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Did the Mini even put a small dent in the Wintel HTPC market?

post #1 of 12
9/6/05 at 3:44am
Thread Starter 
Remember this thread?
http://www6.head-fi.org/forums/showt...highlight=mini

So, now 9 months after that thread was originally started...has it? My impression is that it hasn't really "taken a huge bite"...maybe a nibble? But I could be wrong...just wondering if others had more info... I'm actually thinking of jumping into the whole HTPC thing...I'm curious how things have sorted out with the Mini.

Peace,

Graz
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post #2 of 12
9/6/05 at 5:32am
Any impact was minimal at best. The mini is just too compact to perform terribly usefully. You'd be stuck with inferior USB/Firewire perhiperal equipment, reducing usefulness significantly. Not to mention your display would have to have a compatable DVI or VGA D-SUB input.

It's a great little machine for general light-use stuff like internet, music, and movies, but it really has very few of the advantages of your typical x86 box does for handling traditional HTPC tasks like PVR functionality and horsepower for video encoding.
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post #3 of 12
9/6/05 at 8:06am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Helter Skelter
Any impact was minimal at best. The mini is just too compact to perform terribly usefully. You'd be stuck with inferior USB/Firewire perhiperal equipment, reducing usefulness significantly. Not to mention your display would have to have a compatable DVI or VGA D-SUB input.

It's a great little machine for general light-use stuff like internet, music, and movies, but it really has very few of the advantages of your typical x86 box does for handling traditional HTPC tasks like PVR functionality and horsepower for video encoding.
which was precisely my point in that thread. if you want something simple and foolproof, aesthetically appealing (very subjective to begin with), why not get a standalone DVD player? inability to do things like PVR and encoding without added cost/clutter more than offsets whatever little merit this thing have had. the masses need simiplicity/elegance, and then the next argument was that OSX is a superior OS. c'mon now, what kind of average joe is going to notice OSX being so much better than windows? last time i checked, most people know how to do basic things on windows, at least about as well as on mac OS if not better.

since i am not such a 'geek' i have been acused of and dont actively follow the tech world, i am not entirely sure if it had any impact to speak of. as far as us people around me or other messageboards i visit, it was very unusual even to see the name mini come up.

btw, i dont think the term 'wintel' really has any meaning... try winamd for a change
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post #4 of 12
9/6/05 at 8:37am
The Mini is selling very well but was never aimed at the market you are talking about.
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post #5 of 12
9/6/05 at 9:15am
Quote:
Originally Posted by 3lusiv3
The Mini is selling very well but was never aimed at the market you are talking about.
most people in the original thread also predicted it would do well. i dont think anyone ever mentioned taking over HTPC market was what apple intended to accomplish; rather it was just a personal opinion from the OP that we didnt find too agreeable.
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post #6 of 12
9/6/05 at 1:30pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by MikoLayer
which was precisely my point in that thread. if you want something simple and foolproof, aesthetically appealing (very subjective to begin with), why not get a standalone DVD player? inability to do things like PVR and encoding without added cost/clutter more than offsets whatever little merit this thing have had. the masses need simiplicity/elegance, and then the next argument was that OSX is a superior OS. c'mon now, what kind of average joe is going to notice OSX being so much better than windows? last time i checked, most people know how to do basic things on windows, at least about as well as on mac OS if not better.

since i am not such a 'geek' i have been acused of and dont actively follow the tech world, i am not entirely sure if it had any impact to speak of. as far as us people around me or other messageboards i visit, it was very unusual even to see the name mini come up.

btw, i dont think the term 'wintel' really has any meaning... try winamd for a change
you can call them winamd all you want, but when intell sells in a month, what amd does in a year, its still wintel.
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post #7 of 12
9/6/05 at 1:36pm
I don't think the Wintel HTPC market has really taken off or hit mainstream either to take a big bite out of anything anyways. Still a niche hobby and market. The biggest thing holding them back is the Intel part of Wintel and desktop manufacturers that don't carry AMD. All Netburst P4's run way too hot and eat too much power. I find it strange that there are BTX cases for them that are supposed to provide superior cooling and noise, but the bottom line is it still spits out a lot of heat to deal with.

I think the market will accelerate greatly when the new Mac Mini's are based off the future Intel chips which have much less power consumption. PC manufacturers had some difficulty producing cheap Mac Mini alternatives before and had some higher priced small form factor models; when both Apple and PC companies can work off the same chips, it will probably be the PC's that may offer the cheaper alternatives.

Finally another *huge* contender that already has an easy foot into the living room are the gaming consoles. In fact they probably have the edge in acceptance cause they already are for the entertainment room.
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post #8 of 12
9/6/05 at 5:35pm
Speaking of selling well, I know of 1 person who owns it...which is...not well.
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post #9 of 12
9/6/05 at 7:25pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tim D
I don't think the Wintel HTPC market has really taken off or hit mainstream either to take a big bite out of anything anyways. Still a niche hobby and market. The biggest thing holding them back is the Intel part of Wintel and desktop manufacturers that don't carry AMD. All Netburst P4's run way too hot and eat too much power. I find it strange that there are BTX cases for them that are supposed to provide superior cooling and noise, but the bottom line is it still spits out a lot of heat to deal with.

I think the market will accelerate greatly when the new Mac Mini's are based off the future Intel chips which have much less power consumption. PC manufacturers had some difficulty producing cheap Mac Mini alternatives before and had some higher priced small form factor models; when both Apple and PC companies can work off the same chips, it will probably be the PC's that may offer the cheaper alternatives.

Finally another *huge* contender that already has an easy foot into the living room are the gaming consoles. In fact they probably have the edge in acceptance cause they already are for the entertainment room.
Agreed with everything... wouldnt pentium-M's be acceptable for a decent HTPC environment?

Quote:
you can call them winamd all you want, but when intell sells in a month, what amd does in a year, its still wintel.
there is no denying intel has way more market share and thus power. what i was getting at is when i hear "wintel", i think of this business cartel in terms of strategic alliance - kinda like what MS and nvidia did on xbox. Seeing how AMD64 are getting good support with winXP 64bit version and intel planning on getting into mac business, I thought the term really lost true meaning if anything. In case i am mistaken and the "wintel" had to do with market share and nothing else, then it probably is "wintel" after all. but then again, you are talking about a niche market here, HTPC isnt for everyone. I just found the term "wintel HTPC" ironic, as I believe there are more DIYers nowadays using AMD instead of intel if they are building their own rigs for HTPC use.
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post #10 of 12
9/6/05 at 11:16pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by MikoLayer
Agreed with everything... wouldnt pentium-M's be acceptable for a decent HTPC environment?
They sure would. They're very well suited to the task, in fact, seeing as they run cooler (and thus quieter) than almost every current desktop chip, and have the horsepower for those heavy encoding tasks. They're currently fairly cost-prohibitive, however. That may change once Intel switches away from netburst and they start making those multi-core desktop chips based off of their P-M stuff.

Quote:
Originally Posted by corrosive_nf
you can call them winamd all you want, but when intell sells in a month, what amd does in a year, its still wintel.
Incorrect. The correct term is x86. And AMD has an incredibly strong foothold in the enthusiast community (and surprise surprise, those enthusiasts are usually the ones building HTPC systems), and there's more to x86 than just Windows (MythTV, one of the more popular HTPC packages, is linux-based last I checked...). Also Intel does not "sell more more in a month than AMD does in a year".

I hear those Opteron servers are doing pretty well these days, too...
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post #11 of 12
9/10/05 at 9:39am
Quote:
Originally Posted by corrosive_nf
you can call them winamd all you want, but when intell sells in a month, what amd does in a year, its still wintel.
Figures and source for this? In the home environment I strongly doubt your words.
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post #12 of 12
9/10/05 at 9:38pm
i am actually seriously considering doing this if i can find a good lcd tv with dvi input to fit in to my case......
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