# FedEx just dropped off my Mac mini



## chadwick (Jan 20, 2005)

WooHoo. I like it when things show up early.


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## brianleahy (Jan 20, 2005)

It occurs to me that the Mini may be the first Mac that _could_ be shipped US mail, and even left in most people's mailboxes...


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## chadwick (Jan 20, 2005)

brianleahy said:
			
		

> It occurs to me that the Mini may be the first Mac that _could_ be shipped US mail, and even left in most people's mailboxes...



Quite likely. The shipping box is 12"x9"x12", so that would fit in the standard package mailboxes they have.


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## chadwick (Jan 20, 2005)

Some notes that people have asked about (don't know if these have been covered already):

1. It does have an external powerbrick.
2. I didn't plug in a USB keyboard and mouse, and it was able to find my Bluetooth keyboard and mouse as part of its initial startup. It was slow to find devices, though. It was probably because the devices were still paired with my iBook at first.
3. Power consumption under full load is 28W, boot is 38W peak, and at idle is 16W.
4. No fan noise at all.


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## quiksan (Jan 20, 2005)

so I wonder - is it or could it be simple enough to share a BT keyboard/mouse between a Mac mini and another computer nearby?  how could you switch the pairing... i guess just turn the bt off on the computer not being used...?


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## symphonix (Jan 20, 2005)

Congratulations, Chadwick!



			
				quiksan said:
			
		

> ... I guess just turn the bt off on the computer not being used...?



And how would you turn it back on again. Click on the Bluetooth icon and ... oh, right.   

I'm really interested in this. Firstly, can you post a picture of the power-brick, preferably with something to compare it to size-wise. Is it nicely designed? Is it similar to the laptop adapters and Airport Express in appearance?

Also, any other pics you might feel like taking would be cool.


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## Ripcord (Jan 20, 2005)

chadwick said:
			
		

> 3. Power consumption under full load is 28W, boot is 38W peak, and at idle is 16W.



Just curious - how did you measure this?  Or did you read it somewhere?


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## JetwingX (Jan 21, 2005)

symphonix said:
			
		

> Congratulations, Chadwick!
> 
> 
> 
> ...



from what i remember, it is like the Airport extreme power adapters (which i can't seem to find a picture of :-\) which linda looks like macally's power bicks


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## ziess (Jan 21, 2005)

Here's some grabs from the Apple Quicktime VR of the Mac Mini with Apple ancils. That's a 20-inch Apple flatscreen and standard Apple mouse/keyboard.

Haven't got a clue what the second brick behind the screen is though...


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## ziess (Jan 21, 2005)

They didn't come out all that well so heres another one at a higher resolution.

The original QVRs can be found at:

http://www.apple.com/hardware/gallery/mac_mini_jan2005_480.html -with apple kit,

and

http://www.apple.com/hardware/gallery/mac_mini_pc_jan2005_480.html -with pc(note the URL) kit.


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## andychrist (Jan 21, 2005)

ziess said:
			
		

> Haven't got a clue what the second brick behind the screen is though...



Looks like an AirPort Express.  
(Not included.   )


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## ziess (Jan 21, 2005)

Well actually, after looking at the QTVR of the Mac Mini with PC bits and bobs i'm fairly sure that it's the external power supply for the cinema display. It looks like the mac and the display are powered by the same cable. I say it looks because this is all just speculation and i'll no doubt be proved wrong five minutes later!


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## andychrist (Jan 21, 2005)

Looks like you're right!

BTW Chadwick which model didja get, and how much RAM?

(Inquiring minds want to know.  )


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## chadwick (Jan 21, 2005)

OK, I measured the power consumption directly with a device you can get at Radio Shack called a Kill-a-Watt. You just plug in your appliance of choice and you can watch the power consumption in a variety of different ways.

I got the 1.42GHz version, with 512MB RAM, SuperDrive, and AirPort Extreme + Bluetooth upgrades. It is quite a bit faster than my 1GHz iBook, as expected. I ran an Xbench on both systems and the Mac mini scored a 121.82 overall, and the iBook a 92.80 overall.

Here is a pic of it with the powerbrick in my hand and next to the Mac, for comparison. I've also got a pic of it sitting on top of one of my PCs:


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## mfsri (Jan 21, 2005)

andychrist said:
			
		

> Looks like an AirPort Express.
> (Not included.   )



Isn't that the power brick for the monitor?


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## drunkmac (Jan 21, 2005)

mfsri said:
			
		

> Isn't that the power brick for the monitor?




It's probably the huge brick-adaptor for the DVI adaptor for Powerbooks/Macs-without-a-full-DVI-jack. I had one once upon a time and the thing was enormous. Almost as big as a Mac Mini...which looks great by the way!


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## symphonix (Jan 22, 2005)

What amazes me is that Apple don't seem to be selling the power adapter as a separate accessory. With the large number of people saying how they'd like to tuck a Mac mini into their bag and plug it in both at work and at home, you'd assume that would be a fairly obvious need.


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## fuzz (Jan 22, 2005)

symphonix said:
			
		

> What amazes me is that Apple don't seem to be selling the power adapter as a separate accessory. With the large number of people saying how they'd like to tuck a Mac mini into their bag and plug it in both at work and at home, you'd assume that would be a fairly obvious need.




maybe it will be sold by a third party just like how the ipod has so many third party accessories.


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## gerbick (Jan 23, 2005)

fuzz said:
			
		

> maybe it will be sold by a third party just like how the ipod has so many third party accessories.


I'd doubt this one.  No third party produced the G4 Cube external power supply either.

And with that said... it's probably much like the G4 Cube.  You'll have to order an extra power supply via part number to AppleCare.


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## Ripcord (Jan 23, 2005)

chadwick said:
			
		

> I got the 1.42GHz version, with 512MB RAM, SuperDrive, and AirPort Extreme + Bluetooth upgrades. It is quite a bit faster than my 1GHz iBook, as expected. I ran an Xbench on both systems and the Mac mini scored a 121.82 overall, and the iBook a 92.80 overall.



Sadly, my 1.8ghz G5 iMac only scores 115 (on a good day).  What's up with that?


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## pds (Jan 23, 2005)

What are the specs on  the power supply? Radio Shack has a nice adjustable power brick that goes up to 24 volts. I think the need is really there, I already use several adapters for my iBook,(one at school, one at home and one at an office that I use three times a week). It makes transportation that much easier.


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## HateEternal (Jan 24, 2005)

Ripcord said:
			
		

> Sadly, my 1.8ghz G5 iMac only scores 115 (on a good day).  What's up with that?



What are the specs on your iMac? If you have less than 512MB of ram that is probably normal.


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## symphonix (Jan 24, 2005)

Ripcord said:
			
		

> Sadly, my 1.8ghz G5 iMac only scores 115 (on a good day). What's up with that?



X-Bench is not optimised for the 64-bit G5 processor, and as such has a reputation for giving lower scores for G5s than what it gives for high-end G4's. Apparently, the next version of X-Bench should resolve this.

Even so, I think the stats for the Mac mini are _very_ impressive.


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## ScottW (Jan 24, 2005)

Ripcord said:
			
		

> Sadly, my 1.8ghz G5 iMac only scores 115 (on a good day).  What's up with that?



What do you have your Energy Settings set for the CPU? Set it to HIGH and let us know what results you get.


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## Ripcord (Jan 24, 2005)

Wow.

165 now =)

I presume that the notebook users are VERY familiar with this setting.  I wonder, though, why such a huge (and reproducable) performance difference when I have it set to "Automatic"?  It's not temperature-related - I can start out from an idle, cool-as-it-will-go disk and CPU, then start the benchmark...  Does miserably.  But "Maximum" always flies.

System definitely FEELS 40% faster now, this is awesome.

I presume the downside is power consumption and a higher likelihood of overheating if I start to really push it?

...And after this I swear - back to the Mac mini.  Tell us, can you tell how to remove the casing?  Still waiting for confirmation that the RAM is user-installable?


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## ScottW (Jan 24, 2005)

I had no idea about this until i saw some benchmarks (the iMac G5 setting). Now your getting your money's worth.

As for the Mac Mini, yes you can upgrade it yourself. Look fairly easy to take apart.


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## gerbick (Jan 25, 2005)

now if only a 2gb stick of RAM would fit and register.  somebody confirm that, and I'm all in it.


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## fryke (Jan 25, 2005)

What do you want to do with the mini that requires more than 1 GB of RAM? I mean, sure, the more the better, but... If you're the power user the 2 GB wish makes me think you are, won't you be disappointed by the processor, the graphics card and the harddrive?


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