It’s a move we’ve seen before, just a few months ago with the running revision to the MacBook Pro line of laptops. Outwardly, the computer looks identical to the previous model. Look more closely, and you find an electric-flash logo above the monitor connection port. Then, inside, we find all hell has broken loose – in benchmark terms at least.
So the new Apple Mac mini – unveiled by Apple on the same day it unleashed the Lion from its software development labs – has had something of an internal overhaul. Where last summer’s two regular models had middle-aged Intel Core 2 Duo processors clocked at either 2.4GHz or 2.66GHz, the new gang sport powerhouse second-gen Intel Core-series processors. Those Sandy Bridge chips don’t half make a difference.
Before we look at the scores, let’s bear check off some other performance nips and tucks. Memory has sped up from 1066MHz to 1333MHz DDR3 RAM. Hard drives are a little larger too across the range, 500GB 2.5in notebook drives as standard, in place of 320GB disks.
It won’t make much difference to the supplied hard disks, but the internal SATA bus of the Apple Mac mini is now specified for 6Gbit/s operation. And while Apple will exchange the disk for a high-performance SSD if you’re feeling particularly flush (add £480 for the 256GB drive), we’re not sure if even that will be 6Gbit/s SATA-enabled.
If you do want the light-speed SSD experience, you might be better off finding your own 6Gbit/s SATA drive, such as the Crucial M4 which should then allow data transfers well beyond 400MBps. Beware though that OS X’s nascent support of Trim will be unavailable on third-party SSDs.
The Apple Mac mini (Mid-2011) is easy to open up to exchange RAM; to replace the hard drive just requires the removal of the fan and perforated wireless antenna board
Even shunting data at close to 3.5 gigabit per second starts to look sedate though, when you realise what the digital monitor port can now do. It may look like the same old Mini DisplayPort that Apple’s been fitting for three years now, but the aforementioned lightning strike gives away this port’s true nature – Thunderbolt.
Developed by Intel with input from Apple, and originally named Light Peak in deference to its optical basis, Thunderbolt is the de-facto incarnation of a hyper-speed data conduit of many supposed capabilities.
It’s based on PCI Express, only is a lot more hot-swappable. It’s Apple’s 21st-century replacement for FireWire, for one, built to hook up external storage in such a way that the wires don’t become the bottleneck, as they currently are with FireWire, USB, SATA, ethernet – in fact pretty much all the cable we still use to get data from one place to the next.
Shame, then, that as of press time, the only thing we could find to plug into one of these ports is... a monitor.
We can only guess that some chronic technical issues have held up the mass roll-out of this super-luminal external storage that will bring smiles to the faces of professional video editors – and others who fancy the idea of moving tens of gigabytes of data from PC to storage array in the time it takes to say ‘seconds flat’.
New features
Bluetooth has skipped a generation – from 2.1 to 4.0, missing out 3.0 – which could mean faster file transfers for those that still zap data the Bluetooth way, as well as improved power efficiency. That would be good for battery-eating wireless mice, although we’d imagine this will require a new rodent on the desk too first.
Two main models of Mac mini are offered: entry-level gets a 2.3GHz Intel Core i5-2415M processor, the M-suffix indentifying it as a laptop chip, but still featuring the useful Hyper-Threading trick of making two real processor cores look like four for certain apps; and Turbo boost, to punch through the speed ceiling – in this case, up to 2.9GHz for short-term spurts of productivity.
And significantly, the price of this entry model has fallen since last year. When launched, the cheapest Mac mini was a steep £649. Now, this far more powerful updated PC is being sold for £529.
We tested the next model up, with 2.53GHz Intel Core i5-2520M processor (3.2GHz Turbo), and priced at £699. This Mac mini also double the memory quota to 4GB, but otherwise has exactly the same spec. Well, nearly.
The key difference is in the graphics engine. Just like the entry-level 13in MacBook Pro, Apple has saddled the cheapest Mac mini with Intel HD 3000 integrated graphics.
Providing all you need is a PC to do regular PC duties – up to and including watching high-definition video – you won’t notice the shortfall. But as with the MacBook Pro, we have an unusual situation of a PC manufacturer lowering some key aspects of performance in a refresh.
The previous generation sported nVidia GeForce 320M graphics, which were quite capable of some decent gaming, provided you didn’t max out the detail. With Intel graphics, you get great fuel economy – heat is reduced, which translates into reduced fan annoyance – but ambitious gaming is a no-no.
But on the dearer 2.53GHz Mac mini, Apple has snuck in a discrete graphics card from AMD, a Radeon HD 6630M with 256MB of dedicated GDDR5 video memory.
Absent from all Mac minis now is an optical drive. Like the slotless server model of the Apple Mac mini introduced last year, every mini now has a plain front, save two black dots for IR sensor, and a smaller on/sleep light.
Now that Apple distributes all its software online, including the OS X Lion operating system, that’s not such a problem. If you still enjoy watching DVDs or Blu-rays from the original silver disc though, you’ll need to find an external drive.
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Comments
Harrappeter said: Its all programmed obsolescenceApple could have fitted the BTOs graphics card for starters and an SSD and they will next year or the year after but if they did that noone would buy their iMacsPC builders cannot even configure SSDs to work properly yet and many builders simply dont get how fast and efficient their machines would be IF they actually configured them properly- so the list of components never really adds up to what it should This is because they want you needy and unhappy and coming back for more punishment ASAP and Apple are prime movers here since you cannot even link up last years Mac laptops to a Thunderbolt display They refuse to relate their hardware to each other and to the customers requirementsLast I have bought and paid for three top of the line iMacs and a Mac Mini All arrived damaged and faulty and I had to get my money refunded as they all fell off the back of a lorry Couriers couldnt care less about boxes that do not say what is inside them and which are not marked FRAGILE GLASS HANDLE WITH CAREI got Apples apologies each time and even the offer of a free upgrade for all the hassle they caused me whilst I lent them my money repeatedly short-term But again When it will be delivered the exact same way Tut Tut
Bob said: Actually Windows has become a very stable OS and somethings it does indeed do better that the Mac Most importantly for some it handles 3D graphics a bit faster because DirectX has a more well direct access to the hardware where Mac OS a BSD dirivitive linux and other OpenGL based systems have a layer of seperation that does have its own advantages but is not quite as fastStill it is plenty fast and one can run Windows completely natively and get any advantages Windows provides which is another feature unique to the Mac under the hood there is little difference and there are quality brand PCs that also cost more but give the user better features and value Sure you can make a Hackintosh but it is simply not worth itAsk yourself this How much is your time worth Sure you can slap together your own unsupported system but how much of your time will you spend speccing it out building it and tweaking it so it works right Personally I have better things to do with my time
Bob said: You cant pay the bills or your employees with good intentions Wanting to be paid for the work you do is not greed it is natural and goodYou clearly have no clue what is shipping inside a Mac Thunderbolt alone is HUGE or that software has actual dollar value What ships with Windows simply does not compare and I have been using MS operating systems for well over two decades I still work on both Mac and Windows and have spent a lot of time on Linux and BSD so I know of what I speakWhen I bought my 2010 Mini I checked it against systems in its class and it was a very good value indeed For example the Dell I compared it to came with the half arsed version of Windows DDR2 instead of DDR3 RAM and was a larger less power efficient machineYou also dont seem to understand the value of industrial design You can buy PCs that cost an arm and a leg if they have the build quality and features My Mac mini is almost completely silentReactionary wealth envy will not bring you any joy Give it up
ggibson said: lochinvar really doesnt get the point of mac The point is that osx software is runs far far sleeker than its windows equivalent so performance wise - you cannot equate an i5 windows machine with an i5 mac The mac would be streets ahead in performance and stability Lochinvar is not the only ignorant one though
Gus said: Its actually a better deal than many other desktops in its class when you look at components and included software When you throw in the price of comparable software and OS version the price difference is negligible or even better and you wont find a single PC with Thunderbolt let alone an entry level model
Lochinvar said: obscenely expensive and very limited in software choice It does however attract customers who are shall we say of the occult who do not mind paying top money for what is really slightly outdated hardware
XHicks said: jescott418 Gaming on the Mac is not as dire as you think First this Mini blows any other desktop in its category completely out of the water for gaming and it plays a lot of games very well In fact if you had actually bothered to read the review you would notice that the reviewer on a site called pcadvisor found that it was easier to natively install Windows on the Mac Mini than it was on a non Mac Remember under the hood there is very little different between these platformsGamers are actually a small niche in personal computers and very low profit overall in personal electronics The money is in consoles and the PC market is seriously hurt by piracy of games devs cant make This is not a product aimed at serious gamers just as any computer running Windows running this hardware would be and it would be just as solid a computerThe lack of an optical drive is very much like when Apple removed floppy disks from their computers Look where they are now If Apple listened to people like you theyd have gone bankrupt
Leo John said: This to me detracts from the aesthetics of AppleYou are not paying attention Open your eyes
jescott418 said: Its only too bad that the Mini has always been a favorite of media center users Now with the elimination of the optical drive One has to wonder who will buy the Mini Gaming is hardly a forte of Macs I know of no gamer who will even look at a Mini and call it gaming quality Plus with OS X your choice of games is not what I would call plentiful Why build such a decent small form factor desktop and require a separate optical drive This to me detracts from the aesthetics of Apple