View Full Version : Couple of questions about the new Mac Minis
I'm considering purchasing a mini this summer to replace my current desktop and I have a few questions about them.
1. Approximately how much faster will the 1.66Ghz dual core be compared to my current 2.8Ghz P4?
2. How hard is it to install RAM? i've heard the new Mini's are harder to take apart.
3. I've heard about a supposed price drop in Intel chips in June. Do you think Apple will lower the price or bump the specs of the mini?
4. Does anyone actually have a 5.1 setup hooked up to their mini and what external audio card did you use?
5. When is Leopard supposed to come out?
6. What are your thoughts on the mini?
Any help is appreciated. Thanks. :)
I'm considering purchasing a mini this summer to replace my current desktop and I have a few questions about them.
1. Approximately how much faster will the 1.66Ghz dual core be compared to my current 2.8Ghz P4?
Impossible to say. OS X and Windows differ so much in how they do things that you can't predict how much faster one will be than the other when you have two different CPUs. The best I can tell you is that it'll be very roughly equal from an objective standpoint, since both the 1.66 GHz Core Duo and the 2.8 GHz Pentium 4 are pretty fast processors. The P4 has a higher clock speed, but the Core Duo has two cores, more L2 cache, and it's a lot more efficient (more instructions per clock cycle).
2. How hard is it to install RAM? i've heard the new Mini's are harder to take apart.
There's an extra step to installing the RAM in the new Minis vs. the old ones, but the hardest step is still taking the case apart. After that, you just unscrew things to get at the RAM. I took apart my own Mac mini and installed RAM myself, and it was not really easy. On the other hand, Apple charges WAY too much for RAM. 512 MB is a good base amount, and it'll run OS X well enough, but moving to 1 GB or more is a good idea. You should be able to install your own RAM later for a small fee. The Apple Store from which I bought my own Mini offered to install third-party RAM for $30 (they install Apple RAM for free; I would hope so since they charge so much for it!).
3. I've heard about a supposed price drop in Intel chips in June. Do you think Apple will lower the price or bump the specs of the mini?
Possible, but there's no way to tell. Apple has done "mini-bumps" (no pun intended) in the past year for a few of their products, but it seems like they generally prefer to stick to a 6-9 month upgrade cycle and make each upgrade count for more, even if it takes longer. Who knows? Maybe now that they've switched to Intel, they'll be more willing (and able) to do frequent minor speed bumps and/or price changes. The difference was that back when they still used the G4, Motorola never really did anything at all with it, so Apple was rarely even able to do such bumps. Intel has their act together.
4. Does anyone actually have a 5.1 setup hooked up to their mini and what external audio card did you use?
Not applicable to me... I know of a single external USB audio output device called the M-audio Sonica Theater, but I don't even know if it's compatible with the Intel Macs.
5. When is Leopard supposed to come out?
Late this year or early next year. Roughly the same time as Windows Vista. We'll have a better idea at WWDC (which is in August this year, I think).
6. What are your thoughts on the mini?
Mine's been great. Even though it was the lowest end machine available a year ago, it's still a wonderful computer. It never gets too bogged down by anything I do and it's been extremely reliable. There are a few things I'd change, but many of those have already been addressed by the Intel version. I want more USB ports (the Intel one has four but mine only has two). I also wish the RAM was easier to upgrade, and the internal hard drive is rather small and slow (but that's simply a technical limitation; there's no way they'd be able to fit a 3.5" desktop hard drive in there). The biggest disappointment is graphics, though you can't expect much from such a cheap machine. Mine only has 32 MB of VRAM, but at least it has a dedicated video card. The Intel ones don't even have that, and that's my biggest criticism. Oh, also they don't include a DVD burner which really should be standard on every Mac these days (DVD burners are incredibly cheap and cost only a few bucks more than Combo drives, though these prices are both increased for the slim slot-loading drives used by the Mini).
Any help is appreciated. Thanks. :)
Sure. Welcome to AN. :)
Impossible to say. OS X and Windows differ so much in how they do things that you can't predict how much faster one will be than the other when you have two different CPUs. The best I can tell you is that it'll be very roughly equal from an objective standpoint, since both the 1.66 GHz Core Duo and the 2.8 GHz Pentium 4 are pretty fast processors. The P4 has a higher clock speed, but the Core Duo has two cores, more L2 cache, and it's a lot more efficient (more instructions per clock cycle).
Well it must be faster than my G4 1.33Ghz iBook and running OSx on that is pretty darn snappy.
The biggest disappointment is graphics, though you can't expect much from such a cheap machine. Mine only has 32 MB of VRAM, but at least it has a dedicated video card. The Intel ones don't even have that, and that's my biggest criticism. Oh, also they don't include a DVD burner which really should be standard on every Mac these days (DVD burners are incredibly cheap and cost only a few bucks more than Combo drives, though these prices are both increased for the slim slot-loading drives used by the Mini).
The graphics does bother me but it does have at least 64MB of memory (shared though) I don't really play games anymore so its not that big of a deal. And also the new Mini's do actually come with a DVD burner.
I'll spare the grammar jokes and fix the thread title now. :)
I'll spare the grammar jokes and fix the thread title now. :)
:lol:
The graphics does bother me but it does have at least 64MB of memory (shared though) I don't really play games anymore so its not that big of a deal. And also the new Mini's do actually come with a DVD burner.
Yeah, gaming on a Mac is kind of a silly proposition anyway, so the shared graphics aren't as big a deal. I still think it's crap that they use system RAM for video, but if you have enough RAM it shouldn't be a problem.
The DVD burner is a $50 option in the $599 model. It is indeed standard in the Core Duo model, the one you're considering. I'd hope that with the price hike and the graphics dump they'd be able to include a DVD burner as standard equipment, but I guess they had to take quite a few cost-cutting measures there.
Oh, and don't go overboard on accessories. Apple makes a huge profit on add-ons and accessories. Upgrading your hard drive and RAM is a good way to turn a reasonable $799 computer into a very overpriced $1100 or $1300 one (at which point you may as well get an iMac instead and get a nice display thrown in for free). The hard drive and RAM are both adequate and cost too much to upgrade directly from Apple.
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