My Fantasy Mac: The Mac mini Pro

/ damnhandy

We have had a Mac mini for over a year now and while it served us well, it is rather underpowered. Nah, underpowered is being too nice, the 1.4Ghz G4 model is slow as shit. The main culprit, in my opinion, is the 32MB ATI card that is in the PPC-based Mac mini. The slow performance is especially noticeable when hooked up to a 23-inch Cinema Display. I’d love to upgrade to a new Intel-based Mac mini, but it too is lacking in the video performance category, so I fear that I’d see similar issues. The Mac Pro’s are a bit too out of my price range and due to space issues, I don’t want to have another hulking tower in my home (my PC already fulfills that role). Since I already have a nice display (which is also being shared with my PC via the excellent Gefen 2×1 DVI KVM Switcher), the 24-inch iMac probably won’t be a good solution either.

In fantasy-land, what I’d love to see is something like a Mac mini Pro. A Mac mini Pro would have close to the same tech specs as the iMac (but with at least one FireWire 800 port) and sell for around $999 to $1,400. If the extra video and CPU power can’t be crammed into the current enclosure, the maybe it’s a double-height Mac mini, at which point you could then call it a Mac Cube Pro. With decent video & CPU performance and a minimum of 1GB RAM (expandable to at least 2GB, preferably 3GB+), I’d snatch one up in a second.This would be a great developer/photo-editing workstation for those of us who prefer the more space conscious design while being half the price of a Mac Pro and more flexible than the iMac. That’s what I want for Christmas, or at least for MacWorld 2007.

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8 thoughts on “My Fantasy Mac: The Mac mini Pro”

  1. It is what everyone whant!
    If their statement about bringing games to the mac is true. They need a new gaming platform with a bit of punch. The only option available today is the Mac pro. I want something small, good looking like the mac mini that do not take to much space. If they could do that then the mac sale would explode. I know many that do not buy a mac today because of sucking when it comes to games.

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  2. It is what everyone whant!
    If their statement about bringing games to the mac is true. They need a new gaming platform with a bit of punch. The only option available today is the Mac pro. I want something small, good looking like the mac mini that do not take to much space. If they could do that then the mac sale would explode. I know many that do not buy a mac today because of sucking when it comes to games.

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  5. This would be exactly what I’m looking for! I’d really hate to switch to a PC. I love the idea of the Mac mini, but a Mac mini Pro would be awesome! They could make it double-height which wouldn’t be a problem at all, IMO. It should have a true graphics card in it. Hopefully a higher-end nVidia card (I don’t really like ATI too much, just personal opinion). It’d better have a 7200rpm HDD. It would definitely need to be using a Core 2 Duo CPU. It would definitely need to be upgradable to at least a maximum of 3GB of RAM, like the iMac. And, it would need to have at least one FW800 port, as well as the USB 2.0 and FW400 ports. The built-in sound card isn’t really much of a concern, I don’t think. Although it would be nice if it had integrated 5.1 or 7.1 sound, though, which I believe some of the more current Intel chipsets have.

    Well, I think that’s enough of my rambling, LOL.

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  6. This would be exactly what I’m looking for! I’d really hate to switch to a PC. I love the idea of the Mac mini, but a Mac mini Pro would be awesome! They could make it double-height which wouldn’t be a problem at all, IMO. It should have a true graphics card in it. Hopefully a higher-end nVidia card (I don’t really like ATI too much, just personal opinion). It’d better have a 7200rpm HDD. It would definitely need to be using a Core 2 Duo CPU. It would definitely need to be upgradable to at least a maximum of 3GB of RAM, like the iMac. And, it would need to have at least one FW800 port, as well as the USB 2.0 and FW400 ports. The built-in sound card isn’t really much of a concern, I don’t think. Although it would be nice if it had integrated 5.1 or 7.1 sound, though, which I believe some of the more current Intel chipsets have.

    Well, I think that’s enough of my rambling, LOL.

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  7. This pretty much exactly what I am waiting for Apple to release, right down to the name… I had this exact idea for a while now. So if Apple is half as smart as we are, they will release this. Here’s hoping they suprise us at mac world 2007.

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  8. This pretty much exactly what I am waiting for Apple to release, right down to the name… I had this exact idea for a while now. So if Apple is half as smart as we are, they will release this. Here’s hoping they suprise us at mac world 2007.

    Like

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