![]() ![]() The current low-profile form factor was introduced in July of 2011 and brought with it support for Apple and Intel's then-new Thunderbolt technology (formerly known as Lightpeak). Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0įirewire 800, HDMI, Thunderbolt, 4x USB 3.0, audio line in minijack (digital/analog), audio line out/headphone minijack (digital/analog), SDXC card slot Quad-core 2.3GHz Intel Core i7-3615QM (Turbo Boost up to 3.3GHz)ġTB Fusion Drive (128GB SSD + 1TB 5400 RPM HDD) ![]() Aside from adding the Fusion Drive, it is otherwise exactly as listed on Apple's website. Because we wanted to both evaluate the mini itself and Fusion Drive, went with the mid-tier version. Out of these three, only the mid-tier model can be ordered with Fusion Drive, though the server variety can optionally be configured with one or two 256GB SSDs. The mini comes in three flavors: an entry-level version with a dual-core Ivy Bridge i5 and 4GB of RAM, a mid-level version with a quad-core i7 and 4GB of RAM, and a server version with a quad-core Ivy Bridge i7, two hard drives, and OS X Server. The mid-tier version comes with a punchy Ivy Bridge Intel Core i7 processor, which makes it one of the fastest computers in my house right now it's quiet, quick, and it's at least vaguely affordable. We've said quite a bit about Fusion Drive on Ars, culminating with our big hands-on post, but the mini is worth looking at by itself, too. Fusion Drive "fuses" together a solid state drive and a traditional spinning hard disk drive into a single volume, and does some interesting tricks to tier data between the two different physical drives. ![]() The new mini improves on the old in several substantial ways, but the most notable thing about the latest revision is that it's currently the only Mac you can buy which comes equipped with Apple's Fusion Drive technology. The last time we took a look at the mini was in July 2011, when Ryan Paul examined the mini's suitability as a Home Theater PC (HTPC) he had some positive and some negative things to say about the shiny metal cuboid. The littlest Mac of them all, the Mac mini, was updated in late October. ![]()
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