With its downcast price and small sizing , the Mac mini has always offered a various and economic Mac experience . But , while Apple has on a regular basis updated its line of consumer laptops and desktops , this yr the Mac miniskirt seemed to have been all but forgotten by the company . In fact , many industry pundits predicted that the miniskirt would be eliminated from Apple ’s product line . So it was a welcome surprisal when Apple quietly updated the Mac miniskirt to admit Intel Core 2 duette processors , the same CPU the MacBook ( ) , MacBook Pro ( ) , and iMac ( / ) have been using since the death of 2006 . The good news show for those stay loyal to the Mac miniskirt , or for people just look for the least expensive Mac available , is that this under - hyped upgrade gives the Mac miniskirt an telling functioning boost in several app .
Out of the box
outwardly , the Mac miniskirt continues to apply the same white plastic and Al design that it has sported since it was introduced . The mini still requires you to supply your own keyboard , mouse , and display , and luckily there are plenty of way to connect these peripherals . On the back of the miniskirt you ’ll find four USB 2.0 ports , one FireWire 400 port , a powerfulness button , and combination optical and analog audio frequency in and out jacks . There is also a protection expansion slot , a gigabit Ethernet porthole , and a DVI porthole for connecting an LCD exhibit with up to 1,920 - by-1,200 firmness ( the same as Apple ’s 23 - inch Cinema HD exhibit [ ] ) ; a DVI - to - VGA cable is included for plume up an analog LCD or CRT monitor . The mini also include an Apple Remote for use with Apple ’s Front dustup program , as well as built - in Bluetooth and 802.11 gigabyte networking . Curiously , the MacBooks , MacBook Pros , and iMacs all ship with the quicker , and wider - range , 802.11n capability . And though the 802.11n standard is backward compatible with g devices , the Mac mini will still operate at the deadening speed and shorter compass of the 802.11 g monetary standard .
Internally , the miniskirt mixes the new with the older . The biggest change is the comprehension of Intel ’s Core 2 Duo processors . Running at clock speeds of either 1.83GHz or 2GHz , this second generation of Intel ’s Core Duo processor back twice the amount of L2 stash and RAM , though only the higher - end 2GHz exemplar includes the maximal 4 MB of cache memory . The 1.83GHz manakin ship with 2 Bachelor of Medicine of L2 cache , the same amount find in the last generation miniskirt . Both models now transport with 1 GB of RAM , upgradeable to 2 GB . And that ’s good news program , because both fashion model still utilise Intel ’s GMA 950 integrated artwork processor , which shares 64 MB of the system ’s main memory , instead of the consecrate video random access memory found in most Macs . The mini have two retentiveness slots , which ship filled with two 512 megabit DDR2 - 667 MHz SO - DIMMs . If you want the full 2 GB of RAM , Apple will install two 1 GB module for an extra $ 150 . you could find the read/write memory cheaper through a third - party online computer memory , but be previse that installing the RAM requires the use of a putty knife and a petty bit of brass .
The Core 2 Duo chipset also contains a 128 - bit SSE3 vector locomotive engine ; this can litigate twice the amount of data per cycle than the Core Duo processor , which can treat only 64 bit at a clip . The newfangled Mac minis offer 5,400 - rpm hard drives with a higher capacity than those in the last batch , too , with an 80 GB drive in the 1.83GHz Mac mini and a 120 GB drive in the 2GHz modelling ; both can also be upgrade to 160 GB . The scummy - end mini ships with a CD - burning and DVD - read optical Combo drive . The in high spirits - end mini has a DVD - burning SuperDrive that can burn dual - layer DVDs at 8x speeds .
Performance
The Mac mini represents a complicated selling and engineering juggling routine — endeavor for the salutary carrying into action possible while maintaining a small size and affordable price . And though many hoi polloi complain about its special artwork capabilities and sluggish hard drive , there is a rationality the Mac Pro and other high - performance workstations are so large . gamey performance components tend to run hotter and therefore take more blank and cooling fans — and they cost a great deal more , too . Though it would be great to be capable to have our computing cake and eat on it too , the Mac mini does do a nice chore of equilibrate cost , performance , and size limitation . search at the benchmarks , you could see the improvement provided by the Core 2 Duo processors in the results of our central processor - intensive tests .
In our Photoshop test , for instance , the 1.83GHz Core 2 Duo example was 19 percent faster than the old high - conclusion Mac mini , the 1.83GHz Core Duo . The new 2GHz Mac miniskirt was 24 percent faster than the older model in that psychometric test . Compressor scores showed even more dramatic improvement , with the 1.83GHz Core 2 Duo mannikin besting the Core Duo model by 28 per centum ; the new 2GHz organisation was 35 per centum faster than the old 1.83GHz Core Duo Mac mini . liken the Mac minis to the new aluminum iMacs , the 2GHz Core 2 Duo Mac miniskirt held its own against the entry - storey , 20 - inch 2GHz Core 2 Duo iMac ( ) in many tests , finish up just one second behind the iMac in our iMovie , iTunes , and Cinema4D tests . Other psychometric test demonstrate the iMac ’s reward in using full - sized , 7,200 - rev hard drives . For instance , it took the 2GHz Mac miniskirt doubly as long as the 2GHz iMac to repeat a 500 MiB data file in the Finder . Another home where the iMac has the reward is in the kingdom of 3 - D graphics . With its ATI Radeon HD 2400 crosstalk art central processing unit and 128 M of dedicated telecasting store , the low - closing iMac was able to display three times as many inning per second than the high - end Mac mini with its integrated Intel GMA 950 graphics with 64 megabit of portion out memory .
Mac mini Core 2 Duo
good solution inbold . Reference system initalics .
Speedmark 4.5 scores are relative to those of a 1.25GHz Mac mini , which is assigned a score of 100 . Adobe Photoshop , Cinema 4D XL , iMovie , iTunes , and Finder scores are in second : seconds . All systems were run Mac OS tenner 10.4.10 with 1 GB of RAM , with processor performance set to Highest in the Energy Saver predilection pane when applicable . The Photoshop Suite trial is a set of 14 scripted task using a 50 MB file . Photoshop ’s memory was set to 70 percent and History was set to Minimum . We recorded how long it took to depict a scene in Cinema 4D XL . We used Compressor to encode a 6 second , 26 second DV file using the videodisk : Fastest Encode 120 minutes – 4:3 scope . In iMovie , we applied the Aged video effect to a one - bit movie . We converted 45 minutes of AAC audio files to MP3 using iTunes ’ High Quality setting . We used Unreal Tournament 2004 ’s Antalus Botmatch average - frames - per - second sexual conquest ; we tested at a solution of 1,024 by 768 pixels at the Maximum setting with both audio frequency and graphics enabled . We duplicated a 500 M file in the Finder . We create a Zip archive in the Finder from a 1 GB folder . To compare Speedmark 4.5 scores for various Mac organisation , call our Apple Hardware Guide .—Macworld Lab testing by James Galbraith and Jerry Jung .
Macworld’s buying advice
The latest Mac miniskirt models have made some telling increase in terms of performance , without make bulk or higher cost tags . Still a enceinte deal , especially for those who already own a mouse , keyboard , and presentation , the Mac miniskirt ’s size and damage permit it to fit into spaces and budget that other Macs can not . With its fast performance and videodisk burning capabilities , the 2GHz Mac mini is worth the extra $ 200 , but if videodisk electrocution is n’t something you need , the 1.83GHz Mac mini still gives a lot of blast for the dollar . If outer space is not an issue and you do n’t have a spare keyboard , mouse , and display hanging around , you may be better off with an iMac , whose superscript artwork and concentrated disk public presentation may be worth the extra money .
[ James Galbraith isMacworld ’s lab conductor . ]
