Never before had Apple sold a $500 Macintosh. Never before had Apple been poised to grow its market share like it hoped to with the Mac mini. The tiny Mac mini (6.5″ square, 2″ high, 2.9 lb.) has incredibly minimalist design. On the front, there’s just a slot-loading optical drive and a power light. On the rear, almost enough ports to do everything important (two USB ports is kind of skimpy).
The Mac mini shipped in a smaller box than the regular iPod, which was possible because Apple didn’t include a keyboard or mouse. Instead, Apple says you can plug in your favorite USB keyboard and mouse – or buy Apple’s offerings. Mac OS X 10.4 and later include support for remapping the Windows Alt and Option keys to Option and Cmd .
The Mac mini is expandable. Memory can be expanded from 256 MB to 1 GB (but there’s only one memory slot, so if you upgrade, you have to remove what’s installed), and Apple doesn’t recommend that users upgrade RAM (although this will not void your warranty). There’s room inside for Bluetooth and AirPort Extreme (to be installed by Apple or an authorized dealer, not by the user).
Specs (via Low End Mac)
Announced: January 11th, 2005 (Press Release)
Discontinued: September 27th, 2005
Cpu: 1351.97/172.25
Rom: 1 MB NewWorld ROM, other instructions loaded into RAM.
Just seven months after overhauling the Mac mini, Apple made some small improvements: The base speed is now 2.26 GHz, 2 GB of RAM is the norm, and the 160 GB hard drive holds more data than the 120 GB drive found in the previous version. And for power users, there’s now a server version with a second hard drive bay in place of the optical drive.
For those who need more processing power, you can order the Mac mini with a 2.53 GHz or 2.66 GHz CPU.
The Intel-based Mac mini looks like previous models from the front, but the rear is different. Like the Early 2009 model , this Mini has five USB 2.0 ports (up from four on pre-2009 Intel Minis), two monitor ports, and FireWire 800.
Specs (via Low End Mac)
Cpu: 2.26 GHz Core 2 Duo (2.53/2.66 GHz optional)
Bus: 1066 MHz
Ram: 2 GB, expandable to 8 GB using two 1066MHz DDR3 SO-DIMMs. 256 MB of RAM set aside as video memory.
L2 Cache: 3 MB on CPU
Hard Drive: 2.5″ 160/320 GB 5400 rpm SATA standard
Vram: 256 MB DDR3 SDRAM (shared with main memory)
Ethernet: 10/100/gigabit
Pram Battery: 3V CR2032 lithium
Weight: 2.9 lb./1.3 kg
Model Identifier: Macmini3,1
Gpu: Nvidia GeForce 9400M with resolution to 1920 x 1080 (VGA) and 1920 x 1200 (DVI).
Video Out: Mini-DVI and Mini DisplayPort, Mini-DIV-to-DVI adapter included, VGA with optional adapter
Drive Bus: 3 Gbps SATA Rev. 2
Superdrive Dl: SATA, writes DVD±R discs at up to 8x speed, DL at 6x; DVD±RW at 8x; reads DVDs at up to 8x; writes CD-R and CD-RW discs at up to 24x, reads CDs at up to 24x
