Mac mini is more of a powerhouse, thanks to a new dual core Intel Core i5 processor and ultrafast Thunderbolt technology. It also comes with OS X Lion, the world’s most advanced desktop operating system.   The powerhouse Mac mini, now with high speed Thunderbolt
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236 of 252 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of five stars OK MAC MINI, July 23, 2011
By KSBAY See all my reviews This review is from: Apple Mac Mini MC815LL/A Desktop (NEWEST VERSION) (Personal Computers) The Mac Mini was updated on July 20th 2011. It not will include an optical drive. The price also has been reduced by $100. There are many big upgrades and minor changes between the 2011 base Mac Mini and 2010 model which I have in depth below.

Major Upgrades

2.3 GHz Intel Core i5 dual core processor a big upgrade over 2010′s model which used the antiquated Intel Core two Duo processor.

Intel HD Graphics 3000 integrated graphics processor An upgrade but not really as benchmarks demonstrate that the I.G 3000 is worse or at best equal to the Nvidia 320m integrated graphics processor in last years model.

Thunderbolt port a super fast data move port. Data move speeds (in daily use) are supposed to be as fast as USB 3.0 and firewire if not more. But useless as of now, because no buyer level thunderbolt matched merchandise are available. The merchandise that do exist are horribly overpriced. The TB port also functions as a Minidisplay port. For connecting your Mac Mini to an external monitor, you will need a Syba High Quality Mini DisplayPort to DVI Adapter If you want to connect it to a tv, you will need a Kanex iAdapt MDPHDMIV2 HDMI V2 Mini DisplayPort to HDMI Adapter with Audio Support

Bluetooth 4.0 technology the new variant of Bluetooth. Useful for transferring data off your mobile phone and connecting other Bluetooth peripherals (keyboards, magic trackpad etc) to your Mac Mini.

500 gb (5400 rpm) hard drive last years model had a 320 gb hard drive. A minor upgrade. Slow.

NOTE the Mac Mini not has an optical drive (Superdrive).

STANDARD FEATURES from last years model (minor changes noted in brackets) are

Unibody enclosure
2gb of 1333 MHz DDR3 Ram 1gb ram sticks x two (It supports up to eight GB. In the 2010 model it was 2gb of 1066 Mhz DDR3 Ram.)

HDMI audio/video output with support for up to 1920 x 1200 pixel resolution and multichannel audio output (HDMI to DVI output adapter included if obliged to connect to a DVI only monitor)

Four USB 2.0 ports
One FireWire port
Combined optical digital output/headphone output

Secure Digital memory card slot matched with SD, SDHC, and SDXC media
Gigabit Ethernet wired networking (10/100/1000BASE T)
Wi Fi 802.11n specification; 802.11a/b/g compatible

Software included is OS X 10.7 Lion and a one year warranty on parts and 90 day telephone technical support is standard.

The new Intel i5 processor in the base Mac Mini is a speed demon, allowing the Mac Mini to obliterate 2010′s model in performance benchmarks also as real world handling. The Mac Mini is excellent when it comes to watching full HD videos, working on papers, listening to music, streaming movies / music, surfing the web and other regular computing tasks.

Something to be aware of though,there is no optical drive in this year’s Mac Mini. If you need one, you will have to buy an external DVD drive and connect it to the Mini through one of it is USB 2.0 ports. Apple expects you to download all software from the internet ( digital downloads,Itunes Store, etc etc). Taking away choice from the customer is never a good thing for anybody except for Apple.

Apple is still as well as two gb of ram in this machine which is sad / shameful / disgusting (take your pick) for a product being sold in 2012 but I am sure they have their reasons (Upsell to the mid level Mac Mini or the Mac Mini Server. Higher profit margins. Etc etc) but this leads to a degraded user experience out of the box. The Mac Mini is unable to multitask effectively. System lockups, pinwheels, stuttering.

I recommend adding 4gb (2 x two sticks) Corsair eight GB DDR3 Laptop Memory Kit CMSO8GX3M2A1333C9 of ram if you want to multitask smoothly. It is easy to replace the ram, just turn the bottom cover, open it up, pull out the old ram sticks and add the new sticks. (I propose reading through the manual once before you do so though) Apple also has bumped up the hard drive capacity from 320 to 500gb but it is still a 5400rpm hard drive. Another useful way for causing a degraded user experience as programs take longer to launch.

Thunderbolt is a good addition to the machine but useless as of now because no buyer level (affordable) Thunderbolt merchandise exist. The merchandise that do exist like the Apple Thunderbolt Display and the Promise Pegasus NAS Hard Drive Array, both cost $1000. The Thunderbolt cable itself costs $50.

Last year, when I wrote my review of the 2010 Mac Mini. I said that the Mac Mini was a awful value for the price considering it contained an antiquated C2D processor(and rightly so). But the changes in this year’s model make the Mac Mini an OK buy now in time. With a $100 price drop and the new machine being twice as powerful as the old one caused by the Intel i5 processor, the basic model 2011 Mac Mini is suggested if you are looking for a able, non obtrusive,power saving machine that will handle your daily computing tasks. But think about it. For all of Apple’s ” It Just Works” motto, this machine does not “Just work” till you add extra ram by yourself. Which again makes me ask, why could I or any other buyer pay a premium price for a hobbled user experience out of the box? Not a good move by Apple. It makes them seem no different than any of the other low end electronics businesses that attempt to nickel and dime us. Hopefully next years model will include enough ram to run smoothly out of the box.

Notes of Interest The power supply of the Mac Mini is still interior. This may look cleaner from a design standpoint but it may also be considered a design flaw. If the power supply ever malfunctions, instead of a power brick, you will have to take your complete Mac mini in to an Apple Store or Apple Authorized Service Provider and leave it there for repairs which may lead to more downtime.

No optical Drive From now on, it is just BYOMKM and D (Bring your Mouse, Keyboard, Monitor and Disc burner) If you have to purchase an optical drive, that will be $50 $80 extra. Certain reviewers are stating that Apple was able to drop the optical drive which is why they reduced the price by $100 and they wanted to pass the savings on to “us” the buyers. That is not true. Think about that that the Mini has generally had an optical drive before this model. The Mac Mini when launched, 1st cost $499, then went up to $599 and $699. At all those earlier price points, an optical drive has been included in the machine. Now the machine costs $599 but does not include an optical drive. If you read a review telling you that Apple could decrease the price by $100 only because they removed the optical drive, that is not true. Apple removed the optical drive for their selfish reasons ( To push users towards digital downloads from their App store, etc etc)

Also, the standard Mac Mini now has space for a second hard drive caused by the elimination of the optical drive. If you wanted, you could add a second hard drive. It is a complicated procedure (Why? Cus Apple wants it that way) and it may void the warranty IF you break something while doing so but it is possible. You will also need a special SATA cable. For in depth information on how to, check iFixit.Com

Value Equation though the Mac Mini is the cheapest mac desktop, it can get costly fast. Cost is an vital part to think about before you jump into Apple Land. If you choose to upgrade the ram ($60) and also have to buy a LCD monitor ($100 to 300) keyboard and mouse ($30 to 60) and optical drive ($50 $80) and AppleCare Protection Plan for Mac Mini (NEWEST VERSION) ($144) once you total it all up, the Mac mini will end up costing nearly as much as a Macbook Air (low end model which is more portable) or the entry level iMac (21.5 inch screen, 4gb of ram, dedicated graphics). If that is the case, you better off examining those machines as buy alternatives instead of purchasing a Mini or buying a Home.Theater.PC by any reputed PC maker.

Hope this helps!

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45 of 52 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of five stars Hobbled, crippled, can not play MP3′s without skipping, December 4, 2011
By B. Austin (Atlanta, GA United States) See all my reviews
(REAL NAME) This review is from: Apple Mac Mini MC815LL/A Desktop (NEWEST VERSION) (Personal Computers) Maybe my expectations were too high, but I am having a tough time loving this Mac Mini. OS X? Sure, can not get enough of it but by design or malfunction my Mac Mini is just not performing as it should when in comparison to other Macs I have owned.

The biggest.And maybe only problem (I have not completely identified it yet) is the lack of RAM. Apple ships the basic model Mini with 2gb of RAM, which from my past experiences should have been good. My old, poor, overheating, since deceased Intel iMac had 2gb of memory and worked good. The difference between this Mini and that iMac was 10.7. Lion seemingly takes many more RAM so whereas I often had over a gig of free memory on the iMac, my Mini is now cruising at 500mb of space to spare under normal use. But that is not all, since the video card uses many of that RAM, I only have about 250mb of available memory.

This is the fastest processor I have ever used and it is to get soundly beaten by my old HP laptop running a 1.3ghz Core Duo two chip and 4gb of RAM. I can not listen to music on iTunes or Rdio without the sound skipping whenever I load a especially complex webpage. I do not want to talk about my experiences with photo editing or trying to run a virtual OS.

Of course the answer is more RAM, which I have ordered. But, when you think about how cheap RAM is, there no excuse for Apple to not include at least 4gb. Other computer makers ship sub $500 desktops out with upwards of 6gb, still Apple intentionally forces customers to pay for an upgrade to their brand new computer.

Back in 2001 I bought a white iBook G3 at the cusp of Apple’s conversion from OS nine to OS X. While it shipped with OS X, the hardware was pure OS nine and it showed in its lagging performance, especially with the video card and display. I think Apple did something alike here, shipping a desktop that does not have the specifications to run it is most current operating system. You expect something like this from a Packard Bell or eMachines, not Apple.

EDIT: After installing another 4gb of RAM (bringing it to 5gb), the Mini runs like it should have. Upon installing the memory, the Mac went from using 1.4 gb of RAM after a reboot to using 1.8 gb. That means the operating system in resting mode needs more memory than is available on the stock Mini. So I will keep my review at two stars since Apple is selling a brand new computer that can not properly run it is newest operating system caused by a lack of resources.

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65 of 78 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of five stars unbelievable performance., July 22, 2011
By Brian Stucki (Las Vegas, NV) See all my reviews
(REAL NAME) This review is from: Apple Mac Mini MC815LL/A Desktop (NEWEST VERSION) (Personal Computers) we have installed a good number of machines at Macminicolo, here is what we learned

A fast list:

The base mac mini now starts at $599. This is a $100 decrease from the last base mac mini.

The Mac mini has kept the same basic form. You may be able to still turn the bottom cover to upgrade RAM easily.

Apple eliminated the optical drive across the board with this release.

There are a good number of build to order alternatives. You may be able to use SSD, upgrade any machine to 8GB of RAM, upgrade both interior drives for a total of 1.5TB. Only offers the three stock machines.(But you may be able to upgrade the RAM easily on your.)

The Mac mini has left the Core two Duo family and now uses Intel i5 and i7 processors. A important upgrade. In many cases doubling the performance.

The RAM changed from PC8500 DDR3 1066MHz to PC10600 DDR3 1333MHz.The Apple avilable bound is 8GB, but we are hoping to test 16GB soon.

The Mac mini gains Thunderbolt. This will be a big deal sooner or later as more ThunderBolt Accessories are released.

The mini machine still uses a ridiculously small total of power and is almost silent in operation.

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