Tag Archives: Mac Mini

A new age of Mac Mini’s

Underside of the new Mac MiniI can remember when the first Mac Mini came out a few years ago (Jan 2005 according to the MacRumors:Guides site) with the humble PowerPC processor. It was a rather extraordinary piece of hardware for it’s time. I’m sure that there were other mini computers around, just none as good looking or as mass marketed as the Mac Mini.

Now in its 7th revision the humble Mac Mini is in a new age and has just had a refurbish.

The specs are as follows:

  • 2.4GHz or 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor
  • 2GB (two 1GB SO-DIMMs) of 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM; two SO-DIMM slots support up to 8GB
  • 320GB or 500GB Serial ATA hard disk drive
  • 8x slot-loading SuperDrive (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
  • NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphics processor with 256MB of DDR3 SDRAM shared with main memory
  • Mini DisplayPort with support for up to 2560-by-1600 resolution
  • HDMI port with support for up to 1920-by-1200 resolution
  • Audio line in/out/headphone minijacks (digital/analog)
  • HDMI port supports multichannel audio output
  • One FireWire 800 port (up to 800 Mbps)
  • Four USB 2.0 ports (up to 480 Mbps)

The specs look rather nice, although as always you could build something similar cheaper, but lose the convenience factor along the way.

The NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphics card with only 256MB of memory seems a little low though for my liking, especially when using it with a full HD Display. I guess time and user reviews will tell whether or not this is enough, although Apple are saying that this was 2x the spec of the last model.

For those more techincally inclined there is the Mac mini with Snow Leopard Server, it has a similar configuration just without the optical super drive and in its place another hard drive. This makes for a great option as a central server in a home or small business.

Prices are starting at $999

For more information check out the Official Apple Mac Mini site.

Tech Specs from: Apple Mac Mini Tech Specs
Photo: Apple Mac Mini Site