The New Mac mini

Go on then... who's tempted?

[dmorison]

[apple.com...]

$499 in the US, £339 in the UK (according to the BBC [news.bbc.co.uk]), but it's bring your own Monitor, mouse and keyboard.

Very tempted myself as it will be running OS X v10.3 - based on BSD as any Mac techie will know, and will hopefully be VERY QUIET.

[Slone]

hmmm yes, I do believe this will be a great solution web developers / IT who don't want to buy a high end Mac. Cheaper than a laptop anyway...

Cool cool...

On the Flip – If Apple’s history holds true with this nifty little box there will be an improved version within 6 months time. Apple has a history when they release their first generation hardware – usually has bugs (or for any manufacturer for that matter). I would wait a few months and monitor MacFixIt and other resources before buying in my opinion.

This is a sweet concept and I believe it is a classy, smart looking, hardware solution for those who just don’t want to pay the high price of a Mac.

Wonder how this will impact PC users now who want to go Mac but just can’t justify the expense. I look forward to Apple’s marketing, and monitoring reviews.

[whoisgregg]

Buying one the first day it's at my local Apple store and replacing my in-house web server with it. Definitely gonna upgrade to the 1.42ghz processor version. :D

<added>

Wonder how this will impact PC users now who want to go Mac but just can’t justify the expense. I look forward to Apple’s marketing, and monitoring reviews

I'm curious how this will affect hosting companies... Does it make sense to buy a bunch of 1U PCs or use smaller, cheaper Mac Minis? If you're offering apache, mysql, php stuff then a mac is an easy platform to use. There may be a performance hit, but you can just distribute your customers over more machines. Increased redundancy, right? Just wondering... :)

An exciting day for Apple to be sure -- lot's of unique offerings.

[Slone]

Did not think about using this new Mac Mini as a server. You know I was looking prior at external storage solutions for my media. I do this and I also get a computer rather than just a storage device.

Thanks for the idea..

[whoisgregg]

Happy to be of assistance. I hope someone comes out with a specialized rack mount for these things. Unless the size comparison image of the minis stacked can be done in real life without heat issues.

I could have my own 10 machine G4 cluster for just $7,000. (Since I'd upgrade the ram to 512, of course.) I just need an excuse. Somebody needs to make a distributed web browser. :)

[ahmedtheking]

Ah it's tiny! Lol! Man i want one! but Ive got my Powerbook, so I'm just gonna wait it out till the G5 PB comes out! Anyone got an idea?

[limbo]

If I were to give this a name I think i'd call it the minx. It is a sexy little beast, aint it!

If I were buying new though, for the 1st time, I'd buy an ImacG5 or Ibook. You still need to spend a fair old whack on hardware and for a hundred or so more you get the lot in one. Seems like the only folk who'd buy would be those who who need to upgrade? (and as above)

...it is very sexy though...

[BwanaZulia]

I am tempted, but not by a ton. More likely to wait for an iMac G5 later this year.

Hoping for a slight increase or maybe move up into a PowerMac G5.

BZ

[vabtz]

I am definitly tempted

I have been wanting a Unix desktop for awhile now that has more software for the things I need as a webmaster. Linux is great and all but I need Macromedia and Photoshop

[EliteWeb]

I ordered one :)

[mivox]

I'd get one for my home machine, if I could use my PowerBook as the keyboard/monitor combo for it... I have yet to find a keyboard I like as much as the AlBook one.

[whoisgregg]

I'm not ordering one, I'm going to be at the Apple store when they start selling them. I'm far too curious what people's reactions will be. :)

We had someone come in looking to upgrade their LC (which they had bought used from us years ago) so we showed them a "lamp" iMac we were looking to replace and they said, "Oh that's neat... Where's the computer part?" So I can't wait to hear what people say about the Mini.

[superbird]

Think we're going to flog the PC and get one. We've got an old PC with a dead hard drive which we're gonna mend for essential PC stuff

[dom86]

I’m a PC user running Win XP and I’m very tempted to get 1. I’ve always like the look of the Macs not its shell it’s OS looks real solid.

[bedlam]

Hey Whoisgregg-

I'm curious how this will affect hosting companies... Does it make sense to buy a bunch of 1U PCs or use smaller, cheaper Mac Minis? If you're offering apache, mysql, php stuff then a mac is an easy platform to use. There may be a performance hit, but you can just distribute your customers over more machines. Increased redundancy, right? Just wondering... :)

Are you in Texas? According to this Wired article [wired.com], someone's doing low-cost dedicated Mac Mini servers:

In Austin, Texas, a colocation company is building a low-cost data center out of dozens of Mac minis.

Underwriters Technologies' Mac mini colocation is housed in Austin's Data Foundry facility, a former bank vault where space is at a premium.

Because the Mini measures only 6.5 inches square and is 2 inches high, Underwriters can cram a standard server rack with three times as many minis as full-size servers.

"Size is a huge advantage," said Patrick Dayton, a senior project manager at Underwriters. "By taking into consideration remote power, we can get approximately 100 units in a single cage, as opposed to 30."

-B

[whoisgregg]

Florida actually. I'm not in the hosting business either although I am glad someone had the same idea. :)

[Hester]

I want one. It's cheap enough to buy just for testing web pages in Safari! A great idea to sell it without peripherals - PC users can just swap straight over, keeping their expensive monitor, keyboard and special mouse. I hope this is the one product that gets OSX out to many more people. (If it is as good as it looks!)

[jstar]

Any idea what would be required to have a Bluetooth enabled Mac Mini read the hard drive of a Bluetooth enabled iMac G5? Or will I have to pony up for wireless networking?

[whoisgregg]

Any idea what would be required to have a Bluetooth enabled Mac Mini read the hard drive of a Bluetooth enabled iMac G5?

It's super easy to set this up but your transfer rates will be horrid if you're moving anything bigger than 100K on a regular basis. Airport is the way for this use.

[Sari]

I'm very tempted to get one. I checked with my local reseller and there is a 4-6 wait for one!

It looks like Apple has another hit! :)

[Hester]

I checked with my local reseller and there is a 4-6 wait for one!

I take it you mean weeks?

[mack]

Got to admin i'm tempted.

Right now I use 2 extremes, Windows XP and Linux. OSX appears to be a stepping stone right in the middle.

I think I will give it a few months to see what other users think of it first.

Mack.

[AmericanBulldog]

Checked one out this afternoon, sleek little machine. I think we may add one at home. Never had a mac before.

[aaronjf]

I am a G5 2X2 user. Seriously considering getting a mini just for fun and to replace an 3 year old iMac in my TV room. Plus, someone just made a kit that lets you install it in your car, with a screen in the visor. BMW is also about to come out with a similar kit, but I don't think that is public knowledge yet. Both kits allow you to pop the mini in and out at will.

[Macguru]

Since over 4 years, I have been praying on my knees for AAPL to market a cheap "pizza box" sans built in monitor and the likes, they finally popped one. Problem is with this mini gizmo is it's too 'cool' for corporate market. :)

[EliteWeb]

Im working my mac mini into my car ;) Touchscreen LCD display, bluetooth keyboard (ifrog) and touchpad :D

[hunderdown]

We have a G3 at home, still does its job. But this seems like a really nice opportunity to get a second machine, network them with Airport....

[mike3k]

I ordered one a week ago & I'm still waiting for it to ship.

If it was available a few months ago when my old Blue & White G3 died, I would have bought a Mac Mini as my home server. Instead, I replaced that machine with a cheap PC running Debian. I'm using it for web development & low-volume web server for local users, a file server using nfs, netatalk & samba, and a print server. I'm also running daapd for iTunes library sharing. Since I back up my Macs to it, I added a second internal drive (both are 120G) and configured it as mirrored RAID.

The Mini will sit on top of my TV as a media server / dvd player / stereo component.

[tstaheli]

Mine is due here tomorrow, can't wait. It's going next to my TV. I need to pick up a good bluetooth keyboard/mouse, any suggestions?

I upgraded the RAM to 512mb and I ordered the 1.42ghz with 80gig hd.

I was reading another message board and found 2 retail stores that have them in stock and will ship them today. That's what I did to get mine, after checking my original order at apple.com I got fed-up with waiting so I cancelled and ordered one from a retail shop. They shipped it same day.

[bakedjake]

About to purchase 10 of these as spider boxes. They consume very little power and are quite a steal at that price.

Going to download Darwin and blow out OS X.