to the price to compensate. End of story.
And preferably a spare 3.5" bay for a Time-Machine hard disk.
Is this the Mac Nano? There's lots of talk about Apple ditching the optical drive on the next mini/nano/whatever they'll call it. I love the look of it, if it's legit, but the lack of an optical drive is a big deal.
We all know Apple was first to omit the floppy drive, but this time it's different. The CD is not yet dead, and DVDs are thriving.
I've been dying to buy a Mini, but I'm waiting for Leopard (no reason to spend $129 more than I have to).
User-replaceable hard drive, RAM and Graphics Card. Add $100. to the price to compensate. End of story.
After helping to upgrade the RAM in about 20 G4 Mini's, and replacing the HD and RAM in a Intel Mini, all you really need is a putty knife and patience, although the Intel Mini basically requires you to dismantle the entire computer (plus it helped to have the Apple repair docs).
I would like to see a Mini with a GMA X3100 - its a fairly decent gaming IGP. probably one of the best as far as IGP's go at the moment. And for $600 model to include a DVD burner, there are so cheap nowadays.
Is this the Mac Nano? There's lots of talk about Apple ditching the optical drive on the next mini/nano/whatever they'll call it. I love the look of it, if it's legit, but the lack of an optical drive is a big deal.
We all know Apple was first to omit the floppy drive, but this time it's different. The CD is not yet dead, and DVDs are thriving.
Since iDVD now works with external optical drives, the Mac nano may not have an internal drive. Cheaper but more cables.
Cheap, cheap, cheap. That's the goal. $499 or less. Ideally, $449, which I think is doable. When you look at this page, I find it hard to justify NOT getting the GPU, 20" screen, and all the extras (keyboard, mouse, webcam, etc) for $400 more. In a world of cheap PCs, the mini needs to be cheaper if it's to continue its purpose as a product targeted to first-time mac buyers. Otherwise, in all but a few niches, the iMac will be the realistic entry point into the mac line.
I would like to see a Mini with a GMA X3100 - its a fairly decent gaming IGP. probably one of the best as far as IGP's go at the moment.
Well, it's better than previous generations of IGP, but still not even in the league of a bargain independent GPU.
A review of the X3100
In testing, the improvement this new engine offers over the older solutions isn't massive - 3DMark06, the industry benchmark for ascertaining the capabilities of graphics engines in general, returned a score of 416. While this result is twice that from the previous generation of integrated graphics, it still proves that integrated graphics aren't for next-generation titles. Top-end cards score around 8,000, with even cheaper cards managing scores around the 4,000 mark.
It ranks 70th on this list of laptop GPUs. The GMA950 is 82nd.
It ranks 70th on this list of laptop GPUs. The GMA950 is 82nd.
LOL.
The ATI Radeon 9000 in my five year old (November 2002) TiBook comes in at 77th...
I'm sure using the GMA in nearly half the Macs sold was part of Apple deal with Intel to secure things like 3.2GHz Xeons for the top end models etc etc.
I'm guessing the next mini will have a lower-end processor, and perhaps also a 3.5" HD. The mini now is too expensive: anyone with half a brain will buy an iMac or an AppleTV instead. So, either the mini will go away completely or will be cheaper, perhaps conjoining with the AppleTV.
I have a G4 Mini at the office. I'm about to replace it with a new Mini. I'd love to put an iMac in there, but my company doesn't officially support anything but XP, and the IT folks would scream if they saw anything but an XP machine on their network (why they'd allow the least secure OS in the world online, but not one of the most secure OSes is a testament to how intelligent they are).
In any case, I can discretely hide my Mini. It's hard to hide an iMac. On top of that, I do have my XP machine that I use on occasion, and I can't use my KVM with an iMac to see its display. I could VNC or RDC in to it and view it in a window on the Mac, but that's a little less convenient.
User-replaceable hard drive, RAM and Graphics Card. Add $100. to the price to compensate. End of story.
Hmmm. Add $100 to the price for a feature that would interest fewer than 1% of buyers. Apple are not so stupid. End of story.
I still hold that the next mac mini will have an Allendale and possibly a 3.5" HD, but only if 3.5" disks are cheaper than 2.5" HDs. I also expect it to use the cheapest form factor of RAM, possibly with a gig soldered to the mobo to offset the fact that the form-factor might be larger that what is currently used.
Cheap, cheap, cheap. That's the goal. $499 or less. Ideally, $449, which I think is doable. When you look at this page, I find it hard to justify NOT getting the GPU, 20" screen, and all the extras (keyboard, mouse, webcam, etc) for $400 more. In a world of cheap PCs, the mini needs to be cheaper if it's to continue its purpose as a product targeted to first-time mac buyers. Otherwise, in all but a few niches, the iMac will be the realistic entry point into the mac line.
The general sentiment of your post is correct. The Mac Nano needs a price point of $499 or less. However, there is zero chance that Apple will put a 3.5" disk in it because of the added cost of the cooling requirements and the increased size.
http://www.computerworld.com/action/...intsrc=hm_list
Never mind. I guess it's the speed factor.
I don't understand why a 3.5 is preferable to a 2.5 drive. Is it because of its capacity? In that case, WD announced the Scorpio 2.5" SATA HDD with 320GB.
Capacity, cost, speed and selection. Oh, and reliability.
Hmmm. Add $100 to the price for a feature that would interest fewer than 1% of buyers. Apple are not so stupid. End of story.
How ignorantly dismissive.
Have you seen the number of threads here asking for a minitower? Hint: Most of those people aren't looking for PCI slots.
i just bought the mac mini and I really hope they dont update it in the couple months... ill cry lol
You bough it a the right wrong time, cause the damn thing needs a DVD slot, and soon.
You bough it a the right wrong time, cause the damn thing needs a DVD slot, and soon.
You bough it a the right wrong time, cause the damn thing needs a DVD slot, and soon.
Jeez come on, the guy bought a Mac Mini, they all have a slot loading DVD drive, put the beer down for a second will ya
... I'd buy one today if it had "n" networking and an HDMI output. In fact, I'd bet they could outsell the AppleTV with a Mini configured that way