Apple Mac Minis Compared: Should You Upgrade?

Of the new products Apple unveiled on Tuesday, the new Mac mini may not be the most sensational due to the fact that on first blush, it doesn't look terribly different from its immediate predecessor, the . However, a closer comparison of the two is a study in the iceberg philosophy: both are ostensibly the same, but a bevy of differences lie just beneath the surface.

We dive in headfirst to see how Apple's latest iteration of the Mac mini stacks up against the equally priced configuration - $799 - of its antecedent.

Design-wise, the two systems are scarcely distinguishable from one another. Both feature the same sleek, aluminum unibody chassis that measures 1.4 by 7.7 by 7.7 inches (HWD). However, an important difference can be discerned from an examination of their exteriors: port selection. In this regard, the Mac mini (Late 2012) is far more future-proofed than its predecessor, featuring four USB 3.0 ports in addition to a FireWire 800 port, a Thunderbolt port, and an HDMI port. By contrast, the older Mac mini (Thunderbolt) looks rather outdated with its four USB 2.0 ports, HDMI port, and Thunderbolt port.

With the exception of port selection, the most fundamental differences between the two systems lie beneath the hood. The Mac mini (Late 2012) sports a third-generation Ivy Bridge 2.3-GHz Intel Core i7 processor, whereas the Mac mini (Thunderbolt) packs an older, second-generation Sandy Bridge 2.5-GHz Intel Core i5-2520M processor.

Dissimilarities also exist in terms of graphics cards, with the Mac mini (Late 2012) featuring an integrated Intel HD Graphics 4000 GPU. The Mac mini (Thunderbolt), meanwhile, comes equipped with a discrete AMD Radeon HD 6630M GPU. Moreover, the Mac mini (Late 2012) packs a 1TB hard drive, or twice as much storage capacity as the 500GB hard drive found on the Mac mini (Thunderbolt).

Differences also lie in the operating system used by the systems. Whereas the Mac mini (Thunderbolt) had Mac OSX 10.7 pre-loaded on it, the Mac mini (Late 2012) ships with the newer Mac OS X Mountain Lion installed on its hard drive.

However, the two aren't entirely different. In addition to sharing aesthetic sensibilities, the two Mac minis share some similarities. For one, both come equipped with 4GB RAM. Moreover, both iterations of the Mac mini feature an SDXC card reader. Lastly, commonalities exist in terms of wireless functionality, as both feature Bluetooth as well as 802.11a/b/g/n wireless connectivity.

At this point, it's too early to tell how differently the Mac mini (Late 2012) will perform from its predecessor, but stay tuned for PCMag's full review. In the meantime, check out our .