Other New Mac Mini!

It's not really the point - your PC is not made of aluminium and is smaller than a book. You pay for the aesthetics and quality of box as Gordy said.

 

Looks really nice, but couldn't they have found a way to stick a blu-ray drive in there? Might almost be worth the price then, for a proper HD entertainment system. Maybe that'll be coming in the future (sold separately, of course, for the magical price of only £299!)...

 

Nope. Not currently, anyway.

 

Looks very nice, but too expensive. No doubt itll sell like hot cakes though.

Does that mean the older models will drop in price a little? doubtful as the price is quite a bit higher than the last gen. id quite like an older C2D model.

 

Looks lovely but a little to expensive, couple this with a decent screen and you would be better off getting an imac. I wonder if the imac is due another update now.

 

Looks really nice and easy access ram is great but far too expensive. So glad it's slightly disappointing because I only got this mini a few months ago.

 

mmmmmmmmmwant.

can't really justify one right now though. perhaps when they move to new intel procs.

 

I'd be tempted to use a real MacOS. What I mean is all I got to try so far were Macs on my uni domain and those at BestBuy ... nothing really exciting there. I'd like to try a power user one so I could see how it feels like once it's been configured correctly.

Those that I tried so far were slow (domain), had nothing installed (in stores) and were just pissing me off overall... I mean, why the HELL can't I maximize a freaking window ????

I don't like having prejudices. I want to try, make my own opinion and then share it, hence why I want to try a good one. I'm not going to buy to try though ...screw that

 

You can maximise windows, just takes a bit of getting used to on how OSX does things.

The only part of OSX I do not like is the default mouse drive, cannot use it as the pointer doesnt respond correctly.

Logitech drivers soon sorted that.

 

the rear SD slot is a great example of apple's form-over-function design philosophy.

 

I disagree. The Mac Mini is so small that reaching around to plug in a SD card isn't exactly taxing. If it were a full tower case like the Mac Pro I would agree because usually it's on the floor or somewhere else not in arm's length. But Mac Mini's are generally very close to your person, so getting to the back of it is more akin to reaching to the back of a laptop.

 

It was probably put there due to space constraints.

 

For those of you that are interested in seeing what it looks like stripped down:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/06/17/mac_mini_tear_down/

 

Never been a Mac Mini fan. Always seemed like if you're getting a box, why not get a bigger box that has better specs, or just do away with the box and get an even sexier iMac? But I will nod my head at the feat of cramming everything into such a small space. It'd be pretty neat to see one without an optical drive too, but there'd never be enough of a market for it.

 

Have you not seen the Mac mini Server? It comes with two 500GB drives and OS X Server. It's rad.

 

I was considering it as well and after pricing even a decent bargain display, it's hard not to just look at the imac. Shame. I guess if you already have a great monitor, it would be the way to go.

 

I have seen it now! And it made me smile. I'd worry about mistaking it for a coaster and setting my drink on it

 

I'm far from a fan of Apple, but that thing (and the new Iphone as well) looks pretty good.

It does miss a bit on it's market, though. I believe the best use for one of these will be as a HTPC, but the lack of a blue-ray drive makes it a bit of a miss. And yeah, the SD reader should have been in the front.

As a desktop I can't see the advantage of this over a iMac. (Power users will probably go for a "full size" mac anyway.)


None the less, it looks pretty nice as a computer for surfing and the like.

 

Yeah, it's even more unobtrusive without the optical drive! The Mac mini Server configuration has been around since mid 09 I think, it's not new to this new design. Both are the same idea though. 2 x 2.5" drives stacked. They are useful bits of kit. Especially since OS X Server is quite expensive on it's own.

These new ones are pretty awesome to handle. It clearly is just one big machined block of aluminium. Love it.

 

I honestly don't see the issue with the SD card placement. I think if you see one you'll see what I mean, it's stupidly easy to get to and much less obtrusive round the back.

I agree with the HTPC comment. I know a lot of people who have been using them as such for quite a while now and it only helps it further with the HDMI port... But no BD support and a lack of HD movie content in the UK iTunes Store still puts me off getting one for such a use.