Intel Mac Mini

Shogoki · Post by **Shogoki** » 2006-03-02 02:01am

Before they would have had to pay for the developement a GPU and chipset, and set up factories to produce said parts, not to mention maintenance, or just grab a cheap card and use AGP, now all they need to do is check "IGP for 20% the cost of an separate GPU" in their motherboard order forms, cause all the expenses were already covered by Intel.

I think you're trying to see too much into it, its not some philosophical bullshit, it's just a matter of reducing production costs, it was an option not feasible before without considerable investment in time and resourses, but IGP is amost just another feature in the x86 platform, and its almost free for them, the lower the cost the more they will profit from the sales.

Praxis · Post by **Praxis** » 2006-03-02 02:03am

I don't think it's something philosophical, I just really wish there was the option for a dedicated graphics card with dedicated VRAM.

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2006-03-02 09:20am

Praxis wrote:I don't think it's something philosophical, I just really wish there was the option for a dedicated graphics card with dedicated VRAM.

That would probably increase Apple's costs nontrivially.

Praxis · Post by **Praxis** » 2006-03-02 11:42am

Even the option?

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2006-03-02 12:20pm

Praxis wrote:Even the option?

Think about what an option would entail from the manufacturing perspective.

Durandal · Post by **Durandal** » 2006-03-02 12:34pm

Praxis wrote:Even the option?

Yes. One of the advantages of moving to Intel is getting standardized parts. Why put a separate GPU in the mini when you can just get a motherboard with an integrated graphics chipset that does pretty much everything the target market wants? It's DirectX 9-compliant, supports CoreImage, Quartz 2D Extreme and has a boat-load of HDTV-specific features. Who cares if it sucks for gaming?

And where, physically, would you put this optional GPU anyway? The Mac mini doesn't exactly have room for PCI slots. It's a "set up and use it" machine with bare bones upgradability. Intel doesn't do a whole lot of custom chipset design; they make money from selling a fuckload of the same part at low prices. Why would they design a whole new motherboard with a better GPU soldered on just for the Mac mini when the machine's target market doesn't even care in the first place?

You get quite a bit in a very small package for $800. And guess what? You can install Windows Vista (when it comes out) and get all the Media Center features on it if you want. Sure, Front Row is great for the basics, but an easy-to-use PVR system on the Mac mini would just be killer.

Glocksman · Post by **Glocksman** » 2006-03-02 12:50pm

Why would they design a whole new motherboard with a better GPU soldered on just for the Mac mini when the machine's target market doesn't even care in the first place?

Intel would design the board if Apple requested it as there are two versions of the 945 chipset available; the 945GM w/GMA 950 graphics and the 945PM without the integrated graphics.
Making it with a separate GPU wouldn't require any custom chip fabbing on Intel's part.
But like you said, gearheads aren't the target market and the intended buyers could probably care less as long as it works.

It'd be much more of an issue if they were running the old 'Extreme Graphics' integrated video, but from everything I've heard, the GMA950 is light years ahead of the 845G in performance and quality.

Shogoki · Post by **Shogoki** » 2006-03-02 02:13pm

Apple wouldn't "request" a specific MB be designed and Intel wouldn't just do it, Apple would place an order and pay for the design and for the use of the production lines which have to be reconfigured, this are business corporations here. And yes, from Apple's POV there's no point in doing it since it wont provide any real noticeable performance improvements without sinking a lot of money into it, and they can just buy what's already available paying only bluk prices.

Glocksman · Post by **Glocksman** » 2006-03-02 02:23pm

Shogoki wrote:Apple wouldn't "request" a specific MB be designed and Intel wouldn't just do it, Apple would place an order and pay for the design and for the use of the production lines which have to be reconfigured, this are business corporations here. And yes, from Apple's POV there's no point in doing it since it wont provide any real noticeable performance improvements without sinking a lot of money into it, and they can just buy what's already available paying only bluk prices.

The point is that the board design can be done with 'off the shelf' components by Intel at Apple's 'request' (Intel probably would have designed the board free of charge in order to secure the chip contract from Apple, if they felt that was what they needed to do) or order at minimal cost for the design itself, as it involves no custom chip fabbing.

The real cost to Apple comes in with the loss of the economies of scale involved in producing two variants of the Mini, one of which would see little demand in the marketplace and thus would have a much higher per unit cost to manufacture.

Jew · Post by **Jew** » 2006-03-02 03:10pm

Praxis wrote:
Shogoki wrote:
Master of Ossus wrote:See, I simply do not understand what market they're aiming for with this system.
I think the target market is pretty clear, most people are pretty computer illiterate, and when they want to buy a Mac as long as it looks pretty and has the Apple logo on it they will buy it....
I disagree. The first market is for the small form factor crowd.

I bought a PowerPC Mac Mini for its small form factor. I had to bump the RAM to 512MB but other than that it's quite usable without upgrades of any kind. (I also got the Superdrive and the larger hard drive, but I have discovered I rarely use the Superdrive and I don't need the larger hard disk.)

The new Intel Mac Minis look very nice, and their specs are just fine for the target market. (If you care about the video card, you're not in the market for a Mac Mini.) My only complaint about the Intel Mac Minis is that Apple did away with the $499 entry-level model. The cheapest is now $599.

Oh, and my biggest complaint about the Mac Mini in general: no USB port on the front. It sucks to reach behind the computer to plug in a USB flash drive.