Apple's Mac mini receives long-awaited update with 4th-gen Intel CPUs, price cut to $499

AppleInsiderAppleInsider
Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited March 2015
Apple's tiny, affordable Mac mini desktop received a hardware refresh and an accompanying price cut on Thursday, featuring 4th-generation Intel Core processors and 802.11ac Wi-Fi, starting at $499.




The new Mac mini lineup features integrated Intel Iris and HD Graphics 5000. It also has PCIe-based flash storage for faster performance.

The hardware refresh adds two Thunderbolt 2 ports and 802.11ac Wi-Fi connectivity, but retains the title of world's most energy efficient desktop.




Though it had been priced at $599 for some time, the Mac mini saw a reduction on Thursday, with a new entry price at $499 for a 1.4 GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 with Turbo Boost speeds up to 2.7 GHz, 4GB of memory, Intel HD Graphics 5000 and a 500GB hard drive. Customers can configure their machine with a top-shelf 3.0 GHz dual-core Intel Core i7 processor, up to 16GB of memory, and up to a 1TB PCIe-based flash drive. The units are shipping to customers starting today.

Where to Buy

Thew new Mac mini is currently available for order from AppleStore.com and MacMall.com ($494, $694, $994), with MacMall adding the benefit of only collecting sales tax in a handful of states. Additional discount retailers are expected to begin adding the product to their online stores over the next few weeks, so shoppers can keep an eye on the Price Guides.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 169
    john.bjohn.b Posts: 2,742member
    Woohoo! New Haswell minis! Driving to the Apple store now!
  • Reply 2 of 169
    welshdogwelshdog Posts: 1,897member
    That is a pretty big price drop. Nice.
  • Reply 3 of 169
    thewhitefalconthewhitefalcon Posts: 4,453member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by John.B View Post



    Woohoo! New Haswell minis! Driving to the Apple store now!



    And the world smiles!

     

     

    Loving the new hardware AND price cut. Now it's as cheap as the G4 mini was!

  • Reply 4 of 169
    netroxnetrox Posts: 1,421member
    YES!!! YES!!! Better than I expected... cheaper and faster and it uses PCIe Flash!
  • Reply 5 of 169
    thewhitefalconthewhitefalcon Posts: 4,453member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by netrox View Post



    YES!!! YES!!! Better than I expected... cheaper and faster and it uses PCIe Flash!



    It's going to be a speed demon. Can't wait to see actual specs and then reviews.

  • Reply 6 of 169
    relicrelic Posts: 4,735member
    Well this will make Wizard happy, can you upgrade the memory yourself or is it soldered on like the MacBooks.
  • Reply 7 of 169
    robmrobm Posts: 1,068member
    Ahh, bugger. I had hoped for a new atv.
    But this is great upgrade to the mini - time for a new one. :-)
  • Reply 8 of 169
    pmzpmz Posts: 3,433member

    YAY!

    *Dances*

  • Reply 9 of 169
    lemon bon bon.lemon bon bon. Posts: 2,173member

    About time.

     

    The Wizard will have no excuse this time.

     

    As close to a 'mid range' 'mini-tower' as he's going to get.

     

    Decent price drop and spec boost.

     

    Wonder if it will drive a 4k display...

     

    Lemon Bon Bon.

  • Reply 10 of 169
    asdasdasdasd Posts: 5,686member
    They didn't spend a huge amount of time on it though. But nice to see it. ( To see it nice).
  • Reply 11 of 169
    suddenly newtonsuddenly newton Posts: 13,819member
    Nice. Thunderbolt 2 and Iris graphics make this a very capable desktop.
  • Reply 12 of 169
    thewhitefalconthewhitefalcon Posts: 4,453member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Relic View Post



    Well this will make Wizard happy, can you upgrade the memory yourself or is it soldered on like the MacBooks.



    It's soldered. Specs say LPDDR3, and "configurable to 8 or 16GB". Design no longer mentions removable cover.

  • Reply 13 of 169
    chadmaticchadmatic Posts: 285member
    So glad they didn't change the form factor!
  • Reply 14 of 169
    mcarlingmcarling Posts: 1,106member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Lemon Bon Bon. View Post

     

    Wonder if it will drive a 4k display...


    It will drive a 4K display at 24Hz.

  • Reply 15 of 169
    jungmarkjungmark Posts: 6,926member
    So the mini is refreshed now so on to complain about Apple TV not being updated.
  • Reply 16 of 169
    mfrydmfryd Posts: 216member

    The new mini is only available with a dual core processor.  My old mini is a quad core i7.   I suspect my old mini is faster than these new minis.

  • Reply 17 of 169
    canukstormcanukstorm Posts: 2,700member

    There's no quad-core CPU this time, only dual-core CPU.  But the GPU is much-improved.

  • Reply 18 of 169
    jj.yuanjj.yuan Posts: 213member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by TheWhiteFalcon View Post

     



    It's going to be a speed demon. Can't wait to see actual specs and then reviews.




    Beats all previous versions by a large margin!

  • Reply 19 of 169
    john.bjohn.b Posts: 2,742member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by John.B View Post



    Woohoo! New Haswell minis! Driving to the Apple store now!

     

    Bah!!!  "1-3 days" or "ship to store".   I thought these were available today?

  • Reply 20 of 169
    pazuzupazuzu Posts: 1,728member
    jungmark wrote: »
    So the mini is refreshed now so on to complain about Apple TV not being updated.

    Ridiculous.
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