New mac mini, a joke?


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Who else thinks the new mac mini is an overpriced pile of garbage??? I mean, 4 USB ports and crappy unknown Intel integrated graphics???? What a joke this is....It has a very sorry 64 mb of VRAM and no mini-VGA port. I hope Apple loses money over this because they deserve it. I actually expected this new one to be cheaper than the G4 but no, they increased the price and decreased the quality! Oh and the stupid front row is very unstable. It is at times quite laggy and it is frustrating to navigate since it is so unresponsive!

No offence but if you buy one, you are a fool!

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Who else thinks the new mac mini is an overpriced pile of garbage??? I mean, 4 USB ports and crappy unknown Intel integrated graphics???? What a joke this is....It has a very sorry 64 mb of VRAM and no mini-VGA port. I hope Apple loses money over this because they deserve it. I actually expected this new one to be cheaper than the G4 but no, they increased the price and decreased the quality! Oh and the stupid front row is very unstable. It is at times quite laggy and it is frustrating to navigate since it is so unresponsive!

No offence but if you buy one, you are a fool!

Woah buddy. There is a simple solution to this. Don't buy one. Thats it! Problem solved. There are many uses for a Mac Mini. I personally set one up as a intranet server for a small business. Why? It's a small location, little space. It fits in a drawer, very small, decent speed, and work very well. It's not like this is a speed gaming/video editing machine. As for price. Lets see, Bluetooth 2.0, Airport Extreme, Front Row + remote, the new sharing software, OSX. Seems worth it to me. Ok, its a bit pricey, but still its worth it. The intel graphics in it is much improved. Faster then the 9200 for sure.

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Way too many of these threads. Request lock.

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Dude, it's Mac. Of course it costs more than it's worth. That's assumed. The people who buy Macs don't care.

Don't be stupid. Because of course all those millions of owners can blindly afford to just tear open their wallet and throw their credit cards at Steve Jobs. Sheesh.

The Mini was great value for money but I don't feel the relatively small performance hike and upgrade has made it worth the extra cost. I work in education here in the UK and the base spec mini is ?404 and the higher spec dual core around ?520... and thats a discounted rate! RRP for the base spec is ?449 and the highest spec is a jaw dropping ?599. Sorry Apple - I regularly champion you on here but for a machine that uses shared RAM for video memory, and uses laptop components (and offers laptop performance!) that is just disgraceful.

Considering I could spec up a fairly hefty Shuttle spec PC for LESS money makes me feel that Apple has somewhat lost its way on the Mini if i'm honest. I made my girlfriend up a Biostar IDEQ based box with a Sempron 3000+, 1GB Corsair RAM, and a 160GB SATA drive (and with a better graphics card) and it only came to ?350 for EVERYTHING.

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What people arnt being told is the original mac mini based on the ibm chip wasnt capable of runing the enhanced graphics capabilities of tiger even with its radeon 9200 graphics. The new integrated graphics might sound like crap, and being from intel their integrated graphics usually are

BUT

this intel based mac mini is capable of the enhanced graphics in tiger. Forget what the name of this graphics capability is its not quartz etreme its... arg i forgot... excuse me :p

edit: the name is Core Image

the intel GMA950 integrated video is capable of Core Image and Core Video the ati card was capable of neither. Still think the ibm mac mini was better?

Edited by divertom15
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a new processor (fast), digital out/in, 2 more USB, 2 DDR2 slots....

the Mini is not a PowerMac, its not ment to be the all in one Mac workstation, its a complementary computer, for the home theatre etc although i doubted it first, integrated gfx is great for what the Mini is intended to do, the mac is NOT a gaming platform, stay with a Windows box if that is the case.

in short, u like it, buy it, if not, dont. get over it

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I was really looking forward to the new MAc Mini, and was hoping it would be cheaper that then G4 version.

But Intel GMA graphics with shared memory, and GBP 450 it's an enormous rip off.

If you add extra ram and the keyboard and mouse bundle, plus dvd burner it's over 600 quid, and that's on core solo.

For this kind of money, you can build a high end PC with ****-hot graphics, TFT, keyboard and mouse.

If you really want a Mac the 17" iMac with 1.83GHz Core Duo is only GBP 929.00 and is much better value.

Apple are way off with this crap and only a complete mug would buy one.

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Bah, the only thing I lack on the new mini it's a DVR functionality. And of course the chance to hook it to a satellite reciver. That would have made me purchase one as soon as hits the stores here.

I think that overall is a big improvements since the G4, has more usb ports, a digital audio in/out, and support for core image. Doesn't even the intel powermacs released to developers had an integrated intel graphic card?!?

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The features of the new Mac Mini are great. I don't know why everyone is complaining about the video card, it's as much a gaming machine as its predecessor (ie, it's not one).

The only problem with it is the price.

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well, i think the new mini looks good love the high end version. yes it is expensive but its not a PC so I think I might just get my hands on one very soon. True the video card isnt much of an excitement but I guess its not much of a drawback....

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it's a low-end computer with a high-end price, if mac lovers want to spend their money on it, i don't care, but i'm not going to be that stupid

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The features of the new Mac Mini are great. I don't know why everyone is complaining about the video card, it's as much a gaming machine as its predecessor (ie, it's not one).

The only problem with it is the price.

^ Exactly, it is designed for HD video playback.

Though to the price issue, the higher end Education discounts (HE Staff etc) are really quite good and make it reasonable. I admit if I didn't have that I wouldn't have ordered one.

it's a low-end computer with a high-end price, if mac lovers want to spend their money on it, i don't care, but i'm not going to be that stupid

Though, just because you can afford something and to you it's worth it, doesn't make you stupid. Stop whining.

Plus when did ?500 become high end? It isn't. ?1500 to ?2000 is high end.

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How do you expect Apple to loose money over the new Mac mini? People are still going to buy it because it's a great little machine. Although I agree that it's price is quite expensive, compared to it's predecessor it's a much better deal - 802.11g and Bluetooth standard, 4 USB ports, dramatically improved graphics, much faster (maybe not 4x faster like Apple claim, but still much faster), Front Row and the Apple Remote, and the high-end model is dual-core. Not to mention, there is nothing like iLife '06 or OS X available for the PC - nothing. And as for DVR playback, that was a simple rumor - Apple never mentioned anything of the sort. The Mac mini is intended to be a budget Mac to entice PC users - making it a media center and giving it DVR features would defeat it's purpose.

It's more expensive because it offers you more. If you don't like it, don't buy it.

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...I mean, 4 USB ports and crappy unknown Intel integrated graphics???? What a joke this is....It has a very sorry 64 mb of VRAM and no mini-VGA port.

And this week's retard award goes to.......obsolete_power!!

Lets have a quick comparison of features between the last Mini graphics chipset, and the current one...

ATI Radeon 9200

VRAM: 32MB onboard.

Core Image? No.

HD output resolutions? No.

Mini-VGA? No.

Intel GMA950

VRAM? 64MB shared.

Core Image? Yes.

HD output resolutions? Yes.

Mini-VGA? No.

Summary

So there we have it, more memory (albeit shared), support for Core Image, and HD output. Funnily enough, like its predecessor, it doesn't have a mini-VGA port, or the other 45,678 features you were told it might have by various rumor sites!

Yes, the price was even a shock to me! I think I'll wait for the new PowerMacs as I planned to do originally, despite the huge power in the higher end mini. The SPDIF and 1000 ethernet are great features in my opinion, and nearly make up for the price hike.

Dougal - Fanboy hater since....ever!!

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ATI Radeon 9200

VRAM: 32MB onboard.

Core Image? No.

HD output resolutions? No.

Mini-VGA? No.

I'm confused by this - my Mac Mini can output HD resolution - I use it to drive my Dell 2405fpw @ 1920x1200. :huh:

In any case, this seems like a good value compared to what I first paid for my mini - $500 and I got no bluetooth, no wi-fi, no dvd burner, and 256mb RAM, not to mention the other upgrades like the optical audio and USB ports this new one has. The $800 one would personally provide me with a better value over the older model, even with the integrated graphics (which seems to be better than the old chipset) :D

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What people arnt being told is the original mac mini based on the ibm chip wasnt capable of runing the enhanced graphics capabilities of tiger even with its radeon 9200 graphics. The new integrated graphics might sound like crap, and being from intel their integrated graphics usually are

BUT

this intel based mac mini is capable of the enhanced graphics in tiger. Forget what the name of this graphics capability is its not quartz etreme its... arg i forgot... excuse me :p

edit: the name is Core Image

the intel GMA950 integrated video is capable of Core Image and Core Video the ati card was capable of neither. Still think the ibm mac mini was better?

Yeah, try using your hot GMA950 on a HDTV.... Lets talk about speed after that. MANY people where thinking of using the mini with their TV. I guess this is the end of it.

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