[rcchen]

So correct me if I'm wrong, but they appear to have done the same thing with the Mac Mini to achieve the lower price point as they did with the iMac earlier this year, by introducing a 1.4Ghz i5 model? I don't recall the base Mac Mini being as weak before...

[lvillani]

Looks like they took the same CPU used in the MacBook Air. Assuming I got the models right and the benchmark is accurate [0] it doesn't look like you are loosing too much in the end...

[0]: http://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare.php?cmp[]=2238&cmp[]=815

[swinglock]

Correct. Yesterday a the entry Mac Mini was $599 and had a 2.5GHz dual-core i5 with 4GB of RAM.

[zanny]

I hate the Intel nomenclature break on mobile vs desktop. On desktops, Celeron is dual core, i3 is dual core with hyperthreading, i5 is quad core, and i7 is quad core with hyperthreading. On the other front, they mix random clock values and core counts across skews so you never know if your i7 is a quad core with hyperthreading (4750Q for example) or a low power dual core (4700U) because there the suffixes on the parts number dictate core counts and such.

[happycube]

It's very annoying. If it ain't at least quad core, it shouldn't be an i7.

[jrockway]

To be fair, the i3/i5/i7 brand is for consumers ("i7 is better than i5"), and the "4750Q" is for OEMs.

Remember: you're not Intel's customer, you're Apple's customer.

[burnte]

I believe you are incorrect. i3 has hyperthreading, i5 has turboboost, and i7 has both. If what you say were true, I shouldn't be able to get a dual core i5 or i7 in the latest Minis. store.apple.com/us/buy-mac/mac-mini?product=MGEN2LL/A&step=config

[MattSteelblade]

At least early on, there were dual core i5's...

[drzaiusapelord]

Wow, that's quite the downgrade. What's the logic here? To save energy to keep it fanless? Or is this cost-cutting?

[cjensen]

Perhaps it is just that modern CPUs are powerful enough that even the low-end ones are now Good Enough for most people. There have always been cheaper CPUs available; Apple just avoided them in favor of a better experience.

[Tloewald]

I would imagine being energy efficient and cheap is their main goal. This is the kind of computer people will leave on, plugged into their TV.

[calinet6]

Ding ding ding. My TV and home media and general server needs are powered by a Mid-2010 Mac Mini 4,1 with a 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo, which is most certainly less than half the horsepower of this new model [1], and it works great. This would only be an improvement for this or any other use.

[1] Hey, I was right: https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare.php?cmp[]=2238&cmp[]=14...

[jsmeaton]

Yup. If I was to put together another HTPC, this would be the ideal product I think (something that runs XBMC). I spent about $800 (sigh..) on putting together something a lot bulkier and noisier about a year ago.

[Synaesthesia]

1.4ghz is the base clock speed, but it can clock up to turbo frequencies of 2.7ghz. I don't know why Apple doesn't use that figure instead.