Mac in Europe

In 2005, Apple took a detour from its iMac production line and introduced a whole new concept in desktop computers with its launch of the Mac mini. The latest from the Apple is the new Mac mini 2010 which is an Intel based Mac.

Overview

The Mac mini is the only computer from Apple that does not come with the ‘complete’ Mac experience.  The mini comes in an attractive ‘small’ form factor with a sleek aluminium unibody enclosure that is just 1.4 inch in thickness (and 7.7 inches width and breadth) and looks like the Apple TV. The small box like desktop may look small, but packs a complete desktop with many features which are better than its predecessors. The box for the Mac mini comes packed with the desktop and the necessary cables.

At first the mini was primarily projected as a ‘transition computer’ for people who were looking to switch from PC to Mac. However, in recent years it has become more of an entertainment desktop which can be connected to HDTV or music system; especially since it now packs Nvidia graphics and an HDMI port, a first in Mac desktops.

Features

The new mini comes in a very small form factor with a built in power supply; which means there is no bulky adapter. But even with the small factor the mini packs the same features as a full desktop computer. This means less space and full productivity.

Design

The unibody chassis of the mini is made from a single block of aluminium, giving the chassis a sleek and stunning finish. The only side of the mini that is not aluminium is the underside panel which is removable to give access to the mini’s internal components like the RAM. Also the air vents are barely noticeable as they hide effortlessly in the chassis design. And even though the vents are such sleek, the fan operation is hardly audible when the mini is running.

Ports

Another very astonishing feature of the mini is that even with such small form factor it packs more ports than its predecessors. For display, the mini has an HDMI port as well as Mini DisplayPort and it also comes with a HDMI to DVI adapter. The mini now has a SD card slot as well which means that one can upload their photos/videos from digital cameras directly through the cards to their Mac. The mini has 4 USB 2.0 ports which translate to seamless connectivity with many types of peripherals and devices and also there is a FireWire 800 port for high speed data (external drives) connectivity. Then there are the general ports like Gigabit Ethernet, power supply and audio in and audio out.

On the inside

On the inside, the mini runs on an Intel Core 2 duo processor (2.4 GHz or 2.66 GHz) which has 1066MHz FSB and 3MB on-chip L2 cache and 2GB DDR3 RAM (1066 MHz FSB) memory which is upgradable up to 8GB. For storage, the options provided are of either a 350GB or a 500 GB SATA HDD and the mini also has a slot-loading Super Drive (DVD - 8x). The mini also runs the latest version of Mac OS X.

Graphics

The mini has a good graphical performance which is provided by NVIDIA GeForce 320M GPU (which shares 256 MB of RAM from the main memory) with the HDMI output supporting up to 1920x1200 pixels and the Mini DisplayPort supporting an output of up to 2560x1600 pixels resolution.

Communications

On the communications front, the mini has wired connectivity via Gigabit Ethernet (RJ-45) and the wireless options are provided by AirPort Extreme WiFi (802.11n) and Bluetooth 2.1 EDR.

Bottomline

ith its ultra small form factor for a desktop, the Mac mini packs a greater performance punch with an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, a minimum 350GB HDD and a NVIDIA GeForce 350M GPU, especially for multimedia playback. Also the small form factor means that it takes up less space.