Along with the new MacBook Airs, Apple has also updated the Mac Mini line. Out go the year-old Core 2 Duo CPUs, replaced by 2.3GHz or 2.5GHz Core i5 (“Sandy Bridge”) chips.
Also gone is the NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphics, replaced by an Intel HD Graphics 3000 processor or AMD Radeon HD 6630M graphics processor, depending on the model you choose.
And out goes the optical drive, replaced by… Nothing. If you have a silver disk you need to access, you'll either have to buy an external drive or pop it into the DVD tray of a Mac or PC on the same network.
Normally I'd say good riddance, especially as you can fill the leftover space with both a 750GB HDD and a 256GB SSD in the same enclosure. But as many Mac Minis are used as home media servers, it was always convenient to be able to slot in your rented DVDs. But at least you get a Thunderbolt port, which looks to the future as much as the optical disk looks to the past.
The speedy new Mac Minis are both available now, for $600 and $800.
Mac Mini Specs [Apple]
source: Gadget Lab
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