Pros

  • Fast enough for basic tasks
  • Excellent design
  • Small and light
  • Good video-out options

Cons

  • Doesn’t come with enough memory
  • Hard-to-find power button on back of unit
  • Performance not as good as similar, larger Macs
  • No audio-in port

At A Glance

Apple's least expensive Mac ships without a mouse, display, or keyboard. But it does feature a G4 processor, up to 80GB of storage depending on configuration, and a slot-loading DVD-ROM/CD-RW optical drive. In July 2005, Apple doubled the installed memory to 512MB across the mini line.

The Specs

Pricing
Part Number M9686LLA
Inventory Number 24249
UPC Code 00718908816028
Processor
Processor type PowerPC G4
Processor speed 1250.0 MHz
Cache size 0.512 KB
Bus speed 167.0 MHz
Memory
Memory type DDR
Memory max 1024.0 GB
Graphics
Primary Graphics Chipset ATI Radeon 9200
Storage
Drive size 40.0 GB
Ports and Connections
Available Interfaces
  • Composite Video
  • DVI
  • FireWire 400/IEEE 1394 - 4 pin
  • S-Video
  • USB - Universal Serial Bus 2.0
  • Video - 15 pin High-Density D-shell (VGA)
Dimensions
Width 6.5 inches
Depth 6.8 inches
Height 2.0 inches
Weight 2.9 pounds
Optical Drive
Optical Drive Type DVD-ROM/CD-RW
Included Software
Operating System Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger)

Performance

Macworld Labs
Speedmark 4.0 Score 100
Tested Configuration Mac OS X 10.4, 512MB RAM
Cinema 4D XL 9.1 5:33
Unreal Tournament 2004 11fps
Testing Notes Mac OS X 10.3
Compressor 15:38
iTunes 4.7 2:50
iMovie HD 1:22
Photoshop CS2 2:03