Mac Mini 2012?

[AqD]

Anyone know what kind of spec it's going to have? I think it's coming out soon, since new MacBook has been released.



I wish they'll get some decent gfx chip for me to play M&B and M2TW...

[irishron]

Steve Jobs' ghost and Windows games? You're kidding, right? I have not read one thing where Apple gives a damn about the Windows user even on one of their machines.

[AqD]

Steve Jobs' ghost and Windows games? You're kidding, right? I have not read one thing where Apple gives a damn about the Windows user even on one of their machines.

Huh? They do have official windows support and I reinstalled windows on my mac mini one month after purchase. The windows driver provides at least double speed for graphics.

Everything is fine, and since there is no alternative for mini size PC (all others have terribly low spec), I'll just have to buy a new Mac Mini for upgrade, this year or next year.

[Musthavename]

Everything is fine, and since there is no alternative for mini size PC (all others have terribly low spec), I'll just have to buy a new Mac Mini for upgrade, this year or next year.

What's to stop you buying the case and building it yourself? Mini-sized cases exist specifically for media centres. Even then there's larger cases that can accommodate dedicated graphics cards without being full towers.

[AqD]

What's to stop you buying the case and building it yourself? Mini-sized cases exist specifically for media centres. Even then there's larger cases that can accommodate dedicated graphics cards without being full towers.

I have checked many of those cases - many are designed here in Taiwan, they usually come with terrible graphics chips which are worse than Mac Mini's (the last one got HD 6630M), and not much cheaper to be worth of the risks.

[irishron]

Of the Mac Mini, I have no idea what they have for graphics cards.chips.

From the dxdiags posted in the various Tech forums here and .Com for iMacs trying to run the Warscape engine for even ETW and expecting to play on ultra, it won't happen without Apple using a better grade of Windows compatible grahpics chips. In fact I have seen some that even Kingdoms mods would give fits.

For your Mini, I apologize as my statement was made on the information of iMacs as stated above.

[Musthavename]

If those cases come with 'terrible graphics chips' then those are not the cases I am inferring. These ones are simply shells. I'm talking about picking the motherboard and the chip and putting together everything yourself. I wouldn't know about the specifics but I'm sure it's possible, and a quick check of my favourite components site shows me such cases exist, so I must assume the components also exist.

[AqD]

If those cases come with 'terrible graphics chips' then those are not the cases I am inferring. These ones are simply shells. I'm talking about picking the motherboard and the chip and putting together everything yourself. I wouldn't know about the specifics but I'm sure it's possible, and a quick check of my favourite components site shows me such cases exist, so I must assume the components also exist.

For microATX yes (thin models), not for really mini ones like what AOpen made. They basically require MBs as small as those in laptops, if not smaller. All graphics chips are embedded, so it's a matter of picking the least worst out of the bad ones....

[Crazyeyesreaper]

your uninformed

Mini-ITX Z77 + 3770k system can fit in a space with a GPU just 14 x 14 inches of a custom design or in various other PC cases from various vendors.

ASRock Mini-ITX Z77
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...ock-_-13157312

Add in an Intel i5 Sandybridge CPU probably an i5 2500k can go lower to save on power but its unneccesary Could go ivy bridge but Sandybridge runs far cooler and in a SFF build temps matter so take the sure thing
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115072

Silverstone SG05 mini itx case fits up to 9 inch gpus
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811163149

GPU AMD Radeon HD 7770, roughly around 6850 performance not stellar but good enough for basic gaming and by that i mean play most of todays games at enjoyable settings.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102993

CASE: Silverstone SG05 with 450W SFX PSU 80+ Bronze 12v Rail as 36 amps = 436w on the 12 rail thats enough for a quadcore CPU and up to a 7850 GPU at max, 1 6pin means 75w + 75w mobo = 150w GPU and 77w CPU =227w optical ram mobo hdd or ssd comes to arorund 330-340w full load plenty of room
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811163171


Essentially you end up with

Intel i5 2500k at 3.3 GHz (quadcore) turbo up to 3.7 $220
grab cheap DDR3 1333 MHz ram 8GB $45
ASRock Z77E mini itx motherboard $150
AMD Radeon HD 7850 $220 or 7770 $120
Case + PSU $115
Optical: Slim Drive $25
HDD: 1TB $100
Win 7 Home Premium $100

Total Cost with the 7770 GPU = $875
Total Cost using the 7850 GPU = $975

drop CPU down to an I5 2300 Quadcore and price drops $40
$835 or $935

Drop HDD down to 500GB drops price down to $60 so another $40 saved
total cost with 500GB HDD, and i5 2300 quadcore

$795 or $895 and should max most of todays games at 1080p

Total Size of the PC 10.87" x 8.74" x 6.93"
Total Size of Mac Mini 8" x 8" x 1.5"


Mac mini is just a laptop shoehorned into a white box thus why its small even so its measurments are 8" x 8" x 1.5"

so its a bit thicker but still small and its fully featured fully upgradeable.

It can be done most people are just lazy
so just 11 inches by 9 inches by 7 inches

The Mac Mini is a dual core with HT so 2 cores 4 threads vs the 2300 which is 4 cores 4 threads, 8gb of memory, larger HDD capacity and faster in every way possible and the kicker its about the same damn price as the Mac Mini and kicks its ass lol

GPU performance wise the above specced build i just tossed together offers 400% increase,

in Unigine Heaven Bench (DX11) 6630m = 10 fps, 7850 = 40 fps

in 3DMark Vantage (DX10) 6630m GPU score only = 3200, 7850 = 20,000

so amazing performance in a small package is already easy to find.

[AqD]

your uninformed

Mini-ITX Z77 + 3770k system can fit in a space with a GPU just 14 x 14 inches of a custom design or in various other PC cases from various vendors.

Thanks a lot! +rep

[karamazovmm]

Macs arent designed with gaming in mind, sure you can do it, I do it.

The mac mini should arrive when Mountain Lion arrives, or at least we are hoping so. We are also expecting the imacs and the mac pros to be refreshed as well.

The 6970m in the imac 27 is just a 6850, if you are expecting ultra settings at 2560*1440 you are going to be sorely disappointed.

the 6770m will net less performance, around 20% less, than the 5770, gaming at 1080p is not fluent at ultra or high details for demanding games.

The drivers for those card as per the m designation are available and downloadable from amd, in the mobile section.
Basically if your expectations are far off from what the hardware provides you are going to be disappointed.

We are expecting the mac mini to use the same gt 650m or the gt 640m and intel mobile cpus.

In the imac we are expecting the 680m, which is based on the 670, with 20% less performance and the 650m. its a cool chip, it will fit nicely on the thermal design.

btw you buy a mac to use OSX, I use linux, OSX, windows, BeOS... however my main things are done in OSX. windows is for gaming and developing. If you are buying a mac to just run windows, buy something else.

[Crazyeyesreaper]

so yea why waste time on a mac mini, i can understand its appeal being small and grated the SUGO o5 may not be AS small its still pretty damn tiny compared to most desktops and you can fit a badass rig inside, ive actually contemplated selling my rig and going with just such a setup but i know id miss the extreme performance.... eitherway mac mini serves a purpose but if you want small and powerful gaming Custom built is the only way to go.