Danny Gorog04 March 2009, 7:00 AM
Apple has updated its entire desktop range with better performance, but also much higher prices.
My mother used to tell me that good things come to those who wait. I think she must have known about days like today, where Apple, in one fell swoop updated their entire family of desktop Macs.
That's right, all of them, iMac, Mac Mini and Mac Pro, have been refreshed.
But first to get the bad news out of the way. All new models are more expensive than the ones they replace due to the decline in the Australian dollar. On the flip side, if you're happy to get an older, superseded model, they'll now look like extremely good value.
Mac MiniThe Mini has been languishing in Apple's lineup for a couple of years now. To some it probably felt that Apple had forgotten about it all together, and in fact rumors presisted that Apple would kill the Mini. I'm glad to report that's not the case, and the new Mac is all new on the inside.
It sports either a 2.0 or 2.26GHz Core 2 Duo processor with 3MB on-chip L2 cachce and a 1066MHz frontside bus. Like the updated MacBook and MacBook Pro, the Mini also gets the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M with 128MB or 256MB DDR3 SDRAM shared with the main memory. It's got two video outputs; a Mini-DVI port (for DVI and VGA), and a Mini DisplayPort, and you can use both ports simultaneously for up to 1920 x 1200 with DVI and up to 2560 x 1600 with a Dual-Link DVI adaptor. The new graphics give the Mini up to five times the graphics performance, Apple claims.
The largest hard drive you can put in the new Mini is 320GB as an Apple supplied drive (though of course you can buy a
500GB drive independently and install it) and it's also got a 8x Superdrive for DVD and CD burning. It's got all the standard wireless (WiFi and Bluetooth) plus a Firewire 800 port and five USB 2.0 ports.
Like other Minis, it's still BYOKM (Bring your own keyboard and mouse) and local pricing is $1049 for the entry level and $1399 for more RAM (up to 4GB maximum now) and a bigger hard drive. Apple is also crediting the Mini as being super green, drawing less than 13 watts of power when it is idle.
iMacThe iMac looks almost identical to its predecessor from the exterior but Apple has made a number of architectural changes on the interior. The new iMac has now got faster memory (1066MHZ DDR3) and faster processors, and the there's only one 20" model in the family. The rest of the family consists of 24" iMacs, now starting from $2499. The entry level 24" iMac includes the familiar GeForce 9400M graphics processor, and stepping up to the more powerful NVIDIA GT 120 with 256MB means you'll be spending just under $3000.
Standard hard drives in all the 24" iMacs are now 640GB with 4GB RAM standard. The top of the line model ($3699) has got all the goods including the GeForce GT 130 with 512MB and a 1TB hard drive.
Unfortunately, Apple didn't include the newest LED panels in the iMacs, but there's plenty of glass and aluminum to excite the Greenies, and Apple says this allows the machines to achieve an EPEAT gold rating.
Interestingly, the new default keyboard now comes sans the numeric keypad (same size as the Apple Bluetooth keyboard) but Apple still include a free option to include a full size keyboard if you want it -- a curious move.
Mac ProThe beast of the Mac line up is now a lot more powerful thanks to the new Xeon 'Nehalem' processors that make 8MB of L3 cache available to each of the four processors and means the new Mac Pros are nearly twice as fast as the previous generation. According to Apple, the new Mac Pro also introduces Turbo Boost, 'a dynamic performance technology that automatically boosts the processor clock speed based on workload. If you’re using an application that doesn’t need every core, Turbo Boost shuts off the idle cores while simultaneously increasing the speed of the active ones, up to 3.33GHz on a 2.93GHz Mac Pro.' Turbo Boost is, of course, a
standard Intel feature that has been around since the Santa Rosa revision of Core 2 Duo, but it's possible that it needed some Mac OS X support before it would operate.
The base graphics card is now the NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 512MB, and with four of these cards installed your Mac Pro can support up to either 30" Apple Cinema Displays. There's also an ATI Radeon HD 4870 as an option.
Base memory has also been upgraded from 2GB to 3GB on the quad-core model, and 6GB on the eight-core model.
As always, the Mac Pro has many configurable options, and just for fun, I configured one this morning to have one of everything (or four hard drives, four graphics cards etc) which will set you back just under $30,000. But, for those that need to be more frugal, the base model costs $4499.
Still no sign of redesigned displays which means if you're sensitive to the glossy screen on the new 24" LED panel, you'll need to upgrade to a 30" or buy one from another vendor.
Everything ElseThe new machines are shipping now.
Apple also announced that the AirPort Extreme 802.11n Wi-Fi Base Station and Time Capsule now feature simultaneous 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz dual-band networking for optimal performance, range and compatibility. A new Guest Network feature allows setting up a secondary network for friends and visitors with Internet-only access so you don’t have to hand out your WiFi password.