Apple's Mac mini - Tempting PC Users Everywhere
by Anand Lal Shimpi on January 25, 2005 7:39 AM EST- Posted in
- Mac
Taking it Apart, III
One final screw holds the motherboard in place; removing it and we can pull it out of the mini chassis:
On the back, we see the ATI Radeon 9200 GPU:
...as well as the remaining 16MB Hynix DDR chip:
The Radeon 9200 is completely passively cooled. In fact, the only thing cooling it is a little heat pad that it sits on, using the rest of the chassis to cool it:
It looks like there is a single chip that handles the AGP interface, FSB, DDR memory controller and I/O manufactured by Agere Systems (a Lucent spinoff):
Broadcom provides 10/100 Ethernet support:
...and Agere provides FireWire 400 support:
Finally, we have AMD providing the flash memory for the mini:
With so many discrete controllers in the Mac mini, you would think that Apple could have cut costs a bit if they had a more integrated chipset on their hands. Unfortunately, with relatively low volumes, it's tough to justify manufacturing a brand new chipset just for one application.
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elvisizer - Tuesday, January 25, 2005 - link
stylex, the mini uses regular pc2700 ddr ram. nothing special about it.egilDOTnet - Tuesday, January 25, 2005 - link
And one more thing - regarding Office compability - I thought that the Appleworks package still was included with the Mac mini?? Is this not so anymore, Anand, or did you just forget about that?elvisizer - Tuesday, January 25, 2005 - link
#16 and #12- yes, it's true that if you don't have those items already you'll have to spend money to buy them. So what? if you don't have them sitting around, then the mini isn't as good a deal for you. The point is, for the vast majority of people buying one, a mini will not end up costing $1000. it'll end up costing $499+ 1 memory upgrade.also, there's one error in the article- anand says that TextEdit can't open Word documents. that's not true. TextEdit has been able to open and edit Word documents since 10.3 came out.
egilDOTnet - Tuesday, January 25, 2005 - link
Just wanted to chime in on one thing - exporting images from iPhoto - you know that you can just select images, and then drag them out on the desktop or wherever you want them to be copied??Good article!
bupkus - Tuesday, January 25, 2005 - link
I'd like one just to take it for a ride. I wholely support the idea of SFF and this certainly takes the "S" seriously. As to using less energy, 85W is probably as good as it gets.This is the first I've heard of AMD's mini-itx which uses Windows CE. I wonder if that means it's much more vulnerable to malware than the "mini". Sure it costs more than something like the Biostar IDEQ 210V, but if the "mini" means less free tech support to relatives who just web surf, I'd recommend it.
miketheidiot - Tuesday, January 25, 2005 - link
#30 most people are still very computer illiterate. They also don't buy them because of their compatability or upgradability. They buy on cost alone and name. Apple has a name (whether a good or bad name is a matter of opinion) and now they have the price. I see no reason why these won't sell.bigpow - Tuesday, January 25, 2005 - link
>2) Sure you get better graphics with the mini and a better optical drive, but you get more memory and a faster hard drive with the Dell.Oh yeah... riiiight!
Better graphics because you're imagining the picture! Dell comes with 15" LCD, Mac comes with your imagination.
Nice comparison, duh!
Jeff7181 - Tuesday, January 25, 2005 - link
I still think these titles that suggest the MiniMac will steal marketshare from the PC is rediculous. People don't use PC's because they're they come in the smallest form factors. They use them because of their compatability, upgradability, and cost. Apple has only scratched the cost issue with the MiniMac... but most PC users will avoid a Mac simply so they don't want to learn to use a computer all over again... for some people that's not an easy thing to do.ehanneken - Tuesday, January 25, 2005 - link
Stylex, Crucial's Mac page is http://www.crucial.com/mac/index.aspYou would actually pay more to buy a 512 MB DIMM from Crucial than you would to upgrade the Mac Mini to 512 MB when you purchase it. On the other hand, you would end up with two DIMMs instead of one.
jasonsRX7 - Tuesday, January 25, 2005 - link
#23 - Nail on the head :)#25 - Apples prices to add ram to the mini are reasonable. $75 to upgrade to 512mb, less if you're a student.