[FulcrumPilot]

Just curious.

Here is one contender:
http://www.cappuccinopc.com/slimpro-sp300-fanless.asp

[tooki]

1. How many more threads about this do we need?
2. We're Mac users, why would we even care?

tooki

[FulcrumPilot]

Originally posted by tooki:
2. We're Mac users, why would we even care?

tooki [/B]

I was talking to the majority, may be?

[goMac]

That machine starts with a Celery processor and no AGP graphics. Thats not a mac mini killer, thats called a doorstop.

[nredman]

Originally posted by goMac:
That machine starts with a Celery processor and no AGP graphics. Thats not a mac mini killer, thats called a doorstop.

haha celery

[Ganesha]

[tooki]

Originally posted by FulcrumPilot:
I was talking to the majority, may be?

I'm quite certain the majority of folks here aren't interested in PCs.

tooki

[Mr Kino]

Originally posted by FulcrumPilot:
Just curious.

Here is one contender:
http://www.cappuccinopc.com/slimpro-sp300-fanless.asp

That thing is freaking ugly. But i got to tell you that their asking price will raise some eye brows. As i have mentioned before, i work at a Dell Direct Store. One thing ive discovered is that people will buy the cheapest pc they can find.

they dont care or know how important it is to invest in something with decent speed, they just hear "cheap computer" and they flock like gulls to a garbage heap. tsk tsk.

[Splinter]

there is a reason that computer is so cheap... its a PIII it dosnt support DDR memmory only 133ram really really old stuff and even then it's only UP TO 512...

I have a feeling this is a very very old product.

[Mithras]

Originally posted by Mr Kino:
That thing is freaking ugly. But i got to tell you that their asking price will raise some eye brows. As i have mentioned before, i work at a Dell Direct Store. One thing ive discovered is that people will buy the cheapest pc they can find.

Read closely -- that's $315 without a CPU, memory, hard disk, or optical drive.

Once you click "Buy Complete", you see it's $599 for:
* Pentium III @ 400Mhz
* 128 MB RAM
* 20GB hard drive
* CD-ROM
* DOS

To outfit it something more like the $499 Mac mini, I get:
* Pentium III @ 650Mhz
* 256 MB RAM
* 40GB hard drive
* DVD/CD-R slot-load
* Windows XP Home
for $903.00

so no, not exactly a Mac mini-killer.

[amsalpemkcus]

I'd give it a 3-6 months. The rest of industry will come out with numerous imitators and beat the crap out of apple on the price front and also the hardware front. I hope apple will be smart enough as this happens to get itself into a niche like it did using itunes. Read Cringley latest take on how mac mini is being made for movies.

[goMac]

I don't know how many people own P4 systems, but there is no way in hell that they will ever get a Prescott in a case that small.

[Wiskedjak]

Originally posted by goMac:
I don't know how many people own P4 systems, but there is no way in hell that they will ever get a Prescott in a case that small.

Perhaps not, but the G4 is more comparable to a PIII than the P4. There is also no way in hell that Apple will ever get a G5 into a case the size of the Mac Mini.

[Drakino]

Originally posted by Wiskedjak:
Perhaps not, but the G4 is more comparable to a PIII than the P4. There is also no way in hell that Apple will ever get a G5 into a case the size of the Mac Mini.

Agreed. Intel does however also have the Pentium-M chip, and Intel is now getting serious about it being the go ahead processor. Recently they released the 2.1ghz version along with a new chipset that supports DDR-2 memory and a 533mhz bus. During the introduction, they showed the P-M chip outpacing a P4 with hyperthreading running at 3.6ghz.

The Mini isn't a new idea though. Tiny PCs have also been around for ages. Apple did the same thing they have done before, they refined an idea to a very simplistic point. And it will sell well. Same as the iPod. They wern't the first into the portable MP3 markets (flash or hard drive), but they waited for the 1.8 inch disks and made a tiny player with a lot of refinement.

[amsalpemkcus]

I also think the "timing" of the mac mini is almost perfect. I think apple may have just opened the floodgates for such a device. In the end of course lose the competition in whatever direction this product is aimed at. This time around the behemoths are not going to sit around and watch while the HD video delivery market (if this is more than a rumor) is monopolised!

[willed]

Originally posted by tooki:
1. How many more threads about this do we need?
2. We're Mac users, why would we even care?

tooki

For someone who's meant to be a moderator, you can be distinctly unhelpful. In fact, I don't know if I remember a post of yours that wasn't complaining about something, usually inline image sizes.

[amsalpemkcus]

Originally posted by willed:
For someone who's meant to be a moderator, you can be distinctly unhelpful. In fact, I don't know if I remember a post of yours that wasn't complaining about something, usually inline image sizes.

Yeah, I agree tooki needs to see a proctologist.

[goMac]

Originally posted by Wiskedjak:
Perhaps not, but the G4 is more comparable to a PIII than the P4. There is also no way in hell that Apple will ever get a G5 into a case the size of the Mac Mini.

I'd probably say the G4 is decently comparable to a P4 (not a high end one though). A G5 with Powertune would make it into a case that small, or even a Freescale 64 bit G4.

[tooki]

Originally posted by willed:
For someone who's meant to be a moderator, you can be distinctly unhelpful. In fact, I don't know if I remember a post of yours that wasn't complaining about something, usually inline image sizes.

You wouldn't be complaining if you've seen what happens on forums as big as ours without strict rule enforcement. You'd be begging for somebody to do something.

You have to remember that a large number of my posts aren't posted because I want to contribute to the conversation, but rather are "administrative" posts. (Though for inline images, I usually edit the post, rather than post a response.)

tooki

[AndyOwen]

http://www.sd-omega.com

If you're interesting in small form factor PCs, check out these tiny little machines: http://www.sd-omega.com

[TETENAL]

The AOpen miniPC is the only mini-killer yet.

http://minipc.aopen.com/
http://minipc.aopen.com/spec.htm

[rickey939]

Originally Posted by AndyOwen

http://www.sd-omega.com

If you're interesting in small form factor PCs, check out these tiny little machines: http://www.sd-omega.com

Thank you for registering at the 'NN to post this information. Much appreciated!

[mojo2]

Originally Posted by willed

For someone who's meant to be a moderator, you can be distinctly unhelpful. In fact, I don't know if I remember a post of yours that wasn't complaining about something, usually inline image sizes.

amsalpemkcus
Quote:
Originally posted by willed:
For someone who's meant to be a moderator, you can be distinctly unhelpful. In fact, I don't know if I remember a post of yours that wasn't complaining about something, usually inline image sizes.

Yeah, I agree tooki needs to see a proctologist.

I can't speak for your experience but 99% of the time I have found tooki to be helpful, intelligent, well reasoned, considerate and to be the model of restraint. And, in case you are wondering, he and I aren't buddies and we HAVE had disagreements. He HAS angered me at least once. And I SPECIFICALLY DO NOT curry the favor of mods or admins, to the contrary, I'd rather have NO interaction with them, for reasons previously stated. But an objective assessment from THIS poster's POV says tooki is ok. But I will keep an eye on you from now on to see what kind of posters you are.

Here's an example of tooki's helpfulness.

tooki
The Encyclopedic Admin


Join Date: Oct 1999
Location: Baltimore, MD
Posts: 9,781
Status: Offline
Report Abuse
Yesterday, 02:37 PM

Quote:
Originally Posted by mojo2
BTW, I repeatedly tried posting this and it wouldn't work UNTIL I took ALL the words, "BLACK" out of the title and copy and then re-spaced the text so it looked like a different post and not just that I took out the offending words.

Is there a racist filter in the software???




There's a filter, but it doesn't prevent posting -- it replaces the offending words with asterisks, like this: **** you, stupid malfunctioning forum server!

What I think happened is that it got messed up and the duplicate-post filter caught it, thinking it had been posted, when in fact the first attempt had failed. That's why you had to make it substantially different before posting.

Sorry about the problems, they're affecting me as well.

tooki

[dcmacdaddy]

Originally Posted by TETENAL

The AOpen miniPC is the only mini-killer yet.

http://minipc.aopen.com/
http://minipc.aopen.com/spec.htm

Nice looking. Decent specs. Could use a better video card.
(Although, what small-form-factor PC doesn't use a sub-standard video card?)
If I was needing a home PC I would look into it.
But I have yet to find a "need" for a home PC; My Macs do just fine.

[mojo2]

Originally Posted by dcmacdaddy

Nice looking. Decent specs. Could use a better video card.
(Although, what small-form-factor PC doesn't use a sub-standard video card?)
If I was needing a home PC I would look into it.
But I have yet to find a "need" for a home PC; My Macs do just fine.

You know, come to think of it, dcmacdaddy, there IS a reason I'd think of getting a cheap PC. Just to have a Windows machine. The cost of VPC is somewhere approaching the cost of a barebones advertised new Dell special which has some version of Windows OS already installed.

(Or, maybe picking up a used system on Ebay or something for even LESS!)

There are enough sites and applications out there that don't support Macs to justify getting a new cheapie PC system rather than buying VPC AND a copy of Windows to install on my Mac. Although I do recognize there would STILL be a need to have the two systems integrate at some point.

Any thoughts?

[dcmacdaddy]

Originally Posted by mojo2

You know, come to think of it, dcmacdaddy, there IS a reason I'd think of getting a cheap PC. Just to have a Windows machine. The cost of VPC is somewhere approaching the cost of a barebones advertised new Dell special which has some version of Windows OS already installed.

(Or, maybe picking up a used system on Ebay or something for even LESS!)

There are enough sites and applications out there that don't support Macs to justify getting a new cheapie PC system rather than buying VPC AND a copy of Windows to install on my Mac. Although I do recognize there would STILL be a need to have the two systems integrate at some point.

Any thoughts?

You make some good points. Yeah, for $1000 I could buy a Mac Mini AND a miniPC.
Get a nice flat-panel monitor and USB keyboard, all tied into a KVM, and I would have a pretty sweet setup.
Then I could do whatever I wanted in the computing world. Although the miniPC would be more of a toy than
a serious work machine. But it still might be fun to have.

[willed]

Originally Posted by mojo2

But I will keep an eye on you from now on to see what kind of posters you are.

Sorry Dad

[zizban]

Originally Posted by willed

For someone who's meant to be a moderator, you can be distinctly unhelpful. In fact, I don't know if I remember a post of yours that wasn't complaining about something, usually inline image sizes.

That's tooki, the kooky, useless moderator!

[nredman]

ouch - easy big fella

[rickey939]

Originally Posted by zizban

That's tooki, the kooky, useless moderator!

[Hash]

tooki is a great moderator, though some may not like him. Now, may we leave the whole mod dispute and concentrate on the mini?

[chris v]

Originally Posted by TETENAL

The AOpen miniPC is the only mini-killer yet.

http://minipc.aopen.com/
http://minipc.aopen.com/spec.htm

So long as you substitute the words "rip-off" in place of the word "killer," you'll be on to something there.

[osxrules]

That aopen PC has some things I wish my Mini had. An eject and power button on the front of the machine, probably an easy open case and it looks bigger so probably supports standard HDs and not stupid laptop ones. I don't like the slots on the top because you can easily drip liquid onto it - my Mini is more splash-proof. But I do like the all silver finish. I don't like the white plastic on the top of the Mini. If it makes it cheaper fine but a thinner layer of the metal round the sides that went all over it with a white apple logo - like the powerbook - would have been awesome.

[Drakino]

The Aopen model is nearly the exact same size as the Mac Mini. Internally it looks similar too:


link to bigger picture

[olePigeon]

The AOpen MiniPC comes with a Celeron CPU and no dedicated video card. It also only ships with Windows XP Home, not Pro (though you can opt for Linux.)

[Spliffdaddy]

or a 1.73GHz Pentium M

and the onboard video isn't too bad.

Do you expect Apple to include a 'dedicated video card' that doesn't suck? If so, based on what historical precedent?

[rambo47]

Apple Legal is going to have a field say with Aopen.



At a recent Aopen focus group:

Leader of group: "O.K., how are we going to beat the Mac Mini? C'mon folks, just speak up. Whatever's on your mind, just let it out."

<silence>

<nervous fidgeting from the group members>

<one guy scratches head, gets a splinter>

First guy to speak up: "Screw it. Lets just rip Apple off."

<nods of agreement, releived sighs all around>

Leader: "Right. So it's settled then. Just do what Apple does. Friggin' brilliant!"

<meeting breaks up>

[Spliffdaddy]

Apple legal can't do jack against a Taiwanese company.




side by side comparison of Mac mini & Aopen (starting at $399)

Mini PCs have been offered for years. Shuttle, VIA, and Aopen originated the concept.

If you're looking for a desktop replacement 'mini PC' here's some decent offerings > http://www.littlepc.com/products.htm

[willed]

Yeah I suppose it's difficult to patent what is basically a grey/silver box, nicely designed though Apple's may be.

[willed]

Another tragic victim of the Double Post

[Drakino]

Out of curiosity, why do you say "It also only ships with Windows XP Home, not Pro"?

What is wrong with Windows XP Home for the majority of Windows users? Want to simulate Windows XP Home on your Mac? Open Utilities, throw away Directory Access, and make sure Apple Remote Desktop client is turned off. Oh, and don't run it on the dual processor PowerMac systems, and you have a copy of Mac OS X Home Edition.

Processor wise, with the Pentium M 1.73, that system would probably be faster then the Mac Mini by a bit. Graphics wise, sure it is using an Intel Extreme solution (integrated in the chipset), but really this isn't all that different then the Radeon 9200 in the Mac Mini. It will get the job done for most users, and even do ok (not well, but ok) in games.

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by FulcrumPilot

I was talking to the majority, may be?

No, you were talking to your inner idiot !

-t