NOW they are talking
all we need now is Snow Leopard and the necessary cash!
Awfully expensive IMO. US$2500 for a box that allows a max of 8 GB RAM makes the low end an unacceptable graphics investment, and $3300 as the next step up is a lot of money.
My guess is that Apple is just following its normal for new products skim-the-cream pricing model. Few desktop computers will be sold during 2009 so Apple figures to charge the folks who really need the kind of power the dual-CPU MPs represent. Then with economic improvement and new chip prices Apple can later reconfigure the line, adjust prices, etc. There certainly is room for all kinds of speed bump performance improvements, including new models.
IMO the product mix is changing. Part of this is the logical consequence of the large amount of power available in desktop computers today – even at the C2D levels of 2006. All of today’s Macs perform graphics work in milliseconds that used to take many minutes, if not hours (remember running PS on PPC 8500 boxes?).
The new Mini IMO is the sleeper of the new Macs. iMacs are hamstrung by their glossy displays intolerable to many (not all) graphics pros but the Minis are not. Running OS 10.6 with FW 800 connectivity, 9400M graphics, 4 GB DDR3 RAM and third-party displays a Mini will be able to actually drive a desktop Aperture or Photoshop workflow (although obviously not like a 4x-the-price MP would drive such apps) at a very cheap price.
However for tech evolution reasons the Mini will live a much shorter life cycle than the top MPs. The 4 GB RAM will soon prove limiting in the future, as will the maximum 8 GB RAM of the low end MP. In fact that 8 GB RAM limitation probably makes investing in a new low end MP appropriate only for certain very specialized usages (not Photoshop) that do not evolve to benefit from additional RAM.
-Allen Wicks
crikey, the old stuff don’t even work yet
Unless the new mini has an eSATA connector it’s a no go. Apple should have included a solid state hard drive option or a one tB drive option also. 4gB in a new box is ridiculous.
It might work for my wife though, actually. Her mini is only used for web and email.
Unless the new mini has an eSATA connector it’s a no go. Apple should have included a solid state hard drive option or a one tB drive option also.
Umm, the Mini is the lowest end, 1/4 the price of an adequate Mac Pro. FW800 works just fine at that price.
4gB in a new box is ridiculous.
Same answer.
What about the new graphics cards? They are not listed in the FAQ about CS4. Making a big move and need to know. Seems like it will work but one never knows. And what’s up with the MiniDisplay port? Weird.
pbc
Paul,
And what’s up with the MiniDisplay port?
As I recall, that’s the port that the new 24" LED Cinema Display uses to connect with the new laptops.
Neil
Allen, an eSATA port would have added nothing to the price and a huge increment in capacity and hard drive speed. Two 4gB RAM slots wouldn’t have cost anything either.
If you sell four (or eight most likely) times as many your unit profit would exceed the unit profit and the total profit of the top end. Apple will not survive if they don’t start staying ahead of the curve.
Apple will not survive if they don’t start staying ahead of the curve.
Right. You are telling that to the one of the best few US firms by any measure and that has been gaining market share like crazy.
They have been gaining market share by imitating the Windows processors slowly, allowing Windows to run semi natively, and by building prettier boxes, not by technology advances which they appear to have given up on. They aren’t even capitalizing on the absence of Bill Gates. Apple sells in spite of itself.
They could have captured the solar system by making the mini a capable box and a high speed peripheral hub, instead of cramming all sorts of stuff into a tower.
Jobs is some kind of genius, but he is not a marketing genius. Apple could have been Microsoft with hardware if they had allowed developers any freedom to proliferate.
As I recall, that’s the port that the new 24" LED Cinema Display uses to connect with the new laptops.
I think you’re right Neil – at the Apple Store one of the accessories you can order with the Mac Pro is an adapter from the Mini Display port to DVI. Neat. Can anyone say ADC?
It’s got to be done so off we go
pbc
I’m pondering a new machine for this year. Gonna sit on my lilly pad and get more input before I leap.
Configuring a tight little system is what I want, and at that rate, I might be best off with a iMac or Macbook. Just because of the tight economy, I’m going to shop and think this one out carefully.
Thanks for the links,
Ken
I am excited about seeing Nehalem in a Mac Pro, but the announced options seem expensive. Glad I don’t need a new Mac right now. In another year, today’s high-end performance will be commonplace, and Snow Leopard will be included in the box. Of course, the way things are going, I’ll be even more broke in another year, and my 2008 Octo Mac Pro will still be looking pretty good, esp. with the performance boost from Mac OS 10.6.
I am NOT going to buy 2000 bucks worth of ———- software for fancy schmancy so called improvements.
BTW, my guy at Apple told me the new mini does not have an eSATA port. That is STUPID. It has 5 USB and one FW800. Unless they fixed USB it runs at half speed compared to a Win box.
Of course, the way things are going, I’ll be even more broke in another year yes Gary, hang on to what you’ve got. In two years there may be none of us able to afford anything, when as taxpayers we have all been forced to prop up every goddamn badly run, justifiably failing industry except our own.
You mean 12 billion a month to Halaburton and Blackwater over the last eight years?
I live in England, and we got the same problem. We are supposed to prop up many of our major banks, the car industry, the Post Office
and probably Mrs Mop who lives down the road running a sweet shop with a salary of 50 million a year. Which she managed to ‘borrow’ somehow.
Halliburton? Wasn’t that Dick Cheyney’s firm? Ya think that may have had something to do with invading the wrong country?
Mac Mini (just to stay on topic).
KBR Halliburton lost money in Iraq. You can look it up.
And BTW, KBR has been shoveling money out of the treasury since Lyndon Johnson was president and the company was called Brown and Root.
KBR Halliburton lost money in Iraq.
I’m sure they did and they have no clue where it is. Could that be why they moved the HQ to Duba? Sounds like a bunch of traitors to me, their only loyalty is to money not their country.
Halliburton lost money in Iraq
OMFG! When’s the telethon.
Oh yeah Mac Pros.
Lots of them.
OMFG! When’s the telethon.
Very funny.
