That means USB will no longer limit external hard drive performance.
The ports on the back look the same, but those USB ports are now USB 3, which has 10x the bandwidth of USB 2.0. And Intel HD Graphics 4000 is definitely a step up from the 3000 graphics on last year’s entry-level Mac mini and the 2011 Mac mini Server – but perhaps not as good as the AMD Radeon HD 6630M in last year’s “better” model. And 4 GB of system memory is standard, even on the entry-level $599 model (it had 2 GB last year). All that power for $799.Īnd that’s just the most obvious difference for this year’s Ivy Bridge models. How much more powerful is that? Almost 60% more powerful than the 2.7 GHz dual-core i7 build-to-order version of the 2011 Mac mini, and about 25% more powerful than last year’s 2.0 GHz quad-core i7 Mac mini Server. The littlest Mac has become a powerhouse.Īpple updated the Mac mini last week, and while the entry-level 2.5 GHz dual-core i5 model is only about 5% faster than last year’s “better” Mac mini, the $200 more expensive model has made the leap from a 2.5 GHz dual-core i5 to a 2.3 GHz quad-core i7.
