Gadgetory

has the Mac Mini gotten the makeover it deserves I'm Dan Ackerman and this is Apple's updated Mac Mini now we call small desktop computers like this small form-factor desktops people used to hook them up to like their TVs as media center pcs really before you had streaming devices like Roku's and small boxes like that that handled a lot of that internet streaming otherwise people use them to kind of hide out of the way if you don't want a big visible computer they're the only way to get a OS 10 Mac system without a monitor attached like you have with a MacBook or an iMac is to either get Apple's most expensive computer the $3,000 Mac Pro or to get its least expensive computer the Mac Mini which starts at $500 now the the late 2014 update to the Mac Mini which we've tested and benchmarked here is the first update of this system in a couple years they kept the body exactly the same on the outside as a unibody aluminum construction inside they updated it to fourth generation Intel Core I series processors otherwise known as the Haswell generation or really generation past that now and only 2015 we'll see if we ever get an update to those here but you still get your choice of Core i5 or Core i7 processors dual core the previous generation you could get all the way up to a quad core Core i7 so oddly these are less powerful potentially than the ones from a couple years ago were but if you're just using it for casual media streaming or just to have it's a home desktop that should make a huge difference some people are very upset however that the RAM is now soldered in you cannot open up the bottom of the system and put in more RAM yourself you have to order it when you order the system and obviously direct from Apple those upgrades can get expensive this base model here the $500 one dual core Core i5 four gigs of RAM 500 gig hard drive fairly basic specs for $500 you can't expect a heck of a lot more it's actually almost the same components especially CPU is as you'd find in the 13-inch MacBook Air or the least expensive 21 inch iMac so a good way to look at it is you're getting that level of performance for about half the price there are some other competitors now who are getting back into this mini desktop market where people haven't done in last couple of years I especially like this HP Pavilion mini right here that's actually it's it's got a smaller footprint than the Mac Mini but it's actually thicker this guy you can you can configure up to a core i3 CPU so not as powerful but you can get a one terabyte hard drive in there so for around the same price this configuration worked at that 479 and this is $4.99 you can either get the core i5 and the 500 gigabyte hard drive or the core i3 and the terabyte hard drive I found performance was actually pretty close between these two in terms of running applications also includes a keyboard and mouse for your $500 here on the Mac Mini you have to actually bring your own keyboard announce that obviously display I'm Dan Ackerman and that is Apple's updated Mac Mini