Apple releases $499 Mac mini **EDIT** Now reviewed by Anand. **EDIT again** BTO Price drops

Page 3 - Seeking answers? Join the AnandTech community: where nearly half-a-million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.
Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Eug

Eug

Lifer
Mar 11, 2000
24,176
1,816
126
Originally posted by: mikecel79
Many KVMs support USB now. Just noticed it has no keyboard and mouse in that price. That's ok because I don't care for the Apple keyboard and mice anyways.
Click to expand...
Not all keyboards work well with Macs. Most mice do though.

The problem with the keyboards is some of the older non-USB ones do funky things when use on a Mac with a PS2 -> USB adapter. Plus the Alt and Windows/Apple key is reversed on Mac keyboards.

OTOH, my Microsoft USB wireless keyboard and mouse work great on Macs, and come with excellent OS X drivers too. It even reverses those keys if you want, and maps iTunes to the music button, etc.

Originally posted by: mooojojojo
I thought they were going to launch Tiger too? Guess not.
Click to expand...
Nope. Tiger is still kind of pre-beta from what I hear.

A question though - a 12" iBook - will it run faster with Panther or Tiger? Does Tiger feature some optimizations which will make it quicker? I remember reading in a review (perhaps it was even Anand's review) which mentioned that new OSX builds get faster and faster on the same hardware. How true is that and does it apply to the current 12" iBook? Wondering whether I should wait for when Tiger ships or get one now with Panther. Thanks!
Click to expand...
Tiger should be slightly faster on current Macs with less than a GeForceFX 5200.

Macs with a GeForceFX 5200 or Radeon 9600 or better should be significantly faster with Tiger, since Tiger uses the GPU a lot more to speed up the GUI than Panther does. However, it won't matter with the Mac mini or the iBook, since they have a Radeon 9200. The Radeon 9200 is not compatible with the extra hardware GPU acceleration in Tiger. You need a "DX9-class" GPU for that extra speed boost, similar to the GPU acceleration in Longhorn.

 
S

Supa

Member
Jun 26, 2003
177
0
0

Apple done it again! They have the best product designing team. Sorry Sony.


---
 
T

trikster2

Banned
Oct 28, 2000
1,907
0
0
> Yeah you can get a PC for cheaper

I wonder.

Can someone post a link to a PC that is an equivalent size that is cheaper?

Last I looked the Mini-ITX stuff was pretty pricey.

I've been agonizing over a laptop for grad work. Truth is I don't really need to work on planes and stuff but I do need to work in two different locations. Hmm. I could throw this in my backpack and hook up to monitor/keyboard at each place. Wonder how sturdy this thing is for lugging around in a backpack.....

Finally the main question:

Can this thing handle WoW?
 
N

Neptune3000

Senior member
Sep 15, 2004
278
0
0
oh wow too bad i hate MACs :|


Reasons: Unnatural interface, lack of software support?, first computer was a mac w/ 8mb of ram 1gb HD and slow CPU in an age where 500mhz PIIIs were the rage :|


It looks cool and all, but heh...I dont like Macs..
 
Eug

Eug

Lifer
Mar 11, 2000
24,176
1,816
126
Originally posted by: trikster2
> Yeah you can get a PC for cheaper

I wonder.

Can someone post a link to a PC that is an equivalent size that is cheaper?

Last I looked the Mini-ITX stuff was pretty pricey.

I've been agonizing over a laptop for grad work. Truth is I don't really need to work on planes and stuff but I do need to work in two different locations. Hmm. I could throw this in my backpack and hook up to monitor/keyboard at each place. Wonder how sturdy this thing is for lugging around in a backpack.....

Finally the main question:

Can this thing handle WoW?
Click to expand...
Well, probably, but, but I wouldn't buy a low end Mac if you were interested in gaming.

If you really want to carry the thing around, have a look at the iBook or some other laptop. Remember, the Mac mini has a fairly large power brick, and no monitor, keyboard, or mouse of course.
 
T

trikster2

Banned
Oct 28, 2000
1,907
0
0

"has a fairly large power brick"

Ouch. There goes that plan.

And another thing:

You have to wonder why Apple did not put an iPOD dock in the thing. Also if they made a simple mythTV style interface for ripping/playing they could do a good job of pushing the iPod into the masses that still can't figure out how to use a puter.....

 
Eug

Eug

Lifer
Mar 11, 2000
24,176
1,816
126
Originally posted by: trikster2
You have to wonder why Apple did not put an iPOD dock in the thing. Also if they made a simple mythTV style interface for ripping/playing they could do a good job of pushing the iPod into the masses that still can't figure out how to use a puter.....
Click to expand...
Probably because:

1) Cost
2) Size
3) There are a bazillion different iPod form factors now.
4) They make money off docks.
 
S

sparks

Senior member
Sep 18, 2000
535
0
0
no...a mini-itx motherboard is 6.75X6.75, the mac mini case is 6.5X6.5, mac mini wins.
 
D

Dug

Diamond Member
Jun 6, 2000
3,469
6
81
Originally posted by: slash196
Wow, you pay 500 bucks for something with the same computing power as the average toaster.
Click to expand...

And an OS and complete software suite that costs hundreds of dollars that can run just fine on said computing power.
 
M

miniMUNCH

Diamond Member
Nov 16, 2000
4,159
0
0
I use both OS X and XP. I think the OS X interface is much more natural and productive. Software support is definitely a problem for certain areas: engineering/CAD being the big one IMO...but I'm an engineer. For straight AutoCAD like work vectorworks is a near perfect replacement. There is no real equivalent for ProE, CADDS, etc. which is too bad.

This Mac mini would be sweet for non-technical enterprise deployments.

Edit: Also, as said earlier...don't plan on gaming on this thing. Mac versions run worse than their PC conterparts because the games are ported to Mac with a minimum of cost so performance degrades.

 
H

halfadder

Golden Member
Dec 5, 2004
1,190
0
0
I just ordered one. $479 for students and free shipping at the Apple store. I would have ordered 3 if the specs would have been more beefy. I'm going to play wiith it for awhile and then use it to replace my grandfather's virus and spyware ridden Pentium 2 machine. He currently surfs the web, does email, and writes letters with his PC. Maybe I can get him to buy a digital camera and start using iPhoto when I hook him up with the Mac Mini. If I like what I see, I'll order another one for my dad and maybe one for my aunt. The price to performance ratio is just as good as a Mini-ITX PC with a Via C3 processor... if not better.

Of course I wish it would have shipped with a Radeon 9600, but I'm ok with the 9200. True, a GeForce FX 5200 would have meant Core Image support... but no current apps support that. And if you look at some of the Mac game benchmarks, the 9200 often does better than the 5200. So I'm guessing that it'll be just as good for Quartz Extreme, Mac OS X's hardware accelerated GUI... which does already make use of the 9200.

This is a great little machine for all of my older relatives... heck, I might buy another for myself as a second....er... eighth computer! It's not much larger than my wireless router, might make for a nice little server too. Anyway, I still prefer a destkop PC for games and an Apple PowerBook for travel and to dabble with Mac OS X.

I'm a happy camper! Thanks Apple!

(But what's up with the overpriced flash-based iPod Shuffle???)
 
A

akwong

Junior Member
Jan 11, 2005
3
0
0
Neptune3000:

Don't be so quick to write off Macs based on your experience from long long ago. Check one of the new systems out at a retail store that has some knowledgable Mac people (in other words, not CompUSA).
 
H

halfadder

Golden Member
Dec 5, 2004
1,190
0
0
Originally posted by: miniMUNCH
I use both OS X and XP. I think the OS X interface is much more natural and productive. Software support is definitely a problem for certain areas: engineering/CAD being the big one IMO...but I'm an engineer. For straight AutoCAD like work vectorworks is a near perfect replacement. There is no real equivalent for ProE, CADDS, etc. which is too bad.
Click to expand...
Right on. But for the hobbyist there are some OK Mac options:
Like you said, VectorWorks is a great app. As is FormZ

A really fun 3D CAD app is Sketchup!!

I've also heard about Piranesi, but I don't know much about it.

There's also Mac Draft and Cadintosh (These two are pretty basic... but good enough for designing a lawn shed or a soapbox derby car)

(Yes, I copied and pasted this).
 
H

halfadder

Golden Member
Dec 5, 2004
1,190
0
0
As far as games, as others have pointed out, you probably don't want to try playing the latest Mac ports of the hot PC games (UT2004, Halo, WoW, etc). They will work, and are even quite playable with the latest updates, but with a midrange G4 and a Radeon 9200 you're just not going to see gamer performance on these quick and dirty ports.

BUT... for Grandpa, Dad, or your little nephew, there are many fun games native to Mac OS X. They're not for hard core gamers and the graphics aren't the best... but they're cheap, run awesome on this kind of hardware, and they're just as fun as ever.
Pangea's games are very fun:
http://www.pangeasoft.net/index2.html

Freeverse has a wide range of Mac games:
http://www.freeverse.com/mac/

Ambrosia has been doing this since about 1995:
http://www.ambrosiasw.com/games/all.html

If you want games and updates galore:
http://www.macgamefiles.com/

If you read some of the Mac forums, you'll see that there are many Mac users playing Halo, UT2004, and WoW on their 1.2 GHz iBooks. The new Mac Mini has about the same CPU, but the FSB is slightly faster and the GPU is the full desktop version, not the mobile version... so performance will be a bit better than that of the latest iBooks. But that's not saying much. Have fun with all of the iLife apps (iMovie, iDVD, iPhoto, GarageBand) but keep your PC for games!!!
 
T

trikster2

Banned
Oct 28, 2000
1,907
0
0
Originally posted by: bpt8056
Originally posted by: timswim78
I am looking forward to seeing Windows knock-offs of this. It would be sweet to have Windows machine of that size.
Click to expand...

Link
Click to expand...

Close but that's a tank compared to the Mac Mini!

Width 7.9"
Height 3.9"
Depth 9"


Can't find a price on the MX2 on the web, anyone have an idea as to what that tank costs?

Thanks!

 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom