Apple this morning (US PST) released new Mac Mini, iMac and Mac Pro. The former were not a surprise to me but the latter was. As I had thought Apple will leave the Mac Pro upgrade for WWDC, especially given the current economic climate.
First the Mac Mini, the previously leaked photos, from China, was indeed real. I guess Apple had not place a tight enough iron fist around the Chinese factories manufacturing their hardware. The form factor did not change from the previous model, but inside and the back had.
The new Mac has:
| New Model | Previous Model | |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo | 1.83GHz or 2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo |
| System Bus | 1066MHz | 667MHz |
| Memory (RAM) | Max. 4GB with 2 DIMM slots taking 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM | Max. 3GB with 2 DIMM slots taking 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM |
| L2 Cache | 3MB shared | 2MB and 4MB shared |
| Video Card | NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics processor | Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950 |
| Video RAM | 128MB or 256MB shared with main memory | 64MB DDR2 shared with main memory |
| Hard Drive Options | 120GB or 320GB 5400rpm SATA | 80GB or 120GB or 160GB 5400rpm SATA |
| Optical Drive | SuperDrive across the line | Choice of Combo or SuperDrive |
| Firewire Port | 1 Firewire 800 | 1 Firewire 400 |
| USB Ports | 5 USB 2.0 ports | 4 USB 2.0 ports |
| Video Ports | Mini DisplayPort & Mini-DVI output | DVI output |
| Wireless (WiFi) | AirPort Extreme Card (802.11n) | AirPort Extreme Card (802.11b/g) |
| Bluetooth | Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR | Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR |
| Ethernet | 10/100/1000BASE-T (Gigabit) | |
| Audio Ports | Optical digital audio input/audio line in, combined optical digital audio output | |
This new Mac Mini with is improved separate video processor and more memory can now be a even better home media center with Boxee installed than before.
If we can only bring back Hulu on Boxee then it will be ideal.
As for the new iMac there was no design change except the wired keyboard that come in the box. Apple has removed the numeric keypad from the right of the keyboard. I personally think this is not good.
Anyway here are the comparison between the new and previous models:
| New Model | Previous Model | |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | 2.66GHz, 2.93GHz or 3.06GHz Intel Core 2 Duo (Core i7 on the 24″ models) | 2.80GHz or 3.06GHz Intel Core 2 Duo (“Penryn”) |
| Memory (RAM) | Max. 8GB with 2 DIMM slots taking 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM | Max. 4GB with 2 DIMM slots taking 800MHz DDR2 SDRAM |
| Video Card | NVIDIA GeForce 9400M with 256MB shared with main memory or NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 with 256MB or NVIDIA GeForce GT 130 with 512MB | ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro or NVIDIA GeForce 8800GS |
| Video RAM | 128MB or 256MB shared with main memory | 64MB DDR2 shared with main memory |
| Hard Drive Options | 320GB or 640GB or 1TB 7200rpm SATA | 320GB or 500GB or 750GB or 1TB 7200rpm SATA |
| Optical Drive | SuperDrive with 4x double-layer burning | SuperDrive |
| Firewire Port | 1 Firewire 800 | 1 Firewire 400, 1 Firewire 800 |
| USB Ports | 4 USB 2.0 ports + 2 on keyboard | 3 USB 2.0 ports + 2 on keyboard |
| Video Ports | Mini DisplayPort output with support for DVI, dual-link DVI, and VGA | Mini-DVI output support for DVI and VGA |
| Wireless (WiFi) | AirPort Extreme Card (802.11n) | AirPort Extreme Card (802.11a/b/g/n) |
| Camera | Built-in iSight camera | |
| Bluetooth | Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR | |
| System Bus | 1066MHz | |
| L2 Cache | 6MB shared | |
| Ethernet | 10/100/1000BASE-T (Gigabit) | |
| Audio Ports | Optical digital audio input/audio line in, combined optical digital audio output | |
| Infrared Port | For Apple Remote only | |
The Mac Pro was improved in almost all elements I will not do a comparison here as there are too many, instead you can check them out at Apple’s web site for the Mac Pro.
Hey there, thanks for posting this, I was actually looking around for something like this.