Apple's Mac mini - Tempting PC Users Everywhere
by Anand Lal Shimpi on January 25, 2005 7:39 AM EST- Posted in
- Mac
Sound Impressions
The Mac mini is basically the quietest desktop computer that you can get with a fan. Unless you put your ear next to the unit, you cannot hear it. There have been reports that the 1.42GHz models are louder, but we haven't been able to confirm first hand. From our experience, the 1.25GHz Mac mini is as close to silent as you can get with a hard drive and a fan. We'd love to post audio clips or SPL readings, but we don't have equipment that can register something that quiet.
The slot-loading Combo Drive (DVD-ROM/CD-RW) is definitely noisy though, especially when inserting a disc. Operational noise of the drive is the loudest consistent noise that the mini will emit, but even taking it into consideration, we were quite happy with the mini from a sound perspective. The $499 mini is quiet enough to be in the living room or bedroom, something that we haven't been able to say about too many manufacturer-built computers.
A Couple of Surprises: 5400RPM and DDR400
Although it uses desktop memory, the Mac mini uses a 2.5" notebook hard drive. The base $499 version comes with a 40GB drive and the $599 version comes with a 80GB drive. What is surprising, however, is that some units appear to come with Seagate's 5400RPM Momentus ST94011A drive, including the unit reviewed here today. The 5400RPM drive is fairly snappy for a 2.5" drive. It's still much, much slower than a 3.5" desktop drive, but it's a nice surprise to see a 5400RPM drive used in the mini. We have been getting reports of some units coming with 4200RPM drives, however. Right now, it seems to be a luck of the draw as to which drive you get.
The other surprise was that the memory installed in the mini was in fact CAS 3 DDR400 and not DDR333, as Apple's spec sheet suggests. Granted, anything above DDR333 does absolutely nothing for the mini as the G4 is FSB limited to the bandwidth of single channel DDR333 SDRAM.
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linuxOwnzIfUrLeet - Wednesday, January 26, 2005 - link
#104"
better in the long run when you consider the big picture of computing"
Buying and running a crap is better for computing?
Can you pass the pipe? That must be good $hite.
What has crapple given back to computing since they raped freebsd to magically come up with
os suX?
the mac cult act like they did something grand...
aPple and really any Evil corporation ( iBM, miCro$oft, sUn, etc ) are trying to bring a spoonfeed computing to you. Do as I say you will my slave. Do you want to hear music? Just buy
my black box and don't touch the music you already
paid for. It's not yours you're justing renting
it from me.
This new imini is probably apple's attempt to bring back a divx format.
TCP/IP is what you're running and that's open. We have the internet because TCP/IP is open.
What do we have with appletalk?
If you want to do what's best in the long run,
you need to buy open market x86 hardware and run open oses like freebsd or linux.
crap-ple : think stupid
Jorchi - Wednesday, January 26, 2005 - link
You says that photoshop is a lot, have you try graphic converter? Is a very nice application that can fit yours neededsbluebeetle - Wednesday, January 26, 2005 - link
msva$903 is Way too high, why the Airport card?-$79
sure $200 will buy you a good monitor, and i understand why the Apple needs 512 Ram.
But hey the PC only comes with 256 Ram no wait- less 32mb for it's videocard so you could argue the PC would be sluggish with only 256 too!!! especially as it's shared.
If we're gonna be fair
$499 mac mini
$180 15" monitor (BenQ)
$30 keyboard & mouse from Apple
Thats $709
maybe $750 tops if you don't want the mac mouse and factor delivery in.
Also remember the PC included $50 rebates, no CD-R, only 30 days warranty and FAR less software, no Firewire port etc
mino - Wednesday, January 26, 2005 - link
#110You are too good on DELL. You should have added components of DELL level(DELL has NO WiFi!):
Mini $499
512M RAM Upgrade $75
USB Keyboard + Mouse combo from WalMart or so $20
DELL class 15" LCD $170
that makes $765 for a complete DELL-like system
To put performance into perspective G4 1.25 will put Athlon 1.25 into dust (maybe even A64 1.25). G4 IS more powerfull designg than any X86 (probably except A64) CPU could offer. I will put also G5 into shame at the same clockspeed. The only but very big issue with G4 is that it doesn't scale high enough since Motorola gave up on its development long ago.
Thus 1.5 G4 should be approx. like P4 2.4C (except heavily optimized encoding apps).
mino - Wednesday, January 26, 2005 - link
#105 " Viruses have never been an issue for me, I haven't had an AV program installed since maybe Windows 95..."I'd bet my daily income, that if you would install a good AV SW, many ,even tens of, viruses would be found. And don't say no, because just 10 minutes ago my AV warned about virus that was inside javascript on the site of one PC chassis manufacturer - not a small one (I was looking for server case).
Sleep still;)
mino - Wednesday, January 26, 2005 - link
#96 Just to make things clear:1.) AVG is just a piece of crap(I have my reasons)
2.) AVG is NOT free. It costs around $50 per 2 years
from free avir F-Prot is OK, but from paid ones NOD32 has no competition (as far as avir part goes)
msva124 - Wednesday, January 26, 2005 - link
I forgot shipping for the mouse, keyboard and monitor. If you can find them all at the same place (I refuse to order lcd's from newegg because of their dead pixel policy) it would bring the total up by about $20, to $923.msva124 - Wednesday, January 26, 2005 - link
Mac Mini $499512 MB Ram upgrade $75
Airport Extreme upgrade $79
Keyboard that has apple keys and usb ports $30??
Logitech Wired USB Mouse $20
Decent 15" LCD Monitor $200
Total $903
With all of the above add-ons (which I would consider bare minimum to make this thing usable) it is still well below the $1000 mark.
bluebeetle - Wednesday, January 26, 2005 - link
Walt"Well, let's see...by the time you add for the keyboard, mouse, 15" lcd monitor and the 256-mbs of extra ram Anand states is needed to make the mini something useful, all of which is built in to the compared Wintel box...gosh, I guess we're talking at least $1,000"
What are you smoking walt?
A keyboard 15" LCD and KB&M for $500
try here:
www.newegg.com
they have LCDs for $175 keybord and mouse $20
mmm where did you get $1k from?
did you add the price of both together and chuck the Dell CPU?
Also factor in the software (ilfe & Applworks worth$150) and the fact the Dell only has a CD rom (how do you get your files off)? and only 90 day warranty
Still the mini is aimed at those PC users who already have monitors (KVM anyone)
No wonder Walt feels so threatened, the mini is the fastest selling PC ever!
epiv - Wednesday, January 26, 2005 - link