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Apple Mac mini (mid 2011)

Verge Review

The Mac mini has long been the lovably lost scamp of the the Mac family, produced and sold with as seemingly little fanfare as possible. (Quick: where are the minis located in your local Apple store?) No matter: we’ve seen minis used as everything from high-load-bearing servers to HTPCs to just plain old desktop machines. People love the damn thing — it’s one of the smallest and most power-efficient compact PCs available. The only problem was that the mini has traditionally offered...

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Basic Specs

Desktop type Small form factor
Operating system Mac OS X
CPU brand Intel
CPU family Sandy Bridge
Base CPU model Core i5-2410
Graphics type Optional
Integrated GPU model HD Graphics 3000
Base RAM size 2 GB
Base storage capacity 500 GB
Optical drive No
Wi-Fi Yes

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Tech Specs

Hardware

Desktop type Small form factor
Case Dimensions (largest) 7.7 inches
Case Dimensions (middle) 7.7 inches
Case Dimensions (smallest) 1.4 inches
Weight 2.7 pounds
Color Silver

Software

Operating system Mac OS X

Processor (base)

CPU brand Intel
CPU family Sandy Bridge
Base CPU model Core i5-2410
Cores 2
Clockspeed 2.3 GHz
Turbo clockspeed 2.9 GHz

Processor (max)

Brand Intel
Family Sandy Bridge
Model Core i7-2620M
Cores 2
Clockspeed 2.7 GHz
Turbo clockspeed 3.4 GHz

GPU (base)

Graphics type Optional
Integrated GPU brand Intel
Integrated GPU model HD Graphics 3000

GPU (max)

Discrete GPU brand AMD
Discrete GPU model Radeon HD 6630M
Dedicated VRAM size 256 MB

Memory

Base RAM size 2 GB
Max. config RAM 8 GB
RAM type DDR3
Base RAM speed 1333 MHz
Slots 2

Storage

Options HDD (5400RPM), HDD (7200RPM), Flash Memory (SSD)
Base storage type HDD (5400RPM)
Base storage capacity 500 GB
Max. config HDD 750 GB
Max. config SSD 256 GB
Card reader Yes
Card reader support SD

Optical Drive

Optical drive No

Ports

USB 4
FireWire 800 1
Thunderbolt 1
Ethernet 1
Ethernet type 10/100/1000 (Gigabit)
HDMI 1
3.5mm line-in / microphone 1
3.5mm mic / headphone combo 1

Connectivity

Wi-Fi Yes
Wi-Fi options 802.11n, 802.11g, 802.11b, 802.11a
802.11n frequencies 5GHz, 2.4GHz
Bluetooth Yes
Bluetooth version 4.0

Power

PSU wattage 85 W

Bundled Accessories

Bundled Accessories HDMI to DVI adapter

Recent News

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  • 9.0
    Show all User reviews

    Reviewed by neonsocks (Currently owns)

    I have been hunting for the perfect network media streamer. I first started with a Popcorn Hour A-100 which played pretty much everything I threw at it but the user interface was raw to say the least. I was moderately happy with the Boxee Box but still found the software buggy and playback to be hit-or-miss. I even tried hacking an Apple TV, Xbox 360 and PS3 but all had their issues. I finally broke down and bought the base model Mac Mini 2.3Ghz i5 and installed Plex. With the Mini's power, it played back 1080p .mkv files streamed over gig ethernet without a hick-up. Combined with Plex's amazing server/client model, I could control my home theater library from my iPad, iPhone and playback video on my TV or my idevice. I paired the Mini with a Lenovo N5902 for couch control and a Xbox 360 controller receiver for emulator games.
    The Mac Mini is the PERFECT home theater PC for me blending in seamlessly with the rest of my home theater equipment.

    The Breakdown

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    • Design 9
    • Performance 8
    • Heat / noise 10
    • Software 8
    Show the rest of this review and the breakdown