We like the Mac Mini. It’s reasonably priced, virtually silent when running, and its ultra-compact design makes most SFF (small form factor) PCs look like a tub of lard. And yet we can’t help being a little disappointed with this latest upgrade to the Mini.

When Apple chose to revamp the iMac range recently, it upgraded them from the Core Duo to the Core 2 Duo processor without any increase in price. In contrast, the Mac Mini stays with the Core Duo and merely gets a minor speed bump from 1.66Ghz to 1.83Ghz.

To be fair, you are still getting a small performance improvement at no extra cost, but we still can’t help thinking that Apple could have been just a little bit more adventurous.

Our review unit was the more expensive of the two Mac Mini models. Priced at £529, it includes 512MB Ram, an 80GB hard disk and a dual-layer DVD writer.

As usual, the Apple Mac Mini does not ship with a monitor, mouse or keyboard.
This combination of components gives you pretty good performance and features for just over £500 and the only real weakness is the use of an Intel 950 integrated graphics card with just 64Mb of shared system memory.

This is fine for handling 2D graphics and video, but it’s not going to be much use for the latest 3D shoot-'em-up games. But with Quake 4 pretty much the only big-name title available, it’s not exactly the end of the world.

A 1.66GHz version of the Mini costs just £399, which is more of a bargain. It does, however, lack a DVD burner, with just a CD-RW/DVD-Rom drive being supplied.

The Mac Mini is still an attractive, low-cost machine for home users. It’s just a shame Apple couldn’t get the price back down below £500, as it was when the Mini was originally launched.

Also consider:
Evesh am Mini PC Plus
A familiar looking case, but not an Apple in sight

All desktop PC reviews