Details on the Mac Mini have surfaced through the notes of a reporter for Macintouch.

According to the notes, the Hard Drive is definitely a 2.5 inch 5,400rpm laptop hard drive, which is the main reason for the relatively small 80gb maximum. There aren’t many laptop drives larger than that, and the ones that are are much too expensive to meet the $500 price point. The notes also say the drive is buried pretty deep in the internals of the system, so upgrading it in the future will be no small task. I recommend just using a external Firewire drive, or even a string of them.

The RAM is the larger desktop memory, which will keep costs low. There is only one memory slot so if you upgrade the RAM, you will be left with a 256mb chip to sell on eBay or put in another system. Upgrading the RAM yourself does *not* void the warranty, unless you damage something in doing so. Apple does not recommend that users try to do this themselves, but do not prohibit you from doing so. So if you are going to buy a Mac Mini, do _not_ buy the memory from Apple! They are generally twice as expensive as everyone else. I’m sure there will be guides all over the ‘net as soon as the Mac Mini is out, detailing how to take it apart and upgrade it.

The Mac mini supports an Airport card for wireless internet, but if you don’t add it in when you initially order the system, your only option will be a $129 upgrade kit that includes the Airport card as well as a Bluetooth card. You will have to take it to a dealer to be installed, as it involves installing the cards as well as antennas. Until someone hacks it and shows how to do it on the internet anyway.

So, that answers many of the questions surrounding the Mac Mini so far.

Related posts:

Mac Mini Benchmarks
First Mac Mini Dissection
AeroMini – a new Japanese Mini PC
Mac mini Slightly Updated
Video Card and Monitor Suggestions

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