SPCR

http://www.apple.com/macmini/design.html

The unit is smaller, and there is no external power brick.

The world’s most energy-efficient desktop computer.
EPEAT Gold and Energy Star logos with a recycle symbol

What Mac mini doesn’t do could be its biggest feat. It doesn’t waste energy. When Mac mini is idle, it consumes less than 10 watts — a 25 percent reduction from the previous generation.* No other desktop computer does that. Mac mini is made from highly recyclable aluminum. And its redesigned, lighter package makes it more efficient to ship.

The bottom is removable, and it provides the air intake and access to the RAM.

Looks like they are using the white Mac laptop guts. Same processor, chipset, video card, etc. Wonder if it uses the Apple version of NVidia's Optimus for enabling/disabling the 320M?

Upside: low idle power. Nice small footprint. 320M adds some FPS for games.

Downside: still no eSATA. Price went up $100 for the baseline unit.

As one who is really into the aesthetics of things I really like the simplicity and compact size. As much as I love the HTPC I have assembled I am quite tired of Windows and don't want the headaches of Linux. Need to sell a kidney to finish the conversion over to Macs at home...

I bought my mom a Mac Mini a long time ago (Core 2 Solo) and it's been great for her (and me).

More on the Power usage from Ars technica:

"Most impressive, though, is that the smaller case also contains the power supply instead of relying on a bulky external supply. A lot of the power savings came from swapping the NVIDIA 320M for the previous generation's 9400M. Adding other power efficient parts and improved power management enabled Apple to cut idle power draw down to just 10W from more than 13W, and maximum power to 85W from 110W. The new power supply is now 90 percent efficient as well, making the Mac mini one of the "greenest" desktops currently available."

The new power supply is now 90 percent efficient as well, making the Mac mini one of the "greenest" desktops currently available.

Keep in mind that the power supply is probably just a 12-19 volt ac/dc adapter where 90% efficiency is not uncommon.

Either way, it`s remarkably power efficient machine, nice industrial design too (typically for apple). I wonder why no one else has produced something similar though, it`s basically a laptop without a monitor.

Not a fan of Macs myself (prefer planning and building my own systems using off the shelf parts), but am always impressed by how well-engineered Apple's systems seem to be. It's impressive how much they cram into such small form factors. Looks like a pretty nice SFF system.

ntavlas wrote: Keep in mind that the power supply is probably just a 12-19 volt ac/dc adapter where 90% efficiency is not uncommon.

I lean toward the 90% applying to the complete PSU - especially since they moved the complete PSU inside the case.

At this level of intergration it`s very rare to use anything other than a 12-19v power supply, any other voltages are handled by vrms on the motherboard itself. This is certainly the case in the new imac.

Does the 90% rating apply to the 12v psu only or does it include the vrms on the motherboard too? I do think it`s the first as it seems the most common practice.

Ifixit dissected the machine:http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Mac-Mini ... own/3094/1. You can see a close up of the psu (page3, step 22) but the whole article is a nice read.

Thanks for that link -- that didn't take long! I love the case-from-aluminum-billet:

http://www.ifixit.com/igi/SiKdJKFBvUOZvqYK.medium

If I'm not mistaken, 14 dBA at idle is much quieter than earlier incarnations. 14 dBA is inaudible in many environments. The older Mini's were clearly audible.

Anyone tried one yet?

My mid-2010 Mac mini is inaudible from 2-feet. This is what I have been looking since the first time I tracked down SPCR. I am using the Snow Leopard OS' built-in "boot camp" to boot into Windows 7 (64-bit) on an NTFS partition on my 120GB SSD drive with 8GB RAM. Speed and quiet.