Slashdot Mirror
Price Drops For Mac mini Upgrades
RustNeverSleeps writes "Apple has just lowered prices on certain build-to-order options on the Mac mini. The combination Bluetooth and AirPort Express option has gone down to $99 from $129, 1 GB RAM upgrades have been reduced to $325 from $475 and the price of an upgrade from a 40 GB hard drive to an 80 GB hard drive has been reduced to $50 from $90. Also, the original 4x SuperDrive has been upgraded to an 8x drive for the same price. Interesting that they dropped prices so soon after release. Perhaps Apple actually listened to people complaining about overpriced upgrades."
Amazing - Apple seems to have finally realized that when you market something high quality and feature rich at low cost, people will flock to your stores. There may be hope yet for mass market acceptance of the Mac platform.
The Mac Mini - Greatly Insane!
A question: can a Mac mouse/keyboard from an old G3 system be used with the Mini?
Even if you consider the lowering of prices, the fact remains that you could spend $400-$500 to bring the Mac Mini up to a reasonable configuration by today's standards. IMHO, this doesn't go against their business model.
Or perhaps they read Anandtechs's review saying it was positively scandelous to sell the unit with 256MB RAM with such expensive upgrades.
Good review for those who care.
The hard drop upgrade was $50 before, and it's still $50 now. The article (and the MacNN story the submitter cribbed it from ) are both wrong.
Hmmm...
For 700 bucks I get a DVD burner, 80 Gig HD and the best OS on the planet.
I would never buy the RAM upgrades form Apple, nor would I do the same from any maker. I buy my RAM from the cheapest source possible, which usually ISN'T the maker. So what are we talking about here, another $125 for a full Gig of RAM now.
$825 for a killer system. That's only 125 to "bring the Mac Mini up to a reasonable configuration".
Now, you may think me a Mac zealot, but in fact, I build and maintain computers from scratch running Linux. I haven't owned an Apple product in about 8 years. I've used them quite a bit in my old job, but they were always "overpriced" for me. That's really no longer an excuse.
"Leo Fender was in a 'state of grace' when he designed the Stratocaster." -- Paul Reed Smith
1. Start by announcing something cheaper than competition or usual
2. Stress out benefits of given product so potential buyers actually think it's good value.
3. Let early buyers get in.
4. For those still undecided, actually improve the deal (i.e more features, ie. superdrive) and/or cut the price
5. Those actually undecided that thought it was already good value now think this is fantastic value.
6. Sell like crazy
I think this technique is call "push-over" or something like that. The key to it is to convince people that even at a premium your product is fantastical value (Apple sure knows a lot ib this field). The more you convince people at step 2, the easier the push-over.
IMHO, APPLE had it all laid out. They knew they could make the fat margins with early adopters and then have the extra publicity announcing this. It keeps the momentum...
Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity
Apple has quietly lowered the price...
Quiet, until the story was slashdotted.
Yes, I am a smart ass; it's better than the alternative.
The Apple Store offers price protection for products ub to ten day AFTER SHIPMENT, not ordering. The policy and the phone number to call can be found here. I called last night and they've credited my card.
As far as the superdrive goes, I ordered mine the day it was announced, and it arrived two days before the official release date. It came with an 8X Superdrive.
The 8X drive is only for reading DVD, the write speed for DVD is still 4X.
#!/
Also due to the clever way in which OS X is designed, you can set up a high speed network utilising your firewire, bluetooth, wifi and ethernet ports all simultaneously, with the file being threaded across the available connections.
According to this (second paragraph), nothing's supposed to be placed on top of the box. Pressure on the top may prevent a CD or DVD from being ejected.
You can, however, use the Mac mini on its side.
Those who can, do. Those who can't, write technology blogs.
Hell, take out the dishwasher and you could park an IBM AS/400 under the counter. Why settle for a Mac Mini when you could be running an enterprise class server, right in your kitchen?
You could even augment this by placing an external disk array cabinet in place of the refrigerator.
Unknown host pong.
I called yesterday after work and they handled it very professionally...I didn't even have to get upset. They credited me the $31.20 difference for the Airport/BT combo and said that no mini's actually shipped with the 4x Superdrives...they just corrected the description on the webpage. I'm not able to verify this since I'm away on business for the week, but I'll take his word for it for the time being. Can anyone with a mini verify the speed of the Superdrive?
This is part of the reason people love Apple so much, they really do take care of their customers.
So what's the total for a tricked out mini?
I was able to configure one up to a surprising $40,553!
I only came here to do two things; kick some ass, and drink some beer...looks like we're almost out of beer.
An eMac is $800 with a 17" CRT built in.
A Mac mini has no monitor, or keyboard or mouse and only costs $500 for roughly the same hardware. The pacakging is also a lot smaller and simpler.
Apple could still be making decent margins off this I think. And as others have noted if there are many accessory sales margins are even better.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
IMHO Apple would win some more "do it yourself" people if they offered upgrades and parts. That's because the Mini is not intended for the "do it yourself" kind of people. We know YOU and the rest of the Slashdotters can build a beowlf cluster from scrap parts of a Commodore64 for less than $99.
IMO, the built-in Bluetooth ain't worth it. I've got a usb bt dongle from Linksys which is truly class 1 (100m) for $50 and the built-in bluetooth is only class 3 (10m). I can now surf the internet from anywhere in the house on my Palm Tungsten T3, but I wouldn't be able to with the built-in Mac adapter, and they cost the same.
If you're just looking for wireless mice, printers, and keyboards it might be worth it, but if you have a PDA, skip it.
For 700 bucks I get a DVD burner, 80 Gig HD and the best OS on the planet.
Ah, so you did exactly what I did - bought a nice Athlon system and installed Linux. Good choice!
This post is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
RAM is one thing that I don't scrimp on. High quality RAM made by reputable companies is very important. The last thing you want it to have to troubleshoot problems caused by bad RAM.
On the Apple forums, several people have described random kernel panics and general operating unpleasantness after going with cheap RAM.
The only place I would get Mac RAM from would be Crucial.com, and they're more or less the price of the Apple RAM, though the 1GB is a hundred less. Crucial is a division of Micron and thoroughly tests their RAM.
The problem is that some people report issues with using PC2700 RAM in the mini, some report overheating (you need quality RAM because of that cramped airflow in the casing), and so on.
Make sure you people manually upgrading your minis get high-quality RAM that is up to spec!
Did you read the page? Do you understand what the hell is going on there?
Scroll down to the targeted host apple.com and click on it (link provided for you).
Now read the WHOLE PAGE. Those are advertisers that Gator pops up WHEN YOU ARE BROWSING APPLE.COM.
Key distinction there. It's not that APPLE is advertising. It's that gator is DISPLAYING OTHER ADS when you are on Apple.com.
Living proof that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.
As for the suing thing, Apple is actually suing to find out who the employees are that are leaking details. I'm not that happy about them suing they guy but I have to say that whoever leaked these details has probably crossed the line because they have seriously broken a contract a NDA they signed. Previous rumors have been close but this last wave was just too exacting in detail.
If you want to be angry at someone how about wondering why these employees do not come forward and give themselves up instead of letting this kid twist in the wind.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
"Why can't the better (from an engineering point of view) instruction set architecture (i.e. PowerPC) win in the desktop market?"
Because the desktop market would not be best served by having Apple take the lead. Half of everything Apple does would be considered "anticompetitive" if they were in Microsoft's position. And talk about vendor lock-in! Apple doesn't even allow clones any more.
Apple would need to make a *lot* of changes to become dominant, and would need to take some big chances.
What do you need the PCI slot for?
TV Tuner. I know you can get a USB tuner, but that kind of defeats the whole form factor thing.
I'm not complaining though - this is going to be one really sweet DVD/DivX/MP3 player machine. I picked up a Remote Wonder control today, and now I can comfortably select and play movies from the couch.
If Apple were to release a version of the mini with 6-channel sound, a TV tuner, PVR software, and a good looking remote Windows Media Center wouldn't stand a chance. It would be the iPod of the living room.
READY.
#
So to recap, what apple is installing is "better" in terms of stability, and if they use faster-rated RAM (say, PC3000) to build it, the speed lost to ECC and buffering will be negligible compared to normal PC2700.
It doesn't work that way. SDRAM is synchronous memory and the chipset will attempt to run the memory at the speed of the bus. Faster memory will not make the bus go any faster than the chipset's rated speed.
For example, I had a KT333 chipset which had a 333 mhz bus speed. It used PC2700 memory, which is 333 mhz memory. I had a power surge and my MB died. So I replaced it with a KT266 motherboard, which only has a 266 mhz bus speed (PC2100 speed). I still used my old PC2700 memory, but the memory now operates at the bus speed, which is 266 mhz. It is not any faster than if I just had PC2100 memory in it, since it can only run as fast as the chipset can drive it.
The Mac mini's chipset works at 333 mhz, which is PC2700 speed. Putting in PC3000 or faster won't make the memory speed be any faster- it'll always run at 333 mhz.
I assume by crush you mean "To press between opposing bodies so as to break or injure." [dictionary.com]?
SPAM
since last Thursday and it has so far exceeeded my expectations in every way. I contacted Apple last night and they are refunding the price difference to reflect the price drops, I cannot complain. Of course if those prices would have been lower initially I might have ordered more upgrades, but overall I can say this has been an excellent experience with Apple again.
Okay, fed up with everyone saying "1GB of RAM is sooooo expensive". Yes, it is. Bad Apple.
However, why do you want 1GB of RAM? I use a PowerBook with a 1.5Ghz CPU and 512MB as my desktop replacement at work, and have no problems. I've currently got Thunderbird, Adium (IM), iTunes, Firefox, Azureus and X11 open, with no noticable slowdown or disk swapping.
Unless you're going to be doing something you know is memory intensive (Photoshop), you probably won't use anything more than 512MB. If you're that worried, and live anywhere near an Apple store, see if you can try one of these out, open half a dozen applications and see what performance you get.
And how much is VAT in Belgium? Try comparing the price without VAT to the USA price which is without their sales tax...
So the added cost of AppleCare (3yr extended warranty I believe) made you reconsider because it became too expensive. And yet when all the Apple-bashers talk about how cheap a beige box is, they NEVER buy extended warranties.
Speaking of boxes, let me get on my soapbox and address all the bashers.
I can't believe so many people can't figure it out. Sure it costs more than your x86 box. But you wanna know something? You are paying for industrial design AND the computing experience (software). Bitch and whine all you want about how the harddrive, cpu, video card are slower than your custom built beige gamer box, but in the end it's not about FPS, read times and floating point instructions per second, what counts is how well the computer allows you to do what you want to do. IMNSHO, Apple software along with the design of it's computers makes my life easier and that is worth a price premium. All you turd-fuckers can't figure that out and only cry about the price/performance based on hardware merits. Last time I checked, you weren't pushing and popping bits onto the processor, the most critical thing you are seeing/using is the software. Hardware has become a commodity. The value is in the software. Don't believe me? I think the entire OSS movement has made you delusional. Just cuz it's free doesn't mean it has no value. There is a difference between good software and bad. Ignore the entire hardware argument, sit down and ask yourself how much you think OS X and iLife are worth. Honestly, don't fool yourself...give it a fair estimate. Compare it to other similar software and come up with a dollar value. You can tell me that Windows comes preinstalled or Linux is free blah blah blah...but if I offered you the choice for free, which of those 3 OS'es would you run (ignore all technical limitations such as OS X won't run on x86, etc...this is just for argument sake)? OS X right? There, that tells you that you place more value in OS X than the other two. Now then...that $499 seem so bad?
How about the software that comes preinstalled, allowing you to literally open the box, power it up and actually be able to use it? Put that in contrast with the Windows or Linux experience, how much time do you need to spend installing and customizing those boxes before they are actually useable? Even assuming that the stuff you install afterwards is all free, it's still time saved. Ok fry-boy, maybe your time is cheap but mine isn't.
If you bashers insist on comparing it on hardware alone, then move on because there's nothing for you here. You will never think Apple products are affordable. It's funny how many of you bitch that their memory upgrades are a rip-off, so you're not going to make the switch. If you were going into a restaurant to eat a burger but they had an overpriced salad on the menu, would it stop you from eating the burger? The choice is yours. if the overpriced ram is stopping you from buying an Apple, you're lying to yourself because you are only looking for an excuse, you were never going to buy one to begin with.
Wow, you must be crazy smart, I hear CPU's are real hard to make from scratch.
You don't know the half of it! One time I was painstakingly hand-soldering a 68040, when I accidentally dropped my pince-nez. Well, when I got back to my work, I had inadvertently given the chip a half turn, and before I knew it I connected pin 25965 to 52692! That took me even longer to figure out than the time I baked the hard drive platters a little too long.
Mike van Lammeren
It will challenge your head, your brain, and your mind.
For completeness, you need to add iLife '05 for the Mac. That retails around $79, but I bet you'd be hard pressed to find a suite for a similar price in the PC world.
You also forgot to configure the DVD/CD drive option the same on the Dell. When you do, it adds $35.
What's still different in the technical details? The mini includes Firewire and a real video card. You need to add $110 to the Dell to get those. Now you're up to $685 + $35 + $110 = $830.
The only technical details the Dell has now over the mini is that the (minimum optional) video card is better (I think) than the 9200 in the mini and that the 4700 has 6 USB ports on it instead of 2, if you care to have that many.
Is the mini a good buy? Uh, well, technically, yes. Unless you're going to quibble about raw processor performance.
Look. At this level of machine, it's a new game. Make your choice based on what you want. Price is not an issue anymore. Instead, sit down and ask yourself whether you want to try:
* A new user experience. Yes, there will be a learning curve if you've never used one. There's no Start button. There's one menu bar. It will take you a few days. Big deal, likely.
* A new level of security--whether through design or obscurity, your choice. This will save you a few days. Each month. No joke.
* Lower number, but higher average quality (typically) app selection. What do you use? What can't you live without? A lot of good stuff is ported. Some good stuff is not. There are sometimes great alternatives, sometimes not.
Apple's giving those at this price point the chance to make a personal selection that has very little to do with financials. Enjoy making it.
I declare shenanigans.
I ran my PB17 for about 4 months (512mb, 4200? rpm HD, 1.33 ghz cpu) and it was plenty fast doing real world work (daily on-site video production for a public school system).
Is this the new angle of attack for the Mac-haters?
i priced a Mac Mini with all the upgrades, it came out to $1222.
i priced this at logic Supply:
Morex 3677 mini-ITX case Silver $85.00
VIA EPIA MII12000 Mini-ITX Motherboard $214.00
Notebook 2.5" Hard Drive 80GB $175.00
Panasonic Slot Loading CD-RW / DVD $99.00
PC2100 / DDR266 memory 1024MB $290.00
Microsoft Windows XP Pro with SP2 $175.00
Netgear WG511 54 Mbps Wireless PCMCIA Card $49.00
Combo Keyboard, Mouse and Speakers $21.00
Sub-Total: $1,108.00
note that the Mac mini has a slightly faster CPU (and i'm willing to bet the G4 will out-perform the Via Eden in most cases). the Mini has a DVD burner as opposed to a DVD-ROM/CD-RW. the Mini has Apple's wireless keyboard.
so, the Mac Mini price is at least competitive with other small form factor computers, if not regular full size computers.