I'm looking forward to getting a Macintosh mini -- but will try to wait until it comes with OS X 10.4 installed.
I've seen numerous price comparisons between the Mac mini and various lowend Microsoft Windows machines. When the conclusion is "we found that we could buy a Dell PC for $67 less," I think the reviewer is not considering the larger picture. With the Mac mini you get OS X. That alone is worth the price of admission, in my experience. What's that line about people who know the cost of everything but the value of nothing?
#28 : Quartz Extreme and Core Image are two different things. QE uses GPU power for compositing, and only requires a something more than a GeForce2. All current Macs support Quartz Extreme -- Expose requires Quartz Extreme.
Core Image is basically using pixel shaders to accelerate various effects and filters (think Photoshop stuff) that wouldn't be possible in real-time without hardware support. The Mac mini won't support this (at least, this model won't), but I seriously doubt that it'll be much of a loss for most people. Tiger will still run perfectly well, just without a few bits of eyecandy, like the Dashboard droplet effect.
#27, The mac mini is based on the eMac logic board. The hard drive could be anything and doesn't determine what the computer is based on. Note also that the Mac mini has the same FSB as the eMac, but the iBook is slower. So the performance would be more like an eMac.
the mini will not get a fully gpu accelerated ui with tiger, at least thats what it looks like now. quartz 2d extreme needs a pixel shader 2.0 capable gpu, which the 9200 isnt. my main knocks against the mini are the 9200 (couldve used some nv 5200) and the 4200 rpm drives. 5400 rpm drives should be standard instead of the luck of the draw it seems like now.
course apple might pull some magic with tiger to get a form of quartz 2d extreme working with 9200s by the time it comes out so who knows till then.
and about imovie importing, if youre talking about importing from a dv cam, it can only go real time. any slower and youll drop frames, and i havent heard of any cams/decks that can transfer faster than real time (barring drive based cams with copyable files i guess).
#26 JP "The Mac mini is not based on a G4 laptop. It is based on the eMac."
Explain your view, please.
iBook & Man mini : 2.5" HDD & Slot-Load Combo Drive
eMac : 3.5" & Combo (DVD-ROM/CD-RW)
iBook : 200pin SODIMM DDR PC2100 & ATi Mobility Radeon 9200 32MB
eMac & Mac mini : 184pin DIMM DDR PC2700 & ATi Radeon 9200 32MB
Seems to sit somewhere in between but the HDD and notebook optical drive on the Mac mini are going to give it performance more like the iBook than the eMac... no?
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Coombs - Tuesday, February 15, 2005 - link
Anand,Can you comment on these mods and the mysterious connector in the Mac mini?
http://www.lbodnar.dsl.pipex.com/macmini/macmini_i...
http://www.lbodnar.dsl.pipex.com/macmini/
Anonymous - Thursday, February 3, 2005 - link
"I think the reviewer is not considering the larger picture. With the Mac mini you get OS X."Big deal. Get a used G3 mac and buy OS X for $99 bucks.
James - Sunday, January 30, 2005 - link
I'm looking forward to getting a Macintosh mini -- but will try to wait until it comes with OS X 10.4 installed.I've seen numerous price comparisons between the Mac mini and various lowend Microsoft Windows machines. When the conclusion is "we found that we could buy a Dell PC for $67 less," I think the reviewer is not considering the larger picture. With the Mac mini you get OS X. That alone is worth the price of admission, in my experience. What's that line about people who know the cost of everything but the value of nothing?
Thanks for your excellent reporting.
Nick - Thursday, January 27, 2005 - link
#28 : Quartz Extreme and Core Image are two different things. QE uses GPU power for compositing, and only requires a something more than a GeForce2. All current Macs support Quartz Extreme -- Expose requires Quartz Extreme.Core Image is basically using pixel shaders to accelerate various effects and filters (think Photoshop stuff) that wouldn't be possible in real-time without hardware support. The Mac mini won't support this (at least, this model won't), but I seriously doubt that it'll be much of a loss for most people. Tiger will still run perfectly well, just without a few bits of eyecandy, like the Dashboard droplet effect.
FlameDeer - Thursday, January 27, 2005 - link
Very nice Mac mini! Really tempting PC users! :)hopejr - Thursday, January 27, 2005 - link
#27, The mac mini is based on the eMac logic board. The hard drive could be anything and doesn't determine what the computer is based on. Note also that the Mac mini has the same FSB as the eMac, but the iBook is slower. So the performance would be more like an eMac.japtor - Wednesday, January 26, 2005 - link
the mini will not get a fully gpu accelerated ui with tiger, at least thats what it looks like now. quartz 2d extreme needs a pixel shader 2.0 capable gpu, which the 9200 isnt. my main knocks against the mini are the 9200 (couldve used some nv 5200) and the 4200 rpm drives. 5400 rpm drives should be standard instead of the luck of the draw it seems like now.course apple might pull some magic with tiger to get a form of quartz 2d extreme working with 9200s by the time it comes out so who knows till then.
and about imovie importing, if youre talking about importing from a dv cam, it can only go real time. any slower and youll drop frames, and i havent heard of any cams/decks that can transfer faster than real time (barring drive based cams with copyable files i guess).
Mephisto - Wednesday, January 26, 2005 - link
#26 JP "The Mac mini is not based on a G4 laptop. It is based on the eMac."Explain your view, please.
iBook & Man mini : 2.5" HDD & Slot-Load Combo Drive
eMac : 3.5" & Combo (DVD-ROM/CD-RW)
iBook : 200pin SODIMM DDR PC2100 & ATi Mobility Radeon 9200 32MB
eMac & Mac mini : 184pin DIMM DDR PC2700 & ATi Radeon 9200 32MB
Seems to sit somewhere in between but the HDD and notebook optical drive on the Mac mini are going to give it performance more like the iBook than the eMac... no?
JP - Wednesday, January 26, 2005 - link
The Mac mini is not based on a G4 laptop. It is based on the eMac.Michael2k - Wednesday, January 26, 2005 - link
Now I wonder... if Macs (and Mac users) have 3% marketshare, what do gamers get? Is it also 3%?And when I mean gamer, I mean people who spend more than $2k on their computers (though not necessarily all at once)