Readers of the Unibody Macbook rant will be familiar with the content of this post.
Now, I don’t care about the iMac but I did look forward to the MacMini update today. Just so you get the idea, here’s the spec of the old kit.
Core 2 Duo 1.83ghz, 1gb, 80gb hdd, Intel 950 Graphics, Combo (DVD-R/CW-RW) £390
Core 2 Duo 2.0ghz, 1gb, 120gb hdd, Intel 950 Graphics, Superdrive £488
Now new spec is better…….
2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo 1GB memory 120GB hard drive 8x double-layer SuperDrive NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics £499
2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo 2GB memory 320GB hard drive 8x double-layer SuperDrive
NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics – £649
….but the price. Christ on a bike.
I did expect a price bump, as the pound is weak against the dollar. So price wise it’s close to parity with the USD. But once the pound gets better (and it will), I can be assured the price will not go down.
So, what does £100 extra buy?
A Superdrive, 40gb more HDD, better Chipset (inc DDR3 memory, faster bus and NVIDIA Graphics), FireWire800 and 5 USB ports. In this respect it’s probably worth £100.
Also the update sports two display connectors, MiniDVI (Mini DVI to DVI converter included) and the new Mini DisplayPort – which is the new Apple video connection (Steve Jobs said it would appear on all new Apple computer products). So look as if we can at last dual screen on a MacMini. I won’t hold my breath for a cheap Apple monitor though.
The top end costs another £150 on top, and that is for an extra 1gb of memory and 200gb of HDD. I really can’t see the justification for that price. For £13 (Crucial) I can get another 1gb of memory and a 300gb hdd is around £50.
You can customise the Mini on Apple’s store, main option is a speed bump on the processor, but to be honest it’s not worth it. I just hope that John Lewis stock the entry level Mini as I like the 2 year guarantee.
/edit: John Lewis are stocking the useless more expensive model(MB464) instead of the better value version(MB463). I still hope it turns up a little later as the Mini appeared in the store much later than the iMac.