Apple says buyers can plug in their favorite USB keyboard and mouse – or buy Apple’s offerings. The Mac mini doesn’t include a keyboard or mouse. On the rear, just enough ports to do everything important. On the front, there’s just a slot-loading optical drive and a power light. The tiny Mac mini (6.5″ square, 2″ high, 2.9 lb.) has a minimalist design. The Intel-based mini has four USB 2.0 ports and no internal modem.
The Intel-based Mac mini looks like the G4-based one from the front, but the rear is different. The Intel graphics processor uses 80 MB of system memory for the display, so increasing memory is a good idea, especially if you’re going to OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard or beyond. What you’re gaining for the $200 difference is a CPU with a larger cache, 40 GB more drive space (a $75 build-to-order option), the SuperDrive, and a 10% gain in CPU speed.Īll Intel-based Mac minis use Intel GMA 950 graphics and “vampire video” (that’s where the video bites into system memory). At US$799, it seems a bit overpriced in comparison to the 1.83 GHz model. The better model has a 2.0 GHz CPU, a 120 GB hard drive, and a dual-layer 8x SuperDrive in addition to all the features of the 1.83 GHz model. Except for the Core 2 Duo CPU and the lack of a SuperDrive, this is essentially the same model Apple was selling for US$799. It retails for US$599, the same price as the 1.66 GHz model it replaces. The base version now runs at 1.83 GHz and includes 1 GB of RAM, an 80 GB hard drive, and a Combo drive. Their test results show that in general there is more benefit from having more RAM – even mismatched – than there is from having less RAM that is matched. Apple says that memory upgrades should only be done in matched pairs, but Other World Computing has discovered that you can use “mismatched” memory in the Mac mini (and many other Intel-based Macs where Apple specifies that upgrades should only be done with matched pairs). There’s one memory bank with two DIMM sockets, so to upgrade RAM, you have to remove the modules that came with the Mini. Because it uses a Core 2 CPU, it can support up to 3 GB of RAM (50% more than the Core Duo models), although Apple officially supports up to 2 GB. The newest mini has the same 667 MHz memory bus as last year’s model, along with the same pedestrian Intel GMA 950 graphics. Between the newer, more efficient CPU and 8-10% higher clock speeds, we expect 15-25% better overall performance compared to the Late 2006 model. The updated model finally moves the Mini from the outdated Core Duo to a Core 2 Duo processor, giving it 64-bit capabilities along with faster CPU speeds. Apple “refreshed” the Mac mini the same day it unveiled new iMacs, iLife ’08, and iWork ’08.
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