• Apple Refreshes Mac Line-up

    Apple Refreshes Mac Line-up

    Techtree News Staff, Mar 04, 2009 1735 hrs IST

    Brings out editions of iMac, Mac Mini, Mac Pro and Mac Keyboard

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Apple surprised everyone with a slew of product refreshments much ahead of its annual product update cycle. May be it was Apple's team effort to prove their prowess in the absence of their boss Steve Jobs. Apple updated its desktop Mac line up, which includes the iMacs, Mac Mini, Mac Pro and the Mac Keyboard. Let's take a look at what's new in each of these.


Mac Mini


Though initial rumors about the new Mac Mini launch at the MacWorld may have upset Apple, as they love to surprise their fans, the much anticipated update to Apple Mac Mini has finally arrived.


The new Mac Mini has significant changes in its internal configuration and its rear panel. Coincidently, the rear panel update remains the same as the leaked image of Mac Mini.


After including Nvidia GeForce 9400M in the unibody MacBooks and MacBook Pros, Apple included the same MCP79 graphics chip in the new Mac Mini. Initially, Nvidia had proposed 9400M to be used on Apple's desktop line up and here it is! Apple also brags about meeting the Energy Star 5.0 standards (expected to be effective later this year) in the new Mac Mini and that's why they describe it as 'greener'.


On the rear panel, the new Mac Mini has five USB ports, Gigabit Ethernet port, audio line in, audio line out, one Mini-DisplayPort, FireWire 800 and one Mini-DVI port. Note that it's about to bid goodbye to the FireWire 400 port, since Apple includes FireWire 800 port on all new Mac systems.


Mac Mini



Now you can hook up two displays using Mini-DisplayPort and other display using Mini-DVI to DVI adaptor or Mini-DVI to VGA adapter depending upon the display. These adaptors cost about $20 and would be required, since Apple is the only company so far using Mini-DVI port. It would be worth nothing if consumers will face iTunes-DRM related issues with the purchased videos on the Mini-DisplayPort.


The Mac Mini comes in two models costing $599 (Rs. 30,000 approx.) and $799 (Rs. 40,000). You will have to shell out $200 (Rs. 10,000 approx.) more for the high-end model.


The configurations of the models are:


Low-end ($599)

  • 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 3MB L2 Cache
  • 1GB DDR3 1066MHz (expandable up to 4GB)
  • 120GB SATA 5400RPM
  • Integrated NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics with 128MB video memory
  • AirPort Extreme built-in (802.11 b/g/n) & Bluetooth 2.1+EDR

High-end ($799)

  • 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 3MB L2 Cache
  • 2GB DDR3 1066MHz (expandable up to 4GB)
  • 320GB SATA 5400RPM
  • Integrated NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics with 256MB video memory
  • AirPort Extreme built-in (802.11 b/g/n) & Bluetooth 2.1+EDR


Both versions of Mac Mini come loaded with iLife '09 suite. In terms of power consumption, the new Mac Mini uses only 13 watts in idle state.


This 28.6 per cent price difference will bring additional 200GB storage, 1GB DDR3 RAM, and extra 128MB video memory compared to the low-end model. This specification bump might surprise first-time Mac system buyers.


For further details about the Mac Mini, visit its Tech Specs page.

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Discussion Board
(6) Comments
Sam
,San Francisco, on Mar 05, 2009 11:28 PM
I ordered the Mac Pro a few days before they changed their entire lineup and I had the option of either sticking with the Mac Pro I originally ordered, or the new "top of the line" Mac Pro. The only problem is, it seems as though they lowered their prices on everything, but the new processors. From top to bottom, the 2.26GHz and the 2.93 has an overwhelming price difference! $2,600 in the US. Comparing what I ordered side by side with the 2.66GHz, the price for the new quad-core Nehalem chips is devastating to say the least, even if RAM has become dirt cheap. Is the price tag worth the "greatest and latest technology" ???
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Chris
,Toronto, on Mar 04, 2009 08:02 PM
You said "Apple surprised everyone with a slew of product refreshments much ahead of their respective time cycle." This is completely untrue. All three of the desktop products were in fact *overdue* for updates and in some cases this was the longest time between refresh ever experienced historically. Please correct the article.
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TT News
,Mumbai, on Mar 05, 2009 12:29 PM
@Chris, by "respective time cycle" we were referring to Apple's Annual product update time-cycle for their respective products like iPhone to get some update in June et al. Thanks for pointing out those tricky bunch of words though. Cheers.
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Greg H.
,Atlanta, on Mar 04, 2009 08:12 PM
Why would ANY computer today only come with 1 gig of DDR2 RAM?? By the time you upgrade the RAM to a respectable 4 gigs, add some space to the hard drive, and get Applecare, you're spending $1000.00 on the mini, and you're still only getting about one-third the computing power you can get by buying a same-priced higher end PC. OSX is great. It's a shame it's put into extremely overpriced "fluff" machines.
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Anonymous
,chi chi, on Mar 04, 2009 08:48 PM
Your forgetting that the average consumer does not need 4 gigs of ram, or 500 gigs of hard drive space. The mac mini is exactly what it's name projects, and it's marketed to consumers who are looking to surf the internet, watch a movie, maybe type a paper.
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ncd
,Kolkata, on Mar 05, 2009 06:08 AM
Also, you should keep in mind that MacOSX is not as crippled with 1 GB of Ram as a Windows Vista PC would be. The core of the system is very small and efficient.
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