[funkmonkey]

New Aluminum Mac Mini










I have been waiting for this for a few years now.  It might find it's way into my system this Christmas, along with an iPad...  I do think they blew it by putting the power supply in the enclosure though, I would much rather have had it kept separate.  SD card slot should have been up front, too...  Not to mention the price hike!  I may wait another generation, but I think it is inevitable for this to be my future music server & netflix streamer, HTPC...  Looks sweet, for sure.  Now, if Apple would just add native support for FLAC in iTunes, I would really be in business.
Cheers

[cujobob]

Looks very nice...one small feature I just noticed is that it accepts IPhone headsets with microphone.

Hopefully the PSU isn't of terrible quality.

[pardales]

Looks great. I thought maybe it would come with the option for a SSD, but the BUY page does not offer that.

[funkmonkey]

I am hoping that Apple offers the opportunity to customize it a little in the coming weeks.  Solid State internal drive would be a nice option... so would a BluRay drive (or did I miss that?)

[Bemopti123]

I still have my original MacMini G4 but with my 1 year old MacBook Pro with dedicated graphics etc...There is no compelling reason to purchase such a stylish beast.  Perhaps when the processors get upgraded to something out of this world....Maybe in 2-3 years.  By then the Mini will only be Mini in name but performance wise it will blow all the things I consider fast/new now. 

[lowtech]

Now, if Apple would just add native support for FLAC in iTunes, I would really be in business.

Whoever said you Apple guy's don't have a sense of humor.   

[low.pfile]

New 2010 Mac Mini Teardown at ifixit:
http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Mac-Mini-Mid-2010-Teardown/3094/1

[funkmonkey]

New 2010 Mac Mini Teardown at ifixit:
http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Mac-Mini-Mid-2010-Teardown/3094/1

Sweet! thanks

[Bigfish]

It is a really nice looking unit but I am sorry to learn they have placed the power supply inside of the case.  Having the power supply outside of the case in the older units made them extremely attractive for music servers.  It will be an interesting comparison sometime in the future to compare a comparatively equipped old to a new style Mini as a music server.

Ken

[ctviggen]

What type of processors are they using?  They have a marked lack of heat removal -- a single heat pipe and a single fan.

The really nice thing about Macs is the low noise factor and cool looks. 

[chrisby]

specs here:

http://www.apple.com/ca/macmini/specs.html


typical options for processor and memory/HDD size

Yup, as gorgeous a piece of industrial design as this is (a la iPad and iPhone4), and our nit picking about number and locations of connectors aside, the big concern would be the long term reliability due to heat generated by onboard PSU.

IINM, this wouldn't be the first time that cleverness of design has usurped reliability or ease of service on Apple products. 

of course, a fair share of their success during the past decade has probably been correctly betting on our upgrading every few generations, before the average MTBF catches us with our pants down

and no doubt it'll only be a matter of time before some inveterate hacker will devise an outboard supply - but it'd be a challenge to match the sexiness of this particular piece

[skunark]

So the assumption here is that the extremely efficient switching power supply with the mac mini is going to add noise to the USB dac, even though USB standard requires electrical isolation?   So I assume one must use a linear power supply for the monitor that's connected (even though HDMI and Displayport also requires electrical isolation) along with the broadband router or Ethernet switch or anything else that is connected to it?   Probably easier to dead-head the mac mini, but do you want wifi noise?   

Perhaps a review or two is in order before already assuming it's defective? 

Something worth reading if you prefer to use iTunes and the audio optical output for bit transparent playback of 44.1/16 (even has pretty pictures)
http://www.benchmarkmedia.com/wiki/index.php/OS_X_Audio_Playback_-_Setup_Guide.   This way using the optical port you are isolated but perhaps at the cost jitter.   

It will be interesting to see how iTunes works with the HDMI port, perhaps it will play the correct sample rate instead of being fixed.