Product Description
The Mac Mini features the powerful 1.83GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
processor. It has two cores, so it's like having two 1.83GHz processors
in one! Another great feature is the suite of applications in iLife
'08. A full-featured collection of programs that are designed to let
you easily take control of your creative projects. iPhoto organizes
your digital pics, and has a cool feature that groups them by event.
iWeb makes it easy to create your own website. iMovie & iDVD lets
you edit your videos and make your own DVD movies. GarageBand gives you
the tools to make your own music, and even start your own virtual band!
All of this and more is packed inside a svelt and stylish 6.5" body
that can fit anywhere! 2 RAM Slots (occupied) 80GB 5400RPM SATA HDD
Slot-loading DVD-ROM/CD-RW Combo Drive - reads DVDs up to 8x, writes
CD-Rs up to 24x, & writes CD-RWs up to 16x Intel GMA 950 Graphics
Processor with 64MB of shared memory (memory is shared with the main
system) Ports - 1 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet, 1 Firewire 400 (8
watts), 4 USB 2.0, 1 DVI Out, 1 VGA Out (using included adapter)
Built-in Speakers Built-in AirPort Extreme Wi-Fi 802.11g wireless
network card Built-in Bluetooth 2.0+EDR (Enhanced Data Rate) module
Unit Dimensions - 2 (h) x 6.5 (w) x 6.5 (d) Unit Weight - 2.9 lbs.
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #207 in Personal Computers
- Brand: Apple
- Model: MB138LL/A
- Released on: 2007-08-08
- Dimensions: 6.30 pounds
- CPU: Intel Core Duo 1.83 unknown-units
- Memory: 1000MB DDR2 SDRAM
- Hard Disk: 80GB
- Processors: 2
Features
- 1.83 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 667 MHz system bus
- 1 GB DDR2 SDRAM (expandable to 2 GB), 80 GB SATA hard drive, and slot-loading slot-loading Combo drive (DVD-ROM/CD-RW)
- One FireWire 400 port (8 watts); four USB 2.0 ports (up to 480
Mbps); DVI output; VGA output (using included adapter); S-video and
composite video output
- Built-in 10/100/1000BASE-T (Gigabit), built-in AirPort Extreme
Wi-Fi (802.11g)3; built-in Bluetooth 2.0+EDR (Enhanced Data Rate) module
- Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard, iLife '08, and Front Row software included
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Product Description
A great choice for home computing tasks and creating a digital media
hub, Apple's Mac mini desktop PC combines design simplicity with
powerful computing resources. Nicely compact at just 6.5 inches square
and 2 inches high, the Mac mini offers an affordable avenue to
dual-core processing power via the 1.83 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo and
Apple's latest suite of digital media applications--iLife '08. It also
comes with the Apple Remote and Front Row media display software, which
enables you to easily play your music, enjoy photo slideshows, and
watch DVDs, iMovies, music videos and television shows from across the
room.
Inside its 2-inch-tall, 6.5-inch-square anodized aluminum enclosure, the Mac mini houses the fast Intel Core 2 Duo processor. |
This
Mac mini also features 1 GB of installed RAM (with a 2 GB maximum
capacity), 80 GB hard drive, a combo DVD-RAM/CD-RW drive for watching
DVD movie discs and burning your own mixes to CD, Gigabit Ethernet
wired networking and 802.11b/g wireless LAN, and the Mac OS X v10.5
Leopard operating system. You'll have to supply your own keyboard,
mouse, and display.
Preinstalled with iLife '08
Every Mac mini includes iLife '08, the latest version of Apple's
award-winning suite of digital media applications, with major upgrades
to iPhoto, iDVD, iWeb, and GarageBand and a completely reinvented
iMovie. iPhoto '08 now automatically organizes photo libraries into
Events that let you more easily manage your growing photo collections,
and iMovie '08 can import video from the latest AVCHD, HDV and DV
camcorders, as well as from digital cameras, and displays your entire
video library whether it's stored on internal or external drives. Both
iPhoto and iMovie integrate seamlessly with the new .Mac Web Gallery,
Apple's new service for .Mac members to instantly create and host
websites for their photos and videos.
The
pre-installed iLife '08 software suite includes a completely redesigned
iMovie, which makes it even easier to share your videos on the Internet. |
iLife
'08 also features iWeb '08, with live web widgets such as Google Maps
that let you create even more dynamic websites, and GarageBand '08,
with its new Magic GarageBand feature that makes it fun and easy for
both musicians and non-musicians to create great sounding songs.
Intel Core 2 Duo Processor
The Intel Core 2 Duo T5600 processor has a 1.83 GHz processor speed,
fast 667 MHz front-side bus (FSB), and large 2 MB L2 cache. (An L2, or
secondary, cache temporarily stores data; and a larger L2 cache can
help speed up your system's performance. The FSB carries data between
the CPU and RAM, and a faster front-side bus will deliver better
overall performance.)
The Intel Core 2 Duo's 128-bit SSE3
vector engine handles 128-bit computations in a single clock cycle,
accelerating data manipulation by simultaneously applying a single
instruction to multiple data. And its two execution cores are designed
to share resources and conserve power, helping it to achieve higher
levels of performance since it uses fewer watts.
Wired and Wireless Connectivity
The small form of the Mac mini features several ports for a variety of different devices. |
The Mac mini gives you plenty of room to grow with four USB 2.0 ports
on the back--for connecting devices such as cameras, iPod, printer,
camcorder, or keyboard--as well as a FireWire 400 port, which enables
super-fast connectivity to hard drives as well as digital video
camcorders. Share files around your house with built-in
10/100/1000BASE-T Ethernet as well as 54g Wi-Fi (802.11b/g). The
integrated Bluetooth wireless connectivity--version 2.0 + Enhanced Data
Rate (EDR)--allows you to use a wireless keyboard or mouse, and
synchronize peripherals such as cell phones and PDAs. Enjoy
high-quality sound on almost any speaker system with double-duty
analog/digital audio. Record digital and analog sources through audio
line in, perfect for your latest podcast in GarageBand.
Graphics and Video
The Mac mini has a DVI video output that supports digital resolutions
up to 1920 by 1200 pixels and is compatible with the 20-inch Apple
Cinema Display and 23-inch Apple Cinema HD Display. It also supports
coherent digital displays up to 154 MHz, and non-coherent digital
displays up to 135 MHz. Using the included VGA video adapter, you can
connect to analog displays at a resolution up to 1920 by 1080 pixels.
Video is powered by the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950, which
uses Intel Dynamic Video Memory Technology (DVMT) and provides up to 64
MB of shared video memory.
Other Features
- 1 GB of 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM (PC2-5300) on two SO-DIMM with a 2 GB maximum capacity
- Slot-loading
Combo drive (DVD-ROM/CD-RW): reads DVDs at up to 8x speed, writes CD-R
discs at up to 24x speed, writes CD-RW discs at up to 16x speed, and
reads CDs at up to 24x speed
- Built-in speaker
- Meets ENERGY STAR requirements with maximum continuous power of 110 watts
Included Software
Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard operating system (includes Spotlight, Dashboard,
Mail, iChat AV, Safari, Address Book, QuickTime, iCal, DVD Player,
Xcode Developer Tools); iLife '08 (includes iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie,
iDVD, iWeb, GarageBand); Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac Test Drive;
iWork (30-day trial); and Front Row
What's in the Box
Mac mini, Apple Remote, power cord, install/restore DVDs, printed and electronic documentation
Customer Reviews
great little Mac
I bought this mini to replace a 1.42 GHz G4 mini that just couldn't
handle my 6,000+ pictures in iPhoto anymore. It took 1-2 minutes before
I could do anything in iPhoto after I opened it.
When I got this machine, I immediately replaced the two 512 MB
sticks with two 1 GB sticks that I bought online for about $35 each
(much cheaper than Apple). I also had an existing 200GB external drive
which is the same form factor as the mini and sits underneath it in
addition to a Belkin USB hub (same form factor as well), since you can
never have enough USB 2.0 ports.
The machine is great and much faster than my old Power PC mini.
iPhoto opens very quickly and I can immediately browse through all my
film rolls, even with other programs, such as Safari and Eudora,
running. I am glad I waited until Apple changed from the Core Duo to
the Core 2 Duo, although I am not sure how much difference there is
between the newer and older Intel mini.
I also love the included remote for iLife. It's nice to be able to
browse through iTunes, iPhoto, etc. without the keyboard/mouse.
There are rumors that Apple will discontinue this little machine
soon, but I hope they don't as it is a great buy for anyone who already
has a nice monitor/LCD. I would like to get a 24" iMac but they are too
expensive and I would much rather just buy a Mac mini and hook it up to
a 20" or 24" external LCD since I don't like all-in-one devices
(printers or computers).
Pretty awesome for such a little guy.
I have a 3 year old powerbook and this cheap mac mini runs circles
around it!! Even though it's completely low end, it's still fast enough
to watch 720P HDTV and movies.
I upgraded it with 3GB of ram (though you have to do that yourself,
apple will only install 2GB, but 50% more ram makes it MUCH faster.
(the max it will recognize is 3.3GB but you'd have to install 4gb for
that.. so it's kind of a waste)
You can EASILY hook it up to an HDTV through DVI-DVI, DVI-HDMI, or
DVI-VGA. I do this when I download either a broadcast HDTV show or to
watch a recorded show or movie from my cable box. You can record a
digital stream to the mac mini through the Firewire connection of your
cable box.
I recommend getting an external hard drive, and just using the internal drive for applications.
It seems to keep things snappy.
Anyway, I bought this mainly because I need to do 4 illustrations
at 4 feet by 6 feet, I used Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, and Corel
Painter X all at the same time with documents ipen in each. I saved
them as pdfs, and really never had to wait for any functions.
Only 3D and Video apps take time to render, everything else in real time.
So if you want a fairly inexpensive desktop computer (and
understand you have to know a bit about computers to do any sort of
upgrades) this is really pretty solid.
Especially for those who like to customize peripherals (4+ stars)
This little Mac CPU is perfect for people who want a powerful but
inexpensive CPU without the frills. Just 2.5" high and 6.5" square, it
fits almost anywhere: on a desk, in a drawer, on a narrow shelf. The
unit comes with a Mac SuperDrive for burning and playing DVD/CDs, a
remote control, BlueTooth technology, the iLife Suite (iPhoto, iTunes,
Garage Band, Photo Booth, iMovie, etc.), and the newest OS X Leopard
(on CDs, not installed.) That's it. You have to buy your own keyboard,
mouse, monitor, and anything else you'd like to add.
Pros:
-- This little guy is fast and reliable. The 1 GB RAM is good
enough for most users, although you can expand to 2 GB. (See Cons.)
-- Size. No more towers!
-- Leopard is utterly fantastic. Make sure you take the "tour" to
fully appreciate its capabilities and features since many aren't
immediately obvious. It allows easy sharing of files within a network,
wireless or otherwise, automatics back-ups to an external hard drive
(purchase separately) that can be accessed according to a specific date
and time, and in-network video conferencing (again, you have to supply
the web cam.) My favorite feature is setting my computer to turn on at
the same time every day so it's ready to go when I walk into my home
office.
-- The no-frills package allows users to buy their preferred size
of monitor. Since monitors bought separately usually cost far less than
what Apple charges, this ends up being a cost saver as well. The Apple
keyboard works best with the Mac mini since there's a special key for
ejecting CD/DVDs, but any keyboard will do.
Cons
-- The memory upgrade is not as easy as it should be. Look online
for detailed instructions, including removing the Blue Tooth antenna.
(Ignore instructions for the old version of the Mac Mini.) You'll have
to take the unit partially apart to get to the memory slots. If you are
at all intimidated by working inside a computer, get the extra memory
pre-installed.
-- The power button is on the back of the machine, while the Super
Drive slot is in the front. This means that the unit must be
accessible, both front and back, unless you set the system to turn on
automatically. This is the main reason I cannot give this unit five
stars.
-- The Super Drive is noisy when it starts up.
For people who want to keep their current monitor and other
peripherals, the Mac Mini is an excellent and economical choice. If you
need to buy all the accessories, the price can start to add up, and you
might want to look at a different computer. Even so, the small size can
be a huge bonus for those who are short on space.
I love my Mac Mini, and I've never regretted purchasing it.
