Mac Mini 2012 was presented by Apple just two days ago, it was then put on sale, and those from Mac Mini Vault they bought one and opened it to see what was hidden inside. We talked about the hardware changes in this article, and with regard to the changes regarding the positioning of the components, the differences are minor, hardly noticeable to an uninitiated person, Apple preferring to keep everything almost the same as in the case of the old versions, a commendable thing because the Mac Mini is anyway a versatile and reliable product.
The overall packaging size was unchanged, however marketing specs have been updated and the inside organization has been optimized... Under the hood only minor differences are visible. Most notable are the fan design, Hitachi hard drive, and connections for the antennas. (2012 on left – 2011 on right)
In terms of performance, the version with a dual-core processor he wasn't doing too well good compared to Mac Mini 2011, but if we switch to the versions with quad-core processors, things change. Performance is not doubled, as many would think, but an increase of approximately 40% is observed in the case of processors with high frequencies, and those who also do photo/video editing on their own Mac Mini will definitely appreciate the significant improvement in product performance. In conclusion, the Mac Mini becomes more interesting, it is more efficient, but don't forget that although we are talking about a "desktop" Mac, it has the performance of a laptop.
- Don't look now, but the new Mac minis are getting comparable to the last gen Xserve and 2010 Mac Pros as far as benchmarks. Tech progress marches on.
- All Mac minis now come standard with 4GB of RAM. Thank goodness. As of last week, the base Mac mini had 2GB of RAM and that was brutal with Mountain Lion.
- The Mac mini can officially be upgraded to 16GB now. It's been possible for over a year, but it had to be done after ordering. Now, Apple offers 16GB of RAM.
- The base mini is still i5, but the middle and high end minis have quad core i7 Ivy Bridge processors. That middle mini is the most interesting. Many customers prefer the quad core for things like an Xcode build server or for plenty of cores to spread between virtual machines. That $799 Mac mini is going to be very popular.
- The machines now come with 1600MHz DDR3 Memory. Seriously, 16GB of 1600MHz RAM in such a small machine. It's really quite amazing.
