But it’s smaller, lighter, and thinner than ever. It’s still very much an iMac, with a big black bezel surrounding a big screen, an aluminum chin below with a glossy Apple logo in its center, and a tilting aluminum stand sticking out of the back. 04 on Mac Mini 2,1 with EFI boot (2007 Intel) The guide uses rEFInd on one USB stick.This year's iMac appears to have undergone the computer version of elective cosmetic surgery – it doesn’t look different, just better. On a 2nd USB install disk it uses a Ubuntu USB install. /rebates/welcomeurlhttps3a2f2feshop.macsales.com2fitem2fOWC2fDIDIMM11D2B2f&murlhttps3a2f2fEfi.That part was weird, but it just goes to show how good-looking this thing is.The Mac mini 'Core i7' 2.6 (Late 2012/Aluminum Unibody) technically is a 'configure-to-order' configuration of the MD388LL/A Mac mini 'Core i7' 2.3 (Late 2012/Aluminum Unibody), but also is documented as a separate model for reader convenience. It’s incredibly sleek — almost every single person who saw it on my desk started stroking it absent-mindedly. It's not quite as light as the HDTV-like Vizio All-in-One PC, but it’s still thinner than most computer monitors you’ll find, and there’s, you know, a whole computer inside. It's almost an optical illusion, astonishingly thin if you look at it from the front but much fatter if you catch it at the wrong angle.The SD card slot has also been moved to the back, joining the headphone jack in the row of other ports (four USB 3.0, two Thunderbolt, and one Gigabit Ethernet). The iMac's screen should make it a perfect device for watching movies, and its huge hard drive should make a perfect storage machine for your photos or movies, but without an optical drive, both my Blu-ray collection and the decade's worth of home movies sit untouched. That decision makes some sense on laptops, where every ounce and millimeter matters, but I miss it here. For starters, there’s no optical drive in the iMac anymore.The Windows 8 competitionThe smaller, cheaper iMac comes with a 21.5-inch, 1920 x 1080 display on the 27-inch behemoth, you get a 2560 x 1440 panel that's matched only by the Dell XPS 27. This is the first iMac in a while I’d recommend buying with a set of external speakers.Compare this: Apple's new iMac vs. That makes everything sound a little tinny, and songs lose some punch. Mids and highs sound great, and the down-firing speakers are loud enough to fill a room, but there’s absolutely zero bass response.
The wide viewing angles give you another way to defeat glare, by tilting the screen forward or backward — unfortunately that's about all the iMac's stand lets you do, but it should always be possible to find a good angle for the display.The iMac got more attention this go-round than the Mac mini, but it's still just an iterative upgrade, and is missing a few things I'd really like to have — a more adjustable stand, an HDMI port, and alas, that optical drive. Both screens have fantastic color reproduction, are remarkably (like, blindingly) bright, and have near-180-degree viewing angles. The display's glossy bezel, which houses its HD FaceTime camera, is actually the most reflective part of the whole machine now.I have to say, I was really surprised to see how much better the screen could be without a single change to the actual technology — but hey, I guess plastic surgery can work wonders. The improved manufacturing also makes whatever’s on the screen feel closer to you, almost like things are jumping out of the panel. The IPS panels are the same as in last year’s iMacs, but they’re better integrated now — Apple says that by laminating the display to the glass it reduced reflections up to 70 percent, and indeed the glare problems that beset so many displays are much less present here, though there's still some reflection and glare. I'm one of those complainers, and I'd be thrilled to be able to toss my external disc drives and my gigantic Blu-ray player in favor of the mini, but no dice — Apple wants to make very certain that no one mistakes the mini for a home theater PC. It's probably the best-looking thing sitting on my desk, and looked pretty good sitting next to my TV too.Complainers be damned, Apple's sticking to its guns and leaving an optical drive off the mini as well. There's a tiny LED on the front that blinks when the mini is turned on, next to a small circular IR port — other than that and the Apple logo, all you'll see is aluminum. That bottom stand twists off, revealing the RAM slots — you can upgrade the RAM yourself, easily, but everything else about the mini is designed to be touched by Apple hands only. It sits on a tiny built-in stand, which helps both with airflow and access to the Wi-Fi antenna on the bottom. Its look hasn't changed in a couple of years, and I see no reason why it should: it's simple and beautiful, and how many ways are there to make a rounded rectangle anyway? The whole package is 2.7 pounds, 1.4 inches tall and 7.7 inches square, and should fit just about anywhere you need it to. Download mac os sierra usb installer dmgIt's not a good look for me.The iMac ships with Apple’s Bluetooth keyboard and a Magic Mouse, which you can (and should) swap for a Magic Trackpad when you check out. My only wish is that the power button were a little easier to find: it's hidden on the curved edge, and can be tough to track with your finger, so I sometimes had to jam my head behind my monitor to turn on the computer. Joining it on the black rear rubber panel are Thunderbolt, HDMI, and Gigabit Ethernet ports, plus four USB 3.0 slots, audio in/out, an SD card slot, and a power adapter and button. The port configuration hasn't changed a bit, right down to the Firewire port on the back — the company's evidently not as happy to let its own standards go. It also downgraded one part, the GPU, but I'll get to that in a minute. Sort of.I don't even think Apple changed its production of the Mac mini chassis the company just upgraded a few new internals and let the assembly line keep chugging. ![]() Harddrive -Mini 2012 Update Here IfIt’s not nearly the gaming machine the iMac is, or even as good as the last-gen mini — Apple swapped AMD Radeon HD GPUs for integrated Intel HD 4000 graphics, and that’s a significant step down. But it's worth considering not only which desktop you want to buy, but whether or not a desktop is even the right kind of computer for you anymore.The Mac mini I tested came with a 2.3GHz Core i7 processor, 4GB of RAM, and a Fusion Drive. The MacBook Pro is now a remarkably powerful device, able to do a lot of the professional-grade things once reserved for desktop PCs — it's also considerably more expensive than the new iMacs. GeekBenchMacBook Pro with Retina display (15-inch)It's worth noting that the 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display scored nearly the same on our Geekbench test as the two new iMac models. I used the GeForce GT 650 M graphics on the 21.5-inch model, and the GTX 675MX chip on the 27-inch machine — you can configure the larger iMac with an even more powerful 680MX chip, but that'll cost you. I'm throwing harder and harder games at the iMac and it doesn't mind a bit, but I'll be sure and update here if I manage to defeat its GPU. It’s a little frustrating that you can’t buy a mini with a discrete GPU even if you want to, but it’s still plenty powerful for the price.I worried a bit about noise and heat, especially on the iMacs, where the fans have been consolidated to a tiny port behind the stand.
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