1963 MacMiniColo.net, a Las Vegas colocation company, has been hosting Mac minis since their introduction in January 2005, have become the leaders in this niche market and known for their personal service. They currently host more than 500 Mac minis for customers in 26 countries around the world, which must make them one of the most experienced and knowledgable Mac mini authorities on the planet, has posted a review and setup commentary on the new Mac mini sold pre-loaded with Mac OS X Server.

Photo Courtesy Apple


Incidentally, this has to be one of the best deals Apple has ever offered. The mini is essentially the $799.00 upscale version with a 2.53GHz Intel Core 2 Duo and 4GB of RAM, but with the optical drive deleted and replaced with a second internal hard drive - both HD's being 500 GB units for a total internal capacity of 1 TB, plus Mac OS X Server (which sells separately for $499) pre-loaded for $999.00. If you still need an optical drive, an external USB SuperDrive is available optionally for another hundred bucks.

Anyway, MacMiniColo.net says:

A year ago, we wrote The State of the Mac mini 2008. Take a look and you'll see that it turned out to be quite accurate. We nailed the RAM, the GPU, the firewire, and the mini Displayport. We even got the Dual HDD right, even though we had quite a few people disagree with us on that. The one thing we missed was a black/aluminum color scheme.

And now, with new Mac minis upon us, we felt it appropriate to pen another piece. So, here is the State of the Mac mini 2009...

One of the more interesting bits of information in this report, which includes an illustrated teardown, is that while the Mac minis are officially sold and supported to use 4GB of RAM, MacMiniColo.net says that with that last Mac mini firmware upgrade, they will now support 8GB of RAM, and these new late 2009 minis already have that firmware applied.

They also note that it's satisfying (especially in their line of business) to get the official nod from Apple in using the Mac mini as a server, and predicts that this new server mini should speed the adoption of Snow Leopard Server.

They also mention that the AppleCare Protection Plan that covers the Mac mini with Snow Leopard Server includes server administration and network management issues using the graphical user interface of Mac OS X Server which isn't the case if you buy a mini and Snow Leopard Server separately.

For the full Macminicolo.net report, visit:
http://www.macminicolo.net/state2009.html

Tags: Hardware ï News ï

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