Give me the new enclosure, 2Gb RAM, NVIDIA chipset, displayport, and a trackpad on top like the ones on the new Macbooks all for $499 and I'll buy one immediately. Even though I wasn't planning to.
Yeah... that bundle would make a mini an impulse buy. Do hope they push the price below $500 again!
How about bringing together the Mini, AppleTV, TimeCapsule and AirportExtreme into a single footprint design and all running OSX? Then make them configurable by adding layers.
Basic unit is an Airport Extreme.
Add a HDD layer and it's a TimeCapsule.
Or add an NVIDIA layer and it's an AppleTV.
Or two HDD layers and it's a mini server.
Or an optical drive.
Add an HDD plus NVIDIA and it's a media server.
It's the tower that many have asked for.
Gives lots of configurations based around a common set of hardware components and opens up the format for users to invent their own ideas based around a common OS. Really cool second-hand 'layer' market. Easy upgrades of any layer. Snaps together like Lego - it just works.
Would be great...but how much are you willing to pay for all of that? Certainly not $599 or $799....
Quote:
Originally Posted by Maggot777
What about new Mac Pros???!!!! Why are the pro consumers being ignored so?? I need a new machine but not until it gets a rev!
Unless there is a reason to show it at a keynote (like a total redesign)...the MacPro could easily be updated behind the scenes or say this coming Monday (before the keynote)
I did a quick Google search and didn't find a clear answer, but can you daisy-chain eSATA drives? If not, I view it as very limited. Short of getting a single-box RAID solution (which some of us might have a use for), I don't believe there are any hard drives capable of making use of all that extra bandwidth. I'm not even sure if today's hard drives are capable of saturating a FW800 connection (??). And I'm even less sure about this, but isn't SATA strictly a hard drive port whereas FW is used for many different types of peripherals?
Is the percentage of the mini's target audience who would set up a RAID sufficient to include eSATA?
If you don't have plans to move to SSD in the next couple of years you're just throwing performance out the window as far as storage is concerned.
Silver and black will certainly look good along with other stereo components. I'm waiting to see if FW and the mini have a future together. I'm not holding my breath.
I will be glad to see Mini-DisplayPort
4GB of RAM is fantastic. I'll gladly re-purpose my Core Duo 1.66 and enjoy the faster CPU, GPU and more RAM.
If you don't have plans to move to SSD in the next couple of years you're just throwing performance out the window as far as storage is concerned.
Silver and black will certainly look good along with other stereo components. I'm waiting to see if FW and the mini have a future together. I'm not holding my breath.
I will be glad to see Mini-DisplayPort
4GB of RAM is fantastic. I'll gladly re-purpose my Core Duo 1.66 and enjoy the faster CPU, GPU and more RAM.
If Apple can do all of this with the MacMini it will make it a nice little computer. Especially with the new NVIDIA GPU.
As much as I think it makes sense to go with a 3.5" HDD and the slightly larger aTV / TimeCapsule footprint, the option of configuring for two HDDs suggests that they are going to stay with laptop 2.5" drives.
Really I'd like to know how you arrived at that conclusion? A 3.5" drive can easily fit in a slot for a optical drive. That is an indicator of nothing in my mind.
I'd actually like to see them move to 3.5" drives myself but have no evidence one way or the other.
The only thing that the new case hints at right now is that well it is new. Now what I really want to see in a new case isn't so much aluminum but servicesbilty. A Mini designed for easy service would be the best possible update.
As it is I'm not sure I need YAC ( yet another computer ). Unless that YAC is a tablet Touch2/Newton2 for those that need another computer this sounds like it will be a very nice machine. I do hope that the majority of the rumors are true, it will be nice work on Apples part.
I think it will be there in FW800 form with an outside chance of FW3200. With the laptop I could see the rational for the drop. On the Mini it is a different story and the breadth of the user base would still require it. Also a desk top can easily handle the power budget.
I thought i had read an article a little while back that the mini display port would keep you from displaying iTunes content on your TV. If this is the case that would be a major drawback from the new mini.
I thought i had read an article a little while back that the mini display port would keep you from displaying iTunes content on your TV. If this is the case that would be a major drawback from the new mini.
I think the issue was using it to watch some iTunes content on a standard (ie, non-miniDisplayPort) monitor because it doesn't support the DRM. As of yet, I think there aren't any miniDisplayPort-to-HDMI cables, and mDP-to-DVI-to-HDMI may also block the DRM for a TV to work.
Theoretically, once you have a mDP-to-HDMI cable and connect it to a HDCP-compliant TV (pretty much all HDTV, I suspect), the mini/MB/MBP should be able to handshake with the TV and allow the video to display. I'm assuming the creators of the DisplayPort spec weren't stupid enough to create a DRM scheme that was incompatible with HDCP!
That said, until Apple or some other definitive source says it will work, I'm with you! I'm hoping it will work and that it will bring HD movie rental to the Mac (not just the AppleTV).
Really I'd like to know how you arrived at that conclusion? A 3.5" drive can easily fit in a slot for a optical drive. That is an indicator of nothing in my mind.
I'd actually like to see them move to 3.5" drives myself but have no evidence one way or the other.
The only thing that the new case hints at right now is that well it is new. Now what I really want to see in a new case isn't so much aluminum but servicesbilty. A Mini designed for easy service would be the best possible update.
As it is I'm not sure I need YAC ( yet another computer ). Unless that YAC is a tablet Touch2/Newton2 for those that need another computer this sounds like it will be a very nice machine. I do hope that the majority of the rumors are true, it will be nice work on Apples part.
Dave
A 3.5" HD measures 5.75" L by 4" W by 1" H
A 2.5" HD measures 4" L by 2.75" W by 0.375" H
Therefore, ~ six 2.5" HD occupy the same volume (and surprisingly weight) of one 3.5" drive. The 2.5" and 3.5" form factors refer to the platter dimension. The fastest part of the HD is adjacent to the spindle, thus a 5,400 RPM 2.5" drive will have better performance then a 7,200 RPM 3.5" drive over the last outer fractional inch difference between these two drives (theoretically speaking based on geometry alone)).
A CD/DVD is ~ 4.75" in diameter
A Half height DVD burner is 0.5" H
So no, a 3.5" HD will not ever fit into the Mac mini, since the Mac mini doesn't include a full height CD/DVD drive.
SSD and 2.5" HD's will eventually replace 3.5" HD IMHO, it may take several years though.
As to the Mac mini, I can wish for eSATA (with PM) and HDMI, but I doubt either of these will happen. I'd actually rather see Socket P then Socket LGA 775, but if the LGA 775 are quad-core and first out of the gate and you can get the Mac Mini configured with one of these, then give me that instead.
And as long as there is a cheap adapter for Apple's proprietary display connection so that I can drive an HDMI or DVI LCD I'll be in seventh heaven, as I'll never waste my good money on Apple's high margin displays, TYVM.
I'd gladly take two 2.5" 500 GB HD's though, 7,200 RPM, with Apple's built in RAID 0/1 though. Or one 2.5" 500 GB 7,200 RPM drive with a 2.5" Intel SSD as the boot drive.
Meh, to Firewire though, just give me plenty of USB 2.0 ports so that I can use one of then for an external DVD burner. Although a Firewire 400 port would not get me upset in the least.
I'm going to wager that this will be one of the best MacWorld Keynotes to date. Apple will go out with a bang!
Bad bet. The Apple of the last decade has shown no propensity for nostalgia. Did you miss the way they've unceremoniously shuffled off old relationships (clone makers, Motorola) and industry shows in the past? Did you not notice how quickly Steve Jobs cleaned house of Apple artifacts when he returned? Ever wonder why they were so eager to jettison those Classic-era ways of doing things ("Oh noooooes! Where's the smiley face at boot up?!") Ever notice how they don't seem to give a rip about anniversaries that everyone else thinks important?
I think the next MacWorld keynote will be yet another MacWorld keynote. No better, no worse. Just what it is--as well as being the last one.
So no, a 3.5" HD will not ever fit into the Mac mini, since the Mac mini doesn't include a full height CD/DVD drive.
SSD and 2.5" HD's will eventually replace 3.5" HD IMHO, it may take several years though.
As to the Mac mini, I can wish for eSATA (with PM) and HDMI, but I doubt either of these will happen. I'd actually rather see Socket P then Socket LGA 775, but if the LGA 775 are quad-core and first out of the gate and you can get the Mac Mini configured with one of these, then give me that instead.
And as long as there is a cheap adapter for Apple's proprietary display connection so that I can drive an HDMI or DVI LCD I'll be in seventh heaven, as I'll never waste my good money on Apple's high margin displays, TYVM.
I'd gladly take two 2.5" 500 GB HD's though, 7,200 RPM, with Apple's built in RAID 0/1 though. Or one 2.5" 500 GB 7,200 RPM drive with a 2.5" Intel SSD as the boot drive.
Meh, to Firewire though, just give me plenty of USB 2.0 ports so that I can use one of then for an external DVD burner. Although a Firewire 400 port would not get me upset in the least.
Agreed that you couldn't swap out the optical drive for a 3.5" hard drive because the optical drive is half-height. But you could fit a 3.5" drive in an enclosure with the same footprint as the current mini. In fact, several manufacturers sell external hard drives and enclosures for 3.5" drives which are designed to stack with the mini. You'd either have to drop the optical drive altogether or make the enclosure a little taller, but you could replace the current 2.5" drive with a 3.5" and keep it within the same footprint.
Either way, I'd need far more capacity than they'd ever get inside a mini, so what's internal isn't as important to me. But a bump in capacity and an option for a 7200 rpm drive is long overdue. The rest would be external, which is the reason I think Firewire is important. USB would perform poorly with multiple drives connected, and as far as I can tell, you can't daisy-chain eSATA drives (??).
I don't see a quad-core in the mini until it's been in the iMac for at least a year or so.
Comments
Give me the new enclosure, 2Gb RAM, NVIDIA chipset, displayport, and a trackpad on top like the ones on the new Macbooks all for $499 and I'll buy one immediately. Even though I wasn't planning to.
Yeah... that bundle would make a mini an impulse buy. Do hope they push the price below $500 again!
I'm going to wager that Apple won't announce anything at this expo. Perhaps some simple upgrades to existing lines if anything.
That's a losing bet for you, I'll bet against that one - $100
It's the tower that many have asked for.
Apple hasn't had an affordable (Sub $1600) tower in over 6 years.
Sure, I could get one used... but I'm talking NEW.
How about bringing together the Mini, AppleTV, TimeCapsule and AirportExtreme into a single footprint design and all running OSX? Then make them configurable by adding layers.
Basic unit is an Airport Extreme.
Add a HDD layer and it's a TimeCapsule.
Or add an NVIDIA layer and it's an AppleTV.
Or two HDD layers and it's a mini server.
Or an optical drive.
Add an HDD plus NVIDIA and it's a media server.
It's the tower that many have asked for.
Gives lots of configurations based around a common set of hardware components and opens up the format for users to invent their own ideas based around a common OS. Really cool second-hand 'layer' market. Easy upgrades of any layer. Snaps together like Lego - it just works.
Would be great...but how much are you willing to pay for all of that? Certainly not $599 or $799....
What about new Mac Pros???!!!! Why are the pro consumers being ignored so?? I need a new machine but not until it gets a rev!
Unless there is a reason to show it at a keynote (like a total redesign)...the MacPro could easily be updated behind the scenes or say this coming Monday (before the keynote)
eSATA please.
I did a quick Google search and didn't find a clear answer, but can you daisy-chain eSATA drives? If not, I view it as very limited. Short of getting a single-box RAID solution (which some of us might have a use for), I don't believe there are any hard drives capable of making use of all that extra bandwidth. I'm not even sure if today's hard drives are capable of saturating a FW800 connection (??). And I'm even less sure about this, but isn't SATA strictly a hard drive port whereas FW is used for many different types of peripherals?
Is the percentage of the mini's target audience who would set up a RAID sufficient to include eSATA?
If you don't have plans to move to SSD in the next couple of years you're just throwing performance out the window as far as storage is concerned.
Silver and black will certainly look good along with other stereo components. I'm waiting to see if FW and the mini have a future together. I'm not holding my breath.
I will be glad to see Mini-DisplayPort
4GB of RAM is fantastic. I'll gladly re-purpose my Core Duo 1.66 and enjoy the faster CPU, GPU and more RAM.
Screw the 3.5 drive.
If you don't have plans to move to SSD in the next couple of years you're just throwing performance out the window as far as storage is concerned.
Silver and black will certainly look good along with other stereo components. I'm waiting to see if FW and the mini have a future together. I'm not holding my breath.
I will be glad to see Mini-DisplayPort
4GB of RAM is fantastic. I'll gladly re-purpose my Core Duo 1.66 and enjoy the faster CPU, GPU and more RAM.
If Apple can do all of this with the MacMini it will make it a nice little computer. Especially with the new NVIDIA GPU.
As much as I think it makes sense to go with a 3.5" HDD and the slightly larger aTV / TimeCapsule footprint, the option of configuring for two HDDs suggests that they are going to stay with laptop 2.5" drives.
Really I'd like to know how you arrived at that conclusion? A 3.5" drive can easily fit in a slot for a optical drive. That is an indicator of nothing in my mind.
I'd actually like to see them move to 3.5" drives myself but have no evidence one way or the other.
The only thing that the new case hints at right now is that well it is new. Now what I really want to see in a new case isn't so much aluminum but servicesbilty. A Mini designed for easy service would be the best possible update.
As it is I'm not sure I need YAC ( yet another computer ). Unless that YAC is a tablet Touch2/Newton2
Dave
Dave
Where's the link to the AI story that declared that the Mac Mini is absolutely dead?
I thought i had read an article a little while back that the mini display port would keep you from displaying iTunes content on your TV. If this is the case that would be a major drawback from the new mini.
I think the issue was using it to watch some iTunes content on a standard (ie, non-miniDisplayPort) monitor because it doesn't support the DRM. As of yet, I think there aren't any miniDisplayPort-to-HDMI cables, and mDP-to-DVI-to-HDMI may also block the DRM for a TV to work.
Theoretically, once you have a mDP-to-HDMI cable and connect it to a HDCP-compliant TV (pretty much all HDTV, I suspect), the mini/MB/MBP should be able to handshake with the TV and allow the video to display. I'm assuming the creators of the DisplayPort spec weren't stupid enough to create a DRM scheme that was incompatible with HDCP!
That said, until Apple or some other definitive source says it will work, I'm with you! I'm hoping it will work and that it will bring HD movie rental to the Mac (not just the AppleTV).
Where's the link to the AI story that declared that the Mac Mini is absolutely dead?
I know I'd happily dance on the grave of that stupid post again!
Would be great...but how much are you willing to pay for all of that? Certainly not $599 or $799....
Absolutely I'd be willing to pay $599 or $799, though I highly doubt it would/could be that low of a price.
Where's the link to the AI story that declared that the Mac Mini is absolutely dead?
Closing the book on Apple's Mac mini
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles..._mac_mini.html
Eating our words: Apple's Mac mini to rock on
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles...o_rock_on.html
Really I'd like to know how you arrived at that conclusion? A 3.5" drive can easily fit in a slot for a optical drive. That is an indicator of nothing in my mind.
I'd actually like to see them move to 3.5" drives myself but have no evidence one way or the other.
The only thing that the new case hints at right now is that well it is new. Now what I really want to see in a new case isn't so much aluminum but servicesbilty. A Mini designed for easy service would be the best possible update.
As it is I'm not sure I need YAC ( yet another computer ). Unless that YAC is a tablet Touch2/Newton2
Dave
A 3.5" HD measures 5.75" L by 4" W by 1" H
A 2.5" HD measures 4" L by 2.75" W by 0.375" H
Therefore, ~ six 2.5" HD occupy the same volume (and surprisingly weight) of one 3.5" drive. The 2.5" and 3.5" form factors refer to the platter dimension. The fastest part of the HD is adjacent to the spindle, thus a 5,400 RPM 2.5" drive will have better performance then a 7,200 RPM 3.5" drive over the last outer fractional inch difference between these two drives (theoretically speaking based on geometry alone)).
A CD/DVD is ~ 4.75" in diameter
A Half height DVD burner is 0.5" H
So no, a 3.5" HD will not ever fit into the Mac mini, since the Mac mini doesn't include a full height CD/DVD drive.
SSD and 2.5" HD's will eventually replace 3.5" HD IMHO, it may take several years though.
As to the Mac mini, I can wish for eSATA (with PM) and HDMI, but I doubt either of these will happen. I'd actually rather see Socket P then Socket LGA 775, but if the LGA 775 are quad-core and first out of the gate and you can get the Mac Mini configured with one of these, then give me that instead.
And as long as there is a cheap adapter for Apple's proprietary display connection so that I can drive an HDMI or DVI LCD I'll be in seventh heaven, as I'll never waste my good money on Apple's high margin displays, TYVM.
I'd gladly take two 2.5" 500 GB HD's though, 7,200 RPM, with Apple's built in RAID 0/1 though.
Meh, to Firewire though, just give me plenty of USB 2.0 ports so that I can use one of then for an external DVD burner. Although a Firewire 400 port would not get me upset in the least.
I'm going to wager that this will be one of the best MacWorld Keynotes to date. Apple will go out with a bang!
Bad bet. The Apple of the last decade has shown no propensity for nostalgia. Did you miss the way they've unceremoniously shuffled off old relationships (clone makers, Motorola) and industry shows in the past? Did you not notice how quickly Steve Jobs cleaned house of Apple artifacts when he returned? Ever wonder why they were so eager to jettison those Classic-era ways of doing things ("Oh noooooes! Where's the smiley face at boot up?!") Ever notice how they don't seem to give a rip about anniversaries that everyone else thinks important?
I think the next MacWorld keynote will be yet another MacWorld keynote. No better, no worse. Just what it is--as well as being the last one.
So no, a 3.5" HD will not ever fit into the Mac mini, since the Mac mini doesn't include a full height CD/DVD drive.
SSD and 2.5" HD's will eventually replace 3.5" HD IMHO, it may take several years though.
As to the Mac mini, I can wish for eSATA (with PM) and HDMI, but I doubt either of these will happen. I'd actually rather see Socket P then Socket LGA 775, but if the LGA 775 are quad-core and first out of the gate and you can get the Mac Mini configured with one of these, then give me that instead.
And as long as there is a cheap adapter for Apple's proprietary display connection so that I can drive an HDMI or DVI LCD I'll be in seventh heaven, as I'll never waste my good money on Apple's high margin displays, TYVM.
I'd gladly take two 2.5" 500 GB HD's though, 7,200 RPM, with Apple's built in RAID 0/1 though.
Meh, to Firewire though, just give me plenty of USB 2.0 ports so that I can use one of then for an external DVD burner. Although a Firewire 400 port would not get me upset in the least.
Agreed that you couldn't swap out the optical drive for a 3.5" hard drive because the optical drive is half-height. But you could fit a 3.5" drive in an enclosure with the same footprint as the current mini. In fact, several manufacturers sell external hard drives and enclosures for 3.5" drives which are designed to stack with the mini. You'd either have to drop the optical drive altogether or make the enclosure a little taller, but you could replace the current 2.5" drive with a 3.5" and keep it within the same footprint.
Either way, I'd need far more capacity than they'd ever get inside a mini, so what's internal isn't as important to me. But a bump in capacity and an option for a 7200 rpm drive is long overdue. The rest would be external, which is the reason I think Firewire is important. USB would perform poorly with multiple drives connected, and as far as I can tell, you can't daisy-chain eSATA drives (??).
I don't see a quad-core in the mini until it's been in the iMac for at least a year or so.