The New Mac Mini

I agree great looking box but about $200 over what is should be.

I have two of the last version (9400m video card), One runs Windows Home Server (silent, low power) with FW 800 external drives (wish it had eSATA).

The other runs Windows 7 64bit just fine, and with out any OS X partition at all.

That said since moving back from OS X (mostly) to Windows 7 I wont buy another Mini because of the price.

Dell or HP need to really come up with something that is really close, use plastic and lower the price.  There is a market for this, as computers that play demanding games and as a media center device.

"Whoever they're aiming at, I'd bet these fly off the shelves regardless of the price."

Well, the Mac Mini has never flown off the shelves.  I don't think this iteration will change that, no matter how nice it looks.

And yes, it does look pretty sweet, and would look great in my living room.  However, at that price, plus the cost of a Windows 7 license to get Media Center would make this quite an expensive proposition for such limited hardware specs.  But it does look nice.  Placing the SD card slot and two additional USB ports in front would also make it very nice, but would ruin the iAesthetic.

Sorry but you really can't sell this at $499 as so many want.

iSuppli estimated the material cost of the prior mac mini at $384. That machine sold for $599 meaning a 36% gross margin.  Applying that same margin to the new version means the cost to build a mac mini is over $450.  This does not include any software or anything but the components and cost to assemble.  Since so many don't want to run OS X, lets add in the cost of a Windows 7 Home Premium license.  Most estimates are that major OEMs like HP and Dell pay Microsoft about $50 for that.  Buying your own OEM license is going to cost about $100.

So that means the cost is $500.  That does not include any expenses associated with developing this product, marketing or selling it, let alone any profit.

If you want a sub $500 computer, you have to start cutting corners. This means a lower end processor, slower RAM, and an enclosure that is nowhere near as nice or small, with the power brick on the outside.

Looks nice but I always worry about heat issues in an enclosure that small.  One of the reasons I use Minis instead of iMacs is that my previous iMacs had heat related problems.  Previous Minis had plenty of room for ventilation. Now we see the internals of the Mini stuffed into an even smaller enclosure.

Paul....I think *I* can resist.  At least for now.

Its a sweet looking device and goodness knows the mac mini was overdue for a refresh. The firewire port is a waste, a couple of USB 2.0\3.0 ports would have been more useful. The bump in memory is handy.

I'm happy to pay more for the nicer hardware.   I've never seen anything this nice in a small package from the Windows OEMs.   This will be great for my kid's computer in the living room.  Replacing a 9 year old Gateway that runs XP.  Since it has HDMI,  I plan to occasionally use this to stream on the new Samsung LED.  Perhaps WW!

Too pricy for me - but I guess that is half the appeal to the target market

"Dell does.  The Studio Hybrid and Zinio HD provide these features, although a similarly specced Studio Hybrid will only be about $50 less, although you can almost certainly get that cheaper without much effort.  They should be refreshing them soon so I expect a spec boost."

So where are all the cries about Dell overcharging?  Since as you pointed out a similarly specced machine is only about $50 less, shouldn't Paul and the others be constantly complaining and saying those machines are overpriced by $150?