Mac mini Dissection 920
xbasque writes "Smash has a video showing the technique for cracking open a Mac mini safely. Upgrade the RAM and hard drive yourself and save a bundle (ain't that the point of the mini?)" And if you don't plan to take one apart yourself,
parvenu74 points out the pictures of exploratory Mac mini surgery on mini-itx.com, writing "From a post: 'The board itself is slightly smaller than Mini-ITX at about 160mm square by our estimations, and includes Ethernet, Modem, DVI/VGA, 2 x USB, Firewire and Audio connectors (sadly not optical).'"
Hosting a video? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Hosting a video? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Hosting a video? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Hosting a video? (Score:5, Informative)
This was not a dissection. (Score:4, Informative)
Re:This was not a dissection. (Score:5, Informative)
Can't Wait (Score:5, Funny)
Then put some wicked cool Red LED Lights in the front of the car, and whenever the car talks to me, the red lights act like a visualizer of sorts. Knight Rider here I come!
Re:Can't Wait (Score:5, Interesting)
Also, with the appropriate hacks (perhaps Salling Clicker [mac.com]), you could integrate your bluetooth phone into the mix. Open Address Book, search for a name and have the computer dial out over the phone with voice commands. Incoming calls could also automatically mute the volume on iTunes.
I dunno, that's just off the top of my head. You could also use your bluetooth phone to connect to the internet to look up directions on mapquest, but it'd probably be better to pull over for that.
One question. If the mini Mac goes into the car stereo space, does the printer go into the glove compartment or do you just mount it on top of the dash? =)
Re:Can't Wait (Score:4, Funny)
He's going after the soccer mom 30-somethings that used to have David Hasselhoff posters on their bedroom walls.
LK
That is cool (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:That is cool (Score:5, Funny)
So would a Cray. If you made a really big robot.
Re:That is cool (Score:3, Funny)
Re:That is cool (Score:3, Insightful)
I don't think hardware limitations are the reason we don't have super-intelligent robots running around. It's more of a software issue. Hey, if you can provide working AI robot software, I'll pony up for the hardware and we can split the profits 50-50. Deal?
Cheers,
IT
Audio in? (Score:5, Interesting)
Best PVR option at the moment is EyeTV (Score:5, Informative)
Then you just need to hook it into some kind of IR blaster...
Re:Need a Dual G% with thier software... (Score:3, Funny)
Frankly, after the sheer number of recitations this particular lesson got back in the roll-up to Panther in 2003, I'm kind of amazed that there's anybody left who doesn't understand this oh-so-simple concept. But apparently there's always another idiot out there, so here we go again.
The name of the software is
reality mimics art (Score:3, Funny)
I didn't know Cartman was a Mac-version naming snob!
He even posts on slashdot!
.
Romans (Score:3, Funny)
And they had no zero. That's why when the Romans wanted to get some math done, they kidnapped an Arab.
Or at least, that's what my high school calc teacher told me.
Re:Audio in? (Score:3, Insightful)
As with all the "they should have included 'blah'" comments: that's just the opposite of the point of this machine. If you want the kitchen sink, buy a PowerMac G5. Hint: it costs more than $500.
HDD Q (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:HDD Q (Score:5, Informative)
Re:HDD Q (Score:5, Insightful)
All things considered, the Mac mini will be a great machine to use and own. Mac OS X works smoothly even on a sub 1Ghz G4 so the mini is going to be ample. More to the point, where my XP Pro box with Athlon XP 2200+ and 512MB of RAM quite often feels slow and bogged down the iBook multitasks much better. I doubt that the slow hard drive in the Mac mini is going to be that big an issue either. Just do yourself a favour if you buy one, get the cheapest and stick some Crucial RAM in it (512MB is the sweet spot). I would get a Mac keyboard but use a standard 3 button scroll wheel mouse and put a good quality 17" LCD on there. That is going to get you a really nice Mac for budget PC money and it will run OS X, something I think is worth a great deal.
Re:HDD Q (Score:4, Informative)
You're joking, right ? (Score:4, Informative)
Just in case you're not: the slot at the top isn't a PCI slot, it's the DIMM slot...
Simon
Apple warranty service (Score:5, Informative)
Left unanswered is the obvious question: well then, if any hardware problems arise, how will Apple know I'm not to blame? Based on my experience getting Macs serviced (4 years in university), I'd say there's really not much to worry about. If you break the RAM slot, then tough luck. But if, say, the CPU dies through no fault of yours, Apple's not the sort of company to refuse to service your Mac on a technicality. There aren't a lot of assholes working for Apple customer service.
Nevertheless, I do wonder if there's some sort of sticker or seal on the inside to let Apple know you've opened the case.
Re:Apple warranty service (Score:5, Funny)
In my experience with PC repair, you can usually tell by how thoroughly the person who brought it in denies having opened the case, which is always in proportion to how broken it is.
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
Wattage (Score:3, Funny)
We're om
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Apple warranty service (Score:5, Interesting)
i bought my power book in the US but live right now in europe. I sent it in for the know problem of white spots on the display. There was some shipping damage and ES (euro support) refused to take any responsibility for it and refused fix anything stating - paraphrasing - give us $900 or we won't fix it, because the damage was not listed in the original service request. but when i got back to the states, thety fixed it no questions asked.
I was talking to customer service in Ireland complaining about the level of service i was receiving. I had the guy on the phone tell me that he had head the words extortion and blackmail used a lot by people refering to the kind of support from ES.
Form you own conclusion!
Re:Apple warranty service (Score:5, Interesting)
The last time, my iBook screen went dead while it was just sitting on my desk. I was turned away from the Apple Centre in Kensington on the grounds that I'd bought the iBook at a different store (an Apple-authorised reseller). Apple's telephone support refused to even discuss the fault unless I paid an incident fee, which they assured me would be refunded if it turned out to be a warranty issue (which it did). That is NOT the way warranties are meant to work. My AppleCare-covered PM G4 workstation had a broken SuperDrive which destroyed the hardware test CD with a buzzsaw sound when Apple told me to try it. They wanted me to send them the machine for three weeks, just to replace a £30 part I could have fitted myself in less than a minute.
Apple US support is great. Apple UK support isn't. I'm hoping the presence of the London retail store might make things easier, at least for us London residents.
If I didn't rely so much on OS X and its pure superiority to everything else (IMHO), I'd never buy Apple hardware again.
Re:Vapourware (Score:3, Interesting)
Yeah, 'cause the apple repair technicians are just going to open the case and inspect the sticker and, oh, wait...
And no, stickers on the outside of the case arent an option. Nothing can uglify that beautiful case.
Had a gateway once with a void warranty sticker on the case. Before I knew anything about hardware and how to build my own computers of course. How did I learn to buil
Re:Apple warranty service (Score:3, Informative)
I didn't ask, I simply pointed out that it came back from repair with problems. I loathed the idea of having it leave my hands for another week to go into the shop, but I just wanted it fixed properly. They decided that my situation was unacceptable, and loaded a new iBook with an Airport
mirror (Score:3, Informative)
just in case
Smash??! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Smash??! (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Smash??! (Score:3, Interesting)
I guess this must be pretty common. First thing I did on Christmas was clean up my mom's computer of viruses and spyware. She runs Spybot Search and Destroy every day but can't understand the concept of having to update the signatures. I wish it had an automatic update like AVG does for viruses. I'd buy her one of these Mac Minis in a heartbeat except the thing she uses 99% of the time isn't
That little WiFi board connector (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah, you probably could just hook up a USB 802 adapter, but then you loose some "look how small it is" points.
Re:That little WiFi board connector (Score:4, Informative)
This is one of those areas where it makes sense to just go ahead and buy it up front, deal with the financial squeeze for a short while, and reap the benefits for however many years you have it.
Re:That little WiFi board connector (Score:4, Informative)
Mind you, Belkin's rebate system is a total fraud. Absolute total broad daylight fraud. Go ahead you assholes, sue me. I dare you. Sue me right now. Fraudsters.
Re:That little WiFi board connector (Score:4, Informative)
Dissecting a Mac is like ... (Score:5, Funny)
Dissecting a MiniMac is sort of like ripping the limbs off of your kid sister's Barbie dolls and glueing them back onto your GI Joe action figures
[/evil]
Unusual places?? (Score:5, Funny)
the rounded corners should help cramming it into unusual places
I know I'm going to regret asking, but just what are the usual "unusual places"?
Re:Unusual places?? (Score:4, Funny)
From the "interesting read" link... (Score:4, Funny)
$499 Minimac: "AirPort Extreme- and Bluetooth-ready"
So.... that'd be the "no wireless" option for the minimac too?
Re:From the "interesting read" link... (Score:5, Informative)
With the Dell, on the other hand, you get neither antennas nor guts. That means that, if you add wireless via a card or some damn thing, it's either going to perform really poorly or it's going to have a big-ass antenna sticking out of it.
Advantage: Apple.
Re:From the "interesting read" link... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:From the "interesting read" link... (Score:3, Informative)
First Mac to do that since the introduction of AirPort.
Re:From the "interesting read" link... (Score:3, Funny)
you're totally lost touch with reality! welcome to the iProduct distortion area.
the whole point was just that IT'S NOT CHEAP!
Had the video for awhile (Score:4, Interesting)
Note from a linked article (Score:5, Insightful)
"""
But it was only a matter of time before someone would argue, "It's still not price-competitive with the cheapest Dell." And within days we've got our first such columns and articles, all of which leave me scratching my head, wondering if these guys are as bad at comparing products when they shop for themselves as they apparently are when comparing products for their columns.
"""
I agree. I'm a really recent switcher. I had a second hand mac kicking around years ago (and despised the OS - I ran Be on it), but bought an iBook laptop last Friday. It's my first mac and my first laptop. My justification was that it was cheap, runs unix, has full driver support, especially for wireless networking. I've held off for about two years waiting for a laptop that can deliver that for less than two grand Australian. That's a really compelling formula, and a far better geek computer than a PC.
To get a happy unix experience on a PC laptop you either pay a lot more money or roll the dice on linux drivers and winmodems. Or you can try and run Windows and put up with the limitations of cygwin or the speed hit of vmware. Yuck.
Not that it's always been this way. Until recently, Apples sucked. But OS X has become usable and the hardware has a better reputation than it used to - laptops in particular.
If I were Apple I'd be a bit concerned at the powerbook line - the iBooks deliver so much for so little now the powerbooks don't look very attractive.
todays topoftheline = tommorows $500PC (Score:5, Insightful)
You want fast DV editing? plug a FIREWIRE 400gig drive into it, then you cannot claim its a hookey pooky cheapass mac.
Todays $300 PC was $1000 in the year 2000, ie with the same specs if it was available. I could edit fine in the year 2000, though not as fast as a $5000 RAID scsi PC of today, its not as bad as a 1995 AVID system.
Mac mini's power supply (Score:3, Interesting)
Does anyone know whether
- The power supply sold with the Mac Mini's in the US support 220V
- The power cable is easily replacable with one that fits European wall outlets?
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=
Re:Mac mini's power supply (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Mac mini's power supply (Score:3, Informative)
I think a lot of you are missing the point. (Score:5, Interesting)
Would I tolerate a refridgerator that was cold enough to make liquid nitrogen if it also kicked out a 90dB whine? No. Would I ever use a toaster that was 5x larger than it needed to be and so ugly that I had to hide it under a desk? No. Do I want my toilet to blue-screen-of-death on me? Not particularly.
DO NOT BUY A MAC MINI!!! (Score:5, Funny)
You are ABSOLUTELY right. The DELLs come WITH PCI slots, a SUPER FAST intel processor, and BEST OF ALL.....WINDOWS!!!
If you start MESING WITH WINTEL SUCCESS by thinking of trying a mac now you will only DELAY the arrival of MY mac-mini which I will be ordering soon.
It is OBVIOUS that any computer that doesn't sound like a 707 when you turn it on is NO COMPUTER at all.
There is CLEARLY NO VALUE in reducing the size and audible noise of a PC. In fact, if anything, telling the world you have a little cabinet is BAD BAD BAD!!!
The mac-mini is NOT for you. Please continue to purchase DELLs and whatnot so you have something to show off to your friends while you drone on about expandability, oh, and stop picking your nose.
Re:DO NOT BUY A MAC MINI!!! (Score:3, Insightful)
This is one reason why I urge my clients that buy Dells to overbuild their processor and memory so that Dell will be forced to put in the nicer boards instead of the low-grade POS Intels that they seem
Re:DO NOT BUY A MAC MINI!!! (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:DO NOT BUY A MAC MINI!!! (Score:3, Funny)
the mods have no sense of humor I tell ya, no sense of humor.
How Apple can dominate the academic market (Score:3, Insightful)
2. Incorporate an integrated reference/bibliography manager into Pages.
Re:A buttload of Money (Score:5, Insightful)
You can build two stinking x86 computers - or one very decent x86 computer, which would be my choice - for $500. If you know how to put parts together, you can easily make something that outperforms the mini. The problem is that 95% of the people out there don't build, but buy their machines from Dell, HP, etc. and $500 Dells suck badly. They come with Celerons and Intel Integrated graphics, they don't have Firewire or CD burners, and so the Mac mini looks reasonably competitive - especially if you value the aesthetics.
Re:A buttload of Money (Score:5, Insightful)
or if you want a silent computer that doesnt overheat.
for a good cheap comp though, nforce3 + athlon + ram + HD + cd/dvd + case probablly might end up coming out to around $500. But the computer definetly wont be the size of the mac mini, or as quiet.
Re:A buttload of Money (Score:3, Insightful)
Don't kid yourself, the size is more of a justifcation for a crippled low-end Mac than a feature.
Re:A buttload of Money (Score:5, Insightful)
The AGP slot is occupied by a video card, which I just recently replaced for the first time in 5 years. On the mac mini, that's already built onto the board with an ATI chipset.
1 PCI slot is used by my Soudblaster card, which I just recently upgraded, again for the first time in 5 years, and that was because the card never worked right in the first place and this happened to be the time I was upgrading things. On the mac mini, this is built into the system
1 PCI slot is occupied by an ethernet card, un upgraded in 5 years. Gigabit is built into the mac mini
1 slot contains a USB/Firewire card, again, un upgraded, and built into the mac mini.
The other two slots remain unused, and for the forseeable future, I have no use for them. In the end, they're actualy a waste.
So when I look at the mac mini, it has everything I would use PCI/AGP slots for built in.
So then the question becomes well what if you want to upgrade?
Well, when I did my mass upgrade for the first time in 5 years (until now, I had only added RAM), I bought a new motherboard, a new processor, new graphics card, new soundcard and new RAM. My total cost came out to about $600 after rebates.
After reflecting on this, it occurs to me, that if a mac mini suits my needs, by the time I would decide to upgrade it, I might as well just buy a new one for $500.
In fact, for the first time, my computer would actualy be a disposable product. Something that I could (theoreticaly) just discard and buy a new one when it no longer served my needs, and it would be roughly price equivilant to upgrading the system.
So in the end, having PCI slots and an accessable case on the mac mini would seem to be more of a waste than a benefit.
Of course, you can always argue that hard core gamers and power users have other things and upgrade more frequently, but I argue that no hardcore gamer/power user is buying a $500 computer.
Strawman, strawman, strawman (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm no Mac fanboy; I've got plenty of x86 machines running Linux and XP (it does have its uses) all over the place at work and at home. But, the very next machine on my list to buy is the Mac Mini. Seems to me that the whole point of the Mac Mini (and indeed of all Macs in general) is this:
1. You bring it home.
2. You turn it on.
3. It just fucking works.
Constrast with the proceedure for x86 machines:
1. You bring it home.
2. You install all your expansion cards.
3. You install the operating system. We all do that ourselves, right?
4. You configure the operating system for the devices you have installed
5. You shut down and rearrange the expansion devices and pray that it clears up interrupt conflicts.
6. Probably go to step 4. Eventually fall out of this loop.
7. Tweek. Repeat.
8. Futz. Repeat.
I've wasted many, many hours of my precious life installing, configuring, tweeking, twiddling, rearranging, futzing, prodding, farting around with, etc., all these x86 machines. I want at least one computer that I don't have to dick with. Here's my checklist for justifying my buying one:
1. Runs Quicken? Check.
2. Runs TurboTax? Check.
3. Mozilla products? Check.
4. Runs MS Office (sorry, gotta use it)? Check.
5. Runs Photoshop? Check.
6. Runs iTunes? Check.
7. Unix-based? Check. X11? Check. ('tho I'm no big fan of BSD-ish installations, I'll get used to it).
8. Upgradable? Who gives a shit?
What this means for me is that I can dump two machines that I have at home (one Linux, one XP), and replace it with a smaller, no-muss-no-fuss, machine.
Geeze, how can I resist?
Re:Strawman, strawman, strawman (Score:3, Informative)
1.Get a VIA EPIA mini-ITX (or shortly a nano)
2.Put it in a Cubid case
3.Boot off of SLAX or Knoppix
It just works!
(in linux!)
The real competition for the mini are the mini or nano ITX boxen, they have everything but wireless integrated (if you need wireless just stuff in a USB key style adapter) with a full set of drivers on a single disk for windows and full kernel support for linux. and they are a lot cheaper
Re:Other things that PCI is useful for (Score:3, Informative)
A composite video/svideo adapter for the mac mini costs $20 from apple.
It has a v.92 56k modem built in
It is Airport Extreme Ready(ie 802.11g capable)
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:$130 $50 (Score:5, Informative)
Re:$130 $50 (Score:3, Interesting)
From the outset it was clear that you could build/buy a PC for less money than a Mac mini, but that's just not the point.
It's a Mac, in a box the size of a few CD cases, with a full OS, CD burning, DVD playing, wireless etc.
Re:Other things that PCI is useful for (Score:3, Funny)
I'm actually considering getting one of these (If enough suckers^W^W^W^W^W^W^Wpeople sign up with my sig!). I normally hate Macs, but since I've wanted just an extra machine to store stuff and occasionally mess around with, this suits my needs perfectly, plus it hides well, and It's cheap!
Ah crap, I said I hate Macs... there goes my karma!
Re:A buttload of Money (Score:5, Informative)
So, you claim that we will basically require Gigabit Ethernet in just few yeas? Funny, this workstation I'm currently on is hooked to a 10MB hub, and I can use it just fine. Yes, that includes accessing files on the server. Are you one of those who think that "Gigabit Ehternet makes my internet faster"?
100BaseT is more than enough for intended uses of the Mini. You can find gigabit in higher-end models and on servers. Mini has no real need for it.
Seriously: have you even looked at the specs [apple.com] of the Mini? it says in plain English: "One FireWire 400 port; two USB 2.0 ports"!. Yes, the Firewire is only 400. But how many PC's have 800? How many low-end PC's have Firewire at all? How many devices/apps require Firewire 800?
If the Mini had those two slots, you would just find some other flaw in it. Seriously, you cannot satisfy everyone.
Instead of upgrading your machine every two years, you can simply buy a new Mini every two years. End-result is more or less the same, as is the expense.
Re:A buttload of Money (Score:3, Funny)
Re:A buttload of Money (Score:5, Informative)
just my two cents.
Re:A buttload of Money (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:A buttload of Money (Score:3, Interesting)
I've been using PC's since the 80286 (my first one actually had a 8088 in it, but it was old by then). I don't even want to start counting how many PC's I've owned since then. Suffice to say that currently I have six Windows machines and a dual G4 Mac.
FWIW, with the exception of hard disks, never ever have I had only one component fail on me. And believe me, after 20 years and god-knows how many systems later I've had my fair share of failures. Last time
Re:A buttload of Money (Score:5, Insightful)
Sorry, you're wrong here - Macs are just not gaming machines, unfortunately. Many games are never ported to the Mac platform (e.g. Halflife), most are ported months or years after the initial x86 release, new games require faster Macs than what us mortals can afford, and old games aren't Mac OS X native so they run (poorly) under emulation.
And I say this as a long-time Mac lover, typing this on my iBook G4 which I love dearly, but on which Warcraft 3 is slow, UT runs in Classic (which doesn't seem to support multiple mouse buttons), Quake 3 also runs in Classic because the native port is even worse, and the UT2k4 demo doesn't even render the title screen correctly. Granted, this machine is nearly a year old now; perhaps a Mac mini would fare better with newer games (and the Classic issue should now be moot). Even still, Counterstrike isn't going to happen. I've been using Macs seriously since System 6, but I can't recommend them as a gaming platform until more game developers take the platform seriously, doing side-by-side development and releasing dual-platform hybrid CDs (a few do this already, of course).
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Man, you're buying the wrong motherboards... (Score:3, Insightful)
Answer: Nope.
Now you're deliberately misquoting me. The previous question had to do with Antivirus software being bundled with the mobo. Of course it won't work under Fedora Core, but it's not like it's really needed under Fedora Core either.
How much value is gained from knowing that if you want to take up a new hobby you have some quality tools available to you?
Answer: To me, absolutely none. If I am not interested in some
Re:A buttload of Money (Score:3, Interesting)
Once you start having 4 or 5+ pc's they start to take up a lot of space. And as far as upgrading things goes once your on a giga bit lan and have a TB+ disk storage you tend to slow down how much you open cases on anything other than a gaming rig.
Let's see there is the Gamming rig, 2nd pc (as in your upgrading fast enough that your leftovers tend to make a PC), Server 1 (Mostly web stuff
Re:A buttload of Money (Score:3, Interesting)
I have a car and I certainly do not spend half of my life messing around with the engine to squeeze 5% out of the thing. I use it to drive around. Same for most people and computers.
Besides, I am by this time sick and tired of having to maintain a lot of half-assed home-built computers. The waste of time is not really worth it.
Re:A buttload of Money (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:A buttload of Money (Score:5, Insightful)
Howzabout you buy a computer instead of hand-carving your own microchips?
People love to talk about how you can build a top-flight desktop computer for $3.25 plus two subway tokens and some kind of weird-ass coin that you dug out of your sofa that's got "Røølï" written on it, but what they curiously omit is the fact that if you took all the time you'd spend gathering parts and assembling them and worked a minimum-wage job at some fast food place instead, you'd earn hundreds of dollars. So the real cost of this "It's Shake-n-Bake, and I helped!" special is, in fact, several times higher than the sum of the price tags on the hundreds of inscrutable parts that went into it.
People who say "I can build that for less" are either not bothering to account for their time or just flat-out lying, because the plain truth of the matter is that if they could, somebody already would have, and you'd be able to just go out to a 7-11 and buy the damn thing for half off with the purchase of a medium or large fountain drink.
Building is more fun than working at Maccers (Score:4, Funny)
If you want to be a dull dumb boy and just BUY everything in this world, do it, become a robot consumer slave where in your view, NO ONE should have any skills apart from the job you do and be 100% a clueless idiot for anything else.
Dude, people love to spend 5 hours preparing a super uber dinner too, sure they could work for 5 hrs, then go to a resteraunt and get the same, but why?? To support your macro economic consumer engine? So more people spend and buy , more money rotates and makes more taxes? Screw the banking money elite system, do it your self, reduce the govts taxes, become a better person for it.
Simply 'outsourcing' everything might create more jobs, but you become a duller useless human being.
Re:A buttload of Money (Score:3, Informative)
First, let's set the hardware spec target:
Mac Mini [apple.com]:
CPU: 1.25ghz G4 RAM: 256MB of PC2700
Video: ATI Radeon 9200, 32mb DDR, 4x AGP
Drive: 40GB Ultra ATA Drive: DVD/CD-RW
1394: 1 USB2: 2 Ethernet: 10/100
Modem: v.92 Audio: yes
amd64 system:
CPU: 1.8ghz amd64 [newegg.com] - $114
Heatsink/Fan: Zalman 7000 [newegg.com] - $39.99
RAM: 256MB of PC2700 [newegg.com] - $30.75
Video: ATI Radeon 9200, 64mb DDR, 8x AGP [newegg.com] - $47.50
Drive: Maxtor 40GB 7200RPM [newegg.com] - $45.89
Drive: DVD/CD-RW [newegg.com] - $30.50
FOXCONN "755A01-6EKRS" SiS755 Chipset Motherboard for AMD Socket 7 [newegg.com]
Re:A buttload of Money (Score:3, Insightful)
Secondly, the Athlon system has a 300W PSU, while the Mac uses 85W (almost the power consumption of the CPU alone in an Athlon system). This equates to around 0.6/hour more to operate the Athlon than the Mac Mini. Not much, but assuming the system is on for 10 hours a day this is over $20/year. Again, not a huge amount, but worth considering. Not to mention the fact that the Mac Mini will be much quieter
Re:A buttload of Money (Score:3, Informative)
Re:A buttload of Money (Score:3, Informative)
If you want DDR slots... (Score:4, Funny)
mac mini wins because it has no free agp slot, no free pci slots, no free hd slots, no free ddr slots
The EMS USB2 adapter [ztnetstore.com] will add two slots for DDR [buynshop.com] to any machine with USB ports.
Re:iMac mini NEEDS a PC card slot (Score:3, Informative)
Untill you get to thinking about the slots and what you need them for. Example, my PC sitting here has 5 PCI slots and 1 AGP slot.
The AGP slot is occupied by a video card, which I just recently replaced for the first time in 5 years. On the mac mini, that's already built onto the board with an ATI chipset.
1 PCI slot is used by my
Re:iMac mini NEEDS a PC card slot (Score:4, Insightful)
Know how many PC cards I've seen? Zero. Nary a one.
Since you're going to put the necessary ports on the machine anyway, and since you're going to build wireless antennas in anyway, what possible use is there for a PC card slot? Leave it out and keep costs down.
Re:iMac mini NEEDS a PC card slot (Score:5, Informative)
Well, that's all well and good if you only want ports, but lets look at the facts.
EZ-GO ePC-2 (Base System)
Processor: 1.1Ghz intel celeron
memory: 128 MB SDRAM
video: integrated video (11.8MB max shared)
HD: 40GB
Optical Drive: 24x CD-ROM
Price: $589
mac mini (Base System)
Processor 1.25Ghz Power PC G4
memory: 256 MB
Video: Radeon 9200 w/ 32MB memory
HD: 40GB
Optical Drive: DVD ROM/CD-RW
Price: $499
It looks to me like the mac mini is a superior system in almost every way, and costs $90 less.
Don't forget the software! (Score:4, Insightful)
OS X Panther and iLife '05 allows you to do useful things with your machine out of the box. Not only that, but the software is *good* and it all works together.
There is nothing comparable to a Mac in the PC world. Apple build the machine from the ground up, including the operating system and utilities. It all works nicely.
I only realised that when I bought my iBook, so I don't expect people who haven't owned a Mac to understand.
Re:Images gallery of all Apples case designs? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Mac-Mini Not Revolutionary At All (Score:5, Informative)
2 x 6.5 x 6.5
Same size my ass.
Re:Not bad Apple (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Not bad Apple (Score:5, Funny)
Why should he not?
Linux rocks. Mac Mini rocks. The two together obviously rock twice as hard.
Are you seriously suggesting that nobody could possibly prefer Linux once they've used MacOS X? Think again, buddy.
Re:PC RAM (Score:3, Informative)
Re:I don't understand....... (Score:3, Informative)