new Intel Based Mac Mini

[Jammrock]

It STARTS at USD$600, and goes up from there. No monitor, and I believe no kb or mouse. That's not "low cost." It's very easy to option up a $1000+ mini.

For a Mac, that's dirt cheap.

[Wombat]

For a Mac, that's dirt cheap.

It's $100 more expensive base than the PPC mini that came before it. Shouldn't going Intel have saved them some money?

[Jammrock]

If it didn't use the Core Duo, double the standard RAM and a larger HDD ... then I would have gandered it would be roughly the same price as the old one.

[Wombat]

If it didn't use the Core Duo, double the standard RAM and a larger HDD ... then I would have gandered it would be roughly the same price as the old one.

It doesn't use the Duo, the base model uses the single. RAM has gotten cheaper, and HD space has gotten MUCH cheaper (besides, going from 40GB to 60GB is probably still just buying the cheapest offered).

They're also using a mass-production processor, and shared-memory video. These should also drive down cost. Modem's gone, too, but big deal.

Two more USB ports, optical out, a little remote, and BT/Wi-Fi don't make a $100+ difference, at least by my math.

[KeiFront]

Guess where this quote comes from

Or one 3D game. Go ahead, just try to play Halo on a budget PC. Most say they’re good for 2D games only. That’s because an “integrated Intel graphics” chip steals power from the CPU and siphons off memory from system-level RAM. You’d have to buy an extra card to get the graphics performance of Mac mini, and some cheaper PCs don’t even have an open slot to let you add one.

quote

[Jammrock]

Ah, hit the link to the store and saw the COre Solo on the $600 model. Yeah, I agree with on the price thing. It is rather ridiculous ... but then again, that's why I don't own a mac. If Apple releases OSX for PC, and not Mac on Intel, I'll give OSX a shot. Otherwise ... nah.

[ZokesPro]

Ah, hit the link to the store and saw the COre Solo on the $600 model. Yeah, I agree with on the price thing. It is rather ridiculous ... but then again, that's why I don't own a mac. If Apple releases OSX for PC, and not Mac on Intel, I'll give OSX a shot. Otherwise ... nah.

If it only OSX had some sort of DirectX Win32 emulator.

Other than that, it's the reason why I don't own a mac either.

[Marshmallowman]

If it only OSX had some sort of DirectX Win32 emulator.

Other than that, it's the reason why I don't own a mac either.

hmm, compatabile hardware, will Apple create a windows compatabilty layer to steal market share form MS or will MS do it to Apple or not.

[Kooldino]

If it only OSX had some sort of DirectX Win32 emulator.

Other than that, it's the reason why I don't own a mac either.

Betcha it will happen. OSX is BSD based...and they have DX emus for Linux...

[Claymonkey]

http://www.macrumors.com/pages/2006/03/20060302113924.shtml

Looks like a few people have taken it apart already.

[Fluff]

I'm still waiting on a stacker system. With e.g. a mini pci express x16 or x 8 etc port on the bottom of the mac mini. so you can say have an extra hard disk and a top spec graphics card, and a maybe a tv tuner. kinda like the sega mega cd was to the megadrive. Maybe with a backlit lcd panel on the front displaying track titles / dvd position / tv channel / time.

I reckon it would be unstoppable then.

[Nowhere]

I think Acorn or something like that (RISC PC for sure) had something like that...

[Jessterw]

I'm still waiting on a stacker system. With e.g. a mini pci express x16 or x 8 etc port on the bottom of the mac mini. so you can say have an extra hard disk and a top spec graphics card, and a maybe a tv tuner. kinda like the sega mega cd was to the megadrive. Maybe with a backlit lcd panel on the front displaying track titles / dvd position / tv channel / time.

I reckon it would be unstoppable then.

Well they already have hard-drive expansions from various vendors. Hopefully we're getting closer to a "bookshelf" style PC that allows for easy expansion such as that.