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Mac mini to PC Hack
DiZASTiX writes "Kevin Rose, the ever so popular host of G4/TechTV's The Screen Savers, has managed to fit a PC inside the Mac mini. 'I've seen a ton of articles around the web lately comparing the Mac mini to the near full size desktop PC. What they fail to compare is the amount of computing power per square inch you get with the Mini. So, I decided to take it upon myself to create the fastest PC possible with the size constraints of the Mini's small form factor.' The article covers most everything he did and includes pictures."
Tell me when they get a 3.4ghz P4 and a Radeon x850 in one of those.
http://www.logicsupply.com/product_info.php/produc ts_id/292
Did you bother reading the whole page? Or is your knowledge of PCs stuck in 2001 so you can claim mac superiority? Face it, the mac mini is nothing new to the PC market, it's only got Apple's marketing machine and mac users' selective amnesia behind it.
Marxism is the opiate of dumbasses
Macs always seemed more like VW Bugs than Porsches to me. Granted that the new Bugs are nice, as are Macs, but they're no Porsches. I think the computer world is still waiting for a contender that would be comparable with a Porsche.
The Mac Mini is kind of cool but it's still not that impressive. It's just another small form factor computer. I'd be surprised if we don't see a PC variant with better specs within a few months. The nano-itx form factor is supposed to be even smaller than the Mac Mini and if the mini-itx form factor is any guide then there will be lots of crazy companies trying to dump more power into the little amount of space available. As long as you use an external power supply, a laptop hdd, and no cd/dvd then fitting into this amount of space is no big deal. I'd one up the Mac Mini and leave out a hdd altogether and use a CompactFlash drive which is obviously a lot smaller as well as being more reliable. Perfect for a set top box or something like that.
One thing about the SFF community is that they're not that interested in the computing horsepower available so much as being small, reliable, cheap, low poer/heat, and being something of a fixed standard. SFF is great for hacking out interesting new products. Unless Apple is going to sell the Mac Mini motherboard without the extras (casing, hdd, etc)it's really not going to be that convient to build into other products.
Other than the SFF community who are they targeting? Are most Mac/PC users going to give up significant amounts of horsepower to save a couple inches of space? If they are then will they be willing to trade a little more horsepower in order to get the even smaller nano-itx systems?
Just who, other than Mac cultists and SFF geeks, is going to buy a Mac Mini?
The only idea I have is that they are going to try to produce their own set top box or game console but then I have to wonder why they're selling this as a stand-alone product. Apple could be an interesting player in the set top box and console market. They probably couldn't compete in the number of titles available or raw power but by intergrating such a unit with their iPod/iTunes franchise they could have a winner. A deal with Nintendo could be beneficial to both parties if they wanted to try that. Otherwise I fear the PlayStation 3 and XBox 2 will kill Nintendo as a console producing compay and that Apple would have little hope of competing with them.
At what price learning? At what cost wisdom? The price is a man's peace of mind, and the cost is his life.
As I wrote, this encryption is useful for gateways, even at home. For instance, protecting your wireless network using IPSec. Install OpenBSD and use isakmp that is part of base install.
hey trolly, cut and paste is so weak... why not write a new troll from time to time?
Repetition does not transform a lie into the truth. - FDR
"And everyone knows you need a 1.5 GHz processor to run notepad.exe."
Ah, the old "Well, my computer is fast enough" argument. Stupid argument. Faster is always better in computers. Always. Its better for gaming. Its better for computation. Its better for pretty much anything.
"My guess is a 1.42GHz G4 would hold up pretty well against a 1.5GHz Centrino especially if they have the 2MB L3."
No no no. As a fanboi, use this argument first, and when people point out that a 1.5Ghz centrino will run comparable applications significantly faster than a 1.4ghz G4, THEN, and only THEN you use the "well, my computer is fast enough" argument.
I mean, both arguments are bullshit, but at least get them in a logical order.
Okay, first of all let me bitch about the default USD = EUR conversion that everybody makes.
Yes, I know, internationalization/localization costs money, and that should be recuperated, blabla. Great, that's funny, because it matters practically jack shit when you're in the U.K. Therefore, 499 euros = 649.444 US dollars = ~ $150 markup or 30%. Nice!
Next stop, thats the basic model. 1.25GHz, 256MB, 40GB drive, etc.
Let's check out the extras.
Apple from 256MB to 1GB = 330 euro
Dell from 256MB to 1GB = 119 euro
Apple from 40GB to 80GB = 50 euro
Dell from 40GB to 80GB = 23.80 euro
Apple from cd/dvd to RW = 100.01 euro
Dell from cd/dvd to RW = 71.41 euro
Apple from no wifi to wifi = 79 euro
Dell from no wifi to wifi = 59.50 euro
I'll skip the mouse/keyboard.
Apple service from 1y to 3y = 199 euro
Dell service from 1y to 3y = 99.96 euro
So going the full length of what Apple allows, minus the mouse/keyboard, you get a total of : 758.01 euro.
With Dell, this is 373.67 euro. That's 384.34 euro less, or about half price.
Now, I'm not saying the upgrades are their exact equals - certainly the service upgrades, for example, will have different terms.
But let's face it, you STILL pay a premium for Apple hardware, and 1.3times as much so if you're not in the US.
That said, it's still a nice box for most tasks where you really don't need any of the above options. A laptop/notebook is still a serious alternative, imho, though. The Mac mini may be small, but it doesn't come with a screen. A laptop, obviously, does. Plus a keyboard, and a touchpad (often a USB mouse as well). And more often than not, wifi built-in, or supercheaply available as a PC Card option.