GeForce 9-Series motherboards maybe coming to the Mini

I think that at this point, the Mac mini has moved up into the ranks of the TRS-80 and the Apple IIe as one of my favorite computers of all time. Though it's been rumored dead more times than disco, it's still puttering along as the tiny little computer that could, racking up (we assume -- the mini doesn't carry with it any of the sparkle of the iPhone or the raw beauty of the MacBooks, and so Apple is relatively mum on info) enough sales to keep moving. And there might even be new life in store: Peter Cohen over at MacWorld suggests that after the recent MB and MBP updates, the mini is last in line to ditch the old Intel integrated motherboard design.

Sounds great to us. The mini's so under the radar that you wouldn't even expect Apple to announce an upgrade for it -- it just sort of slipped up to Core Duo 2 the last time it got upgraded, like a cute little baby bear following the family. And it's a versitile little cubby, too, from taking it out to sea to turning it into a Mac Pro mini.

What a great little computer. We hope that the Nvidia GeForce 9-series motherboards do find a home in there, and (more than anything else) that Apple sees fit to remember their roots and keep creative computing with the tinest Mac alive.

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Source: http://www.macworld.com/article/136288/2008/10/nvidia_macmin…

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Analysis / Opinion Hardware Rumors Apple Mac mini

I think that at this point, the Mac mini has moved up into the ranks of the TRS-80 and the Apple IIe as one of my favorite computers of all...

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Kitty

That's a start, now will we see geforce 9 series drivers?

November 04 2008 at 2:23 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

PhilipM

Too many factors are lining up against the mini's continued existence in its current form: change in basic chipset in the rest of the Mac line, new display connector standard, big price-performance gap between the mini and the rest of the range.

Allowing that, it would be crazy if Apple discontinued it. I've been trying to get one on ebay as digital video recorder to go with my EyeTV DTT stick, and prices on ebay (in Australia) are crazy, not much below retail.

October 29 2008 at 3:08 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Catt

Long live the mini! I baypassed the new Macbook offerings to upgrade my little PPC version... Come on Apple Momma needs a new Mini like yesterday!

October 28 2008 at 8:12 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

netnomad

I was all excited about this.

Then I realized Mike wrote it.

Which completely removes all credibility.

/sigh.

October 28 2008 at 11:57 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Jamus

I am glad to see the mini stick around, but one of Steve's quotes from the recent earnings call worries me a bit. It went something like 'we don't know how to build a $500 computer that isn't crap'. Knowing that Steve could never let it past his ego to sell something seen as "crap", I think this signals a price increase for the mini.

October 28 2008 at 10:39 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Jash Sayani

I love the Mac mini. Its the best Mac.!!

Just got one a few months back.....

October 28 2008 at 6:34 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Cory Schulz

If they update the graphics chip in the mini, I think the only thing that would possibly keep me from wanting it would be the lack of hard drive options. I believe it uses the smaller laptop hard drives, but I would very much prefer a standard 3.5" drive for speed and upgradability. Of course, this is not what Apple is going for, and if anything they'll probably drop more features and make it even smaller.

October 28 2008 at 12:43 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Bit

At TechEBlog they have a nice mock-up of what me lie ahead for the Mini...

http://www.techeblog.com/index.php/tech-gadget/new-mac-mini

October 27 2008 at 11:42 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to Bit's comment

mabhatter

They're on the right track. The mini would basically be a Macbook in a slim case without battery, keyboard, or display. The dimensions of a Macbook logic board are about the same as a DVD case, a little more if they added the DVD and HDD. The power supply will be external, it's included in the monitor now so they'll use that. It could be as thin as the bottom half of a macbook.. that's really thin. I do hope they'd pull in the dual displays even over firewire. I think they're right about merging with Apple TV too.. those use the Geforce 7400 chips so should be drop-in compatible with these new boards. Perhaps T or E series notebook chips (2 cores, 2 GHz and 1MB cache) for MIni and Atom (dual core) for Apple TV in the same chassis.

October 28 2008 at 12:46 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Bruce Hoult

I don't think people realize how many Minis are out there. I picked up an old 1.25 GHz G4 one for my home internet server to replace a big hot noisy Athlon XP 3200+ with linux that was total overkill.

At work we develop software for mobile phones. A lot of the tools run on Windows only, but when the iPhone came out it was Mac Mini's all around. No problem to find room on a desk for one.

A museum here has been building a wall of video displays for a new exhibit. They thought about Mac Pros stuffed with video cards, but in the end went with a stack of Mac Minis as being cheaper, more compact, and more CPU power in total.

October 27 2008 at 10:41 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

j2mac

"As long as they don't take away firewire!"

Thirding or fourthing that emotion. The mini is an awesome server, with OS X either client or server, and no firewire would make it a lesser option. Even if you can take it to 4GB RAM, USB pulls too much processor and can affect server performance, which is no go, especially in a business environment.

Why do I now hope Apple doesn't read comments like ours -- as if they aren't thinking "Hmmm, we make so much more money on Xserve..." I really don't want to believe they pulled FW from MBs to make more people buy MBPs.

October 27 2008 at 9:50 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply