New Mac Mini

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New Mac Mini details here

http://www.apple.com/uk/macmini/

http://store.apple.com/uk/browse/home/shop_mac/family/mac_mini

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Height: 3.6 cm (1.4 inches)
Width: 19.7 cm (7.7 inches)
Depth: 19.7 cm (7.7 inches)
Weight: 1.37 kg (3.0 pounds)

Processor and memory
* 2.4GHz or 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor
* 3MB on-chip shared L2 cache
* 1066MHz frontside bus
* 2GB (two 1GB SO-DIMMs) of 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM; two SO-DIMM slots support up to 8GB

Peripheral connections
* One FireWire 800 port (up to 800 Mbps)
* Four USB 2.0 ports (up to 480 Mbps)
* SD card slot

Graphics and video support
* NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphics processor with 256MB of DDR3 SDRAM shared with main memory
* Mini DisplayPort with support for up to 2560-by-1600 resolution
* HDMI port with support for up to 1920-by-1200 resolution
* DVI output using HDMI to DVI Adapter (included)
* VGA output using Mini DisplayPort to VGA Adapter (sold separately)
* Support for extended desktop and video mirroring across both ports

Communications
* AirPort Extreme 802.11n Wi-Fi wireless networking; IEEE 802.11a/b/g compatible
* Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR (Enhanced Data Rate) wireless technology
* 10/100/1000BASE-T Ethernet (RJ-45) interface with support for jumbo frames

Audio
* Audio line in minijack (digital/analog)
* Audio line out/headphone minijack (digital/analog)
* HDMI port supports multichannel audio output
* Support for Apple iPhone headset with microphone

Storage
* 320GB or 500GB Serial ATA hard disk drive6
* 8x slot-loading SuperDrive (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)

No power brick, easy change memory, HDMI output. Looks like a great machine, prices start at £649. Looks like the perfect option for a HTPC setup.
 
Faustus said:
Words
Click to expand...

So you have

  • Panasonic Plasma TV
  • Denon Hifi system for CD's, DAB+FM radio & iPod dock for mp3s
  • Panasonic DVDR with a hard driver recorder and freeview+
  • Sky+ HD
  • Blu-Ray player
  • 5.1 system

Having a Mac Mini (possibly with some extra storage, depending on the size of your media collection) as a HTPC/Media server could enable you to:

Install Plex, a free Media Centre program that can manage your music and movies. This allows you to organise all your music (ripped CD's, MP3's etc.), all your movies (DVD's currently, Blu-Ray when Mr. Jobs sorts his life out...) and online media (Youtube, iPlayer, TED Talks etc.) with an easy to use and customisable interface that is designed to be used with an Apple remote or wireless keyboard. It has some neat tricks like using IMDB meta data to display movie info (posters, synopsis, cast etc.) and also can recognise network storage (so you could stream music from an existing PC/Mac)

You could drop the Denon system and rip cd's to the Mac, use iTunes to manage your existing mp3's plus the new CD music and use online radio to replace DAB and FM.

Lose the DVDR as the Sky+HD and Blu-Ray should easily cover this, plus rip any DVD's you own to your Mac and use Plex to easily manage a movie library.

That just leave your with a 5.1 system, TV, Sky+HD and Blu-Ray as well as a mac mini to manage all your media needs. A far neater and more flexible system.

There is a load more on media centres in this thread, including what you need, how to setup Plex, a couple of videos and some good hints and tips. It looks quite complicated at first, but download it and you'll find its really simple to use once you understand some of the quirks of the system (labelling media correctly is one of them)
 
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