Apple Mac mini MA205LL/A (1.5 GHz Intel Core Solo, 512 MB RAM, 60 GB Hard Drive, DVD-ROM/CD-RW Drive)

by Apple

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 11.2 x 7.9 x 11.5 inches ; 6 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 6.6 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B000EPWDTC
• Item model number: MA205LL/A
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: February 28, 2006

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

Live the digital life in stylish simplicity--up to four times faster. Just 6.5 inches square and 2 inches small, Mac mini lets you have more fun with your music, photos and movies, more quickly and more easily. Enjoy them up close or far away with the included Apple Remote. The most affordable way to Intel Core, iLife '06, and Front Row.

Power has never been this economical
Mac mini makes it easy and affordable to work with digital photos, movies, music, and the web. And now it all happens with the blazing speed of the Intel Core, in either Solo or Duo configurations. Choose the Solo for a low-cost entry to iLife '06. Or select the Duo model for unprecedented power in such a small package--up to four times faster than previously. Coupled with an all new architecture and the world's most advanced operating system, Mac OS X, Mac mini runs all your modern and innovative software, speedily.

Your digital life starts here
Mac mini comes with iLife '06, a suite of easy-to-use applications that make the spectacular part of your everyday life. Enhance, organize and share your photos via iPhoto. Create calendars, books, and cards. Make an epic starring your kid in iMovie. Turn your photo and movie creations into professional DVDs with iDVD. Create original music in GarageBand, even if you can't carry a tune. Make podcasts and blogs. Then publish them online via .Mac and the all-new iWeb.2 You’ll be amazed at how quickly, easily, and beautifully you can share your digital life.

Now showing
The full-screen Front Row media experience--with its intuitive menus, large text and brilliant graphics--lets you browse the music, photos, and videos on your Mac mini as easily as you browse music on your iPod. The included Apple Remote lets you enjoy your media from anywhere in the room from your desk chair to favorite sofa. Front Row and Mac mini can even play music, photos, and videos saved on other computers in the house,thanks to Bonjour instant networking.3 So gather your friends and dazzle them with a slideshow of your vacation pics, a home movie, your latest playlist, or a DVD.

More Mac per square inch
Inside its petite 2-inch tall, 6.5-inch square anodized aluminum enclosure, Mac mini houses that fast Intel Core processor, a 60 or 80 GB hard drive, slot-loading Combo or SuperDrive, as well as built-in wireless--all whisper-quiet. This modular design lets you upgrade your current system to the elegance, simplicity and reliability of Macintosh without a lot of extra expense. BYODKM: Bring your own monitor, keyboard and mouse (or buy new ones). Either way you'll be up and running in minutes.

Mac mini also gives you plenty of room to grow, with more expansion options than previous models. Simply connect your digital devices, such as cameras, iPod, printer, camcorder or keyboard to the Mac mini over USB 2.0 or FireWire. Share files around your house at blazing speeds with built-in 10/100/1000 BASE-T Ethernet. Enjoy high quality sound on almost any speaker system with double-duty analog/digital audio. Record digital and analog sources through the line in, perfect for your latest podcast in GarageBand. Mac mini gives you built-in amenities you need to enjoy the digital lifestyle.

Product Description

Apple Mac Mini with Intel Core Solo - Packed inside the Mac Mini's 6.5" square body is some of the latest technology for home desktop computers. Foremost among them is the powerful 1.5GHz Intel Core Solo. Compared to the previous version of the Mac Mini, you get up to twice the horsepower. Another new feature is on the software side, with Front Row and Bonjour. When you connect the Mac Mini to your TV, Front Row gives you an easy-to-use graphical interface that can be navigated with the included remote control. It's an easy way to relax on the couch and enjoy your pictures, music or videos. Bonjour expands that content by letting you view and play media on your other Macs on your home network. 60GB SATA Hard Drive Slot-loading Combo Drive (DVD-ROM/CD-RW) - up to 8x DVD, 24x CD-R, 16x CD-RW, & 24x CD-ROM Intel GMA950 graphics processor with 64MB of DDR2 SDRAM shared with main memory Video Output - 1 DVI Out (supports up to 1920x1200), 1 VGA (with included adapter - supports up to 1920x1080), 1 S-Video, & 1 Composite Audio Input - Combined optical digital audio / audio line Audio Output - Combined optical digital audio / headphone Built-in Speaker Built-in 54Mbps AirPort Extreme Wireless Networking (based on 802.11g standard) Built-in Bluetooth 2.0 + Enhanced Data Rate (EDR) up to 3 Mbps 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet 1 Firewire 400 Port 4 USB 2.0 Ports Unit Dimensions - 2 (h) x 6.5 (w) x 6.5 (d) Unit Weight - 2.9 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Geek Surprised, August 21, 2006

By 

Harold L. Bates "elfaegis" (Vestal, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Apple Mac mini MA205LL/A (1.5 GHz Intel Core Solo, 512 MB RAM, 60 GB Hard Drive, DVD-ROM/CD-RW Drive) (Personal Computers)

I have been a staunch PC person for years, but not necessarily a Microsoft supporter. So anyway, I get this Mac Mini on a whim to see how close to Linux the new OS is. I had no idea how cool this little Mac would be. It sounds "underpowered" in the Windows world, but it runs great! The software is great to use, and it's just full of bells and whistles. AND it took me about 15 minutes to figure out how to port Linux applications to it, and now I can run all my favorite Linux apps on it. The operating system is very polished and full of great feautures! Thanks Apple!

49 of 63 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Small Design, but Powerful Tool, March 7, 2006

By 

Steve H "books911" (U.S.) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Apple Mac mini MA205LL/A (1.5 GHz Intel Core Solo, 512 MB RAM, 60 GB Hard Drive, DVD-ROM/CD-RW Drive) (Personal Computers)

Without question, I love Macintosh computers. The ease of use, performance, and design that is Apple makes me productive, keeps the headaches down, and makes working on a computer fun.

Macs are well known for ease of use and capabilities, but they have managed all that for years, with processors that are not always top-notch. That all changed in January 2006, with the introduction of Intel processors inside Macintosh computers.

Processor in the new Mac Mini

This particular Mac Mini features an intel Core Solo processor, which is the little brother to the Core Duo processor. The Solo performs strongly, in everyday computing tasks: browsing your photos in iPhoto, using the Internet, sending email, listening to music in iTunes, etc. In fact, the Solo is a very strong processor. There is certainly a significant increase in performance over the G4, which was previously included with the Mac Mini. The performance increase is noticeable in everyday tasks. I was impressed. The Mac Mini Core Solo also packs enough punch that I was able to play 720p high definition video, but 1080p was a bit too much for it to handle. Nevertheless, the G4 could not play 720p smoothly, which so the strong step-up with this machine.

Design - The Mac Mini is beautiful. I just love looking at this computer. One of the most beautiful computer form factors ever. You will immediately notice how nicely Apple packages the computer, in an impossibly small box. It may be a small form factor, but it has a lot of features. There are plenty of ports too: 4 USB 2.0 ports, 1 Firewire 400 port, DVI Video out, Audio In, Audio Out.

Video Card -

The new Mac Mini has Intel integrated graphics, which isn't usually a great feature. However, it is still a step-up from the graphics on the previous Mac Mini. The graphics on this machine supports Core Image technology, which the previous Mini did not. It does share your system's memory, for video memory, which is even more of a reason why you should upgrade this system's memory.

Video - The Mac Mini includes a DVI-output connector on the back, which can also output VGA, with the included adapter. An analog video out adapter is also available, separately. The DVI and VGA connectors will allow you to connect the Mini to virtually any display.

Memory - The Mac Mini has a very capable processor, but you may not realize its full potential with the limited memory in the machine, 512 MB. Consider upgrading your memory, once your machine arrives. Other World Computing and Crucial are two companies that sale memory, with online selector tools to easily find the right kind.

Applications -

Apple does include iLife '06, which has iPhoto, iMovie, iWeb, iDVD, and Garageband. There is the Safari web browser, some board games, the always useful iCal, AddressBook, iChat, etc. Overall, I was pleased with the included software.

iLife 06 is particularly great. I love the new full-screen photo editing, photo comparing, etc. You can now also order calendars and greeting cards made with your photos, direct from Apple, by using the iPhoto software. iMovie has new themes, which helps make professional-looking home movies, and iDVD now supports widescreen DVDs. iWeb is a brand-new applications, which makes it easy to create professional quality webpages, quickly. I can't wait to rebuild by site using iWeb. Apple continues to make it easy to create music, manage your digital images, make movies, and create web sites. It is important to note this Mac Mini does not include a DVD burner, so the usability of iDVD will not be there, unless you buy an external DVD burner.

A trial (30 day) of iWork '06 is also included, which includes the page layout program Pages, and the presentation program Keynote (which makes presentations that blow away presentations made by rival PowerPoint).

Hard Drive-

This Mac Mini supports a 60 GB hard drive, which will be sufficient for a lot of people. You can certainly hold a lot of documents and music on it. However, you won't fit much video.

Combo Drive -

The Combo Drive in this Mac Mini will allow you to burn music and data CDs, plus watch DVDs. However, you will not be able to burn DVDs.

PowerPC Applications on Intel Machine

If you own a lot of software for Mac, then most of it is probably compiled for PowerPC. Developers are working hard to make titles run natively on both Intel and PowerPC, but many titles are not yet ready. However, many titles you can use on an Intel Mac because Apple has included Rosetta, which translates the PowerPC code into something the Intel machine can read. However, you never see Rosetta for it works quietly in the background and makes running PowerPC applications seamless. Microsoft Office, for example, works perfect under Rosetta. Intensive applications such as Photoshop will run under Rosetta, but it will be slower until Adobe has an Intel compiled version of Photoshop. Rosetta does work and if you add memory to your Mac, Rosetta works even better.

Two titles I use EyeTV and Toast 7 are not yet compiled for Intel, but they run fine on my Intel Mac, under Rosetta. Again, you don't have to open anything special to use Rosetta. Your Mac knows when it needs it and uses it.

Wireless - This Mac Mini includes bluetooth and Airport wireless technologies, standard. Connect wireless keyboards, mice with Bluetooth, and log-onto the Internet with Airport.

Overall, I am very happy with the Mac Mini Core Solo. It should perhaps come with more memory standard, but it is a very impressive machine. It is incredibly fast on Intel-native applications, and it does a very good job running PowerPC applications. The Intel machines are the future of Apple, so there is no question this is a good machine, and this one has enough power to get most tasks completed in a very speedy manner. I'm happy with my Intel Mac, and I look forward to continue exploring it in the coming days

14 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My first mac!, April 29, 2006

By 

Brent "Brent" (Fresno, ca United States) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Apple Mac mini MA205LL/A (1.5 GHz Intel Core Solo, 512 MB RAM, 60 GB Hard Drive, DVD-ROM/CD-RW Drive) (Personal Computers)

I am a Windows network engineer who has always been scared of the MAC. well, I love this thing, hope to see more of you windows folks joining me soon :)