New Apple Mac mini: sleeker, faster performance

Apple has launched a new, redesigned member of its Mac family -- the Mac mini, which is also the smallest Mac money can buy. The new Mac mini now comes in a compact aluminum case and claims to deliver up to twice the graphics performance compared to the previous Mac mini. The new mini also comes with an HDMI port and SD card slot. In addition to hardware updates, Apple also claims the new Mac mini to be the world's most energy efficient desktop. It is also the most inexpensive Mac -- cheaper even than the entry-level 13-inch MacBook -- if you want one. The Mac mini retails for a price of Rs. 44,900.

The Mac mini comes with a standard 2.4-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB RAM (expandable to 8GB), and a 320GB hard drive. For graphics, the Mac mini has a decent graphics processor -- the Nvidia GeForce 320M adapter. Apple claims the new Nvidia GeForce 320M helps deliver up to twice the graphics performance compared to the Nvidia GeForce 9400M deployed on previous Mac minis. It has four USB ports, a slot-loading 8X SuperDrive (optical drive), Gigabit Ethernet, FireWire 800 port, Wi-Fi 802.11n wireless networking and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR. There's also an HDMI and one Mini DisplayPort on the back. The Mac mini also comes with HDMI to DVI video adapter. It also comes with a combined optical digital audio input, digital audio output. This is the consumer Mac mini and retails for a price of Rs. 44,900. It comes with Mac OSX Snow Leopard operating system.

The new Mac mini's unibody aluminum enclosure measures just 7.7-inches square and 1.4-inches high. The Mac mini tries to reduce cable clutter to a minimum by doing away with an external power supply of the past, integrating an in-built power supply instead. To upgrade internal system memory, you can remove the bottom panel of the Mac mini to service its RAM. The Mac mini continues to connect to your existing peripherals (mice, keyboards, digital displays), while the new HDMI port allows the Mac mini to connect to an HDTV (if you have one) and its onboard SD card slot easily allows you to transfer photos and videos from a digital camera.

Apple also sells a Mac mini version for the purpose of a small home or business server. Equipped with Mac OSX Snow Leopard Server, the Mac mini includes email, calendar, file serving, and backup services, apart from Wiki Server, Podcast Producer. The Mac mini server edition comes with a 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, two 500GB hard drives running at 7200 rpm, 4GB of RAM and supports unlimited clients for Rs. 64,900.