Apple Mac mini MB138LL/A (1.83 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 1 GB RAM, 80 GB Hard Drive, Combo Drive)
The Mac Mini features the powerful 1.83GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor. It has two cores, so it's like having two 1.83GHz processors in one! Another great feature is the suite of applications in iLife '08. A full-featured collection of programs that are designed to let you easily take control of your creative projects. iPhoto organizes your digital pics, and has a cool feature that groups them by event. iWeb makes it easy to create your own website. iMovie & iDVD lets you edit your videos and make your own DVD movies. GarageBand gives you the tools to make your own music, and even start your own virtual band! All of this and more is packed inside a svelt and stylish 6.5" body that can fit anywhere! 2 RAM Slots (occupied) 80GB 5400RPM SATA HDD Slot-loading DVD-ROM/CD-RW Combo Drive - reads DVDs up to 8x, writes CD-Rs up to 24x, & writes CD-RWs up to 16x Intel GMA 950 Graphics Processor with 64MB of shared memory (memory is shared with the main system) Ports - 1 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet, 1 Firewire 400 (8 watts), 4 USB 2.0, 1 DVI Out, 1 VGA Out (using included adapter) Built-in Speakers Built-in AirPort Extreme Wi-Fi 802.11g wireless network card Built-in Bluetooth 2.0+EDR (Enhanced Data Rate) module Unit Dimensions - 2 (h) x 6.5 (w) x 6.5 (d) Unit Weight - 2.9 lbs.
A great choice for home computing tasks and creating a digital media hub, Apple's Mac mini desktop PC combines design simplicity with powerful computing resources. Nicely compact at just 6.5 inches square and 2 inches high, the Mac mini offers an affordable avenue to dual-core processing power via the 1.83 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo and Apple's latest suite of digital media applications--iLife '08. It also comes with the Apple Remote and Front Row media display software, which enables you to easily play your music, enjoy photo slideshows, and watch DVDs, iMovies, music videos and television shows from across the room. 
Inside its 2-inch-tall, 6.5-inch-square anodized aluminum enclosure, the Mac mini houses the fast Intel Core 2 Duo processor. |
This Mac mini also features 1 GB of installed RAM (with a 2 GB maximum capacity), 80 GB hard drive, a combo DVD-RAM/CD-RW drive for watching DVD movie discs and burning your own mixes to CD, Gigabit Ethernet wired networking and 802.11b/g wireless LAN, and the Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard operating system. You'll have to supply your own keyboard, mouse, and display. Preinstalled with iLife '08
Every Mac mini includes iLife '08, the latest version of Apple's award-winning suite of digital media applications, with major upgrades to iPhoto, iDVD, iWeb, and GarageBand and a completely reinvented iMovie. iPhoto '08 now automatically organizes photo libraries into Events that let you more easily manage your growing photo collections, and iMovie '08 can import video from the latest AVCHD, HDV and DV camcorders, as well as from digital cameras, and displays your entire video library whether it's stored on internal or external drives. Both iPhoto and iMovie integrate seamlessly with the new .Mac Web Gallery, Apple's new service for .Mac members to instantly create and host websites for their photos and videos. 
The pre-installed iLife '08 software suite includes a completely redesigned iMovie, which makes it even easier to share your videos on the Internet. |
iLife '08 also features iWeb '08, with live web widgets such as Google Maps that let you create even more dynamic websites, and GarageBand '08, with its new Magic GarageBand feature that makes it fun and easy for both musicians and non-musicians to create great sounding songs. Intel Core 2 Duo Processor
The Intel Core 2 Duo T5600 processor has a 1.83 GHz processor speed, fast 667 MHz front-side bus (FSB), and large 2 MB L2 cache. (An L2, or secondary, cache temporarily stores data; and a larger L2 cache can help speed up your system's performance. The FSB carries data between the CPU and RAM, and a faster front-side bus will deliver better overall performance.) The Intel Core 2 Duo's 128-bit SSE3 vector engine handles 128-bit computations in a single clock cycle, accelerating data manipulation by simultaneously applying a single instruction to multiple data. And its two execution cores are designed to share resources and conserve power, helping it to achieve higher levels of performance since it uses fewer watts. Wired and Wireless Connectivity
The small form of the Mac mini features several ports for a variety of different devices. |
The Mac mini gives you plenty of room to grow with four USB 2.0 ports on the back--for connecting devices such as cameras, iPod, printer, camcorder, or keyboard--as well as a FireWire 400 port, which enables super-fast connectivity to hard drives as well as digital video camcorders. Share files around your house with built-in 10/100/1000BASE-T Ethernet as well as 54g Wi-Fi (802.11b/g). The integrated Bluetooth wireless connectivity--version 2.0 + Enhanced Data Rate (EDR)--allows you to use a wireless keyboard or mouse, and synchronize peripherals such as cell phones and PDAs. Enjoy high-quality sound on almost any speaker system with double-duty analog/digital audio. Record digital and analog sources through audio line in, perfect for your latest podcast in GarageBand. Graphics and Video
The Mac mini has a DVI video output that supports digital resolutions up to 1920 by 1200 pixels and is compatible with the 20-inch Apple Cinema Display and 23-inch Apple Cinema HD Display. It also supports coherent digital displays up to 154 MHz, and non-coherent digital displays up to 135 MHz. Using the included VGA video adapter, you can connect to analog displays at a resolution up to 1920 by 1080 pixels. Video is powered by the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950, which uses Intel Dynamic Video Memory Technology (DVMT) and provides up to 64 MB of shared video memory. Other Features
- 1 GB of 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM (PC2-5300) on two SO-DIMM with a 2 GB maximum capacity
- Slot-loading Combo drive (DVD-ROM/CD-RW): reads DVDs at up to 8x speed, writes CD-R discs at up to 24x speed, writes CD-RW discs at up to 16x speed, and reads CDs at up to 24x speed
- Built-in speaker
- Meets ENERGY STAR requirements with maximum continuous power of 110 watts
Included Software
Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard operating system (includes Spotlight, Dashboard, Mail, iChat AV, Safari, Address Book, QuickTime, iCal, DVD Player, Xcode Developer Tools); iLife '08 (includes iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, iWeb, GarageBand); Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac Test Drive; iWork (30-day trial); and Front Row What's in the Box
Mac mini, Apple Remote, power cord, install/restore DVDs, printed and electronic documentation
Apple Mac mini MB138LL/A (1.83 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 1 GB RAM, 80 GB Hard Drive, Combo Drive) Accessories
 Apple Keyboard Kit
Apple Wireless Keyboard Kit
Apple Mighty Mouse Wireless Kit
VMware Fusion
Logitech Cordless Desktop S 530 Laser for Mac ( 967664-0403 )
Apple Mighty Mouse Kit
Apple AirPort Extreme Base Station (Gigabit) MB053LL/A
Apple iWork '08
AppleCare Protection Plan MA514LL/A for Mac Mini (w/ or w/o display)
Apple Mac OS X Version 10.5.1 Leopard [5-User Family Pack]
Apple Mac mini MB138LL/A (1.83 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 1 GB RAM, 80 GB Hard Drive, Combo Drive) Reviews
But for first impressions I'm pretty happy. after doing tons of research and truly looking at my overall needs. The bottom line is.look at your computing needs and budget and work within those parameters. Here is where I can see the advantages of having additional memory but generally it wasn't too much of an issue.I will eventually upgrade my memory in the near future. I spent many hours perusing You Tube for Mac reviews.everything from Macbook AIR.to PRO.to Macbook and eventually MINI. Also reading the reviews on this site and many other online reviews I felt I was armed with enough knowledge to finally visit an APPLE store and ask some intelligent questions. After being a PC user for many many years the thought of learning a new operating system seemed rather intimidating but having friends who have made the jump made the task seemed a bit less daunting. This made a difference to me in that the APPLE store staff exhibited such "refreshing" professionalism.
Dell speakers and a Logitech wireless mouse completed the set up and I was off and running. Once everything was set up I was working within the OS within minutes and what's cool is on the APPLE website there are many informative video tutorials as well as written support that helps a lot. This weekend I picked up a Mac Mini (with the above mentioned specs.). I had a made a decision to get the APPLE keyboard due to the Command features and the fact that I liked the way the keys felt and am glad.
After I picked up my Mac Mini.set up was a breeze. For video & pictures the OS recognized both my Sony digital & video cameras and I was able to download all my files seamlessly with iphoto and imovie. I still have much to learn and will follow up with a more detailed review further on down the road. The OS booted up so quickly that I immediately thought I'll never be able to go back to VISTA again.LOL. No wonder APPLE has so many people switching. Their support was top notch compared to the experience I had received in the past from other vendors. Overall for the weekend spent acclimating myself to this amazing little computer, the experience has been pretty darn good.
You don't really need to pump out a couple of grand for an ideal APPLE experience.If you have a good monitor, keyboard and mouse.and are looking to change to the APPLE OS this would be the best and economical way to go. Originally my thought was to pick up a Macbook but after focusing on my needs and seeking a cheaper alternative to jumping into the MAC arena I decided to go this route. I had a Dell 17" 1703 monitor that was formerly coupled to my Dell Dimension 8300 that I hooked up to with no problems. I think that in itself made a big difference in helping me make a decision to try APPLE products. And setup was effortless.wireless.email.all very intutive and painless. Fortunately I ran into 2 young sales guys who knew their product well and tried to be as objective as possible about the product they were selling.I got the feeling they were truly interested in making sure I understood the differences between Windows Vista and Leopard and spent a great deal of time showing me features in ilife and Leopard in general. There's a lot of good informative stuff out there.
Sidebar in the Finder is now far less customizable than in Tiger; Sherlock is gone w/inferior Spotlight in its place (it doesn't separate search items in categoriesboo); etc. Complaint #3: My only other complaint on the Mini so far is that because it's basically a notebook without the screen, the ports are very close together. Apple doesn't tell you that part. That alone gets 3 stars. Just a warning if you've got an older Cinema Display you want to work with a newer mac.
AND, because I have a "white-light Cinema Display" (i.e. 2004) 23" Cinema Display. If you have an older Cinema Display with an ADC connection (it looks like it'll fit this DVI connection, but count the pins - it's wider), you'll have to purchase Apple's DVI-to-ADC adapter (P/N M8661LL/B). Unfortunately, it's expensive ($99 from apple or $89 on amazon plus shipping), it's bulky (almost as big as the mac mini), requires use of one of my precious USB ports and yet another electric outlet. So there's that. The Mac Mini performance seems, at two days now, almost on par with my old G5 and is SO much quieter.
Also, when my Mac goes to sleep, both USB ports on the rear of my 23" Cinema Display shut down. I'd rather see it be an inch or two wider just to accommodate the cords better. Complaint #2: Leopard. It just sort of pulses white light when you touch it. btw, you might think you can get one of the other "DVI to ADC" cables that come up with a search here - but take close look at the male and female ends - as far as I can tell they're really ADC to DVI, i.e., for a newer DVI display to an older ADC Mac. Complaint #1: First thing I discovered when I went to hook up my new Mac Mini: I could not connect my "older" (c.
Still, I'm able to use my "old" display with the new Mac Mini, which means a lot to these old eyes. the power button has a white glowing light behind it rather than a green glowing light), the button will no longer work as a power-on button.
This is why the 4 stars, not 5, were given. Using monitors, keyboards, and mice I already had, my wife was pleased that she could go Mac at the price of an entry PC. It may not have been worth the hours spent. This Mac runs far faster than the Core 2 Duo PC's running at 2.2 GHz. Adding memory is difficult. I did upgrade to 2 GBytes of memory by spending $50 at Crucial. You'll feel like a surgeon afterwards.
Never had a Mac before, this is great. Not a gaming machine, but certainly a reliable computer for all sorts of activities that have minimal hardware requirements. I am very pleased with this computer. Way better than my custom-built Vista Ultimate computer. If it weren't for the ease of use and the tiny design, I would have given this computer a four star rating because it is overpriced for what you get. Though I have found glitches in Mac OSX, the glitches are far more minor than those found in Vista. (Such as web browsing, basic photo editing and music production, word processing, and so on and so on). I am now a Mac convert.
My only minor gripes is that the system is sometimes slow with only 1 GB RAM and a slow hard drive. I was also surprised by it finding and installing my older printer (Epson Stylus Photo 825) and camera, although that speaks more for the MAC OS than the Mac Mini itself. It was very easy to setup and worked with all of my existing PC components without issue. I also get annoyed b/c it takes a while to find my wireless network everytime it "wakes up" from going into hybernation mode. The Mac Mini works great as a simple desktop solution.
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