Mac mini refresh, what's new?

I'm a big fan of the Mac mini: a surprisingly capable machine in an impossibly small size. There have only been a few major snags for me in the time I've owned Mac minis, and most of those were cleared up this morning. I know some will be disappointed to lose the FireWire 400 port, but I'm ecstatic about the FireWire 800 replacement. Second, I've always had to put a 4-port USB hub on my mini, and really only ever needed one more port ... I'm apparently not alone, as Apple added a fifth USB port as well.

The graphics boost will be a great upgrade for my media center. I'm still waiting for the Apple TV/Mac mini mashup to happen, but for now the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics card with Mini DisplayPort and Mini-DVI video out will do nicely. Have you been waiting to run 2 monitors on your Mac mini without expensive additional hardware? That Mini DisplayPort should open up new possibilities.

The memory in the new minis can be expanded up to 4GB, and the 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo is more than capable of handling any daily computing task. Sure, you might want to look at the new Mac Pros if you're doing some serious video editing or CPU-intensive work, but I've found the Mac mini makes a great machine for tethered photography, writing, office work, development, even running my home web server. The refreshed mini comes in two models, the major difference being RAM and hard drive space: 1GB of memory and 120GB HD will run you $599US, and for $799US you can double your RAM (2GB) and almost triple your drive space (320GB). With the FireWire 800 port, I'm more than happy running large external drives, and I'm not shy about putty knives, either.

It appears that the leaks/rumors we saw yesterday were spot-on. It's not an explosive update to these rugged little computers, but it covers a few bases I was hoping for and proves that, for now, the Mac mini is not dead (despite rumors from the not-too-distant past).

View Tags

Source: http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_mac/family/mac_mi…

Categories

Apple Mac mini

I'm a big fan of the Mac mini: a surprisingly capable machine in an impossibly small size. There have only been a few major snags for me...

Add a Comment

Sign in »

56 Comments

Filter by:

David Frantz

I wasn't at all pleased with what Apple did with the iMac but this Mini update is pretty close to exactly what I imagined they would do with it. A solid update if you ask me. The only qualifier to that is that the high end model should have a faster processor. 2.4 GHz should be doable and cheap on intels old laptop processors.

Dave

March 04 2009 at 7:32 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

YouFaceTheTick

When will this be available through Best Buy and Amazon? I do not want to buy through Apple. Best buy has 18 months same as cash and reward zone. Amazon I get no tax and about $50 back buying through my site and using an amazon visa.

Through Apple.com I get...taxed and nothing back.

March 03 2009 at 8:57 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

jtd

I'll be getting one of these with my refund check and Plexing it.

I can't wait. :D At $549 this is exactly what I want.

March 03 2009 at 7:45 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Tony

What media server/interface stuff are you guys running? Just starting to use Plex now...

March 03 2009 at 4:00 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

David R.

At last, we now return to the good ol' memories of Apple. A time when they were not expected to meet the deadlines of a trade show, or to even acknowledge the existence of the press. Cupertino is now, at last, returning to the days of surprise product announcements that far surpassed what even the fanboys could conjure up. Cheers to many great new products, and cheers to Apple. The only way this could be more perfect was if Mr. Jobs himself were at the helm of the company right now, rather than later. Huzzah!

March 03 2009 at 3:58 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

macboyinsf

I was about to get an AppleTV for my new home theater but now that they've updated the mini, I'm having second thoughts and maybe a mini is a better choice instead. My only concern is that I want to be able to purchase TV shows and rent movies from iTunes in HD which some genius at the Apple Store told me was only possible via the ATV. Is this correct?

March 03 2009 at 2:48 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to macboyinsf's comment

jbilgihan

Check the info in iTunes - if the movie is in your iTunes library you should be fine to watch it through iTunes (on your Mini).

James

March 03 2009 at 6:17 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

David Huff

Marcos @7 got it. If they cut the price by $100 (low end model) to $200 (high end), then you'd really have something. As it is... meh. Good, incremental upgrade, but nothing worth gettin' excited about.

Hey Apple. "Bargain" - yer not doin' it right.

March 03 2009 at 1:52 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to David Huff's comment

iBearTouch

I'd wait out, it will probably happen in time. Early adopters pay more for the novelty... I guess

March 03 2009 at 4:33 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

adr

I've been considering buying a mini to use as both my main computer and media hub with a new HD TV I plan to purchase. Will this new mini connect easily with a large screen TV to serve as the monitor?

March 03 2009 at 1:51 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

onedollarbill

LOL@All those calling FAKE and OMG Photoshop

March 03 2009 at 1:11 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Is the graphic chip memory tied to the RAM installed or is it always 128 on the cheap model and 256 on the higher end?
Thanks for your help

March 03 2009 at 1:09 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply