Mac Mini updated at last

 

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By Barry Collins

Posted on 3 Mar 2009 at 14:56

Apple has announced long-awaited refreshes of its Mac Mini and iMac desktops.

The company was widely expected to upgrade the Mac Mini in particular at the MacWorld Expo in January, leading to criticism that the spec was beginning to look outdated.

The new Mac Mini is spruced up with Nvidia's 9400M integrated graphics, which made its debut in MacBook laptops. The new graphics chip gives the compact Mini five times the graphic performance of its predecessor, according to Apple.

The Mac Mini also gets dual-display support, thanks to its Mini DisplayPort and DVI connections.

The base model starts at £499 inc VAT, but that only includes a pitiful 1GB of RAM (upgradeable to 4GB) and 120GB hard disk. The improved £649 version ships with 2GB of RAM and a 320GB hard disk. Both sport the same 2.0GHz Core 2 Duo processor.

Apple's playing up the green credentials of the new Mac Mini, claiming that it's "the world's most energy-efficient desktop", drawing only 13 watts of power when idle. A closer look at the small print reveals that's only when compared to PCs listed on the EPA Energy Star 4.0 list, but it's nonetheless an impressively low power draw.

iMac update

The iMac line has also benefited from the inclusion of GeForce 9400M graphics, although these more spacious all-in-ones sport discrete Nvidia or ATI graphics cards in the two most expensive models.

The new line-up includes one 20in and three 24in models, with prices starting from £949 inc VAT.

The top-of-the-range 24in model sports a 3.06GHz Core 2 Duo processor, 4GB of RAM, 1TB of hard disk space and a Nvidia GeForce GT 130 for £1,799 inc VAT.